WLC 6.4: They're On A Path In The Woods

Making Characters Act

Since the cutscenes of Bushido Blade 2 are handled in-engine, it's super easy to put different actors on different stages with repurposed animations.

For example, this is Mikado and Jo reenacting part of Kannuki's ending in the Shainto Group Battle Stage. Jo is even using a different weapon from Mikado, unlike how Tatsumi wields the same as Kannuki.

The way Tatsumi falls in Kannuki's ending is so stiff; it's a very low-budget fall.

By contrast, "Tatsumi's" attack is a complete whiff in Mikado's ending, but the fall is more dramatic.

There's a few hiccups to the process of making this, but I can mostly make anyone in this game do anything someone else can do.

Locking Swords

Blade clashes in Bushido Blade 2 are more interesting visually than the first game. The character who is winning actually pushes the loser around in a far more obvious way.

POV: You've locked blades with the leader of the enemy clan on a castle roof.

POV: You've locked blades with a shrine maiden on competition grounds.

POV: You're just gals being pals when she just lets you win.

The motion of actually flinging the loser is something I'm sad the sequel lost, but the clarity of who is winning is more important.

Story Mode (English)

In Bushido Blade 2's Story Mode, the starting six characters (including Mikado) have different outfits than they use in the rest of the game.

I know how to switch it back, though. I said I was a dirty little hacker.

This video is every scene she's in. Video is my own; made it a while back. Her English VA is Wendee Lee, who also voices Jo.

The first part of the video is her role in other characters' stories. First as an enemy, then as a friend. The second part of the video is her own story route. The Narukagami crew only have one ending each in this game, while the Shainto have a choice at the end of theirs.

I like the idea of a marilith (or any multi-arm) wielding a random assortment of weapons at once. Practical? Probably not. Cool? Hell yes.

Hi everyone! I wanted to show you some monsters I've been doing for MorvoldPress' project: my takes on a Copper Dragon, a Marilith, and a Storm Giant.

You can get the full-resolution images for your own use on their Patreon patreon.com/morvoldpress

And you can commission me directly on my ko-fi https://ko-fi.com/haclif/commissions

Let me know what you think!

WLC 2.7: Here We Glow

In total darkness, Ling drops Kalyani's bag and skitters off. "Hold on," she says, "I know it's around here." There's a tapping and creak. A dull light enters the chamber. Ling now stands by a small open door filled with glowing stones. "Great to see ya, again."

Maraja rolls her eyes, then turns her attention elsewhere. The chamber opens into three tunnels, but the small stone structure Ling stands beside has several metal pods attached to its sides. "What is that?"

"Just my current experiment," says Ling, "These pods contain different crops and the paneling shifts over time like the sun." She skitters up onto the building to a valve. "By turning this once a week, it keeps going 'round."

"Are thhosse dangerouss?" asks Kalyani, slithering away and roots through her bag.

"Defo!" says Ling, "With too many, anyway. Like standing in the sun." As Kalyani pulls a torch from her bag and lights it, Ling shuts her door and joins the duo in the center of the chamber. "So, who knows the way to go?"

"Her loving eyes will guide us," say Maraja. She fall to her knees and prays, "Dearest Vanessa, please, show us, on what path did Kirono head?"

A flaming eye suddenly appears in a tunnel and vanishes further in.

J: The gods did something? Hah. L: Two of her followers asked on a quest she assigned one to. J: ... L: We can talk about Vanessa later, Jevoi.

Ling licks her eyes. "South, toward Vrow territory."

"Oh, great," Kalyani shakes her head and takes out a staff, "The worshhiperss of Lmaoth." She conjures a new floating disc.

"Don't jinx it, mate," says Ling, hoisting the bag back on to it.

J: Can you just skip to the castle? L: What? But the purple-stuffed worm- and the tuning fork. D: I want to hear about the worm! J: Fine, just the interesting parts of spelunk. L: I'll do.

"She will protect us," says Maraja, standing, "She will protect us. Let us go forth!" She marches into the tunnel.

WLC 6.G: Magic Duel 3v3

L: The first rule of magic duels is don't get into magic duels. The second is to remain calm; if ya lose your s***e, ya soon won't have s***e left to lose.

The first to move is Tanglepork. Dodging an opportune swipe of Ioana's claws as she runs away, she reloads her gun. She quickly turns and fires, but her nerves betray her and the bullet barely misses the lycan's head.

Ioana's fierce gaze remains locked on her prey as she commands the air to twist around her. It becomes like a miniature tornado as she chases after the gnome.

Gudrun locks eyes with the minotaur. "Obey me," she says, her eyes alight.

