Sigils and Symbols

Well, our favorite convention is approaching, Gottacon! And of course this means a second wave of T-shirts...with a twist.

On the front will be the lovable logo you are all accustomed to.

On the back, well how about a contest? The plan is to make three sets of shirts: Transcendence, Descendence, and The Diablo Infection.

The rules are simple; make a logo for one (or any) of the categories, send it to me, and the winners get put on the back of the shirts.

Go to it!

From the Source

New Warrior Sources:

Master
To master all of the martial arts can take a lifetime (or more). There are those who devote their existence to such an endeavour and progress more swiftly than others. To those who witness them in combat veiw them as masters, but they know they are students still.
Start: 1 knowledge, +2 martial arts (off, def and pow), +d10 wounds.
Lvl Advancement: +1 martial arts (off, def and pow), +5 wounds.

Dominant
A dominant enjoys inflicting pain, some for a purpose and others just for fun.
Start: 2 weapon use, 1 knowledge, +d10 wounds, +2 damage (all).
Lvl Advancement: +2 damage (all), 1 weapon use, d10 wounds.

Warlock
A warlock fights with arcane abilities at the fore. The primary weapons of a warlock tend to be fire, telekinesis or just pure necromancy.
Start: 2 weapon use, +4 to all pool to hit, +d10 wounds.
Lvl Advancement: 1 weapon use, +2 to all pool to hit, +d10 wounds.

I haven't posted in a while, which means the posts are piling up. Watch this space...

The Warlock

I had an idea, warlocks.
A warlock is a warrior source.

Starting Level
+d10 wounds, 2 weapon use, +2 to all pool to hit.

Level Advancement
+d10 wounds, 1 weapon use, +1 to all pool to hit.

Essentially, this source would automatically increase the combat abilities of a mage or priest. The pool to hit modifier only applies when rolling a war, checks are unaffected.

Finding Darkness (5)

I began the next day by reinforcing the Rites of NekRa upon the zombie-mage in order to stop any decomposition. Then I got take a piss, I do my best thinking while voiding. I formulate plan 'd'. Plan 'd' consists of finding transport, getting to a Apothium (a church of sorts, devoted to NekRa) then try to get the guardian resurrected. I am hoping this will reverse the damage done by my associates.

Returning to where Tweek and Jack are (Drex is nowhere to be seen) we see Zee almost appear. I am not sure what is more annoying, those shifting townsfolk, or a half-there coyote girl. My jacket selects a couple of small sticks, bringing them into my hands. I begin flicking these twigs through her while the others greet her.

"Why I like you, I don't know." She says bad things, but I think she is just flirting. Too bad I'm out of her league.

"Cause I'm sexy." I reply, giving her a good look over and a wink.

"Sure, we'll go with that for now." She is shaking her head, but she means yes. "In the meantime, I need help with another task I am working on so I borrowed Drex. I will return him to you later."

"Oh, there's no need." I reply. Although in all truth, if was being attacked by some gribbly monster, I would want him around. That, and she was leaving us to walk into the City while they go off to do stuff. I just wanted to be a jerk.

"I can't keep him around, he's just as annoying as you are." Bitch. "Anyway, I just wanted to tell you so you didn't have a spazz attack because the world is disappearing."

"Like we are going to get any warning anyway." I say.

"There is an abandoned restaurant down the way, you might be able to find some provisions there. But, I'm off." She fades to nothing.

We decide to go towards the restaurant, taking the zombie-mage with me. It takes a few hours to walk there, and I hate walking, so Wumpscut is playing the entire way. As we get there we can see that the radiation and weather have taken their toll upon the building. There are a few vehicles outside, all of them ruined, and even with our assorted abilities, none drivable. Tweek and Jack go to inspect the interior.

I stay outside and search around the area for raw materials. I find enough random bones to build a beast of burden. Once animated, this 'zombeast' stands upon four powerful legs and is entirely made of many smaller bones fused with the skills of necrology. It has no head, tail, or any other recognizable features, and stands three feet at the shoulders. Tweek, watching me with interest, offers to assist by using the Art (Quiddity-born powers). The zombeast increases three times its size.

