A new ongoing series from Sentinels Comics (rpg)

So I’m finally getting to run The Sentinels Comics Rpg and am super hype. I’ve been in love with the game from the first time i played back around the time of Vengeance. The world feels as as expansive and populated as both DC and Marvel, quirks and all (I’m looking at you Tempersination and The Wraith and Legacy (Young) being the same age SOMEHOW).

The thing i love most so far is just how easy it is to make a fleshed out character from NOTHING. SERIOUSLY only 2 of my 4 players had 0 idea what to play and one had… I wanna play hit from DBS. Funny enough the player who had the most solid idea struggled the most.

Our cast

A kindergarten teacher who moonlights as a super-powered vigilante.

The Stone Skinned Slate

After not only losing his home world but also home reality. This former thoratian peacekeeper is still dedicated to upholding the ideals of justice. Vyktor Kan’Tall is…

BLYNK

After losing everything in the destruction of Rook City, Ivy Steelson came across a strange alien biomechanical device. Upon merging with her, she wonders who is really in control. She is…

TRELLIS

After coming across a cursed sword that bound him to the soul of a feral wolf, this academic must venture out beyond his studies.

THE ARCANINE

(Thanks to Arcanus Lupus for the original place holder name inspiration.name pending… but…sigh… its explained deeper in)

Follow their adventures in this upcoming six issue miniseries starting on May 12th.

Okay now that thats out of the way I’ll go a little more in depth on the individual characters.

Stone Skin Slate.

John Stone was your run-of-the-mill guy. He was always on the bigger side but really was more of a teddy bear. From his youth, he looked up to the larger than life heroes who protected the world, but never expected one to walk right into his classroom. When he was only six years old, his teacher came down with a bad case of the flu… and a certain Maori hero filled in. He decided that day, he would be just like Haka… not as a hero, as a person. So he did, he applied himself and after graduation he got his dream job… a kindergarten teacher. (Background: Blank Slate)

Life was good for him until one Monday… it should have been like any other, but one of his students was missing. After contacting the boy’s parents, he heard that he had been staying at a friend’s this past long weekend… but never arrived. After contacting the Megalopolis police, John decided to go out looking for him…

It was sheer luck that found him at a rundown former Revocorp warehouse. When he saw his student strapped down and hooked up to some machine, he snapped. Rather than calling for help, he used his muscular frame to bash in the door and take down the two guards. In his rush to free the child, he didn’t notice one of the gaurds taking aim at him. The bullet passed through is shoulder and shattered a countainer of unknown chemicals (Isoflux Apha). Rather than leep away, Ston lifted his frightened student up and out of the path of the chemicals. He was just barely able to escort the child home before collapsing. (Power source: Accident)

After an extended hospital stay (his class was watched over by Mr Atta, John was so disappointed that he didn’t get meet him again) he noticed his normally decently muscled body becoming bodybuilder level. With a little focus, he could lift severl times his own bodyweight and harden his skin to be like stone. (Archetype: physical power house)

For some time, he has paroled his city as a vigilante to make sure that what happened to his student wouldn’t happen to anyone else. However, he had no ambition to be anything more… until OblivAeon…

For the first time, he donned a real mask and was one of the heroes on the ground after the destruction of Rook City. While he didn’t see much combat, he was instrumental in saving dozens of lives.

Now, he can’t truly be satisfied helping those just in arms reach. He now uses his weekends to take courses at Freedom Plaza. However this has caused him to take a step back from his personal life out of fear of his super activities harming them. (Personality: Distant)

Principles of the Mask and Ambition (probably should switch to principle of the hero)

This was fun, the player had litterally 0 idea what he was doing and came up with everything on the spot. When he said that he wanted a job that helped people, I suggested Social worker but he shifted over to Kindergarten teacher.

I said “lol, big stong guy who is also a big softie and a Kindergarten teacher. Are you trying to play Haka?”

He goes “dam… I should change that… no… wait… I looked up to heroes as a kid and was a huge haka fan. Its the reason I became a teacher. And now that I’m a hero, I kinda model myself after him too.”

Things to note…

For a character that is so focused on his civilian identity… he forgot to give him a first name lol. John is a place holder.

