Greywulf’s Lair

The dark eyes flickered underneath the cowl, a flash of red like a slash of blood across the shadowy folds. Across the table the Dwarven Cleric reflexively touched his axe, a deep seated racial animosity coming to the surface. The bugbear’s lips twitched into a sharp-toothed grin.

“Heard you need a fighter.”

Raider, corsair, mercenary, pirate and reaver. These are a few titles given to Noorda, and some - all - are entirely accurate. He is a wanderer without a home, a tribesman without a tribe, and an outsider wherever he stays for a night. But he’s also utterly honourable to people who treat him likewise - friend and foe alike. Treat him poorly though, and………..

Dirty little secret: Noorda is an Exile, and any return to the Blackened Wastes would be a death sentence. It’s a small price to pay for stopping the rise of his brother-kin, the Bloodied Mage of the Wastes.

Notes: I like Bugbears.

Noorda of the Blackened Wastes
Good Male Bugbear Fighter / Rogue -1

STR 18, CON 12, DEX 16, INT 11, WIS 10, CHA 13
HP 27, surges 6 x 10/day, Speed 6, Low-light vision
AC 17 (Hide + Shield), Fort 16, Ref 14, Will 11, Init +3

Daggers (x2): +8 vs AC d4+4, range 5/10, usable off-hand; Thrown: +7 vs AC, 1d4+3
Short sword: +8 vs AC, 1d6+4, Light blade, Usable Off-hand
Cleave/at-will +8 vs AC, Sure Strike/at-will +10 vs AC
Predatory Eye/enc +1d6, Sneak Attack/enc +2d6, Steel Serpent Strike +8 vs AC
Brute Strike/day +8 vs AC

Athletics +8, Intimidate +8, Stealth +4, Streetwise +6, Thievery +7
Common, Goblin
Multiclass Rogue, Combat Challenge, Combat Superiority, One-handed style

So here’s a quick question for all the 4e rules lawyers out there.

I’m generating a 1st level Bugbear Fighter/Rogue for a campaign. This gives him Sneak Attack once per encounter, and Predatory Eye too, once per encounter. Any by-the-rules reason why he can’t use them both at the same time in a single round, giving him +3d6 against a single foe so long as he’s got combat advantage and is wielding a light blade.

How about if he did that using his daily Brute Strike power, meaning he’d do 3d6+3d6 (+STR) damage. Ouch.

I’ve been ruling that it’s fine because powers such as Sneak Attack add dice of damage provided the conditions are met, and if a player wants to burn a load of per Encounter or Daily Powers on a single strike, it’s cool by me.

Now though, it’s being called into question.

Help appreciated!

“Why?”

DAZ Studio, tonality adjusted in Photoshop. Click to enlarge.

I was going to put a warning above this image to alert folks that it contained an image of a nude angel.

But then, I realized that’s pretty much the point.

We don’t put “Warning: Contains image of bombed out buildings”, or “Warning: Contains pictures of guns” on images, yet those things (the contents, not the images themselves) are what can change and devastate lives in ways that the nude human form cannot. After all, when we’re nude, we are at our most defenceless.

Why is it we’re desensitized to the weapons and results of violence of war, but feel the need to warn about bare skin?

I could have put clothes on the angel, but then angels are supposed to lack Original Sin. They never tasted the apple, discovered all about modesty and shame, and therefore are the last folks to use or even see the need for clothing. An angel is, by definition, sinless, and therefore has nothing to feel ashamed about. An angel doesn’t need clothes and more than it needs to eat or sleep.

I’ve never understood how nudity (as opposed to nakedness) can in some way be something we ought to warn about. Any image can be either demeaning, or respectful, of the subject. Sure, there’s far too many demeaning naked images of women out there on the Internet.

Can’t we put up respectful, strong images of nudity for a change?

Just askin’.

DAZ Studio, no postwork. Best viewed large.

The world needs more mermaid pics, don’t you think?

They’re cool, but they know they’re cool.

DAZ Studio, no postwork.

Found via Boing Boing: Swedish Dance Bands from the 70’s.

DAZ Studio, no postwork. Click to enlarge.

It is me, or has she got incredibly large hands?

(Warning: contains Christian mythology. If this offends you, look away now.)

The priest dangled upside down, 200 feet above the sidewalk. His legs were bound by a rope which hung over a pulley and tied to an iron ring set in the roof of the Corpus Christi building. Beside it knelt a gaunt, well dressed figure.

“Have you seen Heaven, priest?”, the figure asked, his tone conversational as the priest whimpered and pleaded. “I have. I was a good man, father. A good man. I was there, right there at the gates, and let me tell you, everything you think Heaven is, the real thing’s  ten thousand times better. And He brought be back, pulled me away just as St Peter signed my name in The Book. Brought me back to life He did, and that’s a one way trip. I can’t die, father. Not then, not now, not ever.”

The priest began to pray, lost in his own terror.

“Can you imagine it? To see Heaven, then know you’re never going to reach it? Enough to drive a person insane, it is………….”

He slowly untied the rope.

“Oh, and when you see your Lord, tell him Lazarus says hello.”

Lazarus, raised from the dead by Jesus and fated never to feel the touch of death again. Give Claire Bennet’s healing ability to the Joker and add in a dash of religious hatred and this is what you get. Lazarus is a psychotic killer with a beef against the God who has cursed him with immortality. He’s obsessed with sending people to the Heaven he’s been denied, but not interested in the folks who’re going to Hell as he figures that they’ll get where they’re going without his help. When nuns, priest and the downright good end their days in bizarre and unexplained ways, there’s a likelihood that Lazarus is behind it all.

Dirty little secret: God still has a reason and purpose for Lazarus. What it is though, I’m not telling.

DAZ Studio, no postwork. Click to enlarge

Notes: Here’s my current favourite villain in the grim’n'gritty Street-level Freedom City campaign. He’s built to PL 10 to stand against the PL 8 heroes. Lazarus has no real superpowers beyond near-instant regeneration, several lifetime’s worth of experience, a psychotic attitude and indecent levels of Wealth. But then, that’s probably enough to keep the players busy for a while yet

Lazarus travels light; he’s equipped with just a walking cane and a cellphone, and rents or buys what he needs as he travels, rarely staying long enough in a single place to set down roots. He has no Minions, but a vast network of Contacts through his long-term web of business ventures, including several Senators and Judges. With Wealth 28 he has access to yachts, private helicopters and apartments as required without feeling the financial pinch. Nice, but in a bad, bad way.

Lazarus, PL 10, 150pp

STR 12, DEX 13, CON 18, INT 22, WIS 18, CHA 20
Tough +4, Fort +12, Ref +8, Will +12
Attack +8, Defense +8, Init +1

Bluff +9, Disguise +7, Drive +3, Gather Info +9, KS:Behavioural Sciences +8, KS:Business +10, KS:Civics +8, KS:History +14, KS:Theology +14, Languages (English, Aramaic, several others)
Benefit 5 (Wealth 28), Connected, Contacts, Eidetic Memory, Fearless, Leadership, Master Plan, Taunt, Well-Informed

Immunity 10 (Aging, Life Support)
Regeneration 33 (Resurrection 7 (10 rounds), Recovery:all (1 round without rest), Limited 1:Not vs. Holy Relics)

Cellphone, Walking Cane (+8 DC 18)

DAZ Studio, no postwork. Click to enlarge.

Oh for God’s sake, Conan. Put on some clothes!

Best viewed large

Initial setup in DAZ Studio. Water and sky in Bryce. Composited in Photoshop. Not perfect, but I’m happy. Total time to create: about an hour.

Ain’t technology grand?