Call of Cthulhu: A Night At The Opera

22 June 2015 | Hisham | | RPG Actual Play, RPG Irfan Plays, Role Playing Games, Stark Future of San Francisco
 
Retroactively created 26th March 2016

Last time (a year and 4 days ago in real time), despite being badly injured and walking on crutches, Detective DJ Stark (played by Irfan) succeeded in thwarting the scheme of the Cult of the Pale Nurses in their bid to summon the ultradimensional being Sharakh-Kheth from crossing over into our universe and utterly demolishing the Saint Agatha Medical Centre in Brisbane, San Francisco.

(Yesterday afternoon we continued the Call of Cthulhu RPG campaign to see how Detective Stark was faring. Polyhedrals and paperminis deployed, Irfan wondered what Lovecraftian creatures and machinations he would encounter in this session. It was six weeks later in game time...)

Episode 4

Stark had been back to work at his precinct for two weeks, getting quickly bored by a desk job. His phone rang. A familiar elderly voice could be heard.

"Mr. Chao," said Stark.

"I take it my handwritten manuscripts were destroyed at the Saint Agatha? No matter. Meet me tonight at nine. I will have something for you. You are worthy of it."

It was just after 8.00 PM and an overcast sky darkened the dusk. Finishing up some paperwork, he started to leave for Chao's restaurant.

"Stark!" his boss Greta Hack called him from her office. When he sat at her desk, she said, "Word is you're bored with your desk job? I'm putting you back on the streets. Here's your new case."

Stark picked up the case file. Caldwell Broome, 50 year old antique dealer, had been missing from his office for a week. "You'll meet your new partner, Alex Sim, a rookie tomorrow."

"Thanks, chief."

"Listen, Stark," Captain Hack muttered. "Everyone knows how you lost your last partner. Please make sure nothing happens to your new one."

"Sure thing, chief."

Winter is coming

Stark's Shenanigans Spills into the Streets of San Francisco

 

83 Months

22 June 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

83 months of Yaya!

Happy girl at the beach at night

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

 

Yaya loses a Tooth!

18 June 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

Yaya lost her first baby tooth today! June 18, 2015. She is a little over a month shy of her seventh birthday!

Buh-bye tooth!

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

 

Patreon: Lovecraftian Investigators 3

10 June 2015 | Hisham | | Patreon Paperminis, Role Playing Games
 

Lovecraftian / 1920s Pulp Investigators paperminis have been released on Patreon! For this batch, I drew six new artwork, namely: the Actress, the Game Hunter, the Professor, the Singer (or the Musician), the Farmer and the Writer who looks a bit like H.P. Lovecraft! Download them from the Patreon page here!

The Game Hunter probably forgot his ammunition

The new group meets a Nightgaunt! But not for dinner! The Writer stays all the way at the back!

Please don't take my brain, I'm pretty much attached to it

But then the Writer gets surrounded by a trio of Mi-go.

I hope they all brought lunch

The whole gang together! For the higher resolution Mariner-class release, or the Voyager-class release which includes a printable pdf of character artwork please support the Patreon and download them here.

 

Ruthermore's Fourth Cover

05 June 2015 | Hisham | | Artwork, Books, Misc Sci-Fi
 

After creating the cover of David Leyman's debut entry of his science fiction story Ruthermore Heidigens and the Fifth Planet, followed by the covers of two subsequent entriesRuthermore Heidigens and the Voices and Ruthermore Heidigens and the Nights at the Round Table, now comes the cover I made for the upcoming fourth installment of the series in Ruthermore Heidigens and the Fires of Avalon! Check out the dragon. He seems nice.

Keep an eye out for its ebook release on Amazon at David Leyman's website here!

There be a bragon! Perhaps there be also a bungeon!

Ruthermore Heidigens and the Fires of Avalon

 

Bigfoot Battlemech

02 June 2015 | Hisham | | Artwork
 

A recent personal commission for a BGF-002 Battlemech with missile launchers, gauss gun and laser cannons.

Some sort of BGF-002 Battlemech

Bigfoot

 

Rafe - 41 Months

29 May 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

The boy is now 41 months old! Almost 3 and a half!

Happy roti canai-filled Adik

That is the face he made after eating his fill of roti canai at the Straits of Malacca.

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

 

82 Months

22 May 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

82 months of Yaya!

Yaya and Adik

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

 

Patreon: Lovecraftian Investigators 2

15 May 2015 | Hisham | | Patreon Paperminis, Role Playing Games
 

New Lovecraftian / 1920s Pulp Investigators paperminis have been released on Patreon! For this batch, I drew and setup a range of characters on the pdf, namely: the Librarian, the Hobo, the Dandy, the Alienist, the Grave Digger and Aviator! I've always wanted to draw a hobo. Download from the Patreon page here!

Read some suggestions on how to assemble the paperminis here!

Don't cut your fingers

Let's see how both batches look like assembled after glued, folded and cut as seen above.

Here comes the sandblasting attack

The Alienist, Aviator and Hobo come face-to-face with some Flying Polyps.

This neighbourhood has seriously gone to the dogs!

