Exclusive Contest! WAYNE REYNOLDS draws OR PAINTS your character! No more entries!

That's right, its time for some fun. As before, I'm going to pony up the dough for one lucky ENWorlder to have a character portrait commissioned by none other than Wayne "WAR" Reynolds! Full-on pencil drawing. Winner gets the original sent right to his/her house. Sound cool? I thought so. Is this something that Wayne just does in his free time? In a word, no. But he's worked with me before, and I talked him into it, so he's going for it. He's really busy with commercial work but he's cool and should be able to work the drawing in toward the end of February.

So let's get on with it shall we?

All you have to do to enter is just post your favorite character(s) on this very thread. I'll select 10-20ish finalists based on character concept, description, backstory, and a killer gaming moment. That's right, something awesome that your character did or was involved in. Last contest there were well over a hundred amazing character descriptions, so that one session you singlehandedly saved your party from a dragon while hovering on death's door might just be the story that puts you over the top.

Wayne likes to draw characters in *motion.* Tell me something cool that your character does or did and Wayne just might capture it in pencil. But be descriptive! Every detail that you want to be considered needs to be listed. Enter as many characters as you like.

All entries will be considered, but I'm going to support my fellow Dragonlance lovers by guaranteeing that at least *half* the finalists will be chosen from the Dragonlance characters entered. Furthermore, if a DL character is ultimately chosen, they may be awarded a special bonus. We'll see. But that doesn't change the fact that anyone can enter, and potentially win.

I might have ENWorld vote on the finalists, and I might not. We'll have to see after the deadline. Wayne will ultimately be choosing the winner from the finalists that are narrowed down.

So let's see those characters! This is a once in a gaming lifetime opportunity! Wayne Reynolds! His awesome stylized energy...and your character. All entries will be considered until January 31st and the winner announced the first or second week of February.

And if you want just a taste of what you could be winning, take a look at the preliminary pencil rough of a painting Wayne did of my character, Elijayess Moonshadow, Kagonesti elf Barbarian/Ranger from the world of Krynn. I gave him the character description, said I'm all about the Manyshot action, and voila, check that out! My avatar is a tiny glimpse of the finished painting but it might actually be published so I won't show the whole thing. Anyway, the winning character portrait will actually look a little more finished than this one.

Oh yeah, Wayne reserves all publishing rights for the winning drawing. Otherwise, good luck and have fun!

UPDATE

Half of this contest is just winning the opportunity to even have Wayne look at your character, then draw it. He simply does not do this. Private character portraits are not his thing, and he isn't readily accessible to anyone who wants to contact him. It took me about a year of off and on checking for contact info, speaking with other artists, agents, etc., before finally getting a hold of him through his agent, and even then the only reason he took on my original commission was because I had a sizable portfolio of private work commissioned by other well known artists.

Since then we've actually enjoyed working together and have fun discussing new projects. He's an incredibly likable guy, and I'm enormously impressed with his work.

Having said all that, I'm going to go one step further for the winner of this contest and offer, since this is such a rare opportunity for fans, to have your character rendered in a full on OIL PAINTING!

Yep, a full color painting of your favorite character by WAR. Just like the ones you see in the Monster Manuals and splatbooks. But there's a slight catch. This will be an upgradeable *option* for the winner, for the sum of $180. I'll take care of the rest. $180 for an original Wayne Reynolds oil painting capturing your character in a moment of glory.

The pencil drawing would still be free, but the upgrade is something to think about for that lucky, lucky winner.

Good luck.

UPDATE 1/17/05

Hey everyone, guess what! Not content to rest on his laurels, the grand prize winner of the Todd Lockwood contest, Krail Stromquism, is joining in on the fun!

We're actually throwing in a surprise twist to the contest that you won't want to miss! Not only that, but Krail will actually be contributing a full 50% of the cost for the grand prize! How's that for graciousness and generosity! Let's hear it for Krail, who will be choosing half of the finalists along with me.

Two more weeks until the finalists are announced, so get those characters in before the deadline!

Woohoo! Thanks Kai Lord! Thoust are cool!

How many characters can we enter?

(Hm. I think it's not necessary to make this sticky...)

By the way, could we see the winner from the last contest again?

Oh, hot damn.

Gonna kick myself later for this....but I figure I'd try.

