52 Weeks of Magic - Item 28 - The Retort

Since my campaign seems to have died, it's time to get back to 52 Weeks of Magic. This week 40 and The Retort is item 28. Twelve more to catch up.

The Retort is a magical weapon, which initially appears as a leather wrapped handled, with no blade or guard.

The weapon counts as a +5 weapon, but has no bonuses to strike or damage. When the holder is threatened, The Retort will magically appear in the owners hand and ignite into a magical blade 4 feet long. If the user does not have a free hand, the weapon will appear between them and their opponent, waiting to be grasped. The weapon is usable by all classes.

The blade is a cracking field of energy which follows the form of a blade but writhes and twists towards the opponent or opponents. This amorphous form reduces the wielder's AC by 4, making them harder to hit because the energy causes fear. The blade is obviously dangerous. It's light will illuminate a 30 foot area to full daylight.

On a successful to hit roll, a living target must make a save vs. death. If successful, they take no damage. If failed, the target's hit points are reduced to one hit point and they are rendered unconscious for 1d6 turns. No matter how many times struck, the weapon will always leave one hit point. The Retort is not exactly cursed, but holding it will cause the wielder to deal with all threats with The Retort and not switch to another weapon. This obviously prevents the user from issuing a final blow to kill a target. 

If the target cannot be rendered unconscious (such as undead or a golem), they will be encased in a field of energy matching The Retort's blade and take 1d4 points damage for the next 3 rounds. Each hit will increase the duration of the field of energy by one round. While this field has some of the aspects of a flame, it is magical damage, not fire. 

The Retort allows the user to see invisible or astral creatures and will leap to the user's hand when confronted with such threats. Against otherworldly creatures such as demons or creatures summoned, the weapon will leap to the users hand and radiate a circle of protection for 10 feet. The wielder can lash out at these creatures with the blade so long as they are within 6 feet of the circle of protection. It is a one-way barrier to physical attacks, not magic or missiles.

If the wielder strikes themselves on purpose, they will be surrounded by a corona of flame which will will heal them to full hit points immediately. The owner must be under some sort of threat, such as eminent combat to use this power. People who have healed themselves in this fashion will feel numb and cold and the wound will burn with flames like The Retort's blade.

Once the immediate threat is ended, The Retort will try to extinguish itself. If the user wishes, they can force the blade to stay lit. The user will lose half their current hit points and will be unable to sleep, meditate, pray or study spells. The blade will remain lit for 24 hours, during which time, the holder cannot be healed by any means, except a wish. Wishing for healing will also extinguish the blade for a week, rendering it useless for that time.

If the wielder dies or is reduced to 0 hit points while the blade is lit, they cannot be revived, reincarnated or resurrected until they are physically separated from The Retort. If the weapon is taken up by another person, it will refuse to operate for the previous user. If the weapon is thrown away, it may return the prior owner. To prevent this from happening, the former user must save vs. magic.

#Inktober2019 - First Rule. DHYB - Updated

I'm watching people upload their videos for Inktober. I don't have the equipment but still want in on the game. I made a 20 second video demonstrating my personal technique.

The first rule is, Don't Hold Your Breath. I also tend to draw standing up and really don't care which way the image is orientated. Turn and turn.



Thank you Nathan for the camera work.

Edit - I think I'll combine all of my updates into one post to save time and energy. I really want to work on the sword, but the ring around Magik's legs is more important. However, there is one problematical part - the hands. I am not great a drawing hands and if I botch it, I'm starting over.

It seems ok. I find hands and feet to be the hardest part and in this image, that are is swinging across her front. A mistake here is unfixable. I  think I handled it well.

Before I start with the teleportation ring, let me give some background as to how I did this. I took a pyrex bowl lid and held it over the drawing and traced the outline. This gives the disc a 3 dimensional shape. Sort of cheating, but an interesting cheat.

Since the lid had depth and a rim, I could see the drawing distort through those edges. I actually wanted to do something different with the disc. The first thing that came to mind was water, but then I had a different idea.

What I want to do is combine some of the aspects of water, like refraction. But I also wanted to have a distortion of the disc to perhaps eat up some of the background. I thought that the light lines of an accresion disc would do nicely. I already have the refraction lines drawn, those are the horizontal marks in the disc. This would be her legs shifted left and right in alternating bands.