The Dandy walk down a street at the bad side of town and are tailed by some sort of strange hounds.

The graveyard is where all the food are kept

The Grave Digger: "Why does it have to be Ghouls?"

No fighting in the library. Take it outside... or at least, to Yuggoth

The Librarian break up a scuffle between the Mi-go and the Nightgaunt.

CHEEEEESE!

Here's everybody from both batches, bunched together for a group photo, with the Dandy attempting to grandstand.

Download the Deep Ones and the Hounds of Tindalos paperminis here.

Download the Nightgaunts and Flying Polyps paperminis here,

Download the Ghoul and Mi-go paperminis here.

Also, BLOG POST #1400!!! Huzzah!

 

Boy Spells Words

10 May 2015 | Hisham | | Family Pics
 

Irfan told informed us that he was invited by a teacher to attend some spelling bee. Later he told us the event was held at a local hotel: the biggest hotel in town.

He didn't even tell is it was this contest:

Irfan with buntings

You can read about the contest here.

Irfan with Mom

We arrived and I took some photos before Irfan joined his school contigent for registration. There were 150 attendees from his school.

Now that's one tall First Former

After registration, the teacher in charge briefed his contigent. It looks like there were representatives from every Form.

Irfan with other First Formers

Irfan and the other First Formers take a photo together. He was the only one from his class.

Irfan with Mom, redux

This appeared to be the qualifying round. There was only a preliminary written test for the attendees. If Irfan makes it past the preliminaries, the next event would be the State Challenge which according to the website would be held at Dewan Kapitol on the 8th and 9th of August.

 

Veronica - Hello and Farewell

07 May 2015 | Hisham | | Family Pics
 

Before we left for Kuala Lumpur and Sitiawan last weekend, Ain was enamoured with another stray kitty who hung around at a roadside stall nearby. She took to Ain very well, so she thought we would also adopt her and Betty would have a companion.

Neow neow buddy

We took in the new calico on Tuesday and named her Veronica. Like their namesake, Betty and Veronica did not really get along well. Betty was quite haughty and Veronica was a better-behaved kitty. They did things together, but once in a while they got into hissing slap flights. We thought that after a week or two of acclimatising, the two kitties would be okay with each other.

On Wednesday, while we were having lunch at home a neighbour knocked on our door and told us she saw Veronica get hit by a car. She was at the doorstep limp and lifeless, her eyes looking out to nowhere.

While I returned to work, Ain and Irfan sadly buried Veronica by the canal. We were all shocked by the sudden death. Even Betty appeared to be shaken by the event. She is less energetic and behaves better than she ever did now for some reason. Perhaps she regrets fighting with Veronica.

Here lies Veronica neow neow neow neow
 

So long, Veronica, and sorry.

 

Lords of Nal Hutta

05 May 2015 | Hisham | | Books, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

One of the gifts given to me by Kai and the Gamers of KL crew on our trip back to Kuala Lumpur was Lords of Nal Hutta, the recently-released sourcebook for Hutts and Hutt Space for Star Wars Edge of the Empire roleplaying game by Fantasy Flight Games. Bonus: it was co-written by Gary Astleford.

I Visited Hutt Space And All I Got Was A Sha'rellian Toop Infestation

It would certainly help my gamemaster (GM) the campaign I ran for GOKL, entitled "Modesty Blazing", because we were about to meet Sassatania the Hutt, Zeltron pilot Darter Kel's former fling and daughter of Teemo the Hutt.

An illustration of Sassatania can be found in this blog post. Coincidentally, several locations described in the book had been featured in two different Star Wars D6 campaigns I ran for GOKL. (Well, one campaign and one one-shot session.) 

Weequays are teh awesome

Sriluur of course showed up in A Bad Example in the Spacelanes campaign which was never finished.

And I first ran a session with Kwenn in Tatooine Manhunt back in 1989

Kwenn Station was where the player characters started in The Rancid Putrefaction of a Cosmic Caterwauling Cabal one-shot game.

So many other features in this book, from a list of Hutt kajidics, vehicles, weapons and Hutt Space systems from Kintan to Toydaria, that I will try to include in future Edge of the Empire games I run.

Especially ones that lead the players into wretched hives of scum and villainy.

 

A Return To the Tenth Floor

04 May 2015 | Hisham | | Family Pics
 

It's the Labour Day/Wesak Day long weekend. We were unsure if we were able to travel 500 klicks plus change to the old house back on the Tenth Floor in Kuala Lumpur.

We had planned on departing at 3AM, but because we were exhausted we awoke at six, and after gearing up were only able to push off from Kangar at seven. Twitter warned us of slow traffic on the highway ahead of us, which forced us off and into the state roads near Selama toward Taiping. Soon we decided to stop at Atok and Opah's in Sitiawan for a brief rest and Friday prayers.

We resumed our journey at 3PM and reached Kuala Lumpur by nightfall.

It was a strange feeling, returning there after five months away from the city. I don't believe we were ever away from the city anywhere near this amount of time. The strangeness was promulgated by the fact that it did not feel like we were away for five months. It felt like we were only away for a week or two.