While talking to Jack, we agree to a trade. I will allow him to scribe a Blessing upon his flesh, which is chameleon-like. In exchange, he will use his abilities upon the guardian's staff, he receives little info. The only thing important that that he found out it has a primal intelligence and is used to amplify energies.

Before attaching the zombeast to the truck with a length of chain, we began lifting the engine block out. As the zombie-mage, Tweek and Jack lifted, I attempted to pry with the staff. I apparently hurt the weapon's feelings, using it like a tool that way. A concussive wave of force hit us with enough strength to throw us into the surrounding vehicles. The engine block was shrapnel.

Tweek wanted to show me the loading dock. The doors had been sealed shut with heavy metal sheeting welded to the wall. He had made a opening in the metal, and although the sun was high in a cloudless sky, it was blacker than death metal in there. Only sonar could work inside, Jack had found out that inside was saturated with magic rendering phase-sight useless. I searched around the room counter-clockwise, finding desks and a single large bookcase. I get zombie-mage to haul the bookcase out, which seems to be filled with various lore. Thank NekRa.

Inside the large warehouse section, there is a smaller enclosure with no doors leading in. In my teens, I had been in a few pizza joints, and this was probably the backside of the walk-in freezer. Going around through the front of the restaurant, we find the freezer door in a pantry. As Jack hauls food outside, I realize I have no urge to eat any of it. Inside the freezer, the same blackness as inside the warehouse pools. Searching the warm freezer I find a cone, made from some kind of glass or metal, sprouting from the floor.

Unease fills me, my hair begins to rise and my jacket tenses.

Fools (4)

We celebrated our return to the Fifth with a round of shiftershots. We started to be more sociable after that. After a couple rounds only Drex and I were left awake so we took first watch. Zee approached us while the others snored. Boring of his company, I had begun looking over the designs upon the staff, they looked personalized. It would take a while for me to learn anything from them.

"Hey bitch," I greet her.

From where Drex is, "Whats up Zee?"

"How are you guys doing?"

"Not sure yet," answers Drex.

"You know we are not done right?" I am sure our expressions answered for us. But to show her she was wrong I pointed out the ex-mage standing near us. "So, its a zombie," she sneered.

"It used to be a mage, the one that showed up." It was possible, without the robes and fire she didn't notice. She wasn't there after all.

"That is a mage, it is not the one we are after. He is friggin deceiving, that's not him, so we're not finished. Actually, what ended up happening was that you killed the guardian of the gate."

"Why was he attacking us then?" I asked her.

"Because that is what he told you before, he was protecting the gate."

"So, we helped him," said Drex.

She looked at him, "yes and no. You ended up getting the power from the gate, all of you."

"So," I said, "step one accomplished."

"If we took the power from the gate," began Drex, "then we stopped him, right?"

"If all the gates are destroyed, the realm will still be destroyed. Which is bad. We need to find the next gate in the sequence, and find a way to get there."

"Then we need a vortex, like they had," I pointed at the two sleeping bodies, "maybe we should find out where they went. I think that is the first place I am going to check out, once I pick up my bike."

After she left I began to think. A drunken fog is good for thinking I find, with some accompanying DJ Tech playing. I need to get to a temple, they call NekRa "the Unkind" in the west, strange but fitting I find. Moreover, I must get this cadaver to the temple, they might be able to undo what this mage made us do.

It just came to me, I don't remember when I last ate.

Gate One (3)

It seems I was drunk. Apparently the forest is the gate, I missed that part at some point. This means we are where we are supposed to be so we can meet this mage. Neither Zee (or anyone else) has decided to give us a name, but we all seem to be looking for him. Drex, the trigger-happy felyne, wants to kill him and I am pretty sure Zee does too. My arguments in favor of keeping his knowledge fall upon their deaf ears. Tweek, on the other hand, can see some of my purpose. Jack, I am not sure about him yet.

We all do agree, that stopping him from destroying this realm would be our primary goal. I learn that this place is tied to Quiddity through some magic called dreamscape, and that Jack is a blessedm'n. He is from the dream-sea and most likely the best key I have to learning the secrets of that plane. The knowledge the mage has is still my priority, but it seems NekRa has furnished me with more keys to learning.

