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takaraphoenix · 7 years ago

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Brief Biography

I feel suuuper rude that this wasn’t my first post on this site? Like? Where are your manners, you weren’t raised in a barn? So lemme introduce myself!

Some things I’m being asked frequently and just some general little facts about me, I guess that this is the best place to put them., Since my profile is always being abused for updating-schedules and such things. Also, let’s be real, I’m incapable of ‘brief’ so get comfy guys.

First of all, I’m a girl. Woman. I think that with 25 - I’m 25, by the way, which probably makes me a grandma on the internet, doesn’t it? - I should probably start referring to myself as that. Meh. I’m a lady. There, so much better. Other titles I answer to include goddess, high priestess of Nicercy, queen or majesty. Really, I’m totally not picky.

I’m also a lesbian. Not sure why my sexuality matters, but I am being asked about it often. I’m also the kind of author who legitimately lays on her floor laughing whenever she gets anonymous flames about my stories “being sooo gay” and me being “sooo gay”. Like, lol, sure, those stories are literally two dudes kissing and fucking? Can’t get much gayer? And I’m a rainbow-wielding lesbian? Can’t get much gayer either? Was this stating of facts meant to insult me? I am confused?

My username means a lot to me. The magenta-colored fox on my avatar is Takara, my namesake. She is kind of my mascot. So you can find me under that username on all the sites I'm on - Takara-Phoenix on DeviantArt, Takara Phoenix on fanfiction.net, Takara_Phoenix on AO3.

I’m from Germany, as those of you who are more closely familiar with my stories probably already know becuase I like to slip some German into my stories when the opportunity comes up.

I’m a poor little college student on her way to become a “high school” teacher (air-quotes because German school DOES NOT RESSEMBLE HIGH SCHOOL. What the fuck is wrong with the American school system. When I was a kid in elementary school, I was fucking terrified about secondary education because of high school TV shows and movies with all the bullying and the separation into “cool” and “uncool” groups and the clubs and that cafeteria thing with the traumatizing food and jocks and cheerleaders! We also don’t have things like multiple choice tests and high school lasts 8 years here if you do it right, so there’s that too).

I’m neither a cat-person nor a dog-person. I’m a bunny-person. Seriously, show me pictures of your cat and dog, I will be bored and annoyed, but if you gimme a floppy-eared little ball of precious fluff with its wiggly nose and I will swoon and fawn over it for hours.

Literally everything I own is purple. From the paint on my walls to my curtains and chair and pillows and blankets and glasses and even my damn laptop. If it’s purple, chances are I’ll pick it up or buy it. I think that’s why I relate to Percy Jackson so well, because of his obsession with blue. I’m just a little more hardcore than him.

Let’s move on to random favorites of mine, just because I like listing those kinda things.

Top 5 favorite pairings:

Favorite gays: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Shere Khan/Bagheera (Jungle Book), Hiccup Haddock/Jack Frost (How to Train Your Dragon/Rise of the Guardians), Roy Harper/Dick Grayson (everything DC-related, I’d also retcon Dick into the Arrow-verse), Kurt Hummel/Noah Puckerman (Glee)

Favorite lesbians: Elphaba Thropp/Galinda Upland (Wicked), Regina Mills/Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time), Tenho Haruka/Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon), Cat Grant/Kara Danvers (Supergirl, Arrow-verse but honestly I’d take it everywhere DC-related), Shego/Kim Possible (Kim Possible)

Favorite straights: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak (Arrow-verse, but I’d retcon her into literally everything DC-related for the sake of Olicity), Hades/Persephone (everywhere; Percy Jackson, Disney, myths, Class of Titans), Discord/Pinkie Pie (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), Clark Kent/Diana Prince (the DC animated movie universe, but really retconned into EVERYTHING DC), Ladybug/Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug)

Favorite threesomes: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland (Shadowhunters), Mick Rory/Leonard Snart/Barry Allen (Flash, Arrow-verse, but again everywhere DC please), Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark (MCU, Avengers Assemble, but really everywhere Marvel), Shiro/Keith/Lance (Voltron: Legendary Defender), Hakuba Saguru/Kuroba Kaito/Kudou Shinichi (Detective Conan, Magic Kaitou)

Favorite characters:

Male: Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who), Jace Wayland (Shadowhunters), Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians), Tony Stark (MCU, Avengers Assemble, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes)

Female: Elphaba Thropp (Wicked), Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter), Felicity Smoak (Arrow), Daenerys Targaryen (Game of Thrones), Janet van Dyne (Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, THE MCU WHERE SHE AND HANK SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN INSTEAD OF SCOTT LANG AND FUCKING USELESS HOPE VAN DYNE)

Favorite shows:

Life-action: Buffy, Relic Hunter, Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time (the show ended with the season 6 finale though), Shadowhunters

Cartoon: Disney’s Jungle Cubs, Disney’s Recess, DreamWorks’ Dragons, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes

Anime: Sailor Moon, Haikyuu!!, One Piece, Kekkai Sensen | Blood Blockade Battlefront, Magic Kaitou/all Detective Conan episodes with Kaitou KID

Favorite movies:

Anastasia, Rise of the Guardians, The Road to El Dorado, FernGully, Mulan

Favorite books:

literally everything Gregory Maguire writes, the Alice in Wonderland series (meaning the first two books by Lewis Carroll and the third book written by Gregory Maguire for the 150th anniversary of Alice), the Bartimaeus series (written by Jonathan Stroud), the Wicked-series (written by Gregory Maguire), the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (written by Rick Riordan, not including the sequels), and I swear I’ll get around to finishing The Mortal Instruments at some point too

I feel like that sums me up pretty well and I also feel like this is already way too long for a “brief” intro to who I am. I really need to learn how to keep things short. And if you read all the way up to this point, congratulations and damn I am concerned about how bored you must have been...

