#especially compared to the old game that is adventure oof

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Grandmother Spider

True Neutral Goddess of Weaving, Illusions, and Family

Domains: Charm, Community, Darkness, Luck, Trickery Subdomains: Curse, Deception, Family, Fate, Night, Thievery

Faiths of Golarion, pg. 11~15

Obedience: Spend an hour weaving something clever and useful that you will use to better your community, incorporating the stories or symbolism of Grandmother Spider. This can be any sort of “weaving,” such as weaving blankets, clothing, or tapestries, or “weaving” a tall tale, elaborate story, or confidence game that teaches someone a valuable lesson. Benefit: Gain a +2 sacred or profane bonus on Bluff and Perform (oratory) checks and on saving throws against illusions.

Aww, how cute! Spending an hour each day crafting a cute little doodad for for your... ... Wait, your community? Adventurers don’t have a community! Oh no!

Nah, kidding, that’s not too much of an impediment unless your DM is especially pedantic. Just making something useful to drop off at the next civilization you visit, or even just for your party members, will likely count for the purposes of this Obedience. Just make sure that whoever receives your gift actually needs it, because otherwise you’re not only not bettering your community, but you’ll likely look like a loon. Also, the fact you can ‘weave’ some tall tales gives you an excellent in-character excuse to actually write little short stories and vignettes to convey moral lessons and share them with your party. It’s an excellent roleplaying moment and can sharpen your skills as a writer and storyteller!

It also means you’re very hard to disarm. Even bereft of materials or bound by rope and chain you can compose your stories in your head to connect yourself with Grandmother Spider, and it also means keeping yourself hidden from unwanted attention (such as that from Asmodeus and his followers) is pathetically easy. Your physical weaving must bear the Grandmother’s markings, but enemies of your faith can’t exactly see your stories as they’re being composed, unless of course you’re writing them down in-character.

Sadly, this benefit is pretty wimpy. Bluff is nice, and a bonus to saves against any and all illusions is pretty sweet, but this bonus is only half as powerful as benefits typically are. I can appreciate you becoming better at actually telling the stories you’re creating, though! It’s cute!

Boons are gathered slowly, typically obtained when a given character has 12, 16, and 20 hit dice. Unlike fiend-worshipers, servants of the Eldest, and devoted of the Empyreal Lords, characters worshiping Neutral gods do not have catch-all classes… but Neutral-aligned characters can enter the Evangelist, Sentinel, and Exalted Prestige Classes earlier than Evil characters, classing in as early as level 6 (they need +5 BAB, 5 ranks in a single skill, or the ability to cast lvl 3 spells); entered ASAP, one can gain the Boons at levels 8, 11, and 14.

———-

EVANGELIST

———-

Boon 1: Charming Sort. Gain Sleep 3/day, Eagle’s Splendor 2/day, or Glibness 1/day.

Good news! Entering Evangelist as early as possible means that Sleep is still useful against encounters you may face, knocking out up to 4 HD of enemies in a single cast and keeping them in dreamland for 1 min/level. Bad news! It’ll struggle to remain viable once you’re up another two levels, because at that point, the DM may begin throwing meatier and meatier encounters after you. It’s certainly a good spell to keep as backup, though, at least until you reach into the 11s and 12s and so on, though by that point you likely have more efficient ways to knock foes out of the fight.

Like avoiding one in the first place. Glibness is, one could say, a strong spell. A +20 to Bluff checks to convince someone what you’re saying is true is usually enough to counteract the penalties you’d normally suffer from, and in fact is exactly enough to cancel out the -20 penalty you’d take trying to convince someone of an impossible lie (beware of telling lies that are instantly disprovable, though). With an absolutely endless 10 min/level duration, Glibness will let you lie your way halfway into a dungeon, and not even magic that forces the truth from you is a guarantee since it must first pass a caster level check against a DC 15 + your caster level to do so. 

That being said, I wouldn’t advise trying to use it to, say, convince the local king that you’re the true heir to his throne, because at that point the court wizard (there is always a court wizard) will likely catch on that something’s wrong and club you over the head with Dispel Magic... especially if this is the second time you try doing something like that. Still, though, it’s a spell whose usefulness is difficult to understate or undersell, especially since Grandmother Spider already prompts you to be deceptive. Eagle’s Splendor’s comparatively paltry +2 to your Bluff is basically nothing when compared to it.

