Xaliotl: The d20 Version

   For today, we have the original d20 version of Xaliotl the Fire Mage. Xaliotl was written up for the Atheria campaign, and was one of the most specialized characters in the game – relying on a single (albeit powerful) healing spell and blasting things into ashes as solutions to every conceivable problem, up to – and possibly including – what to have for dinner in the evening. This may not have been ideal – in fact, his background quite strongly implied a near-complete inability to function in any situation other than a raging battle – but in a party of adventurers he more or less found his niche. Of course, they were still careful to keep him away from anything except the fight scenes.

Xaliotl, the Champions Version

   For today, and continuing with the alternate d20 and Champions versions of characters, we have the Champions version of Xaliotl – a powerful fire mage who’s been ported over to Champions as a young Celestial Dragon. There really isn’t any terribly good reason for that, but the player kind of thought that he fit in as well and – since the original d20 character was pretty specialized – there were enough points left over to get the basic Celestial Dragon template, so why not?

Going Ballistic

   For today we have another of Clint Walkers old Champions characters – Ballistic, or Cassandra Lane. Apparently he got the his inspiration on her out of an actual comic book, albeit one I’m not personally familiar with. Ballistic only played a modest role in the campaign initially, but her assorted arsenals, created by the same psychic talents which created her various “hunteds” (giving “driven by personal demons” a whole new meaning), continued to play a role until very recently: they meant that anyone in the Mansion/Base/Orphanage could readily find some powerful military-scale weapons whenever they went looking for them.

The Darkmage

   For today, I’m putting up the character sheet for the Darkmage, from the Old Mandate. Like most characters built around sizable power pools, his design is deceptively simple. Still, over the course of his adventures, and his thousand-year struggle against the corrupting power of Tyrannon, the Darkmage defeated numerous enemies, sealed dozens of powerful mystic nexi away from Tyrannon, helped contain the elder malevolence of the Wyrm Crown, defeated the Seven Horsemen of the Apocalypse, accidentally unleashed the power of the primordial darkness across the solar system. temporarily became female to give birth to a daughter by Oberon, lord of Faerie, was overwhelmed by Tyrannon’s ever-growing strength, and finally reawakened to voluntarily give up his immortality, sacrificing himself to seal the gateway which Tyrannon had turned his body into. I’m putting up his original character sheet both for the players who continue to adventure in the campaign the Darkmage helped shape and in memory of his player, Clint Thomas Walker, 1980-2008.

Comparitive Kristianity Part II

   Well, despite delays, the original d20 version of Kristin is now up for comparison with the Champions version. Since this is the original, it also includes some of her history and background, unlike the Champions version.  

Comparative Kristianity

   For today and tomorrow, I’ll be posting two versions of Kristin Stanwell – a favorite character of one of the usual players – in both the d20 version (using the rules from Eclipse: The Codex Persona) and the Champions version.  Why? Because (1) the player likes both, (2) its interesting to compare the two, and (3) I couldn’t resist the dreadful pun in the title once it occured to me.

Local Characters

   Sorry, too many of the local players are wanting assistance with their character designs to put anything up here today.

Flight of the Raven

   First up for today, we have a selection of Raven’s friends, allies, and enemies from an assortment of campaigns.

   For announcements, the Champions game will be tomorrow evening – starting about 7:30 – in the University of Tennessee library as usual. Given that most of the current legal plotlines have concluded, its back to villainousorganizations, supernatural menaces, the collection of evil artifacts left over from the Darkwar, liaisons, upset parents, rival demigodlings, and similar problems, along with the occasional Junior Superhero adventures, since Yuki has begun taking the children out in small groups for “heroing practice”.

Session 30: Trials and Tentacles and Bears, Oh My

   So: straight from the Chinese Hells to Vasilkos trial at last. Very little of the evidence – such as it was – was in dispute. Vasilko had transformed three

General Chaos

   Due to a bit of chaos in real life, there won’t be any major updates for today. We did get a nice review of Eclipse: The Codex Persona over on the Lulu site. With any luck, there will be more than that tomorrow.