Zee apparently has a way to bring the mage to this gate, and we are to stop him from destroying it. She fades away around the same time we stop paying attention to her, "I suggest you get ready" she says.

"For?" I ask.
"He's coming."

"You dirty girl, we'll talk about that later...." I respond while queuing the "combat" playlist on my media player. My coat tenses.
A large humanoid appears near us. He appears human, but stands at my height. In his hands is an ornate staff that bleeds power as he readies it. He is clad in blue robes, under his hood he appears quite young and angry. Guns fly into the hands of those around me, plan 'b' then . "If you think you are going to get away with anything you have another thing coming," he says as wings sprout from his back. Rising into the air, he points his staff towards the ground and and begins to concentrate.

I dodge into the cover of the forest, Jack follows me. Drex is already shooting, and missing, to my right. Tweek begins climbing the wagon, the silver-haired human has still neglected to draw his weapon. The cascading force of the fire that springs from the ground lifts Tweek and Drex into the air, singed.

Jack, using a form of power I have never seen, puts up a barrier of energy to protect himself. Drex climbs the closest tree near the mage, and attempts to jump at him and starts falling through the branches. Tweek is shooting, his rounds slicing through the blue satin sleeve, but they fail to disarm him. I try to speak to him, reaching out with my mind, but he chooses to ignore me. I can wait, although my claws itch.

The mage turns to the falling felyne and belts him with his staff in the back of his head. He lands on the ground with a thump. Jack begins turning his power against the flying mage to no noticeable effect. As soon as the cat hit the ground bullets were streaming into the sky from his guns. Hit, the mage fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Drex immediately runs over to the body, his hands pass through it.

I am next to arrive at the body, the words of NekRa's Blessing already forming on my lips. To strike down a man of knowledge, without any attempt of negotiation at the least, is a sin to my order. Here is a man who is reaching beyond his capacity, endeavoring to become greater than the gods intended. With the power he must wield inside his mind, would it not be possible to find a way to reach those goals through other means? Would he achieve more, and destroy less, if he had a novice to facilitate him? These idiots simply gunned him down.

He awoke. His eyes, like cascades of granite, locked onto mine. I saw ages in those eyes. "May NekRa guide your ambitions" was all I was able to say. The rest of them looked at me incredulously as the mage swiftly stood, and batted Drex into the trees. Tweek launched himself into a grapple, attempting to hold his arms. I move in from the side, wrenching the staff from his one-handed grip, then rolling out.

The mage becomes surrounded by a fiery supernova attempting to blast everyone from him. Most of us get down and are clear of the blast, except me. I fly into the forest, hit a tree, and black out for a minute. As I wake, Jack dives in with an implanted blade that is sheathed in his wrist. The mage falls a second time, shit. Plan 'c'. Someone called out, "Tzak, he's dead again!"

Down again, I go back to the corpse, it is dead this time. I collect my thoughts for a moment, keeping a grip on the stolen staff, before beginning the Rite of NekRa. After speaking several lines of words that hurt the ear to listen to, he rises. His is face glossed over, completely void of all expression or life. I take his robe. "Don't kill it!!"

The world around us begins to fade, although the rest of them become more 'real'. Jack has been looking at me.

"Wait a minute, your a necromancer and a healer? That must be awful handy."

"The servants of NekRa are very...diverse." I reply. The surrounds are becoming nothingness, then I realize something, the booze. I run back to the wagon with the risen mage, getting it to carry the massive bottle, then return to the rest of them. By this time we find ourselves on the shore, somewhere else.

Allies (2)

I was finishing a shiftershot after my rest and studies when the air around be began to shift wildly. The wind began to thrash at the trees and I could almost hear yelling upon it. The hair across my body began to stand on end from a static charge building in the air. Above me the sky began to tear itself apart violently, energy cascading from the vortex. I tried to get out of the way while still watching the portal, staggering slightly from the shot. War Pigs is playing at top volume through my headphones. As a body drops from it I swear instinctively.

