Nathan Caroland

Thank you! I have debated on whether or not the site was a bit too 'blamph - all right here' originally but I got over that pretty quick myself. I do have the option of setting pretty much everything on the front page in a different manner or order and can turn it from three columns down to two (or one) to broaden the site a bit but that then makes it 'longer' if I decide to add data modules (stats, birthdays, latest threads, news .. etc). Thoughts and suggestions people? I'm always open to making things better! Oh, and I like the smilies too (smile). :joyman:

(laughing) BTW, is he doing that British two-finger thing or calling for two more victims?

You've got some nice works in there with some varied pieces! My favorites are the Butcher and the Cauldron as well as the Warjack with the smoke, though I think I would have used cotton myself.

Grrr. That pretty much describes my feelings about what is going on down here in the south right now after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Don't get me wrong, I have sympathy for people that have been affected by the hurricane, but some of the things going on just have me shaking my head. One of the things that apparently the media has been making a HUGE deal over is gasoline and they have hyped it up so much over the last day and a half that people made a run on the pumps down here and in the space of 16 hours the cost of gas has shot up anywhere from a $1-$3 a GALLON in the Atlanta area. I was paying $2.37 a gallon on Thursday of last week. Today when I came in to work, it was $3.09 and one of the guys just came back from his lunch and said it is up to well over $4 a gallon in many areas now, because everyone is panicing and rushing to fill up their vehicles and any container that they can manage. I stopped in to get gas today because I needed it, not just to top off the tank. Had a truck pull up beside me and start filling up, and in the back of his pickup he had 30 (I counted) 5 gallon gas cans which he started to fill up as well. That's just frickin crazy! One of the workers here has pulled up some pictures of people in Alabama and other places that are filling 1500 gallon containers (don't know where the hell someone would get something like that) on the back of tractor trailers and the lines are well over an hour long wait in some places just to get to the pump. I'm honestly of the opinion that if people had just gone about their regular buisness that there would have been little trouble or shortage for gas as things are coming back online, shipments are being made, reserves are being opened .. etc. But no - mob mentality has taken ahold and suddenly everyone just HAS to have it. I weep if there is every a real friggin' emergency such as a war, invasion or something like the collapse of goverment. I foresee deaths and destruction by the thousands as suddenly we all find ourselves in the middle of a Mad Max movie because idiots get it in their minds that something has to be done or they have to get or have this. Kind of like those people that went apeshit over Y2K which turned out to be a big fizzle, yet they spent $100's of thousands on bunkers, food, weapons .. etc. Honestly - I blame the media, atleast in part, for sensationalizing something that really had no need for it. That's like screaming 'BOMB' in a crowded building and expecting everyone to walk out slowly and calmly. Not going to happen - you're going to have foot prints on your back from the hundred people that you were in the way of. Your thoughts?

(laughing) If anyone went and disapeared over the kids, I might be wondering where the wife was and why my mail wasn't being delivered. :tongue2: Seriously though, I'm rather pleased overall and we do challenge our children to push themselves mentally and physically but in ways that I think is healthy. We certainly don't get upset with them if they find there is something they can't do and usually try to sit down and explain things as best we can. The testing is supposed to happen here in the next week or so, and we are now discussing options on what we should do with the middle one, on moving her through some classes or put her into tutoring and extra schooling. Still not sure yet, but we'll be sure to check all the options and try and pick the healthiest.

I've heard of about half of the authors that have been put forth here and have jotted down three or four to look up. Interesting stuff. I remember reading something of David Gemmels .. didn't he do something about some old warrior and some young peasent girl wanting to learn the art of war or something? Sounds familiar for some reason and I can't place it for the life of me. Anne McCafferty - I think I've read one of her books, but I can't say I was impressed. Might have just been the time and the mood I was in when I picked it up but it was one of those that never really caught my attention. Raymond Feist I remember quiet well, liked Pug! Now, I have to ask, does anyone here actually like Anne Rice? I have read two of her books, Vampire Lastat (who hasn't) and I believe it was 'The Body Snatcher' (or maybe catcher) and I have to say that her style of writing just doesn't do it for me at all. Rather put off by the woman in general - I look at the book jacket with her on it and see 'freaky sexual chick' written across her forehead (QFP - Duende). Of course, that being said, have to probably lump Laurel K. Hammilton in with her too, but atleast her writing is pretty good.

Hey folks! I like to write, if you haven't noticed, though that doesn't automatically mean that I know what I am doing or am any good for that matter. That being said, I'm curious what you think of the two bits that I've posted here so far. The first, from the Professor is more of a teaser for stuff to come, something to add a bit of background in a general way so that I can write for an 'alternative reality' type world which you begin to see in 'Maggie Sinclair'. I have found that I like the whole modern day magic sort of thing the last few years and have been wanting to write in that fashion for some time and found this as an outlet. I'm curious if anyone, other than myself, likes this type of writing and your thoughts on it. Something else I have been thinking on doing is something along the lines of one of those old 'Choose Your Own Adventure' type books that I'm sure many of us read when we were kids. I'll start off a story, build up the background and when it comes to making decisions for the character, making a poll and letting it go for a week and and at the end of the week, whichever 'choice' got the most votes would be the direction that I would take the story. Thoughts? Oh, and while I'm at it - belly up and post some of your on stuff if you have the interest. The more the merry in my opinion.

