Josh Howard

Some art from Josh Howard, he is awesome!! Check out his Dead @ 17 series.

Don't Mess With Kong

A friend sent some D&D stats for King Kong he had found:

King Kong
Advanced Dire Ape Barbarian 12
Huge AnimalHit
Dice: 20d8+120 plus 12d12+72 (420 hp)
Initiative: +3 (Dex)
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares), climb 20 ft.
AC: 18 (–2 size, +3 Dex, +7 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +27/+50
Attack: Slam +40 melee (2d6+15) or rock +28 ranged (2d8+15)
Full Attack: 2 slams +40 melee (2d6+15) and bite +38 melee (2d6+7) or rock +28 ranged (2d8+15)
Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft.
Special Attacks: Greater rage, mighty roar, rage 4/day, rend 4d6+22, rock throwing, snatch
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 2/--, fast movement, improved uncanny dodge, low-light vision, scent, trap sense +4, uncanny dodge
Saves: Fort +26, Ref +19, Will +13
Abilities: Str 40, Dex 16, Con 22, Int 06, Wis 16, Cha 10
Skills: Climb +29, Jump +29, Listen +13, Move Silently +7, Spot +12, Survival +11
Feats: Alertness, Awesome Blow, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Greater Mighty Roar, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Natural Attack (slam), Mighty Roar, Multiattack, Power Attack, Snatch
Environment: Skull Island
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 22
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): King Kong cannot be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack him by flanking him, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than King Kong has barbarian levels.

Mighty Roar (Ex): Once per day, as a standard action, King Kong can unleash a primal roar that can cause panic in his enemies. All creatures within 30 ft. that hear the mighty roar must make a successful Will save (DC 26) or become panicked for 2d6 rounds.

Rage (Ex): King Kong can fly into a rage 4 times per day. In a rage, King Kong temporarily gains a +6 bonus to Strength, a +6 bonus to Constitution, and a +3 morale bonus on Will saves, but he takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. The increase in Constitution increases the Kong Kong’s hit points by 3 points per hit die, but these hit points go away at the end of the rage when his Constitution score drops back to normal. (These extra hit points are not lost first the way temporary hit points are.) While raging, King Kong cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration. A fit of rage lasts for 12 rounds. King Kong may prematurely end his rage. At the end of the rage, he loses the rage modifiers and restrictions and becomes fatigued (–2 penalty to Strength, –2 penalty to Dexterity, can’t charge or run) for the duration of the current encounter.

Rend (Ex): If King Kong hits with both slam attacks he latches onto the opponent’s body and tears the flesh. This attack automatically deals an extra 4d6+22 points of damage.

Rock Throwing (Ex): King Kong can hurl boulders with a range increment of 140 ft.

Snatch (Ex): King Kong can snatch up opponents of medium size or smaller and crush them or simply hurl them to their dooms. To do this King Kong must hit an opponent with a slam attack, at which time he can choose to start a grapple as a free action, as if he had the improved grab ability, If King Kong gets a hold on his opponent his may squeeze each round for automatic slam damage. King Kong can drop a creature as a fee action, or fling it aside. Flung opponents travel 1d8x10 feet, and take 1d6 points of damage for every ten feet traveled.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): King Kong retains his Dexterity bonus to AC even if he is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, he still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.

Trap Sense (Ex): King Kong gains a +4 bonus on Reflex saves made to avoid traps and a +4 dodge bonus to AC against attacks made by traps.