Go Away Shoo Get Away From My Chickens is an odd sort, looking like some conglomeration of random animal skins and human girl more than a person, and typically glancing furtively about. She tends to prefer her meat and avoids vegetables if they’re given. She has slate gray hair in a style that looks more defined by knife cuts than anything more civilized, boots made of burlap and rope, and wolf fur on her forearms held in place by leather straps. Her clothes are made of the hide and teeth of just about every animal she's killed (and needed a patch to cover a hole in her clothing). Being raised by wolves is an old fantasy staple, and Shoo is no exception. She received her name when approached by a group of adventurers.

“What is your name?” they had asked, and she wondered aloud if a name was something one ate, and was told that it’s “what people say when they see you.” To which, of course, she replied, “My name is Go Away! Shoo! Get Away From my Chickens!” From then on, she stayed by them, adopting them as part of her pack and bringing them dead animals at random intervals. Many times she brought the party rogue, a nobleman named Morgan Delkirk, dead rats.

Shoo carries a haversack of rocks for use as ranged weapons, and uses weapons she made herself from sticks, rocks, and various sharp objects she may have found. She collects shiny objects, and many a time has been duped out of substantial monetary rewards for simple quartz crystal or mica chips. If left alone, she will wander off to chase butterflies, chew on flowers, eat random things that smell like they’re edible, and collect anything that’s shiny or that holds her attention for a few moments.

What makes Shoo’s innocent and often naïve demeanor so frustrating for her enemies is that mostly all of it (at least in the context of normal human society) is an act. Certainly she likes sleeping curled up on the floor next to the fireplace and does think of snatching the heels of anyone walking by as a game, but she is a shrewd observer who discerned the details of her new world very quickly. She knows people expect an uncultured and unsophisticated barbarian to simply leap and savage her foes, and so she does, but not without alerting teammates to her presence, so they can better get the drop on enemies she occupies; it also means that if a fight does break out, her smarter tactics are completely unexpected.

She’s all about her tutelage, moving swiftly in combat, preferring to fight like a wolf: tripping enemies before leaping on their backs and savaging them with a knife. When incited to fury, she even hunches over and drops the wolf’s head on her pelt-cloak over her face. Despite being so friendly and doglike when not in battle, she has no aversion to her enemies’ blood and flesh, painting her face and clothing with it, or even eating it.

Shoo’s most awesome moment involved riding alongside a knight on horseback while she rode a dire wolf, the both of them battling as both animals charged across a two-foot high field of old and dried vines covered in six inch thorns. Both animals were torn up and bloody at the end, but there was a knight clad in black armor who'd never emerge from that dead briar patch.

Most would call Ignacio Vite an eccentric. He considers himself a sensualist. He is a member of the Sensates, a faction in the city of Sigil comprised of people like him. He scours the multiverse seeking out rare and exotic experiences from across the planes. Be it a beautiful sunset on an ocean in Celestia, an interesting odor in the sewers of Sigil, or the mating call of a fiendish displacer beast on Acheron, Ignacio won't rest until he has experienced all that he can. Recently, he began experiencing visions of a massive dungeon on Oerth full of unique and wondrous experiences. Using his own funds, he hired a group of adventurers to escort him through the dungeon so that he would be more adept at handling the challenges that lurked within.

Ignacio is a fire elf (racial variant from Unearthed Arcana). Long in the past, his family bonded their souls with elemental spirits of flame, and the genetic changes were passed down the family line. Ignacio stands barely five feet tall. His skin is ruddy and well-oiled, and his hair a wild mass that resembles a burning flame. Ignacio is rather frail and weak, but quite agile, and his mental faculties more than make up for his physical shortcomings. His intelligence is of genius level, but like most geniuses, he is eccentric. He believes himself to be more charming than he really is. His normal attire are bright silver robes decorated with gold and ruby dust and a large pack filled with interesting knick-knacks he finds on his adventures. An well-crafted longbow is strapped to his back, and a leather whip is coiled at his waist. His belt is adorned with myriad pouches of spell components.

Ignacio is an elf of many talents. He has a few levels in enchanter that allow him to wield magic to influence weak-minded fools and monsters. He has a few levels in elf paragon that give him deadly skill with his bow and greatly enhance his senses. A level in rogue gives him stealth and skill. He even tried to get a githzerai monk to train him in unarmed combat, but ultimately he could not abide the structured lessons of the class and abandoned his training.

