Dragons @ MindSay 
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Aurora stood in line with the dozen or so other mages. All but one other was men. Judging by their gear only two of them were truly battle mages. The others were wizards getting by on their magic. Not to worry though, Aurora was sure she could best them in destructive power.
They had all answered a request for house Celesnia, apparently it was a big to do to work for them. They pay was doubtlessly good and the house had a set of artifacts known as the Jani armaments that dated back to the era that the Jani ruled Calimshan, Aurora wondered if she could negotiate for an opportunity to study them.
The house guard had set up a series of trials to decide which one would be granted the “privilage” to work for House Celesnia. The tests were simple enough. The first a test to see how many opponents a mage could strike at once with a single spell. Aurora tied with the two other battle mages, they all had access to the third tier of magic. The second test was a measure of one’s destructive force, the two other battle mages had lost out to the shear destructive force of her lightning. The last test was a gambit to test response time with spells. One of the other battle mages out did her by a single opponent.
Aurora cursed her poor luck and hoped that as they were tied she would be chosen over the other. The battle master dismissed all the other magi and looked over both of them. “Hmmmmm, you’ve both proven well, let me ask you this, if you’re selected, what will you ask of House Celesnia?”
Aurora realized the nature, the lowest bidder would get the job, so the one who spoke first would likely lose as the second would simply offer a lower price. The other battle mage spoke first, “I expect only a fair wage of fifty gold pieces a month, one fitting of a battle mage in the employment of the noble house.”
Aurora fumed that meant she would be paid less then a normal battle mage if she got the job….. but perhaps she could work that to her advantage, “I only expect ten gold pieces a month, so long a room and board for down time is provided and I’m given the opportunity to study at least one artifact of the Jani armaments per month of service.”
The old battle master smiled at Aurora, “You’ll do lass, your dismissed sir.” Aurora smiled at the proclamation.
Zeal was so thrown off by the news that the stigmataist would be joining him he decided he should wait till tomorrow to collect the battle mage, and went to inform Deslynn and Megrom of this news.
He found Deslynn in the library with Kalianna; they were discussing some book or another. Zeal wondered how the two women could chat at one another all day and not tire of it. Both looked to Zeal and smiled, it was unusual for him to return mid day. Zeal looked at Kalianna and smiled, “Kali could you do me a favor and go find Kencha and ask him to make some of those nice Sheppard’s pies and those ration packs he made last time we went on a trip, a few days worth if he can.” Kalianna nodded and bounded off, taking the silent request to speak with Deslynn alone.
Deslynn smiled broadly, “We finally going some where again?” Zeal nodded, realizing he was excited at the prospect too, “I have a lead on one of the missing fathers.” Deslynn tilted her head slightly, “the who?” Zeal sighed, Deslynn’s memory was good but she seemed to forget “boring” things quickly, “When Victor looted the monastery, two of the father’s went missing remember? One or both of them seems to be alive!”
Deslynn hopped to her feet, “A rescue mission!” Zeal nearly snickered at the way Deslynn seemed to be breaking out of her elegant manners that the dresses seemed to give her, “Yes, My order is granting us help this time and house Celesnia is also hiring a war mage to assist us. We need to pay Bell a visit, he’s go the info we need. We will go tomorrow after we collect our new… allies.”
Deslynn giggled remembering her last visit to the keep of secrets, “It’s about time! Wine and plays and the city are fun but I miss the road! I’ll get my gear together. You can fill me in on the rest at dinner.” Deslynn bounded from the room heading for her quarters in Megrom’s tower to collect her gear and make ready for the departure the next day.
Megrom nodded to the news, he knew it was only a matter of time till they were away on another mission, “I trust in you two, you’ll be back with more scars and stories in no time. What of these comrades that house Celesnia and your order are giving you?” Zeal swallowed the chunk of lamb he had been eating, “Well, all I know about the battle mage is that house Celesnia is using a geas contract to bind him to us. What ever that means…”
Megrom smiled over his wine glass, “It’s a magical contract. It’s like a normal contract save if the signer violates it then there is some form of repercussions. This is stated in the contract. You could be struck blind, paralyzed, suffer un imaginable pain, anything really.”
