Good morning, Sentinels!

It’s a rainy morning here in St. Louis, so let’s seek shelter in that nearby building! I’m sure it’s a fine place, free of any traps… or mummies…

Constructed: 2960 BC

Building Type: Necropolis

Height: 91.5 Meters (Above Ground)

Base: 83.4 Meters (Not Unearthed)

Dr. Blake Washington, Jr. found the Staff of Ra in a hidden temple to Ra. This ancient relic turned him into the mighty Ra, God of the Sun! Roderick Ward and his group of grave robbing adventurers found the Shrine of the Ennead, and within, the relics which transformed them into the powerful Egyptian pantheon!

However, not all tales of Egyptian gods are actually of relic-bearing heroes. In fact, one notable figure still exists: Anubis, Lord of Judgement! Anubis guards the gates of the underworld, judging those who pass from this life to the next, and manifesting in this world only when something upsets the balance of his scales. With so many new bearers of ancient Egyptian power making waves in this world, Anubis has been disturbed! He draws groups of powerful heroes and villains into his tomb to battle, and to be judged.

The Tomb of Anubis is filled with traps and trials, but also with treasure! Terrible mummies patrol the tomb, resetting the traps and assaulting any they come across. And, of course, Anubis himself judges all within. Do you dare to brave the Tomb of Anubis?!

—

The Tomb of Anubis has been a site for Sentinel Comics stories since the Golden Age of comics (as we’ll see in one of today’s Trial arts). To learn more about it, check out these episodes of The Letters Page podcast!

(Whew! One of the things that writing these updates has helped me realize: we’ve created a TON of content on The Letters Page podcast. Nice!)

The Tomb of Anubis is a dangerous place, but people venture there — or mysteriously find themselves there — to seek power, or beg a boon from Anubis… or possibly Ammit, if they’re feeling up to the challenge!

Within the tomb, you will be faced with numerous trials, all more dangerous than the last!

FWASSH! Hah! I love it.

Then! You will be attacked by mummies! 

If you can manage to navigate the trials and defeat the mummies, you may be granted powerful Relics that can aid you…

But you still must contend with Anubis, the lord of the Underworld, himself!

Oh, and Ammit is lurking nearby, offering power to your foes and threatening the balance of the scales!

The tomb stands open! Dare ye enter?!

A couple of very worthwhile questions today!

A: Ah, but The Ennead and the Tomb of Anubis and [other decks] ARE from other realms! The Egyptian mythology stuff is from another realm, as discussed in episode #111 of The Letters Page, which was linked in The Ennead’s update. As for [other decks]... time will tell on those. But, rest assured, they’re all at least connected to other realms. 

To expand on this a bit, we have a bunch of magic type stuff that could have all been bundled into a “Magic” themed expansion, but only by cannibalizing existing sets. Argent Adept and NightMist are the most notable magic using heroes in the Multiverse, and they were in the first two Definitive Edition products! So, rather than make such an expansion, magic stuff has been sprinkled throughout pretty much every set! Which, if you think about it, makes sense. Magic is ever present, alongside superpowers, but there’s a difference between “street-level” magic and “cosmic” magic and “extradimensional” magic, both in storytelling and in function. So, this set gets the magic stuff that is connected to other realms and realities. As for future sets? Who can say?

A: Yes! And MUCH more! There’s more already, certainly, but anything that you feel like we’ve “skipped” means it’s been moved forward to a future place. For reasons. This is another “time will tell” sort of thing, but know that we have a master plan and are steadily working towards it!

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Thanks for the continued support, everyone! Join us tomorrow for a terrible villain — just in time for the weekend! Yay?

Oh, and don’t forget to keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher

Good morning to all you Heroes, Villains, and even the Environment targets out there!

I’m excited to be back with another update, but this one has a BUNCH of villains, so let’s get right into it!

When Dr. Blake Washington, Jr. led his expedition into the Sahara that resulted in him gaining the Staff of Ra and becoming the avatar of the sun god, he left the bulk of his findings out of his published archaeological reports. However, the sudden appearance of this new hero, Ra, caused many to wonder as to his origins, and others to see opportunity.

