text:
Granite countertops are one of the most expensive parts of a kitchen. The counters are absolutely gorgeous when they are new. After all of the money invested in the countertops, it is a certainty that you want to keep them looking new and beautiful. Tea or coffee marks on granite kitchen countertops can really detract from the beauty because the mark stands out and becomes your focus. This is especially true when it comes to light colored granite countertops. Of course you can try to hide the marks with a pretty vase or a well placed towel, but you really want that awful mark to be gone. marks are more difficult to remove from natural stone because the stone is porous and marks seep into the granite.
Granite is a natural, porous stone that will absorb a mark rather than leave a mark sitting on its' surface. Always wipe coffee or tea spills up as soon as they happen to prevent marks from forming, but if you don't get to the spill in time or the coffee was hidden on the bottom of your cup leaving a perfect circle mark behind, the stain can be removed with a little know how and some elbow grease.
Granite Countertop Stain Remover
The best method for removing tea or coffee stains from your granite countertop is to make a poultice. A poultice work to pull the stain out and absorb it, leaving behind a dry powder which is easily cleaned up.
Making a Poultice
Buy white powdered chalk which is available at hardware stores, home improvement stores and paint stores.
Purchase hydrogen peroxide, the type used for bleaching hair, not the medicinal disinfectant. Hydrogen peroxide can be purchased at beauty supply stores, drug stores or online.
Place the white powdered chalk in a glass bowl or jar.
Slowly add the hydrogen peroxide to the powdered white chalk while continuously stirring to form a thick paste. Use a tongue depressor or posicle stick to stir the mixture and blend it well.
Spread the thick paste over the coffee or tea stain on the countertop. Use the popsicle stick or tongue depressor to spread the poultice. begin at the outer edge of the stain and spread the poultice toward the middle.
Apply 2 to 6 drops of non sudsing household ammonia on top of the paste.
Place plastic wrap over the paste.
Tape down all of the edges of the plastic wrap to secure them and not allow any fumes to escape. Use a light contact tape such as blue painters' masking tape to avoid sticky tape residue on the granite countertop.
Allow the poultice to sit on the granite stain overnight.
In the morning, remove the plastic wrap and tape.
Wipe the poultice away with a clean dry rag, beginning at the outer edge of the poultice and wipe in toward the middle.
Use a second clean dry rag to buff the surface.
This process usually has to be repeated two to four times to achieve a successful outcome, depending on the size and age of the stains.
Granite Stain-Removal Tips
After all stain-treatments are finished and the stain has been successfully removed, apply a coat of protective wax.
To avoid future stains, seal your granite countertops or have them professionally sealed.
Avoid using the cgranite countertops for preparing or serving foods and beverages or you run the risk of ruining your countertops.


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(For your reading pleasure, I submit "The Great and Glorious Deeds of Hector, God of Retribution," an adventure log from a memorable, if ill-fated, adventure played in the fall of 2006. Forever after, the player who ran Connor was always throwing his sword, hoping to duplicate his success.)
Scroll I
Fizzt-whip… Craaak! Blackness. Alone… No… Not alone… Monster! I cried out to my divine protector. When I thought all was lost, I perceived his approach. "No one fear, Hector is here!" he proclaimed, an aura of light framing his majestic face, ancient magic glowing about his chiseled physique. Effortlessly, he dropped the largest of my attackers, generously leaving the barely living beast to me to finish, before turning to torture the other. It was to be a magnificent shared kill, until that antisocial degenerate dwarf materialized from nowhere and hogged all the glory.
Who invited her, anyway?
The beneficent Hector fell to distributing the wealth, showering all present and alive with silver and platinum, even his sidekick elven ranger-druid and that dwarf ruffian, permitting me a moment of adoration as his terrifying minotaur minions dragged the felled vermin and remaining spoils into his mystifying pocket in space-time, which he seems to have prudently deemed sufficient for treasure hoarding.
Heedlessly striding ahead, the dwarf pushed through the doorway, and tumbled us into a trigger-happy elf. I'm inclined to believe the elf had some sense in him, as he did not square off with Hector, and instead fired off a pair of quick shots at the weaker foes before Hector blew him into the next life in one flaming swoop. I'm not sure if it's good training or impertinence, but the dwarf looted the body, passing off all items of value to the Great One, who permitted me to acquire his opponent's humble armor and sword.
For the next three weeks he camped and focussed all his energy and intent on the wondrous crafting of an awe-inspiring suit of animated dragon-bone armor. I am utterly dumbstruck by his majesty. One cannot help but be floored at the sight of his beatific countenance: his flesh luminescent and pale, as if at a perpetual fever pitch, a pair of blackly glowing fire-opal-emerald eyes radiating from the roving sockets of the bone-chilling dragon skull to match his own red-caste eyes.