Suggest coming up with a name for the kid.

Blynk

Vyktor Kan’Tall (4th Son of the Tall family) served for decades as a Peace Keeper on the planet Dok’Thorath. He rose the ranks until he served under the most honorable Prime General Kel’Voss. The thorathian peace keepers were respected across the galaxy until the Myrinian conquest struck their planet. They fought hard but were destroyed from within by the hyper-millitant rebels lead by Portja Kip-Pro the Sky Scrapper. (Yes, Scrapper not Scraper) (Background: Law Enforcement, Power source: Alien)

Vyktor lead a small group of thoratian civilians in a last ditch escape, eventually landing on earth. As a pink-skinned powered torathian, Vyktor used his temporal control to become the hero, Blynk. It took time but eventually, he found a home on earth… until OblivAeon. (Archetype: Psychic, post and precog along with teleporting for time powers)

He, like many other heroes across the multiverse, came through the mistportals to fight the Singular Entity. After a tremulous battle… the heroes stood victorious. It should have been a perfect ending… but with OblivAeon’s defeat, the mist portals began to collapse. Heroes scrambled to return to their homes but Vyktor, like so many, was trapped.

He is determined to not allow his unfortunate counterpart in this reality to define him. He now takes up residence at Freedom Plaza. Occasionally teaching classes or aiding the Sentinels of Freedom but his ultimate goal is to restore honor to his name by destroying the one who sullied it in this universe.
(Personality: Stoic)

Principles of the Detctive and Imortality (Personally I don’t feel immortality fit, but when he was creating… he spun it so well.)

This player came to the table and said… " I wanna play Hit from DragonBall Super"

It took some doing but he wound up making a more support focused psychic. The funny thing is, he made a powered torathian that can speed and slow time… I only just listened to the Voss ep where they said that all powered torathian have paired powers… just worked out

When he rolled alien, he asked what aliens were already in the universe. I mentioned torathian and he was totally on board. Then this exchange happend.

Blynk: hey, didn’t the Voss deck have Space Mengele in it

Me: yes… Vyktor… why? Are you trying to hunt him down?

B: No, well yes but… what if I was his clone…

M: hmm… I don’t think he had powers but… hey… do you remember the mission deck from OblivAeon? What if your an alternate universe him?

B: yeah!

Later

B: hey… maybe I could flirt with Sky Sraper

M: that… would end … so badly… she was probably a villian in your universe

B: exactly.

So… I may have to subject poor Portja Kip-Pro to that… I forsee a lot of pain…

At least Portja is off planet for now?

@Arcanist_Lupus, you say?

Trellis.

Ivy Steelson always had a knack for machines. Dispite having a less than ideal family life she was able to work her way through one of the best tech programs in the country. After getting her masters, she was able to line up a job in the Rook City branch of Revocorp. Things were looking up for Miss (hopefully soon to be Doctor) Steelson… until OblivAeon…

She had just finished moving her life to a (relatively) decent apartment and was just about to start her first day… when the building came down around her. She was trapped beneath the rubble, unable to move, unable to see, barely able to breathe. After 16 hours, a small stream of light pierced the darkness… this was the end… she was sure of it. But instead of angles (or devils depending oh how harshly she would be judged…) it was a man. He had lifted the several ton slab with one hand and was reaching out to her with the other. She couldn’t help the tears of relief ash he lifted her sore body out of the rubble. She regretted that she never learned the heroes name, but she was alive… with nothing… in Rook City… (Background: Struggling)

She had nothing… no home, no friends, no family worth a danm… she was lucky a few places had survived the city’s annihilation so she could at least stay out of the rain. One day when she was scouring the area for food she came across… something… it was a strange siver and canister with glowing purple lines snaking across its surface… she immediately knew that it was some kind of alien tech. If she could get this to a tech company… or maybe reverse engineer it her self… she could get back on her feet! She brought the canister back to her makeshift shelter and fell asleep, dreaming of the possibilities that it could bring. (Power source: Relic)

