IHMN: Kwai Chang Caine and the Martial Arts for Justice (Episode 5.11)

In the late 19th century China, Kwai Chang Caine (虔官昌) was the orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman. Although taking a student of mixed parentage into the order was unprecedented, the head monk Master Kan sagely noted, "There is a first for everything," and welcomed Caine. He was raised in a Shaolin Monastery in Hunan Province, and was trained by the monks to be a Shaolin master.

Shaolin Monks (少林僧侣)

Years after his graduation, Caine traveled to the Forbidden City to meet his old blind master Po, whose lifelong ambition had been to travel to a festival at the Temple of Heaven on that date, the full moon of May - the 13th day of the 5th month in the Year of the Dog. While they were talking together in the street, the Emperor's nephew and his entourage came along and an altercation ensued when a guard tried to push Po aside and was sent sprawling (had the crap kicked out of him as quoted by Agent X) by the blind Shaolin. While defending himself from the other guards, Master Po was shot by the Emperor's nephew. Before the nephew could reload his pistol, the enraged Caine seized a guard's fallen spear and killed the Imperial nephew. With his dying words Po instructed Caine to flee from China as there would be both no place to hide and a price on his head. Before he fled China, Caine returned to the temple to confess his deed to Master Kan.

General Ranglu, in an attempt to capture and kill Caine, attacked and burned to the ground the Shaolin Monastery; however, Caine escaped to America and searches for his half-brother Danny. After finding his brother, he secretly returns to China and starts organizing Shaolin Monks and other martial arts experts to fight against the Dowager Empress, Chinese Warlords, evil Westerners involved in the opium trade and especially any who would oppress the Chinese people and disturb those "beings" who should best be left alone.

Legendary heroes who have joined Kwai Chang Caine.

 Kwai Chang Caine (虔官昌)

Name: Kwai Chang Caine

Pluck: 2+

Leadership: +2

Speed: +2

Fighting Value: +4

Shooting Value: +3

Talents: Martial Arts, Intervention, Fearless, Fortitude, Leadership +2
Mystical Powers: Clouding Men's Minds, Path of Shadows, Resonant Touch (Note: Caine gets 30 points of Mystical Powers and the previous I have chosen for a game.)

Basic Equipment: None

Armor: 7

Cost: 92

 The Master (大师)
who points out the genetic and moral shortcomings and how slow and stupid his students are and that none of them are worthy to be students of the sacred martial arts of old . . . well, you get the picture.

Name: The Master who points out . . . oh never mind.

Pluck: 3+

Leadership: +1

Speed: +2

Fighting Value: +3

Shooting Value: +3

Talents: Martial Arts, Erudite Wit, Medic, Meticulous Planning
Mystical Powers: Path of Shadows, Dragon Talons

Basic Equipment: The Dragon Ring of Helong 龙环 (gives the bearer Reflection)

Armor: 7

Cost: 72

Lü Bu (吕布), The Harmonious Fist of Wrath 

Lü Bu wandered around central and northern China, consecutively seeking shelter under various warlords. Although he had agreed to an alliance with Warlord Zhang Yulin (see Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun) earlier, he severed ties with him after Zhang declared himself emperor, massacred and entire city. Disgusted with the life he was living, he has attempted to live alone in peace and harmony as he was also notorious for his temperamental behavior.

 

Name: Lü Bu, The Harmonious Fist of Wrath

Pluck: 3+

Leadership: 0

Speed: +2

Fighting Value: +3

Shooting Value: +3

Talents: Martial Arts, Fearless, Numb, Fortitude
Mystical Powers: Path of Shadows, Harden

Basic Equipment: Rope Dart (two hands, attack bonus +2, Pluck -1,)

Armor: 7

Cost: 65

 Daniel LaRusso, The Karate Man

Daniel LaRusso, the only American with Caine, moves with his mother to San Fransico at the age of 14. Cobra Kai gang continually bully Daniel, savagely beating him up until the intervention of of Japanese Master of Karate known only as Mr. Miyagi. Through Mr. Miyagi's teaching, Daniel learns not only karate, but also important life lessons such as the importance of personal balance, reflected in the principle that martial arts training is as much about training the spirit as the body. Daniel applies the life lessons that Miyagi has taught him to strengthen his relationships with others.