His sidekick spend the time stringing together what turned out to be a bow, which he required the forced aid of both the dwarf and I to complete. It is not nearly as impressive.
When next we sallied forth, we ventured into the treasure-laden lair of Trogdor, the Burninator. Trogdor proved impervious to the missile issued from the bow-of-limited-worthiness of Hector's sidekick, and too swift to fall victim to his attempt at opening a trench below him, while the dwarf futilely pitched pieces of gold in its general direction. Hector, confident in his abilities, toyed with this formidable opponent by intentionally shooting a bolt of lightening and swinging his stave past him, allowing me time to would the flaming fiend, before utterly destroying (well, exploding) the monster with an effortlessly-cast cone of ice.
When his skeletal minions finished sweeping the body into storage, he strode forward and opened a door that had not been there a moment before, and lead us into a curious nursery. It was dominated by an eight-foot-tall stuffed Dire Bear (which the dwarf charged) and also housed a six-legged purple cat with glowing red eyes. When it moved, it seemed blurred, and weapons which should have landed a sound thunking passed harmlessly through its being. We engaged, and as I rushed past the place it was, all went black.
The next thing I recall is the magnificent sight of Hector, aglow with power, calling me back to the land of the living and filling me with vigor. I saw nothing of the battle, which was over before I came to, but I'm certain Hector conducted himself admirably and dispatched the feline in record time.
In an adjoining hallway, the dim-witted dwarf met a somewhat surprising end. She opened a door and… disintegrated.
I am not particularly heartbroken. Hector took no umbrage at her loss.
To my joy, through the portal stepped a fellow torch-bearer. I hardly had time to marvel at the fact she had managed to survive the last two months before she fell prone at the feet of the Great One, and became a Sister in the Faith at that moment.
Moments later, our troupe found itself under attack by a levitating goblin with the teeth of a wolf. It ravaged the sidekick, but Hector riddled it with fireballs. I was finally able to demonstrate some level of my skill and inflicted enough damage to fell the creature, by the grace of our benefactor.
The druid chose that moment to challenge our Lord's divinity, and was proven inept, as his most ferocious form was a mere dog, as compared to our Master's dragon. Since then, he has been most supportive of the faith, even encouraging tests of faith, some of which Hector has generously permitted.
The temple of doors lead us in circles, most often back to the room of the purple cat, but once back to Trogdor's lair, before we were set upon by surprise by a pair of basilisk, which turned half our weak-willed team to stone before my god dispatched them both with panache, and whisked me back to the colony of halflings, where I was able to fulfill my dream of building a way-temple to His Glory. I have high hopes for conversion in this place.
Scroll II
We passed a comfortable week in the halfling town of Cobbler's Stone, official site of the very first way-temple to His Glory, Hector. I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out, despite the fact that I am not particularly skilled in construction. The station is a very recognizable likeness, and I included a halo for good measure. I am also pleased to report that we've converted 26 of the locals to the Noble Faith.
As we were preparing to venture forth again, my benefactor gifted me with the most beautiful headband. I almost feel… smarter.
Before we could discuss our next direction, the druid dashed headlong through one of the 8 doors surrounding the halfling valley. Propping the portal open with an unused torch, we followed him into a lovely dimensional island, populated by 60 Votec villagers. After some discussion , we convinced the leader of Hector's divinity and lead the entire colony back into Cobbler's Stone, dancing and rejoicing at the promise of Hector the Glorious leading them home to the Mythic Motherland to rejoin their brethren, not to mention also converting the druid and the wandering fighter!
Oddly, just after the last savage came through the doorway, something that would best be described as a light elemental appeared. The battle that ensued was dizzying. The fighter go a few really good shots in before he managed to pitch his great sword out of the fight, and swung ineffectively for the remainder. The druid did land several "light bruising" hits, whereas my attacks were pleasantly effective. But Hector was magnificent, as always. The creature took massive damage every time he smote him with his staff, and darkness seamed its being with each mighty thwack, until it exploded, leaving only a white gem behind. Hector said it was a stone of light, and one of the sixteen needed to reopen the portal from whence we came.
Of course, as soon as the creature was defeated, the sun leapt below the horizon and, amazingly, another sixty villagers appeared, milling about the settlement. This crowd was lizardmen, and proved easier to convince to join us.
Today was a good day!
Until the "dark" spirit shard appeared. We figured it'd show up, but didn't expect it to be so much tougher than the other. Even the supreme Hector was taken aback, and in one attack it dropped me.
