Epaper Obituary Today - Daily Excelsior
The next morning, he opened the epaper again. The obituary page was there, as always—a fresh crop of names, a fresh geometry of loss. But Amar no longer looked for himself. He looked for the living.
The doctors had given him six months. That was two years ago. Since then, every morning had begun the same way: brew the kehwa, open the laptop, and scroll through the names of the dead. It had started as a morbid joke— Let’s see if I made the list today —but it had become scripture. He knew the rhythm of grief now. On Mondays, the page was full. By Friday, sparse. The language was always formal, a parade of “beloved husbands,” “pious souls,” and “deeply mourned by.” Daily Excelsior Epaper Obituary Today
At Mrs. Balraj’s gate, a small crowd had gathered. Neighbors in muted clothes. Her daughter, still in airport jeans, was crying into a paper cup of chai. No one looked at Amar. Why would they? He wasn’t dead yet. The next morning, he opened the epaper again
Amar Nath clicked the mouse for the hundredth time. The Daily Excelsior epaper loaded, its familiar blue-and-white masthead glowing on his screen. But his eyes didn’t scan the headlines about the border tensions or the budget session. They went straight to the bottom-right corner of the front page, then to the inside pages—the small, dense box of text bordered in black. He looked for the living
He closed the laptop and walked outside. The lane was the same—the same stray dog, the same screech of auto-rickshaws, the same smell of frying samosas from the corner shop. But everything felt like a photograph. Flat. Finished.
“I, Amar Nath, aged 63, resident of lane number four, do hereby declare that I am not yet an obituary. I still misplace my glasses. I still argue with the milkman. I still owe the electrician two hundred rupees. Today, I ate a jalebi and it was excellent. If you are reading this after I am gone, know this: I lived past my expiration date. And I waved back.”
Looks like a cool build. Personally I hadn’t heard about Shaman King so I learned something knew. What I’m exited to see is Robin Hood using toxophilite or hooded champion ranger archetypes or some adventure time stuff.
If you look through the Iconic Design archives, I’ve done Princess Bubblegum and Ice King so far.
Added to my Iconic Design candidates list!
I’d really like to see build for the shieldmarshal PrC (Paths of Prestige). I assume a mix of ranger and gunslinger levels, but that might be a trap I’m not seeing.
Noted!
I can’t take, Weapon Focus: katana (1st), no BAB! or weapon proficiency! ???
You’re right that you can’t take it at 1st level (and the guide has been updated accordingly), but the weapon proficiency thing isn’t a problem. You can pick a feat whose prerequisites you meet only sometimes, for example, a barbarian with Strength 11 can take Power Attack even though she doesn’t qualify for it unless she’s raging. Similarly, you can pick Weapon Focus (katana) even though you only qualify for it when you’ve manifested your ancestral weapon as a katana.
If that ruling bothers you, you could also take the Heirloom Weapon trait and pick the katana. It’ll make you proficient with the katana as a two-handed weapon (since its martial), but not as a one-handed weapon (as that’s exotic). Alternatively, you could build Yoh as a dwarf or a kitsune, as those races have a 1/4 oracle favored class bonus that grants them proficiency with one weapon of their choice. Pick any weapon you want when you first take Weapon Focus at Level 3, then retrain the feat to the katana at Level 4 after you gain the bonus. (Of course, if you went dwarf or human, you’d lose one of the Extra Revelation abilities. I’d pick voice of the grave myself.)
I looked at doing this as a Kitsune, or Tengu, or Half-Elf. I think a Kitsune would work, I assume you would agree, I just need to stat it out.
I’m not familiar with that ruling? Nor would Heirloom Weapon work, for me, without that ruling.