And the best part is that, unlike Sleep, it’s useful at every level!

Boon 2: Storyteller: You gain the Bard’s Fascinating Performance class feature and a number of rounds of Bardic Performance per day equal to your Charisma modifier + your Hit Dice. If you already have Fascinating Performance, your HD is considered to be your Bard level for the purpose of your Fascinating Performance’s save DC and your Bardic Performance rounds per day.

AAHHRUM-hum! Stay a while, and listen.

The save DC to avoid becoming Fascinated is 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Charisma modifier, by the way. You also start with ((HD x 2) + 4 + Cha mod) rounds of Performance! For those of you who’ve never played with or against a Bard, this means that you can now hypnotize entire crowds of people at once, provided they can see and hear you (and aren’t immune to mind-affecting effects, natch). While any immediate threat to your listeners’ person breaks the fascination effect, it does mean you’re the unrivaled king/queen/royal of distractions among your party. You can technically walk into a room and immediately capture them in your web, because so long as combat isn’t initiated and your party doesn’t do anything especially suspicious, any enemy that fails the save is transfixed for however long you can maintain the performance.

While the second part of this ability--merging your total HD together to make sure your performance scales even as you multiclass--seems good on paper, it’s entirely redundant due to the Evangelist’s Aligned Class ability, which merges the Prestige Class and your base class together anyway, earning you an amazing net gain of one (1) additional HD and meaning this ability doesn’t really exist. HOWEVER, if you’re NOT going into Evangelist and are instead keeping the Deific Obedience feat while multiclassing into a different combination, the primary benefit here is that it continues to tick your rounds of Bardic Performance up, one of the most important scaling abilities Bards have. Sadly you get no access to the more advanced performances, but that’s the sacrifice you make to serve the Grandmother.

Also, if you’re remaining a pure Bard, this ability indeed does not exist at all. oof.

Boon 3: One With The Night: You gain darkvision with a range of 30 feet, or extend your existing darkvision by 30 feet. You need only half the normal amount of sleep or rest each day to avoid becoming fatigued.

...

really

I don’t want to be nasty to dear Grandmother Spider, but with such an ominously named ability, you’d be lead to believe it grants some form of invisibility or somesuch. Not so; it merely grants you darkvision, something you’ll either have or have easy access to by level 14, and while needing only half as much rest to keep yourself running is nice, it’s severely underpowered compared to most final Boons.

Especially since the rest of your party likely requires their full 8 hours of sleep anyway, so it can be difficult for you to find a way to make use of your extra hours. I suggest taking up crafting, to be honest; you’re doing it anyway, may as well craft magic items too! Especially potions, some of which can be crafted in just 4 hours!

Despite that, though, this is still a disappointing and tragically weak Boon, especially compared with everything else Grandma gives to her followers...

———-

EXALTED

———-

Boon 1: The Weaver: Gain Silent Image 3/day, Minor Image 2/day, or Borrow Fortune 1/day.

I’m not going to comment on Borrow Fortune, as it’s just a plain terrible spell. You can reroll a single d20 at the cost of causing Misfortune (roll twice, take lower) on yourself on every single roll you make for the next two rounds. No thanks!

SIlent and Minor Image both fill a similar niche, one that greatly rewards creative thinking. Their enormous areas of effect (four 10ft cubes + one more cube per level) lets you cause some serious shenanigans. Silent Image alone can be used, among other things, to create fields of statues, walls where there weren’t, the image of several siege engines or monstrous backup soldiers (in case an enemy is viewing you from afar), thorny or hazardous barriers, impossibly deep ‘pits,’ and other such hazards that can make your enemies hesitate to approach you. I especially enjoy the possibility of squeezing your party against a wall and then projecting the image of a wall in front of you to hide from pursuers--it’s an old trick, but an effective and reliable tactic!