She awoke with a start, shaking uncontrollably. As she attempted to shake the eerie feeling that over took her… she noticed the unthinkable. The canister… it was gone. As she sprung to her feet, she felt odd… almost like, instead of moving her body… it was being pulled. Everything, legs, arms, neck… she almost felt like a marionette. It was only then she noticed the silver and purple vines tightly fused to her flesh like vines up a trellis. Her panic only worsened when she felt a voice in the back of her head telling her… to feed… (Archetype: Robot/Cyborg)

To her relief, it didn’t mean people. It turned out that she could now absorb energy freely from her surroundings. After a few weeks of living on the streets of Rook City, she was approached by a… less than savery individual. (Overall, it was surprising it took that long). The man demanded… well he never got time to say… the ‘vine’ on her arm lashed out, stabbing into the man and began to drain. She could only look on in horror as the man was left a dried out husk.

She couldn’t sleep… not because of the traumatic even… she just couldn’t sleep any more. The thing wouldn’t allow it… she didn’t need to sleep, eat, drink… she wondered if she even counted as human any more… she spent most of her time away from people, terrified that she could drain someone else… terrified she may enjoy it…

Months pass before she feels comfortable enough to mingle with people again. Early in her isolation, she had considered trying to remove the extraterrestrial extremity but… that would kill her. She knew it, she could feel it. It had dug into every organ, every bone… she wasn’t even sure her brain was her own anymore… she was just a Trellis for this plant to grow on…

Maybe today. Maybe today she’d to Freedom Plaza. They specialized in helping people like her. Maybe get a hot meal and soft bed (neither she needed but she certainly would appreciate) for the first time in what feels like forever. Maybe she could make something of this… abomination. Maybe connect with people… but she had been saying that for months… and would probably keep saying it for months unless something changed. (Personality: Nurturing)

Principles of Whispers and Teamwork (teamwork didn’t really come through in the overview but part of her character is wanting a contradiction to almost form a new family)

Okay… this is my favorite character of any of my players.

I leveled with her at the beginning. Our group had an alien, a physical power house and a werewolf mage… if could do something techy or ranged… I’d appreciate it but not to force it.

She shrugged and said sure. She had no idea what she wanted. I’m worried I pushed her in that direction to had but in the end the character is 100 percent her own.

Rolled struggling. She doesn’t know sentinels lore so when she said she lost everything, I suggested Rook City (described a Gotham City plus bad Chicago but worse) and she was up for it.

Rolled relic and she was worried it had to be magic but we worked out that it was an alien ray gun that absorbed energy. It initially had this goof premis of it being attached to her but not needing a particular place. Like she could touch it to her face, let it go and it would stick there…

Once she rolled robot, she was a little stumped. But we eventually arrived at it being attached internally as well. And at that point we were like ‘do you even need the gun anymore?’

At one point she was looking at Principle of Inner Demons. I suggested undead. But eventually settled on two she felt fit really well.

THIS is my favorite part. She was writing in the look of her character and she described it as ‘like vines’. While struggling for a name I throw out Ivy and neither of us can get past it. It was just comic book ironic enough to work. THAT IS THE MOMENT when the alien tech became a semi sentient techno organic plant. When we were trying to.come.up with a hero name… nothing planty was working

Me:bramble?
Her:nah, thorn?
Me:meh, vines?
Her: boring, choke… nah…
Me: taken by a villian… and that sounds really villiany. Metal plant… ferro… thorn
Her:thats a pokemon. Maybe we’re going the wrong direction.
Me: I had started going through magic cards in my head whats a trellis?
Her: the thing plants grow on…
Me: like the plant is growing on you…
Her: maybe I didn’t come up with it… maybe the plant told me I was just a trellis.

I still have to run this by her so everything is subject to change (she’s offline by the ime I finished). She had leaned into the horror when building but I’m worried I cranked it up too high.

Unfortunately she won’t be in week 1 so I’ll writing a good place for her to join in week 2.

Edit: she checked the Google doc and loved it. She is thinking about switching her Principle of whispers to inner demons now.

Omg… I am… sorry? I’m not sure that’s right, not quite sorry but something similar?.. I couldn’t get your name out of my head… I may as well write his character in the reply…

Background: academic
Power source: Accident
Archetype: Divided/ armored…ish
Personality: stoic

Principle of whispers and an undetermined responsibility Principle…

He’s a studied mage who’s soul is tied to a werewolf… (think Jason blood and ethical but less control)
… thats it…

The player was entirely struggling to blend character and stats. He is a long time ttrpg player and I’ve played with him for over 10 years. He role plays AMAZING characters. Of the “remember that cool time with that character” … like 80 percent were him…

Crush the Orc Barbarian/alchemist who was smartest (18 int) in tribe but had speech impediment.