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zippdementia · 7 years ago

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Part 36 Alignment May Vary: Finale

Thirty six posts and over a year ago we began this crazy romp with three prisoners on a ship in the middle of the chilly Moon Sea. Now we come full circle. Karina has found and forgiven her mentor, Tyrion has cured his affliction, and their new companion Traki is about to become wrapped up forever in the machinations of the red hand...

Why did he join this group of travelers? The question hits Traki like a stone. The night before agreeing to follow the Tiefling into the mind of her mentor, he had had a vision, a true vision, the first one since he had crashed on the accursed island. In it, he had once again seen his brother Falco, who told him that the elves of his homeland had felt his presence as soon as he had left Rori Rama.

“I am coming home to you, brother,” Traki had said. But Falco had told him that no home was left. Dragons had come to the woods. Dragons had pierced the secret places, found the valley, burned it and anyone who dared to stand against them. Nor had the dragons been alone: A goblinesque creature had ridden one, a great Black Beast of a Dragon, and on his chest had been painted the symbol of a Red Hand. Home, which had existed peacefully in the forest valley for thousands of years, was gone.

The Red Hand... Traki had seen the Hand clawing at the earth in fevered visions, had seen it spreading fire across the trees and forests of the world. He had also seen three figures, indistinct in their features, stride towards the hand, bringing with them light. Three figures he had seen, and three he had found, two Tieflings and a halfing. Inauspicious heroes to be sure, but he had told his brother he could not return to him yet, that he had to go chasing the Hand. And then he had followed the female Tiefling into her dream world. The Gods had repaid his gumption by taking his eyes.

But they will not take my world.

Determined, Traki told himself he would train; every day until the exhaustion tore him into sleep he would train to learn to rely on his other senses. Blindness would not be a disability but a boon. He would not be distracted from his purpose. His enemies could hide their bodies but not their smells, their breathing, their sighs of fear as he came for them. He would follow the three of his vision and the Red Hand would fall.

First, though, there are bills to pay.

Returning the Favor

Clem and the other crew members of Twyin’s Revenge approach the companions shortly after their return from Rayden’s mind.

“There is the issue of payment,” Clem explains as they all gather. “Our crew put nearly a year of their lives into this and expected 50% of the treasure in return, as Abenthy promised Captain Krisp. We are guessing that treasure doesn’t exist...”

Clem and the crew end up demanding several things: all of the party’s gold, the ship Tywin’s Revenge, and the eye of Callax from Karina. The party is willing to give up the ship, but they are not happy about the gold and Karina refuses to give up her most precious item, so a bartering ensues. It becomes heated once, when Tyrion casts Hold Person on Clem, but quickly the party realizes they will never make it back to civilzation on their own. The crew has them in a bind.

Ultimately they settle on giving up their masterwork weapons for resale, as well as several magical items—most prominent among them Haggemoth’s Band of Intellect and Belt of Defence, Tyrion’s Ioun Stone, and Karina’s Elven Chainmail. They are hard bargains, but as the crew puts it, they were owed much much more.

It is a sullen party, thus, that makes it way back to Ottoman Docks. Rayden and Xaviee depart at the Desert Island of Thud along the way, Rayden to await Karina’s return here (she still has to claim the portion of the land that the Fuzwah of Thud gifted her) and then assist her in whatever she decides to do, and Xaviee to catch a ship back to the Elsir Vale.

“Better men than I took on this quest and did not survive,” Xaviee tells them. “I can only imagine that the gods are not done with me yet. But I also know my path no longer matches your own. Abenthy showed me that. If I see him... well, best not to dwell on it. I will return to my homeland and prepare to finish what Twyin started.”

His parting is bittersweet. He leaves a friend, but a distant one, hurt deeply by Abenthy’s turn to his demonic father.

The group arrives at Ottoman’s dock in a late afternoon turned to night by a building storm. They make their way past the docks and Rose’s old tavern (now seemingly a gambling hall) and arrive at Zennatos door. Karina pauses here. It is almost too painful to open that door. The last time she did, Abenthy was here, and Tywin with his smarmy smile and callous manner. Both gone now. No, Abenthy is not gone, only changed forever. The thought comes as she gathers her resolve and pushes her way inside.

And finds herself staring into Abenthy’s cool eyes.

“Karina. I thought we might meet here. I was just explaining to Zennatos what must happen next, and why.”

Zennatos and Abenthy sit in the crowded sitting room, facing each other from the depths of large plush armchairs. Zennatos clutches a cup of tea like it is a magic shield of protection, while Abenthy sits calmly, unmoving as a statue except for the slight turn of the head he gives to look at Karina. His skin is like a statue’s as well, deathly pale, though with a strange dullness to it. His eyes, too, once so bright, are now strangely dead. He has lost his shine.

His life. Karina thinks. He is drifting away from all that made him cherish life.

