#The Last Shadowhawk

[tamras-shieldmaiden]

I'm curious, how would Lin interact around Kuvira's biological parents if they ever were to meet? How would they run into them?

Tell me about a time when Lin and Kuvira went on a date together and everything went so wrong it ended up going right. What would that look like?

Hmmm, I can definitely see the potential for drama here. I'm going to incorporate what we know about Kuvira and her biological parents from Ruins of the Empire. So, let's say that Suyin kept tabs on Kuvira’s parents' whereabouts after they left her in Zaofu, and although they never went back to check on their daughter, Su kept an eye on them for the unlikely scenario they returned to reclaim their daughter after all these years. Kuvira wasn’t aware of this, but Lin was given the information once Su found out about their relationship because their last known location was in a small village bordering Republic City. Lin thought Kuvira deserved to know this, prompting a difficult and emotional conversation. Kuvira, undertandingly bewildered upon hearing about her parents in her adult years, wavered between the curiosity to know about them and the bitterness and pain of having been left behind for so many years. After weeks of soul searching, they came up with a plan that would spare Kuvira the shock of meeting her parents after decades of abandonment. Lin agreed to go to the village to meet them and find out what kind of people they were now. To say the experience was excruciatingly awkward is an understatement: Kuvira’s parents didn't expect to see the Republic City Chief of Police at their doorstep and much less to find out that the six year old daughter they left in Zaofu was now a esteemed member of the force, but the father claimed they wanted nothing to do with her and that they had cut her off their lives that fateful day she was given to Su to mentor. On her way out, in her characteristic blunt demeanor, Lin spoke her mind (saying, among other things, "you don't deserve her" and "she has people who love her now"), as she left the house, visibly disgusted. Suddenly, Lin felt a tug on her shoulder, and when she turned around, she realized it was Kuvira’s mother. The woman looked at her tearfully as she extended an envelope to her. "I never agreed to what he did," she muttered, "but I was injured and couldn’t do anything. I know she won't forgive me, but I want her to know that."

Later that night in Republic City, Lin stood awake as she consoled Kuvira, as they made plans to return to the village one day.

"Whatever you choose, I'll be there with you every step of the way," promised Lin vehemently she hugged a sobbing Kuvira.

(Okay, who's peeling onions around here? Cut it out! 😭)

Okay, now on to the date. So let's say that after waiting months for a spot to be available in Republic City's trendiest restaurant, Kuvira finally managed to make reservations for date night. That night, everything seemed to go as planned: Lin loved the flower arrangement she sent to her office and showed enthusiasm for the jazz recital that would follow the dinner. But Kuvira felt as if a bucket of iced water fell over her when she saw the notice being posted on the restaurant door. Half of the kitchen staff fell ill so they wouldn't be able to open. Kuvira couldn't hide her disappointment and declared date night was ruined. One of the junior chefs who hadn't fallen sick overheard her and recognized the Chief. His father always told the story of how a then sergeant Beifong stopped the Shadowhawks Triad, who ran an extortion racket on their neighborhood. He approached Kuvira and offered to cook them a delicious homemade meal at his family's restaurant to make up for the disappointment. Despite Kuvira's hesitation, they accepted. What the place lacked in luxury and fame, it made up with the delicious food and the warmth of the people. After that experience, the modest restaurant became a favorite among the force, and for Lin and Kuvira, that date night became one of their most memorable to date.

Oops, these answers ended up running longer than I initially expected, but I hope you have enjoyed them. 😊

[austinramsaygames]

This is a repost as I've decided to separate my Battletech tournament musings into separate posts rather than one big thread.

Prev / Next

I won another Alpha Strike tournament! This one was 350PV and Clan Invasion again.

I'll do another deep dive into how it went but for now here's 3 big moments.

First game was in an extremely dense city:

And I had the city side. For anything without jumpjets or VTOL movement the only way past the wall was the highway or a tunnel in the centre and my opponent only had two with JJs. The highlight here was taking out first a Marauder and then a Marauder IIC as they came over the wall on via the highway with a horrendous amount of Indirect Fire. This was what really clued me in to how good the massed IF was.

2. Second match was on a more open board but there was still lots of Line Of Sight blocking terrain:

This angle is actually pretty much what my side of the board was. I split my 3 biggest direct fire damage dealers (2 SRM Carriers and a Stalker) between the two firing lanes on either side of the centre mountain. While the side on the left with the SRM Carrier and Stalker was a bit too much firepower and deterred my opponent from taking that lane (useful in its own right), The lone SRM carrier on the right sat behind a tree and helped take out 2 Von Luckner tanks, an Atlas C (the variant I ran last tournament), and a Shadowhawk.

3. Last highlight is also from the second match. My two Cavalry VTOLs spent most of the match in the back lines of my opponent. At effectively TMM5 with a movement of 20" they easily broke LOS with most units they wanted to, and even when they didn't most attacks were hitting at around Target Number 9. So hits were rare and since they have *some* armor they could take a bit of scuffing.

Nothing in match 3 was of particular highlight, mostly because it was a bloody, knock down, drag out fight from the start.

The opponent destroyed 5 of my 12 while the two prior opponents only destroyed 2. I even lost both my SRM carriers in the first turn. This happened because the deployment of the scenario had us split our forces between opposite corners and place them within 12" of the corner, so there was only 24" between our forces from the jump.

Deep dive time!

SUCCESSES

Identify fire lanes and then control them with heavy direct fire units. It is my opinion that even the most terrain dense boards have firing lanes, it's just a matter of finding them. My goal was to set up my SRM Carriers along those and have the Stalker in one or the other. I had two of them every match, but the effectiveness varied greatly based on scenario and map layout. If they weren't actively firing at targets, they were at least denying those avenues of travel which broke up supporting fire and allowed my faster units to stay out of firing arcs.

The first match in the city had three firing lanes: one across my back line, and two on either side of my half of the board. I held the two side ones but due to the entrances into the city only being on my left because of the wall, that was the one firing lane that saw good use.

