Nadie nos llevará a el país de las maravillas. / No one will take us to wonderland.

Comenzando tiempos electorales, creí oportuno traer esto acá:

Nuestro vaso está plenamente desbordado, al igual que el Estado Mexicano. A estas alturas es torpe, ocioso y estúpido señalar a un único culpable. Pero en México señalar a otros y lavarse las manos es el pasatiempo nacional. “Calderón, asesino”. “Muera el espurio”. “Gobierno represor, cobarde, inútil”. “Tenemos un borracho en Los Pinos”. “Que el presidente legítimo asuma el control ya”.

Todas estas frases, vacías por naturaleza, poseen cierta lógica: muestran el miedo, la impotencia, la ignorancia, el asumirse inocentes y culpar a otro, quien sea, de nuestros males. Como si decapitando al presidente Calderón nuestro país se llenara de colores. Como si él fuera la gran bruja que mantiene un perverso hechizo sobre todos los pobladores, o como si fuera él, personalmente él, quien dispara, secuestra, viola, asesina, decapita, incendia, envenena.

Yo no culpo a Calderón. Es el presidente, y siempre tendrá responsabilidad. Tal vez la mayor responsabilidad en todo esto. Pero yo no lo culpo a él. Él tiene cinco años en la Presidencia, pero los mexicanos tenemos más de 200 años de ser como somos: de estar empeñados en destruirnos mutuamente.

La independencia fue una guerra entre iguales: criollos y peninsulares. ¿Cuál era la diferencia sustancial entre ellos? Ninguna en realidad. Uno nacidos en España, otros, españoles nacidos en estas tierras. La revolución es un ejemplo más: mexicanos contra mexicanos, títeres todos de algunos caciques que tanto anhelaban el poder que se lo arrebataban a balazos. Lo mismo sucedió en la guerra de Reforma, y con el movimiento cristero, y con la guerra sucia, y con tantos y lamentables pasajes de nuestra historia... hasta hoy, cuando, de nueva cuenta, los mexicanos, de la manera más estúpida y sin sentido, nos asesinamos los unos a los otros sin otro motivo más que por nuestra estupidez genética.

Calderón tiene responsabilidad, y su guerra carece de resultados y de estrategias. Pero no podía quedarse con los brazos cruzados viendo cómo los cárteles despedazaban el país para repartirse o arrebatarse los pedazos. Yo no culpo a Calderón. Nos culpo a nosotros, a los mexicanos, que durante toda nuestra historia, y ahora en especial, hemos hecho de los ilícitos la manera normal de vivir y relacionarnos.

La mordida, la tranza, la piratería, el alcohol adulterado, conducir un auto como verdaderos estúpidos, estacionarnos en lugares prohibidos, festejar cuando alguien más burla las leyes (ahí está el reciente caso de las “ladies de Polanco”), sobornar al maestro, al dependiente de alguna tienda para que nos venda alcohol cuando no está permitido o cigarros si somos menores de edad, el graffiti que tapiza las ciudades, robarnos lo que podemos (si no, nuestras casas no estarían absolutamente enrejadas), entrar al juego perverso y corrupto de los verificentros, presumir de que somos intocables, influyentes, de que conocemos a un amigo que conoce a otro amigo, tirar basura en las calles, y no sólo me refiero a una colilla de cigarro o un papel: sillones en la vía pública, bolsas enormes de basura podrida; acaparar la calle porque creemos que es nuestra propiedad particular…

Decenas de nuestras conductas diarias, que nos parecen normales, son ilícitas. Simple y llanamente, delitos. Estamos demasiado acostumbrados a vivir de esta manera, a destruir la belleza, a escupir a quien demuestra educación, a insultar al que consideramos inferior, a humillar para no ser humillados, a ser prepotentes y necios, incultos y dañinos con quienes son o piensan diferente. Festejamos cuando un niño comienza a decir sus primeras malas palabras y lo animamos a que las diga en público como si fuera una gracia. Preferimos ver un partido de fútbol que leer el periódico; una telenovela que adentrarnos en un libro. Es más sencillo ser imbécil que ser recto. Por eso los primeros abundan y los segundos son pisoteados.

Yo no culpo a Calderón. Tiene responsabilidad, y mucha, pero durante toda nuestra historia nosotros mismos hemos cavado nuestra tumba. Y en todo caso, ¿por qué Calderón y no el PRI, que por 72 años fue simplemente “EL PRI” intocable, corrupto y todopoderoso? Si nuestras generaciones actuales se educaron bajo su sombra.

No. No se trata de señalar ni buscar culpables. Se trata de darnos cuenta qué tan hondo hemos escarbado para darnos cuenta qué tan bajo hemos caído.

Los que venden drogas son los responsables. Pero también quienes las consumen. Quienes saben que sus amigos o familiares las consumen. Quienes saben que un conocido suyo es adicto y para pagar su adicción tiene que asaltar. Y quienes saben que un conocido suyo las vende, y por eso tiene dinero.

Si somos más los buenos que los malos, ¿por qué el país se viene abajo cada día más? Si somos más los mexicanos buenos que los malos, ¿por qué no hemos hecho absolutamente nada para solucionar nuestra miserable situación? ¿Y por qué, cuando alguien, como Javier Sicilia, da la cara y se compromete a querer cambiar las cosas, se le ataca, se le critica, se le insulta, se le señala… y no se hace otra cosa más que hablar, hablar y hablar? Somos dañinos, somos corrosivos, no soportamos que los demás tengan razón o sobresalgan. Estamos resentidos. Nos atacamos sin sentido. Si atacamos a los otros incluso con insultos y con estupideces, no podemos esperar amabilidad mutua cuando alguien nos pone un arma en las manos: somos violentos por naturaleza, imbéciles sin buena voluntad, nos odiamos porque nos odiamos a nosotros mismos.

Yo no culpo a Calderón. Calderón no es diferente a López Obrador, a Peña Nieto, a Marcelo Ebrard. Creer que alguien llegará para llevarnos de la mano al país de las maravillas es ciego y falso. Es creer discursos maniqueos de presidentes legítimos y espurios. Este país no será diferente mientras no dejemos de ser como hemos sido durante al menos los últimos 200 años.


-------------


Our cup is full, and spilling, our patience, our Mexican Union State. At this point of the game, it is notonly clumsy, but also idle and stupid to name gulty entities. I mean, we Mexicans have made a sport of point fingers and lay blame and washing hands, I mean it, it's bigger than soccer. "Calderón is corrupt", "Useless, coward and repressing goverment", "We have a drunkard in Los Pinos", "The president should fix our situation now".

All of these and other lines, empty by nature, do posses certain logic if you see it from a social resentment point of view; they show the fear, impotence, ignorance and our congenit need of assume ourselves as innocents and lay blame of the evils in our country in whatever or whoever. As if decapitating the president our country will suddenly explode in colours and good vibes; as if he were the big bad wizard who has the entire nation under a spell; as if he were the one pulling the trigger, kidnapping, raping, decapitating, burning and poisoning the country.

I do not blame president Calderón; As a president he has had and always will have the responsability of steading the nation's course; but just take a look at what he has to wotk with. I mean, he might very well be a big prt of the problem, but I sincerely don't blame him. He has been president for almost six years, but us Mexicans have over 200 years of being who and what we are; we've had tons of practice on how to turn on each other and destroy ourselves.

Our war of independence was a fight amongst equals: spaniard blood born either here or in Spain: They were all the same, it was not a fight amongs native american Aztecs and Spaniard colonists, no, it was a fight for power between spaniard brothers. Only some of them were already born here.
Our mexican revolution was also a fight amongst brothers, amongst ourselves: mexican vs. mexican, puppets for the few of the high class in power: the spaniard descendant landlords that shot each other for power and the right to keep us enslaved.
Same thing for the "Reforma" war, with the "Cristero" movement, the dirty war, the 2nd of October, and other sad and shameful passages of our history... even until today, when again we are killing each other in the most sensless and terrible forms for no other reason than our own genetic supidity to be manipulated. Drugs, money and power? all to satisfy a need instilled in to our people by foreign ideas.

President Calderón does have his share in all these, his war on crime lacks results and strategy; but he could not sit still as these cartels rip the countryside apart and take each his own part of my country. But again, I do not blame Calderón. I blame us mexicans, every civilian who has allowed this, every mexican that through all of our history has made a living out of "cutting corners", and has made it completely "normal" and even "applauded" when you beat the law. I mean, this has become our measurement of success.

