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

[Krail Stromquism]

Hey, wait! Wait for me!

Hey Guys! Hi Kai Lord!

Wow I love WAR.

I guess Im not elligible. Well so be it.

BUt I have so many other great characters!

Efrim MacGregor 36th Level Mage.
HE is an OE character from my friend Justins Campaign.

For those of you familiar with the Mystara setting or old Glantri, you will recognize the name MacGregor. Prince Branart MAcGregor, the head cheese up in Glantri, Klantyre country!

He was long cury dark brown hair, brown eyes and wears the traditional garb of the MacGregor Clan, kilt and all. Hes actually looks-wise based off a character from Rob Roy, I think his name was Alister, he the young highlander that falls asleep watching Rob Roys house.

GEAR: He is always seen his two daggers, his Blitz Blades: Blitz Blade, +5 Dagger, +18dam 2/day also his only Artifact: the Head of Shanara, a shruken head kept on his belt, has a Confusion Effect, is slightly animate. Ring of Regeneration, Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, Cloak of Protection +4
Notes: Immune to Beholder Eyestalk Rays, Lost 1 HP permenantly, -1 str/+1 chr Watcher Colossi, +1 HP Honoring Jamadarru

As a 36th level mage fortunes have shifted considerably during his time. Once a privaleged cousin of the Prince, he fell out of favor as dead all mages when the Wrath of the Immortals came into play. Now in this version of the wrath, mages and magic are made the scape goat for all the worlds problems and two Immortals come to the fore front. Namely Mahree and Old Nyx, which for those of us not up on our Mystaran Pantheon are Immortals of Werecreatures and Undead. Not only do they kill Rad, they kill 80% of the planes Mages. In the aftermath the mages form 2 asylums. One named Catalon, is a floating Island. It becomes one of two Mages Guilds and after passing many rounds of intense testing the home of Efrim MacGregor. He fights his way up the ranks and soon joins the Lakshami the leader of Catalon.

ALso with the killing of mages rose a 2nd moon, which set off a scourge of Werebeasts at the same time Old Nyx was unleashing a plague of Undead. The world was in trouble. It went to the brink and it held on.

Mages and humanity in general came scraping back. Efrim sought to reclaim his families ancestral land. The only thing standing in the way was the most powerful Lich on the Plane. The Wrath brought about a total admonishment of the use of Radiance and hence proof of being a Radinace weilder was a death sentence carried out by an Immortal. So an opportunity presented itself to place an object capable of spying on the Lich Raevyn. We broke into his tower, alarms blazing, made our way to his library, time is short before Raevyn returns so we split up and begin the search. As I make my way in the circular tower, room to room, I come across a huge woven rug, into which was cast a SYMBOL. I roll my save a 1, HOORAY! The effect: FEAR. I scream in terror and I start running! Room to Room! the next room is an oppulent book lined room with the finest riches amassed in one place and also a Giant Cyclops Skeleton, its eye socket filled with javelins. So it starts chasing me, hurling javelins. Running and getting impaled on javelins and screaming in TERROR. 3 rounds of running I come upon a very special room, the rest of the party is also here, hesitantly standing at the threshhold of the room. They all turn simulataneously to my oncoming screams of terror! I bust past them Cyclops in tow, straight toward the Liches Radiance Sphere, set on a beautiful golden stand. I get close to the Globe and the Stand Emits five black rays. This was bad. Justin turns to me and says make a save vs Death...-4. NOw in Justins world a -4 to a save ment one thing, it the standard penalty when facing Immortal magic aka Artifacts. NOw I didnt now if this was an artifact Globe Stand or what. I just knew, if I failed I was dead. As in dead dead. tear up the character sheet. I nervously roll my save, a 12, made it no problem. OK, I can handle 4 more saves at -4. Only Justin turns to me and says There a -6 to your next one. NOw all the players eyes get as big as saucers as we extrapolate the meaning: -4, -6, -8, -10 and -12. -12! You gotta be kidding me! SO I roll again. I make it. -8, made it, barely. -10, now Im getting nervous, I roll but make it barely again. now the big one -12, we all lean in to the table to see it the result. Yeah baby a 20!
We all start screaming! an awesome gaming moment. Our characters plant the Watcher Clasp near the globe and teleport out. a round or two later Raevyn comes in, enraged that Catalonians had breached his tower, goes to his Radiance Globe to power up to extoll his vengence upon them, and unwittingly sealed his own doom. Mahree manifests and slays raevyn. The world changes once again, this time for the better. Eventually Efrim reclaims Klantyre. Cool.