Name: Daniel LaRusso

Pluck: 4+

Leadership: 0

Speed: +2

Fighting Value: +2

Shooting Value: +2

Talents: Martial Arts, Cannot Defend (defender must roll an unmodified Pluck roll or he is automatically knocked down before he is attacked in the Fighting Phase)
Mystical Powers: Path of Shadows

Basic Equipment: None

Armor: 7

Cost: 32

The Twins: Fai (辉) (initial, beginning) and Bao (宝哥 )(clear as a jade gem)

Fai and Bao were students at the school run by the Shaolin Monastery in the Hunan Province when it was savagely attacked by the forces of General Ranglu. They were the only survivors of the town and the school. They have not dedicated themselves as students of the Shaolin way to protect the innocent and the oppressed; but they both hold onto a secret grudge against General Ranglu and any of his followers.

Name: Fai

Pluck: 5+

Leadership: 0

Speed: +1

Fighting Value: +1

Shooting Value: +0

Talents: Martial Arts
Mystical Powers: Path of Shadows, Wonder Twin Power (If fight involving Bao, both of their attacks increase +1 FV and another -1 Pluck modifier.)

Basic Equipment: None

Armor: 7

Cost: 21

Note: Fighting Value increases to +2 if facing General Ranglu's Imperial Chinese Army. Point value becomes 22.

Bao 

Name: Bao

Pluck: 5+

Leadership: 0

Speed: +1

Fighting Value: +1

Shooting Value: +0

Talents: Martial Arts
Mystical Powers: Path of Shadows, Wonder Twin Power (If in a fight involving Fai, both of thier attacks increase +1 FV and another -1 Pluck modifier.)

Basic Equipment: None

Armor: 7

Cost: 21

Note: Fighting Value increases to +2 if facing General Ranglu's Imperial Chinese Army. Point value becomes 22.

Rules for other Martial Monks, to include other characters, Masters, Disciples and Students can be found in the In Her Majesty's Name's Supplement Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun.

More Damsels in Distress from Pulp Figures

Here are the rest of the damsels in distress from Pulp Figures "Cringing Captives" pack.

To quote owner and sculptor Bob Murch:

"Some mugs’ll tell ya that playing with toy soldiers is for kids. After you knock’em flat, grab your dice and a mit full of Pulp Figures and join in the Rugged Adventure! .45s blazing, you can push these little character charged castings around the game table; fighting mad scientists, criminal kingpins or freakish flunkies until Ma calls you in for supper. If its liver and onions again I'd recommend pretending you didn't hear and go discover a lost city instead."

I love Bob's attitude toward gaming - we don't have to grow up and still have some fun!

 I added some brass rod to this figure as there is no pole that she is actually tied too!

Here's a view of the brass rod I added. I just filed a grove in the back and attached the figure with super glue.

 My least favorite figure - not because of the sculpting but I had so much trouble trying to get her face painted to a decent standard! I was definitely off - my eyes are getting old.

All right now, as H.G. Wells wrote as the full title of his wargaming rules Little Wars: "Little Wars is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written by H. G. Wells in 1913. Its full title is Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books."

So game and have fun all you boys and girls!

Pulp Figures A Damsel in Distress

I must have been sleeping under a rock somewhere but I have recently discovered Pulp Figures. They have an excellent range of figures that are perfect for the late 19th Century to Mid - 20th Century. Under their "Weird Menace" category I purchased a pack of Cringing Captives (PWM 10) as they had an outstanding figure of Annabelle "Ann" Darrow, the fictional heroine from the 1933 movie King Kong as played by Fay Wray.

 You can almost hear it, "Kong! Kong! Kong!"

Brexit: July 4th, 1776

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

 Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

IHMN: EEEKKK! The Witch King Returns (Episode 5.10)

 BWAH HAH HAH!

Honorable Son #5 (The Skirmisher) has graduated from High School and as a graduation gift I told him I would paint a figure or figures of his choosing. After much research, he decided the old figure of the Witch King of Sokur needed to be replaced and he choose a figure from Games Workshops Lord of the Rings Line. The figures are the Nazgul "the Undying" which comes with a mounted and dismounted figure. Honorable Son #5 thought the Witch King, since he is menacing the entire world of 1895, needed to look more sinister.

 The dismounted figure. My son ask me to put dead grass on the bases since he cause death and destruction where ever he treads. Static grass is from Gale Force Nine.

I've got to give credit where credit is due. GW makes some great figures - if only they weren't so dang expensive! But a business is in business for the purpose of making money so I have no trouble with that (Note: I will not discuss the demise of Warhammer and the new Age of Sigmar since the old figures are still available!).  But that's why we have eBay, etc., or if you really need it, buy from GW online. They have some of the best customer service in the business.

Now that I have returned, let's see how these new "so-called" heroes fare!