Behold! The Dark Lord Char’Nagh arises and reviews our lives for another year! Are you confident that he will not find you wanting? You still have a few hours, so use them imploring his mercy! You do not want to face the wrath of Char’Nagh!
2013 went by too quickly for my liking. I didn’t feel like I really got a chance to slow down and do anything other than work and school. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as it felt, but it felt bad. On the plus side: I like my job a heckuva lot more than I have any other job I’ve had in decades, and I’m still doing reasonably well in school. Still, I could use a nice break in which I could do more things not related to school or work. I had planned on taking Summer classes, but I’m not so sure now.
Anyway, that’s it for me this year.
Dr. Zarkad
A physicist of world reknown, Dr. Zarkad was performing and experiment, trying to teleport a lab rat across time and space. The experiment backfired and Zarkad and his entire laboratory (except the rat) were taken apart and rematerialized in the Bronze Zone! Discovered by the soldiers of the tyrant Oppressar, Zarkad bargained for his life and those of his assistants by offering fealty and service. Oppressar recognized the value of scientific knowledge and had his forces construct a gigantic laboratory/fortress in which to construct all manner of experiments, so long as the results would benefit Oppressar’s rule.
Dr. Zarkad quickly came to revel in his new position. With access to the Bronze Zone’s cosmic technology, Zarkad saw results to his experiments that he never saw on Earth. He was unlocking the secrets of the universe and didn’t care how his findings were being used. Naturally this led to the Fortress being attacked by Bludgeonak and those who rebel against Oppressar. Zarkad, seeing them as terrorists trying to prevent his learning the truths of the cosmos, began to create new and more powerful weapons that would hopefully be able to destroy Oppressar’s foes.
Prince Subterrak
The Kingdom of Twenty Caves is not an evil place, it’s rulers, King Stalactor and Queen Spelunka are loving rulers who care for the populace and maintain peace between the Twenty Caves, each made up of a different tribe (Rock People, Lizard People, Mole People, Slime People, and so on). Their son the Prince, however, is a jerk.
The powerhungry Prince Subterrak wants to rule the surface world. He knows he will someday inherit rule of the Twenty Caves, but it is not enough. Not when an entire world is above him, out of his reach. With an army of loyal soldiers, Subterrak makes journeys to the surface, attempting to seize territory or destroy targets of military value.
Boggles
James Adam Kendall was not a good person. As a boy he had killed animals and hurt other children. Though nobody ever suspected, he was also responsible for his grandfather’s fatal fall down a flight of stairs. His fascination with killing came to its peak when Kendall was nearing sixteen. Threatened with expulsion from high school, Kendall was happy to go, but couldn’t bring himself to do it without lashing out one final time. Dressing in a mascot costume and attending a football game, Kendall planted explosives beneath the bleachers. Dozens were killed and Kendall, still in the costume, opened fire on the first responders. He would have escaped if a dying police officer hadn’t gotten off a shot and fatally wounded the teenage monster. Unfortunately, the story did not end there. Kendall died in a location of weakened space-time, through which a demonic being witnessed his actions and liked what he saw. The entity offered the dying boy a chance to serve as an earthly servant. Kendall had no problems killing in the name of this otherworldly intelligence and rose again in the monstrous form of Boggles.
Boggles would work as an enemy for Demonoclast, why not?
Stoneholder
The Cosmic Ossuary Wall has been shattered. The dividing line between the Realm of the Hated Dead and our living realm has a hole. Obviously that causes some problems, Skeleterrors can reach the Earth. But other, less obvious problems spring from this as well. The remains of the Wall have been scattered through the Cosmos, and one of them has come into the possession of Curt Shears, petty crook. Shears was on the run when a mysterious stone fell from the sky and crashed to the ground near him. He picked it up, planning to throw it at his pursuers, but when he felt the energy that the stone gave off, he held onto it. Soon he discovered that, as long as he held the mystical stone, he could emit waves of pure force and create forcefields. Shears had no problem escaping police then, but he was still not criminal mastermind material. Perhaps not living up to the potential the stone could grant him, he offers his services as hired muscle to better supervillains.
Stoneholder is a sketch that I looked at and I thought: “What?” I had no idea where I was going with this. A guy holding a glowing rock. “Well, that rock must be significant,” I thought. “And his name on his shirt makes me think of old-school Batman henchmen.” So I threw that into the blender and served up the results.