Minor Image allows your projections to make noise, meaning “summoning” illusory monsters, fires, machines, or other such things becomes far more viable. Even in combat, an enemy suddenly having some horrifying monster appear in front of them can make them pause when they can’t be sure it’s an illusion. Since spell-likes have no components onlookers can be more easily convinced that what they see is real, especially if you mime casting a more dangerous spell. You can even have your illusions pop up in your wake without moving an inch! The applications of these spells are limitless for people who enjoy playing tricksters and deceivers, and both of them have their advantages (Silent Image, mainly, being usable one more time each day), so pick the one that works best with your shenanigans!

Boon 2: Inspired Illusionist: Illusion spells from the Figment and Glamer subschool that you cast last twice as long, as if affected by Extend Spell. They cannot be affected by the Extend Spell Metamagic feat. In addition, the following spells are added to your spells known: Silent Image, Minor Image, Major Image, Hallucinatory Terrain, Persistent Image, Project Image, and Screen.

All of those spells are figments and glamers, of course.

Mmm, free feats! Sort of! It’s not really a feat, but imitates one, doubling the duration of your illusions to give them some serious staying power. While you’ll rarely need an illusion for such a long time, some spells require you to concentrate on them to maintain their effects but have a small window of time where their effects sustain themselves when you lose concentration, typically just 2 or 3 rounds. Doubling this time means anything you conjure in combat will likely stay in place for its duration, allowing you to ‘fire and forget’ your figments and concentrate on ones that will actually cause pain.

Alternately, this will let you mix your illusions with other spells you cast to make it even more realistic!

Also, note that while most projections are figments, glamers include such treasures as Disguise Self and Invisibility, as well as all of its offshoots (Greater, Mass, etc). Doubling the duration of Mass Invisibility without needing a higher level spell slot can absolutely trivialize some stealth missions, letting you and your party stay hidden until everyone is in position. Invisibility already lasts for a full minute per level, and doubling that just makes it ridiculous.

ALSO also, free spells! They’re added right to your spells known list so Oracles don’t even have to worry about giving up their precious spells known slots! AND they’re some of the best Illusion spells you could ask for! If only she gave you Mirage Arcana... Oh, it does bear mentioning that the spells are added to your spell list; they’re not spell-likes! In fact, it’s up to the DM whether or not your illusory spell-like abilities are actually affected by this ability, because normally you need the Extend Spell-Like Ability feat to do so, while this ability only replicates Extend Spell. Something to discuss!

Boon 3: Willful Weaver: 3/day, you may use illusions to mimic certain Conjuration or Evocation spells, as if using Greater Shadow Conjuration or Shadow Evocation.

I love Boons like this, because they’re powerful! But I also hate Boons like this, because they’re difficult to talk about! It’s like someone handing you a toolbox filled to bursting with whatever you could ask for and then telling you to describe the functions of each one and what sorts of problems you could solve with it. Rather than going on for eighty paragraphs about it, I’ll simply cover two or three spells each one can replicate, and leave the rest up to you! And always, always remember that spell-likes can be cast without components, meaning that even if you’re tied up or at the mercy of a villain, you can still call for aid from the Plane of Shadow.

Greater Shadow Conjuration lets you mimic any 6th or lower Conjuration (Creation) or Conjuration (Summoning) spell from the Wizard or Sorcerer spell lists, such as Wall of Iron, Summon Monster VI, or Acid Fog. Creatures who succeed on the Will save needed to see through the illusions only take 60% of the damage the spell would normally deal, or are only affected by the special effects and abilities of the spell (or creature it summons) 60% of the time. If the poor fool fails its Will save, however, it treats the conjured creature or item as if it were completely real. Note that Greater Shadow Conjuration does not require any components of the original spell, letting you replicate spells that normally have costly components for free!

Shadow Evocation can mimic the effects of any 4th level or lower Evocation spell from the Wiz/Sorc list, such as Wall of Fire, Fireball, or Resilient Sphere. Sadly, it’s much more gracious with people who manage to see through it; people who succeed on the Will save to see through the illusion take only 20% of the damage they would have been dealt, and have only a 20% chance to be affected by any non-damaging effect it may have. This is in addition to whatever reductions may be in place if they succeed the save against the original spell, as well. Failing the Will save makes them treat the spell as real, of course, and as with GSC, your illusory replication requires no components, letting you throw around spells you’d normally hesitate to because of their price tag.