Ignacio is quite chaotic, and normally operates according to his fancies. When he comes across a bed made of reptile hides, he can't help himself from jumping on it to see how comfortable it is. His hands constantly roam over each surface, savoring the touch of the material beneath his fingertips. His curiosity and desire for sensation can lead to trouble sometimes, but that is why he keeps around his hired escorts to help bail him out of difficult situations.

Killer Gaming Moment: With the aid of an expeditious retreat spell, Ignacio chased after a kobold riding on a krenshar. Finding that the krenshar might still outrun him, Ignacio lashed out with his whip, wrapping it around the creature's legs. The beast had been running at full-tilt, and as it crashed to the ground, its kobold rider flew from its back and slammed head-first into a dungeon wall. It was not a pretty sight.

Lendri Brighthoopak


Ever since he was a young lad, Lendri watched the Knights of Solamnia, and swore that he would one day join their ranks. He idolized them, and tried to be as righteous as the Knights themselves were (or, at least, as righteous as a Kender could be).

Then, the wanderlust struck. Lendri struck out across the countryside, seeking the Knights. The knights, taking pity on the desperate Kender, granted him audience. He begged and pleaded with the knights to allow him to become a squire, but they turned him down every time. Finally, after granting himself "audience" with the council at least once a day for a month, he got his wish. The knights, who were either desperate to rid themselves of the nuisance, or perhaps acknowledging that one so firmly set to become a knight should at least get a chance to prove himself, granted him the title of Squire, and bade him set out on a quest to prove his worth.

Lendri, in true Kender fashion, decided that the best way to prove that he could be the best knight that ever existed, set out on a quest to remove the Minotaurs from Silvanost.

He actually almost made it to Silvanesti.

Acquiring a few retainers, namely two Kagonesti elves and another kender (The Elves, in actuality, are trying to provide damage control, while the other Kender is just having a ball tagging along), Lendri has travelled to the small town of Pashin. Here, some old guy told him that he was the chosen one, and he was to search for some sort of spoon that is not a spoon, or a key that is not a spoon, or a spoon that is not a key. He knows it involves a spoon. Or he thinks so. He's really not sure, as he had consumed a touch too much ale shortly before (Whenever he mentions the spoon, his companions nod knowingly, sigh, and then explain they were sent on a mission to find a key that is not a key. When appropriate, at least).

When we last left Lendri, they were wandering the sewers beneath Pashin, lost, with Lendri still convinced he was going to rid Silvanesti of the Minotaurs.


Lendri Brighthoopak is a Swashbuckler 2/Cleric 1 Kender. We're running the Key of Destiny campaign, set in the Dragonlance world. He is a linear DMs worst nightmare, as he has frequently attempted to travel into Silvanesti to destroy the minotaurs, or gone of on some random sidequest for something that only exists in his mind (One particular shopkeeper sent Lendri to his competition that, 1, didn't exist, and 2, was on the complete other side of town). He dual wields (quite proficiently) a rapier and a dagger. Lendri doesn't hit very hard, but he sure hits a lot.

Great Moments of Lendri Brighthoopak:

Set upon by 3 bandits, the tiny Kender proved his combat-worthyness by dispatching the first before the rest of his party could arrive, engaging the second, he rolled a twenty, it went critical and killed the bandit, then when the third attacked him, he rolled a twenty on the to-hit for the AoO, and then another twenty to check for critical, in our game, an auto-kill. Quite a moment.

I had been discussing for some time about Lendri multiclassing into Cleric, and had been RPing some devout aspects into his wiles. My group uses a rolling XP system, where we recieve XP after every encounter, rather than when they have time to "reflect" on the day. He had just breached the XP amount to reach third level in a combat encounter that left the party cleric in the negative HP range. As we were racing for the towns temple for a quick heal, Lendri began speaking to himself (or so the others thought, in reality, he was conversing with Mishakal). "I can do it!" he said "I can?" "Let me try!"...then, suddenly, he layed his hands down on the wounded cleric and healed her. The rest of my group, players and PCs, weren't aware of my multiclassing just then, so my sudden healing powers and conversation with myself was quite a surprise.

MMMMAAANNNN, Wayne is like my FAV artist (I LOVE LOVE LOVE the cover of the Black Company, Tales, Denizens and Creaturs of Freeport... so many others)

Most thing of something kewl

Talinthas Shadeslayn (dragonlance character)
Male Silvanesti elf Rogue/Shadow dancer (align TN)
Age- well over 500 years old.