Next will come the halo. The image below is of a black hole's disc, and you can see the back edge extend "upwards". It's not actually "upwards" of anything. As the light passes around the edge of the black hole, the shortest path kisses the edge of that sphere, revealing more of the disc than could otherwise be seen. I didn't draw it like this, but I am hoping to copy some of the effect to lighten the background.

#Inktober2019 update - Layout complete

I'm not sure what's going in the background, but I have the foreground complete. I think I will have a shadowy face of Sym worked into the background someplace, bit I am not sure. I like the idea of teleport disc I found and copied from Deviant Art, however, I saw this a few years ago and for the life of me can't find him now that I want to credit the original. The center image with the armor is like the DA artist, but not exact.

I'll be back when my Google Fu kicks in and I get a name.

Edit - Of course after a while of searching giving up, I find the artist on the very first try. His name is olivernome. I really like his work.

#Inktober2019 Day One

I'm warming up today. Just a simple geometric pattern in ink. I won't finish it, it's not the sort of thing to finish. It is just play while my brain and hand warms up. Sometimes work is just play with a purpose. I kind of like the design.

Anyway, this is my first Inktober. I wish I could do a drawing everyday, but I won't. I want to do one or more projects to completion this month. I want to go back to the way I used to draw.

I picked my first subject, Magik from the New Mutants. I particularly love/hate the version of her on the cover of the 50th issue. The style is very nineties, jagged, slashy, primal. It seems to fit with the character. In this particular issue, is not sexed up, but actually reverted to a younger child. There is a sense of disquiet as she battles her way through her demons. I like the fact that they are "her demons".

Anyway, I want to do a copy of this cover but in my own style. It won't be anything like the drawings I have done recently. It will be part experiment and part return to where I started. I'll
be posting updates throughout the month as it proceeds.

If I get to another work, I post that here, too.

Here is to beginnings.

Truth or Tall Tale Tuesday (TOT3) - Who the Hell is Mr. Archer?

Several years ago, I started a new career in education. I made mistakes along the way, but somehow I turned some of them into wonderful memories.

On my first day at work in a special education school, there was a dance. The gym was jam packed with kids dancing their hearts out. As a trainee, the only expectation placed on me was to mingle, to get to know the kids. So I gave it a shot and totally failed. 

The first student I met asked me something over the pounding music. All I herd was "What... all?" I realized that he had some sort of speech issue, and STUPIDLY assumed he asked me what the song was called. 

Well, the song was Cupid Shuffle, which will be important later. 

The next day, I was permanently assigned to classroom with teenagers. Everything was going well until we got to lunch. In the middle of the cafeteria, the student from the day before came up and greeted me. 

"What up? Oopid!" he shouted. 

With dawning horror, I realized exactly what was happening. He had asked me my name, not the name of the song and thought that I was named "Cupid Shuffle", a pair of words he couldn't render correctly. 

"Oh, f---. That kid just called Mr. Phil 'stupid'." chuckled one of my teenage students. Yes, let's not put to fine a point on it. That was exactly what was happening. 

Teachers, aides, speech therapists and OT worked their hearts out to help this kid say "Cupid" correctly. He couldn't. Nor could anyone convince him to called by my real name, "Phil". Add in the fact that every new person who encountered this kid thought he hated me and needed to be corrected. Actually, he liked me so much, he wanted to greet me by name at every encounter. I really liked him. He became my favorite despite the communication glitch. 

As I mentioned, every effort to get him to render "oopid" as "Cupid" failed. The best anyone could do was teach him the sign for "Cupid" in American Sign Langue and then teach all new staff that sign, too. It eliminated much of the shock because at least everyone knew what he meant. The sign looks like firing an arrow followed by a flapping of arms like wings. It is literally "Archer+Wings". 

Fast forward 2 years. A class of new trainee staff toured the building. Near the gym, they met my favorite little guy and he had them bottled up with all his cuteness. He was that kid. He was so charming they took their time talking to him, one by one. 

As I walked past he shouted out, "Hey!" and gave a quick version of my name in sign language, just the arrow part. Months before, he stopped trying to say my "name". 

The kids play football in the gym heard him and they copied him: "Hey!" and the sign.  

"Whoa! You have your own sign?" asked one of the trainees. 

"Well, yeah," I answered. 

"That is so cool," they muttered appreciatively. 

A few days later, there was a bit of an uproar in HR. Apparently, the new training class loved "Mr. Archer" but there was no staff or student by that name. 

Truth or Tall Tale? This one is true!