Now THIS is how you do a Boon! Excellent! Now, lets see about the Sentinel...

———-

SENTINEL

———-

Boon 1: Trapper. Gain Animate Rope 3/day, Web 2/day, or Spiked Pit 1/day.

Animate Rope’s a bit niche here, and it’s competing with Web, so unfortunately it’s going to have to get pushed off the table a bit. Its uses out of combat aren’t particularly astonishing, and its uses in combat are done better by Web in almost all situations, anyway.

Few things can gum up a pitched battle than a huge swath of the terrain suddenly being replaced with an impassable tangle of sticky fibers, grappling anyone who fails a Reflex save and becoming difficult terrain and partial cover for all creatures who succeed. The fact it needs to be anchored between two points means it can’t be used in every situation, but more often than not, combat scenarios you get trapped in will likely have plenty of spots to hang your webs from. Two walls count as anchor points! As does a ceiling and a floor--your Web doesn’t need to be places horizontally!

Spiked Pit is a nasty spell, conjuring a 10x10 extradimensional hole that’s 50 feet deep, lined with deadly spikes. One can think of it like a pseudo Save-or-Suck, capable of taking any foe that fits inside the entry hole out of the fight for its entire duration if they aren’t good at the whole climbing bit. The DC to scale a Spiked Pit is 20, and few creatures--especially humanoids--will actually bother putting the ranks in Climb they’ll need to make their way out with any sort of expediency. Not to mention, the spines will be clawing 1d6 chunks per round out of any creature that remains in the pit; it’s not much damage, but it’s damage they cannot avoid taking so long as they remain in the conjured hole.

Plus, you can throw more people into it! 50ft is a lot of storage space!

One niche spell, and two really good area control spells. The Grandmother certainly blesses her Sentinels!

Boon 2: Net Master: You gain Net Adept as a bonus feat, ignoring its prerequisites. If you already have Net Adept, you instead gain a +1 sacred or profane bonus to attack rolls with a net. In addition, if you are wielding a net one-handed and have nothing in your off hand, you gain a +1 shield bonus to AC.

As with the case of Ahriman, if you’re truly the kind of person who wants to use your god’s sacred weapon, you likely already have the feats you need to make it effective, especially since Net Adept can be taken as early as level 1.

Net Adept lets you use a net as a melee weapon with a 10ft reach, meaning you possess an huge threat radius (for a player)... with a weapon that deals no damage. Don’t get me wrong, nets are handy! They tangle and impede anyone you hit with a ranged touch attack, potentially tethering them to you until they manage to escape, but there’s only so much you can do with just a net on its own. While this ability encourages you to avoid wielding another weapon to get that free AC, a net is best used with something small and stabby/large and crushy that you can malice your trapped target with. A bludgeoning instrument is especially useful here, as it’s less likely to actually tear at your webbing while you slowly render your tangled foe into a fine paste. The +1 AC usually isn’t attractive enough to give up when compared to actually doing something about your snared victim. 

Being a Net Master does mean that you’re amazing at keeping anyone from getting away from you. with people trying to flee your 10ft reach drawing your Attacks of Opportunity and getting snagged for their troubles... But, again, you can be a Net Adept as early as level 1 compared to this ability coming online at level 11 at the earliest, at which point all this ability really does is give you +1 to your attack rolls with nets and encourages you to not wield a weapon in your offhand. Not a good look! Unless you plan on taking people alive, of course, but pfffpt, who does that?

Boon 3: Binding Strike: Upon confirming a critical hit against an enemy, you can choose to entangle the enemy in sticky webs rather than dealing any extra damage. This acts as Hold Monster, with a caster level equal to your HD. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier (min 1).

No saving throw, by the way! Confirming the critical hit is good enough in this case, the monster ending up smashed by the effect even if they’d normally have sky-high saves. Hold Monster lasts 1 round/level, essentially meaning whoever you hit with this is out of the fight for good, especially if you or an ally can follow up with a coup de grace afterwords. Its uses per day are unfortunately tied to Charisma, a stat the Sentinel will likely have little use for, but knowing you’re going to get this ability ahead of time allows you to plan for it! Don’t dump Cha!