It looks like a regular human male, but with some fashion sense, dressed in a bomber jacket and a bitchin Led Zeppelin shirt. He looks bruised, that will happen when you fall out of the sky, but relatively alright so I help him up. He tells me his name is Tweek...so far so good, considering the situation.

"Where the hell have I ended up?" asks Tweek, looking around suspiciously.

"Not sure myself. I'm going to call this place....ummm....nah, I don't have a name." I was still a little drunk it seemed.

"Fair enough. Well I was in some place called...Earth."

"And let me guess, you fell asleep, woke up..."

He shakes his head, "nah, nothing like that this time, but a couple of jobs have happened that way. Nah man, there was some room. There were a bunch of machines, buttons and knobs. Next thing I know the wall is sucking me in through some hole..."

"Want a drink?" He agrees and I pour him a shiftershot. He downs it pretty well, and earns a bit more respect. "You here for a reason?"

"I was looking for some guy, some mage-y guy..."

"I kind of was too..."

"It was pretty vague."

"Yeah." We talk some more about our goals, it seems he is also looking for some others, possibly those two who bugged off yesterday. He seems pretty unsure of what to do once he finds them. As we talk I think of the possibilities of keeping this guy around, he is pretty friggin rockstar. As we digress into talking about the difference between rock and metal, he hears something, it seems to be Drex, he apparently has bodies falling on him.

Images creep into my vision as I bicker with Zee, who apparently is near. The wagon seems to be engulfed in a ghostly fire, I move close and notice that it gives off no heat. Taking the lead of the lizard-beast, I lead the wagon away. This leaves an image of a burning wagon behind. "See that?" I call to Tweek.

"Yup."

"So its not the drink then." Then Zee and Drex appear, ghostly like the burning wagon, along with a crumpled lump that could only be a body. "Holy crap, what the hell did you do to him? Get out of the way." I yell at Drex and attempt to shove him aside, but my hands go right through him. I giggle to myself as I wave my hands through his face, then go to the lump of bleeding purple flesh. Looking at him, I would not say he was a human, and therefore interesting. I look him over, noting the intricate sigils written into his skin, and begin invoking NekRa's blessing upon him. The wounds begin to close and he awakes, which is a clear sign that the mage-god has intended our meeting.

The creature's name is Jack and Drex seems to have an issue with him thinking that it is a mutant. From my observations, he is not mutated, but some kind of half-breed. The matter is settled with yelling and threats. There are demands of what purpose each one has, names and name-calling. Eventually the frig-heads settle without blood being spilled.

A Webbed Update

The nWo website is currently under construction. This will feature all things nWo; pictures, blog rolls, q&a and comment forum, and (of course) the most up to date rules for the nWo system. The rules published on the site will be taken from the zero terminus project, almost as fast as they are printed.

Yes, the project known as "zero terminus" is still under way, and is a complete re-write of the current World of Damnation book. This does not mean that the rules are changing and you have to go get a d8, the rules are getting clearer and more concise. The first 'chapter', the Book of Laws, is being finalized and proofread, with a couple of tweaks here and there. The main difference you might notice is the division of knowledges and subtle change in MS, just to start you salivating....

I must smash more keys now...until next we meet,
Ricalope, SL-0.

Jack's Blog

Every once in a while there pops up some fiction regarding nWo. With SL Tayo's new campaign beginning, Rise of the Nightmare God, Nato has begun the story of Jack. Please visit and read the awesomeness that resides here.

The First Step

They all bugged off while I slept, good thing I brought my headphones. The tree-shade is welcome after wandering about the desert but I only plan on resting here a short time. Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, we should be properly introduced first. My name is Tzak.

My full name and title is Nau Tzaxgrath, of the Zrathi Tribe (for the unenlightened, "Nau" means Initiate of the Church of NekRa). I am just over seven feet tall and have short jet-black fur, as do all my tribe. My eyes are green, like our master's necrofire. I am an Annubii, an African cousin to the western Wolf-si, but unlike many of my kin I was born into the City. I am twenty-four years old, and for twenty-four years the City of Cairo has hated me.