L: The third rule of magic duels is to know what your opponent can do and prepare to counter it.

"Not this time, b***h," says Honeycrisp, shaking off the force trying to insert itself into his mind.

Gudrun pulls out a silver wand. "Fine."

Honeycrisp focuses and magic courses through his body, accelerating him. Sparks dance upon his horns.

L: Corollary: Know what your opponent knows ya can do and don't do it.

Ling raises a wall of ribs, splitting a third of the room away, isolating the lycan and the deputy from the rest of them. The massive ribs connecting ceiling to floor have gaps too small for most of the room's occupants. "This way, Porky," commands Ling, as she positions herself by the passage to the portal room.

J: How many wall of bones spells do there really need to be?

"Ling," whines Zingiber, "You're supposed to be fighting me." She releases a blast of glittery fire into Ling's face, but the gex licks her eyes clean.

Tanglepork takes a liking to the idea of people not seeing things and turns invisible, then attempts to sneak around Ioana to reach the bone wall. Her steps are calculated to match the rhythm of the other fighters.

Ioana sniffs about and detonates a burst of fire where she believes the gnome to be hiding, but by some gnomish trickery (possibly breakdancing), the deputy remains unharmed.

Gudrun fires a purple beam from her wand, but Honeycrisp defects it with his horn. "S***e," she says, calmly. Foreseeing the sheriff's next move, she conjures a shield in front of her.

Honeycrisp charges forward, his horns smash open the shield. While his target is unharmed by that, the hook to her face makes quite the impact, knocking free a tooth, which explodes. The shrapnel then defies physics and embed themselves in the dwarf's neck.

Ling conjures a facsimile of a dryad -a type of tree nymph- that wraps her arms around the elf. "Hey there, cutie," says the dryad with a wink.

L: Preventing your opponent from casting at all is the strongest option. A lot of magic requires somantics.

Zingiber forces an arm free. "Getting off on this, Dr. Ling?" She gestures wildly. "Then check this!"

Unfortunately for Zingiber, her spell fails for multiple reasons: Tanglepork is out of the area, Honeycrisp (bull) and the dryad (plant) don't have the targeted anatomy, and Ling, because of her experiences in Wizard School, always begins the day with protective spells like Genital Mirror Shield. Thus, the caster herself is the only affected person.

Zingiber clutches her guts as her Ovarian Explosion nearly rips apart her insides. "Mistake."

J: Who even crafted that? Why make that?

"Serves ya right," shouts Ling.

Invisible, Tanglepork sneaks up to the ribs while quietly reloading her weapon and squeezes through. Aiming back through, she takes another shot breaking her disguise. The bullet, buffeted by the wind, glances the lycan's shoulder. "Oh, come on," the deputy grumbles.

If Ioana were the beast she looked like, she'd just run up to the ribs and try to smash through, but the witch is smarter than that. The bones form a fence she can cast through and, with the wind making her a difficult target, she's free to do so. She condenses a suffocating cloud around the gnome. "You can't escape," she growls.

"Help me," demands Gudrun to Zingiber, taking a defensive step away. She locks eyes with Ling and a mental bomb causes her to recoil in pain.

J: How many counters do you have? L: One more than I think I'll need.

"Time to put you b***hes in your place," says Honeycrisp.

"Can you shut your f**king mouth for five b****y minutes!" yells Ling.

"Great idea!" Honeycrisp forms a zone of silence around himself and lunges headfirst into Gudrun, impaling her on his horns and lifting her off the ground.

L: A lot of magic requires incantations too.

Now unable to hear, the false dryad looks to Ling for instruction. Ling gestures for her to keep Zingiber in that area close to the sheriff. Ling then condenses the cloud around the deputy into a shield of water.

Zingiber punches and knees the dryad, bashing onto bark-coated flesh. Breaking free, she scrambles out of the inaudible zone.

Tanglepork peers around the shield (reloading) and focuses on that first bullet, the one that's still in the back of the lycan's skull. The tiny piece of lead becomes hotter, burning its way into the witch's brain.

Screeching with pain, Ioana draws in through the floor as much spiritual energy as she can. The sheriff cannot avoid having part of his soul drained and the dryad wilts, while Tanglepork's fidgeting about causes her to be less effected and Ling avoids it entirely by hopping onto the wall, taking note that Zingiber is casually unaffected.

Gudrun thrashes about, desperately trying to free herself from the horns. Her punches and kicks are not enough, however.

A bright light flashes the room as Honeycrisp channels electricity through his horns and Gudrun's body. He then charges at Zingiber slapping her across the room with her dwarven cohort's charred, but still living body.