Soon we were back at the Tenth Floor. A familiar sight of the Pandan Indah cityscape greeted us. The city lights were still aesthetically pleasing. That night we went for a drive around the city, like old times.

The Tenth Floor was all but a shell of its former self. Despite being our shelter and home base for the last fifteen years - the same number of years I lived in Sitiawan before I had to go away to study - it felt like a relief to finally being able to appoint a realtor to help sell it off. Irfan knew of no other home and it was here that he learnt to swim.

 

Happy 10th Anniversary To This Blog

01 May 2015 | Hisham | | Hishgraphics.com, Recent News
 

This blog is now 10 years old.

I don't belieeeve it!

That means it nearly time for Vin and Sila's 10-year anniversary.

 

A Return to Burger Republik

30 April 2015 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Food
 

Because we sent some freelance proofreading work in the direction of the proprietor of Burger Republik, they invited us over for dinner on the house. I had the chicken kebab which was perfect and juicy. Especially the onions.

Because onions!

Ain had ordered a new item on their menu, the salmon. I thought the bean sprouts gave the fish a great taste and texture. Although I loved my kebab, I quickly wished I had ordered the salmon instead. But all is good, because we all share our food with each other anyway.

Irfan had a "Broadway Burger". But there was no photo of it, just this photo of Irfan devouring said burger.

Because we found the selection of Burger Republik's menu quite appetising, we shall return there!

 

Rafe - 40 Months

29 April 2015 | sila | | Family Pics
 

And so Adik is 40 months old!

And he's excited about it!

* Mouse over the pictures for captions

 

A Package from DwD Studios

28 April 2015 | Hisham | | Books, Role Playing Games
 

Copies of roleplaying game books arrived today from DwD Studios, sent by Bill Logan! 

A bunch of awesome digest-sized books!

As has been documented on the blog before, I've played BareBones Fantasy with Irfan the first time here, then during International TableTop Day here and finally here when he experienced his first player character (PC) death. The boy also gamemastered (GM) his first ever RPG with BareBones Fantasy last year!

I'm hoping he'll hone his GMing skills some more with the easy to play BareBones d00% lite system, and eventually play some contemporary spies in Covert Ops.This will help him develop his oratory, problem solving and critical thinking skills.

This autograph will be worth mllions! MILLIONS!

Thanks, Bill! I will do just that!

 

Patreon: Lovecraftian Investigators

27 April 2015 | Hisham | | Artwork, Patreon Paperminis
 
Prepare for some SAN loss

Latest Patreon papermini release from Hishgraphics Papermini Patreon! Lovecraftian / pulp investigators from the 1920s! All prepared to lose their marbles upon investigating and being exposed to unspeakable horrors!

With: the dilettante, the detective, the doctor, the police officer, the reporter and the nurse! As usual, the Pioneer-class release is free for download while the higher quality releases are for Mariner- and the Voyager-class patrons only! Fhtagn!

Click here to download the pioneer-class pdf from Patreon!

Dude has a human brain in a case on him

Also, as a free bonus download, some Lovecraftian papermini monsters for your player characters to tangle with - or to be player characters, I don't judge.

Click here to download some Ghouls and Mi-go the Fungi from Yuggoth on Patreon.

 

Atok and Opah's April Visit

26 April 2015 | Hisham | | Family Pics
 

Atok and Opah visited us in Perlis once more, this time to help ensure all went well during the my last ever semester final examinations. If I make it through this, then I would have a Bachelor of English Studies degree. And in a position to do something with it.

We planned for a picnic at Gua Kelam, but rainfall overnight caused a change in plans so we went to Tasik Melati which appeared to be overrun by ants and water lettuce, although the lily pads were pretty neat.

However, after breakfast at Tasik Melati we found ourselves at Gua Kelam anyway because we travelled quite a bit past Sungai Batu Pahat northbound toward Kaki Bukit.

We enjoyed the greenery at the Gua Kelam Secret Garden on the other side of the cave tunnel where we finished off the leftover of our Tasik Melati breakfast.

There was one way to prove that we were at the Secret Garden, which was to take a photo of the indisputably noticeable large words that labelled the locale as a SECRET GARDEN. Needless to say its secret was safe with us.

The next morning we visited the Pauh Pasar Pagi which was a unique combination of a farmer's market which also includes flowers and other landscaping material, and a flea market which even sells melee weapons including a not-very-hefty-looking wooden mace. With spikes and all.  

Atok and Opah were very engrossed with the decorative plants, which were sold right by the roadside.

Irfan smiles with glee at another flower stall which was located between a graveyard and a rubber plantation.

Opah bought for Irfan another flowering potted plant to look after. According to the seller it's a "Japanese Rose" however a cursory Googling confirms that it is not.

After exams were over, it was time for Atok and Opah to leave for Sitiawan, with a plan to meet soon during the Labour Day/Wesak Day long weekend.

 

Finn the Human Stormtrooper

23 April 2015 | Hisham | | Artwork, Star Wars
 

The latest Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser dropped last week at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2015. The internet exploded.

Meanwhile, I drew John Boyega as Finn, from the trailer.

And Kylo Ren as Kybo Ren as the Ice King

Updated with BB-8 as B-MO!