Harpies abound

Harpies.

I have some kind of anti-love affair with them. In that, just like Zombies, harpies always end up in my campaigns. Not that they ever get much attention, even though they extremely effective preditors of adventuring parties.

Harpies first appeared in a short campaign I wrote for a weekend game in Jacksonville. It was a desert setting and so I did a lot of research into birds of the desert, the harpy myth(s) and what these two ideas had in common. What came out was more a cross between a dinasour and a naked woman, but the result still says harpy to me. 

I know that very soon I will probably be retooling this version of the creature for some future game. Not that I have a particular idea in mind for a story, so much as I feel like this version of the birdlady isn't quite monsterouse enough. 

Either way, here is series from before I downloaded Paint Tool Sai and the after will be obvious.

 

This was actually drawn some 4-5 years ago, and while I have a few harpy illustrations laying around, this is 1 of my favorites. I purposely made them all pigeon toed as I thought it would be both human and humorus for a feral beastly preditor to have a funny walk. I don't, dark sense of humor I suppose....

This was illistrated in Paint.Net. A program I still use quite a bit. While it retains kind of a quick and sloppy style, its easy and you can pump images out of it in minuets. If your preping for a game and you want to have solid illustrations to wow your players with, this isn't bad.

However, its not creatively satisfying and it doesn't live up to the image in my head.

And then I found Sai.....

 

This is far far far closer to what I had in mind originally. The colors seem right, and a combo between the after affects in Paint.net and the ability to simply paint and line illustrate with Sai is a deadly combo. 

I have another harpy I will be posting soon Im sure.

A Revenant's Tale

While I can't currently play Pathfinder as I'm in a whole different state (physical) I can finish up illustrations from my former PathFinder campaign that myself and my friends just had to cut short.

An abridged version of "A Revenant's Tale":

The adventurer's slay the Nightmare in front of the less-than-Mensa populace of Emery Villa.

Some of the populace, most profoundly moved by the slaying of the fiery beast devote themselves to members of the group.

The group swells in numbers bogging down their trip.

Not to be undone the group goes off in search of one of the locally-mythic Abastons stones.

The group finds said neolithic monument only to be attacked after nightfall by the spirits that haunt the stone as well as the wolf pack that's been stalking them.

A fight ensues and the group quickly realize that the potent mix of shadows and wolves is enough to kill them all, so they ride what little remaining horses that were not spooked away in terror, leaving several of their members behind to fight and die. A completely cowardice act, that fits the story perfectly.

Having made it back to Emery Villa to re-suture their now-open stitches, the group realizes their mistake even though its too late and forces the rest of the followers to dispatch as their safety is not insurable.

Several days pass as they heal up.

The last night the the group decides to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Lord of the Manor Emery the following day.

That night Jame's character Constable Gapaunce Lym awakens to find his three devotees have made it back to town. But not with their souls in tact.

A fight of reprisal happens that the Revenants are sadly dispatched just like the monsters they set out to destroy.

The adventures, having realized their mistake vow never to allow this to happen to them again and set out to solve the mystery.

Blogstart

So, while I know that no one is necessarily reading this as yet, I do know that people will read these words in the future. In a way its like a time-capsule where anything I am to write now will transmit information to the future.

Eitherway, I want to note the reason I am starting this blog.

It should be noted first, that, I was a part of the initial MySpace wave and found that to grow stale over time. Why have a blog entirely about one's own narcissism? I suppose in a few ways this is like that as well, except that I won't be writing about all the stupid people in my life (considering you have them in your life too) nor will I be writing about my deeper existenctial thoughts, unless they confire something to the illistrations I will be posting.

I may post little fictional tidbits about different illustrations or "details" about the inner workings of a story that I might be writing or playing (PRPG player) but it probably wont get deeper than that.

I will try not to post offensive ideas or thoughts but a lot of my illistration work is dark(ish) for the sole purpose of what I like to work on. Not to say that I don't do cute, just to say I find it boring.

All that said, the reason Im starting this blog is:

A:) I just turned 30 and Im unhappy with my lack of commercial accomplishment. I need a neat little platform to put all my ongoing work and I was inspired by D&D Doodler to do this. Not that he knows that I exist, so much as I realized that his blog was like a Resume and I realized I could do the same.

B:) I frankly, need a place to put the massive amount of work I have other than the OffTopic of a forum I admin.

So here it is, the first entry in this adventurers journal.