Things are a little fuzzy after that. I know the sidekick healed me, and we all retreated through the hut-doorway, and Hector formed a great wall of stone to delay the advance of the creature of darkness. Figuring we had time before it would manage to break through, Hector returned to crafting magical items for his followers. I focussed my efforts on the newcomers, to draw them into the fold, and our host swelled to 110.
Then I died. I was later informed that I rose as a vampire, tainted by the negative energy of that dark creature, and under its command. Apparently, I spider-scaled the stone blockage and attempted to chip through it, so the sidekick opened a passage (which seems stupid, but what else do you expect?)
Of course the creature rushed through, and mayhem ensued. In this case, "mayhem" involved that half-wit fighter swinging me against the wall a time or two before they beat me into submission and Hector turned me back to The Way. By that time, the sidekick had shaped stone around the spirit shard and buried it below 16 feet of cave floor so we could take stock of the situation. We determined the best way to face it down would be b ganging up on it with magical weapons. My spiritual weapon was a good idea, but not particularly effective. Actually, the real surprises this time around were in the sneak attack of the newly-arrived ex-torchbearer with the skills of a thief who landed two amazing shots, and Connor the fighter (whom everybody calls "Bob,") threw his sword as it flew above us — he is always throwing it through combat — and struck the killing blow.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
When I travel, it often takes me a while to settle in when I reach my final destination. Part of the reason is that I know it's not my final destination. My final destination is home again so often I think what is the point? All this packing, unpacking and repacking again.
While most normal people hit a hotel room and immediately stuff their crap into hotel dressers, spread their travel kit contents across bathroom countertops and hang their clothes within the hotel closets - I am quite the opposite. It's not until day two or three that I begin to settle in. Take things out. Make myself at home. Until then you can find me groping an extended arm into my wheeling suitcase reaching for my toothbrush only to zip it all up once again when I am finished.
I'm not sure where I developed this resitance to settling in. It could be as simple as being lazy. But I recall being like this in college as well. I went to an all women's college in the south where decorating your room was taken to the extremes. While the majority of the women were busy turning their freshman dorm rooms into mini B&B's - frilly throw pillows, leafy plants, wicker baskets full of magazines, etc. - I barely unpacked. By the time parents weekend came and my mother inquired about the three cardboard boxes still full and now serving as a night stand, I just shrugged and said, "What's the point? I'm leaving in a few years anyway."
E is a big inspiration in this area. Take for example our recent arrival in Maine. While the cabin hadn't been boarded up for the summer, it certainly needed some settling in. The moment we got here E ran about putting out lawn furniture, mowing the lawn, pushing curtains back and emptying the back screened porch of it's various contents - canoes, paddles, etc. He set up the hammock between two birch trees. He fixed the mini grill. He even put bird seed in the bird feeder. If it weren't for him, I'd probably be satisfied keeping my wheeling suitcase in the trunk of the rental car and curled up in the dark (curtains drawn) reading a book on a cushionless porch chair or even in the canoe.
Despite only being here three nights though, I am starting to see the point to all this. When you take the time to do these little things it really does matter. I feel much more relaxed then I might not having really committed to being here. For now I am off for a swim. E has wheeled the giant black inner tube down to the pond and I plan to joing him. Bob around for a while in the warm sun. Take in the mountain view. Settle in.


text:
Jeff White
/// Editor in Chief
Josh Emrich
/// Designer & Contributor
Matt Wade
/// Web Developer & Contributor
Check out these 20 sweet jack-o-lantern designs based on geek culture. Can you name them all? (Thanks to Comics Alliance for the post.) Enjoy!
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text:
Exhibition Sales Executive
- JOB TYPE: Permanent
- SALARY/RATE: £26,000 - £27,000 per annum
- LOCATION: London
- BENEFITS: OTE 36,000+Bens
Exhibition Sales Executive wanted for an Association Management company who look after Associations within the Green Energy/Sustainability and Oil and Gas sectors here in the UK, they run events, dinners, exhibitions and Magazines
£26,000 to £27,000 OTE 36K+Bens
The Company:
They are a rapidly expanding Trade Association in the green renewable energy sector who are leaders in their market, and hold an extensive events and media portfolio that provides the industry with the latest products and information. An exciting opportunity has arisen for an exhibition sales executive to join their passionate sales team.
The Role:
Working as part of a well established team, the exhibition sales executive is required to start immediately, and will be primarily selling exhibition stand space for the client's 2018 trade show as well as some sponsorship of their national conference and advertising sales in the Association newsletter. You will be working on an established client base as well as, cold calling, and generating leads and sales from the company database, updating these records accordingly. The role is primarily office based, but some UK and International travel to meet with clients and attend industry events will be required
The Person:
You will be a confident sales negotiator with experience of exhibition stand sales, excellent telephone manner and previous experience of working in a target driven event sales environment. The successful exhibition sales candidate will be self-motivated, comfortable speaking with high-level decision makers across a range of sectors and have excellent IT and organisational skills. Only applicants with relevant exhibition sales experience will be put forward for this great role.