Unlike with Yhidothrus’ second Sentinel Boon, it can be quite easy for a Sentinel of Grandmother Spider to justify giving up the juicy extra damage of a critical hit for a secondary effect, since this secondary effect more or less deals infinite damage--in that whoever’s hit by it is gone for over a minute. LIKE the Ravager Worm’s Sentinel Boon, though, Hold Monster simply fails to work against a lot of enemies you’d often really like it to work against; once you hit the middle-high levels, you’re likely to start facing threats from less human adversaries. Constructs, Dragons, Oozes, Plants, Undead, AND Vermin outright ignore this ability, a full 6 of 13 creature types! (and one common creature subtype--Elementals!) While you’re likely to be facing mostly Humanoids or Monstrous Humanoids, the fact this ability falters against such a huge number of different foes can be discouraging.

And piling on top of all of this, again, is the fact you have to land a successfully confirmed critical hit to see it come into play at all, something that’s entirely luck-based. When it lands it’s GLORIOUS! But if the dice are against you, you may never see it when you really, really need to. I’m not a fan of Boons that trigger randomly!

Looks like the Exalted win this round!

You can read more about her here.

[zonerz]

Holy shit that Caliburn AU sounds awesome? I'm really curious about all the little details of the AU, from Aleena and presumably the twins, to Caliburn adjusting to the modern day, and I think there was a comment somewhere about how Sonic couldn't look Knuckles or Shadow or Blaze in the eye for a long time - lmao I see Camelot turned out great for Sonic, wonder how the aftermath goes and how his friends react

OOF THANK YOU!!! So this is gonna be long and I’ll start with Sonic and his fam for some context!

In my AU Sonic Underground was basically the first adventure Sonic ever went on, and by the end of it, I can see Aleena end up being a bit more paranoid and protective of her kids whom she JUST found and reunited with, so she’d have a tight leash on them bc she doesnt want them to be hurt and so she keeps her kingdom sorta lowkey and hidden in general, very detached from the rest of the world compared to before. Sonia can roll with the punches and is just ecstatic to be back with her true mother and easily adapts to royal lifestyle. Manic is just glad to HAVE a mother (and also a nice house, clothes, etc.) but Sonic. Oooh Sonic. As someone who’s a free spirit and JUST realized what life is like out in the world and found his thirst for adventure, the LAST thing he wanted was to be held close and kept within one place for the rest of his life. Not only that but he didn’t like how his mother would easily just drop out of the fight against Robotnik now that the family and kingdom was restored. Even if Robotnik had been beaten back so far, and most if not everything was deroboticized, Sonic knew that he would be back. Futhermore, his frustration grew as she didn’t want to listen to reason and just wanted him to stay. 

The only reason Sonic had to stay were his siblings, who were both content to settle down in the castle (albeit Manic sneaks out every so often). Sonic had no reason to really get attached to Aleena, and she wasn’t exactly making it easier for him either. So, eventually they argued, fought, and Sonic ended up leaving the castle and kingdom behind and allowed them to hide as much as they pleased while he went off and made sure the rest of the world was safe from Robotnik. He dropped his royal title and never mentioned or brought it up to his friends later. So, cue all the events from Sonic 1 all the way up through Forces! Sonic only comes back to check on them after the war he fought in Forces, as he hadn’t heard from his siblings at all throughout the entirety of the war (and they had kept in p decent touch, albeit rather distant) so after Forces, he went back to check on them and bla bla bla! Feels, some angst and finally forgiveness and hope to move on. 

In my AU, the storybook games take place after Forces!

So, Aleena, still on somewhat rocky ground with Sonic, wanted to give him a present as a sorta peace sign, something that they could bond over. That gift was the sword, and Cal (who was now unbound) would help present it. However, it didn’t exactly go as planned.