L: Anything is a weapon. Everything is a weapon.

Ling takes a moment to think. Two of these witches should be dead now; why aren't they? It must be that contract. She commands the weakened dryad to grab the elf again (which she does). Ling yells, "Porky, we need to leave."

Zingiber once again forces her arms free to aim another spell and then shoves the dryad away. The sheriff collapses as his muscles detach themselves from his bones. Ling recognizes her own spell, Tendon Tearer.

As Tanglepork continues to burn a hole through Ioana's head, she yells to Ling, "How?" She takes another shot from the other side of the shield, sinking a bullet into the lycan's chest. "Eat that!"

Ioana retreats to the entrance door, as if daring her enemies to try to get through her. She stomps on the ground, causing the already misshapen cubes of the room to twist around becoming a series of crude pyramids. Now even just standing here is an issue.

Gudrun pries her body off of the sheriff's horns and pathetically crawls away. Her bleeding, burnt body struggling to cross the threshold of sound due to the floor's sudden shift.

Honeycrisp sends a message via vibration directly through the floor and wall to Ling's ear bones. While she doesn't know the exact meaning, it isn't hard to guess the intent.

J: Why would you keep saving him? L: Because it's the right thing to do. A: Meat shield.

Ling restores the sheriff's ability to move -his muscles reattaching themselves- and orders the dryad to muzzle the elf; the dryad's solution is to shove her hand into Zingiber's mouth.

Zingiber bites the hand and pulls a brown jewel out of her robe. She stabs it into the dryad's ear and detonates it. The dryad's mostly headless body dissipates.

Tanglepork pulls a glass bottle out of her pocket and lodges it into the barrel of her gun. The special bottle is launched by the force of her shot and explodes on impact with the lycan, whose whirling winds erupt into flame. "Give up already!"

Ioana quickly draws the moisture in the air (and the water shield) onto her person, suffocating the fire. Realizing her wind had burned away, she conjures a shield to deflect further gunfire.

Gudrun crawls further from the sheriff and attempts to scramble his brain, but cannot tell what effect she actually has.

Honeycrisp leaps with intent to crush the elf, but his vision is blurred and wobbly like a drunkard, and he smashes his fist centimeters away from her head. She weaves around the following blows.

Ling continues to rack her brain. She kicks off a burst of mental energy, accelerating her thoughts. Zingiber mentioned several construction-related spells and this lair is blatantly artificial, that entity needs mortals to interact with this world, and the witches seemed to have thought that sacrificing children into the portal was the point. ...Maybe they built the portal? So, having them harm it would break the contract?

"Porky, this way," she yells as she forms an arrow of light pointing to herself in front of Honeycrisp, "Pull back!" Ling hopes that the witches will follow after them.

While Honeycrisp is distracted, Zingiber sees an opportunity. The sheriff's horns are covered in her friend's blood. Reaching up and grabbing them, the elf drives the blood like knives into his skin and rips his face off.

A: I like this woman. Obviously became a demon.

"You f**king b***h!" Tanglepork's rage cannot penetrate the muted bubble the elf remains in, but her bullet can, barely grazing Zingiber's nose.

"Time to end this," says Ioana, teleporting right behind the deputy. A swipe of her claw slices open the gnome's backside.

"Help me," calls out Gudrun, putting pressure on her bleeding wounds. She tries to lock eyes with the deputy, but the gnome is too wrought with emotion.

Bleeding profusely, Honeycrisp slams his fists into the elf's guts, sparks passing through her organs with each strike.

"Can't get near the k**bhead," Ling grumbles. She calls upon the sheriff's flesh to mend itself, stealing pieces of Zingiber's hands in the process.

Zingiber dodges another swing as she rolls out of the silent bubble and does a wild swinging display spraying her own blood about into floating runes that drive themselves into the sheriff. On contact, the pieces of herself stuck in his face explode, taking his head with them.

Screaming with rage and grief, Tanglepork races toward Ling across the crooked, spiky floor and tries to shoot the blood-dancing elf. The bullet comes nowhere close.

Ioana chases after and commands pieces of the stone floor to erupt as a cage around the gnome, but the agile deputy leaps to freedom.

"Stop," demands Gudrun, but the deputy refuses.

L: But the most important rule of a magic duel is:

"We're getting the kids," yells Ling, ostensibly to Tanglepork, "And then we're getting the f**k out of here." She conjures a massive potato to block the lycan's path.

"No, you're not," yells Zingiber forming further runes. With a great forceful push, the corpse of the sheriff is launched at the doctor, who dives out of the way. The body tumbles into the corridor and explodes, collapsing the tunnel.