Call 0208 944 4180 or Email firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Oil colors
The professional range of OLEJ OLEJ for ART Renesans paints offers exceptional quality at a reasonable price. Thanks to the application of high quality refined linen oil and saffron oil in whites and careful selection of European, American, and domestic pigments, these paints offer high resistance to light, many colours, and are easy to apply and mix.
Renesans oil paints are thick, intensively saturated with pigment, and go together with an extensive assortment of utilities.
The range includes 90 colours, including 2 metallic, of paints in 20, 60, and 140 ml tubes and 31 colours of paints in 500 ml cans.oj. 500 ml.


text:
A bottle broke, the crash was distinctive. He heard it across the bar, and wondered how long it would be until someone cleaned up the mess.
"Stupid! What the hell did you do that for?"
"It was rancid."
"How would you know? You're just the janitor."
"I was once the best sommelier in the country."


text:
Just finished an F28 Gnome install. I proceeded to install i3wm and subquently removed Gnome from my system.
Just finished an F28 Gnome install. I proceeded to install i3wm and subquently removed Gnome from my system.
Kubuntu 18.04 LTS...
I used to miss my wife but then my aim improved.
It was quite some time I tried some themes, mainly because I (seriously!) like Adwaita and it's clear, almost clearlooks-like looks, just a bit more flat.
Then I came across the Adapta theme, very flat material-design-like theme. I also found out how devoted the people behind it really are. It's very professionally designed, with attention to practically every detail. There is even GTK4 theme already.
Comes with smaller and dark variant and also with shell theme as well.
It's accompanied by the Papirus icon theme. Well, that one is likely the most complete icon theme ever made... The effort behind the quality and sheer number of those icons is quite something.
I like Adwaita and I liked Clearlooks before it. The only time I think I really liked and used other theme was with in the days of Nodoka for GTK2.
I have to say I love it so far. I've been using for the last week or so and I don't think I will go back to Adwaita anytime soon.
EPEL even packaged it for RHEL and friends, so it must have some weight.
It comes with GTK2 variant as well, which is important for QT4 and QT5 apps, so the whole experience is coherent. qtconfig-qt4 respects the gtk2 style and applies it, while qt5ct needs qt5-qtstyleplugins to be installed and 'gtk2' set as a stlye, otherwise no Adapta mimics as it doesn't support GTK3 either.
The wallpaper used is not related to the theme. I got it, well, don't know where. Changed brightness and color to fit the overall atmosphere of the theme.
Sadly, the JPG compression had it's fun with it and the png is too big, sorry about that.
Shell theme I use is the dark variant.
The top-left window on the 2nd screen is really pcmanfm (qt5 version), because I like it more than nautilus.
The Audacious settings for module playback is only open to show how the actual gui controls look like.
Arch Linux desktop with Conkywx weather forecast with scrolling US news & Global seismic info
larger image here:
my personal web page http://users.gilanet.com/~tfrost
Fedora 27, Arch Linux, Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Registered Linux User # 529389
Aaah, ok. Adwaita it is again.
Probably I like Adwaita even more now after the a bit longer escapade with Adapta.
Adapta is good in it's coherence, but there are few problems. After using it more, I realized that more complicated GUIs are simply more like one flat blob where it's not easy to navigate. And if the Papirus icons are thrown to the mix, it gets even worse. Toolbar part of the set is monochrome black and again makes everything not easy to navigate. In apps like Audacious that is not a problem, toolbar icons there are few and big, but stuff with small buttons becomes a bit of a nightmare.
Adwaita's GUI elements and icon theme makes for an immediately recognizable elements and just joy to work with for me. Tango did the same.
Well and another problem with too specific icon sets is the simple fact that if they don't provide icon for some app, then the default app's icon is likely not to fit the theme, but will likely fit rather well with Adwaita icons, as their style, while still it's own is rather universal. You know, their 'depth', saturation, contrast and level of shadowing and the fact that they don't resemble some specific shapes, like Faenza does e.g.
Basically, Adwaita rulez.
Fedora 28 Xfce Arc theme, Mint-Y Aqua icons. Background changes every hour.
Last edited by M.aD; 28th August 2018 at 05:12 PM.
Acer Aspire E 15 E5-571-5696: Fedora KDE Plasma 64bit | Lenovo Thinkpad T410: Fedora XFCE 64bit | Acer Aspire One 150 ZG5: Fedora Xfce 32bit


text:
I totally failed Project Life in 2015 (after doing so well in 2013/14), Last year i just wasnt into it.