What is it we do on a daily basis? Corruption even in the minor scale, when we bribe traffic police to avoid a ticket for something that we DO deserve; Cheat either our employers, our clients friends or relatives or our loved ones, either for money or to get away with something; buying and selling bootlegged alcohol, driving like maniacs, speeding and parking where we should not; celebrate when some one else manages to get away with mocking the law or beating it, or getting away with something; my god! why do we celebrate this!? bribing our teachers, or a store clerk in to selling cigarretes or booze to minors; the graffitti on our streets, stealing whatever is at hand and I mean we even have a saying for this: "The opportunity creates the thief", good grief!, show off that we have "contacts" that we are "important people" that laws do nod apply to us, that we are "untouchables"; littering our streets, close down streets or think we own the street without regard for our neighbor...

Dozens upon dozens of these daily conducts, which at this point we think of as "normal", I mean, after all, I am not commiting murder if I park in a red zone, and it's only "five minutes". Well, these are felonies. Simple and clear. These are crimes and we do not see it like so. We are too accustomed, too numbed, and we sit and watch as beuty gets destroyed and evil deeds of any scale are commited. "Evil prevails when good men fail to act"; instead of acting, we spit on those who show kindness, we insult those who show education, we stomp on those we consider "inferior", we humilliate to avoid being humilliated, we become arrogant fools, hard headed idiots with delusions of grandeour, we get dizzy standing in our little bricks; and if some one politely points it out to us, we smack them for being "uppity"; or we destroy those we consider different and dare to think. We are a nation that celebrates when little children learn to curse and we encourage them to repeat these words for the amusement of others as if a foul mouthed child was anything nearing funny. We prefer to watch a football match than to read a newspaper, let alone a book; we watch soaps instead of looking for news broadcasts outside the establishment media. It is simpler being an imbecil than being righteous. this is why in my country the latter are few and get stomped by the first.

So, I do not blame president Calderón; he has to work with us. And we dug our own grave. It is not about pointing a finger to any one institution or person, but to point it at the mirror, and doing something about it; it is about realizing how low we have come, how poor in spirit and ideas we have become and DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Realization is not enough.

Yes, the drug dealers and cartels are responsible; but so are those who consume drugs and idolize violent life styles and outlaws, so are the families of those who consume drugs and stand idle; so are the people that know that a friend or relative has a lot of money from being a drug dealer, and not only stand idle, but actually take things and money from these persons.

If there are more good men than bad, why this has not stopped? Why is my country falling lower and lower? If there are more good men than bad, why haven't we, the people, done something to find our own way out of this miserable situation? And why when a peaceful civil movement like Javier Sicilia's movement arises we scorn it, we critizice it, we insult it and we do nothing but talk and talk and talk? We are a nation of harmful people, we are corrosive, we are not wanted in most parts of the world because of this. Cities in other countries fight mexican gangs and crime and hate us or scorn us, avoid us or mock us. We cannot stand when other people are right or when other people stand out from the crowd. We are historically resented and hurt and natural born violent; imbeciles without good will, we hate each other because we hate ourselves; a whole country with low self esteem and teenage issues. Pathetic.

I do not blame Calderón. He is no different than López Obrador, Cordero, Peña Nieto, Ebrard. To believe that someone will come to usher in a golden age and take us to wonderland is to be blind and naive, at best; It is to continue to fall for false and marketed speeches. This country will not be different unless we stop a 200 year way of living, of being, of thinking.

It can be done. It can be done. No need for heroics or taking a rifle and starting a revolution. Just, start small, start very small and work your way up. Do not throw that cigarrette butt on the street for starters. Do not drive at high speeds and if you do, accept the ticket you deserve. Do not cheer your son in to cursing. Don't buy that pirate movie. Do one thing, one small thing a day to help some one else. What ever. Just stop. Sto, think and do something small.

Feng's Project Log: Necro Story WIP

Feng's Project Log: Necro Story WIP: Chapter 1     Oris sighs as she sits on the cold stone floor of the dimly lit room. Her long blonde hair nearly touching the floor. Her deep...

Interview with Peter Lee; designer of the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System Board Games

It's Allright...

That's all right, if I'm stupid, It's all right. I used to do drugs. Now I do games and all sort of bullshit. Kills my mind. If I'm stupid I don't have to do it. I don't have to face it and live with it. If I'm stupid, it's better.

So he walked down the street thinking. He thought too much sometimes, this man... er... I mean, this boy. All the city around him screamed at him as he walked, buildings opened their huge mouths spewing curses and thruths at his face. He just ignored it all.

But at the end of the day, he just came back again to actually face it... the blank page and the cursor tilting, tantalizing, fucking with him. So he typed away, trying to beat the white.

Just trying to beat the white...

Explain that one...

Who hasn't gone through this?
Ihave these moments with board games too.
Good thing is Becky likes D&D. XD
The link to these very fun ebcomic is on th left awesome webcomic bar.

I'm not a ninja

this comic reminded me of my friend Demian. The link to the site is on the Awesome comic bar on the left.

Life's Instructions

I remember listening to the "Wear Sunscreen" speech a few years ago, and I thought it very humaine and humble. Most good things in life are.

In the same spirit, I had found several cool posts with similar life instructions. Hope you enjoy:

Life's Instructions

1. Have a firm handshake.
2. Look people in the eye.
3. Sing in the shower.
4. Own a great stereo system.
5. If in a fight, hit first and hit hard.
6. Keep secrets.
7. Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen everyday.
8. Always accept an outstretched hand.
9. Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference.
10. Whistle.
11. Avoid sarcastic remarks.
12. Choose your life's mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 per cent of all your happiness or misery.
13. Make it a habit to do nice things for people who will never find out.
14. Lend only those books you never care to see again.
15. Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all that they have.
16. When playing games with ! children, let them win.
17. Give people a second chance, but not a third.
18. Be romantic.
19. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
20. Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life-and-death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems.
21. Don't allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It's there for our convenience, not the caller's.
22. Be a good loser.
23. Be a good winner.
24. Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.
25. When someone hugs you, let them be the first to let go.
26. Be modest. A lot was accomplished before you were born.
27. Keep it simple.
28. Beware of the person who has nothing to lose.
29. Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river.
30. Live your life so that your epitaph could read, No Regrets
31. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on life, you'll regret the
32. things you didn't do more than the one's you did.
33. Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.
34. Remember no one makes it alone. Have a grateful heart and be quick to acknowledge those who helped you.
35. Take charge of your attitude. Don't let someone else choose it for you.
36. Visit friends and relatives when they are in hospital; you need only stay a few minutes.
37. Begin each day with some of your favorite music.
38. Once in a while, take the scenic route.
39. Send a lot of Valentine cards. Sign them, 'Someone who thinks you're terrific.'
40. Answer the phone with enthusiasm and energy in your voice.
41. Keep a note pad and pencil on your bed-side table. Million-dollar ideas sometimes strike at 3 a.m.
42. Show respect for everyone who works for a living, regardless of how trivial their job.
43. Send your loved ones flowers. Think of a reason later.
44. Make someone's day by paying the toll for the person in the car behind you.
45. Become someone's hero.
46. Marry only for love.
47. Count your blessings.
48. Compliment the meal when you're a guest in someone's home.
49. Wave at the children on a school bus.
50. Remember that 80 per cent of the success in any job is based on your ability to deal with people.
51. Don't expect life to be fair.

Dungeons And Dragons Adventure System Board Game Custom Villain: Aspect of Orcus

In ages past, crusaders from across the Amirtha Gangai sea sailed from Turania in mighty galleons towards an unexplored land, reaching the shores of a vast and unexplored continent, naming it the Ammanai. They settled on the cold wooden shores and established their first town: Crossburg. Here they built a mighty temple, whose underground levels are rumored to contain their holy relics.
Legend tells that these relics hold the mysteries of life and death, and they might even open a portal in to the abyss, the land of the dead; domain of demons like prince Orcus, a mighty demon charged with punishing those who break their oaths for all eternity.
Now, centuries later, an unknown power created a rift in reality, summoning a group of crusaders to converge in Crossburg after facing unspeakable horrors in their own lands.
The people of Crossburg were relieved when the energies and the chaos stopped and what they saw were four heavily armoured and equipped adventurers; for the Town of Crossburg had been under siege by unnatural forces, terrible nightmares and monsters from the nearby Temple ruins. "The temple of the Crusaders" they call it.
Now these four adventurers must find a way back to their origins; and destroy the evil power that spills its filth from The Temple of the Crusaders.
CAMPAIGNThis setting can be played as a campaign, progressing from one adventure to the next in one session or several by recording all items, levels and accumulated xp in a notebook to come back to it next session.
ENCOUNTER DECK:Blood Fog (CR 52)
Crippling Miasma (CR 54)
Bubbling Cauldron (CR 59)
Frenzy (CR 63)
Illusionary Trick (CR 67)
2 Overrun (CR 72–73)
Reinforcements (CR 78)
Teleport Glyph (CR 86)
Choking Fog (CR 92)
Gray Ooze (CR 94)
Howling Ghost (CR 97)
Fire Trap (CR 108)
Spear Gauntlet (CR 110)
A Gap in the Armor (WoA 51)
Bad Luck (WoA 52)
Bloodlust (WoA 53)
High Alert (WoA 61)
Surrounded! (WoA 63)
Ancient Spirit’s Blessing (WoA 65)
Frenzied Leap (WoA 68)
Lost (WoA 72)
Bull’s Eye! (WoA 84)
Concussive Blast (WoA 85)
Deep Tremor (WoA 86)
Lurker’s Strike (WoA 89)
Cave In (WoA 97)
Poisoned Dart Trap (WoA 101)
Or any other combination, excluding encounter cards that deal with Kobolds or Orcs

