Pathfinder: OC IV

Finn is a bastard, genealogically speaking - half human and half elf. He is an avid adventurer, a risk-taker and can be charming, at least half of the time. He is also in league with the nihilistic daemons of Abaddon, and doesn't care about anyone but himself, (and his unholy masters, of course).

Finn used to be a straightforward adventurer, until he was contacted by the daemons and offered a deal; daemons do not do this often, but when they do, the results are often fatal. Finn, in particular, hates the idea of dying and growing old, (regardless of the order), and so he made a deal with the daemons: he will serve them, and in return, the daemons will drive him to immortality.

...Daemons, of course, are very unreliable, yet in Finn's case they did give him something: a knowledge of various fungal blights that he uses to alter his bombs to a great efficiency. Being naturally agile and angry, Finn often wins against opponents, superior to him in size and strength, but what he really seeks are the right natural components that will give him the proper ingredients to give him the immortality he seeks. This is why he has come to the frontier, and this is where he intends to stay, where he succeeds.

When encountered by the PCs, Finn can either be sneakily charming, if they have want they want, (or he thinks that they do), or he can be dismissive, abrupt, and disturbingly familiar with necromancy, (plan b, if immortality goes south). Either way, he can be a very formidable opponent to the PCs, if used right.

Finn

Half-elf alchemist (blightseeker) 8

NE; Medium humanoid (elf, human)

Init +4; Senses low-light vision; Perception +2

DEFENCE

AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 18 (+4 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural)

hp 55 (8d8+16)

Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +3; +2 vs. enchantments, +6 vs. owners

Immune sleep; Resist fire 20

OFFENCE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee +1 dagger +11/+6 (1d4+1/19-20)

Ranged spore bomb +11/+6 (4d4+4d4 blight)

Special Attacks bomb 12/day (4d4+4d4 blight, DC 19)

Alchemist Extracts Prepared (CL 8^th)

3^rd—fey form I, gaseous form, haste

2^nd—barkskin, cure moderate wounds (2), perceive cues, vine strike

1^st—cure light wounds (2), keen senses, stone fist (2)

STATISTICS

Str 11, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 13

Base Atk +6; CMB +6; CMD 21

Feats Brew Potion, Dodge, Mobility, Skill Focus (Craft [alchemy]), Throw Anything, Toughness, Weapon Finesse

Skills Bluff +7, Craft (Alchemy) +15, Disable Device +4, Knowledge (arcana) +18, Knowledge (engineering, history, planes) +11, Knowledge (local) +15, Knowledge (nature) +14, Perception +2, Sleight of Hand +4, Spellcraft +12, Use Magic Device +10; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception

Languages Abyssal, Common, Dwarven, Elven, Sylvan, Undercommon

SQ alchemy (alchemy crafting +8, identify poisons), blights (fatiguing, fear-inducing, impairing, minor sickening, sickening), mutagen (+4/-2, +2 natural, 80 minutes), elf blood, poison use, swift alchemy, swift poisoning

Other Gear +1 chain shirt, +1 dagger, headband of vast intelligence +2, Large scorpion venom (2)

PS: So, what do you think?

Pathfinder: OC III

Theofelt was a noble scion...until he discovered that his family had untoward dealings with the drow of Sekamina...and remained a worthy heir of that house. Well, not the heir, but the spare, yet his discretion was appreciated, as he was sent to the frontier not as an exile, but as the representative of the house in question.

Theofelt is a cavalier of the order of the whip, a rather brutal and cruel organization. While he isn't as comfortable with slavery as his parents and eldest brother is, he has no problems with it either; especially with using slaves as free labour to civilize the new frontier...primarily with a lance and a whip, but in other ways possible too.

Theofelt is evil, but he is evil in service of his family, his king and queen, his country, (not necessarily in that order). He does what needs to be done, and while he is normally is relentless in his duty, he can be flexible...to get what needs to be done, otherwise - tough break.

Theofelt runs the local charter house for his order (order of the whip), and as such he is beginning to rise in the ranks of his order as well. So far, his success hinges on him, well, being successful - he's a self-made man, even by noble standards, and he has no intent of losing that. If the PCs find themselves at a crossroads with Theofelt, they should better watch out: the man is neither afraid of getting his hands dirty nor does he lack minions to do that for him.

Tahitos

Human cavalier (vermin tamer) 8

LE; Medium humanoid (human)

Init -1; Senses Perception +0

DEFENCE

AC 18, touch 9, flat-footed 18 (+9 armor, -1 Dex)

hp 86 (8d10+32)

Fort +8, Ref +2, Will +3

OFFENCE

Speed 30 ft. (20 ft. in armor)

Melee mwk lance +13 (1d8+2/x3) or

Mwk whip +13 (1d3+2, nonlethal)

Special Attacks banner +2, cavalier’s charge, challenge (+8, +5, 3/day), inspiring pain

STATISTICS

Str 12 (14), Dex 12, Con 12, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 13

Base Atk +8/+3; CMB +12 (+14 dirty trick); CMD 21 (23 vs. dirty trick)

Feats Beastmaster Salvation, Beastmaster Style, Combat Expertise, Improved Dirty Trick, Obscuring Beacon, Power Attack, Shake It Off, Toughness, Whip Mastery

Skills Bluff +16, Diplomacy +16, Handle Animal +16 (+18 for mount), Intimidate +16, Ride +8 (+15 on mount), Sense Motive +5

SQ darklands mount (giant beetle), order of the whip, stuck in the saddle +8, tactician (2/day, 7 rounds, standard action)

Combat Gear potion of enlarge person; Other Gear +1 half-plate, mwk lance, mwk whip, belt of giant strength +2, cloak of resistance +1,  39 gp.

PS: Any comments? Criticisms?

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Rewind' - Dec 23

AoS has reached the ‘fall finale’. Where does it stand?

…It has achieved the break from the past seasons that it needed to have back in S4 – as Lance has shown Fitz, S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone for good in the MCU universe. Yay?

Firstly, yes – Nick Blood has starred as Lance Hunter once more on AoS, in a manner similar to Dalton (Ward) and Britt (Tripp) back in S4, save that the titular team is out of the framework now, hopefully. (It is still a possibility that Radcliffe betrayed them in S4, and the septet are still in the framework, somehow, just in a different part of it. AoS has been known to remake its plot line with large twists in the past, you know?) That said, Blood’s heart wasn’t in the acting, you could tell – he was still Lance Hunter, but in a much-diminished role, so there’s that… but again, unlike Dalton and Britt, Blood (and Palicki, who played Bobbi Morse on AoS, remember?) ended his RL relationship with MCU in a bad way – his and Palicki’s own Marvel show, ‘Most Wanted’, fell through…and frankly the way their characters, and especially Palicki’s Morse got handled on the show? Not the best way, either. (Cough S2 finale cough).

Speaking of characters, apparently Fitz is going to learn to deal with the darkness within him that got released in the framework. It would be easy to root for him…but AoS has already put Daisy through something similar back in S4, (after she got freed from Hive’s mental control and all), plus there was Robbie Reyes and his own issues as the Ghost Rider, remember?

…Yes, so far there was no mention of the Ghost Rider anywhere in S5, but maybe that’s because back in RL Gabriel Luna is currently working in a film named Hama; so far it is still in the filming stage, so we’ll have to wait and see what it is about in the future – but still, back before S4, MCU and AoS made a big whoop about the Ghost Rider coming to AoS…and he did. Just for nine episodes. That is slightly less than half of an AoS season. Ouch! A change of strategy was required, so this time around, before S5, AoS cast gave only some slight hints about what S5 was going to be around, and…

And it did not work very well – the numbers for AoS S5 are lowest yet, even though the AoS’ cast and crew did do their best this season to win their audience back. However, between DCEU’s ‘Arrowverse’, the ‘Gifted’ TV show about MCU’s mutants, and even another MCU show – about the InHumans, (remember?), AoS has its’ work cut-out for it, and it shows. In the numbers. In addition, the reworking of the main characters does not help either – the FitzSimmons are already going through it, so who is next?..

Mind you, this phenomenon is not restricted to AoS – ‘Blindspot’, having returned for its’ own S3, is going through the same thing as well. Its’ problem is that the first 2 seasons were very, very good, so it decided to go for an S3 – but it has no new ideas of where to go from there, so now ‘Blindspot’ is promptly recycling its’ old ideas – something that AoS has also done, largely in S3 and 4, and it didn’t do anything good for the ‘Agents’. The only new development is the introduction of Rich Dotcom as a main character…and some sort of a comic relief, and…what for? In S1 and 2 ‘Blindspot’ didn’t really have a comic relief…so why now?