The second map was a pair of valleys that formed two lovely firing lanes that ran diagonally in parallel AND had tree cover at my end of them. I plopped the SRM Carriers behind the trees and bombarded anything that showed its face.

The third match was a dense jungle with the least obvious firing lanes, but they did exist along the board edges. I tried to take advantage of them but both SRM Carriers got destroyed in the first turn.

Doing the obvious thing first. I used the LRM Carriers and Heavy LRM Carriers as initiative sinks because a lot of the time it made the most sense to have the missile boats sit still since they didn't need Line Of Sight and didn't lose much TMM. This let me save my more reactive units for later.

I picked a strategy and leaned in. My initial goal with the list was to pack in at least 8 vehicles using what I had available to me. Turns out that a lot of those had missiles, so I made sure EVERYTHING had missiles and then packed in as many NARC beacons as I could. 19.5 Indirect Fire damage BEFORE NARCs is very useful!

Redundancy. While I had 5 pairs of identical units, they weren't run as pairs but as groups of 5. This meant that the tools my opponent needed to deal with them were usually on one side of the board, leaving the other set of 5 to operate with less concern. Additionally if one NARC beacon failed to hit, I usually had a back up to try again, and the same went for my Indirect Fire.

Winning Initiative. Obviously this was in no way a result of my skill, but taking advantage of it was. This is always really useful and luck was on my side for a good chunk of the tournament. It let me hold my VTOLs until the very end to break LOS with them but still have eyes on the enemy.

Using the Stiletto as a spotter. I brought the Stiletto to counter ECM with its own so that my NARCs didn't get suppressed, however, none of my opponents brought ECM so I needed another use for it. With its 16" speed and skill 5 it ended up being an excellent spotter that I didn't need to shoot with. Its TMM3, 4 armor, and taking advantage of cover also meant that I didn't have to worry too much about it if it was within an enemy's firing arc.

Giving the LRM Carriers and Heavy LRM Carriers skill 3. This let them effectively negate the penalty for Indirect Fire and since they sat still so often they were basically skill 2 for most of the tournament. So they were often hitting on 6s or 7sat medium range, and *only* 9s at long.

MISPLAYS

If there are no useful fire lanes, I needed to be more aggressive with the direct fire units. In the first match one of my SRM Carriers was watching a lane that didn't get much traffic due to the city board layout. I should have moved it up to the same lane as the other SRM Carrier but I was worried about needing it to defend my objective (the scenario was capture the flag with some twists). When something finally came for the objective, it was a fire moth that immediately went outside of its firing arc and the nearby Heavy LRM Carrier, which has a turret, had to deal with it.

Not having a good plan for enemies that rushed me. In match 1 there was a Fire Moth carrying a unit of Battle Armor and the pair basically wrecked one of my Ravens. I tried to deal with them using one of my VTOLs but their high TMM made them hard to hit and their speed meant they were often outside of anything else's firing.

In match 3 the scenario gave us deployment zones that made us split our forces between opposite corners with 12" deployment zones, so it was bloody from the first turn as even the relatively slow Kodiak of my opponent was already in medium range. All of his forces pushed in on me from 2 sides, so I largely stayed concealed using terrain and fairing arcs, and anything that he saw almost always got deleted under the withering Clan firepower. I managed to win the match but only in the last turn and by a single Victory Point.

In the prior tournament my Lyran force had two body guard units, an Axman and a Hatchetman (though mostly just the Axman), specifically for these kind of situations and this list didn't have an equivalent.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM LAST TOURNAMENT

Splitting up my heavy hitters. I had 5 units that did 5 or more damage at medium range: 2 SRM Carriers, 2 Heavy LRM Carriers, and a Stalker. I split the pairs across either side of my deployment zone to give me better coverage and it worked! It was especially effective if I took the time to advance the very slow (MV 4") Heavy LRM Carriers up enough so that they they had medium range for most of the board.

SURPRISES

No real MVPs. The foundation of my list was "take as many vehicles as is feasible" and, after looking at the minis I have, "take as many missile units as possible." This combined arms nature meant that there was generally a lot of redundancy in action so the workload got spread around. Everything was useful but not a star.

Relying on Indirect Fire forced me to focus fire. I generally aim to focus fire each turn, ideally on the same target as the previous turn, but IF really drives it home. Needing a spotter, preferably one that doesn't shoot, means I was dedicating points to a unit that wasn't doing any damage on their own but would facilitate the 16 IF damage from the 4 LRM Carriers. The Ravens and VTOLs also made decent back up spotters if I needed a second target, but I preferred to add their NARCs and damage respectively.

When my opponents played defensively it was to my advantage. When my opponents used LOS breaking cover, that gave me opportunities to isolate enemies with spotters outside of their firing arcs who were also cut off from their own supporting fire, but still vulnerable to my IF. Additionally, moving slowly meant that I was able to take more shots on these targets than if they had rushed me.

It was a great time and I'm super excited for the next tournament! Hopefully I'll get a chance to put the lessons from this tournament to use, though I don't know what I'll run to do that as I base my lists on whims. Last time it was mechs with MEL, this time it was vehicles with missiles, maybe I'll do C3 list next!

[cloaksandcapes]

The Shadowhawk can move entire units through the darkness, silent as a whisper, even if they're walking in heavy armor. It's great for parties that are otherwise, terribly noisy.

Banner of the Shadowhawk

Wondrous Item, rare

“This long cloth rectangle depicts a stooping hawk in black on what was once a gray or white background. The banner has darkened with age, and the edges show signs of several near escapes from the flames of war.”

This magic banner allows you to aid your allies in remaining unseen. You can use an action to invoke the power of the Shadowhawk, and so long as an ally is within 10 feet of the banner, any Dexterity (Stealth) check that they make uses your bonus instead of their own. The effects of this magic banner last for one hour. Once you have used this magic item you must finish a short or long rest to use it again.