This is a great metaphor for Efrim as a character and style. Gets pushed in the mud, dragged around but ends up all Aces with a million dollar smile. Mostly thru shear luck, as seen above.

Anyhow

Good Luck everyone!

 

[Kai Lord]

Hey Guys! Hi Kai Lord!

Hi Krail! Long time no see. Hey I was actually wanting to talk to you about something we discussed before but I've misplaced your email address. Could you drop me a line at kailord74 @ yahoo.com? Thanks!

Great avatar, btw.

Everyone else: Less than three weeks to submit your characters! Good luck!

 

[Micah]

Character concept: An aging information rogue maxed out in gather information and diplomacy. Gertie uses disguises and a sliver tongue to get the edge on her opponents.

Description: Gertie is an aging female human (early 50’s) slightly overweight. She wears her salt and pepper hair pulled back in a bun with her knitting needles stuck out of it. Her “cap of colors” is a floppy, psychedelic toned beret with feathers sticking out of it. Gertie wears a tabard that looks like a cross between leather armor and a crazy quilt, covered by a woolen cloak that she knitted. She carries a large many pocketed haversack with lots of bottles and vials connected to it. Sturdy trousers and leather boots from the farm complete her appearance. When Gertie is smiling you get the impression that she is a nice grandmotherly sort of person. Other times one wouldn’t recognize her at all due to disguises and the much more subdued side of her reversible cap and cloak

Backstory: Gertrude Emily Wainwright was the only child of a farmer in one of the more peaceful vales in the country. Growing up in a somewhat idyllic and pastoral setting her adventurous spirit got her in trouble as a child, with an uncanny ability to talk others into mischief to keep her company. Her tongue grew sharp during her courting years and kept suitors at bay. She eased into her older years a spinster with a childhood girlfriend by her side to help her run the farmstead.

When her companion fell in love, Gertie hit a post-midlife crisis. Her desire to do something worthwhile and adventurous surfaced in full force. She left the farm to the happy couple and went to live with her Uncle Max, the enigmatic black sheep of the family. Max tried his best to train his niece in the way of magic, but she was rather undisciplined, and seemed to enjoy the verbal sparring about his lessons more than the lessons themselves. She was also quite intrigued with the fact that she could never win an argument against his parrot familiar Twerp.

Max understood the quest for meaning in life that Gertrude was facing and was unsurprised when she decided to leave. He’d done his best to equip her though – in her haversack was an intricately carved wand of healing. He sighed watching her leave through the wooded path. It was going to be much quieter around. He’d enjoyed having someone around that he could win an argument against.

Gertie traveled cross country. Running short of funds she talked her way into a position aboard a barge as a mercenary for hire. It had been a great combination of disguise, bluff, and diplomacy. Turned out she talked her way into a great deal of trouble. But for the moment she concentrated on getting to know the other very interesting characters hired to guard the merchant’s wares. . .

Killer gaming moment: Gertie’s killer game moments are different from the average character. (Last game session our party wizard lost his will save against the madness effect on the plane of nightmares. A military commander that we were dealing with wanted the wizard to join-up to help him fight in a war we wanted no part of. The wizard agreed and was gung-ho to go. Gertie managed to get the commander to believe that our wizard was prone to cast area spells and mistakenly target his companions in the heat of battle. She said it was best to keep him with folks that knew when to dodge him than in the ranks of the unsuspecting. Natural 20 on the diplomacy roll.)

But as far as action shots – well Gertie’s are rather unique. She spends most combats either trying to concentrate hard enough to get Uncle Max’s wand to work, or digging frantically through her haversack for something to throw at the bad guys. She’s lobbed in everything from alchemist’s fire to ink wells.

Gertie can be resourceful at times. Given a few moments lead against a raiding party she soaped the stairs, dusted them with dehydrated water and then emptied the contents of her water skin as the raiders came up the stairs.

Once when failing a sneak attack, the ruffian opposing her laughed at her – an old grandma with knitting needles! A round later the sharpened knitting needles were causing him great discomfort as they jutted out from under his ribs.