Some of you already know, but I am the father of three children, Anasalea (going on 11), Sabryna (going on 7) and Spencer (will be lucky to see 6). Very loving children and above all for me, well behaved. Sometimes I wonder why some parents have children that are real hellions and of course secretly wish beatings upon them. :goodbad: Now, with all that being said, my oldest has a near perfect photographic memory we learned when she was in kindergarten in a Montesori school (worth it, but expensive). Has absolutely no problems with school and homework is pretty much a breeze for her. Study it once and she has it, no need to waste time doing it again in her opinion. Now for the second one, Sabryna, who has always been our 'special' child, and by that I mean we sometimes wondered just what the hell was going on in her head and whether she was either extremely intelligent or in need of a protective helmet. 'Thinking Outside of the Box' is something you can apply to her quiet easily. Hates playing video games, draws and reads all day, and is pretty much a 'leave me alone I'll entertain myself' type of girl. So we get a phone call on Friday from her 1st grade teacher who says she wants to meet with us Monday. Great - what did she do now was what went through my mind. We show up, and we find a teacher that is practically vibrating in place as she informs us that we have a very bright child. I smile, nod and say, 'We're in Georgia, that's not too hard to do in the state school system'. Heh, that went over well. Despite that though, once she laid out what she had been doing I was suitably impressed. My six year old, 1st grade child is doing 4th grade math and is reading at a high 5th/6th grade level and has complete comprehension. Needless to say, I was rather stunned. 'Our child?' I asked. Yup - that one reading a book over in the corner. Now this may make me seem like an inattentive parent, but it really isn't so. Sabryna has always gone her own way, doesn't want praise, and more often than not you have to FIND her in the house. She's not exactly introverted ... she just likes to do things her way and her way only. That of course explained all the trouble we've had over the summer with her. She was bored. Very bored. Now they are setting her up to go through some special test or whatnot in the next few weeks and if she does half as well as the teacher seems to think she will, we're going to have to do somethng about it as she's basically at a level four grades higher than what she actually is. What the hell do I do now? I want her to be interested and pushed to progress (in a good way) mentally and intellectually, but what the heck do you do with a six (seven) year old who is in a class full of ten to twelve year olds? Doesn't seem like a good idea when you think of it that way. We're going to have to figure something out but I'm not sure what. Then to top it all off, on my way out the door to work today, my youngest one, Spencer, comes home and hands mom a note from school and goes off to play. The look on her face stopped me and I asked 'what?' and she was just shaking her head as she handed me a piece of paper that was from my sons kindergarten teacher. Heh .. guess what. Apparently Spencer far outstrips the kids in his grade and they have found him functioning at a 2nd grade level for reading, comprehension and math (yes, he does math very well, that much I knew) and now we've got another meeting setup at the end of the week to discuss him. Sounds like a bit of bragging and tall telling, but it honestly isn't. I'm still sitting here wondering what the heck is going on and how I got the lucky jackpot of having three gifted children. Hopefully now I won't have to worry about college money. :dancing2:

Werner Klocke is releasing a new miniature through his Freebooter Miniatures company which will go on sale the first of September though he is taking pre-orders on it at this moment. Typical of FB miniatures, this one will come in seven parts and will stand 41mm tall (I'm assuming all the way up to the tips of his winged helm). Lovely bit of work as usual! Looks like it might be based off a Cindy Dukino drawing. Cindy? I'm sure our resident dwarf lovers are going to go ape over this one. http://www.freebooterminiatures.com

I likes! On the chick on the rock up there, the pebbles or whatnot that you have under the main rock, is that just GS that you rolled and then just cut to make the flat rock look? Either way, she looks damn nice! What are you planning to use for water? Can we get a close up shot of her right breast - looks like you did a bit of freehand work there as a tattoo. I like Kurgan, great first sculpt. Having him molded and selling him yourself or having someone else do that (feel free to tell me to bugger if its not the time to ask that!)? Great work.

I took it in a good way. :thumb:

Hey folks. If you haven't heard about it by now, Paint Aid is a group of painters that was gotten together at the beginning of the year with the goal of painting miniatures and selling them on Ebay and donating the proceeds to a non-profit organization. I'm proud to say that I was a part of the first one and that the auction is currently underway for an Ogre Kingdoms Army which is very well painted and has some well known names and talent attached to it. You can find out more here: There are more Paint Aids in the planning right now as well, including one that is being organized to quickly paint up Wood Elf characters from Games Workshop so as to help with the inevitable damages that this latest Hurricane hitting the US coastline is going to bring. Click the link if you are interested in finding out more about Paint Aid!

As I have already been asked I'll go ahead and just post a quickie reply/update here. If you are a company owner or rep and you feel that you have something that you feel that the community would be interested in hearing, please, feel free to announce and advertise all you wish, with pictures and all the bells and whistles if you wish. Always happy to have someone do all the work for me.