Zeal frowned he didn’t like the sounds of that, it seemed to rob free will, “That’s rather harsh isn’t it? Isn’t there exceptions? Or ways to break it?” Megrom nodded, “Yes, there is ways to dispel them but they are hard. As for harsh, just like any deal, only it’s more certain then most, it keeps all parties involved true to their word.”
Zeal shrugged, that seemed true enough, and “The other is a dwarven stigmataist. He’s spent most of his life in the temple. Not sure much more beyond that.” Kalianna, who had listened to the conversation silently, voiced a question, “What’s a stigmataist?”
Megrom answered, “A stigmataist is a person blessed by Ilmater with the power to take other’s sickness and wounds onto themselves. There are certain thing magic can’t heal that they can. They’ve been known as pain bearers, sickness drinkers, and scar collectors. It’s a talent that’s exceedingly rare as well.”
Deslynn mused as she considered it, “Only a truly selfless person could wield such a power. Why can’t this magic be taught?” Zeal preened in pride, “Because it’s not true magic. It’s blessings from the weeping lord. Like a paladin’s abilities, stigmataists are born not made.” Deslynn imagined some frail tortured body dwarf hobbling along with them, she wondered if he would be of any use.
The conversation turned to the coming trip and was they though they would be going and what they were taking. Megrom could tell by the sparkle in his wife’s eye she was excited to be off again, he would miss her but she would return to him.
the next chapter is here
Anyways, i ended up walking back home and passed through a residential zone, and there were a couple young girls out side, one was playing with a dog, the other sat at a lil table selling lemonade. It was so cute i couldn't help buying a cup. $0.25 a cup, the cup was about 6oz. and it was decently prepared. so yeah, i did my good deed for the day.
So, i was going through a bitz bin for warhammer, and found an orc skull that reminded me of an illithid's head. so i was thinking of making the head into a full model of an illithid, and using that for any future Dungeons & Dragons game that i play an illithid in. mind you, it's unlikely it'd ever be played. So i was looking at the Monster Manual for the entry, though at a +7 level adjustment, i know i'd never play an actual Illithid. sooo... i was looking around other places, ie Complete Psionic, and Expanded Psionic Handbooks and Unearthed Arcana. I found some cool feats in the Complete Psiconic; illithid heritage, illithid grapple (which stacks, and gives you tentacles from your mouth untill you take the feat 4 times and get all 4. At which point, your jaw shifts to look like an Illithid's jaw) and illithid extraction (which allows you to do Intelligence drain damage to an opponent). using flaws, human race, Psionic Warrior, Human Paragon, and fighter classes, i can get the full out Tentacles, and be able to take the Illithid Hunter Prestige Class. That class is focused on hating and killing mind flayers. so this character is part illithid, and hates himself. it's a very angsty theoretical build. it's quite amusing.
I won't say we did excellent at our first TKD tourny but we did really well for being one of the bigger Regional Tournies in our area!
Hell there were ppl all the way from FL that showed up outside of Omaha to the Tourny! It doesn't suprise any of us that we had ppl down from MN, ND, SD, IA or even up from MO, KS, and AK. But it did shock a lot of folks that we had folks from FL, CA, OR, GA, and a couple from CO! Why the FL one shocked us over the West coasters and the GA folks, is because the person was a lil 7 year old 1st Degree Black Belt! I even talked to his mom (sittin next to each other during the Adult and Tiny Tot's BB competitions before opening ceromonines!). This lil boy's mom flys him all over the states for TKD tournies! This weekend they were of course in NE, last weekend AJ (my assistant instructor) saw him in St. Paul, MN and the weekend before they were in NE again at a smaller state Trouny! Must be nice to be 7 years old and being flown all over creation by parents with money!:P I don't begrudge them doing that but I'll be dayumed I fly anywhere for a tourny unless my kids eventually make it to one of the big ones out in Las Vegas. Even the World Championship ones we won't ever fly too! That is only down in Little Rock!
