A Voice in the Chattering Darkness

"Red Shroud is a stunningly beautiful succubus, with fair skin, crimson hair, large bat wings, and eyes that glow with sinister desire."
-Eric L. Boyd, "Wells of Desire", Dungeon 148

"Damn straight."
-Me

Red Shroud wallpaper is available for download on my dA here. Caution: as with the last, like, four things I've drawn, it is not safe for work, or people uncomfortable with nudity, succubi, alcohol, or tobacco. Personally, I love all those things, but to each their own. This piece in particular impresses me with the line quality I somehow pulled out of my ass. Download at will; repent at leisure.

I'm gonna try out an option from my dA page: apparently, it'll auto-upload stuff onto blogs/personal websites if I so choose. I might look into toying with it. Be forewarned.

EDIT: Nah, just makes a box with code in it for me to embed. Screw that. I'll make preview images myself. :P

Thirteen minis, and the first Gargantuan mini in the line.

The next few sets will be delayed due to my printer running out of ink (I print out each set for the cover photo). I'll be buying ink ASAP. I promise.

On the free front, I've been playing with my new tablet (thanks to Crystal "Immora" Frasier for the lovely gift), and have been practicing my tablet art with illustrations of naked girls. Obviously. Here's a few of my current favorites:

Nereid Wallpaper (1440x900 resolution; e-mail me if you want a different format)
Tyralandi Wallpaper (1440x900 resolution; see above)
Malcanthet Wallpaper (1440x900 resolution; see above)

I'm pretty sure it's my prediliction for fanservice-y stuff that makes Jeff Alvarez ask to see the minis art before final approval and posting. That, or, y'know, because it's just good business sense. But I like the first reason better. :P

NOTE: if you don't have a DeviantART account, you won't be able to see the images due to the, erm, collection of lines and colors tricking the eye and brain into believing it's seeing a nude form, thereby eliciting tittilation being considered "mature". DeviantART accounts are free; however, I understand not wanting to get yet another web page log in, or not supporting dA for whatever personal or public reason you might have, so if you just want the images, send me an e-mail and I'll happily oblige.

Lemme know what you think; there's been some new styles I've been playing with in these that make feedback much appreciated. So far, feedback's been positive, but I'm willing to take flak from a hater if it's warranted.

Like a pussy soaked in apple juice.

Alright, more questions about the impending trip to Seattle. Since I don't plan to spend my whole trip ensconced in the hotel, I was curious about some other diversions in the area. Namely:

1. Gaming stores. Any recommendations on some must-visit game/hobby stores in the area? Seattle's pretty much the home base for P&P gaming in America today, so there's gotta be a couple must-visits, even if I end up just buying dice like I feel I must whenever I set foot in a game store. Just want to soak up some local geek culture without stalking my favorite game designers 24/7. :P
2. I know the Paizo folks have their sights set on some bar-hopping action, so what sort of bars are there, particularly close to the hotel, in case I've got to stumble home on my own power? Also, I'll probably have some fellow Con-goers in tow (I'm a cult of personality), so in case a plan falls through or Hugo needs to refill his internal beer supply I'll be prepared with back-up options. Related question: what time do most bars close out there? If no one knows, I'll probably find out the hard way, but I'd hate to end up arriving at a bar ten minutes before close and having to pound a drink and leave.
3. Anything else of note I should check out? Ben's planning a trip to the Sci Fi Museum, and possibly the Glass Museum (a museum! Devoted to GLASS!), but other than that? Or should I just spend my spare time with a leaf blower in front of Sean's house at 5 in the morning, like I do every chance I get? :P

Thanks in advance for the info, and I hope to see you folks there!

Check it out here!

Check 'em out here; Paizo blog about them is here.

That is all.

NOTE: I am not a good writer. This is really just a chance for me to create some fun, Golarion-themed articles for 4E material. If it makes you curious about some of the 4E material, that's great. If it reaffirms your hatred of 4E, well, I'm not a good writer. Sorry.

All the same, I hope you enjoy it, and I might even create an alternate cleric with abilities similar to those of the 4E avenger class if there's demand for it.
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In Golarion, avengers are rarely heard of--which is just how they like it. Devoted warriors in service to their gods, avengers are not afraid to employ stealth, sudden ambushes, and other tactics deemed dishonorable or even outright blashpemous by paladins. To an avenger, these are merely a means to an end, and as instruments of their god's will, the ends always justify the means.

The origin of the avenger is as much of a mystery as they are. Most scholars agree that they originated somewhere in the Keleshite Empire, but others point even further east to hidden monasteries in Vudra or even Tian Xia. Or perhaps they do not have an earthly origin, instead being divinely inspired by one or more deities. It is even possible all three are true to some degree.

Avengers combine divine power with swift and silent blades, making them powerful assassins and infiltrators in service of their church. Despite their utility (or perhaps because of it), these churches rarely announce the existence of these holy slayers, oftentimes even to their own clergy. They are a potent tool and important weapon of their church, and in many cases a source of pride, but open proclamation of their existence would only forewarn their enemies and potentially turn public opinion against them.

The majority of avengers in Golarion follow Sarenrae, learning their skills in secret temples in Katapesh, Qadira, Osirion, and Thuvia. It is believed that these avengers have been responsible for the deaths of several prominent tyrants throughout the history of Golarion, most notably the satrap of Osirion in 2253, but this has never been confirmed. The Cult of the Dawnflower is silent on these accusations, but many people swear to having seen mysterious visitors in dark cloaks paying a visit to a local temple shortly before some petty tyrant's head is found on the ramparts, facing the brilliant light of dawn.

Several other churches have avengers as well. Calistria's Order of the Silent Sting doles out vengeance against the church's many (often perceived) enemies, while a group of former slaves turned into slave liberators, known as the Unbroken Chain, raise their blades in honor of Cayden Cailean. Norgorber is whispered to have in his service a flock of avengers, though if these silent killers have a special name, no one alive other than them knows of it. Other faiths may have cadres of avengers at their disposal, particularly those that lack orders of paladins.

Of special note is the rumor of Red Mantis assassins displaying powers strangely similar to those of the avenger. While avengers in service to Achaekek would not be out of the question, most people find the Red Mantis to be frightening enough without adding the potency of divine magic to the mix.

Sample Organization: The Flowers of Midnight
"Even in the darkest night, the flowers of hope can bloom. We cultivate those blossoms of light by culling the weeds of tyranny and oppression."

The Flowers of Midnight is a sect of the Cult of the Dawnflower, a group of avengers in service to Sarenrae who hunt the forces of evil and darkness. Utilizing the shadows to keep their activities hidden until the time to strike, the Flowers of Midnight turn their enemies' strengths into a liability.

The Flowers of Midnight were founded sometime around the year 2200 AR; only the current Grandmaster knows their full history and origins. Their most notorious success was the assassination of the Satrap of Osirion in 2253, an act that reaffirmed the power of the Cult of the Dawnflower in Osirion and let the Padishah Empire of Kelesh know that none of their designated rulers were safe. From that time until Osirion's liberation from foreign rule, no less than seventeen sultans met their end at the blades of the Flowers of Midnight. In fact, the Flowers of Midnight are as devoted to Osirion as they are to Sarenrae, and work to defend their beloved homeland from whatever influences seek its subjugation or downfall.

Members of the Flowers of Midnight are mostly avengers, with a handful of clerics filling out the roster. Members favor training in the skills of Acrobatics, Athletics, Heal, Perception, Religion, and Stealth, though some act as information-gatherers and train in Intimidate and Streetwise. They specialize in assassination, eliminating church enemies and cruel oppressors, as well as threats to Osirion. Sometimes, their activities lean more towards retrieving something, whether an object sacred to the church that has been stolen or an ancient Osiriani artifact for the museum in Sothis.

Sorry, couldn't resist. :D

Well, the minis are coming along pretty well. The majority of the iconics are inked and awaiting Ben's editing and coloring (he's being secretive about it, but I did get to see Kyra at about 90% completion, and his work on Ezren's lineart is damn pretty), and I've got some info on monsters for the Bestiary and some adventures, so I'll be making lists tonight.

So many gnolls. So. Many. Gnolls. :P

I'm hoping to get some time to sketch and ink some mofos, but I've got to get my paycheck tomorrow, run some errands, take the lady-friend out to dinner, and run some CoCT action (which I need to prep for). Oh, and there's some bill crap to take care of. So, probably not. If I can't get any work done tonight, I'll probably be Saturday or Sunday before I get more time to do art.

Oh, and there's all those mini back-sides to do. Yay.

It looks like the first two adventures are quite gnoll-centric, so hopefully after that I won't have to draw a gnoll for a while. I think doodling 4-8 gnoll mooks, some elite dudes, and a bunch of named gnoll NPCs (front AND back) will kill my desire to draw gnolls for the forseeable future.

I also hope Ben can get some more coloring/editing time. He's got a backlog of, what, six or seven iconics to finish? And then something like 18-24 gnolls and other NPC types? And Six or so Bestiary monsters?

Damn. This is crazy. I love it. :D

You can thank timitius  for this. Apparently, us lefties think alike, since, y'know, my sample of two people proves backs up this hypothesis. And that's why I'm not a scienticianologistificator.


And now, back to more artings!

Alright, just so people are in the know: I am a smoker. I love tobacco. That's my slow suicide to worry about; I try not to make it someone else's problem. When able, I avoid smoking around the virgin-lungs and recovering addicts.

But an interesting thought struck me: I'm planning on going to Seattle for PaizoCon. There's a rather strict "no smoking" ban out there. So, for those in the know: where the Hell can I enjoy my (otherwise legal) addiction?

I've read up on some "smoke-easies" out there; local dives where they've got a late-night "don't ask, don't tell" policy or a basement for the cancer-lover. But those are local joints--out-of-towners need not apply. Looks like streets are fine (I hope). But still. If I can't have a cancer-stick on the corner, I'm gonna be a rather unpleasant individual to deal with.

So, for those "in the know", is there safe places for society's new outcasts? Or will I have to suck it up and buy a buttload of Nicorette for the duration?

Inquiring pseudo-nihilists want to know. :)

Thought I'd let the cat out of the bag. It's hungry. :D

The paperwork I'm signing is my contract to sell minis on Paizo.com. Paizo minis. Tied in with Paizo products.

I REPEAT: Paizo has given me the go-ahead to make mini packs available for sale on their website.

We (Ben and I) hope to have the first set out as soon after Pathfinder #19--Legacy of Fire Chapter 1: Howl of the Carrion King comes out. We'll have to make a complete list of the monsters and NPCs, and then I'll ink them, Ben will edit, color, and compile them into a PDF, and I'll assemble a set for the cover image and post it on the web site. I'm hoping no longer than 2 weeks after it hits your mailbox.

We're gonna stick to Pathfinder volumes for now, unless it becomes apparent that the profits will allow us to quit our day jobs and do this full-time. Then, who knows? :D

Anyway, I wanted to take the time out to thank everyone who made this possible. I know, I thank y'all a lot, but that's because you're deserving of thanks. Extra-special thanks go to Ben (obviously); the immortal seankreynolds  for getting me to think of this as a potential business; lilith_darkmoon , for getting me onto DA and generous provisions of E-cookies; Ben Wenham (zombieneighbours on the boards) for being the first person to pay for my art with real, solid money; Hugo, for being my biggest cheerleader and slave-master; wesschneider , for giving me the chance to show the Paizo guys my stuff; Lastknightleft on the boards, for creating this thread and generally keeping the energy and momentum alive; lemuriapress, for looking over my proposal without laughing, and putting the ball into all the right courts; and the whole Paizo gang in general for making this thing real.

It's hard to believe, but it's fucking real.

Thank you all so much, and I hope your New Years turns out to be as good as mine's looking!

I just got home from dinner at a friend's house an hour ago, and found something exciting in my e-mail. It was in my old e-mail account, so I was lucky to check it tonight. Which was extra-exciting.

This exciting thing is not officially signed, or I'd tell what the exciting thing is. It does involve art, money, and being paid money for art. I will say no more.

Updates to come when they're appropriate.

I'm thinking on setting up a (very) non-traditional campaign journal for my Legacy of Fire campaign when it gets started. Problem is, I'd like to post up the various bits and pieces (character art, character journals, additional materials), and have no real clue how to set something like that up. Here's the basic idea:

I'm going for making the journal feel like independent research someone is doing involving the (now historical) events in the campaign, probably about five years after the fact, but possibly more. This individual, currently designed as a Qadiran scholar, is attempting to write a history on the campaigns events through research, interviews, divination spells, found journals, and personal investigation, and I hope to have different sources in different formats (say, scans of handouts on fake aged paper that have been collected, character art, and possibly some kind of online-shareable word processing files with decent format options for fonts or columns or somesuch). I'm willing to forego some of these things if something can let me post the information in a fun, almost random Wikipedia-like fashion, but I'd still like to at least upload fake "documents" on the site. Does such a thing exist, for free, without more than a passing understanding of HTML? Will I have to learn HTML and/or Java to make this a reality? Am I asking too much, or biting off more than I can chew?

Help me, mutual LiveJournal friends. You're my only hope.