Tyrion’s thoughts are more direct: I will kill this bastard. He had not forgotten the power lost when Haggemoth’s scales were destroyed, nor the way Abenthy had blithely brushed off his attacks afterwards. It was past time for a rematch.

Traki, on the other hand, sees nothing but feels the tension in the room and decides to leave well enough alone, at least for the time being. He says nothing but listens intently as Abenthy begins to explain why Zennatos must die.

“He stole the book,” Abenthy says. “And that in turn led to death and destruction for everyone. The people of Friezorazov, enslaved now by the Giant. The paladins of the monastery, dead by our hands.”

“The Desert Island of Thud,” Tyrion shoots back. “Saved by us.”

Abenthy stared at him. “One good deed does not erase the bad.”

“And one bad deed does not erase the good,” Karina counters. “This is wrong, Abenthy. It is not for you to punish Zennatos or judge him.”

“It is for me. I am the inevitability of Justice. There is no other more able to judge.”

Karina moves suddenly and stands in front of Zennatos. Quickly, Verrick moves to her side. Abenthy looks at him, and there is a touch of sadness in his eyes.

“I see you have reunited with your lover.”

“He lives, yes.”

“Move aside, Karina. I don’t wish to hurt you. I won’t hurt you.”

“And you won’t hurt Zennatos, either.”

“That is where you are wrong.”

“Can we talk more about bringing rain to the desert?” Zennatos chimes in with a quavering voice. “That was a good topic. All the good that came from my quest, yes?”

Wings burst then from Abenthy’s back, great skeletal wings, and his eyes glow a dark red. Fear washes over the room and Zennatos yelps in fright. Karina barely manages to contain herself in time to activate her cloak of Darkness. Abenthy’s fearful visage is lost in darkness. She reaches out through it, touches Abenthy’s face. “Come back to us. Don’t choose the path of your father. Don’t do this.”

“I must,” he says, and flings her aside.

What follows here is a surprisingly even fight. Abenthy is level 10 at this point, to Karina and co’s 7 (almost 8). But he refuses to hurt them, while they can barely hope to hit him with his AC of 24 (magical items boost it). Tyrion is full of rage, attacking Abenthy over and over to little effect until he finally switches to picking away at his health with psychic damage, for one or two or three points of health at a time. On top of this, everyone is rolling at disadvantage for the darkness and so consistently ends up with less than 10′s on their dice, except for Traki who keeps punching Abenthy in the back of the head, Karina who rolls her usual natural 20s, and myself who doesn’t roll much lower than 17 for Zennatos. This leads to some very amusing situations where Abenthy continually tries to get past Karina and repeatedly gets overwhelmed by her paltry 8 (or somewhere around there) Strength and finds himself on the ground with Karina pinning him... only to shove her off and start again. Meanwhile, Zennatos is blitzing through the darkness like an idiot savant, eventually getting the idea to smash a window to make Abenthy think he has fled.

It is not quite the dramatic encounter I had hoped for, but it does speak nicely to the conflicts plaguing the party. No one really is invested in hurting each other, except Tyrion who doesn’t yet have the power to go it alone, and so the battle devolves into a depressing and uncomfortable stalemate. Karina does try to talk Abenthy out of his path by insisting that Zennatos should spend his life in attonement rather than pay for his crimes by wasting that life, and Abenthy’s player allows her one roll to try and persuade him, but as luck would have it, it’s the one low roll of the night for her, and the attempt badly fails, only strengthening Abenthy’s resolve.

In truth, I had expected that Abenthy and Tyrion would clash like Titans and Karina would get caught in the crossfire, or else Zennatos would actually be murdered before the party could stop Abenthy. Instead seeing the stalemate continue on, I decide to step in and move us along to the next part of the finale...

I Hear Bells a Ringin’

Alarm bells begin to sound all over the city. Traki, having some background as a sailor, knows the sound and what this particular peal means.

“Pirates,” he says. “Marauders attacking the docks.”

“It is the Red Hand,” Karina says from the darkness.

“The Red Hand?” Traki’s heart leaps at the words. The prophecies were true!

“Reeves,” agrees Verrick. “He has followed us around the seas and back again.”

“The pirate captain who murdered your companions?” Tyrion asks.

Shando. Targaryen. Their names plague Karina’s thoughts. “Do you hear that, Abenthy?” she asks. “It is the men who murdered the Butcher of Skagos, who worked with Rose to kidnap women and enslave them to her will and the will of Mordekai.” Whoose armor you now wear. “There is your evil. Will you fight it? Will you bring them justice?”

The silence stretches on.

“Zennatos has fled,” Abenthy says at last. “Justice will find him, but today my strength is needed elsewhere. Yes. I will fight.”

Only then does Karina let her darkness fall away. She is face to face with Abenthy again. Their eyes meet. The look that passes between them carries the weight of lost possibilities. And then he turns and is soon gone, sweeping from the room like a light extinguished.

Zennatos momentarily emerges from his hiding and stammers out a thanks, begging Karina to continue protecting him. She tells him that where she is going it is not safe. He needs to flee this place, disguise himself, and above all do good. Only attonement, she believes, will save him from Abenthy’s justice. Zennatos agrees, handing the team over 300 gold pieces to thank them for their efforts.

The players then move out into the storm. The city is alive with shouts and screams, the noise carrying over the sound of the clanging bells. In the distance a red glow signifies fire—it looks to be coming from the Lord’s fortress. They move down the street towards the docks, stopping to fight ten Ratzotto pirates and their captain in the city center, dispatching them fairly easily (proving how far they have come in the course of this adventure). By the time they reach the docks, the storm has turned into a gale, sending waves crashing over the docks, where men are fighting to the death. From one dock three pirate ships have landed and men are swarming towards the city, but there, too, the companions can see the towering figure of Abenthy, cutting down enemies as they come at him, taking on eight pirates at once, rallying the city guard to move in and handle the others. Soon, he is lost in the mayhem.

The companions head another direction, towards a ship Karina knows well. The Audacity sits at dock as she remembers it, a low sleek pirate schooner, built for speed and stealth. It is not bothering with stealth now. It has crashed itself into the docks and secured itself with grappling hooks. It rides the storm easy, as if the storm is its horse. The deck has more than a half dozen pirates on it, though these are little like the Ratzotto’s the fought in the square earlier. Months ago, Karina watched as her former friend Targaryen murdered her new ally, General Tywin of the Elsir Vale, in a drowned tower while they tried to rescue Targaryen’s sister. Targaryen and the pirates that assisted him had been changed by the power of some God of the deep, morphed into beings that seemed more at home in the ocean than on land. These pirates now reflect that same change. Some are covered in barnacles. One has blue skin. Most grin to show razor sharp teeth and some even have claws instead of fingers. And at their head stands Captain Reeves Testain, his black beard encrusted with the salt of the sea and interwoven with stalks of seaweed. His jacket is open, leaving his chest bare, his pale skin slick with rain that seems not to bother him. His smile is manic, his stare one from beyond the grave. He sees Karina...

... but before anything else can happen, Twyin’s Revenge, manned by Clem and the rest of the crew, crashes into the Audacity, knocking several of the pirates into the sea. Crossbow bolts fire across the deck, taking down several more pirates. For a moment, the battle seems won, but then the sea opens up underneath Twyin’s Revenge and a monstrous mass of tentacles wrap themselves around the Ghost Ship. Clem and the others are dragged away from the Audacity, the men cutting desperately at tentacles as thick as masts. Reeves turns his attention back to the companions and gestures, and five pirates, four men and one woman, leap off the Audacity to meet the companions on the final dock leading to the Audacity, the final bridge between the players and their destiny.

This is a fun fight. I use enemies from the Princes of Apocalypse campaign, two reavers, two dark tide knights, and one fathomer. It’s a bit of a test, too, to see how the players will do against more varied enemies and groups in the upcoming campaign. Tomb of Haggemoth has a lot of Boss Monsters (tm) and Red Hand of Doom is much more about a mixture of enemies with different classes and abilities supporting each other to make combat harder and more tactical. I want to see how that plays out here.

It is a tough fight. The reavers go down pretty quick, with Karina “leaving her mark” on one of them in the form of a bolt through the eye. But their point is to blockade, not kill: they block the bridge long enough to give the fathomer time to cast spells from afar without being harried, and he rolls three critical strikes, severely cutting down the health of Tyrion. When Tyrion faces off against one of the knights, he is quick to be knocked unconscious. And then things get interesting.

Seeing that the blind monk is battling effectively despite his condition and that Karina is a good shot, the knight tries a different strategy. He kicks Tyrion’s unconscious body off the dock and into the sea, forcing the players to split up if they wish to save him. Karina takes the bait, leaping off into the ocean and making some very harrowing spot checks to see if she can find and save Tyrion. Left alone to face both the knight and the sorcerous fathomer, Traki is soon overwhelmed on the dock and goes down.

Now, as far as the enemies know, they have won the fight. The fathomer starts walking the dock to check the waters, make sure the heroes are down. The dark tide knight goes to work on searching Traki’s body--they are pirates after all, and this gives the players a turn to make a plan before the knight tosses HIS body into the sea as well. The players take the opportunity: Karina, having pulled Tyrion to shore without being seen, revives him and together they launch a sneak attack against the knight, killing him.

Left alone to face three heroes, the fathomer changes tactics, turning into his serpent form and trying to drag Traki into the sea to drown him. Traki avoids this attack and the fathomer tries one more desperate ploy: turning invisible, he dives into the sea and waits for the players to cross the bridge. Then he gets behind them and sneak attacks Karina with vampiric touch, draining her health and restoring his own. It doesn’t save him, Karina is quick to reverse the hold and cut him in half with her scimitar, but it leaves them all shaken and injured for the final battle, out of potions and running low on spells.

And it does illustrate that the players are ready to face the Red Horde and gives me some direction on making some final touch ups to the Red Hand campaign before we begin. But first, there is an old foe to face...

The Final Battle

“The little bird returns!” though he stood on the prow of Audacity in the midst of the storm, the companions could hear Reeves Testain as if he stood directly next to them. For Traki the experience was the most surreal as he could not see the man to show the lie.

“I have followed you across the oceans, girl,” Reeves continues. “I used my scrying magic to see your path. I lost you once, recently, when you went to an island where I could not follow. But now I have you again. And I see you have hatched more companions, girl. Do they know how your other friends died? If they did, perhaps they would not be so eager to stay with you.“ He spotted Verrick standing next to her. “And you have brought your manservant, too. Traitor! You betrayed the Many Headed Goddess. But her power has not stopped growing. I will murder you, destroy this pitiful town, and then move on to the East, where she amasses a great army. The Red Horde shall fall upon the land like locusts. The Vale shall be the first to fall, but not the last.”

“You speak of the Red Hand!” Traki called out. “But I have seen another prophecy. I have seen their fall.”

“If you have seen anything it is because the Queen willed it. She shows you hope in order to sweeten the victory when she takes it away from you.”

“This is the one who killed the others? Who killed your friends?” Tyrion asked.

Karina nodded. “I cannot ask you to join in this fight,” she said.

“... and you won’t have to,” Verrick answered. “Let us put an end to this.”

And so the three climbed on board the Audacity and found its lord waiting for them. Reeves attacks viciously using magical ice storms to halt the heroes and hold person to freeze them in place. Tyrion takes him on directly but even his magical axe seems only to be partially effective. Meanwhile, Reeves wields a relic of the deep, the ancient trident Drown, pulled from the tower of the Drowned God in his quest for power.

There is another one here, as well. Behind Reeves, huddled by the prow, is a young girl who Karina alone recognizes: it is Jade, Targaryen’s sister. She is in a kind of trance and Karina correctly guesses she is controlling the tentacled beast attacking Clem and his men. However, all attempts to attack the girl fail as a powerful psychic shield deflects all arrows and Reeves is between her and the other party members. The same shield seems to protect him, as Karina’s attempts to loose arrows at him all end with the arrow stopping feet from him and falling harmlessly to the ground. She even tries a silver arrow but this fails just the same.

This fight is meant to be very hard, possibly outside of the player’s ability to handle. The reason is that there is another way to fight Reeves rather than head on, a way that exists because Karina managed to reclaim the Undersea Effigy back at the Tower of the Drowned God. The effigy begins calling to her from within her bag of holding. It wants her to touch it, to use its power. Doing so will allow Karina to engage in a battle of wills with Jade over control for the Kraken.

Unfortunately, Karina doesn’t trust the voices! This almost leads to the annihilation of the party but for once I step in with a pretty heavy hand to push Karina towards using the effigy. When Reeves freezes her in place with his hold person and prepares to slaughter the rest of the party, she finds that only her right arm can move, and then only towards the bag of holding. Yes, it is remarkably heavy handed, but I think it’s okay considering this is the final fight and a very big moment. Looking back on the campaign as a whole, if I had given the players a book or scroll earlier, detailing how “the many headed statue controlled the denizens of the deep,” the forced hand could have been avoided, but honestly this final battle was not fully developed until a few sessions back and I didn’t see a place to squeeze that in. So instead we get forces outside of Karina’s control taking over a little. Which, considering that part of the campaign has been about otherworldly powers, I think works out just fine.

Karina reaches inside the bag, knowing what she is searching for, reaching for it despite her fears, despite promising herself that this relic would never again see the light of day. Then her hand closes around cold jade stone and the world disappears.

She is huge. She is powerful. She is hungry. She is ancient. She opens her jaws and the ocean pours in. She stretches and her tentacles break bones, crush wood, move waves. She focuses and sees the ship at the docks, the figures fighting on it, and the one who she must kill.

NO.

The voice is an intrusion, a blot on her mind.

I RULE THIS CREATURE. YOU MUST LEAVE.

Karina. Her name is Karina. But the voice, the voice was not her voice. It was...

LEAVE NOW OR I WILL HURT YOU.

... Jade. The little girl. The psychic. Karina pulls herself free for a moment from the Krake Spawn’s mind and sees the girl, or at least feels her hovering nearby, her power palpable but weak, spent, drained.

“I can overpower you,” Karina says. And then she dives back inside the Kraken.

This is a battle of wills, and really the final battle of the campaign. I don’t pull any punches here. For every roll Karina wins versus Jade, she will get to make an attack on Captain Reeves for massive damage, maybe enough to turn the tide, maybe not. The real power comes if she can make three in a row.

And by the gods, that is exactly what she does. This is a huge accomplishment, considering that Jade rolls Will at +2 and Karina at -1 (I think... it’s low, anyway). But Karina, staying true to her character, rolls well in a crisis and she pulls out that natural 20 as the final roll of the campaign, kicking Jade from the creature’s mind and bringing its full power to bear on Captain Reeves.

Tyrion leaps back as the tentacles smash into the deck of the Audacity. Reeves throws his hands up, blocking his face and eyes from the splintering of wood. Before he can lower them again, he is wrapped in the thick wet tentacles of the Krake Spawn, the beast lifting him high in the air. Reeves fights for a moment, but the tentacles tighten and he all but disappears beneath their slimy folds. Then the sea opens up and a massive maw fills the space where water once was. Reeves calls out a final condemnation of the party: “My Queen will revive my Soul! All that die in her service will walk again! She will reap this world! She will—”

He does not get to finish. Reeves is dropped into the maw and disappears amidst rows and rows of razor sharp teeth as the jaws close and the creature retreats back into the depths, hopefully never to be seen again.

Aftermath

With the Kraken defeated and Reeves dead, the rest of the pirates are easily routed, without the players’ help. Karina comes back to herself to find the Jade statue destroyed, a true signifier of the end of the campaign as the first adventure we had was retrieving the thing from the depths of the Moonsea, over thirty sessions ago. Jade (the girl, not the statue) comes back to herself as well and thanks Karina for saving her mind from the creature of the deep. “Had you not pushed me from it, I would have been lost to the deep forever.” She asks after Targaryen but all Karina has the heart to tell her is that he is at peace. The lie makes her think of Abenthy, who condemned Targaryen’s soul to his father’s hell, and she feels a great pang in her heart. I lost him too, she thinks. Maybe not to death’s embrace, but he is gone all the same.

They do not find the Aasimir after the battle. He has disappeared, they assume to hunt his quarry. Zennatos, too, has disappeared, they know not where to, though Karina hopes it is to take her advice and do as much good as possible. Whether it will appease Abenthy she knows not, but it is worth trying.

With the battle finished, the companions look out upon the town of Ottoman’s dock. The lord’s manor is aflame and it is said he was murdered by pirates in a raid on his fortress. The town has much rebuilding to do, a new leader to elect. But for once, this is not a task the companions feel they need to take on. They have their own paths to follow.

Karina, the Seeker of Callax, says farewell to the group. “I have had enough adventuring for one lifetime,” she tells them. “I have found the truth I sought and avenged the ones who I called friends. Something tells me this is where I should stop. I have a reward to collect and a school to build. Traki, I hope you find what you are seeking. Tyrion, do not lose your music.” And with those words of parting, she and Verrick leave, catching one final ride on Tywin’s Revenge as Clem and the crew take them back to Thudd, where she collects her reward from the Fuzwah, the promised expanse of land to do with what she pleases. Aided by the Fuzwah, she builds a school here to teach adventurers how to defend themselves against the dangers of the world. In return, they give the school a cut of their treasures from their hunts. It is a small percentage, but it adds up, and eventually the school grows in power and reputation. Karina never forgets Abenthy’s journey, and she picks her students with an extremely critical eye, never wanting to turn out a student who starts on the path of good, but falls to their own search for justice. She uses the spell book of Haggemoth and his histories to aid her studies, and in doing so, feels that she is keeping alive the old dwarf’s knowledge and setting it to good. Maybe she could not save his soul in her journeys, but in this small way, perhaps she can help him offer pennace.

Jade trains at the school for a time before eventually leaving on a mission of her own: find a way to free her brother’s soul from the clutches of I’afret. Verrick and Rayden remain, growing old with Karina, being her truest guides and mentors, and ready to lift their blades again the day the Seeker of Callax ventures forth again.

Abenthy had planned to return to Thudd as well, to claim his prize and build his own school, a school of justice and punishment, but fate and his father push him onto another path. “There are men and women in this world whose hearts are pure,” his father tells him. “They are ready to follow you and be soldiers in the war which will come. You must collect them, test them. Those you find worthy make your companions. Those you find lacking, send to me.” And so Abenthy sets forth and slowly gathers an army of fanatics. Insanely loyal to him, they travel the world as mercenaries, choosing their causes as Abenthy sees fit. Under his command the group becomes known as the Inevitables, and it is said that they only serve those with just causes. Before long, their numebrs have swelled to massive size and then Abenthy turns his sights towards unfinished business with a certain giant on the isle of Friezurazov…

But these stories unfold over the course of years, and there is yet more to be told of the here and now. Traki’s prophecy tells him to head East, to find the Red Hand and stop it before it crushes the life out of the world.

“Is this a journey you intend to continue?” Traki asks Tyrion.

“My story is not yet over,” the Halfling answers. “And East is as good a direction as any. The Elsir Vale, Reeves said? I know tell of the land. Ancient place. Perhaps some old magic survives there, something worth finding.”

“Three companions are meant to fight the Hand,” Traki tells him. “But we are now only two.”

“I find these prophecies tend to work themselves out,” Tyrion says, adjusting a string on the golden harp he retrieved from Haggemoth’s tomb, the last surviving treasure of the mage dwarf’s hoard. He strums a chord as a test and smiles, pleased with the melancholy sound. “I have a feeling someone will come along.”

“What Karina said about losing your music… what did she mean by that?”

“Just the woman’s way of saying goodbye,” Tyrion says, and strums a new chord, this one as discordant to the first as the halfing’s lie was to truth. “This Red Hand thinks it is powerful. But wait till they get a load of me.”

Next session will show the start of Season 3: The Red Hand of Doom. From here on out we will be converting the Red Hand of Doom from 3.5 to 5e and each post I’ll talk a little bit about how the conversion was handled and why I made the decisions I did. With Red Hand of Doom being played every week, it seems, by some group somewhere, it will be fun to add our little oddball party to the mix. Karina’s player will be back, too, but not as the Seeker of Callax. She has retired the character to live out her days in relative peace, a just reward for her incredible survival of the massive and deadly Tomb of Haggemoth campaign. Instead, a new character will emerge to join our heroes as they make their way to the Elsir Vale and into a darkness that they do not yet fully comprehend.

#playthrough #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #campaign journal #pirates #kraken #Fantasy RPG #tomb of Haggemoth #Red Hand

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njawaidofficial · 7 years ago

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Casting Society to Honor Barry Levinson, Kevin Huvane at Artios Awards

http://styleveryday.com/2017/10/08/casting-society-to-honor-barry-levinson-kevin-huvane-at-artios-awards/

Casting Society to Honor Barry Levinson, Kevin Huvane at Artios Awards

Casting director Victoria Thomas will receive the Hoyt Bowers Award.

CAA’s Kevin Huvane, filmmaker Barry Levinson and casting director Victoria Thomas will be honored by the Casting Society of America at its 33rd annual Artios Awards, which will be held Jan. 18 simultaneously at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills and Stage 48 in New York City.

Huvane, partner and managing director at CAA, will receive the Lynn Stalmaster Award for Career Achievement, recognizing his contributions to the industry. The honor is named after the first casting director in history to win an honorary Academy Award.

Levinson, the Oscar-winning director, screenwriter and producer whose credits range from Rain Man to HBO’s recent The Wizard of Lies, will be presented with the Marion Dougherty New York Apple Award, which is given to an individual who has made a special commitment to the New York entertainment industry through their collaboration with casting directors and which is named after pioneering casting director Marion Dougherty.

Artios Award-winner Thomas, whose credits include award-winning films such as Django Unchained, Hidden Figures, Edward Scissorhands, Sid and Nancy, Straight Outta Compton and Detroit, will be honored with the Hoyt Bowers Award for outstanding contribution to the casting profession. The award is named after casting director Hoyt Bowers. was a brilliant casting director and a supportive mentor.

CSA also announced its 2018 nominees for outstanding achievement in casting in the television, theatre, shortform series and short film categories. Nominees for feature film will be announced early next year.

The full list of television, theatre, shortform series and short film nominees follows:

TELEVISION PILOT AND FIRST SEASON – COMEDY

Atlanta — Alexa L. Fogel, Tara Feldstein Bennett (Location Casting), Chase Paris (Location Casting), Kathryn Zamora-Benson (Associate) Better Things — Felicia Fasano, Tara Nostramo (Associate) Dear White People — Kim Coleman I Love Dick — Eyde Belasco Insecure — Victoria Thomas

TELEVISION PILOT AND FIRST SEASON – DRAMA

13 Reasons Why — Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee, Barbara Fiorentino, Nina Henninger (Location Casting), Joey Montenarello (Associate), Terese Classen (Associate) The Crown — Nina Gold, Robert Sterne The Handmaid’s Tale — Sharon Bialy, Sherry Thomas, Russell Scott, Robin D. Cook (Location Casting), Jonathan Oliveira (Associate) This Is Us — Bernard Telsey, Tiffany Little Canfield, Josh Einsohn, Ryan Bernard Tymensky (Associate) Stranger Things — Carmen Cuba, Tara Feldstein Bennett (Location Casting), Chase Paris (Location Casting), Wittney Horton (Associate) Westworld — John Papsidera, Deanna Brigidi (Associate)

TELEVISION SERIES COMEDY

Black-ish– Alexis Frank Koczara, Christine Smith Shevchenko Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — Felicia Fasano, Venus Kanani, Tara Nostramo (Associate) Girls — Jennife Eustons Transparent — Eyde Belasco Silicon Valley — Jeanne McCarthy, Nicole Abellera Hallman, Leslie Woo Veep — Dorian Frankel, Sibby Kirchgessner, Marlise Gunzenhauser (Associate)

TELEVISION SERIES DRAMA

Black Mirror — Jina Jay, Henry Russell Bergstein (Location Casting) Bloodline — Debra Zane, Shayna Markowitz, Lori Wyman (Location Casting), Marie-Thérèse Verbruggen (Associate), Erin Fragetta (Associate) Homeland — Judy Henderson, Kimberly Graham (Associate) The Affair — Ross Meyerson, Julie Tucker The Americans — Rori Bergman

LIMITED SERIES

Big Little Lies — David Rubin, Melissa Pryor (Associate) Fargo — Rachel Tenner, Jackie Lind (Location Casting), Stephanie Gorin (Location Casting), Charlene Lee (Associate) Feud: Bette and Joan — Robert J. Ulrich, Eric Dawson, Carol Kritzer, Jennifer K.M. Treadwell (Associate) The Night Of — Avy Kaufman, Sabrina Hyman, Susanne Scheel (Associate) When We Rise — Sheila Jaffe, Gail Goldberg, Sean Cossey (Location Casting), JJ Ogilvy (Location Casting), Nina Henninger (Location Casting)

FEATURE FILM – NON THEATRICAL RELEASE

Hairspray Live — Bernard Telsey, Abbie Brady-Dalton, Cesar A. Rocha (Associate) Killing Reagan — Junie Lowry Johnson, Libby Goldstein, Mark Fincannon (Location Casting), Craig Fincannon (Location Casting), Lisa Mae Fincannon (Location Casting), Monica Kelly (Associate) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — Cindy Tolan, Meagan Lewis (Location Casting), Daniel Cabeza (Associate) The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Let’s Do the Time Warp Again — Robert J. Ulrich, Eric Dawson, Carol Kritzer, Stephanie Gorin (Location Casting), Alex Newman (Associate) The Wizard of Lies– —Ellen Chenoweth, Susanne Scheel (Associate)

CHILDREN’S PILOT AND SERIES (LIVE ACTION)

Bunk’d — Howard Meltzer Girl Meets World — Sally Stiner, Barbie Block Julie’s Greenroom — Bernard Telsey, Conrad Woolfe (Associate) Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn — Danielle Aufiero, Amber Horn, Steven Tylor O’Connor (Associate) School of Rock — Suzanne Goddard-Smythe, Ty Harman (Associate)

