The Princess & The Frog is an animated film from good ol' Disney. It stars Anika Noni Rose, Keith David, Bruno Campo, Michael-Leon Wooley, John Goodman, Jim Cummings, Jennifer Cody, and Jenifer Lewis, and adapts the traditional "frog prince" story.
Tiana (Rose) is a waitress working in New Orleans in the 1920s, trying to save up enough money to buy an old sugar mill to turn into a restaurant. Besides her kickass work ethic, she has one big advantage in the personage of her hyperactive, marriage-obsessed friend Lotte (Cody), whose father (Goodman) is a rich sugar magnate. When handsome prince Naveen (Campo) comes to town, looking to marry rich to sidestep his parents cutting him off, Lotte hires Tiana to make a shitload of beignets for her party, hoping to snare the prince.
This totally would have worked, but a bokor called Facilier (David) steps in, suckers Naveen and his servant Lawrence (Peter Bartlett) into making a deal that turns the prince into a frog and Lawrence into the prince. Tiana agrees to kiss the prince in an attempt to turn him back, but all that does is turn her into a frog, and all of this sends them on a rollicking swamp adventure that ends up with Tiana and Naveen married, Tiana buying the sugar mill with the help of her newfound alligator friend Louis (Wooley), and everyone mourning a dead firefly named Ray (Cummings).
Like most Disney fairy tale adaptations lately, it's pretty far removed from the Grimm version, but that's a good thing. Setting it in post WWI New Orleans gives us the opportunity for some amazing jazz and zydeco music, as well as, of course, giving us a black Disney princess, which is cool. This movie faced backlash when it was originally titled The Frog Prince because that was somehow interpreted as "the slur on French people" instead of "the title of the fucking story", and it came back to bite Disney because people assumed it was a movie for little girls and it didn't do well (it also opened a week before Avator, which didn't help).
But I really like it. The voice work is great, Keith David plays a really fun villain, the supporting cast is memorable and interesting, we even get a character death with some weight because little Ray has actually had some shit to do in the story.
The story does have the usual Disney problem of the main characters falling in love after a single night, but they also both have lessons to learn and they have moments of growth, so that's nice. We also don't get any real sense of Maldonia, the fictional kingdom from whence Naveen comes, as a real place and its language is kinda all over the map, but fortunately the internet is here for us.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium-high
Next up: The Princess Bride
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Blue Rose: Wriggle On
Blue Rose, ahoy! Last time here.
The characters are heading up through tiny, cramped tunnels, going to the surface and, hopefully, Miriana's Tomb. But that seems so far away when they're wriggling through the dark.
The party winds its way through the tunnels, with Arlen providing light and Pansy guiding the way in psychic contact with Dobbin. Pansy makes clear that she hates this. Everything is wet and her paws are wet and it smells like dead fish and her eyes are droopy and she's afraid Dobbin is going to get stuck.
Dobbin reassures her, and they soldier one. Pansy tells them that the tunnel goes away up ahead, and sure enough, it empties into a huge flooded cavern. Arlen checks the map and realizes that, yep, this chamber should be empty, but it must have flooded somehow. Whirlpool dives down into the water to try and get some bearings, and sees a lot of sharks. They're not bothering the party, but they're there, and that makes everyone nervous.
Whirlpool goes further into the cave and finds some exits, but doesn't know which one is the right one. He swims back and Arlen takes a deep breath and heads down, spotting the right exit. Whirlpool swims through holding a rope, finds where the tunnel juts up and there's air again, and everyone swims through, past the sharks, and back into the tight tunnels once more.
They wriggle on, and suddenly Pansy starts thinking "SNAKE! LADY!" at Dobbin. Dobbin glances over and sees a human face staring at her from the wall. She grabs for Pansy and starts moving on, and the woman asks her if she's planning to eat that little mammal. Dobbin holds Pansy close and says that she's her companion and friend, not food, and the snake-lady nods and retreats. Dobbin relays this to the others, and they grit their teeth and keep wriggling.
