A fight and a speech

The decision has been made to rush to the defense of the young wizard's apprentice. And by the way, if apprentices can fling around dozens of deadly lightning bolts, remind me never to piss off an actual wizard in this place. Sheesh.

Just as the Giak makes his leap, you race forward and strike out with your weapon -- knocking the creature away from the young wizard's back.

You jump onto the struggling Giak and strike again. Due to the surprise of your attack, add 4 points to your COMBAT SKILL for the duration of this fight but remember to deduct it again as soon as the fight is over.

Giak: COMBAT SKILL 9 ENDURANCE 9

If you win, turn to 325.

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RP: That’s SERVE and protect, not SERVICE …

(From "Crack Comics" number 1, 1940.)

SOD.142

RPG Corner: Bad guys

This week in RPG Corner I wanted to bring up the subject of enemies. Are there particular creatures you like to fight in your games, or a specific "boss" you remember vividly? I know in our Champions games, the players hated this character Nereid. She was a mentalist, who generally come in for a lot of abuse in that system, and they really loathed seeing her marker pop up on the battle mat. I don't know if it was the willpower-sapping entangling shawl she'd wrap around people, or the mind-controlling kisses, or what, but the hatred got almost visceral at times.

I never played in a D&D style campaign that had bad guys drawn as vividly as we got routinely in Champions, so I'm curious if the same thing happens to you in other gaming systems. Leave your favorite villain descriptions or encounters in the comments below, I'd love to hear about them.

RP: Products from Smokey the Bear’s nightmares

(From "America's Best Comics" number 22.)

Kraaaaaaan!

By a two-to-one margin, you all decided to cut through the heavier foliage towards the northeast, and it looks like our Kai Sixth Sense training has done the trick:

You have cut your way through the thick under-growth for nearly half an hour when you hear the beat of wings high above the trees. Looking up you can just make out the shape of a Kraan approaching from the north. It is one of the monsters that attacked the monastery and on its back are two grey-skinner creatures armed with long spears. These are Mountain Giaks -- evil servants of the Darklords, full of hatred and malice. Many centuries ago, their ancestors were used by the Darklords to build the infernal city of Hlgedad, which lies int he volcanic wastelands beyond the Durncrag ranger of mountains. The construction of the city was long and tortuous and only the strongest of the Giaks survived the heat and poisonous atmosphere of Helgedad.

Hidden by the trees, you freeze, ckeeping absolutely still as the Kraan passes overhead and disappears towards the south. When you are sure that it has gone, you move off once again into the forest.

(Turn to 131.)

Had we not been forewarned by our amazing brains, we might have ended up as Kraan-bait. But wait, there's more!

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Open Critique Day

It's Open Critique and/or General Help Day once again, so feel free to post your illustrations (HeroMachine or otherwise) you'd like to get a critique on, or any other general help topic you like, and we'll see what we can do to help.

SOD.141

RP: Love your dog but don’t, you know, LOVE your dog …

(From "The Hooded Horseman" number 21, 1951.)

Lone Wolf: Avoidance

The masses have massively spoken, and the choice was to use our Kai Sixth Sense, resulting in:

Your Sixth Sense has warned you that some of the creatures that attacked the monastery are searching the two paths for any survivors of their raid, but you can avoid both tracks by making your way through the undergrowth of the woods.

[polldaddy poll="3227580"]

Referring back to our map, it looks like we're supposed to be heading generally southeast if we want to get to the capital to warn the king. And maybe get one of those big roasted turkey legs, those things are always delicious and it seems to be a staple of feasts of the nobility.

Then again, the enemy would know that too, so maybe the sneaky thing to do is to go off in a slightly different direction.

We report, you decide!