TELEVISION ANIMATION

American Dad! — Linda Lamontagne Bob’s Burgers — Julie Ashton-Barson Bojack Horseman — Linda Lamontagne Family Guy — Linda Lamontagne Peanuts — Matthew Jon Beck

REALITY SERIES

Are You the One? — Damon Furberg, Heather Allyn Born This Way — Sasha Alpert Project Runway — Sasha Alpert Real World — Sasha Alpert True Life: We Are Transitioning — Tony Miros

SHORT FILMS

Crowbar Smile — Eyde Belasco Perfect Roast Potatoes — Rich Mento Plea — Marin Hope Public Speaking — Adrienne Stern The Sub — Amanda Lenker Doyle

SHORTFORM SERIES

Confess — Fern Champion, Sharon Lieblein, Troy Daniel Smith (Associate) Now We’re Talking — Alexis Frank Koczara Party Girl — Nickole Doro, Shayna Sherwood Single By 30 — Sherrie Henderson, Romy Stutman, Vanessa Knight (Associate) Tales of Titans — Amanda Lenker Doyle, Chrissy Fiorilli-Ellington Tween Fest — Amanda Lenker Doyle

NEW YORK BROADWAY THEATRE – COMEDY OR DRAMA

A Doll’s House Part 2 — David Caparelliotis, Lauren Port Heisenberg — Nancy Piccione Indecent — Tara Rubin, Felicia Rudolph (Associate) Oslo — Daniel Swee Sweat — Heidi Griffiths, Jordan Thaler

NEW YORK BROADWAY THEATRE – MUSICAL

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — Rachel Hoffman Come From Away — Rachel Hoffman Groundhog Day — Jim Carnahan, Jillian Cimini (Associate) Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 — Duncan Stewart, Benton Whitley, Andrea Zee (Associate) War Paint — Craig Burns, Bernard Telsey

NEW YORK BROADWAY THEATRE – REVIVAL, COMEDY OR DRAMA

Jitney — David Caparelliotis, Nancy Piccione Six Degrees of Separation — Daniel Swee The Front Page — David Caparelliotis, Lauren Port The Glass Menagerie — David Caparelliotis, Lauren Port The Little Foxes — David Caparelliotis, Kelly Gillespie

NEW YORK BROADWAY THEATRE – REVIVAL, MUSICAL

Falsettos — Tara Rubin, Eric Woodall, Kaitlin Shaw (Associate), Claire Burke (Associate) Hello Dolly — Craig Burns, Bernard Telsey Miss Saigon — Tara Rubin, Merri Sugarman, Claire Burke (Associate) Sunday in the Park With George — Carrie Gardner, Stephen Kopel Sunset Boulevard — Tara Rubin, Eric Woodall

NEW YORK THEATRE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City — William Cantler, Karyn Casl How to Transcend a Happy Marriage — Daniel Swee Sweeney Todd — Cesar A. Rocha Sweet Charity — Judy Henderson, Ally Beans The Band’s Visit — Tara Rubin

NEW YORK THEATRE – DRAMA

Dead Poet’s Society — William Cantler, Karyn Casl Small Mouth Sounds — Henry Russell Bergstein, Lauren Port The Hairy Ape — Tiffany Little Canfield, Cesar A. Rocha (Associate) The Wolves — William Cantler, Karyn Casl Yen — William Cantler, Bernard Telsey, Karyn Casl, Adam Caldwell

REGIONAL THEATRE EAST

A Sign of the Times — Tara Rubin, Felicia Rudolph (Associate) American Son – MA production — Pat McCorkle, Katja Zarolinski American Son – NJ production — Pat McCorkle, Katja Zarolinski An American Daughter — William Cantler, Karyn Casl Assassins — Tara Rubin The SpongeBob Musical — Patrick Goodwin, James Calleri, Paul Davis

REGIONAL THEATRE WEST

A View From the Bridge — Karyn Casl, Patrick Goodwin Actually — Phyllis Schuringa An Octoroon — James Calleri, Erica Jensen, Amy Potozkin Barbecue — Phyllis Schuringa Merrily We Roll Along — Beth Lipari Zoot Suit — Pauline O’con

LOS ANGELES THEATRE

The 24th Annual Young Playwrights Festival — Erica S. Bream, Cara Chute Rosenbaum The House in Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage— Nicole Arbusto The Tragedy of JFK (as Told by William Shakespeare) — Erica S. Bream, Cara Chute Rosenbaum Waiting for Godot — Amanda Lenker Doyle, Chrissy Fiorilli-Ellington When Jazz Had the Blues — Michael Donovan, Richie Ferris (Associate)

SPECIAL THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE

A Chorus Line — Margery Simkin, Michael Donovan, Richie Ferris (Associate) Aida — Rachel Hoffman Big River — Jay Binder Crazy for You — Tara Rubin, Kaitlin Shaw, Felicia Rudolph (Associate) Wonderful Town — Jim Carnahan

THEATRE TOURS

Fun Home — Jim Carnahan, Jillian Cimini Hamilton – West Coast National Tour — Bethany Knox, Rebecca Scholl (Associate) Hamilton – Chicago Company — Bethany Knox, Rebecca Scholl (Associate) Hedwig and the Angry Inch — James Calleri, Paul Davis The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time — Daniel Swee, Cindy Tolan

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