This tunnel empties into a small room with knee-deep water. The characters leave the tunnel and take a minute to breath and stretch, but then notice sharpened pieces of coral or bone sticking out of the silt on the floor of the cavern. This place is trapped, and they start moving on, with nary a nick.
But then suddenly, the water level rises seven feet. The characters tread water, and three of those snake-creatures attack! They slither out from the water and bite, one of them hits Arlen in the face with a gush of water and stuns him, but the characters manage to slay them without taking any serious damage. Shaken, they keep moving, once again back in the tiny tunnels.
They get a little ways before Whirlpool realizes that the chest holding the Mask won't fit. They have to open it, and Kisha wraps the Mask in a cloth (ignoring the voices telling her to put it on), and they keep moving.
Finally, after what seems like days but is probably only a few hours, they emerge into a large room with a low ceiling. The ceiling is made of a smooth, black stone, and they all feel a weight hit their minds and souls and a strong urge to grab the Mask and put it on (which, fortunately, they all resist). They are in the presence of the shadowgate.
And as if on cue, darkfiends begin dropping from the ceiling...
The characters are heading up through tiny, cramped tunnels, going to the surface and, hopefully, Miriana's Tomb. But that seems so far away when they're wriggling through the dark.
The party winds its way through the tunnels, with Arlen providing light and Pansy guiding the way in psychic contact with Dobbin. Pansy makes clear that she hates this. Everything is wet and her paws are wet and it smells like dead fish and her eyes are droopy and she's afraid Dobbin is going to get stuck.
Dobbin reassures her, and they soldier one. Pansy tells them that the tunnel goes away up ahead, and sure enough, it empties into a huge flooded cavern. Arlen checks the map and realizes that, yep, this chamber should be empty, but it must have flooded somehow. Whirlpool dives down into the water to try and get some bearings, and sees a lot of sharks. They're not bothering the party, but they're there, and that makes everyone nervous.
Whirlpool goes further into the cave and finds some exits, but doesn't know which one is the right one. He swims back and Arlen takes a deep breath and heads down, spotting the right exit. Whirlpool swims through holding a rope, finds where the tunnel juts up and there's air again, and everyone swims through, past the sharks, and back into the tight tunnels once more.
They wriggle on, and suddenly Pansy starts thinking "SNAKE! LADY!" at Dobbin. Dobbin glances over and sees a human face staring at her from the wall. She grabs for Pansy and starts moving on, and the woman asks her if she's planning to eat that little mammal. Dobbin holds Pansy close and says that she's her companion and friend, not food, and the snake-lady nods and retreats. Dobbin relays this to the others, and they grit their teeth and keep wriggling.
This tunnel empties into a small room with knee-deep water. The characters leave the tunnel and take a minute to breath and stretch, but then notice sharpened pieces of coral or bone sticking out of the silt on the floor of the cavern. This place is trapped, and they start moving on, with nary a nick.
But then suddenly, the water level rises seven feet. The characters tread water, and three of those snake-creatures attack! They slither out from the water and bite, one of them hits Arlen in the face with a gush of water and stuns him, but the characters manage to slay them without taking any serious damage. Shaken, they keep moving, once again back in the tiny tunnels.
They get a little ways before Whirlpool realizes that the chest holding the Mask won't fit. They have to open it, and Kisha wraps the Mask in a cloth (ignoring the voices telling her to put it on), and they keep moving.
Finally, after what seems like days but is probably only a few hours, they emerge into a large room with a low ceiling. The ceiling is made of a smooth, black stone, and they all feel a weight hit their minds and souls and a strong urge to grab the Mask and put it on (which, fortunately, they all resist). They are in the presence of the shadowgate.
And as if on cue, darkfiends begin dropping from the ceiling...
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Movie #562: Pride & Prejudice
Pride & Prejudice is, in this case, the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, and stars Kiera Knightley, Rosamund Pike, Matthew Macfadyen, Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn, Talulah Riley, Jena Malone, Carey Mulligan, Simon Woods, and Judi Dench.
It's a pretty famous story; the Bennett family has five sisters: Jane (Pike), Lizzie (Knightley), Mary (Talulah), Lydia (Malone), and Kitty (Mulligan). Their father (Sutherland), because he has no sons, can't leave their house to the girls, meaning that when he dies, those girls better be married or their cousin Collins (Tom Hollander) could just turn them out. Jane starts flirting with an eligible bachelor named Bingley (Woods), accompanied by his dour friend Darcy (Macfayden). Drama ensues, Lydia runs away with a scoundrel who is then forced to marry her, Darcy falls in love with Lizze, happy ending.
I've seen a couple of different versions and interpretations of this story, from Bridget Jones' Diary to "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" (OK, that one doesn't really count), and I have to say that the most entertaining thing about this version is watching it with Michelle, because it makes her grouchy. Apparently they stripped out all the humor from the story and made it more focused on the drama. I don't know, I don't think I've ever read the book (reading is for nerds), but I will say that watching it with modern sensibilities it's easy to say "so what" at a lot of the dire problems that face these people because the historical context isn't always clear.
Knightley is fun as Lizzie. Pike is good, if somewhat bland, as Jane, and Malone is perfectly teeth-grinding as Lydia. Judi Dench gets to be a horrid person for a few moments as Lady Catherine, so that's fun. Macfayden kinda grew on me as Darcy. Darcy has the potential to be a sort of wet fish, and I enjoyed watching the shifts in the character's attitudes towards Lizzie.
All in all, though, it's not a story I'm married to and I trust Michelle when she tells me it's not a great adaptation.
My Grade: C
Rewatch Value: IINSIAIFWT
Next up: The Princess & the Frog
It's a pretty famous story; the Bennett family has five sisters: Jane (Pike), Lizzie (Knightley), Mary (Talulah), Lydia (Malone), and Kitty (Mulligan). Their father (Sutherland), because he has no sons, can't leave their house to the girls, meaning that when he dies, those girls better be married or their cousin Collins (Tom Hollander) could just turn them out. Jane starts flirting with an eligible bachelor named Bingley (Woods), accompanied by his dour friend Darcy (Macfayden). Drama ensues, Lydia runs away with a scoundrel who is then forced to marry her, Darcy falls in love with Lizze, happy ending.
I've seen a couple of different versions and interpretations of this story, from Bridget Jones' Diary to "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" (OK, that one doesn't really count), and I have to say that the most entertaining thing about this version is watching it with Michelle, because it makes her grouchy. Apparently they stripped out all the humor from the story and made it more focused on the drama. I don't know, I don't think I've ever read the book (reading is for nerds), but I will say that watching it with modern sensibilities it's easy to say "so what" at a lot of the dire problems that face these people because the historical context isn't always clear.
Knightley is fun as Lizzie. Pike is good, if somewhat bland, as Jane, and Malone is perfectly teeth-grinding as Lydia. Judi Dench gets to be a horrid person for a few moments as Lady Catherine, so that's fun. Macfayden kinda grew on me as Darcy. Darcy has the potential to be a sort of wet fish, and I enjoyed watching the shifts in the character's attitudes towards Lizzie.
All in all, though, it's not a story I'm married to and I trust Michelle when she tells me it's not a great adaptation.
My Grade: C
Rewatch Value: IINSIAIFWT
Next up: The Princess & the Frog
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Character Creation: Shadows of Esteren
You know, I really wanted to like this game. Ah, well.
The Game: Shadows of Esteren
The Publisher: Studio Agate
Degree of Familiarity: None, and the book didn't hook me
Books Required: Just the one
Shadows of Esteren is described on their website as a crossmedia project. It's an RPG! Music! Board games! It slices and dices!
And that's fine, that's not remotely where I have a problem. My issue is that the first 200 pages of the first core book (which is all you need to play, unless you want the complete setting) is all in-character setting info. And like, over the years I've cooled on that as a means of conveying setting info. Sure, unreliable narrators make for interesting conflicts, and sure, presenting in-character documents are a potentially interesting way of showing history and bias, but that requires them to have a strong hook to bring a reader in, and I didn't find that this book had it.
And admittedly, some of this is my usual bugaboo with fantasy as a genre, but I just found the writing dry. I will say, though, that the artwork and the production design are fabulous, so that's nice.
Anyway, I tried to get through the setting chapters, I really did, but my eyes kept glazing over and so I'm gonna jump right to the character creation section and hope that contextualizes enough that I can use it.
Step One is to choose an ethnicity. None of them really pass the Chupp test, so I'm just gonna be basic and say my character is Tri-Kazelian.
Step Two: Profession, Birthplace, and Social Class. Why are these all wrapped up in one step, but Ethnicity is its own? Weird.
Well, let's start with Profession, since that's next in the book.
Hmm. There's vaguely magicky things available; you can be a "magientist" or a druid-like thing, but the magic in this game is supposedly very subtle. The last couple fantasy characters I've made have been pretty rugged, so I think I'll go a little more cosmopolitan and make a Merchant. That makes my primary domain Relation, and I can choose Erudition or Craft as my secondary. I'll go with Craft, I think.
I get two more Domains at 2, and two at 1. I want to take Erudition at 2, so I'm not illiterate. Think I'll take Feats at 1 (that's like athletics). Also Perception at 1. For my other 2...hmm. Let's say Science.
Birthplace! I don't actually have to name it, I just need to decide if I grew up in a city and was therefore conscripted for a year, or not. I'm gonna say I was, so I get a point in Close Combat and another point in Relation, which puts me over 5, so then what happens? I get a point in a Discipline. What's that? Ah, OK. Once you get over 5 in a domain, you have to specialize, so a Discipline is a refinement of a domain but it's rated 6 to 15. So I'll take Persuasion as my Discipline.
Social class! Commoner, obviously, but more middle class, so I get to choose two of Craft, Erudition, Performance, and Relation to raise. I'll do Craft and Relation again, so I can put Diplomacy as a Discipline.
Step Three: The Ways. I thought at first that these were the basic attribute like things, but upon further reading they're a little more complicated. Ways are mental characteristics and they seem to have more to do with how a character approaches things. I get ratings of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (that's the kind of combination an idiot would have on his luggage!) in my Ways. Having a high rating gives me bonuses to certain Domains, but it also apparently makes me prone to Faults.
Anyway, I'll put my 1 in Conviction (it's not that my guy doesn't understand living for a cause, it just doesn't suit him). I'll put 2 into Combativeness, 3 into Reason, 4 into Empathy, and 5 into Creativity.
Step Four: Age, Setbacks, and History. Oh, now, this is cool. I can choose to be older (though no older than 35), and if I am I get more skill points, but I also have Setbacks. Well, I want at least some life experience, so I'll say my character is 28, so I get two more Domain points but also two Setbacks. I'll put one point into Craft and one into Travel, and then I have to roll for Setbacks, which is only fitting.
First off, I get a Wound, resulting in a one-point penalty to Stamina. I'll say that my character was moving a bunch of goods from a wagon and something spooked the horse. It pitched forward and my character fell under the wagon wheel, breaking his leg.
Next, I get an Adversary. I'll say that the lord of a nearby province bought some good from me, but when he got them, they were ruined (broken, rotten, I'll figure that out later). My character to this day swears it wasn't his fault, but the lord blames me and he's not the most stable of people.
And now I do history, which is basically just that. My character's name is Oarel. He was raised in Baldh-Ruoch; his family were crafters and carpenters. Oarel, however, demonstrated a knack of money, for buying and selling, and sometimes just trading (after all, as Oarel's uncle was fond of saying, money is just a symbol, so it's better to get goods and services than coin). Over the years he's made and broken many different deals, and he's got his fair share of loyal partners and customers as well as people who swear they wouldn't cross the street to spit in his eye. It isn't that he's immoral or even amoral, it's just that sometimes deals fall through, and can he be blamed for that?
Step Five: Traits, Sanity, and Personality. First off I get two traits, based on my Ways. One's a quality and one's a flaw. Hmm. Well, I think I'll take the flaw in Conviction and say that Oarel is inconstant. I'll take the quality in creativity and say he's inventive.
Consciousness is Reason + Conviction, which is 4. Instinct is Combativeness + Creativity (7). Trauma starts at 0. That means my orientation is instinctive...oh, but wait, I get Trauma equal to the difference, so 3.
Mental Resistance is Conviction + 5, so 6. Except it can be changed by Advantages and Disadvantages. Is there some virus that makes game designers put derived traits before things that can change them in the process?
Anyway, Sanity. I start off in the Balance section, but the book also says that to use these rules, we have to read the Sanity chapter (!). Think I'll skip it.
Step Six: Experience Points, Advantages, Disadvantages. And now I get 100 XP to spend, and I can get more by taking Disadvantages, but I don't like any of them so I shan't. I will, however, say that I have some money set aside, so I'll spent 10 points on Financial Ease. I have 90 left, and none of the other Advantages sing to me, so I'll dump them into Domains (for 9 points). I'll take points in Erudition, two in Perception, one in Performance, one in Science, one in Shooting/Throwing, two in Stealth, and one more in Travel.
Step Seven: Potential, Defense, Speed, and Stamina. God, these divisions of steps are so damn arbitrary. I have 3 Fighting Potential, 12 Defense, 6 Speed, 9 Stamina (should be 10, but that wound).
Step Eight: Fighting Attitudes and Attack Rating. These are just how combat numbers shift depending on how you fight. Looks like a cool system, but it's not something I feel like puzzling through.
Step Nine: Survival Points, Rindath, Exaltation. Now we're just making up words. Survival Points is 3 for a starting character. Rindath is 11, but it doesn't matter because I don't do magic. Exaltation, likewise, isn't important for me because I'm not a priest, but it's 3 if anyone asks.
Step Ten: Description and Equipment. Holy shit. OK, so Oarel is a sturdy-looking man in his late 20s. He's got sandy brown hair and a well-kept beard, and he walks with the aid of a walking stick (more when it gets cold). He wears clothes that are maybe a little too nice for him, but he's a little vain. He eschews weapons; he doesn't ever want to send the message that things could devolve into violence because if that happens, ain't nobody getting paid.
I think it'd be interesting to play Oarel as the PC who's paying everyone else, at least at first. Not sure I've ever been in that kind of game, where one player-controlled character hired the others. I mean, stuff like Leverage where it's assumed, but nothing where there's actually a money system.
Speaking of which, I ain't shopping. That's me done.
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Character Creation: Hardnova Sovereign Space
I swear the word "sovereign" gets harder to spell every time I have to type it, which is weird.
The Game: Hardnova Sovereign Space
The Publisher: Precis Intermedia
Degree of Familiarity: None. I've read it at least twice
Books Required: Just the one
This is one I haven't really been looking forward to, not because I hate the game or anything, but just because it just utterly failed to grab me. Hard sci-fi games have a difficult row to hoe anyway, because if you're going to make a game in the genre, you've got to have the science nailed down and figure out what it means in play. Like, if there's no FTL, OK, does that mean no interplanetary travel? Or a lot of time in hibernative naptosis, as one Turanga Leela would say?
But is this game hard sci-fi, or is it space opera? There's a history section that talks about Earth becoming an interplanetary superpower and fighting wars with alien races before helping to form the USU (which is United Sovereign Worlds, which really should be USW, but aliens had trouble with the concept of a "double-u" which just makes my face hurt).
Anyway, if this were a game that had a fun, intuitive system, that'd be great, but instead, you make checks by rolling 2d6 (your dice total), comparing that to your skill total, and then comparing the margin to a preset difficulty, which is so unnecessarily complex I can't even. Like, I'm sure it works smoothly at the table with someone who knows how it works, but I can't imagine pitching it to any of my groups. The immediate question would be: If we want hard sci-fi, why aren't we playing Diaspora? If we want space opera or some other sci-fi thing in spaaaaace, why aren't we playing Bulldogs! or Slipstream or Scum & Villainy or Synthicide or any of the other games with more personality?
Well, critique aside, let's make a character. The chargen rules are tucked into an appendix because the assumption is you'll use a pregen, which, like, bleah.
Ok, first thing I'm meant to do is think about my character's role in the game. The game itself doesn't have a lot of focus (it's more "here's the setting, go have adventures"), but I'm reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet right now and that's definitely influencing my decisions. It'd be interesting to play someone who works for the USU in some kind of official capacity, someone whose job it is to make sure that folks are following the rules. And, yes, this is something like an official bureaucrat in the Futurama sense (which I kinda did for Scavengers), but I think there's a greater focus on cultural communication and, if not linguistics, then the non-translatable aspect of language.
(Jesus, Matt, just make a blaster-slinging smuggler sometime.)
Anyway, with that mind, I must choose a race. I think I'll just play a human, since none of the alien races depicted have any particular facility for the kind of thing I want this character to do. I'll name him Oslo May.
Now I get 12 points to divide between Abilities. There's 5 of them, and the range is 1 to 5. Creativity, Reasoning, and Influence are the ones I think I need to have decent scores in, so I'll put 4 in Creativity, 3 in Reasoning and Influence, and that leaves 1 each in Fitness and Awareness.
30 points for skills. I get Athletics 4 and General Knowledge 4 for free. I'll also take:
Investigation 2
Design 3
Forgery 2
Scavenging 2
Academics 3
Medicine 2
Scanning 3
Streetwise 3
Negotiation 2
Seduction 2
Street cred 3
Composure 3
That's 30!
Now gimmicks. There are positive and detrimental ones, and if I take detrimental ones it raises a stat or a skill, while if I take a positive one it lowers a stat or a skill. Or, I suppose, you could take gimmicks to cancel each other out, but whatevs. Let's start with detrimental ones.
Ugh, these all suck. I'll take Poor, and I'll take Discrimination, and say that Oslo didn't exactly come by this line of work straight out of academia. His knowledge is hard-won on the "streets", as it were, and his knowledge of cultural differences is all practical. He's got a criminal record for fraud and grift (but he's proudly non-violent, thanks).
And look at that, Criminal is a cultural gimmick. Gimme. And then I could take Multilingual, I could take USU Authority, or I could be psionic and take empathy. Hrm. I think I'll take USU Authority, because it amuses me to think he's an ex-con who's now part of the government and how much that annoys some of his more sanctimonious comrades.
Cool! OK, Oslo is a slim man of average height. Black hair, prison/criminal tracking implants, wears his USU uniform most of the time but probably has a way to change out of it quickly in case he needs to be, like, not a fed. Practiced with holographic design, and decent at finding spare parts where he can. Also knows why you don't offer your hand to that race, or why you really should make constant eye contact with that one. Just trying to be helpful, friend.
And that's it!
Chill: Cabin in the Woods
Cyber-Chill, I guess.
It's been a year and some change of downtime between the last case and this one, and the envoys have enjoyed the reprieve. Jeanie, Dylan, and BB are starting to think that their repeated injuries at the hands of the Unknown mean that they need to take a more supportive role. Jeanie is acting as a kind of communications liaison and coordinator around the ranch. Dylan is trying to help the cell get in touch with SAVE as a whole, which means delving into the reasons behind the cell structure in the first place. BB has been traveling to other HQs and doing training and recruitment.
Emily, meanwhile, has grown more militant in the interim. She's also doing outreach to other HQs, but her training is all about combat preparedness, since most SAVE envoys are civilians. She's resolved never to get caught unarmed again - this is war.
Other envoys are moving on with their normal lives, for whatever value of normal. Blake has become a sheriff's deputy in Owlee county (where the ranch is), Samantha has been working with the Idaho Falls police on cold cases (and recently helped close a major one), Beth Anne, feeling like she's kind of an ineffective envoy, has gone back to school and tried to do without SAVE for a while. Back in Chicago, Jennifer Joyce has worked with the HQ there a bit, but mostly focused on her career as a reporter.
Willa, meanwhile, has been looking for her father's ghost, and maybe getting a bit more reckless while investigating such things.
And so now we pick up on July 4, 2019. Jennifer is visiting from Chicago, and several of the other envoys - Samantha, Blake, and Jordan - are hanging out at the ranch. A call comes in, which Jeanie answers.
"Hi," says the woman caller. "This is Joy Taylor, do you remember me?" She sounds frantic.
Jeanie does remember Joy; they met way back here and Joy underwent some orientation in SAVE at the same time as Blake. Jeanie asks what's going on, and Joy says that her niece was on a trip to a vacation cabin this weekend, but this morning Joy woke up in a cold sweat and felt that her niece was in danger. She drove out to the cabin and stopped in the driveway, and saw Mary (her niece) waving her arms from the porch and screaming, but not approaching. Unsure of what was happening, Joy called the ranch.
Jeanie tells her to stay put and text the address, and contacts Emily, who does a roundup through the house ("we're leaving in five, grab your stuff if you're coming"). Since this is just recon, or so he thinks, BB tags along.
The six envoys: Jennifer, Jordan, Emily, BB, Blake, and Samantha, arrive at the cabin about 45 minutes from Boise to find Joy pacing back and forth by her car. She lost track of Mary and hasn't seen her since. Blake opines that what she may have felt was a premonition and she was right to call. Emily heads up to the cabin to check the perimeter, and Blake, BB, and Jordan head the other direction. Samantha and Jennifer stay with Joy.
The envoys circle the cabin and don't find anything obviously wrong, just weird. Lots of footprints around the cabin, as though multiple people were running around, but they don't seem to have a particular direction in mind. Blake notices, through the kitchen window, that there are multiple plates strewn across the kitchen floor, some broken, and also a big pile of beer cans. The back door leading into a mud room is ajar, too, and that's where the envoys meet up.
The head in, and notice that the washer and dryer have been pulled out from the wall and unplugged. Blake peeks into the washer, and hears a voice whisper in his ear "expecting to find bodies in there? Maybe later". Blake freezes and puts his hand on Emily's arm (she's about to leave the mud room and go into the house). He tells them about the voice, and they cautiously advance.
The mud room leads out into a hallway; one way leads to a great big kitchen/living room arrangement, the other to the bedrooms. The envoys head into the bigger room, and suddenly a girl of about 18 appears in the middle of the room. She screams "HELP ME" and then vanishes. The envoys are taken aback, but not harmed, and they start exploring the room.
Emily heads down the other way, checking doors and rooms, making sure they're empty. When she gets to the master bedroom, she goes in to check the attached bathroom (still nothing), but as she goes to leave, the door slams shut. She hears a voice whisper "stay a while, lovely".
Emily doesn't like being in a situation she can't shoot. She tries the door, but it won't budge - the handle won't even turn. She hears someone walking down the hall, and then hears BB call out asking if she needs help. She answers, saying that the door is stuck. BB tries is - same thing, not even a wiggle. He draws back and activates Feat of Strength and kicks the door hard enough to splinter it, but it doesn't move.
Jordan uses Line of Defense to ward the living room, hoping to draw out whatever the saw. Blake feels something rush past him in the kitchen and the door leading outside slams. Emily grabs a chair and throws it through a window in the bathroom, making her escape that way. Down by the cars, Jennifer and Samantha hear slamming door and see the window burst outward, and decide to come join them. Samantha tells Joy to get in the car and not to come in unless the envoys tell her to, and she and Jennifer head up.
The envoys reconvene in the (warded) living room and on the porch. They've discovered strangeness - all of the food in the house has been put in big ol' trash bags and put on the porch, the TV and game system has been unplugged, and there's a record player sitting in the corner of the living room with this album on it. