Dungeon and Dragons session - Hellenika Campaign - Steak Burrito and Margaritas

We went out to dinner and then identified magic items.

Dungeon and Dragons session - Hellenika Campaign - If only we had an Orb of Thesulah

The magical time freezing field continues to move outward. Tesla estimates that it will hit the outer edge of the dome in about a month. The party moves in and starts removing magic items from the wizard. Aside from normal magical items, he has a rod and an amulet that "hurts to look at" via detect magic.

The party also looks through his notes finding a myriad of notes regarding time theory. Gal continues to look for "secret storage". She finds a loose stone under one of the tables and when she slides it aside and something tries to bite her hand. There is a small weasel who appears to be the wizards familiar. Iridinae managed to calm the critter down.

Gal attempts to talk to the weasel. However, she quickly realizes that she cannot do it even though she is a druid. Iridinae takes the weasel, Kerin takes the wizard to the drunk tank, Gal takes Boxo to a medical ward, and Tesla takes the magic items.

Boxo wakes up and the party discusses the situation and brings Boxo up to speed on the situation. As part of the discussion, it is revealed that Gal's real name is Lendnel, and she was born "out of time". Boxo reveals that he arrived early in the party's home plane in order to find the party after they'd "messed up". He was nursed back to health by "Gloriana" who became Gal's mother. Boxo is Gal's father. This was when the Faerunian gods threatened Boxo. He left Gal with the elves after draining the infant Gal of chronal energy and traveled forward in time.

Boxo offers to take Gal back to "where-ever she wants to go" and not bother her with the "trial nonsense". Boxo says that the crystal contains a threat that the Castallan will have the party killed if they return.

During the discussion, Tesla gives the box that Stiggo's gave him to Boxo and tells him to open it. (This was the box with the note "When you realize you've made the biggest mistake in your life open this box") - it is a music box (King of Pain).

The party thinks about how to "re-ensoul" Oromos.

Dungeon and Dragons session - Hellenika Campaign - Otto's Irresistible Profanity.

Fred shows the amazing inventions that the city has: 'hot air balloons' and 'cell phones'. Suddenly a call of "Watch out below" as a large flower pot falls down toward a young girl. Fred gestures and the flower pot stops in mid air. Fred explains that everyone has some chronal energy but that his seems to be slightly stronger.

The party arrives as the area where Boxo is imprisoned. They see that there are a great many things that have been thrown into the time field. Gal touches the field with the crystal and freezes with Kerin in time. Everything within the field starts moving and the wizard starts to cast. Bearded Devils appear and start attacking. Gal and Kerin unfreeze and Iridinae freezes as the devils start attacking. Kerin casts silence on the wizard. Tesla moves forward into the stasis. The devils and the wizard press their attack and Kerin drops. Tesla unfreezes and attempts to cast a charm on the wizard and fails, cursing.

Gal attempts to throw the crystal at the globe where Boxo is imprisoned, but misses. Iridinae moves up and gets hit repeatedly by the demons. Iridinae goes defensive. Tesla casts dispel and the devils vanish.

The wizard continues to cast and then realizes that the spell didn't go off and curses. Gal heals Kerin who continues to take damage, cursing. The brilliant and handsome Tesla casts obscuring mist allowing Kerin to heal herself.

After Kerin has healed herself, Tesla dispels the obscuring mist to see that Iridinae has frozen and the wizard is looking at the crystal that Gal tossed. Gal uses the dispel crystal that Lendor had given her which removes all negative magical effects. Iridinae leaps in to grapple. Tesla moves forward and casts a dispel at the wizard but it is dispelled (it appears the wizard had a ring of counterspelling with a dispel in it). The wizard attempts to cast but the spell fizzle and he curses again.

Gal attempts to get the crystal from the wizard but fails with a curse. Tesla attempts to dispel again and a number of spells drop. Kerin casts Righteous Wrath of the Faithful. Gal manages to get the crystal away from the wizard and moves toward the sphere with Boxo. Iridinae continues to grapple.

Gal touches the crystal to the globe containing Boxo and the globe dispels. The wizard again curses as Iridinae continues to grapple. Another dispel from Tesla fails to bring down any more spells (@#$%^&*!!!!). Kerin casts but fails to defeat the wizard's spell resistance. Iridinae enjoys grappling.

Gal heals Boxo, but he doesn't wake up. The wizard finally slumps. The party ties up the wizard.

Session ends.

A metaphysical reboot

Yes, there has been a reason that posting has been erratic in the past month or so. I don't know if posting will ever go back to normal, but then again, that remains to be seen.

With my life encountering an 'unrecoverable error' causing it to be shut down, I find myself needing to redefine myself to an extent. So bearing this in mind, I believe I need to find other things to do than just sitting at home or gaming, as fun as that is. I did have a hell of a lot of fun in the Warmachine tournament yesterday.

What shall I do? Well, I have a few things in mind

Dance: A friend of mine gave me dance lessons for two for Christmas. Well, I have custody of that gift cert, so I think I'm going to give that a shot. People who know me know I have almost no physical coordination and this may be a good choice. I've wanted to try swing dancing (after all, Benny Goodman IS dance music!). For that matter, salsa and two-step would be decent to learn as well. Finally, of course, I could use the exercise.

Kendo: Ever since I saw a certain little sci-fi movie in 1978, I've wanted to know how to fight with a sword. There is also a certain appeal to hitting someone with a bamboo stick. Again, we have the whole exercise thing here. There is a place I can do that locally.