So i have gone back to the Project Life app, will see how i go with doing it this way. just a case of remembering to do it.
not going to worry about sticking to a weekly plan will just upload and create layouts as i go. So it may be a few weeks behind, or i maybe up-to-date. who knows.
Photos are just snippets and slices of our everyday life
Until Next week..


text:
Remember the golden age of the Playstation?
If not, let me help you out. It was the late 90s. Sony could almost do no wrong. Mobile phones were thick plastic oblongs with green screens, The Spice Girls owned the still-relevant popular music charts, and regular people were starting to get online a bit more with this thing called The Internet.
5 Playstation games came out between 1997 and 2000 that are remembered by many for a combination of incredible graphic design, utterly engrossing backstory and addictive gameplay. They are 5 games that mark an era in gaming, from two franchises and one developer. That developer was Psygnosis. (You might know them for Wipeout, but that's a story for another day.) The games? Colony Wars and G-Police.
Almost every moderately successful game developer has a cult following. I belong to Psygnosis, harbouring the kind of nostalgic fanaticism that you can only have for things you were raised on. When I get online today I find countless others like me paying tribute to these games on YouTube, gaming sites, blog comment threads and forums the world over. The fanbase is very much alive, periodically calling out for sequels, citing how good the Havoc gunship would look on a PS3. (It would, too). Reams of footage exist on Youtube; every FMV, every level, footage from the in-game database. 3D modellers reconstruct the space ships in Blender. There have even been some unsuccessful attempts at getting mods off the ground.
But why do people care so much?
In a nutshell, this is what the Colony Wars trilogy was about: single-handedly taking out fleets of capital ships, collapsing wormholes and being part of the military exodus of humanity from the Sol system (think of a cross between Babylon 5 and the Biblical end of days), making first contact with an aggressive alien species and then starting a dialogue that involves them getting blown into tiny pieces. They're like Star Wars but far less mystical, and oh so much more gritty.
The G Police duology, meanwhile, was about raising hell in a Bladerunner landscape and being The Law with a 30mm gatling cannon and more weapons than Stallone and Schwarzenegger combined. They featured rogue mining droids, corporate takeovers and quelling civil unrest single-handedly and with excessive force. Where Colony Wars was like Star Wars, G Police was like Judge Dredd with hypervelocity missiles and a much bigger body count.
But why all the fuss? After all, these are hardly groundbreaking ideas. But the thing that both these series had going for them was how imaginative Psygnosis was in its vision of the future. Both franchises told a story - a brutal, heroic story - through the meticulous building of atmosphere, a gradually unfolding plot, amazing visual concepts and graphic design that pushed the PlayStation to the edge of its capabilities. And good story, as we all know, transcends the limitations of gaming hardware.
You may not think of Liverpool, England, as a game development hotbed, but that's where these games came from. It was home to the now-defunct Psygnosis, the remnants of which can now be found under the moniker SCE Studio Liverpool. The company had been around since the early 80s, churning out a series of graphically inspired titles with imagery provided by legendary prog rock artist Roger Dean. As the Amiga market began dwindling, Psygnosis was bought by Sony Electronic Publishing in 1993. The company had made a name for itself, but was evidently staring to lose its mojo. Within the next few years, Psygnosis took a run at the PlayStation - with brilliant results.
Psygnosis genius came from making the future believable (well, almost, anyway), and beautiful too. The environments, ships and weapons were all extremely pleasing to the eye. The standouts from G Police include Starburst missiles, which look a bit like a display of lethal heatseeking fireworks. Colony Wars, meanwhile, has gloriously destructive anti-ship torpedos that sent out rippling blast waves. The ships themselves weren't bad either; the Venom Gunship in G Police was both sexy and obscenely powerful, as was the alien human technology hybrid Voodoo in Colony Wars: Vengeance.
And then there was the story. Psygnosis put a lot of resources into building the background and the atmosphere that the gameplay was set against, something that many modern developers could learn from. All Psygnosis' games had overwhelmingly bleak, dystopian plots that pulled you into a depressive, dark future: one where killing bad people is the only option, but there are lots of ways to do it.
Colony Wars featured epic, nonlinear storylines about a civil war within humanity, a story of the tyranny, extortion and atrocities of the Earth Empire and the bloody war it waged against the colonies. The plots were supported by meticulously directed FMV videos - each series had movie quality dialogue and fantastic voice acting to boot. Videos in Colony Wars 1 bore epic titles like 'The Terrified Planets'. These were narrated by Burt Ceasar, a man who sounded exactly, scarily like James Earl Jones - so much so that rumour has it Mr. Jones' lawyer got in touch about it.