History

The last of a mighty race of giant gorillas, King Kong was a paragon of ferocity and savage will; a grim survivor whom fate decreed would perish in pursuit of an elusive dream of love and companionship. Born upon the primordial Skull Island, Kong belonged to the last group of giant apes to inhabit the strange lost world. His race was fast on the decline due to the increasing pressure placed upon them by packs of hungry dinosaurs, and the island’s near constant seismic activity, which had destroyed many of their highland habitats.Whether due to sickness or the ravening jaws of hungry beasts, the members of Kong’s family group died off, leaving the mighty ape alone to fend for himself. Even among his gigantic breed Kong was a massive physical specimen, and this coupled with his indomitable will, allowed him to survive from many years upon the incredibly lethal Skull Island. Battles with the island’s top predators, the descendents of the prehistoric Tyrannosaurus Rex, along with its other nightmarish inhabitants, transformed Kong into a canny, and nearly unstoppable engine of destruction. Already far more intelligent than any of his kind, years of brutal experience won from Skull Island’s unbelievably harsh environment had transformed Kong into a true thinking and reasoning beast. He soon became master of the island, his territory stretching from coast to coast, earning him the apt title of “King Kong”.Gorillas are social animals, and Kong was no exception to this. Deprived of the company of his kind, the loneliness he suffered must have been overwhelming, and likely had begun to affect the giant ape’s sanity. Desire for companionship forced Kong into contact with Skull Island’s only human inhabitants, a vile and degenerate race of inbred savages, who came to worship him as a god. These half-mad islanders offered up young girls as sacrifices to the great ape, which he readily accepted, carrying them off like tiny dolls clutched in one huge fist. The fate of these sacrifices was certain death, as Kong quickly tired of the terrified island girls and indulged his terrible rage, ripping the hapless islanders limb from limb and leaving their bones to molder in great stinking heaps. It was only the charms of Anne Darrow, a young desperate actress from New York, lured to Skull Island by the false promises of movie producer Carl Denham that brought Kong a fleeting glimpse of true happiness. Kidnapped from her ship by the crazed island dwellers, Anne Darrow was given to Kong as a sacrifice, a rare and exotic beauty offered up to the ape god for his pleasure. Like the doomed island girls before her, Anne was carried off into the jungle, but unlike her predecessors, the young New Yorker was able to establish a bond with the giant ape, strengthened by the travails they faced together on the island. Speculations regarding the relationship between Kong and Anne Darrow abound, but those who knew the young actress well have offered the postulation that perhaps Anne saw Kong as the protector that would never leave her, someone who would risk everything, even his own life to keep her safe, a quality sorely missing from the men in her life.But, as fate would have it, the time Kong and Anne spent upon Skull Island would be fleeting, as a sortie from the ship led by Jack Driscoll, the screen writer who had accompanied Charles Denham on his ill-fated voyage, sought to penetrate the jungle in search of the kidnapped actress. Most of Jack Driscoll’s party died horribly in the steamy depths of the island’s interior, devoured by hungry predators or smashed to pulp by Kong himself. But Jack, pushed on by his burgeoning love for Anne, persevered and snatched the young actress from Kong’s grasp. The two fled through the jungle, pursued by the enraged Kong, leading the giant ape straight into the jaws of a trap set form him by the enterprising Charles Denham and Captain Englehorn. Denham along with Englehorn saw a fabulous opportunity for wealth and fame if they could capture Kong and bring him alive to New York. And although it coat the lives of many of Englehorn’s crew, the pair managed to bring down Kong with a massive dose of chloroform, and load his mammoth drugged body upon their ship. The accounts of the voyage to Skull Island and the subsequent capture of Kong are described in vivid detail in Englehorn’s book, Isle of the Damned. Charles Denham had originally planned to shoot a movie upon the exotic locale of Skull Island, but the loss of his crew along with most of his equipment forced the producer into an even rasher course of action. He brought Kong back to New York and offered him to city’s elite as a never before seen spectacle. The giant ape from an undiscovered island drew in a massive crowd, but opening night turned out to be a disaster for Charles Denham, as Kong burst his bonds to wreak unparalleled destruction upon the city and its inhabitants. Thrust into the strange modern world of New York, Kong sought for the one familiar thing in a sea of unfamiliar sights and smells, Anne Darrow. The young actress, drawn by the sounds of mayhem and destruction, found Kong and soothed his rage with gentle words and the soft touch of her tiny hands. But their reunion was to be a short one, for the military had been summoned to deal with the menace of Charles Denham’s giant ape, and pursued by machine gun fire and mortar shells, Kong with Anne in his grasp, scaled the side of the Empire State Building for his legendary last stand. There, at the top of the world, Anne and Kong reveled in the bond they had formed, a bond that would be torn asunder in a hail of gunfire, as a squadron of fighter planes descended upon Kong standing defiant atop the Empire State Building. Devoted to Anne to the last, Kong shielded her body with his own as the planes opened fire, riddling his body with bullets and crushing the life from the fierce and noble ape. As he clung, dying, to the building’s summit, Kong beheld for the last time his beloved Anne, her face a mask of grief as she sought to hold onto her unfailing champion. But, in the end, her love could not stay death’s hand, and Kong slipped from the side of the building to plummet to the earth far below.At the foot of the Empire State Building, reporters and photographers swarmed over the body of the fallen ape, their flashbulbs popping frantically as they sought to capture the grim spectacle. One reporter wrote the following line, as he heard it spoken by the stunned and perhaps remorseful Charles Denham, “It wasn’t the planes that killed him. It was beauty killed the beast.” Truth, perhaps, but in the end Kong’s fate was far more merciful that he knew love at all, than to linger alone, fading into infirmity, a sad icon of a once proud and noble race.