MONSTER DECK:Select any 2 cards of 15 different monsters; To maintain the flavour, monsters should be:
Demon, Undead, Duergar, Human, Aberrant, Animal, magical beast, construct or dragons. Or at least leaving orcs, goblinoids, kobolds and the like aside.

The top Boss:

Fantasy Quest: Legend of Drizzt New Images!

Fantasy Quest: Legend of Drizzt New Images!: Drizzt: Artemis: Fortunes are back:

D&D Adventure system Board Game: Inferno Variant.

I'm working on a full inferno scenario using this game. The first character is ready. None other than Dante Alighieri.

I've been thinking on making Beatrice as another hero to play with, but also as a villain. Also I'm wanting to have more crusaders with Dante. I'll look up characters that have fought demons or vampires to add another two or three heroes to this scenario.

D&D Adventure system board game: New Hero

So My sister wanted her D&D character to be playable on Wrath of Ashardalon and Castle Ravenloft.
And I helped her built Krysta Greenmoss; Gnome Trickster.

I will upload her powers today.

And so, here are the powers:

Star Wars: A Jedi's tale. Chapter IV

IV
　
He decided to try the bars first. As the night advanced he was getting nowhere. He went in to the third joint of the night. Different from the others, more “upper” class; there was even a weapons sensor that went off as soon as he crossed the threshold. A recorded voice went off near his head. “Welcome to The White Pearl, please deposit your weapons in the bin, they will be well cared for”. Followed by a storage bin that opened up on a wall on his left. He placed his Death Hammer in it and got an electronic token in return. Good, the lightsaber was not scanned.
　
　
As he walked in to the place, he extended his senses, drawing from his emotions, he let himself go in to the myriad of emotions, thoughts and feelings. Almost every table was occupied, and he could sense thoughts of sadness, joy, celebration, concealment, deceit, and betrayal. Curiosly, in such a place, all emotions were somewhat dampened, slanted, and the patrons surely preented composed and calm faces to one another. He opened his eyes, dozens of beings moved about; the greatest concentration of species was around a sabacc table at the bak of the bar. The holographic dealer was explaining the house rules to about four players; and twenty odd onlookers. is gaze stopped there. He senses someone watching him intently from that area, and whoever it was, it was very shocked and surprised at his entrance. He had hit the jackpot.
　
　
　
He walked to the bar, and asked for mint liquor. Alema’s favourite. The drink made him somewhat nostalgic. He picked it up after paying for it and moved between small black tables made of something resembling carved wood. There was a band playing some tune rag time. He looked over to the musicians and spotted a humanoid with four arms going at a wooden piano completely enthralled by his own playing. He smiled and came closer to the sabacc table. As he neared it, the sense of that someone’s surprise and awe, turned in to terror and aggression, He could feel it directed at him. looking straight in to the holographic dealer, he scanned his front arc of vision for the face tht matched the feeling and could not make it out. The hatred directed at him became stronger.
　
　
　
“Yes Oreth, hate can be powerful, but also, love is equally strong” It’s dawn. They cannot see the sun on their westward window. On Coruscant, the sun rises on the east, funny enough. This is when they came together for the first time. She lies in bed next to him, the top half of her body lies leisurely uncovered, the white sheets loosely slip down to her stomach. Her naked skin resembles the peaceful seas in the bluish light of the coming morning. He turns and caresses her. He is drinking mint liquor; but her words are a far more fulfilling and potent draught, and he drinks from her by long desperate gulps. “They are the same heavy coin, the metal from which they are crafted is unbreakable; one face of the coin caresses and kisses with powerful force and energy” She turns to him and strokes his head tresses, then kisses his cheeks, his lips. “the other face bites, barks and mauls with the same relentless energy” She turns from him, gets up and starts to don her Jedi outfit.
　
　
　
Her under tunic slides gracefully, then her outer tunic. He gets up and takes her sash, helps her place it around her waist, seizing the moment to hold her one last time. “But master... Alema...“ He feels a tingling in his chest at using her fist name, “if they are the same energy, how can love conquer hate?” She smiles, “Now its not the time for that lesson, now focus Oreth“ she continues as her face grows darker, “remember today. Today, life is good. Drink the mint liquor, and look at its bluish colour. Look for the bluish colour Oreth, behind the veiled faces, the bluish colour of a pair of eyes.” He does not understand, he feels this is another of Alema’s teachings. Even now, after the moment they shared, she cannot help but to fall in to her role as the master. She steps away from him and walks to the balcony, “Oreth, you will die under the bright jewel if you do not learn to use the visions of the past.”
　
　
　
He raised his glass, the bluish colour of the liquor cast dancing figures in his eyes. The force was acting now, through her teachings through him and through their... love. A sudden commotion began in the bar, behind the sabacc table, at the far end from Oreth. He saw them then, a pair of ice blue eyes, looking at him intently, then those eyes were aware of his realization. Patrons started to move away. other ran. “No blasters!” some one shouted. But the warning came too late. In a desperately fast movement, faster than Oreth had seen on a non sensitive, the man with the ice coloured eyes drew and let off two bolts of red death. He was ready for him. He was unconsciously aware of him the whole time, and his lightsaber ignited in a green buzzing sound with the frenzy of battle at the hiss of the blade.
　
　
　
He stopped the first two bolts. The man began to run backwards and shot wildly at him. His lightsaber danced in wide arcs left and right, keeping the red blaster bolts from panicked patrons and sabacc players. The green blade then spun and moved forward; he ran after the man avoiding his very fast blaster shots. this man was definitely dangerous, fast and deadly. He had to get him away or put him down for good. A blaster bolt aimed at the front entrance activated a pair of security blaster emplacements that came down from the ceiling. This man definitely knew this place and its secrets. Oreth spun wildly, ducked and raised his green blade. He was a blur of brown flowing robes and green energy.
　
　
　
Drawing from the Force, He crushed the gun turrets by closing his hand in a fist. He caught a brief moment where the assailant was isolated from innocent standbys and drew his arm backwards, palm opened; he then thrust his hand forward and the Firce did the rest, it responded with an incredible energy that Oreth was not aware he possesed. He truly was being fuelled by Daneela’s memory, Alema’s love and his own betrayal to the order and what it stood for. The force push sent the man flying back in a blur of black clothes and wild blaster bolts. The guy kept firing his weapon as he flew to the nearest wall and smashed against it.
　
　
　
　
You don’t get to die on me!. He thought as he ran to the still body lying by the entrance weapon storage bins. By now, all patrons were darting to the exit, crowding it, and the storage bins spilled their contents. Oreth stood over the downed man. He was face down, still holding his blaster. An Aratech. He force moved the weapon away from the inert hand, crouched by the body and turned him.
　
　
　
At first he thought he was seeing some force vision. Even though Alema had helped him master and control them, she also repeated constantly that his eyes could betray him, and not to trust them. Well, now he was sure he could not. Tehe face of the unconscious shooter was that of a boy, not more than seventeen years of age, human. The boy opened his eyes a little; Oreth stood there watching unbelieving, at a set of brown eyes. “Wha... what happened...” said the boy. Oreth stood up immediately and surveyed the place around him over and over, choking a cry of rage and frustration. What HAD happened?
　
　
　
Humans and Rodians for the most part, with some of the other domiant races sprinkled here and there, were crowding the entrance, some were arguing about ownership of the blasters and weapons spilled on the floor from the storage bins. The back of the bar was empty. The sabacc table was overturned, its holographic dealer still bidding the next player to either up the ante or fold. The Oreth turned to the bar; the attending barmaid, a human in her middle aged years lay dead over the counter. a blaster bolt burning the flesh on her face. Behind her, a door to a kitchen and storage room stood broken out of its hinges, its locked burned off.
　
　
　
No, not burned off; as Oreth came close to the bar counter, he could clearly see the door had been sliced open. Lightsaber work.
　　