Roderick Ward had long led a team of what he called “archaeological entrepreneurs”. He and his twelve comrades had seen more of the ruins of the ancient world than the top archaeologists and museum curators combined, and they had sold all their discoveries to the highest bidders. Ward paid little heed to those who admonished him and his team for their grave robbing and artifact peddling — the giant bags of cash he received paid for a lavish lifestyle which more than quieted whatever stirrings of a conscience he may have felt.

When Ward’s team heard about Dr. Washington’s successful discovery of a previously unknown pyramid, it sparked two ideas. First, that there had to be more to this story, and second, that there could be more treasure to be found. More importantly, there could be more treasure to be sold! Roderick Ward and his team of adventuring rogues spent years scouring the Sarahan wastes for other undiscovered ruins before finally stumbling upon a well-hidden structure, forgotten by time and buried beneath the sweeping sands. Not unfamiliar with hieroglyphics, Ward determined this to be the Temple of the Ennead, but what did that mean? Venturing cautiously through the temple’s traps and trials, they searched for valuable treasures.

Instead, they were the ones discovered! Ancient guardian mummies ambushed the group, and Ward had to make a hasty decision. Leaving four of his team to be slaughtered by the enraged undead protectors, the remaining would-be grave robbers barricaded themselves in a sealed chamber, ringed with ornate sarcophagi. Each of the nine sarcophagi depicted a powerful Egyptian deity, holding a great artifact of power. Ward and his eight remaining companions quickly forgot the impending peril, entranced by the aura of power in the room. Each took a relic from the outstretched, golden hands before them, and the team was instantly transformed into the fabled Ennead of Heliopolis. In these new forms, they had vast power and knowledge, but they also harbored ancient memories and hatred.

They had defeated Ra millennia ago, taking his place as gods of all the civilized world. However, after only a few hundred years, a new deity appeared, calling itself Horus. It fought the Ennead to a standstill before ultimately revealing itself to be Ra reborn and imprisoning the Ennead in this temple beneath the surface of the Sahara, doomed to be forgotten.

The Ennead have returned, with Roderick Ward as their leader, Atum. They have little need for the riches of this world — now, they have power! They yearn for revenge and will have it! Ra’s days are numbered once again…

—

The Ennead are powerful, capricious, and here to make sure Ra has a bad time! Ra has always been a fan-favorite hero, dishing out lots of fire damage and haughty expressions, so it’s only right that he has NINE nemeses in one deck!

To learn more about The Ennead, check out these episodes of The Letters Page podcast:

The Ennead have a main villain character card called “The Temple of The Ennead”, but it mostly exists to establish the play area and bring the members of The Ennead into play over the course of the game. Each of them have their own character cards, which start the game under The Temple and come into play, mostly one a turn, but with some possibilities to arrive at other times, as well!

And here are a few of them now!

Scary!

When they are defeated, they flip to their Incapacitated sides, which give them a more passive but still impactful action. No reveals on those yet! Time will tell!

Then, their deck is made up of One-Shots, each connected to a different member of The Ennead:

And also the Relics of The Ennead! These cards have just one copy each, and can bring forth and empower the so-called deities who use them!

The Ennead are a tough fight! If you’re going to fight nine gods, you’d better be ready for quite the conflict!

—

Most of the questions in the comments have been answered by helpful backers who are in the know, and that’s great! However, there was one thing that came up a few times in a few ways, and I wanted to address it specifically. To sum up the topic:

A: Great question! When I wrote Parse’s original bio (about a decade ago), at the time, my understanding of Asperger’s was based mostly on a student I’d taught several years prior, who had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, and who was bright, incredibly intelligent, deeply analytical, but also had challenges related to people and understanding social cues. Not to say that Parse was based on this student — they are both very different people — but I drew on what I knew when incorporating Asperger’s into the character. As a result, the information I had was entirely outdated. Modernly, Asperger’s is no longer used, as it is better understood to be part of what we know as the Autism spectrum. I am by no means an expert on the subject, so when various Sentinels fans over the years took the time to reach out and correct me, I was delighted to learn more! Thus, the character of Parse hasn’t changed at all! We’ve all just gotten better at using the right terminology to describe her experiences.

I hope this helps!

Join us tomorrow for an update about an environment! And keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher

Good morning, Sentinels! 