L: Never forget why you're fighting.

"Zingiber, you fool!" yells Ioana, but it is too late.

"The final line has been crossed," announces a booming voice, "No simple task was beneath your ability to fail. The violation of the contract has ceded all boons I have blessed upon you."

From the liquid metal in Ioana's brain and the burnt, ruptured organs in Gudrun's body, the two die with no fanfare.

"What?" Zingiber staggers forward in confusion, the blood-loss killing her slowly. "That's not fair."

Tanglepork stops running. Ling and she carefully walk toward Zingiber. "You killed my boss," says Tanglepork, out of breath.

"Whatever," says Zingiber, focusing on Ling, "Going to kill me, Ling? Plenty of ways to make me suffer. You could sta-"

"I'm talking to you," says the deputy.

"I don't want y-"

BANG

The deputy helps Zingiber paint the ceiling a delightful new shade of pink.

"Bl'ell, Porky," mutters Ling, "You didn't-"

"It's over." Tanglepork sits down.

Ling turns to the collapsed passage. "I'll get the kids..." She looks around at the bloody mess that was once three witches. "...And ya... deal with this?"

WLC 3.6: A Mother's Rage

Outside of the tower, the spellcasters continue to hold off the undead tide.

"Don't you have anything more offensive, Ling?" asks Oighrig, still floating, still maintaining a barrier above, and now gesturing to have her storm spider rain acid spiders onto the mass.

L: What she was attempting to do was have her acid react to the basic bile of some of the worms, but basic worm bile was pretty rare.

"Sorry," says Ling, sarcasm dripping from the word, "I was told to prepare for an ecological disaster, NOT AN UNDEAD ABOMY!"

Melandria winces, "I mean, it's both of those things..."

"Would have been great to know before I brought my daughter down here," yells Ling, conjuring a giant lemon inside of the wormsworn, "Thought it was just going to be some sick plants or the mold flood came back, but no, it's zombie wormageddon." The lemon explodes. "And then ya've got the nerve to talk about my mum."

"What is wrong with your daughter wanting to know her grandmother?" asks Melandria, her shadow arms fling several worms on the ground into the air.

"My mum's a f******g assassin, Mel," says Ling. She slaps the earth and the worms attempting to burrow under the teeth wall turn to solid stone. "She has killed a s***eton of people. Why do think she moved from the surface?"

"Is this really the right time for this?" ask Oighrig, as she and her storm spider launch bolts of lightning into the airborne worms.

"The sun'll go cold before I let my daughter go down that path!" says Ling.

L: Didn't mean that literally, but good work making it true, Jevoi. Guess I can't stop ya from living your dream now. J: At this point, assassin is a step down, but thanks so much for your permission, Mum.

"I am almost out of things to throw at this," says Oighrig, conjuring a web to trap more worms attempting to burrow.

"Mel, don't ya have another Dark Hole?" asks Ling, conjuring a phantom chef that slices, dices, and juliennes several worms.

"I'm running on empty now, too, Ling," says Melandria, her shadow arms skewering worms onto adamantine spears, "Killing the previous ones took too much out of me."

"How many of these things have you fought today!?"

"This is the fifth," says Oighrig, continuing to order her storm spider's blitz.

"Why did ya wait this late to call me?"

"I thought we could handle this," says Melandria, her shadow arms grabbing and tearing the worms open, "I wasn't expecting it to be this incessant."

"I'ma kick your sexy a**e, Mel!" yells Ling, "If it's not dead the third time ya kill it, it's not staying dead!" Gravity reverses for a group of worms and they are brought helplessly up to the phantom chef's cutting zone. "I'm going to make ya watch me destroy Oighrig."

"What did I do?" asks Oighrig, almost taking her eyes off her spider.

"No, positively!" says Ling, "Ya're doing lovely! Keep not-f*****g-up!"

"Boss, we've got the salt!" says Gish and Gash, hauling a large bag on a makeshift trolley.

"Gash, I'ma kick your a**e, too!" says Ling, pulling a book out of pouch, "I gave you one b****y job, you b******d!" She has the book turn itself to the right page. "F**k it, Gish, help your idiot brother make a salt circle around the entire cave."

"The entire cave?" asks Gish, "You cannot be serious."

"Ya heard me!" says Ling, inducing a relative increase in speed to the group, "We need to sanctify this entire place."

WLC 5.9: Hey, Demon, It's Jevoi

"G'day," says Jevoi, "Is this- this seat taken?"