Federation-Apocalypse: Sessions 10-11 Campaign Logs

   While the Tomb Guardian was willing to wait while everyone discussed their options (causing Kevin to assume he must be out of a video game, and used to being paused while the players talked), he wasn’t about to allow even non-destructive surveys, much less poking around looking for relics – and the mask he was wearing was what Shayn was after anyway. There was a bit

Legend of the Five Rings: Campaign Log

   The Rise of Fu Leng Sequence: The Serpentine Way, Walkers In The Twilight, Voices from the Darkness. Kochige, Shigure, Tharil, Okari, and Michio.

   With the Naga wanting both to gather information and get some diplomats into place, Ninsei and a delegation of Naga (including Tharil, a scout and replacement character for Alex – at least until he manages to return again), left for the imperial capital, whence he had to make some offerings, explain the Naga to priests, the Seppun guard, and the Jade Champion – who was not at all pleased at having only the small child in the group to talk to and started composing severely stern summonses. Unfortunately for Okari, he was almost back at the capital. Fortunately for Okari, he could quite truthfully claim that he’d been busy getting married, and had not been involved in bringing back the Naga.

   Meanwhile, Kochige, Shigure, and some Naga tried to contain the dimensional rift – or at least the terrible reptilian creatures that were coming through it – via a string of investigations, fights, evacuations of the local civilians, and barriers. Afterwards, they took a secondary delegation of Naga to Toshi Ranbo, where there was a military-style assassination attack on Kochige (which he barely survived due to the unexpected aid of the Naga), and Shigure decided to start recruiting any mercenary who attempted to assassinate him as an aide. Since he didn’t trust anyone anyway, at least this way he’d be SURE that they were both untrustworthy AND unlikely to succeed at killing him. Such a “Ninja Reform Project” might get him some valuable agents.

   With the Naga evaluating the imperial government – and not reaching especially favorably conclusions – Ninsei visited the Crane ambassador. Doji Fusae, a disconcertingly perceptive old woman. She – after a brief interview and some probing questions – called in some favors to get the Phoenix to promise to show him the Isawa’s Lore techniques, despite the fact that they were officially long lost. She felt that he would need them.

   With the Naga in Toshi Ranbo to attract attention, Shigure started adding up what representatives had actually turned up for his court. Several of the minor clans had responded. The Fox had delegated one of the (several) clan members who served as local priests to represent them, the Tiger and Tortoise had both delegated clan members who were already present as representatives similarly, the Firefly had sent someone since the proposed canal would pass through their lands (and hopefully actually bring them some trade), the Cat Clan had sent a woman (with a variety of messages and scrolls of some sort) to supervise the local crime, the Panther Clan had sent his Brother (who expressed a great interest in dinosaur hunting), the Goose clan had sent an accountant, the Centipede had sent a priest, and the Squirrel clan were sending someone.

   Of the major clans, the Mantis had already sent a trading representative, and the Crab were apparently sending one to talk about Jade. The Scorpion, Lion, Crane, Dragon, and Phoenix – as neighbors – had sent representatives (albeit no one especially important), and the Unicorn had (for some reason) sent three. Unfortunately, most of them simply seemed to be interested in trade. Still, it was a start.

   Michio had actually had quite a bit of success training the army, establishing an officer corps and basic chain of command, and getting things organized. He, the Crane and Lion advisors, and Shigure’s nephew had also managed to avoid assassination somehow. Evidently Shigure’s nephew had been handling that.

   Wait, what?

  

   Tharil’s recommendations were for more investigation, a temporary alliance with the Empire fro a major strike against the Shadowlands, and possibly an attempt to do something about undoing the damage the Kami had done to human society.

   Unfortunately, at about that point there was a major magical disturbance at one of the shrines down near the palace gates. A destructive tainted fire spell of tremendous power. Ninsei was able to counteract it in short order – but not soon enough to save anyone who’d been near the center; there was nothing left but a lava pit.

   Liberal use of magic reconstructed the source at least – a message scroll carrying a void-based linking effect. Something akin to the threads of the Recondite Weave. Fu Leng had found a way to transmit massive destruction spells through innocent-appearing message scrolls.