Join us in Discord or on Twitch every Mon\Wed\Fri to create new D&D Homebrews like magic items, monsters, or subclasses. If you want to support Cloaks & Capes check out our Patreon for 643+ magic items, 10 monsters, 200+ tokens, maps, and more for just $3\month.

We add over 30 new items a month and 1+ monster a week.

[silverskyy]

my contribution to yesterday's Make A Terrible Comic Day, about my blorbos, Izz and Candor!

if the text is hard to read an ID is in the alt text and beneath the read more

id: an amateurly drawn ink comic with 8 panels, the last 2 smaller than the rest.

panel 1: center aligned text reading "Make a Terrible Comic Day AKA "Have You Heard the Good Word" by silverskyy (not an artist)". in the spaces around the text are speech bubbles reading "wow", "so cool", and "aaaahhhh!!!!!!!", as well as a simple sketch of the creator's head.

panel 2: a fullbody sketch of the creator, very basic in quality. they have short hair, glasses, and a wide open mouth, with their arms raised in excitement. text above them reads "have you heard the good word about my favorite little guys?". in large underlined text to their left is the name Izz and to their right is the name Candor.

panel 3: a headshot sketch of Izz. arrows are pointing to it from text reading "they/them", "32", "changeling", "a crude copy of the official art made by my partner (a real artist!)", and "this is Izz! [the name is circled] a former assassin, now good guy paladin. LOADS of trauma, especially from their idol/savior/love being murdered by their sibling who they then killed from grief".

panel 4: a headshot of Candor. arrows are pointing to it from text reading "he/him", "totally normal tiefling", "32 but actually 12", "this is so bad [sad crying emoticon] he's actually handsome I promise", and "this is Candor! [the name is circled] a mental recreation of Izz's dead love who they intended to replace them. when he remembered this he instead dedicated himself to protecting Izz. he's an incredibly kind and helpful person, basically a caricature of a good guy".

panel 5: a header reading "other notable people", with a flower on one side and a bug on the other. following is a bullet point list, with the names circled.

 • Veylan: the dead love, a good man but not as perfect as Izz thinks

 • Karim: another identity of Izz's, who spent time with Veylan more than Izz. autistic, loves bugs and other critters

 • Yan: Izz's 2nd sibling, younger, abandoned when Izz left. free of the family now but their relationship is complicated. Izz would do anything for them [next to this bullet point is a broken heart]

panel 6: a header reading "but wait! there's more!", with a dripping dagger on one side and a circle with a radiating aura on the other. large, centered text beneath reads "VARNA", followed by text reading "a scary elven assassin who has used this changeling family to extend the lifespan of her identity. they train to emulate her and eventually the Varna in their brains kills and replaces them. The Singularity [this last phrase is circled]". underneath is a small stick figure sketch. one figure with pointy ears pokes a blade through a gap at a figure with horns; an arrow points down to that same figure on the ground with a pool beneath it. text beside it reads "(varna killing candor that one time. he found his body later it was weird)".

panel 7: a header reading "I love them" with hearts and exclamation points on either side. beneath is text reading "my favoritist characters since 2022", "I literally have a heart locket with their pictures", and "Blorbo Brain Is Real", as well as a sketch of a heart locket.

panel 8: text reading "for more info go to strangeite.tumblr.com" and "tags to check out: [two drawn eye emojis]". following is a collection of bullet points:

 • izz et al

 • shadowhawk sibs

 • izz and candor

 • replaced my heartbeat with your name

 • worshipping at the altar of veylan

 • I am both wound and knife

a closed off area then reads "the end!".

[keycomicbooks]

Here are some comics I picked up today.  Dollar bin and Regular priced ones:

#DCShowcase '93, #SgtRock #19, #Batman: Day of Judgment #1, #Shadowhawk II #1, #REDHOOD THE HILL #1, Incredible #Hulk  #9, The Displaced #1, INFERNALS #1, The Flash #6 Cover D Matt Taylor Card Stock Variant, #WhatIfVenom #1 #PauloSiqueira Foil Variant, #PowerGirl #6 Cover E #CarlaCohen Foil Variant, #MILESMORALES #SPIDERMAN #17 Variant Cover,  #SpiderPunk #ArmsRace #1, #ScarletWitch & #Quicksilver #1 #RoseBesch Variant, #Predator The Last Hunt #1 #FrancescoManna Variant, #NightThrasher #1 #DaviGo #BlackHistoryMonth Variant, #MansBest #1, #FireandIce #Teegra #1, #EdgeofSpiderVerse #1 #DerrickChew #SpiderGwen Variant & Regular Cover with #WeaponVIII on cover, #ArmyofDarknessForever #5, #Alien Black, White & Blood #1 #ElenaCasagrande Variant, #PENTHOUSECOMICS #1, #TheSavageSwordofConan #1 Cover B #Zaffino, #ELVIRA MEETS #HPLOVECRAFT #1 photo cover, BLASFAMOUS #1 Artgerm Variant

[myah--reads]

𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐎𝐎𝐍 ⠀ 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝑬𝑨𝑳 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒓 by Jesse Slade is book 4 in the 𝑵𝒐 𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒚 𝑫𝒂𝒚 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔, and releasing October 12th! ⠀ This book is interconnected and can be read as a standalone. Continue reading for blurb, tropes, and links!

𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗥𝗕: ⠀ The Woman Who Hates Him Is The Savior He Desires ⠀ Juliette “Jett” Donovan vowed she'd never fall in love again––not after she had her heart ripped out by the first man she ever loved. The man whose name she refuses to speak. ⠀ Twelve years later, Jett is highly skilled sniper and Black Ops Operator working for Shadowhawk Security. She's on her last mission looking forward to retiring from a dangerous life in the shadows. But she's delayed when fate unexpectedly drops the man from her past right in the middle of her mission. ⠀ Navy SEAL Patrick “Jax” Morgan never expected to see Juliette Donovan again. When he's captured by terrorists, he's shocked to find his butt-kicking savior is the sweet, innocent, mild-mannered girl from his past. ⠀ After being forced to spend time together, Jax can't deny the powerful chemistry they share. He wants nothing more than to get to know Jett. But can he break through her walls and convince his enemy with benefits to trust him and give him a second chance?