It's just easier to paste all the information here - looks like it will be a lot of fun and I'm sure there will be some interesting submissions. _____________ Here's the deal: I want a new pirate to join Pirate Kjaran in the HFP range, but haven't had the time to do one myself. As a result, you, yes You, dear reader, have the chance to get one (or possibly more) of your sculpts in to the Hasslefree family and get paid for your efforts in the very first.... Hasslefree Miniatures, "Make me a Pirate," Sculpting Competition. Think Steampunk..... Think Treasure Planet..... Mix it with Mos Eisley..... and you'd be close to what I want. The term "Pirate" is possibly slightly misleading, don't let that restrict you. You can sculpt anything you want so long as it fits in the rules of the competition and loose set of aesthetics I've described. Introduction So what’s this all about then? In a nutshell, you and a lot of others send me photos of your finished green and Sally and I and the Judges will pick the best/loveliest/smartest and put the mini into production. We have some really good amateur sculptors on this forum already, it might be the chance they need to get their skills brought to the attention of the rest of the industry. Entrants will need to agree that Hasslefree will have the rights to manufacture the "best" miniature/miniatures. You as the winner get some money out of it, eternal fame, an introduction to the industry and we as a company receive the ‘rights’ to the mini. I invest in a mould (see 16 below) and I can make copies of the thing and sell it. General rules Every competition obviously needs some sets of rules. These rules aren’t meant to give some personal advantage to me or my company but some things must be clear beforehand. 1. Entrants can make any race they choose (not neccessarily a current Hasslefree race, be creative), giving it any equipment they like in any pose they desire..... so long as it's 28mm scale (not neccessarily 28mm tall) castable and has a basing tag that fits in to a 30mm or 40mm round edged base (as used by Warmachine and Dark Age). The sculpt should ideally be made of an epoxy suitable for vulcanising like green stuff. 2. Using pieces of existing Hasslefree Miniatures is not allowed, other than those from heads and weapon sprues (head sprues will be available in September). 3. Secrecy is not an issue. You can put your WIPs all over the net if you like, so long as you don't mind people nicking your ideas. 4. We will create categories depending on the entries we receive. Initial judging will be by public vote to determine the top entries. Sally and I and a panel of judges (who will not be allowed to vote for any entries they make) will then choose the over all winner. 5. The start date is today, Monday the 15th of August. Since we don't want to panic anybody there's no real rush to get your entries completed, the date for all entries to be with me is Jen's Birthday, December 18th. If it's still the 18th of December anywhere in the world you can email me your entry. Your pictures need to be sent to kevinjameswhite@totalise.co.uk. Please send JPEG files compressed to 'best' quality (80-90%) and try to make sure your pics are no larger than 150Kb each. 6. The practicality of making the miniature will be judged alongside its degree of craftsmanship. If it's a bugger to cast or if I'm going to have to chop it up and put bits on sprues it might lose a few points. 7. Results will be posted on our 2nd anniversary, 7th of January 2006. 8. The winner will receive a prize and a small amount of fame/notoriety. There is a prize of £175 in cold hard cash. I will also make sure that the winner is recognised as the sculptor of the piece where at all possible and also sculpt their name on the back of the basing tag. 9. Entries will need to be original works of art - no copyrighted ideas please, other than recognised Hasslefree IP. Remember a 3D copy of a 2D original is still a violation of copyright, unless the original art is in the public domain or you have received (written) permission from the artist. 10. Age Limit. Since the aim is to cast and sell these figures, contestants must be 18 years or older. If the contestant is under 18, he or she must be able to produce written parental consent upon demand. 11. Rule Amendments. Rules are subject to change and/or clarifications without notice, as per the decision of Kev and Sally. Entry categories may be subject to alteration depending on the level of response for each and existing categories may be split or combined. Final category placement of all entries shall be determined by the judges. 12. Should the number and quality of submissions exceed expectations, we reserve the right to choose exclusively to purchase entries that don't receive first place for a fee to be agreed upon between us and the Sculptor on an individual basis. No runners up prize offer will be greater than £175 and will depend entirely on our finances at the time. In this event all submissions so recognized will be subject to the same conditions as the over all winner. 13. Should we not be able to agree on a price, the sculptor is free to dispose of the miniature at their discretion unless it contains recognisable components of existing Hasslefree Miniatures or Intellectual Property. Should this be the case, the miniature may not be sold to a party other than Hasslefree Miniatures. 14. Fair Play. Only original sculpts will be accepted. By entering a figure in this contest you attest on your honour to be it's creator and holder of all rights to this figure. By doing so you accept all legal consequences that could arise should the figure or the rights to it be part of someone else's Intellectual Property. Also you will exonerate Hasslefree Miniatures for any legal claims that could result from entering the competition. 15. Risk Attribution. Hasslefree Miniatures can not take responsability for winning submissions lost in the mail, the risk lies with the sculptor. The sculptor must be willing to submit his/her sculpt to the mouldmaker's ministrations. As such, he/she should be aware that a lot of pressure will be exerted on the green during the mouldmaking process. A piece of putty will survive this moulding process in direct relationship to the amount of care and skill used to make the original. 16. Figure Reproduction As described in the introduction, castings of the winning entries will be sold by Hasslefree Miniatures as part of our HFP range. To this intent, the sculptor agrees to turn over the rights to reproduce, distribute and display the figure exclusively to Hasslefree under the terms and conditions as specified above. The sculptor will receive 10 copies of the mini and he/she may of course use the IP rights of the green and the mini for personal use.