Another possibility is that Rich is going to be token gay character, (he is in a same-sex relationship on ‘Blindspot’ already). However, so far we see no evidence of that either, so why is Rich a main/regular character on the show, again? Between this reworking of at least one old character, and the recycling of old ideas, ‘Blindspot’ is beginning to suffer, and that is not good.

Finally… it seems that ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ is going to feature Allosaurus amongst other dinosaurs. Again, Allosaurus was a carnosaur – it was an earlier, (Jurassic), smaller, (about 9 m in length on average), version of Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Mapusaurus and co. of the Cretaceous – and that includes the I-Rex; whatever it was supposed to be, in RL mechanics, the I-Rex was a carnosaur, but it was discussed already… so that’s that.

Put otherwise, this is it for today – see you next time!

Runaways: Metamorphosis - Dec 21

Marvel’s ‘Runaways’ continue to live up to being ‘a hulu original’. Period. They also continue to be a soap opera, which is only loosely remains tied to the original comic plotline. That is no problem either, as Marvel comics have made ‘Runaways’ their new darling in place of the previous favorites – ‘the Defenders’ and ‘the InHumans’, and ‘the Defenders’, at least, are a mess.

Spoiler alert – read on at your own risk.

True, they know in which general direction they are going – to an eventual confrontation with Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, who became the mayor of NYC in the past comics, but the details? They are a mess. Blade, Deadpool, the Hood – they come and go without contributing much to the general plot; ‘the Defenders’ seem to be largely about, well, the Defenders as they try to prevent Diamondback from becoming the new Kingpin of crime, (since they don’t know that he’s being actually backed by Fisk here, it seems)…and getting nowhere fast. They seem to be defeating Diamondback on a regular basis, but the man just comes back – and he already beat the stuffing out of the Punisher, (who seems to have his own agenda and be a bigger jerk than he normally is), and shot the Black Cat, (and in a different universe the Black Cat is teaming up with Silk to take down the Goblin King and co., so there’s that). ‘The Defenders’ just don’t know how far they want to go and how they will get there and how fast…

On the other hand, ‘Runaways’ don’t seem to have this problem – but then, this incarnation of the series is a TV/Web TV series, and have figured the problem of pacing beforehand. Of course, so has AoS for S5, (hopefully), but so far they aren’t doing so good – they got some of the lowest numbers ever so far, and the fact that after this week they are taking a mini-hiatus isn’t going to help them either – ‘Lost Girl’ (LG) had a stronger standard and history than AoS had, in proportion, but it still ended on a whimper, rather than a bang. True, LG played hard and fast – unnecessarily so – with its’ backstory, but AoS…has done the same thing, though not to the same extent, as it was discussed earlier. And the ‘Runaways’?

And the ‘Runaways’ have it easier – they have a baseline from the comics and they continue to do their own thing. Like the dinosaurs from the JP-franchise, they are a hybrid, and not unlike the I-Rex from the first JW movie, they appear to be quite successful – and there is no metaphorical Rexy to challenge them, no TV (or Web TV) canon. There are ‘Runaways’ comics, but while Marvel isn’t as bad as the Archies franchise is, their canon is often fragmented and revised itself…but it is different for comics than it is for TV (+Web TV) or the movies.

Yes, this is a reference to the latest SW movie. SW7 was designed as a rework of SW4. This is more of a rework of SW6, and now the plot of the future SW9 movie is hanging in the air. On one hand, this is good – SW7 was one of the weakest movies of the SW franchise; on the other – the fans, (and to the lesser extent, the critics) are divided about whether or not SW8 was a good movie or a bad one, and while the SW franchise still has enough momentum from its’ past achievements to weather this, this really isn’t where it wants to go, (and the news suggest that it has problems of its’ own) – but that is a story for another time.

And as for the ‘Runaways’ they keep on going and they remain strong. Good luck to them. See you all soon! 

Pathfinder: OC II

...When the motherland opened new frontiers and new opportunities opened for everyone, rich and poor, Arcontes' wanted to sit it out: his family considered him to be an eccentric, if not an outright snob, someone to be embarrassed by in a family of respectable alchemists. They shunned him and sent him away, to the frontier - and there Arcontes has changed.

The man was always a snob, and he loved flowers - and there, in the new, savage country, he discovered that to collect flowers you had to brave deadly dangers - animals, magical beasts, dragons, unfriendly natives, hazardous terrain...but it was often worth it, as the new plants of the new frontiers provided rare poisons and powerful medicines back home, worth much more than their weight in gold - and so Arcontes began to collect them, becoming harder and leaner than he ever been back home.