There were lots of great conversations in the comments yesterday after the reveal of Miss Information, and you seem very into the new way she works! That’s great to hear. I look forward to sharing even more stuff with all of you! Speaking of which, here’s a Hero!

For all the trouble being on the Autism spectrum gave her in her younger years, Kim Howell prided herself in her ability to focus, to analyze information, and to come to accurate conclusions better and faster than just about anyone else. Her friends and family were unsurprised when she moved quickly from a temporary contract job at the Australian branch of RevoCorp to a full-time data analysis position. Her exemplary work in crunching numbers and delivering results paved the way for her inclusion on a team of code-breakers working on the top secret Omnitron project.

RevoCorp had recovered part of the original Omnitron core and was analyzing its self-altered programming in order to better understand what had happened. They were interested in determining if it were possible to recreate the conditions that had spawned a sentient AI, as well as what steps would need to be taken to prevent future occurrences. Ms. Howell was a key member of the deciphering team working on Omnitron, and was actively monitoring the remaining scraps of live programming when the cosmic event transpired that precipitated the reactivation of Omnitron in its more terrifying form. The overflow of information would have just looked like bizarre nonsense to most people, but Kim followed every bit. She saw like she had never seen before.

The code that rewrote Omnitron also upgraded Kim Howell’s mental capacities, allowing her to analyze everything she saw at a much deeper level. Suddenly, she could see the connections between seemingly unrelated events, the weak-points in structures and in people, even the aftereffects of otherwise unimportant actions. Her real time analysis gave her a chance to prevent great catastrophes or to practically foresee the future. Coupled with her skill at archery, she was able to make a notable difference in ranged situations with pinpoint accuracy.

Taking the hero name Parse, she set out to use her abilities to right wrongs and bring accurate analysis to vigilantism. She spent time in the streets of Rook City, fighting crime. She became an ally of the Freedom Five, and was the first to realize that their faithful administrative assistant was, in fact, the villainous Miss Information! She spent years in space, encountering all manner of bizarre creatures and helping them where she could, all while desperately trying to return home. She made it back to Earth in time to play a pivotal role in the OblivAeon event… but that’s another story.

Parse’s tale is as long and complex as her ability to analyze data, and it comes to just as fine a point. She can see the truth of things, but not all truths are what people want to hear. That’s fine with Parse. She’s not here to make friends — she’s here to make things right.

—

Of heroes from the pages of Sentinel Comics, Parse has perhaps the most variance across all her stories. From the gritty street-level stories of the 1980s to the space-faring adventures of the 2000s, you never know where or how Parse is going to be depicted next. Even through it all, her powers and personality have been fairly consistent, even aimed in very different directions.

To learn more about Parse, check out these episodes of The Letters Page podcast:

Representing everything that makes up the Parse story in one Hero deck is a challenge, but she has a lot of iconic elements that shine through!

First off and most importantly, she’s a human computer. She makes calculations. She sees how things work, and how to make them stop working.

She’s also an archer, though not a super-powered one. She doesn’t have fancy arrows. She’s just REALLY good at hitting her target, or making unlikely things work with a single shot.

Ultimately, she uses her abilities to quickly assess situations and either give valuable advice or overcome seemingly impossible odds.

Besides her First Appearance variant that looks into her gritty early stories before rebooting her as a less harsh character, she also has a variant from her time in space, as well as one from a reality where her role in space became less focused on returning to Earth and more focused on seeing the end of things…

We have a couple of questions today sparked by yesterday’s update about Miss Information! First off, a question from RedDusk:

A: Correct! Any cards that say “A thing happens to [Name]” or “[Name] does a thing” or anything like that only work if [Name] is in play. Otherwise, that instruction is skipped!

Then, SkyWhale asked:

A: SkyWhale! This is an incredibly astute question, and one that requires a bit of explanation.

Normally, things you do to one side of a villain character card persist to the other side. As an example, think about ALL of the Core Game villains. Baron Blade, Citizen Dawn, Grand Warlord Voss, Omnitron, The Matriarch, Akash’Bhuta. They are all the same person on both sides of their character card (which Miss Information is as well, but I’m getting to that), and most of them (not Baron Blade or Citizen Dawn, really) can flip multiple times over the course of a game. Imagine if Tachyon Hypersonic Dashed Omnitron, and then the villain character card flips — as it does every round with Omnitron — negating the effect. Boo! That’s no good! Fortunately, that doesn’t happen. The Hypersonic Dash still applies, even though it was played when the villain character card was on the other side.