The Ark::: A RPG Session Continues: Escaping the tunnels

Xephos rises his mighty blade and slowly cuts through the webs surrounding the trapped man (escape artist roll 18 + 4 = 22) and he falls to the ground, completely intact.

The bound man falls with to the ground, before hitting, he twirls in the air and lands on one knee, his right arm extended in a combat ready position; clearly this person knows how to survive and now he is freed.


From his kneeling position, the freed man looks around and acquaints himself with the room he has been stuck in for solong. The first things, obviously, were the 2 humanoids that cut him loose. "Cheers for the help" he grumbled, hating to rely on any form of assistance.

Grexas looks to the other two men, and nods in response to the thanks. "Now I don't know if it's the right way out of here, but it's the way that doesn't lead to that thing. So let's go back this way." He says, hoping to avoid a fight before they can regain strength. "Do you have any weapons?" He says looking to the man they just saved. Grexas moves closer to help them search figuring no one would wander around unarmed. rolled 16+0 search

As Grexas looks about the cavern, he notices the walls kind of crumble, like if the rock were not that hard in that particular spot. He moves behind the pyramid of brains and he discovers a corpse still wearing a finds a full tech helmet with a visor, and electronics of some sort attached to it. The corpse is dressed on the black and silver uniform of their previous pursuers, the St. George's Guardsmen.
Under the corpse, he discovers an elecronic datapad of some sort. And right next to it, it`s a recognizable .50 rifle and what it looks like a traveller`s bag.

"Let me see that helmet..." Xephos mutters, grabbing the helmet with a brief nod from Grexas and seaching it (roll computer use 19 + 2 = 21) and finds out several things:

System power = Minimum
Power source = Broken
Defences = Bullet resistant (+2 AC)

Functions

Visor changes (Hue, Transparency) = Disabled (Limited power)
UV ray protection = OFF, Disabled (Limited Power)

END OF SEQUENCE

 
Davos slings the rifle on his back. Checking that he has a magazine with 6 shots in it. He then looks about him, shrugs and starts walking down the far exit corridor, the way the unknown creature went; his movements are swift and silent, and Grexas and Xephos almost lost sight of him.
The path sloped down and came to a 3 way intersection.
After a quick look he sees the corridor to his right there is a greenish glow coming from somewhere and italso gets darker. The corridor to his left, he notices the light source increases a bit, the centre corridor only gets darker. He is drawn to the centre for his love of the dark yet he pauses for a moment to see if the pair are following.

Grexas starts to follow, the man, against his better judgement. It is better to stick together at least. He follows him down the tunnel listening closely. rolled 13+4=17. Grexas then starts to observe the man he is following."Hmmm, I hear something coming from the right." He says to the man, still thinking this is a bad idea.

The Ark::. A RPG Session continues:::: A bound hero...

Grexas pulls his goggles on and lays on the ground with his eyes closed. He slowly opens them as they stop burning and his headache starts to go away. As his vision slowly clears, things beginning to regain definition, he sees the barrel of a shotgun pointed at him. He panics some hardly able to see because of the light and the tint of the goggles. Grexas puts his hands up over his face."I guess I have no choice but to give myself up now." He says as he lays there, hoping they don't just shoot him. Grexas moves his tail back underneath his hoodie, hoping the guards haven't noticed it yet."So now what? You just take us to jail? Just because we're mutants? Who were attacked, unprovoked?...Racists..."

Xephos sheathes his katana and drops gracefully to the ground "I will come with you, but do not try to restrain me" (roll bluff 18 - 1 = 17) and with that he stands and walks next to the captain, with no visible weapons withing grabbing distance

Grexas decides that the screaming might just be a cry for help. rolled 17+4=21 sense motive. Grexas trys to gather his wits, and determine what the scream is for. He realizes the scream is one of terror coming from a human, and the growling a manifestation of pure hate. "Xephos c'mon we have to save them." He say quietly before making his way down the hall.rolled 16+2=18 move silently

As they move through the bare rock, they reach the bending and come upon a chamber unlike they have seen before even in their nightmares.
It is a round chamber with the tunnel continuing on the other side. but what got their attention is the scene from gehenna they behold: In the center of the room there are three pyramidal piles of rotting human brains. They look carefully set up in a triangle patern. Digested bones and human remains can bee seen all around. and in the middle of the triangle formed by the horrible pyramids, hangs a human shape, eyes fixed on the tunnel at the other side of the chamber. He is bound in spiderwbs, hanging upside down, only his head is visible...
From the tunnel at the far end of the cavern, the growling can still be heard, moving away.

The guardsmen holding the blaster rifles walk over to Xephos and toss him on the ground, face to the ground. (grapple 14) One of them keeps the nozzle of his blaster rifle right behind his neck whilst the other one tries to search him.
The officer holding the shotgun walks over to Grexas. "Loose the eye glass, son; and lie face down. This is not about you being mutants, which I personally could not care less if you had three eyes and tumors all over. And I'm not accusing you of attacking anybody. All we know is there was some sort of fight up there in Mc Gruffy's, and somehow you were involved. My job is to take you boys to Guardsmen's Keep and stand trial. That is the law that protects St. George's commune from the growing darkness. Son, if the light of the law fails, all good people will die under harrier's and raider's boots. I for one, will not let that happen." He pumps his shotgun after saying this and continues... "So lie down and come easily".

Xephos' body is influenced yet again by a force he knows well, he does not surrender, for this would be a sign of weakness but grabs the guard by the arm, twists it and grabs his neck, (Grapple roll 16 + 6 = 22) he then inserts the needle into the guards neck but does not press the plunger down "This syringe is full of a neurotoxin so powerful that a painful death occurs within 10 seconds" he says in a calm voice (bluff roll 18 - 1 = 17)

Both guardsmen seem terrified at Xepho‘s statement. The guard that Xephos is grappling suirms a little and sighs. The other guardsman stammered “Sir.. wha... wha... what do I do, he plans to murder him“.
The officer never takes his aim off of Grexas. “Shoot him, at the first chance you get. Now!”
The guardsmen looks for a spot vulnerable and out of the cover provided by his fellow soldier. Knowing that he might kill his companion, he mutters a prayer under his breath and squeezes three rapidly continuous blaster bolts. (25, under 50%, 7 damage) that impact Xephos (2 hp left) and unbalances him.
The grapple guard elbows Xephos in the stomach (22, 1 damage) then head butts him with the back of his head. (18, 1 damage) (0 hp) Xephos falls unconscious to the ground.
The officer fires his shotgun aiming at the floor between Grexas’ legs and pumps a fresh round. “Your call boy.”

Grexas backs away a bit. "Let's all just remain calm now." He says a little fear in his voice. He looks up to the Captain. "You are fighting for the light yeah? Well so are we. We have a chance to stop these psychopaths you hate and instead we're being held here." He glances around the room trying to emphasize the point.
"I'll tell you what, we were leaving St. George anyway. You let us go, and tell the boys back at the Guard that this scary spider thing ate us, and we won't come back." He says looking up to the guard hopefully. His tail twitching inside his shirt. Rolled 18+1=19 diplomacy

Xephos awakens, partly due to his strength and partly due to his spiritual connection to something without unconsciousness, "Son of a-" he starts to say, standing and lifting his katana high before catching a look from Grexas and stopping himself "On the other hand, maybe peace is a viable option, for now.." he walks around so he is closer to grexas and notices an aura of sorts eminating from the officer, he nods his head towards that officer and says "Maybe we should spare this one, he is honourable and is not deserving of death"

The officer seems to be figuring out if that would be enough. “What guarantees do ya give that we wont see you again in St George; if we do, I’ll have to kill you to keep my honour intact; I would not be made a liar boy.” The guardsman that had been under Xephos grasp, rubs his neck; he seems to be sewating badly. He picks up his gun and stands next to his partner. They both see Xephos get up slowly, and walk next to Grexas. “Sir, the other one... the ugly one is getting up!! unbelievable!!”

The officer follows Xephos with a stare Then bows back at hearing him speak.

“I usually am a good character judge. Please, do not make me regret this. Men, pick your companion and walk out before me. This is over, we got the rioters on the vehicles up top, and down here... there is only death. I don’t know how the Murwocks can live here with all these horror. Move out! And remember boy, do not make me a liar”

They all march out of the room using the door they came in, their searchlights could be seen for some moments. Then, Grexas and Xephos were once again, left in the dark.