I have very little to add other than that, and I hope your holiday has been fun and safe (unlike mine, where after an otherwise lovely Christmas with the folks I had the joy of breaking up a fight between my dogs over a rawhide bone and got bit/scratched in the process).

I was looking for things to read today, and realized something: a lot of D&D/gaming Blogs talk about a Halloween game, but has anyone run a winter-season/holiday-themed game? I'll get the dialogue started with the one I ran a few years back. I'll make it quick, since it's kinda uncomfortable to type. :(

Back in, oh, 2004-ish, I ran my D20 Modern game through an adventure based off of "The Nutcracker Suite." A group of harmless wererats living in the sewers were being slaughtered by a strange construct, and the PCs were sent to take care of the threat. The beast itself was a large nutcracker built by a deranged scientist. The group encountered the construct and had an incredibly tough fight (the dwarf Strong/Tough hero would have been "nutycracked" to death if he hadn't picked up the Remain conscious talent), but they eventually prevailed. All in all, it was an awesome thematic adventure, and my group clamored for more (alas, that group dissolved due to infighting between friends). I've even scheduled my CoCT game to have the final encounters coincide with the in-game equivalent of Christmas, just because climactic encounters in the dead of winter are, at least to me, really COOL. :)

So, anyone else run one of these?

'Nuff said.

Stolen from urbaniak .

This isn't a journal post, this is an unedited, rambling rant. I've been reading on this goddamned edition war for over a year now (longer than the new edition's existed), and I dropped out of even trying to discuss it on the Boards well before now, but I'm getting fucking TIRED of reading about it in places where it just doesn't even need to come up.

So, I was reading iuztheevil 's latest journal post (located here), and of course, the thing began dipping into an edition war fight. It seems to have pulled itself out of the tailspin (many of them have been--a radical improvement), but for a while there, I began to think, "really? Here? REALLY?!"

Look. I've got a confession to make. I'm a 4E fan. I'm a BIG fan. I just like it, sorry to say. Sure, I'll play Pathfinder. I do play Pathfinder, every once in a blue moon, when our group get together, and I have a good time, except for when my sub-optimal character build comes up and bites me in the face. But when you get down to brass tacks, I'd pick the same adventure following 4E rules over the 3.x/Pathfinder one. But that's just it. I like it. You hate it? Cool. You think it took a dump on 30+ years of D&D history, and for some reason can't just use those 30+ of history that you know, chapter and verse, in the new edition anyway? Fine. I mean, I can. Succubi are devils now, which is, to me, a meaningless classification. Put your Post-It on the page and move on.

My all time favorite right now? Chromatic dragons are Evil. WHAT? They've been Evil as long as I've played (2nd Edition in the early 90's specifically). They were Evil in 3.5, and Eberron didn't care. There's probably more Evil silver dragons in Eberron than Evil chromatic dragons. It's flavor text in a rules dressing. It's meaningless. I could put my character's eye color as "death ray at-will; DC 50 vs. Fortitude," but it doesn't mean shit, honestly.

This is a bit more important to a RPG company, and I understand that. They've got all sorts of alphabet-soup legal acronyms designating what they can and can't change, what they can and can't use, even. This isn't about that. I'm talking the at-home gamer.

Y'know, I recall hearing at some point in time (during those old Dungeon and Dragon magazine days), seeing at least a letter a month from someone bitching because they had devoted X pages to one campaign setting or another. These people were homebrew gamers, and the "implied setting" didn't matter to them. In fact, it angered them that anyone would waste precious pages to anything other than setting-neutral material. These people invented new races, dropped old ones, put in guns, took things back to the Stone Age... I mean, where ARE these people? Teach others your skills!

Another dumb anecdote: when 3E came out, I had never played Greyhawk. So, to me, the gods list was completely useless. It still is. We finished Savage Tide six months ago, which we played in Greyhawk, and as soon as we bid that campaign adieu, that part of Chapter Six went back to being useless. I did not feel the need to rant about the "Gods" of the "implied setting". I just went and played D&D. It was fun. Kooky concept, huh? Play game. Have fun.

People seem to want rules for everything. Set rules. In the core rulebooks. EVERYTHING. "How good am I at basketweaving? How good is the village basketweaver at basketweaving? And for that matter, what is her AC, attack roll, and Hit Points at, incase I need to slay her for being better than me at basketweaving?" I. Don't. Care. It will never come up in a way that I can't wing. If you want to have basketweaving in your backstory, perfect! And if it comes up in a way that makes sense, extra-perfect! I'll even try to tie it in. If you choose to slay the basketweaver, I'll ad-hoc some appropriate stats (probably as an AC 10, 1 HP minion with no attacks but a very powerful set of lungs for shouting "HELP!" when sociopathic adventurers roll into town). But do we really need to make it into a rolling situation? It was put into 3E because the design philosophy was "everyone follows the same rules". Not that important to me, personally. I do not have a compulsive need to find out if the blacksmith can take me with his one level of warrior and five levels of expert.