The marilith looks at the mortal, but only briefly. She rolls her eyes and continues staring at her food, strange purple meat. "Sure, whatever," she says, "Pretty gutsy walking up to a demon."

D: So what did you talk about? J: Philosophy. L: What kind? J: That's not important.

Jevoi sits down with her drink in hand. "Well, I mean," she struggles to say, "Who says demons have to be bad?"

"The gods?" says the baffled mailith. She stabs the meat; it oozes in response.

"Not really a fan of them anyway," shrugs Jevoi, "Seems like there's a lot of problems they're choosing not to solve."

The marilith looks up, bemused. "And how'd you fix them?"

"My mum always said that we have to keep working to override the people seeking to make everything worse."

"You believe that?" The marilith twirls her fork. "Just try harder?"

"No," says Jevoi, "If there are people dragging us backward, then logically the best thing we can do is get rid of them."

"Get rid of them... how?" asks the marilith. Her gaze intensifying.

"Kill them," says Jevoi blunt, swift, and cold, staring into the marilith's eyes.

A: That look in your eyes that day. I still remember it. L: So ya let her into your cabin then? Eh? Eh? J: Mum, no!

Looking into those eyes, it is as if the whole room has gone silent. The marilith had never had a mortal look at her this way before. She laughs, and says, "Want to walk with me? Name's Angustias, by the way."

"You can call me Jay," says Jevoi, sipping her drink.

"Afraid to tell a demon your name?" asks Angustias, coyly leading Jevoi out the door.

"You're not the first demon I've met," says Jevoi, following coolly.

A: You were trying so hard to be an aloof rogue. J: And you were trying to be seductive. A: I was succeeding.

The duo step out onto the deck and looking out of the bubble surrounding the ship. The stars and galaxies sparkle and shine in the great dark void.

D: Stars? L: Distant lights in the surface world's sky. J: Magnificent beacons of power that fill the cosmos. A: They're really not that special, just plasma.

The pair lean on the railing, neither sure what to say, and so, they linger in silence. A good silence, to be fair.

Current Wizard Lizard Chronicles Ideas:

Here's just a collection of thoughts about what kind of stories Ling has to tell. Orc War will be Chapter 8.

The Orc War: a dark story about the brutality of war, people's capacity for cruelty, and what happens when you push a good woman too far.

Cultural Transitions: "Be gay, do crimes" dominoes into two societies' revolutions. Big focus on the how the Vrow became less xenophobic.

The Godmother, or "Jevoi, We Have to Cook": Jevoi attempts to join the Mafeya.

Mother Fearest: Meet Ning; master assassin, Social Darwinist, overbearing mom.

Wizard Lizard and the Lizard Wizard: spelling errors drag Ling into her neighbor's own perilous life.

How I Met My Step-mother: Ning meets the love of her life due to her wild daughter's social strife.

Hara Kiri is Haram: Back in wizard school, Ling helped a suicidal samurai avenge her family.

Are You There, Goddess? It's Me, Jevoi: What's worse than puberty? DIVINE PUBERTY.

Succ You Bi: Young Ling is offered demon summoning powers in exchange for representing Hell in a debate and Ling learns her mother's darkest secret.

The Day the Sun Died: What drove Jevoi to ruin the world?

WLC 6.A: The Real "Disarm Traps" Spell

Ling looks upon the runic circle and scans the area. As she expected, the big trap is filled with various smaller traps, some more cleverly hidden than others.

"Bl'ell," says Ling, "Only one way to deal with this."

Ling conjures a herd of false deer. She directs the biologically accurate meat puppets to charge through the field while she hides a magic shield-tree. The traps and curses detonate with explosions of various flavors of energy. Flaming chunks of meat fly into the air.

When the cacophony ends, Ling peers out onto a wizardly warzone. Stone and ice statues stand over struggling half-sunken beasts, all coated in viscera amid the burnt field and corrosive pools. Several deer suffer from various disfigurations: extra limbs and openings (like Ling's own spell "Unwanted Orifices"), inside out (Sir Kenra's "Bodily Inversion"), and a torrent of diseases - both natural and magical.

"Guess I have a fan," mutters Ling.

A: You created that spell? Wouldn't have expected you to craft such a horrifying transfiguration. L: It only lasts a few seconds. J: Enough time to cause mental damage, sensory discordance, and intense physical pain. L: Yeah, that's how suddenly gaining and losing fully functioning body parts works.

The meat and deer dissipate, causing the crumbling of the now hollow statues. Holes remain where they had been trapped.

Ling still keeps her attention focused for more hazards as she approaches the broken windmill, carefully stepping around the lingering hazards.