Tal is a rather reclusive and quiet sort, being one of the few mortals to live through three ages of Krynn. Born approximatly 100 years before the fall of Istar and the Cataclysm, he has seen the gods leave, return, leave again, and return again. He posseses the sort of hardened cynicism that only one tired of life could manage.

He was the child of an illicit relationship between a Silvanesti noblewoman and her Kagonesti house servant, and was abandoned near a human village on the plains to the west of the elven homelands. Tal was left in a wicker basket with but two possesions, a copper amulet bearing the rose of Majere, and a note instructing the plainsmen that found him to bob his ears and raise him as a human child.

Soon, he was found by a scout and brought back to the village, and taken to the chieftan, who handed the child to the only resident who could read the elven script in the message, the tribe's lead hunter. He took the child in, and in a ceremony attended only by the chief, swore to keep the child's heritage a secret until his death, at which time the letter would be shared to the child.

Thus did Tal grow up learning the ways of a plainsmen scout, as he was never quite as big or strong as the other boys, but much sneakier and quieter. He spent about 30 years training in the ways of the scout, but eventually it was noticed that he was much younger seeming than his contemporaries and tended to mature much slower. This talk was suppressed by the chief of the village for about 10 years, when it finally became clear that Tal looked like he could have been the child of his younger brother, who was nearing his 40th year.

At this point, Talinthas demanded to know the truth, and his adopted father, seeing no other choice in the matter, relented and shared the letter of origin. Immediatly afterwards, the venerable hunter killed himself, as per the condition set during the ceremony years past. Out of shame, Tal left his home of half a century and went wandering the world, with only the medallion to remind him of his birth parents, and his hunter's dagger, bestowed upon him when he became a full fledged member of the tribe after his right of passage ceremony.

In the course of his wanderings, he returned to Silvanesti, only to find that his birth father had been killed at the hands of his maternal grandfather, and that his mother had been cloistered in a nunnary dedicated to austerity. Tal was turned away by his maternal family, and banished from the elven homelands as a dark elf, merely for trying to discover who he was.

It was at this time that the Gods turned their back on Krynn. Tal, having lost sight of his life, was aimlessly ambling northwards towards Istar, and saw the fiery mountain fall from the sky and annihliate the landscape. Watching the destruction of the world as he knew it completely shattered any grip on sanity that this elf had. The next 20 years were spent in a haze, as Talinthas became more and more withdrawn and desolate.

It was at this time that he began to attract the shadows. The cataclysm caused death on such a massive scale that the souls of the innocent and guilty alike could not be separated and sent to their divine abode quickly enough. Coupled with the complete withdrawl of divine presence, and the lack of final rites, these souls became the restless dead of krynn. Talinthas, with his blasted mind and empty soul, started to attract the attention of these ghosts and shadows. Some of the more aggresive spirits possesed Tal, and started him down the path of the Shadow Dancer.

The next few hundred years passed quickly, as Tal started to regain his senses and adapted to his new symbiotic relationship with these shades that hovered around him. He searched others who were similarly affected by incredibly mind altering events, and helped them to cope with their empty souls, starting a loose group of Shadow Dancers through Ansalon. Somewhere in there, he managed to get married a few times, and father a child or two.

Fast forwards to the War of the Lance. Tal, now in his 450th year or so, is a venerable old elf with massive control over the spirits and shadows that reside within him. Years of having been hunted as an evil necromancer and other such misunderstandings have left him hardened and wary of strangers. The return of the gods has not brought him the joy that it has brought to the masses, for the newly indocrinated clergy find him to be an abomination, and try to free the spirits trapped within him by any means necessary. The shadow dancers withdraw from the public light and hide from Gods and man alike.

Fast forwards another 30 years or so, to the cusp of the chaos war. With minions of chaos wreaking havoc on the realms of mortals and spirits, Tal was forced to fight for the survival of his shadow dancers, and was nearly destroyed once again by a Shadow wight, at the southern edge of the Blood sea of Istar, where 392 years before a young elf witnessed the destruction of the ancient world.

Shadow wights completely erase every living thing they touch, and force them into a state of non being, deleted from even the memories of those that knew the victims. Tal, having been buffered by the symbiotic spirts, managed to survive by shunting his shadow soul into the wight, leaving a living, but empty husk.