I think Anastasia got a lot less work than Shae, in general I believe he removed the filigree from her sleeves to give it a cleaner look and overall went about and cleaned up some areas like her hair and face. Very minor stuff overall. Shae on the other hand got worked over pretty good, besides the most obvious which is a completely new head.

Spyglass Miniatures has just re-tooled both of its 54mm miniatures, Shae and Anastasia as well as new studio paint jobs by SteveB. They are once again available for purchase on the Spyglass Miniatures website. www.spyglassminiatures.com Personally, I plan on picking up both of them in the near future - I'm particularly taken with both of them and I think that I'll try (and fail misserably) to attempt something along the lines of what Steve has done with his Anastatia paint job. Just lovely! :thumb:

Hey folks, Duende brought it to my attention this morning that ya'll couldn't upload your own custom avatars and I have to admit rather shame facedly that I finally figured out why - simple little 'button' to push on my end. Either way, you now have the option to upload your own custom avatars instead of the 500+ I've got setup for those interested. 80x80 pixels and under 20k (which is very easily done). :crap:

Hi folks! Yup 'promising' is what I thought of it too. Ah hell, who am I trying to kid, I giggled like a little girl getting a puppy when this thing started to come together (chuckle). I do have the option of adding 'user titles' but I haven't implimented them yet. The generic terms was 'Junior Member, Senior Member .. etc' and I didn't bother to activate it yet as I was interested in trying to come up with something a tad more interested than JR. SR. Thoughts and suggestions? As for viewing the members list, yup, its available, though I took it out of the top there. I'll see about adding it over to the selection here in the near future.

If you have news on something that is happening within the miniature or gaming industry, please feel free to share the excitement and let us all know! The same goes for a review on a game or product that you feel would be benificial to us all. First and foremost, if you are going to do either, please take the time to provide proper links, pictures if there are any available (or if you think suitable) and do it in a courteous manner. If you believe that a certain product is terrible, tell us why, not just "this #@$@#$ the big one!" Please preface title with either NEWS or REVIEW, depending upon the information being delivered so that quick searches can be conducted. Fairly simple guidelines. Feel free to pimp your own product as well, but be prepared for comment and critique!

Heresy Multi-part Miniatures, better known for their Big Boris miniatures and their rather huge Netherlord Demon is releasing a line of futuristic sci-fi miniatures where mankind is on the edge of extinction. I think there was a movie made about that once. :guns: Some interesting looking miniatures that fills a niche quite nicely. There are five miniatures in the range at the moment as well as a load of weapons to choose from so that you can customize the miniature as you please. http://www.heresyminiatures.com/pre-order.htm

Privateer Press to Release New Miniatures Combat Game; HORDES Seattle, August 20 th 2005 – Privateer Press, Inc. announced the development of a completely new miniatures game today. A follow-up to their award winning WARMACHINE, the new product titled HORDES, will focus on massive warbeasts and their controlling warlocks in the wilds of the Iron Kingdoms. Matt Wilson, Creative director for Privateer Press had this to say about the new line: “HORDES is a completely stand-alone game, utilizing unique mechanics and systems that enable your warlock to control his army of warbeasts. No focus, No warcasters. These are not new factions for WARMACHINE. At the same time, it is 100% compatible with WARMACHINE. If you know how to play WARMACHINE you already know the basics of HORDES. Just adding new armies to WARMACHINE would not do justice to the scope and scale of the story we needed to tell. Most importantly, Privateer Press never wants to take the easy route for our products if there is a better way to do what needs to be done. When faced with a decision to give you a new game, or new factions for WARMACHINE, we decided to do the right thing. We decided to give you both. HORDES is about aggressive rage and calculated risks. It is not WARMACHINE; it is WARMACHINE’s feral twin.” HORDES is based in the wilderness of the Iron Kingdoms, a sharp contrast to the steam-powered, man-made armies featured in WARMACHINE—and it will launch with four all-new playable factions. The initial release will feature the resilient Trollblood, the vicious Skorne, the mysterious Circle Orboros, and the tainted Legion of Everblight. Including terrifying beasts such as the Warpwolf and the Dire Troll first introduced in the Privateer Press role-playing book, The Monsternomicon, HORDES brings the wild side of the Iron Kingdoms to the player’s tabletops. Launching in 2006, the HORDES line will hit the shelves with four new battle boxes from the world-renowned sculptors and designers at Privateer Press and a full-length rulebook; everything a player needs to get started. ________________ This looks damn interesting to me, even if I don't play miniature games in the lease. Privateer Press seems to be going with a more 'gritty' looking type of miniature and I for one thing its a great move. Love the Trollbloods!

