The new year begins with a new form for Irfan. The fifth form! Irfan has come a long way since his first day of Primary School, nay, from the first day of kindergarten! He has been through ups and downs. He has had many unforgettable experiences in school, both in Kuala Lumpur and here in Perlis. I pray for nothing but the best of futures for Irfan. May he have sufficient foresight and wisdom to weather the times ahead!
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Swinging Into The Spider-Verse
We went to the movies yesterday. Into The Spider-Verse was an amazing and spectacular effort in movie making. It has a well-sculpted story which juggles a lot of characters, giving each character (and not just any of the Spider-Men) a chance to shine. Also, the main characters are given a lot of set-up with entwining storylines which has big emotional payoffs. Some of the emotional payoffs also hit close to home. Although there have been many good animated comic book movies in the last three decades (Mask of the Phantasm is still a classic to me) this is the first one to integrate many physical idiosyncrasies of the comic book medium. Ang Lee’s live action Hulk featured comic book panels on screen, but it only served a simple purpose, i.e. show multiple viewpoints simultaneously. Into The Spider-Verse has comic book panels (with comic books in them), onomatopoeic text, thought panels, […]
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Not Ain’s Roti Canai Restaurant
We stopped at the restaurant in the photo above to get a teh ais ikat tepi on our way to my colleague Bazli’s wedding near Alor Setar.
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The Dental Extrication Undertaking
Last week, Ain had a tooth extraction. This week is was my turn. Once upon a time, I experienced a hard time having a tooth removed. In the last couple of weeks, my right molars was acting up. By acting up, I mean giving me an agonising jolt every time I chewed on food. So on Friday Ain and I went to the public clinic and hoped that the extraction would not be that much of a hassle. Little did I know that the tooth had split in two along the centreline. It made it difficult for the dentist to pull it out. Not to mention, despite four times injected with novocaine or lidocaine or something, my tooth still felt like it was being stabbed by a white-hot needle. Like the previous tale told in the link provided above, the dentist required that I come back another day because of […]
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DnD: The Mushroom Forest Strife
In a land ravaged by magic and monsters and forgotten by time, a pair of adventurers: a human barbarian named Jonz and an elf ranger named Maya travel the wilderness. While the barbarian is keeping an eye out for gold and treasure, the ranger is keeping close in order to quickly pull her clumsy barbarian friend out of trouble at a moment’s notice… Dramatis Personae Jonz the human barbarian – Rizal Maya the elf ranger – Noriha Chapter 1 – Thankfully No One Has Arachnophobia Dozens of types of mushrooms stood in the way of Jonz and Maya. There were small lichens, knee-high toadstools and hundred-foot tall mushrooms, surrounding them as they walked through the ancient Mushroom Forest. A river blocked their path and they spotted a body on the ground across the river, about forty feet away. “Maya what do you know about this mushroom forest?” Jonz asked Maya. […]
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Cloudy Return from Padang Serai
Our return path from Padang Serai took us toward Butterworth, the primary population centre of Seberang Perai, the mainland part of Pulau Pinang. This was due to Ain’s love for Jeruk Madu Pak Ali which now faced the new Penang Sentral arcology. After acquiring the pickled fruits, we drove through the Pantai Bersih seaside highway. Dark rain clouds hung spectacularly over and across the waters towards the Island of Penang. They dared us to take a photo of them. So we did. Click on the images below to expand them.
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The Padang Serai Wedding Outing
This weekend we drove to Padang Serai at the Pulau Pinang state border to attend a wedding of my cousin who we have not met since she was in school. We planned a rendezvous with Atok and Opah who travelled up north from Sitiawan. Using Google Maps we arrived at the location with no problems. As these events usually go, there is always a point where Irfan meets and plays with a cat. This purring kitty liked to claw at Irfan’s jeans. That night Ain and I scouted the area and discovered the colourful and spectacularly-lit Taman MBI Desaku. Some day we will return to the park and take more photos of it. It looked quite impressive and I was surprised that I had never heard of it before. The next morning, it was time for the bersanding ceremony. We stacked blankets and pillows on Irfan as he was the […]
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Historical Melee Weapons Galore
There are a number of traditional melee weapons that originate from the historic kingdoms of South East Asia. Here are some of them displayed at the Kota Kayang Museum near Kuala Perlis. When Atok and Opah came for a visit we took them to the museum to look at the exhibits. There are more than just weapons on display, but this post will be about the traditional weapons available there. Here is a classic weapon from the South East Asian region: the keris. The keris has a wavy blade. Each crest of the wave is called a luk. A keris can be classified by the number of luks it possesses. Some keris, like the centrepiece at the Pasir Salak Historical Tunnel museum keris section, can be as long as a man is tall. (No images of it because we were not allowed to take photographs there.) The pamor (metal patterns) […]
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SWD6: A Wild Stranglepod Appears
Time is the Hunter Episode 07: A Wild Stranglepod Appears Continuing the adventure I ran for Ain and Irfan – (counts fingers) – 16 months ago… Bounty hunter Jax Hunt and amnesiac lady who called herself Iris Helena were waiting in the Corellian Engineering Corporation VCX-100 light freighter assigned to them, the Screeching Arrow, by the rebel fleet when the Togorian rebel coordinator Meow Skywalker came to them with a job: “The mission will require you to travel to the Chandrila system in the Core Worlds to extract Imperial bureaucrat Ton Kelauae, his wife Aklu and his daughter Wencie. Land at Nayli Spaceport. The Kelauaes are holed up in Apartment 7C, Blackback Building. The Empire is looking for them and it will be a matter of time before they are discovered. Get to them before the Empire does and bring them back here.” During the mission, the duo got into […]
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Cloudscapes over Perlis
I do not normally look out for amazing looking cloudscapes, but in three consecutive days I was able to take photos of epic looking skies over Perlis. Click on the images to expand the images.