   And he’d succeeded in taking out the Jade Champion and his bodyguards with it. While this had cured the man’s annoyance with the group, it wasn’t a method they’d have chosen.

   Shigure received a similar death warrant, but – thanks to his impressive talents for escaping, managed to survive the ice-and-wind-based attack. Numerous members of his staff, much of his palace, and the youngster who’d been assigned as bodyguard to Alex’s apprentice were not so fortunate. The boy had been technically an Ashigaru, but he’d known his duty to get his charge clear: Shigure made sure he was properly honored for it. He also drastically increased security and had his advisors move into the appropriate clan palaces instead of his.

   Meanwhile, the Seppun guardsmen were sending the Empress and the Emperor’s two young daughters into hiding with the Phoenix: only they could reliably detect an incoming attack channeled through the Void. The Emperors two illegitimate children who could possibly be acknowledged were already stashed out of sight with the Crane and with the Seppun respectively.

   Ninsei and Okari got involved because they, through the favor of the Kami of Vacations, could easily and quickly transport them – so the recommended taking them to Mamoru Kyotei Toshi, where they could enlist the aid of the Demon Ninja Kitties and of Smoke Balamada, who had opted to join the ShadowCats.

   They didn’t explain that part of their intentions. While, weirdly enough, the Demon Ninja Cats were more-or-less trustworthy in their own bizarre fashion, they were extremely difficult to explain. Besides, Ninsei rather liked getting to play with the Emperor’s daughters, and Smoke might be able to show them some interesting tricks.

   So: they had three remaining black scrolls to hunt down, elder blood magic to learn, training to obtain, the Tournament of the Jade Champion to get involved with, weird stuff going on with the Scorpion, and numerous other projects.

   Come to think of it, Shigure’s nephew was 13 going on 14, and was approaching his Gempukku ceremony – and they still hadn’t even tried to explain his existence to his parents. Shigure abandoned his research into the useful properties of materials derived from dinosaurs and went to try and explain. Interestingly, his sister knew an alchemist with a special talent for extracting essences, and he was creating drops of the Essence of Jade to use in making temporary weapons against the shadowlands. The group also had a conference with Shoshoru and found out just how many deadly secrets the boy was carrying around in his head: the organization, cyphers, and communications signs of Fu Lengs military and assassins, the secret passages in the imperial city and palace, details on the poisons, potions, and antidotes used in the Thousand Years of Darkness, a fair chunk of future history/current prophecy, and a lot of lore about Maho and the secrets of the Cat Clan. Enough to make every major power group in both the Empire and the Shadowlands want him dead. No wonder he’d been so discreet about it.

   Kochige was considering entering the Tournament, and wanted to consult the Dragon Clan Champion about it… Navigating his supernatural library to find him was confusing enough – even if he did find some spells he could copy – but answering his questions took several days of meditation. It also led Kochige to conclude that he had enough responsibilities already: he would enter, but only to help eliminate unsuitable candidates.

   Kasuga Nodo, of the Tortoise Clan, sent everyone invitations to the upcoming tournament. He had quite few motives – but the fact that he was seating them near troublesome groups and individuals about summed them up. Regardless, Shigure invited the heads of the nearby Lion Vassal Families to come along. He might pick up some useful information.

   7/6/8 XP, assorted Dinosaurs are released upon Rokugan, Ninsei is invited to study the Isawa’s Lore Techniques, Shigure is invited once more to study at the Imperial Schools and acquires better armor, Kochige acquires various spell scrolls and some cryptic riddles from the Dragon Champions, Okari returns to play with some research accomplished, Tharil acquires skills in dealing with humans, Alex is located in Merenea. The Jade Champion is extremely annoyed and composes numerous harsh messages, all of which die with him. The Naga are discussion alliance with the Empire and numerous minor projects are carried out.