There will probably be other things that will come up. I find a number of things in my life got away from me in the past, for better or worse, and now I wonder, what do I do?

Gary Gygax RIP

I just found out that the father of Dungeons and Dragons and cofounder of TSR, Gary Gygax has died.

News Link


*Update*
Wizards of the Coast Tribute

CNN Link

Another political post...

The Butcher of Khador

I played a couple rounds of Warmachine on Saturday. I'd picked up the update deck for Khador (to ensure I had recent stats for my army) and decided to give "The Butcher" a try. I have that model kicking around in the hold somewhere, but can locate it. I decided since I have the card, I'd proxy and give him a try.

Wow...just...wow.

There is discussion that I may have made a mistake on the rules for him, but I've yet to be cited a page disputing it. Using his feat and spells, I was able to orchestrate my army to neutralize my opponent rather quickly with a MASSIVE amount of damage. He has a feat where for 1 round, I can add a die to my damage for everyone in his control area. Then I cast a spell that doubled his strength. Combine that with a charge and WOW.

The hard part was trying to get my troops set up for the battle. Certain armies I'll do better than others. The drawback to the Butcher is that while he can defend HIMSELF, I can't easily extend that defense to my Warjacks like I can with Vlad and Sorscha.

ANYWAY, he's pretty badass.

Happy Birthday to...

(In no particular order)
Benecio Del Toro - actor
Sunset Thomas - porn star
Falco - Rock me Amedeus
Tony Iommi - Guitar player for Black Sabbath
Justine Bateman - Actress
Francine - Wrestler
Seal - Singer
Smokey Robinson - Singer
Jeff Daniels - Actor
Amy Tan - wrote Joy Luck Club

me

Dungeon and Dragons session - Hellenika Campaign - 'Stick up her ass!?!?!'

The party returned to the port of Lisbona. They did some buying and selling of wares before turning to the issue at hand - rescuing Boxo from the time bubble. We also got horses. (Tesla's War Pony is named "Phil").

The party "jumps".

And are suddenly granted the sensation of slamming into a brick wall. When they open their eyes, they discover that they are surrounded by armed men. They look around to see that there is a "void" around Konoa. The armed men indicate it has a radius of approximately 1000 miles.

After some research we realize that this is a dome. Experiments show that there is some weird differential of some type. The soldiers indicate that they'd sent one in for a few moments who came back aged 50 years older. Tests demonstrate that the time is flowing faster in the bubble than outside.

Kerin rides off and finds a forest which the dome has cleared through.

The party goes to talk to Jubal. The crystal demonstrates that he is "charged" with chronal energy. Much to the party's surprise, he knows what Chronal energy is. He tells the party that the people on the other side of the bubble (including the King). Jubal further tells the party that the "King Fred" had sent him back to wait for them.

Fred told Jubal to "Come on in, the water's fine. He's waiting for you."

"Don't linger in the area of the barrier." Jubal tells of the time when the Chronal sliders came in and created this "barrier". The party decides to head in the next day.

After a good night sleep, the party saddles up and heads in.

The area inside the bubble, the land continues, but there is no sun. The party sees a smaller house with a chimney with smoke. They approach.

Apparently, the party is famous. The people at the outpost quickly pull out a description of the party. "The priestess with the stick up her ass, the girly elf, the girl that looks like she was beaten with an ugly stick, and the smoking hot chick."

Using a teleportation circle, the party transports into a small locked room. Tesla unlocked the door using the wand of knock that his brilliant forethought told him to purchase in Lisbona. The party is greeted by a much dismayed guard who apparently has never seen horses.

Ten minutes later, the guard returns with a couple other people. He takes the party to see the king. The castle contains many interesting wonders like "moving stairs".

The King is indeed Fred, who only seems to have aged about 6 years. In fact, it's been approximately 100 years. The party heads to where Boxo has been imprisoned all this time.

Session ends.

Technical Difficulties

There is nothing like coming home to a system that is No-Post due to HDD controller failure. Yes, I have backups, but I'd still like to get a more recent backup. Things I can definitely say are helpful...

• Disk Imaging Software (Acronis, Ghost)
• Knoppix

So this morning, we are clearing off space to put a secondary drive into primary service while the offending HDD is in the freezer in hopes of JUST ONE MORE BOOT.

*sigh*

Guitar Rising

The crew of the Pequod is not know for it's console gaming chops.

I bought a PS2 a while back for Dance Dance Revolution and not much else. Even that ends up being somewhat "meh" after a while. However, there is a NEW game on the horizon that has grabbed my attention. If I knew the console this was for, I'd preemptively buy it.

Guitar Rising...

GuitarRising
by jakeparks

I've worked at trying to get better at guitar. I enjoyed playing but I always ran into the limitation of the limits of my manual dexterity. I was usually OK at finding the note I wanted...but just some of the manual gyrations were a bit tricky.

Now, admittedly, this game is likely to have some flaws for the person using it as a "springboard". The other half of learning modern guitar is learning ear training and transcription.

That being said, I applaud the makers of this and I am planning on giving it a heavy look when it comes out.

Official site
Gizmodo article about it

One more song

As bad as all of this is...it will be all right.



Comments are enabled for this post.

However, I am not going to discuss the events of the past 6 days. I'd ask that the talk-backers who are in the know not discuss them either. I'd like to keep my personal life, personal.



P.S. Hear more about this song.

afk

I am not at my keyboard right now.

Don't ask...