And a lot of the action that Gertie does relates to falling. Old knees and heavy haversacks mean that getting out of the way of a spire wyvern on a cliff constitutes a long tumble.

I would love to have a picture of Gertie rummaging through her haversack, tossing things right and left to get a hold of a flask or wand. Or even a picture of her falling. . . . Any picture with any pose would be greatly appreciated if this unusual character wins the contest. Especially since I’ll never find a mini to match the concept. . . .

 

[winnmich]

Wayne Reynolds

Wayne Reynolds has quickly risen to the top of my long list of artists that inspire me and push me to try and better myself and my own work. But one thing that has frustrated me to no end is the fact that, despite other artists of his calibur doing so, there is /no/ website or any official gathering of his artwork anywhere. Wizards has seen fit to obscure most of his incredible Eberron artwork with their 'jazzy' cover designs and yet they won't post his stunning full color pieces. Does /anybody/ know of good collections of this mans art or even a homepage?

 

[Kai Lord]

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 2/3 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!

 

[Eosin the Red]

Kai & Krail,

Inspired work gentlemen (or ladies). Do you mind if I steal your idea and run something like this myself at somepoihnt in the future?

Eosin

 

[Kai Lord]

Just one more week to go until the finalists are chosen by Krail and I and are sent off to Wayne! This one will end quickly so if you have a character you've been considering toss him or her into the ring, what have you got to lose....

And Eosin sorry for the Liefield joke in the other thread but you're more than welcome to steal our ideas and run one of these in the future.

Once again, good luck!

 

[KingOfChaos]

Well, I almost won with my Zanatose description last time, but I think this time I will do another massive description for one of my iconic characters. Perhaps Hannible this time.

Can we have more than one character in the portrait? I was actually thinking of doing a description for my sister's character with one of my own since they travel together.

 

[Kai Lord]

Welcome back, King of Chaos. Ultimately the contest is for one character, but its going to be up to Wayne as far as how much he wants to draw around the character. I'd recommend submitting your "main" character, then describing something he did with his sister as part of the "killer gaming moment". If WAR has the time and inclination to do the full scene then she'd get to be included that way. But that isn't how the contest is officially set up. If you decided to upgrade to the painting then I can pretty much guarantee that it would just be of the one character.

 

[valeren]

Cash

Miguel Enrico Gonzales a.k.a. Cash
16th level Shade Warlock



Background: First and foremost, it should be noted that Cash is not a native of Faerun. He was born Miguel Enrico Gonzales in another plane, very much unlike that of Faerun. This birth planet of his was considered to be a world of darkness by many who knew about it’s existence, a place where little magic was left, so one could just imagine that being born into service of a warlock family automatically counted Miguel to be pretty special. Life hasn’t been easy though for him. The warlock family, whose Miguel’s parents were servants of, was known as the Magisters and was at war with the other warlock families. So, even as a child Miguel was trained in many skills in order to serve his masters in this war.

By the time Miguel was in his teens, it was obvious that he was talented in many fields but excelled in the use of magic – specifically shadow magic that the Magistrates were known for. It was this magical aptitude that led the Magisters to believe that he would make an excellent spy to one of the opposing families. This particular family were known as the Usurpers and were known to be much more capable in the study of the arcane. They readily took in people in their schools in order to find those proficient in the school of magic and thereafter recruited into their ranks. A cover story was made for Miguel and he was then sent to study in one of these Academies. Almost at once, Miguel showed promise and rose quickly in the ranks of the school.

What everyone didn’t expect was that Miguel favored the academic life of the Usurpers over that of the political intrigue of the Magisters. But still, he served two masters. That was until the Magisters decided to strike a crippling blow to the Usurpers. One such part of this plan was to eliminate key figures of the opposing house – one of which was Miguel’s own mentor. During the act of assassination, Miguel picked his mentor’s side and was treated as a traitor by the Magisters. He and his mentor were mortally wounded in the clash. His mentor used up the last of his life force to cast a final spell that both healed and transformed Miguel – he never grew old again since then.