Sorry. I'm countering screaming with screaming. I just am getting sick of this stuff. I don't even mention it unless someone asks me or something. Everything you need to make your game is already here. I'm playing the same Pathfinder APs with my group that hundreds of others are; mine just has a bunch of different numbers. Cressida Kroft isn't a dragonborn; there are none in our Gloarion (so far). We have a tiefling, but so does the Pathfinder setting. Hell, they come up in the Guide to Korvosa. and ours look like old-school tieflings. Appearance is flavor. Ben wanted goat legs for his tiefling. I love goat-legged tieflings. Everyone's happy, and nothing changes rules-wise. No one worships Avandra or Pelor or whoever. They worship the gods of the setting. The Pathfinder flavor has translated well, in my opinion. It feels like Ben's 3.5 Pathfinder game.

Alright. I feel better. Thanks for getting this far.

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We all need a little humor in times of trouble.

Also, I'm working on making Paizo fan cartoons, so if you've got a concept you'd love to see made into a single-panel, 3-panel, or 4-panel strip (check your local funny pages for awful examples of these three), lemme know, either by comment, message, or e-mail at you(dot)swit(at)gmail(dot)com. I'm also working with my artist partner in crime, Ben, on some rejected Paizo iconics. Surely, y'all gots something you'd like to see illustrated.

I'll probably write a better update sometime later, but I feel like crap and don't really feel up to a real journal entry.

Apologies to anyone who's been waiting for art-- I'm out of Bristol and I'm not getting paid until next Thoisday. I've been trying to get some work done with my sketch pads, but it's a rougher paper and is utter murder on my pens.

Also, I'm getting the cables for my computer on Sunday (if all goes well), so I can begin the long, arduous task of reviving the damn thing to full functionality. I can't wait to actually have a computer again, and I bet Ben will be happy to have his all to himself as well.

Oh, and I think I got food poisoning at dinner last night. Either that, or an obnoxious stomach bug. That's been just dandy.

Other than that, I'm making a Korvosa mini-game so my friend Kevin can play D&D again. He was in our CoCT game until his schedule changed at work (or at home, I don't really know--he's got a wife and a kid and therefore has actual shit to take care of at home), so I figured I'd just throw him into a group of folks takin' care of business in quarantined Old Korvosa.

Indulge me for a minute, I feel like babbling about this silly little game.

Kevin and I have been playing D&D since we were ten (though back in those days, it was really just "make shit up and don't read the rulebooks"). Since that time, Kevin has proven that he is the iconic insane halfling rogue. When we got this group together using the new 4E rules (I know, I'm an infidel), he decided to go back to basics and pull out the halfling rogue goodness again. A lot of people were excited to play with him the first time, having heard the legends of games gone by (the adventures of Dulif Kronin could fill volumes). He did not dissapoint. He dropped out just after the group finished up Eel's End, but in that time, he engaged in enough wackiness for ten games, culminating in some hijinks that involved cross-dressing as a little devil-girl in a sexy Academae uniform, seducing several of Eel's End's guards and assorted ne'er-do-wells, and killing them (with the help of Dustin's character Perrin, the Sable Company's most alcoholic and corrupt marine). Even better, the rest of the group had just finished successfully convincing Devargo Barvasi to give them the scandalous love letters they needed when Heblin came busting in, in full outfit, and attempted to Bluff Devargo that he was an employee at the brothel, failing utterly and getting the group in a fight with Devargo, Devargo's remaining toughs, Chittersnap, and his spiders. He. Is. Insane. And we love him.

I can't wait to see what the group does to get Old Korvosa up and running as a puppet-state in the pocket of the Cerulean Society. Especially since the other characters lined up are a swordmage devotee of Shelyn (and Ben's CoCT character's lesbian lover), and a wandering scimitar-duelist cleric of Sarenrae--not exactly hard-bitten criminals and street toughs.

Anyhoo. I can't stomach the idea of typing stuff anymore, and WALL.E's on in the living room, so I'm gonna watch that, mess around on Facebook's Hammerfall game, and generally wish I was dead.