Dungeon 205 - Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Shemeshka the Marauder

[Wrox]

If your a fan of Planescape and the extraplanar metropolis of Sigil, you may be interested in checking out this article: Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Shemeshka the Marauder)

The article is written by Brian R. James (designer of the 4E Demonomicon and the Menzoberranzan, which releases later this month) and Todd Stewart, which many here at ENWorld will recognize as the alter ego behind "Shemeshka's Planescape Storyhour"
http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-...anescape-storyhour-updated-27-dec-2011-a.html

 

[RangerWickett]

Go Todd!

 

[Shemeska]

It wasn't a topic I was going to say no to working on, and I can't thank Brian enough for asking to bring me on board for this one.

This wasn't the first time I've been in Dragon or Dungeon, but it's the first time I've been there since they went e-zine, and the first time that I actually wrote for WotC directly. It was a really fun project to contribute towards, and while a lot of stuff got cut during revisions, I largely got to write what I wanted. I'm really -really- happy that I got to work on this, especially for having hijacked the name online as a handle here and elsewhere for years now.

The end result is actually fairly edition-free, and while she's described using the 4e terminology for her kind, I took some pains to incorporate as many references back to the larger body of Planescape lore as well as bits and pieces from literally every source that the character has appeared in print.

I've been waiting months for this to come out, and I'm keen as heck to see what folks think about it. Hopefully Brian and I did her justice.

 

[davethegame]

I really enjoyed it. I've used Shemeska as an occasional bad guy/temporary ally in a few campaigns that have taken trips to Sigil (but not stayed there). Great background material.

I was hoping for a bit more Planescape material this month, but at least we get this, my Factions article ([/shamelessplug]) and a few others.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Great article and really makes the character come alive.

(snip) I was hoping for a bit more ... material this month (snip) .

I hope for more material every month.

I wonder if the Next version of DDi will be as emasculated as the 4E version?

 

[Henry]

Way to go, Shem'. Any time you get to contribute to the official lore, it's a huge plus for us fans.

 

[Shemeska]

Great article and really makes the character come alive.

I'm glad that you like it. It's also getting me in the mood again to work on her for my storyhour, though she won't feature back in for a while. *fingers crossed for some SH progress*

Way to go, Shem'. Any time you get to contribute to the official lore, it's a huge plus for us fans.

Thank you very much, it was a bit of a pipedream a few years ago to think I might get to contribute something towards the lore. Hopefully folks enjoy it, and hopefully it's edition-agnostic enough to not conflict with the 2e/3e lore (though sorry to some, since it assumes that the Faction War happened, and I actually liked it and its aftermath *ducks*).

 

[Kaodi]

[MENTION=11697]Shemeska[/MENTION] - Wait, the character Shemeska is a she?! Well, I suppose that might explain a bit how I ran into a certain someone playing under that name back when I was still playing DDO.

 

[Shemeska]

[MENTION=11697]Shemeska[/MENTION] - Wait, the character Shemeska is a she?! Well, I suppose that might explain a bit how I ran into a certain someone playing under that name back when I was still playing DDO.

Yep, though she uses the title "King" rather than Queen. And there was a typo in her writeup in 2e's "Uncaged: Faces of Sigil" that listed her as male in her statblock (which led to some jokes by her creator Ray Vallese about wanting to create the world's first crossdressing arcanaloth).

And that might have been me, because I played DDO for around an hour and a half and IIRC my girlfriend may have created a character by that name when she was playing DDO rather a lot a while back.