Since then Miguel, from thereon called Cash (don't ask why, it just stuck) continued to serve the Usurper’s family. His transformation (to an immortal creature yet dependent on the lifeforce of others) caused him to question himself but eventually he learned to cope. For the next couple hundred of years, he kept doing researches and managing the properties of the family eventually becoming a teacher, a regent and as well as a well-known master of the art of shadow magic – rivaling that of the Magisters themselves. Again, he rose pretty high in the ranks of his new family but as time he would tend to seclude himself especially during his solo projects. He did find a kindred soul in the personality of another, his best friend Timothy O’ Rourke, who was in turn a master of the art of fire. Both would go on adventures brought about by their mutual curiosity of the arcane. It was during one of these explorations that they found out the plane they lived in was approaching a catastrophe meant to wipe out all mystical beings.

In the next couple of years, both Cash and Timothy tried to find ways to stop the approaching cataclysm. When it was obvious that it couldn’t be stopped, they looked into ways of simply avoiding it. It was Cash’s proficiency with shadow magic that led them to the shadow plane and the planes beyond that. Both him and Tim were able to cast the spell to transport them to Faerun just days before the disaster hit.

The two of them ended up on Faerun and after much conflict and adjustment were able to adapt to the life there.

Personality: A gypsy who once encountered Cash described his personality as that of a subdued bubbly person. Another way that could be placed is that he is a somewhat ironic combination of a shy person (when encountering something new or a puzzle) and that of an outgoing one when doing something he’s used to (fighting monsters and interacting with people he knows). He is likewise considered to be one of having a sarcastic streak (usually accompanied by a raised eyebrow) but these are usually is said with no ill intent (usually) and is part of taunting and bluff to keep his opponents off guard.

Appearance: Miguel is of mixed descent. His part Caucasian and part Malay heritage blended nicely and gave him handsome features. This is only enhanced by the transformation done into him giving him an almost masculine yet androgynous look. Since the transformation, he used to have a pale complexion but exposure to Faerun's magic rich environment has given him a healthy tan complexion. His long black hair normally flows freely up to his shoulder; unless he’s expecting conflict then he normally ties the sides of his hair into some sort of ponytail. He has almond shaped dark brown eyes that slightly shows his Asian heritage. These however flash green when he’s angry, which combined with the small fangs (which likewise appear when stressed – which in Faerun occurs frequently) gives him an intimidating appearance. Though standing at 6’1”, he has a slim built similar to that of an athlete. (I think I have a photo manipulation of him stored somewhere cash's pic )

Cash normally wears simple clothes of similar cut from the world he came from. He does this as part of a habit. Generally donning only a simple plain white shirt (which at time looks a size smaller that should be comfortable) that is cut low with a v-neck to show off part of his chest (and thus allowing him easy access to the necklace he wears), indigo blue denim jeans and black (mid shin height) leather boots. His accessories include an assortment of silver jewelry (2 rings and a necklace) and a leather wristband – all of which are magical (mostly protection as well as alteration magic to boost his physical and spell capabilities). When adventuring, he travels light and only brings along stuff that can be accommodated inside a small bag of holding.

He usually fights using his arcane abilities (eldritch blasts and other invocations). Being a known practitioner of shadow magic, he favors using darkness spells (darkening areas and summoning tentacles and creatures of shadow). In his adventuring and research, Cash has likewise developed some spells that allow him to manipulate magic itself and even unconsciously controls coincidence at times. He does carry small items (trinkets) he has enchanted and these work similar to scrolls. If forced to melee, Cash is trained in various forms unarmed combat and is considered to be a practiced on his home plane. In necessary, he does own a nasty looking magical wooden (possibly ironwood) dagger capable of animating itself and causing grievous wounds.

Action scene: Here’s the situation – Cash and Timothy first arrived in Faerun from the Plane of Shadow and ended up in the City of Shade. Their first meeting with the Shade natives did not go well (part of which was that they didn’t know the language and misunderstandings do happen) and the two were forced to make their way to escape the city. On one of the scenes, Cash crashes through a window of a tall tower - risking the fall (which is not really good since the tower was at the edge of the flying City of Shade), in order escape the barrage of shadow tentacles summoned by the Shades. Uncaring for the hundred pieces of glass falling with him (he is cut but his fast healing normally kicks in fast), he continues to shoot quickened eldritch blasts from his hands (which are poised in the way that the forefingers and little fingers are the only ones pointing at the target - the top portion of the tower so that it will collapse on the Shades within) while summoning his shadows (appearing in wisp like smoke) to either take his body into the Shadow plane or transform it into a swarm of small dark creatures and aid his fall.