L5R Campaign

   The Legend of the Five Rings game will be tomorrow as usual, although several of the players may have to participate electronically.  The campaign log should be up to date tomorrow, hopefully there will also be time to cover some of the major figures and families of the northern empire and the log updates for the Federation-Apocalypse game as well.  For actual material for the moment, we have the first installment of Ninsei’s Secret Diaries – like Shigure’s material, still a work-in-progress and therefore on its own page for easy editing.

Sessions 28 and 29: It’s not my fault! It was the Ninja’s Sister’s Husband!

   While they’d been busy a naval submarine had been attacked and damaged by something off the east coast, the necromantic apprentices had started wanting to know if they could have lycanthropic powers too (without actually dying first preferably), and the White Necromancer’s mother was insisting that he be home for dinner, not leave the US, and inform her if he was leaving the state. Not entirely unreasonable.

   Meanwhile, Ranko was working on her thesis – and the children were quiet. Too quiet… there was a dimensional hole in

Material for Today

   First up for today we have Raven’s Character Sheet – complete with his (hopefully unique) Avatar of the Wyld Magic Template. Raven’s been floating around since first edition, and his third edition conversion wasn’t particularly satisfying: he’d been a grey elven Druid/Thief and his revised 3’rd edition abilities just didn’t match up with his old ones very well. Fortunately, with the Eclipse: The Codex Persona 3.5 rules, that’s correctable: now he can backstab people, cast spells, and otherwise act pretty much the way he used to without having a bunch of new abilities that he never had before.

   For secondary materials, I’m crosslinking to the Battling Business Regulations and Marty’s Updated Character Sheet and Personal History and Contacts over on one of the the player blogs. Hopefully there will be some more material up later today.

Upcoming Material

   Today I’ve been working on getting a very old character ready to post. Raven goes back to the early days of first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and has been updated for each (2’nd, Players Option, 3.0, 3.5) edition since. He’s also a good example of using Eclipse: The Codex Persona to build exactly the character you want, since this 3.5 version is direct conversion of his second edition (Players Options series) abilities. He’s also got one of the most powerful templates I’ve ever created. Fortunately for game balance, it’s greatest abilities almost never come into play.

   Some things were easier to do in second edition. Raven, infused with the infinite power of the Wyld Magic was extremely dangerous to artifacts, deities, and anything else powerful enough to awaken a response from that power – but no normal situation would bring it out. In second edition, it sufficed to note that such entities and objects were generally aware of this and avoided him at all costs, since weird and wonderful (GM plot device) things would happen if they failed to do so. In 3.0 and 3.5, you actually have to come up with a mechanism for this so that you can price it. Since the conversion required adding an acquired template anyway to cover the various minor oddities he’d acquired over years of play, it seemed best to build the Wyld Magic in too.

   With any luck, the main sheet will be up later this evening.

Shigure’s L5R: Organization

   For today’s entry, we have the next of Shigure’s works-in-progress – some notes on how he intends to reorganize military and governmental activities in Rokugan, at least if he can get away with it. Once again, these are notes only, and subject to revision, so they’re going on their own page. I can see some – OK, quite a few – potential difficulties with these intentions and reorganizations, but that’s what makes it interesting. If it was all easy, why bother to play?

Shigure’s L5R

   For today we have Shigure’s essay on his philosophy of warfare. Since this is – of course – a work in progress, it’s on its own sub-page for easy editing.

Toshi Ranbo: The Neighbors

   For this segment, here are some of the local figures who may play a role around Toshi Ranbo at the moment.

   The Lion have assigned a new commander – Matsu Noro – and staff to the border and reinforced the army. He’s one of their better commanders, and seems to have techniques drawing on the command schools, void mastery, and politics. His staff seems to be quite competent as well.

   His army consists of nearly 8000 men, although only about half that number are actually Samurai. He’s been rapidly reorganizing them and getting them trained to match his favorite strategies and tactics. Since he reports directly to the clan champion and daimyo, there’s not much of a chain of command. They’re currently based at Oiku. A considerably smaller force is located at Ninkatochi, but that group does seem to include several Shugenja and pay a good deal more attention to events along the Phoenix border than they do to events in Toshi Ranbo.