G Police's videos were similarly fantastic. The protagonist, Slater, an ashen-voiced, sullen gunship pilot, told a sort of cyberpunk film-noir tale about the corrupt and dark world of Callisto, where the game was set. As the game unfolded the plot really did thicken, revealing corporate conspiracy, personal betrayal and a memorably bloody ending.
Both series had in-game radio transmissions that kept continuity and revealed heinous plot twists, which would unfold mid-mission. One memorable moment from G Police: friendly ground teams calling out for mercy as they are picked off by gang fighters. That made you feel guilty. It was easy to get sucked in.
Every game has its shortcomings. Neither of these intensely memorable series is hugely replayable. There's no sandbox mode or open play elements for either of them. In G Police, once you've unlocked all the secret missions and achieved every objective, you're done. Colony Wars is similar. Both series are like coming to the end of a good book; you might want to reread it later on, but not when the experience is still fresh.
The draw distance in G Police was another complaint. Basically there was so much stuff going on nearby that the hardware couldn't render anything that was too far away; it pushed the PlayStation and PCs of that era to their limits. Some of us just thought that it was really dark on Callisto.
It's never possible to give an entirely unbiased perspective on games that you've loved for decades. But check the ratings for G Police and Colony Wars online. Seriously! There's a reason why people love them.
There's one timeless lesson to be learned from these largely forgotten games. Although graphics and gameplay age, engrossing stories and mythologies last forever. It's why we still read old novels, and it's part of the reason why G Police and Colony Wars will never really die. Fans will never stop hoping for a remake.
Want to start your own cult? All you have to do is tell people a story.


text:
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text:
Vampires aren't myth or fable; as long as they register with appropriate government agencies, they're treated, in most ways, like anyone else. They are covered under the human rights clauses of any number of international treaties, and the US Senate is currently debating giving them full voting rights. For those vampires that can't seem to give up the habit of killing humans…well, the "three strikes" rule has a slightly different connotation, here. Zombies, ghosts, and poltergeists exist as well. Many government and private agencies are capable of laying these lost souls to rest or raising them in the first place, if necessary. They may be called upon to clarify a will, to find out where the silver is buried, or to take a statement for use in criminal investigations.
Werewolves and other lycanthropes are still stories with which to scare the kids, but in this world, lycanthropes are the victims of a long-misunderstood disease, like AIDS in the early 80's or leprosy in the Middle Ages. Weres try to keep to themselves; you don't want to somehow catch lycanthropy from one and fall under their social (and sometimes legal) onus, and you certainly wouldn't want one teaching your children. Nevertheless, werewolves (and -rats, and -leopards) are people, too, and they're out there.
Vodoun priests, raisers of the dead (animators), necromancers, psychics and other magi are not faerie tales only fit for the credulous: you can get a degree in Preternatural Biology from many accredited universities in the US, and some schools offer theoretical and applied magical studies, as well.
Welcome to the world of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, sometimes known as the Executioner, professional animator and licensed vampire hunter. As a setting, the series lends itself well to most of the White Wolf product line, a modified Shadowrun game, a modern-day D20 campaign (especially considering the Third Edition vampire and lycanthrope templates), and any number of GURPS titles.
So, it's not quite a world of darkness. More of a world that has quite a few dangerous nooks and crannies. The shadows are still there, dark as ever, but the average Jane knows enough about the Things That Go Bump In The Night to take a few healthy (and useful) precautions.
The Anita Blake,
Vampire Hunter series
Guilty Pleasures (1993)
The Laughing Corpse (1994)
Circus of the Damned (1995)
The Lunatic Café (1996)
Bloody Bones (1996)
The Killing Dance (1997)
Burnt Offerings (1998)
Blue Moon (1998)
Obsidian Butterfly (2000)
Narcissus in Chains (2001)
Each of the ten books in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series is a good mix of hard-boiled mystery, modern fantasy and lightly kinked sex: think Mike Hammer or Kinsey Milhone as the main character of a Charles de Lint/Anne Rice bodice-ripper; Mickey Spillane's V is for Vampire. A word of warning to potential readers: the bulk of Hamilton's characters are intensely sexual creatures, and this aspect of the series may put some readers off. The fact remains that Hamilton has created a world that is ripe with serious gaming possibilities.
The Marks
When a vampire wants a loyal bodyguard and day watcher, a competent servitor, and someone with which to pass the aeons, in some myths he or she would create a ghoul or similar beastie. Not here. An old vampire can actually share some of his or her essence with a human, making what is known as a human servant (as opposed to an animal servant, which we'll look at in a bit). This transfer of essence is called a vampiric mark, and there are four stages to the process. Each of the marks adds another link between vampire and human. The human ages much more slowly, may tap into the superhuman vitality of their master, and gains increased immunity to vampiric mental powers.