Anyway, AJ is waiting on BB point standings to be released Monday morning to see if he made it to the World Champinship (Only those in Leadership Status can collect points and go on to World Championship or get any State Championship or REgional Champsionship). Mr. G (his first tourny also) placed in the BB also with forms and got a Victory Medal (basically 4th place -they only place 1-3) on his weapons.
The kids and I weren't up till after opening ceromonies. Which by the way was kick ass KEWL! Master K not only owns the Bellevue NE school (outside of Omaha) but owns 3 other schools in NE also, so they of course always host regionals and he went out of his way this year because they got some High Ranking Masters to help judge this year. A 1979 Triple Crown NE State Championship and World Champioinship Woman (can't remember her name) who is also on the ATA Board of Directors was there, along with the Current 7th to 9th degree Master who is currently the Triple Crown Holder for World Champioinships and one of the retired World Championship Head dudes that helped our Founding TKD Org and TKD Style Master Lee with some of the forms was there. They were all there to help judge! Not to mention a few other high ranking TKD folks who were helping to judge. Then for opening ceromonies after all the chitter that irritates ppl, they had a Korean group come in and did a whole Korean Dragon show with 4 dragons. It was AWESOME!
I managed to watch all of DeLaney's section and she did EXCELLENT for her first tourny! A Victory Medal (again 4th place) for forms and a 1st placing in Weapons out of 5 girls. She was the only ranking in her group. All the rest were higher ranking and a total of 8 girls ages 8-10. Sparring will come as we do more torunies. I didn't get to watch Coltin's because my section was called up and gettin started at the same time Coltin's was. So i relied on DeLaney to take pictures for me. Coltin also did EXCELLENT! He got a Victory Medal for 4th place in forms and got 3rd in Weapons out of 4 or 5 boys. There were three other boys the same ranking as he was and a total of 15 boys ages 8-10 that he had to compete against. Alas though Coltin wasn't able to spar. The ignorance of a Mamma and not knowing that lil boys had to have a cup. First who would have thought at that age group they require a cup. They have really nothing there:D So the judge (4th degree Dan) helped calm him down by letting him be the offical score keeper (usually reserved for BBs) and told him not to get mad at me cause us Mamma's don't always think of those things and just to have Daddy take him cup shopping before our next tourny!
There was about 10 of us women age grouped from 17-39 because there was only 3 girl for the 17-20 age group and the rest of us were the 30-39 age group. So instead of putting those 3 women off by themselves they just lumped them with us. Only two women did weapons (me and a higher ranking woman) and of course there was only 1 other woman at my rank and the rest of the women were either two ranks ahead of us or clear up to the rank below black belt. I did pretty good if I must say so! I got a Victory Medal (4th place) for forms, and the other Blue Belt Rank lady that didn't do weapons and the other Camo Rank (my rank) also got the Victory Medal, so in other words we tied for 4th place and since they only count 1-3 we didn't have to do what is called a Form off:P:D The other blue rank and I were the only ones that did Weapons. She got first and I got second. I didn't get to watch her form beause I was running over to Coltin's matt but EVERYONE said I got jipped out of 1st because I may have had my chucks do something funky twice, she dropper her weapon twice. The other Camo belt ranking goes to the same Academy as the Blue ranking women who took first and said she is either sleeping with the instructor or doing some massive kiss ass because they both started at teh same time and the Camo belt lady is right were she needs to be at and the other lady is two rankings higher then her now. Plus the 2nd Dan judge (Dan is the degree of black belt) is one of their Academies sister school instructors and Camo woman and the other ladies think that is why the lady who got first in weapons got it. I didn't see her weapons form and I dont' care. I placed!:D Again I did good in sparring didn't place but it was our first tourny and the judge even said once I get some things down I am going to be a force to be reckoned with because I don't just do kicks or just punches I do a lot of combos!