There are five local lion vassal families:

   The Nishidoin: Notable for throwing up the occasional shugenja, apparently due to the active interest of a couple of ancestral spirits. Most of their holdings are in the floodplanes along the river, and few have been taken: there appears to be some sort of defensive pact with the river spirits.

   The Minase: Noted as talented poets, otherwise unremarkable.

   The Tanji: Byblows of the Akodo, this family is notable for their oddly skillful political maneuvering; they are rumored to provide some of the best Lion Spymasters.

   The Zakoji: Holding Rama Musai, this family is notable for defensive techniques and architectural skills. They often have a few Crab architects visiting, and have had a regular program of exchanging students for several centuries.

   The Kohone: Operating out of Rugashi, many members of this family sponsor merchants, become involved with the bustling commerce of that city, and maintain local standards of trade.

   The Lion Ambassador, Kitsu Soko, is a relatively subtle woman (for the Lion clan). While not a shugenja, she is relatively well acquainted with their powers and abilities.

   Shiba Uchinaro, The Phoenix Governor of Mamoru Kyotei Toshi, apparently censors the fact that his city is infested with magical demon-ninja-cats from his consciousness as much as possible, perhaps because their origin is linked to an ancient phoenix shame. Since the rescue of his youngest daughter, however, he has been fairly friendly. As suits the Phoenix clan, the garrison here is surprisingly small for such a large border city.

   Kitsuki Umon, Governor of Toi Koku, tends to be something of a mystery: he rarely negotiates or makes personal appearances, most commonly communicating by simply sending notes and by “inviting” people to drop by his office and see him. He does employ an uncommonly large number of Ronin, and has been known to take quite outre’ individuals into service. Nevertheless, his tactics have been successful in keeping a fair degree of order among the many traders who visit Toi Koku, all of whom dread the quiet note which calls them in for an interview at which they somehow wind up answering many questions that the governor was far too polite to actually ask.

The Tell of the Black Scrolls

   For tonights Legend of the Five Rings game, here’s the current accounting of the Black Scrolls:

There are three remaining unopened Black Scrolls. These are:

• The Return of the Fallen Lord: Whereabouts unknown, presumed lost somewhere in the Lion Clan Lands.
• The Dark Sight of Fu Leng: Presumed to be currently in the hands of the Yogo Council.
• The Iron Citadel: Presumed to be currently in the hands of the Yogo Council.

   Nine of the Black Scrolls have apparently been destroyed, although it is remotely possibly that some of them were fakes. The list to date is:

• The Plague Winds: Opened, contained, and destroyed by being turned back against Ful Leng by Yogo Junzo in the Scorpion Lands.
• The Uttermost Darkness: Apparently destroyed by Shigure on the Mantis Isles. This could have simply been a powerful fake however, since there is reason to doubt that even a powerful blow from a jade weapon would destroy a true black scroll outright. Alternatively, this may have counted as opening it, rather than as destroying it – although its power certainly was not properly channeled into the spell upon it.
• The Thousand Forms: Taken from the heart of the Dragon Lands, Entombed and Destroyed in the Burning Desert. Confirmed as a genuine scroll both by its raw power level and by the Dragon Clan Champion.
• The Dominions of Despair and The Essence of Jigoku: Stolen from the Phoenix Council, Entombed and Destroyed in the Burning Desert. Confirmed as true Black Scrolls through their affinity with the Thousand Forms scroll.
• The Walking Horror of Fu Leng: Taken from the Fox Clan Champion, entombed and destroyed in the Burning Desert. Seal accidently broken by Kochige. Confirmed as a true Black Scroll by its open gateway to Jigoku.
• The Oath of Blood and The Dragon’s Chains: Entombed and destroyed in the Burning Desert in cooperation with the Elemental Masters. It is possible that one of these was a fake; the aura of a true Black Scroll might have been enough to cover the lesser aura of a fake even from the Council of Elemental Masters, but it doesn’t seem especially likely.
• Opening the Dark Gates: Opened and used by Igashikaka in the Naga Forest. Once again, confirmed as a true Black Scroll by sheer power level.