As you might have picked up on another thread here, I am an avid reader, something I think I picked up from my mother (she puts me to shame really) and something that I have passed down to my second daughter. I read something between one to three books a week, depending upon the subject, my interest and my time. Once I pick up a book, I don't put it down, I always finish, even if I find that I don't care for it when I'm halfway through it. Just how I am. I used to be very heavily into fantasy, that's all I would read. The more Sword and Sorcery the better in my opinion though I have moved more towards science fiction and modern day horror over the last few years. Some of the favorites that have stuck in my mind over the years are: Gary Gygax: The first books I read (outside of school and See Spot Run) were by Gary Gygax, his old Greyhawk series with Gord 'the Rogue'. His first two when he was with TSR were classics for me, and to this day, I own four copies of each, as for some odd reason I bought them everytime I was in a second hand store. I picked up all his books that continued the series as well when he left TSR (Gord the Rogue series). Dennis McKierinan: Another favorite of mine, which I picked up directly after the Gord books were the 'Iron Tower Trilogy' and the 'Silver Horn Duology' by Dennis McKierinan (I might have butchered his last name). Fantastic books if you have never read them, and they take a very heavy nod towards Tolkien. Which funny enough - I have never never liked, Tolkien that is. I know, I know, I'm about to be spitted and roasted for saying that, but I never did like his style of writing. For that matter, I didn't like the movies either (dodging the stones and running). Robert Jordan: The Wheel of Time series. I absolutely loved that ... up until book six. My gawd, end the series already. He plans to take the series out to 13 or 15 books, he hasn't decided yet. Personally, I think there are too many 'main' characters in the book and it has gotten too political. I understand it gets better around book ten, but I just can't bring myself to pick them up anymore. Maybe when he is done with the whole series I'll give it another shot. David Eddings: The MAN when it comes to fantasy writing in my opinion. He has done ... oh I figure around twenty or so books, probably more. Did the Belgarath and that whole series of books (two sets of five) and they are absolutely fantastic. Read them. Now. More importantly though, his latest books that start with the Elenium series that cover 'Sparhawk' are some of the best fantasy writing in my opinion. Think of a pious paladin who has no problem strangling someone with chicken wire and you'll understand why everyone loves this character and the series in general. Ed Greenwood: I like his first five or six books, and being that I was a real D&D geek at one time, I thought the world of the writing. They still hold a certain nostalgia with me now, but in truth, I think he has a ghost writer doing his work for him now, 'his' writing has changed so much in the last few novels and you can just 'feel' it. I could be wrong, but his latest stuff really doesn't impress me at all. Robert Asprin: Author of the 'Myth' series, they they are lite fantasy with a serious low key humor that gets you laughing everytime. Think Piers Anthony, but slightly more low key. He started the books over twenty years ago and I think he has managed about ten or eleven books. His latest one is a collaboration and I'm in the midst of it right now - not sure what I think of it. Laurell K. Hamilton: I found her first book on an airplane when I was working for the airlines as a mechanic and I quickly got interested in her Anita Blake series. Modern day, vampires, were creatures, magic and lots of action. Also a duff-load of sex and sensuality, which really isn't my boat, but I can get around that easily enough. Damn good books - think she has 13 from the Anita seires out. She also has another one out over a fairy - but about every third page has someone quivering in feminine pudding ectasty (thanks Duende) that it is more soft porn than actual litiature. I don't really recommend those. Jim Butcher: Author of the Dresden files. I've only read three of these books, but I hopped over to Amazon the other night and ordered the whole series which is up to seven at the moment. I like them. Again, modern day magic done very well. Simon R. Green: He does the 'Nightside' books, think he has six or so of them out at the moment, and I've only read two of them, but I found that they captured my interest very quickly and were easy fast reads. I bought the rest of them last week too - so now I've got something to read for the next couple weeks! See a trend here though - modern day magic. Sandy Mitchell: Who actually happens to be a guy writing under the pseudo name of a woman - don't ask me why. Still that being said, she (he) writes my favorite WH40k books, those dealing with Ciaphus Cain. If you haven't read these - you must! Think of an imperium hero, someone who is supposed to move the troops to amazing feats and keep order and discipline ... and he's a complete and utter coward (well, I think he thinks he is, but you have to read the books). There are three books out on Cain at the moment and I certainly hope there are many more, though I do have to say that the last book ended rather abruptly and not as clean as I would have liked. I could go on, but these are the ones that stick out in my mind the most of course. I'm curious as to your thoughts on these authors and anyone else that you might suggest. I'm always up for a good book - so give me some options!