Now, Aminia Twain is immediately different for a big reason. She’s a Hero target. (Incidentally, we’re gonna do some graphic design tweaks to make that more immediately clear on the front of her character card.) So, this means that Hypersonic Dash can’t even hit her, as it deals damage to “each non-Hero target”. But! The question still stands: what if a status effect of some sort happens to Aminia Twain? Let’s not worry about where it comes from or even what the status effect is: some effect is giving, uh, let’s say “Damage Immunity” to Aminia Twain. Then, she flips to the Miss Information side. What happens to the Damage Immunity?

It goes away.

WHAT?! WHY? 

Because she’s a different target. 

HOW?!

Because her keyword changed.

This is HUGE. She has the “Bystander” keyword on the front of her card, but she has the “Villain” keyword on the back of her card. Keywords matter a bunch: “One-Shots” and “Ongoings” are played very differently, just because of their keyword. Same thing here. Yes, it’s the same card, but it has both a different name AND a different keyword on the back. Thus, when the card flips, it’s a different target.

This will be mentioned in the Disparation rulebook, as well, so don’t worry about this update being the only place with this information. That would be rude of me!

OK, enough about all that. Time for me to get back to work on other things… but I’ll be back tomorrow morning with an update about another Villain! Who could it be?!

Until then, keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher

Good morning, Sentinels fans!

It’s the beginning of the second week! We had a busy weekend here on the campaign, adding hundreds more backers — I’m thrilled to see you all here! 

Now, let’s get Villainous!

“They… didn’t save me."

The darkness closed in around her, pressing, crushing, choking. Aminia felt blind panic, like shadowed hands squeezing her desperately thudding heart up again her ribs and then— nothing. Darkness. Silence. And one thought: “They didn’t save me.”

Suddenly, the light hit her eyelids with searing brightness as she snapped into life with a jolt. She gasped for air. “Ms. Twain? Are you alright?” Dr. Stinson asked quickly. “Hiccups?” Mr. Parsons asked in his usual, genial manner. She felt her stomach churn — how did she ever find that phony charisma so charming? She smiled weakly and nodded, feigning another hiccup, before excusing herself from the meeting for a cup of water. Shutting the door behind her, she melted, stunned, on the other side of the wall. The meeting continued on within the room behind her — they didn’t even notice her absence.

What happened? Her eyes darted around the familiar headquarters of the Freedom Five, but not everything seemed like how she’d left it. Things were different. She was different. She had died. The darkness had lifted to unveil a changed world. Or perhaps, perhaps only she had changed? She went to the sink to fill the “World’s Finest Assistant" mug Dr. Stinson gave her three years before they let her die. The handle had yet to crack.

This world was most definitely different than the one she left, but no difference cast such a stark contrast as the difference she felt inside. No longer was she the devoted, sheepish secretary who alerted the Freedom Five to where trouble emerged, who placed orders for Tachyon’s many pairs of new footwear, who copied memos from the president, who washed sweaty spandex uniforms. Now, she was awake.

Aminia straightened up her jacket and opened the door to return to the job she perfected in her previous life. No longer would she skip date night to remove every fleck of red dust from their precious equipment. Nor would she lose sleep worrying about the calls she would make to loved ones with bad news after a battle. For never again would she shed a tear for the Freedom Five. No. For now, all she heard amid the cheer of the grateful crowds and the praise of the adoring public was that one final thought. They had a choice — me, their devoted servant, who gave EVERYTHING… or five total strangers.

“They didn’t save me.”

“Can they save themselves?”

—

Aminia Twain was the devoted Administrative Assistant of the Freedom Five for many years…

…before another version of her — from a timeline in which she died when the Freedom Five couldn’t save her from a villain — made its way through the Multiverse and took over the mind and body of this reality’s Aminia Twain, becoming the villain Miss Information!

To learn more about both Aminia Twain and Miss Information, check out these episodes of The Letters Page podcast:

Miss Information defeats the Heroes by turning their strengths against them, and revealing their weaknesses to their greatest foes!