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DnD: The Dark Mage
As three members of our Laundry RPG campaign were unable to attend today’s session, the two remaining players decided on a one-shot Dungeons and Dragons session. The Holy City of Honour was a city where dozens of peoples from dozens of faiths come to visit. It grew to be its own city state. A thick wall protected it from the outbreak of wild magic that had ravaged the lands to its south. The Tempest Bay protected it from the north. Ships from all over the realm arrive in Honour through the sea gates of the bay. To the south-west of the city in a forest along the beach was a small cottage. The occupants of the cottage were the human paladin Jyn and the elf ranger Jolle. They explored the wild magic infested lands and defended the weak from dangers that roamed outside the city walls. Dramatis Personae Jyn, Human […]
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DnD: Pretty Werewolves
Once upon a time at a time forgotten by lore, there was a city known as Big Dark Mountain. It was once a great mountain which had been hewn into a plateau. Humans, elves, dwarves and dragonborn came to build a city upon the plateau. Even a number of drow eventually settled there. Over the centuries, it grew into a prosperous city state. It was the centre of culture and commerce for the land. Meanwhile, evil powers began to dominate the countryside, corrupting a community here and despoiling a village there. Adventurers, warriors and explorers emerged from Big Dark Mountain, banding into groups of protectors. These groups venture forth across the land to seek out evil and darkness. One such party was the group known as the Pretty Werewolves… Dramatis Personae Ragnarok – Human Barbarian (Hafiy) Hago – Dragonborn Sorcerer (Danial) X.P.D.C. – Drow Rogue (Faizuddin) Rowling – Elf Wizard […]
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DnD: Fallen Nation
Once upon a time, a cadre of wayward mercenaries – warriors lost without a kingdom – roamed around in search for adventures and a purpose. They hired themselves out to protect the common folk from a growing evil that has begun to stalk the land. Dramatis Personae Sage – Drow Rogue (Aminin) Mordred – Human Druid (Ganesan) Kaisa – Half-elf Bard (Fadzmil) Kal-El – Elf Fighter (Hafiz) Clark – Half-orc Paladin (Zaini) Raven, Guardian of the Jungle – Human Barbarian (Nazam) Mid – Dragonborn Sorcerer (Hamidah/Hajar) Lin – Human Fighter (Sharlin) Dul – Human Paladin (Afiqah/Syahidah) Chapter 1 Starry Falcon The story began in a tavern. The tavern was located in the village of Starry Falcon in the nation of Camelot. It was a Camelot populated not merely by humans, but also elves, dwarves, drow and dragonborn. However it was a dying nation as its high king named Arthur disappeared […]
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Encounters in a Remote Kampung
As you travel deep into the South East Asian tropical jungle to where remote kampungs stand, you realise that this is no walk in the woods. The tropical jungle is thick. Thicker than you thought possible. Huge trees larger than life, themselves teeming with additional lives, block your path. Between them were the tropical undergrowth. Dozens of types with dozens of sizes. Thorns. Toxins. They hide deadly – or at the very least somewhat disagreeable – fauna from your sight while they are within arm’s reach. You travel across a river, wading into the waist-high water. The cool water should be a relief. But you know that it hides even more perils. One unfortunate misstep and you might find yourself bleeding to death. Kampung Terrain Random Encounter Table Here are two Random Encounter Tables for you if your character is travelling to a remote kampung. The first table gives you […]
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The Laundry: The New Normal
Episode 1 The New Normal Two weeks ago, my colleagues from the Centre for International Languages and I started with a session zero. Today, we played our first actual The Laundry RPG session. A group of language teachers attempted to play as a group of ultra-secret government intelligence agents trying to – ultimately – stop the end of the world. From the Capital Laundry Services (M) Sdn Bhd Employee Handbook Ver 34.2: The Laundry (Malaysia) is a unit in the Malaysian Ministry of Education. After a 6 years being an independent British agency after the independence of Malaya, the Laundry (Malaysia) was gazetted and absorbed into the new Malaysian Federal government in 1963 in a Top Secret ceremony with the blessings of the Majlis Raja-Raja. The Laundry was integrated into the Ministry of Education using high level computational sorcery and magic. In 1997, the Laundry (Malaysia) was attached as a […]
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Patreon: More Enigma Corps
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Khairul Hisham (@hishgraphics) on Oct 28, 2018 at 7:00pm PDT Edward MacGregor has been commissioning more paper miniatures over the months. The paperminis are for his uchronic South East Asian early-20th century setting where Western colonialisation did not occur and local culture has evolved into a dieselpunk society. Entitled Enigma Corps, the setting is written for the FATE ruleset. Here are three more batches for characters paperminis! They are all now live at my Hishgraphics Patreon page. Check out the photos below. Batch 6 features a bunch of street toughs and maidens who do not dabble in the dieselpunk technology of the era. Click here to download Enigma Corps 06 at my Patreon page. Batch 7 comprise of dieselpunk bikers and their mechanics. For the first time ever, we have a papermini of a bike. Click here to download Enigma […]
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