Ever have one of those days where you wonder just why you bother to get up in the morning? How things just never seem to go your way? To date, I've been wondering that for just a little over a year now. Crime seems to have come to a head in the last couple of years, its like the world is turning in on itself, and all the spite, hatred and ugly meanness in people is coming to the forefront and sure enough, us police officers are bearing the brunt of it. My name is Maggie Sinclair. I'm with the Department of Supernatural Investigations and Security, called the SIS for short, and I am the departmental liaison with the San Francisco Police Department. I'm a Witch. I joined the force almost three years ago when the government decided to put witches on the payroll due to the amount of crimes that were being committed with the workings of the Wyrd. Robberies by magical compulsion, kidnapping by summoned entities and murder through some of the darker arts such as voodoo. I thought I could make a difference. I'm not sure now. __ It was a day like any other, meaning, it was crap before I even managed to make it out of bed properly. I was awoken by my beeper which had an emergency code flashing. Pulling on a robe I quickly stumbled across the cold floor and punched in the number on my cell phone. Rex, my Saint Bernard, padded into the room and greeted me with an enthusiastic push and a glob of slobber on my bare toes as I scratched his broad head. Still wiping my foot across the hem of my robe the line connected after three rings and a harsh voice answered, "Detective Komers." "This is Maggie Sinclair with the SIS, I was paged," I answered quickly and from the background noise I could hear someone on a mega-phone before the Detective spoke, he sounded a bit put out. "Get your gear together, I have a cruiser coming to pick you up right now. We've got a situation ..." for a moment I could hear the disgust in his voice, "that requires your type of finesse." I started to ask him for details but the sound of prolonged gunfire cut off anything I could say. "Get your ass down here now!" he practically roared into the phone before hanging up. For a moment I just held the phone to my ears as if willing it to divulge secrets to me and with a sigh I flipped the phone close. As I started to get dressed Rex jumped up into the bed and found the warm spot that I was so rudely woken from. At least one of us would have a good day. Being part of the SIS had some perks, as I wasn't required to dress like the average officer as technically I held the same rank as a Detective, which allowed me a bit more leeway, which of course I took full advantage of. Being in a bit of a hurry I just grabbed up the clothes I was wearing the night before, a black pair of jeans and a white half shirt. It was at that time that someone knocked on my door. "In a minute!" Pulling on a pair of well worn steel toed combat boots and leather jacket, I quickly put my badge in the armband so that I wouldn't have to have it dangling around my neck. As I was expecting more than a bit of trouble I decided to break out the full arsenal. Three charms of protection, a hex hammer for breaking wards, my SIS issued grimoire and a 9mm glock which I quickly strapped to my leg holster, each bullet in the clip inscribed with a rune of harm. Oh, and my trusty pair of knuckle dusters, a girl can't have too much protection. The knocking had become more insistent and with a quick word to Rex to be good I opened the door to find an impatient officer with the name tag 'Lampert' on his chest. "Officer Lampert, lead the way!" He just stared at me for a moment and I knew why. Oh, don't think me vain, but to be honest, I'm damn good looking, and of course wearing what I was, with my midriff showing and the shirt just a tad tight across the chest, I knew exactly what he was looking at. I'm 5'6", blond, blue eyed, have honey cream skin and look damn good in a bathing suit. Aaaah ... the wonders of magic. You would never have guessed I used to be a brown eyed dirty blonde, rather frumpy looking and the victim of a bad case of acme scars from my childhood. But then again, no one else knew either. I've burned every picture of me that there ever was and my own mother, if she were alive, wouldn't be able to recognize me, thank the Powers. Clearing my throat slightly I get the officers attention and smile slightly, "We have somewhere to go?" That got his attention. He colored slightly, "Ummm .. yes ma'am. Uh .. follow me please." Rolling my eyes slightly I follow the young officer. As we jump in the cruiser I quickly tune into the scanner and listen in on what is happening and quickly hear the dispatcher calling in a triple six distress call, alerting the police officers. I still secretly laughed sometimes when I heard them call in a magical disturbance. Triple six. 666. Sign of the Beast. Someone needed an imagination. It took just a little over ten minutes to make from the south side to downtown with the sirens and lights blaring the whole way. In the mean time, I was able to glean from the radio and Officer Lampert that apparently a drug raid went bad, and what was supposed to be a few minor players turned out to be some seriously armed dealers with at least one of them being a level two practitioner. That's why I was called. I'm a level three practioner and odds are, I can take him on, spell for spell. There are five levels of Wyrd-craft. Level one is the lowest - parlor tricks, create some fire, small stuff. Level two is where the magic starts to get a bit dangerous if used improperly, protective spells and wyrding that can kill someone easily. Level three, that's me, takes it a step further, summoning, binding, the real freaky and fun stuff. Level four practioners are real scary bastards. I've only ever met one level four caster and he killed over a forty armed men and three witches before he was taken down. And level five ... I've never met one. Hope I never do. We finally pulled up to the area where the action was going down and I saw that an office building was completely surrounded and from inside the sound of gunfire could be heard. I also felt the distinct tremor of offensive magic as one of my charms alerted me to it. Jumping out of the car, I followed Lampert over to Detective Komers who was busy yelling into a radio. More gunshots, followed by a what sounded to be a small bomb, echoed over the radio. Moments later smoke began rolling out of the windows on the second floor. Glancing over Detective Komers looked me over for a moment and I could see that he didn't really like what he saw. Probably one of those that hated the Wyrd, no matter who or what used it. Simpleton. "You're Sinclair I take it," at my nod he ran a hand through his thinning hair for a moment. "We've got at least five individuals holed up in that office building there, all armed and at least one that can cast magic. I've had three officers shot and one killed by magic when his eyes were boiled from his head before being shot through the head." Real anger was being held in check I noticed. Barely. "Right, what do you want from me," I asked politely and professionally now that I was about to go toe to toe with another practitioner. He looked at me like I was an idiot. "Stop them for shits sake!" he yelled, his words punctuated by another explosion from the building. "Lampert, escort her in," he said before turned away from me and back to the radio in hand. Lampert