The vampire does well by the exchange, of course. The first mark establishes the relationship. The second allows the vampire to perceive the sensoria of the human, and to enter the human's dreams for communication purposes. The third allows the vampire to use the life energies of the human at a distance, as it were. The fourth and last mark is the most intimate of bonds, and with its placement a true master-and-servant pair is created.
An old vampire would also be wise to find a lycanthrope with which to share energies, and could do so by placing the four marks on a potential animal servant. However, the master/animal bond is similar to, but not the same, as the marks placed on a human: it's not nearly so intimate. The partners will be aware of one another, but not capable of say, tasting each other's meals, or visiting during the other's dreams. A vampire with both human and animal servants is called a triumvirate, and is a powerful force in preternatural society.
A second vampire may cancel the first's marks by placing marks of his or her own on the subject. The death of a vampire cancels all active marks that he's placed.
Beautiful People and Other Dangerous Things
Anita Blake, the main character of the series, is a fascinating study in the way a character can grow and change from book to book. Guilty Pleasures, the first in the series, shows us a wisecracking, Dr. Seuss-quoting animator who is occasionally called on to knock off the odd vampire. Animators, Inc. pays the bills, but monster work comes with the territory. Anita is tough, feminine, and a lot of fun. She changes quite a bit over the course of the ten books, and not always for the better. The character is engaging, however, and it's easy to see why the series remains popular. If one wanted to apply her in a White Wolf campaign setting, such as Vampire the Masquerade, Anita-as-NPC might have the advantages of True Faith and Iron Will. In any game, she's small, fast, and a crack shot.
Guilty Pleasures is also the first appearance of Jean-Claude, a vampire in the St. Louis area. JC (as Hamilton fans affectionately know him) becomes quite entangled with the inimitable Ms. B in The Laughing Corpse. Jean-Claude is of the vampiric lineage known as La Belle Morte (The Beautiful Death): he's exquisitely handsome, immeasurably seductive, and quite dangerous in his own right. Jean-Claude has the distinction of being the only other character to appear in every one of the Anita Blake books. Anita has quite a time with this undead Adonis, who has a reputation that makes Casanova look like a Jesuit priest. As an NPC, Jean-Claude is the vampire's vampire. If he makes an appearance, he's smarter, wittier, and sexier than anyone else in the room.
Conversely, Edward, AKA Ted Forester, is definitely not a lot of fun. A distant associate of Ms. Blake, Edward is a bounty hunter (specializing in monsters that walk on two legs) and a sociopath of the first water. Killing vampires and other preternatural monsters isn't just a job to Edward: he likes it. He likes it a lot. The implication is that Edward found killing humans a bit too easy. He likes the prospect of hunting, torturing, and killing things that look and scream like humans, but that don't die so easily. Edward makes his first appearance in Circus of the Damned, and turns up now and again in later works. Edward is, notably, one of the very few people that Anita actually fears. In a campaign, GMs should play Edward cold. Let the PCs know that with this guy, one false move is two too many.
Vampire Computer Games and Downloads
Circus of the Damned also marks the first time we meet Richard Zeeman, Anita's werewolf friend. Richard, apart from getting furry with great regularity, teaches in a local school. Due to his choice of career, he's had to stay in the closet about his lycanthropy. He also has great respect for all life, which makes things difficult for him with the local werewolves. Richard is an alpha, clearly a dominant within the pack, and the others expect him to either challenge and kill the current alpha, or to follow the alpha's lead. Neither option has merit, so he's a bit stuck. Richard is the perfect foil to Edward: one is a monster holding tightly to his humanity; the other, a human who is more of a monster than those that he hunts. Anita's trials and tribulations with Richard are the subject of several books in the series.
The good guys in the white hats make an appearance early on in the series. Guilty Pleasures introduces Rudolph "Dolph" Storr, the archetypal good cop. He's the honorable police captain in charge of the St. Louis area Regional Preternatural Investigation Team, the Spook Squad with jurisdiction over crimes committed by the monsters. If there's something weird, and it don't look good, call RPIT. Dolph and Anita get along fairly well, though she's closer to other members of the team. Dolph has hidden depths, and is something of an enigma. If Dolph makes an appearance in a campaign, PCs should wonder how such a good cop got stuck with such a low-prestige position.
For every Batman, there's a Robin. Anita's sidekick-in-training is a fresh-faced country boy named Larry Kirkland. He's learning the animator business from Anita, and doing a good job of it, too. Larry, and to some extent, Dolph, is Anita's moral weathervane: when she says or does something that the kid finds questionable, Anita ruminates on it for a while, and occasionally agonizes over her loss of innocence. In an ongoing game, Larry might serve as a source of information, or Animators, Inc. might send the new kid out with the PCs.