They were doing closing ceromonies by the time Coltin and I were done and getting changed and we were getting complements left and right on how well we all three did! The Triple Crown Lady went up to DeLaney and told her she was really impressed with her form and gave her a few tips to clean it up before testing and our in school tourny. Coltin's judge and the Men's Triple Crown Current Champion both told him he did great and the guy took Coltin up to another tourny matt and showed him what he could do to improve both his form and his weapons! I had the head guy that was retired and on board of directors show me a couple of arm and hand positions to help my sparring and complement all three of us and said that he is hoping to see us at some more tournies and asked why we weren't leadership yet. That he was watching all 3 of us all day long because he sat near us, and was really impressed with not only how well we did but how the kids and I were NOT shy and talked to EVERYONE and even helped out others in our postion of being first tourny. And he asked Coltin's judge if she would please find out why we weren't leadership. Coltin's judge is testing at World Championship with our insturctor for their 5th Dan BB and when I explained that I had leadership i just haven't taken it yet cause my kids didn't make it to open try outs and now have a invit try out after our in school tourny, the Host Master popped in and told Coltin's Judge (guess she is going to be at our tourny helping) to tell our instructor to get us in Leadership ASAP so we can start earing points!
Over all we did REALLY good, and I am proud of my kids. They went in to have fun and that is what they did! Sure they placed in weapons but that wasn't the goal. The goal was to get some experenice in and I delibreatly choose a BIG tourny to do it so they would get over the nervousness and here they both placed! We all are on a Marital Arts high today! It was late by the time we got out of Bellevue into Omaha and I decieded NOT to stop anywhere for food and we picked up Micky D's in IA before crossing BACK into NE on our way home, so we are going to the Olive Garden today for a celebration lunch!
I'll post pictures later (sorry none of me cause I was the only parent there to manage my two!) and wish us luck on preparing for our next rank testing this coming Saturday!
As it was for many gamers, D&D was my very first introduction to the world of Role-Playing Games. In my case, I stumbled upon it quite by accident. I’d like to think that I would’ve discovered it, eventually, but who knows?
And when I think of just how much enjoyment RPGs have brought me over the years… from my D&D games in college to the GURPS sessions in later years, and even a return to D&D recently… not to mention my obsession with online RPG, City of Heroes… well, I can’t help but hold Mr. Gygax in high regard.
Hearing of his passing, today, was a shock. No, I didn’t think of him often, nor had I ever met the guy. But geez… his contribution to the gaming world certainly had a profound effect on me. My first published novel, in fact, was based directly on my D&D sessions in the year or two of playing the game.
Discovering D&D was nothing short of amazing for me. As a kid, I loved games. Board games, card games, etc. Video games, too, but back then, that meant going to an arcade for most of us. And then… a casual friend introduced me to D&D. And everything was different. Role-playing games are the most creative games out there, and really appealed to me. D&D became an obsession, almost. Certainly, a lot of our free time was spent playing it. Or talking about it. Or reading about it.
My poor dad… he had no clue. He didn’t understand this game. All he saw were a bunch of teenagers sitting around his dining room table, talking, laughing, eating pizza, and rolling a bunch of dice. But nothing really seemed to be happening. “How do you win?” he’d ask me. “Well, you don’t, exactly,” I’d say. “It’s kinda like life. You just play it and try to make the best of it.”
Thanks, Gary, for adding so much richness to my life, and for helping me make the best of it, in some small way.