looked like he was going to fall over, but I smiled and sure enough, he sucked in his gut, squared his shoulders and we started running for the building. Hah, men! Once we entered the building you could immediately see signs of a gunfight as many of the walls were shot up and there was a splattering of blood across one wall near the entrance, presumably where one of the officers was shot. Dashing up a side stairwell past heavily armed officers in riot gear, we reached the second floor. Peeking out through the mass of bodies I saw that several of our men were pinned down on the opposite side of the hallway, one or more of them wounded as a puddle of blood was slowly spreading across the waxed floor. More bullets shattered through the wall where the men where huddled as I watched. Acting quickly, I pulled a charm from my pocket and set it to spinning, sending a tickle of magic into the charm as I sought out the assailants, a small line of energy darting from the charm and down the hallway, bringing to my minds eye the scene down the hallway where three gunman and the warlock were barricaded. On the floor, there was a fifth body, riddled with bullets. With a snarl, I watched the warlock snare my far vision spell and shred it mercilessly, causing me to cry out momentarily as a blinding pain erupted behind my eyes. It took some moments before I was able to function. In the mean time, the warlock cast another spell, and suddenly the pooling blood from the wounded men that had seeped into the hallway rose up and formed into the semblance of a man. The wounded men began screaming as the creature pulled the blood from their very bodies in order to form itself. Level two practitioner my ass! That bastard just summoned a flippin' Blood Horror! Pulling the hex hammer from my pouch I ran across the corridor in order to get to the summoned creature. If I didn't do something quick, we were all in trouble. Of course, I realized I had forgotten about the bullets by the time I made it halfway across the hall as suddenly there were more shots fired and I found myself diving across the floor, bullets whizzing past me as I slid across the, thankfully, newly waxed floor. Of course, as luck would have it, I happened to go right through the growing Blood Horror as well. That was unpleasant to say the least. The hex hammer did its work though as I willed the proper ritual through it and it collapsed, literally, around me. I looked like a freakish Blood Horror myself though as I was now covered head to foot in blood, and the two police officers whose scarlet life the creature was forming from, were quite dead, little more than husks really. The remaining officer looked to be in shock and wouldn't budge when I tried to get him up. Little wonder. Workings of the Wyrd can do that to some people. Weaving a shield of air, I dashed back across the hallway, bullets bouncing off the defense that I wove, though something hit it with enough force that I put the imprint of my upper body into the sheet rock wall as I bounced off of it before falling into the arms of the awaiting officers back on the other side of the hallway. Actually, they really had no choice, though I noticed a few of them tried to get out of the way so as to not get blood all over them. I'm sure I made quite the ghastly appearance as I blinked several times, bright white eyes looking out from a mask of blood. I think my date potential dropped several steps with this group. If I didn't stop this, things were going to get bad. Taking a breath, which wasn't easy believe me, I looked to the Sergent near the stairwell, "I saw two K-9 Units outside - have the officers bring them in." He didn't question me, but I did hear someone ask over the radio "whats that crazy bitch want with them?" thankfully the Sergent wasn't taking any gruff though as he just repeated the order. Nice to be appreciated. In less than two minutes, the officers arrived with the K-9's, both of them with questioning looks, obviously not eager to loose their partners into what they considered sure death. I agreed with them, but it was us or them at this point and I quickly knelt down and gave both of the animals a quick pat, each of them growling at me, or more importantly, at the blood covering me. "Sorry pooches," I said before I began casting a spell, one not in my SIS issued grimoire. I was going to get in trouble, but I think the results would keep the shit from hitting the fan too badly. Grabbing both of the animals, I spoke the last word of the spell before either of them could bite me or before the officers could pull them back. The effect was immediate, as the animals began to spasm and grow, the sound of bones splintering and muscles popping filled the air along with their pained whimpers as they were turned into 'War Hounds'. When the spell was done, the collars around their necks had snapped and the hallway became all the more cramped as each of the animals now stood easily five feet tall, a mouth full of razored fangs, bony spikes protruding from their backs and scythe-like nails on each paw. I noticed gouges in the floor already from where the two had spasmed in their changes. Blood red eyes gazed balefully at me as I mentally ordered them to 'kill' and directed them down the hallway. With deep growls the two beasts charged down the hallway and around the corner. Gunfire immediately filled the hallway along with the panicked screams of the men and the warlock as well as the sound of ripping flesh and howls of the animals. This lasted for less than a minute before there was a heavy detonation and smoke began to fill the hallway. And everything was quiet. The animals had done their job we came to find out, perhaps a bit too well. There wasn't much left of the four men after the creatures were done with them. Both of the War Hounds were dead as well, one filled with so much lead that its whole torso was literally torn open, its head hanging by muscles barely attached to meat that looked like so much hamburger. The second one, was done for by the Warlock, who actually died in the jaws of the beast, but not before enacting his revenge, as little remained of the animal other than the parts of it splattered across the wall. "You BITCH!" someone screamed behind me and I turned just in time to avoid a fist from one of the K-9 officers, Taggert I think his name was. The other officers quickly subdued him and removed him from the area, though it was clear that more than a few of them were unhappy with me as well. K-9's were well trained animals, but were considered by many to be officers as well. I felt sorry for them as well, but the alternative was worse, they just didn't know it. I don't think Officer Taggert ever forgave me. __ I was right of course, I was in trouble for using the War Hounds spell, but when the results came back on just who the warlock was, I was more than forgiven. Justin Wong, known as 'The Blaze' for his rather dramatic use of the Wyrd to summon fire and other destructive magic. Also a member of the Triad, a heavy hitter in slavery and drugs. He was also as close as you could get to being a Level 4 practitioner as you could get without actually being one. If he wasn't so hyped up on his own drugs that he could have thought clearly, I would have been dead in a very messy way. I was damn lucky. That night, when I got back to the apartment, I was greeted at the door by Rex. I cried for a long time as I held him before I fell to sleep.