Sir Grizzly Heisenbear, an awakend bear druid professor… who didn’t know he was a bear.

A mutants an masterminds character who was a pacifist teleporter with memory issues… he’d teleport people up and forget about them… he’d blame his arch enemy… Gravity…

Halon ten… oh… Halon ten… he fully believed he was a fallen god… he’d rp it wether the dm said it was true or not… and he’d play that character with a different spread dozens of times just, back to lv 1 for pissing off another god…

But for some reason he just couldn’t build the abilities to meet the personality first… we tried to tool his stuff to his existing concept but… it had mixed results…

I tried to help with leading questions but… he accused me of trying to ‘make his character for him’.

We’re cool but im worried he won’t enjoy himself as much as he could.

Anyway… you can see the bind I’m in… I’ve got Magic Werewolf to work with…

Loved your stuff in the letters page.

I’ll be sure to come up with something different if he doesn’t give me a name for actual gameplay.

Lol… just realized you ARNT Arcanus Lupis… oops… oh well… my previous reply still stands lol…

True… in cannon… but as said by Auron in KH2 (and the annoying mc of FFX)

“This is my story”

I’ve got a work around that won’t be 100 percent what I want but… I won’t spoil it… unless your at least a bit up on the lore…

I LOVE the cannon that GtG created and would for the most part avoid altering major things, ESPECIALLY in my first game.

I’ve got a slate of cameos for Megalopolis.

For villians. I plan on using several original Leutenint levels. A group called the road warriors. Skidmark, Thruway and Motor head. But also Firearm (formerly Char)

An original underpowered villian i named Kirin (Japanese for unicorn…)

Then my favorite mini nemesis… MANGROVE, THE GROVE THAT WALKS LIKE A MAN!

Then a mostly environmental challenge issue. But not without severe danger…

Then… the most handsome villians in the (former) Multiverse, Christopher and Adam arrive! They get their day in the Sun!

Finally, the true mastermind… who it is very possible to figure out right now… thankfully non of my players are on this site…

Oh well, as they say… it isn’t about the destination… but the Journey.

walks away as ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ plays in the background

I hear my name being taken in vain
Without warning I appear and exclaim
“In danger you tread,
to claim my name in my stead”
As you dabble in things most arcane.

Wow, it’s been a while since I spent any time on these forums. They look entirely different! (Thank you to @fjur for tagging me).

You have my blessing for any characters inspired by my name… but I would rather that you didn’t actually use my name for it. (And I’m glad you enjoyed my schtick on the letters page!)

Like I said… sorryish… but…

This is kinda cool to get a Arcanist Lupus limerick… even if it is mildly threatening.

The name WILL be adjusted once the game actually happens. Until then… shrugs… oooh…
Maybe…

I think I got atleast a cover name…
Arcanine.

Edit: honestly, I’d rather anger Nintendo than anyone from this forum (former or otherwise)

I always liked “The Wherewolf” for a teleporting werewolf.

Don’t worry, I’m not the slightest bit mad. I apologize if the limerick came off that way.

Arcanine is cool! Two thumbs up from me.

Not at all, I could tell that it was made in fun. I doubt if you were actually mad you’d whip up a limerick… or you would do MORE!

I seriously hope my friends character can get more fleshed out. He’s never had the pleasure of listening to the podcast so he’d be completely blindsided and confused if a rabbit version of himself showed up… wait… danm it… that works in the framework I already have… WHY!

Metafiction. The reason for VoidQuake.

OblivAeon: Boots on the Ground was a 12 issue maxieseries focused mostly on the search and rescue efforts in Rook City after it’s destruction. The format went as follows.

Introducing a new character showing a very brief origin and overview.