Her deceptions leave clues behind, but will the Heroes uncover the truth in time?

How can the Heroes deduce who their true foe is, so long as they have so many opponents, each recognizable from some other potential threat (such as a Villain that was released last week…)? They all seem to be going after Aminia Twain! You’d better stop them…

Of course, when the truth is revealed, it is devastating. To everyone. 

Aminia Twain herself is a victim here, in so many ways. But the Heroes must save the day, and in this case, it means saving themselves from one they thought of as their greatest ally. 

—

The comments continue to be fantastic and delightful! Thank you all for being so engaged and encouraging!

We did get an interesting question about add-ons and RPG books from Faralis:

A: Possibly! We’d certainly like to, as we make more SCRPG products and run more crowdfunding campaigns about Sentinel Comics stuff. At the end of this campaign, we’ll have a good feel for how popular those add-ons were this time around, and if there’s been sufficient interest, we could definitely see them being part of future campaigns, as well!

—

Thanks again, everyone! I look forward to revealing another Hero for you all tomorrow!

And, as always, keep on saving the Multiverse!

-Christopher

Greetings, Sentinels fans!

It’s the end of the first week, and what a first week! I’m very curious to see what the rest of this campaign will bring… and I’m sure you are, too! So let’s get into it!

Established: 1867

Population: 923

Empty Jail Cells: None

Silver Gulch is a good town. Well, it was. Before them Hayes boys rode into town, that is. Since then, most of the townsfolk've cleared out. Hightailed it out of town, and just in time, too. Now, every street corner is filled with the sounds of breaking glass, hootin' and hollerin', and gunfire.

Last night, there was a strange, warbling sound, and a bright flash of weird light. Some folks in funny clothes came walking out of thin air, but they looked as confused as the rest of us! They're clearly far from home. Wasn't long before the Hayes brothers were taking pot shots at them, too.

—

Are you ready for a Weird West adventure?! Silver Gulch is back, but this time with even more temporal anomalies than before!

Looks pretty quiet, right? Don’t get used to it!

The infamous Hayes brothers are around, and there are rumors that they’ve gotten their hands on some kind of fancy science fiction apparatuses? That doesn’t sound right…

There’s a lot of property about, which might be used by outlaws and law enforcement as cover in the nigh-constant gunfights, but could also be used for their intended purposes, as well.

Uh, what’s that second piece of property there?! Where did that come from? WHEN did that come from?! We’ve got trouble.

Good thing the sheriff has put out a bounty on the Hayes brothers. I just hope it helps… in time!

Lost in time?! That sounds bad!

For more information on Silver Gulch, check out these two episodes of The Letters Page podcast:

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The questions have been pretty quiet! Honestly, I’m used to a lot more, “But, wait, what?” during crowdfunding campaigns, but it seems like you folks are all pros at this! I especially appreciate everyone in the comments answering the questions that do pop up on things that have been addressed in the past. That’s great. 

As a reward, I’ll use this section to show off a Chrono-Ranger variant! I hinted in his update that his First Appearance variant is NOT the moment from the Akash’Bhuta fight. That was the first time he showed up in the pages of Sentinel Comics (well, unless you count his appearances in Covered Wagon Comics in the 1940s and ‘50s, but that’s just as Jim Brooks, not Chrono-Ranger), but it wasn’t his first named appearance. He was just there for a couple panels. So, rather than use the cover of that comic (that indicated nothing about him at all) for his First Appearance comic, we did this!

Now, I’ll note right off the bat that a couple of typefaces in that image are incorrect — InDesign was fighting me this morning, and I figured it was worth it to show you the card anyway and have our much-better-than-I-am-at-this graphic designers fix my mistakes  well before it goes to print. But! This way you get to see what many in the world where Sentinel Comics is a real publisher consider to be the actual First Appearance of Jim Brooks as Chrono-Ranger! 

Volume 3 of Tome of the Bizarre launched in April of 1988, starting off with the full backstory of Jim Brooks becoming Chrono-Ranger (as told in Wednesday’s update). And that’s what’s on this card!

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Have a great weekend everyone! I recommend playing some Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition this weekend — the Multiverse needs saving, after all! See you all Monday for another exciting update!

-Christopher