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__________ There were three of them in total. One male was grizzled and battled hardened, a veteran and his weapons were well cared for, his armor dented and scratched but serviceable. The younger male, little more than a boy really, shivered in the night air with only a thin tunic and a skinning knife commonly used on fish, his wide eyes belied his fear. The third and last was an elven female, the leader of these two, her weapons and armor the best amongst the trio and she sat quietly and confidently on her heels as she scanned the dark beach before them, the three of them hidden by a sand dune. "Are you sure about this?" the youngest asked, his voice nervous. "I mean, the creature hasn't even hurt anyone, only taking some fish. This is its ocean you know," he finishes lamely. With a snort she reaches over and thumps him on his head. "Think! This creature has been seen along this coast for three moons now," she points upward where the full orb of the moon was visible, "and this is the best time to catch sight of it if the villagers are correct. Besides, the village is paying good hard coin and that's why I hired you to take us out here! Are you saying you don't want to be part of this any longer?" She stared hard at the young guide she had hired from the village. "You approached me first, remember!" Dejectedly the boy shook his head, "I hasn't hurt anybody," he mumbles before turning back over in the sand to watch the coastline again. Behind him the woman shook her head in annoyance before returning to watch duty as well. After half an hour the boy began squirming a bit, and then a bit more, before she turned on him, "What is your problem?" he stills for a moment before squirming again and quickly gets to his feet, "I've got to make water," he says quietly in an embarrassed voice." The two sellswords laugh quietly as he quickly makes his way off into the dunes for privacy. "Damn thing is gonna get the boy if he doesn't watch it," the grizzled man says with vile humor. Several minutes pass before the two begin to wonder just where the boy had gotten off to when the man suddenly taps the lady elf on the shoulder and points, "Near the rocks on top of that dune over there ... lords above, that's a big bastard!" he exclaims quietly before looking to the woman to see if she spotted it as well. "That's a damn sight bigger than we were led to believe. You sure about this?" With a nod she watches the creature. "We can do it, we've got surprise on our side." Twisting around she looks back the direction the boy went and snorts, "He's probably shatting himself now, we don't need him." Turning back she watches the creature, an unholy union of man and shark, with a sharks body but with arms and legs and of a huge size. Standing easily ten feet, the gray and white creature makes its way down the steep dune, its tale obscuring its passage with wide sweeps. The moonlight reveals a massive maw filled with many sharp teeth and if there was any doubt that the creature was unholy, its red eyes seemed to gleam in the night. It continued down the dune and made its way towards the water, right past the dune that the two sellswords hid behind. The second it passed the two sprang up silently and launched themselves at it, weapons leading the way. It must have somehow known that they were there though, as a tall flashed through the air and hammered into the grizzled veteran, the force of the blow launching the man ten feet through the air and into the surf. As quick as an eye blink the creature had moved out of the range of the womans swords and as she landed and turned, she felt a heavy taloned hand grasp her by her shoulder and another by her head. She had only a moment to scream before her opponent casually tore her head from her shoulders, a look of anger and surprise stamped upon her face. With the grizzly trophy in hand, it turned and walked into the surf where the man was trying to make his way back to dry land. He screamed loud and long before dying as the shark-thing savagely bit into him, crushing through armor, flesh and bone easily and shaking the man like a rag doll before dropping him to the beach, as well as the head he had been holding onto. Gills expanding and contracting the wereshark began to convulse, the snapping of bones and cartilage moving drowning out the sound of the surf and the creature began to shrink and become more manlike in appearance as it clawed at the sand about it until finally stilled, heavy breathing and gasping joining the sound of the surf. It was the boy, the guide, that finally stood upon the beach, his body naked and wet with sweat and the ocean water. Spitting into the sand the boy wiped his mouth, a bright crimson smear crossing his face and forearm. "I tried to tell you. I tried to warn you!" the boy spat at the two bodies as if they could hear him. "Why couldn't you just leave me alone!" picking up the head of the woman by her long hair he pitched it into the ocean, its fright filled face landing in the water. With a look of hatred in the direction of the village that had hired these killers to slay him he spat a curse. There would be a reckoning ...