Like Ive said previously, in my AU, The only way for Sonic to leave Camelot, is to have died there, and following Arthurian legend, that would’ve lead to a LOT of Trauma for the poor kid. Sonic would have lived out life as Arthur for probably another 30-ish years before being struck down by his son Mordred with Excalibur and jerking awake in a cold-sweat back on Mobius. Recovery from that experience by the time Cal was first introduced to Sonic was practically non-existent. He had no idea how to tell anyone, or if what he experienced was even REAL, so he kept quiet. But people could tell he had obviously changed, he was always antsy, nervous, always looking over his shoulder. So when Aleena produced Excalibur, the weapon he was killed with as a gift... Things didn’t go well. Sonic left in a flash, leaving Aleena wondering what the hell she did wrong???? Did she say smth??? Somethin in her teeth??? But Cal, good ol Cal had a feelin there was something more going on and assured her it wasn’t anything she did, and went after Sonic himself.

So, saving some time here, Cal went after Sonic and helped calm him down, but neither really said anything about Camelot, and thus neither confirmed whether they knew anything about it, but of course they both had their own varying suspicions. Cal ended up bonding with Sonic (again) and Sonic helped him readjust to modern life and explained all sorts of things to him. Cal was also extremely curious to hear about all of Sonic’s adventures, and his friends and how he met them, and Sonic was happy to oblige with those good memories. It was therapeutic for him. Sonic over time explained nearly everything, all the way up to the multiverse they live in and Scourge, and the Zone Cops!

Eventually, the only story Sonic hadn’t told Cal about was the one about Camelot. Sonic had come to accept that it DID happen, as his encounter with Shara and Erazor Djinn certainly happened and the two incidents were fairly similar. He was pulled into those two special storybook zones in a particular way, the only difference was that in Camelot, he didn’t have an easy exit like the one Shara granted him.

The question of whether Cal was the same Cal had been really eating away at him though, and he finally asked (however he extremely beat around the bush). Cal didn’t directly answer, but rather scolded the ‘Knave’ for hesitating once again. How many times had he told him not to do that now? And that my friends, that is the straw that broke the camel’s back and G O D Sonic broke down out of RELIEF! Cal held the poor kid close and let him scream, sob and apologize profusely for everything. Sonic, after months of bottling this experience up finally had someone to talk to who understood and knew what he went through. THAT was the first step for him to begin recovering, and recover he sure did! It didn’t take long for him to start opening up and explain everything to his friends afterwards, with Cal’s word really helping solidify the crazy story. His friends, who had all been worried about him obviously freaked out that he’d been through so much and thought they wouldn’t believe what he said but became a huge support group again for him!!

There were hard times though, especially when Sonic ran into people who had been enemies of his in Camelot. Prime example? When he saw the counterpart of Mordred, it took everything in his friends’ power to keep the headline “World Renowned Hero Sonic the Hedgehog Punts 5-Year-Old across City!” out of the papers.

BUT OFF THATS A LOT OF WRITING AND I STILL DIDNT TOUCH ON EVERYTHING!! THANK YOU FOR BEING CURIOUS, I HOPE I ANSWERED SOME MORE QUESTIONS !!! IK NOT EVERYTHING’S FLAWLESS BUT EH WHATEVER ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[marilynngmesalo]

Cdn Keegan Messing takes silver at Skate Canada International

Cdn Keegan Messing takes silver at Skate Canada International Cdn Keegan Messing takes silver at Skate Canada International https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

LAVAL, Que. — Canada’s newest figure skating star loves to ham it up for the crowd. He has skated atop an Alaskan iceberg. And he’s aiming to be the first man to land a quadruple Axel in competition.

Keegan Messing captured silver in men’s singles at Skate Canada International on Saturday, climbing the medal podium for the first time at a Grand Prix event. And moments after his entertaining program to a Charlie Chaplin medley — complete with the spinning of an invisible walking stick — the quirky 26-year-old talked about his new role in the spotlight.

“I don’t know how I feel about that yet, except for the fact that I’m happy, especially since it’s the first real competition of the year and I put out two good performances,” Messing said. “I’m really happy on how things are turning out, I’m excited to see how it keeps unfolding.

“These first couple of pages have been fun. Let’s see how the whole book is.”