First, there was my obsession with medieval fantasy when I was very, VERY young. Even at the tender age of about 6 to 12 I never really dove fully into the world of Ren Fests and hardcore Dungeons and Dragons sessions, but I probably would have if the means had been available to me. I dabbled in D&D but most gaming sessions I had were very hap-hazard and broke down into me and my friends making fun of what we were doing. I pretty much stopped playing altogether by the time I was 13. I tried very hard to get into fantasy novels, but they always seemed so unoriginal. I figured I could just watch Krull and get the same effect, except I didn't really like that movie either. Overall this was probably the weakest of my nerdy obsessions, but next is one that kept with me for years.
For me, video games were basically three things: An escape, a diversion and a gateway into the world of technology. I loved to just play video games for hours on end, not sensing the time going by or being bothered by anything. I never felt that crazy feeling of actually being the hero; I was always fully cognizant of the fact that I was merely controlling a collection of pixels that looked vaguely like a soldier, but I liked the concentration I had to pour into it and it was, for lack of a better word, fun. I was at my worst when I was an early teenager, playing anything and everything. I would literally master things that I liked, getting to know the computers basic patterns and ripping apart any real players who wanted to face me. The problem is I learned a fundamental fact about myself during this time: I don't like losing, but I hate winning.
Losing means I wasn't good enough. Fine. But Winning means that I am the direct cause of someone else's pain, even if it is in a very minute way. Because of this paradox I now abhor competition and avoid it unless it is absolutely necessary. I still can play games like chess or tennis with friends because the competition is slow or non-existent, respectively (we never keep score in tennis). But whenever a dispute occurs over something like who goes first for something and rock-paper-scissors is introduced as a decider, I just say "nah, you can go first". Many people hate when I do this, but whatever, they should be happy. They get to go first, after all.
The cool thing about video games would be the divide. When I was about 18 years old, hyper competitive (and terminally geeky) online competitions were becoming more sophisticated and more popular. I tried to get into thee as well, but first person shooters never really impressed me much and the communities had no teamwork and were rarely based on having fun. Rather, most just played to get better, rack up numbers and knock off some n00bs while laughing to themselves. But as I grew older and the competitive edge ebbed out of me, a new genre of game was becoming more and more popular. Games with no specific goal, or no goal at all. Just little digital worlds that you could explore when you felt like it. Games like Sim-City caught my interest because of how open ended they were... not only could you play forever but you controlled almost all aspects of the game itself! As time went on more and more of these kinds of games came out culminating in the Massive Muli-player Role Playing Games that are so popular today. I bought Ultima online when it came out and played it for probably two years before canceling my account. I probably would still have that account too if it wern't for how laggy that game is. I just liked running around and exploring. Because of the "goal-free" genre I am still playing video games to this very day, although I admit that I play far less now then I ever did before.
I still play fighting or shooting games every now and then, but for the most part I use video games as a way to relax, so when I hear about games like Ninja Gaiden Black being so hard, I just think "That's nice" and return to petting my Nintendog. This is were I should mention that I can't be a video game nerd because of my lack of competitive spirit. See, With Ninja Gaiden I think, "Thats nice", but a true video game nerd will say something like "If u tink this gam is *too hard* then you are teh BIGGEST PUSSY! THIS GAME R0xxxx!!!!11!! Dnt let ANyone tell u that thsi game ist oo hard b-cuz they r jus STUPDI AND DONT NOW A GOO DGAME! FCK U N000bZZZz!!111" I find it hard to defend something that I didn't create myself so adamantly. I like the things I like, of course, but I'm not going to go out of my way to protect them. They don't define me... hell, if anything I define them. Companies that make goods that nerds consume (no, not Cheetos) have plenty of money and PR to take care of themselves. It is decidedly un-nerdy to not defend things you are a fan of, so I guess I'm safe there too.
I'll write up part two pretty soon. I didn't want to post it right away because it deals with the big "A", and a lot of it has to do with how creepy otaku (or "figure moe zoku" as I now prefer to call them) really are.
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