Grexas slowly stands and brushes himself off. "Well that could have gone better." He says before lifting his goggles and heading back towards the other door. Once there Grexas presses his ear to the door, hoping to find out something about whats on the other side of the door. rolled 14+4=18 listen. Grexas hears the faint sound of an alarm siren and what sounds like tiny claws moving about. Deciding they should wait to move on, he heads back into the room. "Well, whatevers on the other side of the door knows we're here, so best be ready for a fight." He says looking to Xephos. He looks down at the spider carcass, deciding to search it. "Wonder if this thing ever ate anything useful...." rolled 15 search check

As the siren sound fades away in the distance. Grexas finds a large DC-15 Blaster Rifle, probably left by the dead guard that the wolf spider murdered.

Xephos sits down and inspects his weapons, noticing that the blood has dissapeared and that the blade of the actual katana is tinted red, his mind is back to normal now but with a mild headache and several wounds the spirit leaving his body comes as a shock instead of a relief. "Maybe we should work on that door" he mutters to Grexas he walks towards the door and taps it (search roll 14 + 2 = 16) and aims his 1911 at a greyish material "actually, i think you should do this" he says, waving Grexas forward

Grexas takes his new blaster rifle and slings it over his shoulder. He walks over to the door and pulls out a grenade. "You should get away from the door, and leave the breaching to a pro. Well... semi-pro." Grexas shoves the grenade into the packed in explosives. Grexas hooks the pin with his finger and pulls. "RUN!" He shouts sprinting away from the door. rolled 17+2=19 reflex and 13+2=15 run. Grexas runs away from the the door but doesn't get far enough to avoid the blast. He just barely gets caught at the edge of the explosion (4 damage)

Xephos, utilising all his bird ninja powers, turns and runs (roll 17 run and 18 reflex) and is unscathed

The smoke clears. Bits and pieces of the metal frame of the door fall to the ground. The smoke is acrid and waters the heroe's eyes.

Under the smoke stench, both Grexas and Xephos, after brushing some dirt and debris off their clothes, can clearly percieve a pungent familiar odor... insect like. Feeling trouble ahead, they approach the threshold and gaze in to a narrow but long chamber, at first glance it looks 50ft long and 20 ft wide, almost a hallway.... whose floor appears to be.... moving.
They can clearly hear the siren's loud wailing now, and just as they approach the new horrors ahead, it silences itself, sliwly, like not wanting to die off.
The mutants stand on the edge, taking a moment to make something out of what they see at first glance.

Grexas takes a closer look down the hallway. rolled 15+4=19 spot.

Xephos also looks down the hallway (Spot 14 + 4 = 18)

Backstory of Decorus Calamitus - Epilogue

Imagine a time before dinosaurs roamed the earth, before mankind forgot its skills and became primitive again. Imagine a time of magic and dragons and heroes and objects that were so powerful they could cause the earth itself to crumble. There was once a hero of renown who roamed the earth and one day come across an ancient katana blade, he grabbed the blade, mind full of greed and set off again. He heard tale of a mighty dragon who roamed in a close land, he wanted to kill this creature so he could gain more fame… This was the point where the whole plan went terribly wrong. He was overcome by a need to slay this beast and walked for many weeks, not eating or drinking and being kept alive by a terrible force. When he met this dragon he felt himself able to do extraordinary things, and when he killed the dragon the blade glowed hot and vanished.
Decorus Calamitus was lost

As Grexas and Xephos approach the edge of the chamber, he stops. He gives a closer look to the whole place, and recognizes certain shapes in the ceiling.. at first he thought them to be outcroppings of rock, but then one of them turned and it showed two big cannons mounted on a turret, turning this way and that, with red blinking lights that go off and on in sync with some lights at the end of the chamber. There are dozens of these turrets on the ceiling. All active.

On the floor, he sees now that the ground was not moving, but thousands of huge scorpions are moving on it, crawling about, snapping their pincers and waving their stings. Under the horde of scorpions, runs what appears to be a lowered walkway, that goes all the way from end to end of the chamber.

Grexas starts to back away from the door. "Ok, maybe that wasn't the best plan..." He looks around, spotting the tunnel off in the distance. "Maybe, we can get in through there..." He turns to Xephos. "Let's go this way." He starts to run towards the wolf creatures tunnel. rolled 13+2=15 run check.
Grexas arrives at the tunnel and looks inside. It looks deep and full of webs, but he thinks they could make it through.

Xephos sighs and holds his katana loosely in one hand before following Grexas, "Ok, but i was REALLY looking forward to harvesting those insect souls"

Backstory of Decorus Calamitus- Chapter one


In a dark and damp cave, thousands of miles away from where it was lost, the gleaming blade of Decorus Calamitus was spotted by a keen adventurer, he had been searching for the blade for years but legends told that the blade had vanished. The legends did not tell that that sword was evil, and would consume all who touched it, swapping a piece of the soul of the possessor with a piece of the dragons, linking them for life. When the katana was first used to its full extent the owner had faced a painful death of such magnitude that the first ice age occurred, the weapon had a bloody history and the only thing linking each owner was a common surname- Estonium. Decorus Calamitus can be translated into “Beautiful Disaster” and that is the swords last resort. When the owner of the sword has proven himself worthy he may commit a bloody and brutal ritual to save his comrades and even the world, killing the owner, one willing victim and emptying the blade of a potent soul, he can unleash the spirit of an ancient creature. It is suspected that this will have such power that a million fel creatures could be wiped out by it, but this was only a legend, until the adventurer found this sword.

Upon exiting the cave, Louis Estonium started to feel his arm burn and when he checked there was a burn in the shape of a dragons head on his left shoulder. He was marked and destined to carry the blade til the day he died. The blade gave him a vision of the creatures captured in the blade, killed by a long line of Estoniums that had evaded the eye of gossips and preachers and had lived their lives unnoticed, but this was a new age, one of harmony between people and abundant resources, long gone were the days where smoke polluted the air, this was a paradise, a utopia of sorts. But that all changed when Louis Estonium decided to keep the blade. Others hunted the blade, powerful blood mages with powers to summon thousands of familiars at the cost of their own or others blood and easily powerful enough to take on a lone swordsman, but he wasn’t a lone swordsman, he was Louis Estonium and he was carrying Decorus Calamitus…

Xephos awakens sharply from a flashback he just had and immediately fly's up towards the tunnel (jump roll 11 + 8 = 19), seemingly unaffected by the story he just saw happen and steps inside, spotting for any goodies (spot roll 16 + 2 = 18)

Retreating from the chamber that defeated them, Grexas and Xephos examine the tunnel on the other end of the chamber where the wolf was defeated. The creature apparently had a very deep lair, for at a glance the tunnel looks deep and with no end in sight. For a second, both men thought they could hear a sound, almost like a whisper from inside the tunnel. They both will have to climb the ancient stone walls to graba hold of the tunnel's edge.

Xephos flies in to the opening and searches about, he can see a long cilindrical shaped tunnel, with cobwebs clinging to the walls. The tunnel goes for about 40 ft then it divides to the left and right. Xephos can clearly hear some sort of humming or moaning from somewhere ahead.

Grexas sighs as Xephos just flies into the tunnel. He starts to climb the wall. rolled 12+6=18 climb. Once he reaches the the tunnel he moves closer to Xephos.He looks down the tunnel rolled 19+4=23 spot check. Grexas stops and listens, trying to figure out where the humming is coming from. rolled 17+4=21 listen check. he then tries to get his bearings, realizing how lost he really is.rolled 2+8=10 survival check. Grexas drops to all fours and quickly moves to the intersection moving as quietly as possible. rolled 11+2=13 move silently. He makes it to the intersection after making a bunch of noise on the way down

As Grexas reaches the intersection, he can hear his owntail giving out his location. Then he looks both ways, and notices a slight pendant going up on the left hand opening. He turns right to follow the moaning sounds and feels it inclines downwards. He can se that the tunnel goes on for about 30 ft. then turns left.

Xephos runs after him with epic bird ninja skills (run roll 14 + 4 = 18) (move silently roll 16 + 7 = 23)

As Xephos runs down the hallway, he reaches the intersection in a lightning movement and appears right behind Grexas in a flash of speed. There is no room enough for the two men to walk side by side.
After a brief second of silence, both men look ahead... they hear a very loud growling, and the moaning start to become a scream...