Organizations and Affiliated Groups
Regional Preternatural Investigation Team, AKA RPIT ("rip it"), AKA the Spook Squad
RPIT is one of several governmental organizations that deals with preternatural phenomena. In this case, they are the police force tasked with investigation of crime involving preternaturals. Widely considered to be a punishment detail, RPIT is still in its fledgling stages of funding, prestige, and organization. In many campaigns, RPIT may be the PCs first line of contact for an emerging plot line ("Thank you, ma'am. How well would you say you knew the deceased?").
The word "regional" in the title strongly implies that there are more of these organizations in the USA, but Anita & Co. deal with the team based in St. Louis. It stands to reason that there are other, similar groups, not unlike the FBI, Scotland Yard, and Interpol.
The Church of Eternal Life
A peculiarly preternatural religion, the Church of Eternal Life promises exactly what the name says: there's no faith required, no waiting, and no questions. Want to know what it's like to be dead? Ask a church member! Thinking of themselves as more mainstream than the average undead, they even recruit from door to door. "Hello. Do you have a few moments to discuss the possibility of living forever?"
Lycanthrope Groups
Wererats, werewolves, and wereleopards are some of the extant lycanthrope varieties. They form themselves into hierarchical groups, with rat kings and alpha werewolves at the top. Wererats make a cameo in Guilty Pleasures, and werewolf society is explored in some detail in The Lunatic Café and Blue Moon. Lycanthropes seem to thrive only within an organized society, to the point where lone wolves, leopards, and so on will attach themselves to whatever power base presents itself, whether it be a vampiric court, a powerful mage, or a different clan of lycanthropes. Weres will even imprint on a normal human when it's demonstrated that the human can protect them.
Places: Left your heart in San Francisco? Leave your blood in St. Louis!
St. Louis is the main setting of the series, though Anita & Friends do get out of town every now and then. Many of the series titles lend themselves to locations in said books. Guilty Pleasures, for example, is a male strip club staffed by vampires. Leave your cross at the door; they have a holy item check girl. The Laughing Corpse is an undead comedy club; the Circus of the Damned is an indoor amusement park/arcade with a staff best described as unusual; The Lunatic Café is a coffeehouse with a large clientele of lycanthropes. Other places around St. Louis include Dead Dave's, a bar and grill run by an undead ex-cop; The Leather Den, an bar for gay lycanthropes into BDSM; the Full Dark Beauty Salon, service for and by vampires, and the Vault. Not a club, the Vault houses the bodies of those slain by vampires. Victims that rise again are treated with kid gloves until they come to a measure of acceptance of their new "lives." All accommodations are reinforced with steel, and include a feeding tank to take the edge off the new vampires' bloodlust.
Guilty Pleasures concerns a serial killer that seems to have vampires as his chosen victims. The most powerful local vampire wants Anita to find the killer. The Laughing Corpse is about a rogue animator who has raised a zombie. An old zombie. So old that a human sacrifice was required. Anita has to stop the rogue, but she has to find him first. Circus of the Damned is about a vampire turf war, with Anita serving both as pawn and the grand prize. Several notable characters first appear in this pivotal.
The Lunatic Café has the local pack of werewolves coming to Anita for help. A number of them are missing, and Anita's on the case. Bloody Bones concerns a two-hundred-year-old land dispute and some sort of rogue vampire. Anita must solve the one and find the other, before the killings continue. The Killing Dance has Anita as the main target. Someone has put out a hit on Ms. Blake to the tune of five hundred thousand dollars, and she goes to Jean-Claude and Richard for assistance. Burnt Offerings has an arsonist focusing on businesses owned by vampires, and he, she, or it isn't just burning buildings. Blue Moon sees Richard jailed for assault and attempted rape. The full moon is due in the next few days and if he's still behind bars when it rises, things will go from bad to worse.
Obsidian Butterfly is the first time Edward calls in a favor from Ms. Blake. He's stumped by a series of gruesome murders in New Mexico, and the killings are getting more frequent. This time, the cavalry wears low heels. Narcissus in Chains has two wereleopards abducted from the title club, with Anita trying to find them.
Things To Do In St. Louis When You're Dead
The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series has a lot to recommend it to both the gamer and the casual reader. Hamilton gives the reader engaging plots, vital characterizations, and fascinating commentary on the society of the monstrous. The gamer gets interesting organizations, fun locations, and tons of background material for the modern monster on the go. These books are an untapped vein of flavor and color for any modern horror campaign, just waiting for a discerning player or game master to wander by to sink in a tooth or two. Enjoy.