Arcontes was born in an intelligent, literate family, and so he is an intelligent, literate person with plenty of clients and allies back home, who consider him to be one of their chief suppliers. As such, he is fast becoming a person of prestige with plenty of money in his bank account, and before long he could retire for good - but he doesn't.

Arcontes has many wilderness skills - he has a skill at making maps, (which he does, and then sells for a good  price), and he has a knowledge of nature, especially plants, which he collects and sells back to his clients in the homelands, back south. What he lacks is much of human empathy...or any other kind of empathy - he cares only about plants and the thrill of discovery, and when anyone gets in his way, they will quickly regret it.

As such, Arcontes can be a dangerous foe to the PCs - or a reluctant ally, provided that someone in the adventuring party shares his passion for new plants.

Arcontes

Human investigator (natural philosopher) 8

Init +7; Senses Perception +15

DEFENCE

AC 15, touch 16, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, +4 Dex)

hp 63 (8d8+24)

Fort +2; Ref +6; Will +6;

Defensive Abilities poison resistance +6

OFFENCE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee unarmed strike +7/+2 (1d3/x2) or

Handaxe +7 (1d8/x3)

Ranged shortbow +11 (1d6/x3)

Special Attacks studied combat, studied strike +3d6

Alchemical Extracts Prepared (CL 5^th; concentration +3)

3^rd—disable construct, fey form I

2^nd—air step, blood armor, pouncing fury, vine strike

1^st—heightened awareness, invisibility alarm, long arm, monkey fish

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 12

Feats Dodge, Eagle-Eyed, Expert Cartographer, Improved Initiative

Skills Acrobatics +14, Climb +12, Craft (alchemy) +10, Craft (maps) +20, Craft (weaponsmithing) +14, Diplomacy +11, Escape Artist +14, Knowledge (geography) +12, Knowledge (nature) +11, Perception +15, Stealth +12, Survival +13 (+17 follow tracks)

Languages Common, Dwarven, Elven, Sylvan, Undercommon

SQ alchemy, herbalism, investigator talents (amazing inspiration, effortless aid), keen recollection, natural philosopher’s inspiration, poison lore, swift alchemy

Combat Gear potion of cure minor wounds, scroll of calm animal, wand of ray of frost; Other Gear mwk padded cotton armor, mwk corkwood helmet, mwk handaxe, mwk shortbow with 20 arrows, elixir of truth, bull’s-eye lantern, investigator’s kit, diary, a book of maps, 577 gp

PS: So, what do you think?

Pathfinder: OC I

Sally Settler has lived a hard life. She and her (late) husband moved to frontier after being driven to that hard choice by their poor success on their old farm. On their new property things didn't go any better, as Sally's husband died from a plague, leaving her to fend for herself.

For a while, things stayed in the nadir, as Sally almost joined her husband in the afterlife, when the natives took her under their wing and taught her the life of a hunter. She took naturally to this new lifestyle, (though she kept the farm as a home and a home base) and things began to improve. Sally learned to overcome any hardships that came her way and remains determinedly happy, (though this happiness is superficial, and deep inside she is still a very sad person).

Sally also became a very stoic person and a character of some renown among other colonists; she is often called upon them to protect their interests against the big business companies from the heartland. Moreover, Sally herself is an atypical hunter - she still lives on the farm, and tries her best to make a living from it, and uses her hunter skills mainly in self-defense, whenever enemies of the other colonists, (or her own) try to muscle in onto her turf.

Sally sometimes comes across as simply whimsical at first meetings, and her old family would consider her something of a savage, but her knowledge of local nature and geography is great, and she is a person of renown with the natives. In your campaign, Sally can be a formidable friend or a foe, depending on what kind of a PC party your players have.