Show their reaction to the OblivAeon Crisis (Where were they, what was their first reaction, why do the decide to help)

Interact in some way with the character from the previous issue during or after the destruction of Rook City. (With the exception of issue 1 who met the character from issue 12)

It was designed to be a test launch for these new characters to see how they may do in their own books. At the end of issue 12, there was a poll where you could rate each title character in order from least to most interesting. The top 3 would get their own one-shot origin story, possibly leading into a self-titled series.

Slate placed first, to noone surprise. He was designed to capture the attention of Southwest Sentinels fans who were unsatisfied with the new direction the book was going in. Combined with the recent popularization ‘secret identity’ trend with Young Legacy and The Naturalist, Slate would be popular.

What caught everyone by surprise was that Trellis placed 3rd but only 16 votes behind 2nd. Trellis wasn’t a character that anyone really considered. She was introduced to possibly take the role of a tragic villain but that had to be scrapped due to her breakout popularity.

Sales for the one-shots fell short of the mark (2nd place hero Jetsetter selling extremely poorly, barely selling ⅕ the books of the other 2) to get their own ongoing series. Slate was decently popular but failed to capture the crowd it was among for (it is widely known that Southwest Sentinels fans ONLY read Southwest Sentinels). Trellis’s noir horror book sold less (partially but not entirely due to being short printed becauseof a lack of confidence), but generated a great deal of internet hype and a small but rabid fan base.

A while later, hype around Trellis still hadn’t died down. This, combined with the success of the new teen team book (Daybreak) made the editorial staff more willing to give these heroes another shot. They decided to use Slate and Trellis, as well as a character from one of the decently popular Disperation stories. The fourth is still being considered.

After deciding to pass the assignment off to a group of new writers, it was decided that the book VoidQuake would be a mix of new ideas and old standbys to hopefully grow an audience over the course of the series. With luck, this could be another massive success… but… if it fails, there isn’t much to lose… for editorial… the writers on the book have A LOT to lose.

Can these plucky upstarts prove to editorial that the characters can work? Will the be able to work together to craft a story to rival existing successes like Daybreak, Dark Watch, Void Guard, Prime Wardens or even the Sentinels of Freedom? Or will their individual egos get in the way and sink to only the book and characters, but their future careers.

There… the reason for our book. I hope I captured the feel of comic book editorial mandates. Silly decisions made for silly reasons. And fan hype.

Oh, I love the alternate universe origins for Blynk. Especially the misspelled Sky Scrapper.

Also, Trellis is an amazing hero name, and I love her backstory. So tragic.

Metaverse backstory even! So are you gonna post updates after every game? Because I do love reading those kinds of things!

I plan to. I’m super excited. I can’t promise how… polished… the individual issues will be. Honestly I kinda blanked out and didn’t realize how much I had written.

I threw a brief breakdown of what I have planned in an earlier post… again… glad my players don’t know about this forum…

I, uh, may have to “borrow” that concept of a maxi series for when I get to run with some new players. That’s just too perfect a setup. Well done.

Dude, go for it!

I sorta… don’t remember writing the Metafiction post… i was half asleep when I wrote it.

It fit really well. Slate was my friend wanting to make the ‘quintessential hero’ and it was really well done. Blynk… was just Hit but hey hit was cool for a few years. And Trellis… that just came out of nowhere.

HE HAS A CHARACTER! I’ll work on writing up today after the game or tomorrow.

Name: Jack Russell
Hero Name: The Arcane-ine
Introduced: Tome of the Bizzare (either right before the Prime Wardens took over the book or in the early 50s)
Later Appearance: mid90s… he was VERY 90s… it kinda sucked. He went by JACK RUSSELL THE TERROR!
Tome of the Bizarre story: paranormal investigator who was basically just a throw away…
either interrupted a Cult of Gloom ritual and got his soul bound to a wolf (mid70s to early 80s)
Or
Or was hunting a werewolf AND BECAME ONE HIMSELF (early 50s, more of a horror comic with a tragic end)

90s reboot making him a hero… it sucked… it bound his curse to a magic sword (either the original blade or crafted it himself)

Jack Russell the Arcane-ine

[Warning: self destructive themes, I don’t THINK they count a suicidal]

This is it… Jack Russell thought as he swirled his untouched whiskey glass as he drank from the bottle. No matter how much he tried to run, his past would always $#/+ all over him. As he stared at the old rotary phone that sat in front of him, he couldn’t help but think back to everything that brought him here…

[Flashback]

Jack Russell was a cocky little $#/+stain. He managed to find his great grandfather’s book of magic and thought he could take on the world because he could spray some sparks around. With less than a half a dozen spells under his belt, he figured he could take on the things that go bump in the night and crap like that.

