Mindfire

"These essays were meant to challenge minds ... a collection of previously published works ... selected for this book because they fit the theme of intelligent provocation"--Preface

Welcome to Book III of the Outcastia Campaign Setting for the d20 System. You've journeyed through the land in World Tour and learned what you need to know about the realm, you dove into the meat of the Setting with newly designed gaming elements that help you make your mark in the "Land of Dragons" with the Player's Guidebook, now it is time for you to delve into creating your own games as the Campaign Master(TM) with Book III: The Campaign Master's Manual. This book includes: In depth NPCs to add to your games to both strengthen them and to freshen them up, a sampling of monsters unique to Outcastia to wet your appetite before the release of The Tome of Terrors, and more. With this book you will have everything you need to run a campaign in the realm of Outcastia (and beyond). Everything you need is included... So what are you waiting for? Grab some paper and pencils. Bring out that dice. Rev up your imagination. Your journey awaits, if you have the nerve...

A bloodthirsty evil threatens humanity—and one man’s war against the slave trade—in the final novel in the classic sci-fi Emancipator trilogy. Slavery is the corporate foundation of the powerful Pangalic Worlds where Ruiz Aw leads a dangerous double life, as an enforcer for the Art League that so brutally controls its slaves and as an Emancipator dedicated to eradicating the cruel business. While Ruiz is still striving to free slaves across the embattled cities of the dangerous world of Sook, the pirate Lords are ruthlessly plotting. A death cult is luring in humans with an unending desire to see them suffer. Even the powers of the Art League have no jurisdiction over this killing machine. The growing domination of the Orpheus Machine will force Ruiz and his fugitives to fight for their lives against a supreme evil unlike anything they've ever witnessed before.

Michael is just another high school freshman genius concealing his potential until the day his father--secretly a superhero and member of the crime fighting Nova League, is killed in battle. Suppressed grief turns to confusion when a nearly perfect duplicate of his father picks Michael up after school. At home they find Michaels mother is on the brittle edge of a breakdown, refusing to acknowledge that she too saw her husband die and playing along with the duplicates charade. A family melt-down is averted by the timely arrival of Michaels oldest friend Penny and her family armed with a casserole, salad, and pie. Pennys mother--another secret member of the Nova League--imposes domestic peace with the same practiced ease that she fights supervillains, albeit with fewer broken bones. In the days that follow, Michael only wants to retreat to the secret lab beneath his suburban home and prepare for vengeance upon his fathers killers. A run-in with members of the varsity football squad leads to a pummeling and the realization that fitting into his fathers old battle-suit isnt the only leverage he needs. He needs a master plan for wreaking justice. Falling for the blind daughter of his martial arts instructor isnt part of the plan, nor is fending off the well-meaning attacks of Pennys twin younger siblings before they fatally cheer him up. His life and the plan become more complex as his best friend starts to develop powers, and doubly so when he finds out that his fathers legacy was more than just a battle-suit and a place to hang it, but the well-being of the supers community as well. Michaels story plays out in Nova Genesis, a world that diverged from ours in 1947 when a supernova bathed our system in deadly cosmic rays. Without the intervention of the interstellar civilization of the Galactics, life on Earth would have been wiped out. Instead, humanity is altered, a few made more--or less--than human. Thirty-seven years later the second generation of supers born on Earth are starting to come into their powers. Michael and his friends, some reluctantly, some enthusiastically, find themselves becoming part of a new generation of heroes.

LYRICS FOR ALL TIMES. TIME REVEALS / TIME HEALS Being is best felt in a song.

Pabi once worked for the last great hero, Targa, who did great deeds while wielding an amazing sword, but now she’s dead. Unwittingly, she had been Targa’s final student, so everyone now looked upon her as Targa’s heir. What are they thinking? She can’t even wield a sword. She wanted any fate but this. When Pabi meets Scarab, she finds a mind unlike any that she’s ever encountered. He shakes her soul to its very foundations, treading deep into her faulty memories. He challenges her, his thoughts opening new pathways, a new sort of life, but she can only claim this if she dares the consequences. Will this psychotic save her or destroy her?