Grexas decides that the screaming might just be a cry for help. rolled 17+4=21 sense motive. Grexas trys to gather his wits, and determine what the scream is for. He realizes the scream is one of terror coming from a human, and the growling a manifestation of pure hate. "Xephos c'mon we have to save them." He say quietly before making his way down the hall.rolled 16+2=18 move silently

As they move through the bare rock, they reach the bending and come upon a chamber unlike they have seen before even in their nightmares.
It is a round chamber with the tunnel continuing on the other side. but what got their attention is the scene from gehenna they behold: In the center of the room there are three pyramidal piles of rotting human brains. They look carefully set up in a triangle patern. Digested bones and human remains can bee seen all around. and in the middle of the triangle formed by the horrible pyramids, hangs a human shape, eyes fixed on the tunnel at the other side of the chamber. He is bound in spiderwbs, hanging upside down, only his head is visible...
From the tunnel at the far end of the cavern, the growling can still be heard, moving away.

Star Wars: A Jedi's Tale. Chapter III: There is only vengeance.

II
The bright jewel disappeared behind the buildings of Ord Mantell's capital city just moments before he stood up from his place by the window. His glass was empty. Did not feel like pouring again. He walked to the door with long, strong steps. He picked up his brown Jedi robe. He would wear it proudly. There was not anything else in the apartment that could identify him or be used against him. He was nobody. He had been a Jedi. Being nobody served him best, for the moment.
He was smiling that charming Nautolan smile.
He was resolute as most Jedi are.
　
He took his 434 Death Hammer blaster pistol from the table next to the door. He looked at it. "This was hers" he thought. The fearsome gun had served her well, but to no avail against the power that brought her down in shreds. His teeth clenched. He stepped outside, in to the shadows of Ord Mantell's night. As he did, he felt Alema's touch on his gleaming skin. He would never stop being Jedi.
　
"You should not be in the balcony Padawan Oreth, but doing the exercises I charged you with"- He turns around, he is still a student now. He does not need eyes anymore to know it is her. Her presence is... overwhelming; deep like the oceans of his home, cool and comforting like them too. "I'm sorry master, but it is all still so unexpected. and I've always liked Coruscant's sunsets." He responds. Now he goes back in to their quarters. He sees her there, barely visible among the plays of light and shadow dancing on her white skin and brown robe. Their apartment's main room is empty but for two meditation seats facing the west window. Sunset were their favorite hours to mediate. Both had come from planets with big oceans in which the falling sun in to the water was almost ritualistic; beautiful and sad. He thinks then that is a strong connection between the two; the salty essence of ocean's breeze still clinging to them and joining them. A salty embrace.
　
She was far older than him, by both race's standards, but still every lesson learned, every duel held and every talk had were to him like swimming in the deep end of the abysses of his home world; exciting yet deadly. He sits by her now. Crosses his legs in meditative stance and concentrates. Yes he can feel it now. This is when he begins receiving visions. "The future is always in motion". She says. "But what about the past, master, can we see visions of the past?" "It is very wise of you to ask Oreth; from the past you can plan a better future. So it ell you now: Run, and do not look for the dark figure in the only place where you know it is not going to be!". She opens her eyes and turns to him. Her scream pierces his ears "Run!"
　
He ran. Didn't even had enough time to close his apartment door. Three blaster bolts impacted the wall where his head was a second ago. He did not turn to see how the grey metal of the frame twisted and charred. If he hadn't started running, he would be very much dead. Jedi could be a blur of speed when need arises, he decided not to at that moment, he needed a glance of his pursuers. The corridor he was in had burgundy carpeting, grey walls and metal door frames on left and right, and it curved slightly so it formed a massive cylinder of a tower complex. The lighting glimmers and dims at some places. His pace began to slow down, he looked around and saw doors left and right. A fight in such a place would be dangerous to the residents. He saw several emergency supply closets; he hid behind one and waited just where the hallway curved so much that allowed a bit of view on his door.
　
There were three men there. One dressed as local security forces. The other two were definitely senate guards on civilian outfit. One can never stop looking at those fellows for what they are no matter what were they wearing. Their neat, close crew cuts; the almost unconsciousness of their clothes' blue colouring, almost uniform like. They were talking. He needed to hear. Concentrated. For the Force, there are no distances, no secrets, nothing out of reach... "-inform the Jedi. His pupil is no longer here." One of them said as the Force gave him the words. "She is not the one who should be informed. Chairman Amedda and the council sent another. I think they sent a master; she stayed back at Coruscant after our meeting with her." The three men exchanged puzzled looks. The local security uniform shrugged and stepped inside. "A Rogue Jedi is out of our concern, but it is still my duy to check the apartment for any thing that may pose a danger to the peaceful Ord MAntell society." He said already from inside the apartment. "Peaceful?, Ord Mantell is as peaceful as Mos Eisley on a bad day".
　
He no longer required the Force to carry their words to him. He had heard enough. His master was not here; so who had they sent? Why had Alema not come? He ran. Found a window some ten meters after the slight curvature made his apartment disappear from view entirely. the window overlooked the arched entrance to the building, some forty stories below. He touched the glass, it cracked, slowly. IT shattered then, silently, little pieces of glass softly placed on the burgundy carpet of the hallway. He liked the colour. He'll miss it. He climbed he window. Night air stroked his face, his long tassels. Closed his eyes, extended his arms. Jumped. He went in to himself, calling upon the force to focus on his inner eye.
　
They are stepping inside the star ship they were supposed to meet. It is dawn. She is still alive and will be for the next ten to twelve hours. Now they are talking with the crew of the ship. The Mortician's Wife, it's called. Flyboys seemed proud of it. Pretty interior, black with white neon lighting; the passenger's lounge has the familiar round shape one always links to the YT's, regardless of their model. They sit down. One of the crew is talking now. "I am captain Aeric Montaigne," the tallest human with the full brown beard says with a slightly sardonic nod. The man points at another young human male next to him and continues "-this dumb nerf is Esteeard, and you cannot see her, but on the cockpit is Shadiss... from Dathomir." Captain Aeric seems expectant, as if either he or Daneela should react to the statement of the pilot's origin. They talk the deal, the mission. "We are to take you to Tansarii Point as part of our crew, we are unloading some... goods for the Car'das that the republic seemed worried about being stolen. We do not owe allegiance to either you or anyone, Jedi, so let's get that clear up front. The deal starts with the credits transferred in to my account last night and it ends with you leaving my ship later on, understood?". He nods then, silently, but Daneela seems restless. Focus is important here. Why is she anxious? He notices every crevice in her face, it is almost purely smooth polished light blue, but there, on the corner of her red lips, a twitch; her eyes dart to the opening platform. She is afraid of being followed.
　
"I should not tarry anymore" he thought as he landed from his forty stories jump. The force was with him, fuelling his power with unleashed emotion. There is emotion, and it is good. "I'll follow my master's old advice. Did not know what it meant then. Do not look for the dark figure where you know it is not, so there is no point in going to the landing platform again. But she was nervous even when we were discussing the short trip to Tansarii point Station, safely on board the ship”. He ran.
　
He moved through the streets from one shadow to another. He knew how to mask his presence both in the force and to the senses. Around a corner. Down that ledge, through a balcony and in to a lower level platform. Under that walkway, the air was starting to pick up. He did not felt the chill. His inner heat would suffice. As he moved, thundering his way through streets and alleyways he foresaw what must be done. He tried to focus and concentrate on his movements

Turan:: Chapter I:: At The temple Of Vril Ya. II

II

　

The trip had begun some days before; at sunset of some seemingly far away day now, some day detached from their existence, their reality. The riders thundered their way through communities, farms and hamlets, until they sped past the last of the prosperous and more civilized settlements; they sped like purple shadows in the night. They drew the looks and attention of some of the less than respectable folks of the towns and villages that were out in the night air. Some of those looks were more fearful than threatening, for it was known the iron hand grip by which the Turanian imperial forces imposed the light of the Imperium. It was not common place to behold three hooded riders wearing the imperial purple and gold crest, without even stopping for beer, women or lodging, which soldiers frequently took from the townsfolk without paying for them, of course.

　

Helmut frowned upon these imperial soldiers, most of the bulk of the army behaved like so; because they take for granted that the only payment soldiers should give to civilians is the protection and imposition of the imperial law and order to protect the last bastion of civilization against the coming tides of madness from the other kingdoms. Even so, imperial troops were respected and some might say even loved. No single thing is denied to the servants of the Emperor; for he is, by His own conviction, servant of His vassals as well. Helmut believed and admired the Emperor because of that conviction; he loved Him from the very core of his soul.