Didn’t go too bad at first, which in retrospect… only made him more insufferable. Banish a couple ghosts and kill a starving vampire and he thought he was the best damn wizard since Merlin.

Then came Patty in her slinky red dress, pouty lips and legs for miles… he should have known she was trouble from the moment she walked in…

She spun him some yarn about her boyfriend going missing on the night of the full moon only to turn up as a bloody mess the next morning… obviously a werewolf. He didn’t know shit about them outside pop culture… but damn this dame was gorgeous. How hard could it be?

That month… even knowing how it ended, Jack could regret it. Patty was a whirlwind that caught him and wouldn’t let him go… and they enjoyed every second… and every inch if you know what I mean.

Around the time of the next full moon, they made their way back to Massachusetts to hunt down the beast. Patty insisted that she go along… for closure… he was such a £₩^&ing sap.

He managed to enchant a crossbow with a silver bolt, he had melted down his dead mom’s wedding ring to make it… he thought it was romantic or something.

The night before Patty was able to lead him right to where the werewolf would be… such a moron. That should have been a red flag. Then she insisted that they enjoy themselves beforehand… intimately. Middle of the dark woods, stripped to their birthday suits, dangerous monster somewhere… what could possibly go wrong?

As they were finishing their fun, he felt claws rip across his back. He threw Patty out of the way and turned to where he thought the beast was… but he was alone. No beast, no Patty… no cloths… he was right £₩^&ed.

He snuck his way back to their motel, ready to cut his losses. He was shocked to see Patty waiting for him… with his crossbow aiming at him.

She explained how SHE was the werewolf (news flash moron: werewolves don’t NEED the moon), she had hoped that the stiff she killed would have been her mate but she got carried away, but Jack… they’d be perfect for each other.

He responded by tearing out her throat. Now HE was the monster…

[Present]

Even now, he wasn’t sure he revered killing her. On the one hand, she was a dangerous monster and confirmed murder who stole his humanity… on the other… damn she was good in bed.

He tilted back his bottle once again only to find out he had finished it. He tossed it across the room, shattering it on the door. With a sigh he looked down at the cracked and rusted blade.

He gently lifted it as one would hold a priceless antique then gave the blade a quick swing. The edge erupted with holy light as it cut clean through his desk…

[Flashback]

Jack Russell was a desperate man. He was a cursed man… if he had been less hasty and NOT killed Patty, maybe he could have learned to control this mess. But NO! He had to be a £₩^&! He could have killed her at any time…

In the ensuing few years he lied, cheated and stole every scrap of magic he could. Always chasing the tiniest of leads. Looking for some kind of cure…

Eventually he found this risky dink cult doing some kind of sacrifice ritual in a swamp. Trying to summon some dark something… he didn’t really care about that. What he DID care about was the silver sword at the center… it was a cursed blade, it would drain the spirit out of the holder… with the hilt shaped like a wolf skull.

He jumped in without thinking… par for the course really. He isolated the freaks in purple… twice… he needed to do it again after they got up as zombies…

Once he had cleared the way, he hastily painted binding runes on his body in pig’s blood. He hoped that that would bind his spirit to his body while sucking the ‘wolf’ into the sword. The moment he grabbed the blade… not the hilt… the blade… he felt it… it was working. He thought… he had painted the runes wrong… instead most of his human spirit was pulled out with some of the wolf… now he could only maintain his humanity while he had the sword… but he had more control…

He decided to embrace his dual nature, becoming a costumed hero.

JACK RUSSELL THE TERROR!

[Present]

He groaned as he remembered that stupid name. What the hell was he thinking? Needless to say, that was not a good career move.

He let out a morbid chuckle… Even after ‘curing’ his curse, his thirst for magical knowledge only grew and now that he wasn’t rushing… he actually LEARNED it instead of just skimming it. Oh, that was a kick in the teeth… If he had actually studied more… or gotten help… he could have been cured, but having up his own soul… he even pulled in something else… oh yeah, he was sterile too.