•Forced Proximity •Second Chance •Enemy with Benefits •He Falls First •Past Comes Back to Haunt Her •Butt-Kicking Female Lead •Dual POV

𝙏𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙎𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙪𝙥𝙨: https://bit.ly/3K5aAm8 ⠀ 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙤𝙬 𝙖𝙩: https://a.co/d/8u7j7lc ⠀ 𝘼𝙙𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙏𝘽𝙍: https://bit.ly/43sQFoc

[feelinggood]

New Comics Day

I haven't posted my new comics in quite some time, so here's everything since April:

April:

Amazing Spider-man #1

Miles Morales: Spider-man #37

Ben Reilly: Spider-man #4

Silk #4

Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #2

Spider-Punk #1

Devil's Reign #6

Avengers #55

Avengers Forever #5

Captain America #0

Iron Man #19

Fantastic Four #42

Moon Knight #10

Black Widow #15

Black Panther #5

May:

Amazing Spider-man #2

Miles Morales: Spider-man #38

Silk #5

Savage Spider-man #3

Spider-Punk #2

Devil's Reign: Omega

Avengers #56

Avengers Forever #6

Captain America: Symbol Of Truth #1

Fantastic Four #43

Moon Knight #11

Moon Knight: Black White & Blood #1

Black Panther #6

The Marvels #10

June:

Amazing Spider-man #3, #4, and #5

Miles Morales: Spider-man #39

Ben Reilly: Spider-man #5

Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #3

Savage Spider-man #4

Avengers #57

Avengers Forever #7

Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty #1

Captain America: Symbol Of Truth #2

Iron Man #20

Iron Man & Hellcat Annual #1

Fantastic Four #44

Moon Knight #12

Moon Knight: Black White & Blood #2

Black Panther #7

The Marvels #11

July:

Amazing Spider-man #6

Miles Morales: Spider-man #40

Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #4

Savage Spider-man #5

Spider-Punk #3

AXE: Eve Of Judgment #1, AXE: Judgment Day #1

Avengers #58

Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty #2

Captain America: Symbol Of Truth #3

Iron Man #21

Daredevil #1

Fantastic Four #45

Moon Knight #13

Moon Knight: Black White & Blood #3

The Marvels #12

August:

Amazing Spider-man #7 and #8

Miles Morales: Spider-man #41

Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse #5

Spider-Punk #4

Edge Of Spider-Verse #1 and #2

AXE: Judgment Day #2 and #3

Avengers #59

Avengers Forever #8

Avengers: 1000000 BC #1

Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty #3

Captain America: Symbol Of Truth #4

Iron Man #22

Daredevil #2

Fantastic Four #46

Moon Knight #14

Moon Knight: Black White & Blood #4

Black Panther #8

September:

Amazing Spider-man #9 and #10

Miles Morales: Spider-man #42

Spider-Punk #5

Edge Of Spider-Verse #3 and #4

AXE: Judgment Day #4 and #5, AXE: Avengers #1

Avengers #60

Avengers Forever #9

All-Out Avengers #1

Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty #4

Captain America: Symbol Of Truth #5

Iron Man #23

Daredevil #3

Fantastic Four #47

Moon Knight #15

Black Panther #9

Last Shadowhawk #1

October:

Amazing Spider-man #11 and #12

Edge Of Spider-Verse #5

Spider-man #1

AXE: X-men #1, AXE: Eternals #1, AXE: Judgment Day #6

Avengers #61

All-Out Avengers #2

Captain America: Sentinel Of Liberty #5

Captain America: Symbol Of Truth #6

Iron Man #24

Daredevil #4

Fantastic Four #48

Moon Knight #16 and Annual #1

Black Panther #10

[artverso]

Bill Sienkiewicz - The Last Shadowhawk 

[graphicpolicy]

Around the Tubes

Some comic related news and reviews from around the web to start the day #comics #comicbooks

Its was new comic book day yesterday! What’d you all get? What’d you like? Sound off in the comments below! While you think about that, here’s some comic related news and reviews from around the web. Kotaku – Spider-Man Remastered Modder Banned For Letting Players Remove The Pride Flag – Lets see how the bigots react Cotton. Reviews Comicbook – 20th Century Men #1Comicbook – Avengers 1,000,000…

[fantomcomics]

What’s Out This Week? 8/17

WHY IS TIME MOVING SO FAST

20th Century Men #1 (of 6) -  Deniz Camp & S. Morian

At the end of the 20th century, superheroes, geniuses, madmen, and activists rush towards WWIII! A Soviet "iron" hero, a superpowered American president, an insane cyborg soldier, an Afghan woman hellbent on building a better life for her people-these strange yet familiar beings collide in a story that mixes history, politics, and comic book mythology into something totally new. Welcome to 20TH CENTURY MEN, where the edges of our reality and fiction touch, overlap...and then explode.

Chilling Adventures Presents: Jinx’s Grim Fairy Tales #1 -  Magdalene Visaggio, Craig Cermak, Eva Cabrera & Vic Malhotra

Teen Jinx Holliday is Riverdale's go-to babysitter. The (often unruly) kids that she watches over always change, seemingly for the better. The key to her success? Her book of unique fairy tales, all of which tell a moralistic story-usually grim, gruesome ones that frighten the children with Jinx as the star of each and every one. What sinister, I mean, serious lessons will she teach her wards?

Crash & Troy #1 (of 4) -  Jarred Lujan & Paris Alleyne

Intergalactic mercenaries Rex "Crash" Ballard and Troy 3.0 find themselves in hot water after a prison break on Wexia-1 sets free the dictator of Wexia-2. Now they must clean up their mess or find themselves locked up. This means working with Chief Fiona Alvarez of the Earth Defense Forces to recapture Supreme Leader Jongil and stop interplanetary war. No sweat for two pros like Crash & Troy!

Parasomnia: The Dreaming God #1 (of 4) -  Cullen Bunn & Andrea Mutti

Cullen Bunn (Harrow County) and Andrea Mutti (Bunny Mask) return with their hit adventure tale of two worlds split between dreams and reality. As the hunt for his missing son continues, our hero shifts worlds from the nightmarish Lovecraftian dreamscape to a cyberpunk metropolis where a ruthless cult continues to plague him, and reality and fantasy continue to blur.

The Life & Death of The Brave Captain Suave #1 -  Joseph Sieracki & Kelly Williams

In this action-packed, debut issue, we are introduced to the madness and heroism that is Captain Suave! A champion beyond measure, Captain Suave's journey follows a modern-day retelling of Cervantes's classic, Don Quixote, only this hero is convinced that he is a Golden Age superhero. Ready yourself for an adventure that must be seen to be believed, as Captain Suave and his trusty sidekick, Champ, battle the imaginary forces of evil in Cleveland, Ohio!

The Last Shadowhawk One-shot -  Philip Tan, Brian Haberlin & Daniel Henriques

In the not-too-distant future, the world will be just as it is today...only worse. Evil has permeated the very fabric of society, from the halls of government to the darkened alleyways. Will the heroes who once defended the downtrodden fail them now? Will a new generation rise, inspired by the last of the old? Who will be THE LAST SHADOWHAWK?

Crossover #1 3D Special -  Donny Cates & Geoff Shaw

Imagine everything you thought was fantasy...was real. Now, join us in a world where reality is dead-and anything is possible... The powerhouse creative team of DONNY CATES (Venom, Thor), GEOFF SHAW (GOD COUNTRY, Thanos Wins), DEE CUNNIFFE (REDNECK), and JOHN J. HILL (NAILBITER) is proud to present the bestselling first issue of CROSSOVER in THREE GLORIOUS DIMENSIONS! This special edition uses a magical KLC Press 3D process and includes custom glasses for your viewing pleasure. Plus, an ALL-NEW story (also in 3D) with new revelations about the Dome, written by DONNY CATES and illustrated by MEGAN HUTCHISON-CATES.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance #1 -  Brett Murphy, Wilson Gandolpho, & Niko Walter

Since the capture of King Wenceslaus IV by his half brother, King Sigismund, the Kingdom of Bohemia is in disarray. The once peaceful Kingdom is now filled with screams of terror as King Sigismund and his army, full of Cuman mercenaries, slaughter those who oppose him. Sigismund is aided by Istvan Toth and his bandit army, as they are able to raid the recently destroyed villages for silver and weapons while also bringing fear to Wenceslaus loyalists. Find out what happened in the events leading to the hit video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance, in the upcoming comic series, Kingdom Come: Deliverance "Death Upon Us".

Jimmy’s Little Bastards #1 -  Garth Ennis, Russell Braun & Andy Clarke

After the shattering events of his last adventure, Jimmy is on extended leave from British Intelligence-sliding slowly into middle age, with carpet slippers, tragic sweater and cup of cocoa to match. The formerly sexist superspy is even reevaluating his attitude to women! His daughter (Don't say it! Don't you dare say it!) Nancy is taking up the slack in fine style, cutting a bloody swathe through the Regent rogues' gallery. But a mysterious message starts Jimmy looking into his family's murky past...where he finds a clue to a strange and deadly new danger.

Whatcha grabbing this week, Fantomites?

[floridageekscene]

Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Shadowhawk With Special One-shot - The Last Shadowhawk - Out In August

Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Shadowhawk With Special One-shot – The Last Shadowhawk – Out In August

[austinramsaygames]

I won another Alpha Strike tournament! This one was 350PV and Clan Invasion again.

I'll do another deep dive into how it went but for now here's 3 big moments.

First game was in an extremely dense city:

And I had the city side. For anything without jumpjets or VTOL movement the only way past the wall was the highway or a tunnel in the centre and my opponent only had two with JJs. The highlight here was taking out first a Marauder and then a Marauder IIC as they came over the wall on via the highway with a horrendous amount of Indirect Fire. This was what really clued me in to how good the massed IF was.

2. Second match was on a more open board but there was still lots of Line Of Sight blocking terrain:

This angle is actually pretty much what my side of the board was. I split my 3 biggest direct fire damage dealers (2 SRM Carriers and a Stalker) between the two firing lanes on either side of the centre mountain. While the side on the left with the SRM Carrier and Stalker was a bit too much firepower and deterred my opponent from taking that lane (useful in its own right), The lone SRM carrier on the right sat behind a tree and helped take out 2 Von Luckner tanks, an Atlas C (the variant I ran last tournament), and a Shadowhawk.

3. Last highlight is also from the second match. My two Cavalry VTOLs spent most of the match in the back lines of my opponent. At effectively TMM5 with a movement of 20" they easily broke LOS with most units they wanted to, and even when they didn't most attacks were hitting at around Target Number 9. So hits were rare and since they have *some* armor they could take a bit of scuffing.

Nothing in match 3 was of particular highlight, mostly because it was a bloody, knock down, drag out fight from the start.

The opponent destroyed 5 of my 12 while the two prior opponents only destroyed 2. I even lost both my SRM carriers in the first turn. This happened because the deployment of the scenario had us split our forces between opposite corners and place them within 12" of the corner, so there was only 24" between our forces from the jump.

That's it for now, deep dive sometime later this week.

I won a 300PV Clan Invasion era Alpha Strike tournament!

The three biggest moments, two from the second game and one from the third/final:

1) Commando and Wolfhound defeating a Black Knight and Grasshopper by playing the firing arcs and LOS blocking terrain (plus a LOT of luck for the Commando)

2) Berserker meleeing a Demolisher tank for an ammo Crit kill and then doing the same to an SRM carrier the next turn.

3) With its dying breath the Warhammer split fire at short range, overheating for 7 damage, and destroyed a Flashman AND Guillotine.

Hard to judge what I would change. The only unit that underperformed was the Hatchetman but I *expect* that. Its jump capability, inexpensiveness, and relatively high armor still made it useful as area denial and drawing aggro from more useful units.

EDIT: just found out that the guy who came in second had 9 Victory points from the 3 rounds. I had *28*.

[hoothalcyon]

The Ruthari Archive/Every Canon/Semi-Canon Ruthari Fact (1/?)

disclaimer: this was made for archival purposes for fan artists, fanfic writers, fandom theorists, or just fans of ruthari in general! this is the first of (hopefully many) lists on this topic to come. if a certain fact is incorrect and I've made a mistake, please refrain from coming after me for "spreading misinformation."

the semi-canon category exists because some additional head canons or ideas shared by the staff have been given the "not entirely canon" disclaimer.

enjoy, and happy shipping!

Sources:

Show

Callum's Spellbook

Podcasts

Tumblr 

Lunabloom (short story)

Website 

Twitter 

Canon facts:

Ethari made Runaan’s bowblade, pendant, and heartbloom. The pendant contains a magical moon opal which allows its user to use Moonshadow spells. He also made the Shadowhawk that Runaan uses in s1 e3 to communicate with Zubeia. [show and website]

They have matching pendants. [show]

They are married.

They live in a treehouse together.

They each have a pet—Shadowpaw and Moonstrider, respectively.

They were given care of Rayla after Tiadrin and Lain left to be a part of the Dragonguard. Rayla was 8. Before then, they had been present in her life since her birth. [spellbook]

They promised their hearts to each other in a field of Lunablooms. [lunabloom]

They have been together for any amount of years additional to 7. [spellbook + Bloodmoon huntress]

It makes Ethari sad when Runaan gets injured during training. [lunabloom] 

Ethari uses a Sun’s Tears healing salve to treat his husband’s injuries. [lunabloom] 

Runaan collects stones for Ethari as a gift. [lunabloom] 

They forage summer fruits together with Rayla. [lunabloom] 

They disagreed about Runaan bringing Rayla on the mission to Katolis. [show]

Ethari has gems in his horn cuffs that match Runaan’s eye colour. [show]

Runaan and Ethari go for a picnic with Rayla each year to celebrate Runaan’s birthday. [website]

(For Runaan’s birthday): “Ethari has a little tradition: he crafts a tiny metal trinket for Runaan every year. He made the first long before they were married: a tiny jeweled mouse (a joke, as Ethari had often said that Runaan was too quiet, like a mouse). The next, a moonstrider cub (he knew Runaan liked them, he’d seen the young assassin pet them when he thought no one was looking). Later, a songbird, for affection. After they’d married, a tiny silver heartbloom flower…Last year, he’d made his gift while Runaan was away on his dire mission in the human kingdoms: a three-eyed nightfox. A hunter, a beast of deadly fang, its crystal eyes glinting pale green and tail a swirl of coiled black wire…Ethari makes another [after season 1], and sets it beside the dark metal fox: the tear-shaped leaf of a weeping tree, wilting at its end.” [website]

The spellbook lists Ethari as first in Runaan’s list of ‘likes’, and a tweet from the official account states the same, vice versa. [spellbook and twitter] 

It has been said that the pendant Ethari made for Runaan was made to protect him when Ethari isn’t there to do so. [Tumblr]

Runaan is a Taurus and Ethari is a Virgo; highly compatible star signs which were purposely chosen. [twitter]

They each have mugs corresponding to the other’s main colour. [bloodmoon huntress]

Ethari can easily make his usually stoic husband smile. [show]

Their wedding is said to have involved a lot of dancing. [Tumblr]

Semi-canon:

It has been said that Runaan fits the trope “duty before love” before becoming “saved by love.” [twitter]

Believing that Runaan is dead has caused Ethari the worst grief that he has ever encountered. [podcast]

Ethari braids Runaan's hair. [twitter]

Extras 

In the official twitter account’s Pokemon AU, Ruthari are a part of the elite four and make up a pairs team. Runaan has an Aegislash and Ethari has a Doublade. 

There is a Spotify playlist made for them by the lead writer. 

[smashpages]

Image Comics will release The Last ShadowHawk next month, which they are billing as the final appearance ever of Jim Valentino’s debut Image character, ShadowHawk. And one of the variant covers for the one-shot will feature the very first cover Valentino drew for the first issue of ShadowHawk 30 years ago, before he decided to use the iconic helmet image that became the cover. This variant will feature inks by Valentino’s Image co-founder, Todd McFarlane, while the back cover will feature the original helmet drawing with inks by another Image co-founder, Rob Liefeld.  

Read more

[raayllum]

Could the Death!Shadowhawk have played a role in Zubeia falling into a slumber?

Possibly! I’ve always thought that Zubeia wanting to have Harrow and Ezran killed was a bit of an emotional last ditch effort. It had been four months since the loss of her mate and baby (but we see how Harrow held onto his hurt and anger for 9 years, until it was viable to act on it with the right tools) so she likely waited until winter was over for easier travel for the assassins. As well as her guilt over not being there when her family was killed (which Harrow also experienced with Sarai! “It should’ve been me”), I expect that finding out the best team of assassins couldn’t complete the job, and the loss that had hurt even more - the loss of her baby, not even hatched from his egg on the day he’d first been possibly laid - hadn’t even been ‘avenged’... I think that was the beginning of the end for Zubeia. At that point, in her mind, what else did she have to live for?

[tenspontaneite]

Wish Fulfilment (Chapter 1/?)

Rayla woke up in a tiny body in a tiny bed, blinked, looked at her tiny hands, and said “Right.”

(Time travel; indulgent and light-hearted. Ao3 link)

---

  Rayla woke up in a tiny body in a tiny bed, blinked, looked at her tiny hands, and said “Right.”

She spent the next few days taking stock of herself, the time-frame, her living situation, and her own abilities. She was a pipsqueak, lacking the advantages of a decade of training and conditioning, but she’d been a scrappy thing even at this age – climbing trees, making a nuisance of herself, getting hardier and more agile than most bairns did, and so on. She scrambled experimentally about some trees for a while, and assessed her stealth by mud-bombing the townspeople she disliked, and in the end decided that it would do just fine.

Her parents had joined the Dragonguard recently, and judging by her age, Callum must have lost his mother only a month or two ago. She regretted that she couldn’t have stopped that, but, well. Nothing to be done.

She spent a further week stealing supplies, testing herself, and getting ready. The Moon answered her when she called on it, even so close to its darkest phase. Magic answered too, when she begrudgingly tested the spells Callum had bullied her into learning. It would be enough.

She left a note for Ethari and Runaan that read ‘I know you’ll never listen if I tell you not to look for me, so just try not to waste too much time, alright? I’m fine.’ She took a moment to feel disconcerted at her history of leaving notes and disappearing, then added ‘Sorry. Try not to worry. I’ll see if I can send letters or something.’ With that in mind she took a brief detour into Ethari’s workshop and stole a shadowhawk. With that tucked into her pack, she did some last-minute checks of her supplies and headed out.

First on her agenda was heading North-East and breaking up her trail. Runaan would absolutely try to follow her, so she made it as hard for him as she possibly could, laying false trails, disturbing the true ones, and dunking herself in every body of water she could find to break up the chance of the family Moonstrider being able to track her. He’d probably still find his way through the first leg of her journey, but that was okay. She could live with that.

Rayla arrived at the mountainous plains on the edge of Lux Aurea a week later, finding with satisfaction what she’d expected to: vast tracts of farmland, developed for the feeding of the equally vast population of the golden city. It took a further day to find the farm itself, whereupon she broke in, ambushed the residents, and made some very uncompromising demands.

The Sunfire farmers looked so bewildered at having been hogtied and extorted by a baby-faced Moonshadow child that they offered absolutely no resistance except plaintive questions like ‘where are your parents’, or ‘are you okay’, or ‘do you need any help’. In the end Rayla departed with her packs three bags of seeds heavier, and also stole a Sunfin on her way out. She flew on the placid creature for three days due West before running afoul of the Sunfire army.

Rayla spent eight disgruntled hours in the custody of those soldiers, refusing to talk, until they finally left a twin-tailed inferno-tooth tiger to guard her while they went off to send letters to their superiors, trusting the guard-cat’s intelligence and ferocity to be equal to the task of keeping watch on a wee Moonshadow bairn. This turned out to be a mistake.

Within an hour, the animal was eyeing her with interest. Within two, it had drifted close to sniff at her. “What’re you looking at?” She demanded, in her tiny irritable child-voice, and that was when the thing instantly and very plainly took a liking to her. She spent ten minutes grumbling loudly about being sat on by a giant cat, then finally conceded to pragmatism and started using its tail-flames to burn through her ties. They’d only used rope, not wanting to restrain a child too sternly. It was very helpful stupidity on their part.

Rayla escaped on the cat and was only mildly singed by the ordeal. Later, after a day of very enthusiastic pursuit-evasion, she settled down with said cat and eyed it with resignation. “You’re not leaving, are you.” She said. It licked her with a sandpapery tongue almost as big as her entire face, and that was answer enough. She sighed. “Well, it’ll make the journey a lot faster, I suppose.” She decided. “But you’re going to be a pain to hide.”

Unconcerned, it rubbed its face against her insistently enough to push her over. But she’d grown up with a shadowpaw, so she was used to that.

Rayla, who was not good at naming things, named it Cat.

 ---

 Brightly-coloured cats with two flaming tails were not stealthy. They just weren’t. Cheerfully unaware of how inconvenient this was, Cat spent the next two weeks ruining her efforts at stealth by roaring at inconvenient times, following her when she’d told it to stay put, and in general by being constantly on fire. As such she arrived in the Pentarchy and crossed the Weeping Bay with considerably more flair than she’d have preferred, but at least the tails eliminated the need for campfires. It had obviously been used to cook food before, and tolerated the experience very agreeably, if it had also been fed.

On the third week she finally figured out that the thing had been trained with Luçais commands, and muddled her way through her extremely bare vocabulary in the language to finally get Cat to follow basic directions. With the ability to tell it to stay put somewhere while she went off to do something else, things went much better. She disappeared into the mountain range on Cat’s wings, choosing the least-populated route she could manage, and in the end managed to approach Katolis castle with no one the wiser that she was there.

Finding somewhere to leave Cat proved challenging, though. She briefly considered the alcove in the cliff under the castle, but dismissed it on grounds that someone would notice the roaring eventually. Cat was a noisy bastard. Eventually she resigned herself to the fact that she’d just need to relocate it periodically, and left it in a relatively well-concealed ditch with a freshly-killed deer corpse to occupy it.

Rayla waited till nightfall for the first excursion, calling on the Moon to turn her skin to shadows, and stalked down the castle halls, learning it as it was in this time. Learning the guard stations, the patrol patterns, its rhythms and sounds. She was half-way to checking whether Callum still had the right room at this age when she stopped in the middle of the hallway, goosebumps raising up in lines over her arms, feeling a vast and familiar presence passing over her mind. She slumped with relief.

“Ezran.” She murmured, more thankful than words could say. “So you made it back too.”

Being a baby had apparently not agreed with him, because he seemed to lack the control and finesse he’d developed with age. Instead his ability brushed at her in vague sweeps of feeling and intent, saying relief and frustration and this way. She followed his lead to the nursery where he was kept, his guards pressed into sleep by his far-reaching touch.