　

The riders had made their first stop at seeing the sun rise on what would be their second day of journeying under a grey shadowy sky. They brought their horses to a halt near an inn they spotted next to the main imperial road. At that time, Helmut was still reluctant to accept his two assigned companions enough to share a table with them; and so he went in to the inn most to his displeasure, and ready to skulk in a table by some darkened corner. The building had three stories; its facade was red painted wood; and it had an attached small stable in which Helmut could see a hallway connecting the two structures. The interior, of course, was a dump. It stank of beer and sweat, the floor was covered in sawdust and wood shaving, a cheap trick to save cleaning time from all sorts of liquids. The place was nothing like the inns in the city of Turania, with its polished marble floors and scented table decorations.

　

The time at the inn had gone without incidents. Aside from a couple of local drunkards and a small, curious old man that fired endless questions to the riders, there had been no problems. It had been a very good first step. They fed on Imperial coin for their own soldier pay would have barely bought them a pea soup and a mug of barley beer for the three of them. On their travel, Helmut had already observed with disgust how these traders and dealers in goods over priced their wares; the farther from they were from the capital, the more expensive things got in the lands where the fist of the empire did not have a good grip, where its light did not diffuse the dark. Helmut would have to report this, and would have to make sure to send an armed garrison escorting an imperial accountant to settle on these lands. Of course, he had to get back to the capital alive, first.

At the inn, his companions had ordered a steamed ham and the house wine; all accompanied by black olives, dry cheese and fresh baked bread. All of which they devoured like true orcs; one of them in particular seemed to have a fierce appetite: little Krista; she had such a hunger that made Helmut smile at seeing her small round cheeks bloat with every mouthful, and her tiny pointy ears bob up and down with each bite. Helmut guessed that moment was when he had started to like "the midget" as he had taken up to calling her; even though she made furious tantrums every now and then about her not being a midget human, but a gnome. A very irritable one at that, had thought Helmut, not only in one occasion.

　

Helmut had hopes that Krista Greenmoss deserved all the respect she seemed to inspire in the imperial soldiers; they all talked to her with the uttermost honourable tone Helmut had heard among even the grunts. Still, he had found it hard to believe. He had seen how even at the tower of the order of Ix, the initiates in the traditione streghana regarded her with admiration. But on the other hand, he still had a fresh memory of how a captain master of arms smiled with mockery and disdain in his eyes when her little figure of not much than one and a half meters tall was announced to be one of Helmut's companions.

　

He felt cheated then; how was he supposed to go in to blood, steel and darkness and comeback unscathed, bearing a light to shun all other lights in the world if that little rat was hanging from his cloak all the time? Could they not have picked at least someone with the height of an adult humanoid? as it turned out, the midget was fine; and during their first meal together at the inn, watching her gulp huge chunks of steamed ham, Helmut felt akin to her, though he some what knew that when saw more than meets the eye; she gave the impression of knowing more about this infernal search than she let out.

　

So, instead of brewing and steaming in mistrusts, Helmut had attempted to distract himself by killing a huge amount of flies, though not a portion of how many flooded the place; while at the same time eating large mouthfuls of ham, cheese and bread, drowning them with rice water. Not beer; he would never allow himself such indulgencies. He could not. The risk of losing his mind to the inheritance in his blood had always been too near, and it would be insanity to add intoxicating substances in to the mix. As he ate, an elderly human had come up to him. At first, Helmut dismissed the old man

　

The old man seemed very interested on why were the travellers visiting the old inn by the imperial road so far south from the capital, where the action was. He had heard the rumours of rebellion and encroaching of borders from the other seven kingdoms and nothing of interest was happening in the south; so why were they there? the old man kept asking. Helmut, patiently and without using the craft, had tried his best to impress on him that it was not a visit for any affair of the small nearby communities; he had told him time and again that they were merely refreshing and getting the horses rubbed down and rested. the old man was not satisfied. Amongst endless questions he had tried to convince Helmut to take his grandson as squire.

　

Only when he old man had gone too far and tugged at Helmut

　

At that moment, Helmut had seen the old man pass a bitter gulp, stare at him for just a second, turn and exit the establishment without looking back. The boy looked back however. Perhaps that should have been a warning sign; one that Helmut ignored. He smiled bitterly and tired, then he looked upon his companions, they had not been aware of any of it.

　

The imperial order of ix had been his only escape from the wilderness without home; an escape from roaming the wilds, sleeping on cold stone by fires that do not provide warmth. Though that particular day at the inn, his inheritance had allowed him to keep on swatting flies and stuffing his mouth with ham and cheese, without any other curious onlooker to pester him or the two girls he was with.

　

A little after sun up; they had made sure the horses were well rested, scrubbed, oiled and rubbed; once this was done; they left, without a sound but the gold coind tinlking in the stable boy’s questions, and even had attempted to dissuade him of pursuing his inquiries.“He’d serve you well m’lud, he’s a stubborn boy, but strong and able” he had said one too many times, so Helmut had sized the boy up. It was a small lad of about fifteen springs, that apparently had nothing interesting to look at except the interior of the old man’s robe, which he did not let go, through the entire time. Grandpa was very insisting on taking his lad to be instructed ads an imperial soldier, for apparently, the man had cleverly noticed the colours the companions bore, though they had tried to hide them beneath stained dusty coloured travelling robes.’s robe was when he finally abated; he had seen what was beneath the hood for it slipped down halfway to his neck and revealed his features, his fangs, the greyish tone of his skin, and his half-blood that was impossible to hide in plain sight. Those piercing small, black eyes that seemed to pierce with a sharp sparkle, that huge body mass, muscular neck and arms; it only spoke of one thing, a thing that walked always hand in hand with scimitar curved blades and horrors told village after village: orcs.“This is better”, thought the half-orc. It’s better to fear the big bad monster, to avoid him and only look at him indirectly. Helmut preferred loneliness, the hood over the eyes; to hide and be hidden, to forget his blood an ascendancy; the mix that had doomed him to struggle twice as hard as any other being. To be half human demanded that he’d be more than any human; and to be half orc demanded him to be better than any orc; but never really belong to either race, always shun by both heritages.’s hands. Only the gallop and breathing of their horses could be heard on the road when they sped southwards.

The Ark::: A RPG Session Continues: St George's Guardsmen arrive!

Xephos follows suit, staying by Grexas' side as he creeps silently backwards ( move silently 18 + 9 = 27)

The two men slowly back away from the south corner. The sniffing sound continues for a second or two. then, out of the hole on the ceiling, they did see the head of the thing in the tunnel start to come out of its lair.

At first, slowly, they could see a shape like the snout of a black wolf, about three or four times the size nature intended them to be, anyway. Then, an inch at a time, they could make out the fangs, each one the size of a baby's arm. Their attention was drawn after to the eyes; red glowing eyes like coals from Gehenna.

When the body came out, that is when the surprise came.

it had a shaggy, almost mammal like body, but it moved on eight legs. All of which were covered in some sort of exo skeleton, with spikes and thick black hair covering it.

The movement was very slow, and the thing bobbed up and down, as a spider does when frolicking on its web.

They both stopped breathing for fear the creature could heard them, and they huddled behind one of the cages looking in amazement at the horrible thing that slowly started to crawl through the ceiling, slowly, surveying its territory. The horrible sniffing sound could still be heard.

Suddenly, the thing in the ceiling stopped, and opened up its jaws to intone the most chilling howl. it sounded long, and dessperate.

Both Grexas ans Xephos could see the creature also wore a metal collar with blinking lights in it; and they wondered how much time they had before the thing came down on them, raining certain death from above.

Grexas looks to the still closed door to his left. He begins to make his way over there rolled 14+2=16 move silently. Once he arrives at the door he examines it, hoping it is like the door they had just come through. rolled 19 search check

Xephos follows Grexas at a distance, watching his back (move silently 18 + 9 = 27), katana drawn and pistol in hand, he looks for any other escapes (spot roll 17 + 2 = 19)

 

 

The two mutants slowly make their way to the door in the northwest corner, always keeping an eye on the wolf monstruosity on the ceiling; both of them can see the thing recoilt its numerous powerful legs as the howling it did starts to wane. Then it just sits still.
Grexas reaches the door and starts searching it with haste. He discovers that the round handle in the middle of it is loose and actually does not open the door at all, a closer look shows wiring and an electronic lock. The lock is wired to both a numeric keypad with a little screen on it, and to several bars of whitish soft bricks of some plastic material.
Xephos stops a few paces from the door and surveys the room once more. The only other exits he can spot are either the door from which they came in, and the tunnel in the southern wall, near to the ceiling, from which the wolf-spider crawled out of. A second look to the door they came in reveals several beams of white searchlights. It appears that the St. George's guards finally found the way the fugitives escaped, and are giving pursuit!!