Over time, he had learned how to… not control… but direct and leash it. Eventually even being able to avoid transforming at the full moon. He was all set to live a quiet and $#/+y life… until OblivAeon…

[Flashback]

The bar he was in was swarmed by those freaky orange things fighting some moron dressed like a train.

The stress was enough to force him into the wolf form. It would have looked £₩^&ing ridiculous. A wolf in jeans and Thomas the tank running through an infinite number of dudes… but it was unending.

He was able to force himself back to human, hoping that his magiks could do SOMETHING.

Instead…

[Present]

Blood Howl (god he was such a little

$#/+, why the hell did he name the sword Blood Howl?) had been able to cut through the energy beings, especially when enhanced by magic… but each hit took its toll. Now the blade was on its last leg, so cracked and burned it was nearly unrecognizable.

If the only thing being destroyed was his oversized paperweight, he’d be pretty ambivalent… but that thing literally held his soul.

There was the slim chance that his spirit would just snap back together. He could die… or be erased. Or… human side could vanish leaving behind the wolf unchained… or directed by that trickle of evil…

He may not be a hero but he wanted to avoid that last outcome no matter what… which led him to his current predicament. He pulled from his coat pocket a creased and staind business card. It was a memory of a person he’d rather forget… but he had nowhere else to turn.

shh, cliclik, shh, clicliclicliclicliclicliclik, shh, cliclicliclicliclicliclicliclicli the rotary phone spun as he died

He held his breath as the phone rung once… twice… thr… click answer.

“Faye… it’s Jack Russell, don’t hang up.”

“I’m sorry,” a voice that absolutely was not Faye Diamond responded. “She… she didn’t make it…”

She was gone… probably the only person who could help him… dead.

“I can help you, I’m…”

Jack slammed the receiver down so hard it shattered. There was no hope. He couldn’t help but laugh. Really, he should probably just…

No…

Even with Blood Howl hanging like a Sword of Damocles over his head… he didn’t want to leave his life behind the way it was… even with… Even with his horrible attempts at heroism, it would be nice to be remembered for helping people in the end. Also on a more morbid note, if he was around heroes… somebody would be able to put him down when the inevitable happens…

This will be the return of JACK RUSSELL THE TER…HAHAHAHA! No. That was the worst. NO, nevermind… the costume was the worst, seriously… leather and spandex with exposed abs and pouches… so many pouches… No costume, new name…

Maybe… THE ARCANE-INE…

Meh, good enough. It probably doesn’t need to last that long.

THE METAFICTION

Edit: replace the line “the fourth is still being considered.” With the following:

The fourth team member came down via editorial mandate… Jack Russell the Terror… a one off character from the 50s Tome of the Bizarre who got a disastrously bad attempt at a reboot in the mid 90s. (The now editor that pushed this was the writer who mad that terrible story hope that he could replace Nightmist. NOW he’s hoping that his character can replace Pinion as Nightmist’s successor.)

None of the writes were excited to work on this… 2d… jerk of a character but think think the found a decent line to follow after aging him up to his spry 60s. (Most of editorial like this but… one is beyond angry)

They are preparing a backup magic character to replace him if the run into trouble with the higher ups. (The part demon former assassin, Flameberge)

Okay… this was a trip. My friend was able to throw a few ideas in but kinda needed me to fill just about everything. (50ish hours a week does get in the way of tabletop rpgs)

I had 2 routs to take

One was a younger character who would have been wrapped up in the cult of gloom.
Or
The other seemed more interesting to me. An early one-shot monster hunter becomes the monster himself horror story.

The 90s reboot was to give a chance to spread the story a bit, make the sword a consequence of his own actions… and use the absolutely garbage name that he gave me, JACK RUSSELL THE TERROR (God that name is so terrible).

He’s a big fan of Harry Dresden and Constantine so I’m hoping (he sleeps till noon on the weekend) that hell enjoy these paralels.

The extra character, I may have a 5th player. I’m going to possibly be writing that out too once I confirm things.

Wow, cursing in Euros.