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January 31, 2005
Update to Riders on the Storm I have posted a new entry in the Riders on the Storm saga. It is another brief entry, but transcribing it over from the original was somewhat... problematic due to the eccentricity of the player who wrote it. You don't want to miss this one -- it needs to be seen to be believed. Rensil: 13-18 Raquas, 1509 TH January 28, 2005
Sometimes Hollywood just pisses me off... I don't know if any of you have seen the trailers for the latest "comic-book" movie to come out of Hollywood -- Constantine -- but I have to say that not since I learned Winona Ryder was playing opposite Richard #@$%-ing Gere in the woeful Autumn in New York has the casting of a film gotten me so riled up. When I first learned that Constantine (based on DC's Vertigo title Hellblazer) was being made, I was pleased... John Constantine is a great character, and while I haven't followed the series closely, I have enjoyed the parts of it I have read -- and his appearances in other DC books (like Sandman or The Books of Magic) have been fun. Then I learned that Keanu Reeves is playing the titular role... Keanu @#%$-ing Reeves! Never mind that Keanu is a generally sucky, one-dimensional actor... John Constantine is British! And based on what I've seen in the trailers, Keanu doesn't even try a British accent... (For which, I suppose I should be glad... we were probably looking at a degree of bad accent not seen since Kevin Kostner's fabled attempts in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.) What was that Shakesperean film Keanu was in with Kenneth Branagh? As You Like It? No... it was Much Ado About Nothing. (*shudder*) Don't get me wrong, there are some roles Keanu has done well in. Johnny Mnemonic has one of the greatest monolgues in the history of film -- the "slag heap" speech, as my buddy called it. Priceless stuff. Besides, Johnny has had part of his brain removed -- that would explain why his personality is so flat, and plays into one of Keanu's strengths. I mean sure, Constantine is a generally cool cucumber... but I'm sure there are any number of British actors who could do it better. It's a shame, really. It could have been so cool... and yet, Keanu makes me fear it will suck. There is some potential for redemption in the person of Rachel Weisz... rowr. January 20, 2005
Digging out... We woke up this morning to find that a snowstorm snuck up on us last night. Here in Bangor we got about a foot of light, powdery white stuff. It wasn't too difficult to clear away -- the biggest problem was where to put it all. Hopefully in the next day or two some pictures will be made available so you can see what we suffer up here... and why I refer to it as the "great white north." A couple of quick notes in reference to the Staff of the Aerie. The Legend Award for the deed at Rank 7 is 1300 Legend Points, and the oath sworn between the Elementalist and the spirit is a standard Blood Promise Oath. The sprit's end of the bargain is to recharge the gemstone. The Elementalist's end of the deal is left fot the Gamemaster to devise. January 16, 2005
Syndicated for your enjoyment As I have been working on the site-wide adjustments to The Lore Merchant, I have also added some additional features. I have now added the option to syndicate the updates with ATOM. If you have a blog reader, or something along those lines, you can now get easy updates of the material. The link is in the menu bar to the right. January 11, 2005
Help me get an iPod! Last year, there was a bit of a long-term story running on TechTV's The Screen Savers about a website -- freeipods.com -- that was giving away free iPods (you know, that hot Apple mp3 player). You sign up for one of the services offered through the site, refer five (or more) friends who also sign up for a service... and they send you a free iPod. After some digging, it turns out the offer is legit, so I decided to take the plunge and sign up. I'd like all my faithful Lore Merchant readers (yes, all five of you) to help me out here. Click on the link below, and sign up for one of the services offered. Free iPod Offer Sadly, this offer is only valid for US residents. My international readers will not be able to take advantage of this offer. Thanks in advance for your assistance! January 07, 2005
Staff of the Aerie Tonight I thought I would give you guys some crunch -- here are the game statistics for one of the magic items recovered from an old Temple of Chorrolis. Staff of the Aerie Maximum Threads: 1 Spell Defense: 14 This four-and-a-half foot long wooden staff is decorated along its shaft with carved looping whirls inset with silver. At one end is a pair of stylized wings, also crafted of silver, which flank an oblong crystal of blue quartz. At the other end is a burnished steel endcap. The staff was created before the Scourge by the Elementalist Dunsin Aree. Dunsin was from the city of Raj Tolor, a vibrant trade city in the formerly fertile farmland of what is now the Badlands. As news of the coming Scourge spread, Dunsin did what he could to prepare the city for the Horrors -- and defend it from them. He was aided in this endeavor by two other adepts: Korin, a troll Warrior, and Zael, a human Beastmaster. Together they formed the Spears of Tolor, a group dedicated to serving the people of Raj Tolor. On one of their expeditions to an outlying village, Dunsin discovered that one of his former students had become corrupted by a Horror. This corrupt Elementalist (whose name has been lost to history) had bound several elemental spirits and was using them in dark magical rituals (which have also, thank the Passions, been lost to history). The Spears defeated the corrupt Elementalist, and one of the freed elementals gave Dunsin a blue quartz crystal imbued with elemental air. Dunsin used the crystal to construct his staff, a magical focus that held one of his spell matrices and boosted his magical abilities. Rank 1 Cost: 200 Key Knowledge: The wielder must learn that this item is Named the Staff of the Aerie. Effect: The crystal at the end of the staff acts as a Spell Matrix of rank equal to the thread rank. In addition, the staff grants the wielder a +1 to his spell defense. Rank 2 Cost: 300 Key Knowledge: The wielder must learn the identity of the staff's creator. Effect: The staff grants the wielder a +1 step bonus to Spellcasting tests. Rank 3 Cost: 500 Key Knowledge: The wielder must learn the name of the city-state that Dunsin was from. Effect: The staff allows the user to cast the 1st-Circle Elementalist spell Air Armor. This takes the Elementalist's action, and uses his own Spellcasting talent. Rank 4 Cost: 800 Key Knowledge: The user must learn the Name of the group Dunsin belonged to. Effect: The staff now grants a +2 bonus to the user's Spell Defense, and a +2-step bonus to the user’s Spellcasting tests. Rank 5 Cost: 1300 Key Knowledge: The user must learn the Name of one of the other members of the Spears of Tolor. Effect: The staff allows the user to cast the 4th Circle Elementalist Spell Air Blast, as if it were held in an enhanced Matrix (i.e. the user does not need to weave the thread).
Key Knowledge: The user must learn the Name of the other member of the Spears of Tolor. Effect: The staff grants a 2-step bonus to the user's Willforce talent for spells cast from the staff; this includes the spell matrix crystal, and the two additional spell powers. If the user does not posses the Willforce talent, the bonus is applied to the caster's Willpower for the purposes of determining effect.
Rank 7
January 03, 2005
New Front End Happy new year! One of the changes I had in mind for this year was to combine my blog with the front page of the website. This way, I could use the blog for content updates as well as for anything else I want to add here. I realize it's been a while since I posted any updates. The holidays kept me pretty busy, and my work on Earthdawn Classic has been eating up a bit of time as well. It's going along well, but as the saying goes -- "90% of the work takes place during the last 10% of the project." To try and bring things up to date, I have added five new entries in the Valyan's Heirs campaign journals. Two are from Kira, and three are from Thrak. Here are links for the first new entry in each character's journal. Kira's Entry 13 Thrak's Entry 4 The next few weeks will see updates to the Riders on the Storm journals, more specific news on the progress of Earthdawn Classic, and hopefully an image gallery. And, of course, there will be other blog entries. One of my resolutions this year is to try and maintain some kind of regular update schedule. I hope I can keep to it. |
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