Once again, the retreat of the Gods was his saving grace, as the souls of the dead were completely unable to escape the mortal plane. Tal's shell, empty of all but the smallest spark of his soul, became a nexus of mystical energy. He lay there, on the beach of the Desolation, while the waters of the newly calmed blood sea threatened to take him away. There he was found by Dauroth, an Ogre Mage looking for a suitable subject to test a new magical form on. The hollow shell, coursing with just enough life and residual energy to keep functioning, was the perfect fit.

Dauroth took Tal, now known as the Shadeslayn, and proceeded to subject the elf to a ceremony granted to the ogre in a vision from his evil goddess, Takhisis. Tal's body was charged with Spiritual energy and mystic forces, and combined with scores of ghosts and spirits who were tied to the mortal plane. The newly fused shadow soul inhabited the body of the elf, and returned to a form of unlife never seen before. Talinthas Shadeslayn was faster, smarter, and stronger than the elf he had once been. Dauroth the Ogre Mage was stunned by his sucess, and immediatly took a sample of Tal's blood. Discovering that this blood held the magical properties needed to force this magical enhancement, Dauroth took it upon himself to endure the ceremony and transform into the Ogre Titan of legend. It was in the recovery time from this process that the multi spirit of the Shadeslayn decided to take initiative and escaped the prison of Dauroth's laboratory along the shores of the Blood Sea.

A struggle of wills ensued, but eventually the true soul of Talinthas asserted victory and regained command. The Shadeslayn went and recovered the remenants of his Shadow Dancers, and went into hiding, lest the Ogre Titans find him and completely drain him of his blood. His whereabouts are currently unknown, though he is thought to be in the north east part of Ansalon, biding his time and gathering souls to him.

Appearance-
Tal is an elf of about 5'5. The many soul drains and transfers he has endured have left him rather emaciated looking, with almost porcelin white, thinly stretched skin. However, following the ceremony by Dauroth, he has started to look a little more lively, with a fuller face and a shade darker skin. This change has been slow to come though, as his body has had five hundred years of abuse thrust upon it.

His hair is caught in a shoulder length pony tail, bound by an ornate clasp in the style of the tribe of his upbringing. However, it is notable that there are two streaks of molten silver hair that start at his eyebrows and go back to the end of his hair length.

His ears are raggedly cut at the tips, a symbol of his childhood, and his eyes, once a startling hazel/green, are now completely silver, with black irises and small red pupils. When he opens his mouth, his teeth are fanged, but as he never smiles, people hardly notice.

Around his neck is a battered coppery-green medallion impressed with the image of a Rose and Mantis, symbols of the God Majere, and only relic of Tal's birth. His clothing reflects his profession, and is black leather meant to blend in with shadows and appear completely unobtrusive from his coat to his thick hunting boots.

Around his waist are an assortment of pouches and packs, and two weapon holsters. One holds a blessed mace of disruption, granted to him by Majere during the Chaos war, and the other holding an ancient hunting knife dating to pre cataclysm tribes of the Plains of Dust.

However, these are all mundane things, for that which makes the Shadeslayn most noticable are the omnipresent shadows and spirits that dwell around him. Those who are Spiritually inclined, or dabble in Necromancy, can see that there are always shades and spirts in orbit around Tal, the way an electron orbits a nucleus. At times of trouble, Tal can gather these spirits and expel them in a damaging blast towards his enemies. Whenever the Shadeslayn walks into an area, all incorporeal undead, restless spirits, and lost souls are immediatly attracted to his presence, so this orbit is continually renewed. When normal, untalented people are around him, they get the eerie feeling that they are being watched, or feel a ghostly wind down their backs, or hear a faint whistle of haunted air. When clerics attempt to determine the presence of undead, Tal glows like a beacon to them.

For the most part though, the Shadeslayn is an elf in his 500th year of his existance, with much of that time spent in extreme pain and anguish. As such, his life view is bleak and dark, and he tends not to associate with people as much. The soul ceremonies have granted him a form of immortality, which the tired mind of Tal craves not at all. Some sages have likened it to the curse of Lord Soth, but worse, as Tal had done nothing to deserve this fate but be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

With the end of the War of Souls near, and the freeing of the trapped spirits, only time will tell what happens to the elf without a soul.


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Yeah, it's a repeat, but i really like this character =)
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Awesome battle moment- Sending my shadows to fight off Shadow wights while taking on their Daemonlord Leader. The rest of my party had failed saves and were slowly being drained away, and i had to sac a lot of magic items to pull us out of that one. It was really cinematic, though. And the battle mat looked awesome, as me and the daemon lord basically played chess with shadows and stuff =)