There was an accident, a deep scarring of my psyche, it took place in one second. I had been dating one of the few of my kind in the city, and we had fallen asleep under the stars. To imagine that we traveled for the entire day to get outside the City's shield, I digress. While we sleep I was shown a sea and tread upon an island. In that dream I was finally whole as well as shown the strange and fantastic. I was told by a dream-stranger that this was Quiddity, then I awoke. I awoke to the sounds of panic and twisting metal, that is all I choose to remember. I was bound to my learning for the last two years, unable to seek solace. You can not imagine how optimistic I became when I achieved my title and was allowed to search for my own knowledge of Quiddity.

My Mentor had listened to my request and gave me a name. It is the name of a sorceror who knows of this dream-place, and to whom I must petition for this knowledge. This lead me to a different City, Victoria, and it felt much the same. It took me nearly an hour to find a suitable bike to 'borrow' so I could follow the only lead I had. This got me to a obtuse hotel, who knew of my inquiry, but was of no real help. There is where I met the cat. i would not call myself a racist, but felynes and I don't just get along very well under normal circumstance.

It turns out his name is Drex, like many cats he is quite high on himself and more than likely has a contract with one of the corporations. Judging by his trench coat, a metallic garment which seems to move like my own oid, he could easily fill in the blank in my credit. The only reason I spoke to him at all was because of his eavesdropping. It seems he is searching for this sorceror as well, so bollocks to it my better judgment, we could look for him together.

It also turns out that he likes to drink, so we spent our first evening together doing so in the bar across the street from the hotel. We must have looked the part, a felyne operative and annubii punk drinking and arguing into the early morning. I can tell you, the clerk in the lobby wasn't happy.

}{}{}{}{}{}{}{

I think that was when things got a little fragged, the two of us woke up in a field near a creek. There was no hangover from the night before, so I was good to go, Drex on the other hand went to the creek to leak. He returned with a female, one of the feral kin, coyote line, and not that bad looking. I introduced myself, Drex asked a bunch of questions. From the 'interrogation' I learned that she was the one who brought us here, wherever here was she wouldn't say, but it had to do with the same sorceror I was looking for.

Zee, which is what I will keep calling her because her name is too bloody long, had some more information about her quarry. But, as a true female, she had to test us first. Drex had some difficulties destroying one of the three targets with his arsenal of corporate weaponry. I on the other hand smashed all three with my claws. We were informed that the sorceror was attempting to locate each of the "God Gates" of this realm to destroy them and their respective guardians. This, she told us, would give him godlike power but would also destroy this realm.

I thought it was an ambitious endeavor, and therefore noble and worthy. Zee shot me a death-look when I voiced this. I quickly agreed that destroying an entire realm is a jerk thing to do and offered to help look for this guy with her. That seemed to calm her down.

We traveled along a road (which wasn't there when I woke up, never mind) to a really crappy little town. This town was so crappy it didn't have indoor plumbing let alone cell service. As we approached, the whole town came out to meet us. In a town of inbreds the oldest one is usually the most stable, and that rule held true here as well. As we were convincing him to tell us something that would help, I noticed fully why this place seemed wrong, everything was in shift.

It was an odd sensation in the wild, but imagine talking to someone who keeps changing their face, height, weight, and proportions. It was like vertigo. As soon as we got directions from the elder (who kept no books I noticed) to the closest God Gate, we went drinking. My stomach felt like it was on a roller-coaster crossed with a ocean liner from concentrating on talking to these people, but their drink was the answer. It was sweet, like honey wished it was, and it burned like thermite. One shot got you fragged, after sixteen I could barely make it up the stairs to my room. I am dimly aware of rocking out on some acoustic mandolin pretty hard sometime that night. In the morning I bought a bottle, and a wagon.

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That brings us to now, sitting in the shade, sipping shifter-shots and listening to my headphones. I have a good collection of pre-war metal acquired during my teens, Ozzy is playing, so I think I will wear my Black Sabbath shirt today. Since I might be close to the God Gate, and the sorceror, I made sure all of my pupteeth are entwined into my lobes properly, and my bomber jacket as clean as possible. I don't want to look like a scrub when I meet this guy.

In the back of my mind I wonder about my 'companions', since they wish to stop who might become my teacher. I am soul bound to protect knowledge and the Eye of NekRa is always watching his servants.