Settler

Human hunter 8

NG; Medium humanoid (human)

Init +6; Senses Perception +1

DEFENCE

AC 18, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+1 armor, +1 deflection, +3 Dex, +2 natural)

hp 62 (8d8+24)

Fort +6; Ref +6; Will +6

OFFENCE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee unarmed strike +8 (1d3+1/x2) or

Quarterstaff +8 (1d6+1/x2) and

Quarterstaff +2 (1d6-1/x2)

Ranged light crossbow +8 (1d8+1/19-20)

Hunter Spells Prepared (CL 5^th; concentration +3)

2^nd—alpha instinct, greensight, iron stake, replay tracks

1^st—echo, faerie fire, hidden spring, snowball, tamer’s lash

0—create water, detect magic, detect poison, read magic, resistance, stabilize

STATISTICS

Str 13, Dex 21, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 12

Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 24

Feats Combat Reflexes, Coordinated Shot, Deadly Aim, Distracting Charge, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload

Skills Craft (trapmaking) +6, Diplomacy +1, Intimidate +4, Knowledge (dungeoneering, geography) +6, Knowledge (nature) +8, Perception +1, Profession (hunter) +8, Spellcraft +4, Survival +4 (+8 follow tracks), Swim +1

Languages Common, Elven, Sylvan

SQ animal companion (dog), animal focus, bonus trick, hunter tactics, improved emphatic link, nature training, precise companion, second animal focus, swift tracker, track, wild empathy +11, woodland stride

Combat Gear potion of cure moderate wounds; Other Gear chain shirt, +1 light crossbow with 15 bolts, masterwork quarterstaff, hunter’s kit, cloak of resistance +1, ring of protection +1, 194 sp.

So, how she comes across?

S.H.I.E.L.D. "Life Earned' - Dec 16

Heading back to AoS, things don’t look so good for our heroes: the episode before this one, ‘Life Spent’, has the lowest numbers ever of an AoS episode – and the show is doing all it can do everything right.

The villains are completely unsympathetic; Kasius is a pretentious brute that probably not other Kree can stomach, while his ‘girl Friday’, Synera, is a heartless bitch. (Well, she is). In this week’s episode – ‘Life Earned’ – she has defeated May, (who had a handicap: arriving in the future hurt her leg…in a manner reminiscent of how Grant had shot Bobbi in the leg at the end of S2, remember?). Unlike Ward and Kara Palamas, no one is sympathetic to the Kree, and-

And no one cares for them anymore; there is no fan party for the sake of Kree, no controversy, no anything. On one hand, this is good; AoS does not really need more of the above after the entire Grant (& Kara) mess, on top of the Hydra definition mess, on top of Cap vs. Tony mess. On the other, there is no excitement, no conflict of interest; right now, AoS is very heavy on the dystopia drama, to a point where Coulson, (well, Gregg) breaks the fourth wall, (sort of), by claiming that all the dystopian clichés are complete: by now humans aren’t even able to reproduce by themselves anymore, and have to have cloned babies, (produced by the Kree) to propagate their species.

This is very horrible…and does not quite mesh with the human-Kree interaction in the GotG movies, (which really are the only MCU movies that featured Kree, seriously). There were some Kree in the previous seasons of AoS, but they were only episodal characters, though generally unpleasant. In particular, in S2, one of them was able to overpower lady Sif of Asgard and give her temporary amnesia, but S.H.I.E.L.D.’s plucky and determined heroes put everything right – and lady Sif, or rather Jamie Alexander, left MCU to be the female lead in ‘Blindspot’, which is a better, more realistic take on S.H.I.E.L.D. and especially on Grant and Skye’s relationship; the fact that Luke Mitchell, (Lincoln Campbell of AoS) is playing the main villain on ‘Blindspot’ now only adds to that realization; right now, ‘Blindspot’ is in its’ third season…

Here is the punchline: MCU in general is going through a reboot fuelled by real life: Disney, (which already owns the main Marvel franchise), just bought 21^st Century Fox, getting itself the rights to the X-Men and co. corner of MCU (‘Gifted’, ‘Legion’, etc.), and it has, conversely, severed ties with Netflix, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen to the ‘Defenders’-related shows; the only holdout left, (so far), is Hulu – (‘Runaways’, 2018 – ‘Cloak and Dagger’). So?

So on the other hand we got ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ movie. It is a reboot of ‘Thor’ franchise of MCU, as most of the characters starring in the previous ‘Thor’ movies are gone. Sif is gone, (see above), Jane Foster, Darcy and Dr. Selvig are gone, Odin is gone, the Warriors Three – ditto… These characters – and the actors who played them – are not coming back to MCU in a hurry, one bets. Things are getting shuffled and reshuffled at Marvel’s corner of Disney…and where does it leave AoS?

Nowhere good, apparently, as ‘Life Earned’ has even lower numbers than ‘Life Spent’ had. AoS has learned how to do things ‘right’, but it might be coming too late for the show, and with its’ ‘fall finale’ coming up next week, things won’t improve soon, most likely.

…That is it for now, see you soon!