Xephos slowly drops to the floor and lies on his belly "Make no sudden moves, be silent and dont attract attention, we have 2 problems, and they could get rid of eachother" Xephos is virtually invisible with his dark leather wings around him (hide roll 17 + 4 = 21) (move silently roll 19 + 9 = 28)

Grexas creeps over to where Xephos is hiding and lays down next to him. "You better hope they get here before that thing finds us." He whispers. He pulls out a grenade just in case, before watching the approaching lights. rolled 5+2=7 hide, and 15+2=17 move silently.

As Grexas prepares a grenade , the metal of the device both makes a soft clanking sound and reflects a bit of light from the searchlights that ar now coming in to the room.
The wolf on the ceiling lets out a wild howl of rage and crawls its way to where it thinks it saw a tiny spot of white light.
At the easternmost door, four guards step in to the room at once, two of them standing up, swinging a very large shotgun each, with searchlights attached to its nozzle; the other two come in low, kneeling and searching the room with what appears to be some sort of assault rifles that the heroes have never seen before.
One of the guards shouts out "You there, in the corner by the door, step out with your arms up!". He then pumps his shotgun.
On the ceiling, the creature stars crawling faster until it seems like a natural wolf running through the trees in four, not eight legs. One of the guards raises his rifle and screams out "Jeeez... almightyyyy, what in the world is that thing!" then prepares to fire at it. another guard follows suit.
The two gurds with the strange rifles, however, continue to aim its searchlights at Grexas. "Step outside you there, stop your creature and bring out the rest of your friends or we will kill only you and fin the rest of them anyway!"
On the ceiling, the wolf is about 20 ft from the guards in front of them and closing. By the door, Grexas and Xephos, who apparently has not been noticed, are about 50 ft from the guards.
A Strange almost howling like sound can be heard starting to go off on the other side of the iron door by Grexas.

Grexas sighs and stands up, walking from behind the cages hands above his head. "Alright you caught me. But that thing isn't mine, sooooo... you should probly kill that before it kills us all." He then looks up towards the creature and pulls the pin on the grenade, being sure to hold the handle down."If you won't do something I will, and you all probly wouldnt like it." He smiles holding the grenade above his head. rolled 17+1=18 diplomacy The guards look at Grexas a moment before one shouts. "Then get on the ground and don't move. Men kill that thing." The guards then take aim at the beast.

The wolven creature pounces on one of the guards before the men can move to follow his superior's orders.
The guards falls down, prone and helpless under the sheer weight of the creature's massive body.
The spider wolf then opens up its massive jaws and they open dividing in four parts, all bearing huge fangs. The jaws close on the guards head while at the same time, the two frontal claws of the beas rends the flesh under the guards' electronic looking armor.
Fr4om the tail of the wolf, a small gash in his flesh opens up, revealing a greenish tissue of entrails; suddenly, a weblike substance spits out of the gash, creating a mess of revolting spiderwebs hanging from the ceiling and covering all the way to the floor behind the creature in a radius of around 15 ft.
The screams of the guard start to die out as his blood pours to the ground; The creature's clawed legs make sploshing sounds as it moves its body while rending the dying guard.
The remaining men prepare to fire.
The captain fires its shotgun and misses; its pellets bouncing harmlessly off the web that the spider created. The captain turns his head a bit, seemingly confused that his gun did not penetrate the thick web-like substance either. He then screams to his men "Blast it!!"
The two kneeling guards raise their guns and blast some sort of energy bolts at the wolf; one of them impacts the creature on its frontal shoulder, creating a black scorch mark that broke some of its exoskeleton; the other shot misses the creature and hits the web substance, that catches a small flame and dissolves a small area of it.

 

All four guards then take a step back.

 

The captain, gathering his inner strenght, launches at the creature's claws in an attempt to liberate his man. He manages to remove one leg from the body of the guard, then; with some strenght left, the dying man screams out and removes the other claw from his stomach, then crawls back to his friends.
the wolf creature screams in pain and frustration, and jumps back to the wall of web it created, and starts moving so rapidly in the webs that the guards seem to have lost sight of it.
Grexas thought for a moment that the wolf jumped over the guards and disappear through the door leading to the upper levels.
Xephos could barely see the shape of the wolf among the webs, moving near the ceiling, preparing another attack.

Xephos feels his mind blur, and a haze comes over him, his eyes glaze over and he stands, taking in the area around him, not seeing with his eyes but with another sense, one he is familiar with. "Do not bother shooting me. Your human weapons are futile against me" Xephos says in a cold and sorrowful tone (Roll diplomacy 20 - 1 = 19) "We must... cooperate, distract the beast and i will deal with it personally" The guards do not raise their guns at Xephos, but survey the ceiling "oh, he is up there, i can sense it" (roll spot 18 + 2 = 20)
"Now, distract the beast and Decorus Calamitus and i shall deal with it personally" (Roll jump 16 + 8 = 24). Xephos jumps and becomes caught in the webs, he roars and he suddenly snaps into another state, still in the trance but now he feels stronger, more confident. His katana slices through the air (Roll 19 + 8 = 27) and hits one of its jaws, but keeps going, severing three of its legs with a sickening sucking noise as they fall off (Roll damage 5 + 6 + 4 = 15 x2 = 30) and the beast falls to the ground, moaning in pain and readying itself for a final attack. "Leave him" Xephos says calmly "He is mine." the guards point their weapons at the beast, but do not fire yet.

Grexas, moves closer to the guardwhile they're distracted by the spider and Xephos. He's a little upset Xephos took off on him, but it doesn't matter now.Grexas stops roughly 25ft from the cluster of guards. He pulls back and chucks the grenade, rolled 15+3=18 missle.The grenade lands true to it's target, rolling to a stop in the center of the guards.The grenade explodes tearing through the armor and flesh, killing the wounded man, and injuring the two with blaster rifles The officer rolls clear of the blast. One of the guards with the blaster takes aim at Grexas, as does the Officer. The light from the officers shotgun burns Grexas' eyes, he drops to the ground covering his eyes and grasing for his goggles.

The grenade explodes with a loud blast. Sharp fragments of steel bury themselves in the guards' armors and skins. The wounded man that the officer just rescued from the claws of the wolf spider gets a full blast of shards on his face, and his skin is torn to pieces, showing muscle and bone beneath.
The officer manages to jump and roll out of the main blast zone, the only damage done is to his armour and a few scratches on his skin. He rolls in to the chamber, finishing his movement next to the wolven monster. He takes a jump to the side, and aims the shotgun directly at the man that threw the grenade, turning its searchlight on him.
The other two guards are hit by the full blast, but their armour, even though it gets torn to pieces, manages to shield them off the blast enough to avoid being murdered by it. Then these guards look at their downed friend and raise their blaster rifles, one aiming at Grexas, and the Other aiming at Xephos, who is still on the ceiling, fighting to get free of the tangled webs.
The officer shouts out: "Bloody lay down face to the ground or we'll blast you sonnies. you are under arrest and only making it worse on yourselves. One more movement from you and its off to the mortician with you! Your beast is already dead anyway and you got no way out! and you up there, let that blasted sword fall or I'll have me boyo here burn those pretty wings in to a crisp... be like fried chicken!!"
As he finishes his threats; the wolf jumps up to Xephos, trapped in its web, hoping to rend that hideous face in to pieces. The wolf has a look in its eyes that seem to understand that Xephos cannot move his arms to defend himself and will make a feast of him. He gets close by crawling freely on its web, then unleashes a flurry of claw attacks and bites with its remaining jaws that rend through Xephos face (22 attack) inflicting terrible gashing damage (9 damage)
The guards then fire a burst of blaster bolts, at both Grexas and Xephos.
Both blaster shots miss, and Xephos can see the web catching on fire rith where his shoulder is, the flames look like they might do some harm. Xephos starts to squirm and turn trying to get free before being either eaten to death, shot to death or burned to death.
The blaster bolt aimed at Grexas impacts him on the shoulder, (18 attack) doing some damage and laving a black scorch mark on his skin (4 damage)
The officer fires his shotgun at the animal slahsing at Xephos "We'll have none of that you fiend" he says as his shots pierce the body of the spider thing, "that boy is for the law", he finishes as the body of the wolf falls to the ground.
Then the officer pumps a fresh round in his shotgun and repeats his warning, "c'mon boys, you don't want this anymore than I do. We are lawmen, and not to be feared or fought against, we keep civilization to a level that you boys appear to want to torn down. So step down, lay on the ground face down and no harm will come to ya, I'll promise you that".