Messing, who led after Friday’s short program, scored 265.17 points. Olympic silver medallist Shoma Uno of Japan rebounded from a disastrous short program to win gold with 277.25. Cha Jun-Hwan, a 17-year-old from South Korea who trains in Toronto with Brian Orser, took bronze with 254.77.

Messing’s medal was one of three for Canada. Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro won pairs bronze, while Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier captured ice dance bronze, roaring back from their sixth-place in the short dance.

The five-foot-four Messing was a respectable 12th in his Olympic debut in South Korea, just four spots behind three-time world champion Patrick Chan. Chan retired after the Games, and the shifted skating landscape has shone the spotlight squarely on Messing.

He is clearly comfortable there. With a minute to go in his four-minute free program, the Bell Place crowd was toe-tapping and clapping along.

“That program just has so much opportunity for character to come out and it is so much to do in front of a big crowd like this,” said Messing, clutching his lucky cowboy hat in one hand — the hat is a nod to both Alberta and Alaska. “It just has so much energy, it’s so much fun and it’s just wonderful.”

Messing is a far different skater from Chan, a ball of energy to Chan’s elegance and power.

Normally a dependable jumper, he landed just one of his planned three quads on Saturday. Over the summer, video emerged of Messing landing a quadruple Axel while in a harness, which resembles a huge fishing pole.

“I would love to have my name on it,” Messing said. “We were working on it throughout the spring but we backed off it a little bit just because the risk of injury is pretty high for such a big jump, and coming into the Grand Prix season we felt it was safer to wait for the season to end and then go ahead and try some more of them.”

The quad Axel, compared to the other quads, is actually four-and-a-half revolutions.

“In a harness, they feel like any other quad. I do feel like it is possible for a quad Axel to be landed,” Messing said.

Messing was a late arrival to the Canadian team. He’d originally hoped to make the 2014 Sochi squad, but when he competed for the U.S. at an international event in Italy, he had to sit out a couple of years before he was eligible to skate for Canada. Messing has dual citizenship because his mom Sally was born in Edmonton, while his grandfather was from Newfoundland.

Messing grew up in Girdwood, an Alaskan resort town of glaciers and grizzly bears just south of Anchorage where he now lives. So last month, Messing paddled out with an adventure guide and climbed atop a glacier to skate.

“We found one that was for the most part very safe, because they can be very unstable,” he said. “It was just fun to get on it with my Olympic pair of skates.”

Nam Nguyen of Toronto, meanwhile, laid down two excellent programs for the first time in awhile to finish fifth.

The 20-year-old landed both his quads, and when the music stopped, he shook two celebratory fists at the crowd.

“It’s been a really long time since I’ve had that experience, I’m really stoked to put out two solid performances this week,” he said.

Nguyen was fifth at the world championships in 2015, but the years since have been full of frustration. He switched coaches numerous times. He had to adjust to an enormous growth spurt.

Nguyen said he and his coach of nine months Robert Burke have been working on his mental game.

“I’m a very emotional skater, I react to how I feel, and so if I feel good, I’ll push, if I feel bad I won’t push,” he said. “My coach and I have decided that the plan we need to just push through the pain, doesn’t matter how I feel, and that’s where the real training gets done, especially on the days when I feel like absolute poop and I don’t want to be at the rink at all.

“The past few years my mentality has gone — oof! — down,” he added. “And it’s starting to come back up, this is not the end for sure, but this is a good start, and for my confidence it’s above and beyond.”

Skating to a Pink Floyd medley, Moore-Towers, from St. Catharines, Ont., and Marinaro, from Sarnia, Ont., scored 200.93 points, narrowly missing out on pairs silver. The difference was a downgrade on their death spiral, which was their final element.

“Missing the level on the death spiral in the final 10 seconds of the program was a really big bummer, half a point there cost us a silver medal, so it’s definitely a learning experience, margins here are so so tiny,” Marinaro said.

Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres of France scored a personal best 147.30 in their short program to win gold with 221.81.

China’s Peng Cheng and Jin Yang won the silver (201.08).

Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue won the ice dance with 200.76 points. Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov took the silver (195.17), while Gilles, from Toronto, and Poirier, from Unionville, Ont., scored 186.97 for third.

Skate Canada is the second event of the Grand Prix circuit.

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