She looked down at him in his cot, so tiny she wasn’t even sure if he could crawl, and raised an eyebrow. “Somehow, you’re even tinier than I expected.”

“Ee,” he expressed sourly, blinking up at her with eyes that looked too big for his face. Babies were so weird. His hands reached up and made grabby motions at her, so obediently she leaned in and let him slap one baby hand onto her cheek. With the skin contact, it got a lot clearer.

Been here months, he seemed to complain, along with a rush of gratitude/relief/fondness at seeing her. Couldn’t do anything/missed you/been awful.

“How many months?” She asked with interest, and after a little back-and-forth managed to surmise that he’d awakened in his body very shortly after the titan-slaying party had departed for Xadia. She winced, entirely aware of how terrible that must have been for him. “I’m sorry, Ez.”

His little baby face screwed up, as if he was going to start crying. He almost did, but then seemed to summon the will to suppress the infant-body’s powerful instincts before it actually got going. Really sucked, he managed to express, with a little echo of his helplessness and anger. Then, subverbal: an impression of the heavy miasma of grief that had hung over the castle. Harrow crying, Callum crying.

She inhaled sharply. “Callum-“ she couldn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t make it back? She thought, numbly, and that was as good as saying it, with Ezran touching her.

He blinked wide ice-blue eyes at her. Hasn't yet/getting worried, he said, tangled up in the impression he had that she’d arrived later than him, hadn’t she, so maybe, maybe Callum would join them eventually too. He hoped. But time was passing and he was afraid.

She closed her eyes. Exhaled. “Did Zym make it?” Yes, he had. “Can you talk to him the same? Reach past him?” Talking: yes, but it was hard. Reaching: no. “Okay. We can work with that.” She hesitated, steeling herself, not thinking about Callum. “I’ve got a hotcat a little bit past the castle. Think you can convince it not to make noise?” She asked, half-heartedly.

Ezran blinked again. Then he looked delighted, a wide baby grin spreading across his face. He nearly bowled her over with the wave of enthusiasm and approval for her having made a proper animal friend, and expressed his intention to begin communing with said animal at once.

Rayla nodded a little, still tightly controlling her reaction to the news about Callum, and after a moment reached into the cot to lift Ezran up under his wee chubby baby arms. He made a surprised gurgle at her, then burped contentedly when she hugged him, patting her clumsily on the shoulder. He was so bloody little. It was making her annoyingly emotional. Damn it, Callum, she thought to herself, get back here already so you can look at how tiny your brother is with me.

Ez sighed, patting her with mental impressions of hope and affection and subdued sadness. Then he told her, though not in as many words, that Cat was a terrible name and someone really needed to make fun of her for it.

Rayla huffed and set him back down again. “Shush, you.” She said gruffly, and hesitated. “I’ll…come back to see you tomorrow, alright? Maybe in the day this time.” She had to get an idea of the daytime watch rotations too, after all. She still wasn’t sure what the plan was, but taking someone hostage might well end up being part of it. That would be a lot easier, with Ez on board. A lot of things would be easier.

A little spitefully, to let off steam, she made one final stop before leaving the castle that night: she broke into Viren’s rooms and stole one each of three pairs of his boots. She took these back to Cat and watched it maul the boots in question with a great deal of satisfaction.

Cat did quiet down after whatever Ezran communicated to it, but unfortunately also decided that if it wasn’t going to announce its presence by roaring, it had to do it some other way. This was how Cat ended up spraying the brambles at the edge of the ditch in urine, and incidentally also how Rayla discovered that it was a male. Thereafter the area stank too much for her to linger in, so she had to go off to sleep in a nearby tree, beyond the warmth of Cat’s burning tails. Rayla woke the next morning with a pronounced crick in her neck, grumbled a little, then went back to work.  

  ---

 Notes:

So this story exists because I made myself Really Sad about five year old Callum when writing the latest chapter (21) of piaj, and then made myself Even Sadder by promptly writing a future scene where Callum talked about said period of his life to Rayla, and then out of abject desperation I fired up a fresh document and started writing this to comfort myself.

Setting background: canon, but with worldbuilding borrowed from piaj. Future Rayla was somewhere in the region of 18+ years old, unspecified. Circumstances of the future and method of time travel left extremely deliberately vague. I have every intention of playing as fast and loose with this story as I can possibly manage; I already have one exhaustive and meticulous tdp work and I’m not interested in reallocating my brainpower from that to this.

Warning: what plans I have for this story heavily feature piaj worldbuilding that I consider pretty critical to the setting, and also unlikely to come out any time soon. Therefore, it’s pretty guaranteed that I’ll get two or three chapters in to publishing this and then have to keep the rest to myself for the next four years while piaj progresses.

 Other details:

Sunfin: a creature I came up with for piaj worldbuilding. It cannot breathe, and uses Sun magic in place of respiratory processes. If kept indoors it will die very quickly. It’s unintelligent and usually lives at high altitudes and will not generally touch the ground in its lifetime, but can be trained for use in farming, where it’s very useful in dispersing large amounts of Stuff (i.e. water, seeds, fertiliser) over a field from the sky. They’re basically crop dusters. Concept and name inspired by the Skyfin from endless legend. Looks somewhat more like a cross between an air shark and manta ray though.

Ezran: future Ezran in this setting was very, very powerful. Less so now that he’s a one year old baby. Rip.

Rayla: future Rayla learned how to use Moonshadow form at most times of the month, and in addition was eventually nagged by Callum into learning some spells. She uses them as part of her stealth repertoire but doesn’t consider herself a mage.

Callum: is baby.

Cat: a twin tailed inferno tooth tiger, highly trained, and in use by the Lux Aurea military as a war mount prior to his desertion in this story. They had a different name for him, but he rather prefers ‘Cat’.

Luçais: piaj worldbuilding; this is the in universe name for the French language as Draconic is the in universe name for Latin. Spoken by many Sunfire elves.