Appearance

Kong appears as a twenty-five foot tall mountain gorilla. His fur is coal black, save for the stripe of silver along his back, marking him as a mature male of his species. His body is covered with dozens of scars, marks of past victories over Skull Islands many dangerous predators. Kong’s face is bestial but expressive, and his eyes harbor a deep and abiding sadness, a crushing loneliness that is far too human to ignore.

Personality

Kong is quite intelligent for his kind, and is capable of simple reasoning. It is likely, because of this that the giant gorilla suffers from severe depression and is prone to fits of senseless rage. Male gorillas are protective by nature, guarding their family units with savage ferocity, and Kong’s behavior does not stray from this archetype. His acceptance of the sacrifices offered to him by the Skull Islanders, is both an indulgence of his instinctual protective nature and a mark of higher cognitive powers, as he attempts to assuage his all-consuming loneliness.

Combat

An awesome foe, Kong is a powerhouse of primitive strength and ferocity. He fears nothing, and faces all challenges in the same way, with a bellowing roar and the twin destruction of his mighty fists. Kong prefers to close to melee with his opponents, bringing his great strength to bear upon his foes, and will grapple if given the chance, ripping his enemies limb from limb. Although far from a brilliant tactician, Kong is intelligent enough to use simple strategies. He will fling boulders at foes he is unable to melee with, and will occasionally use a large stone or fallen log as a weapon. Kong usually will not rage unless presented with truly powerful foe, or if he is protecting something his values. When raging, Kong is nearly unstoppable, and has been known to tackle two or more T. Rexes when his blood his up, reducing the giant reptiles to heaps of shattered bone and pulped flesh.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I got this from the Evil DM's Blog, check the link

"Lets face it, there is nothing a 35 dollar mega campaign book can do for you on a Saturday night, that you couldn’t get from a copy of “Vault of the Drow” and a decent DM. "

The Evil DM

Give Me Four

Got this from a friend's blog:

Chris's Four:

Four Jobs: Basic Vitamins (vitamin wholesaler first job),MP in the Army, Delivery driver for Bank 1 (myfavorite), Dispatcher for Netjets

Four movies you could watch over and over: The Incredibles, Better Off Dead, Thingsto do in Denver When You're Dead, Star Wars trilogoy.(MP and the Holy Grail should be on that listconsidering I can't begin to count how many times I'veseen it.)

Four places I have lived: Vandalia Ohio, El Paso Texas, KaiserslaughternGermany, Bluffton SC(yes I have been to AnnistonAlabama also)

Four TV shows I love to watch: CSI (the original), Family Guy, My Name is Earl, Criminal Minds

Four place I have been on vacvation: Oralndo Florida (Disney and Universal)Gatlinburg TN, Traverse City MI, Wilmington NC

Four Web Sites I visit everyday:
Ebay
Role Play Online
Yahoo
Rpg Now/RPG Net

Four favorite foods: A well prepared steak, Hooterswings, BBQ, Low country boil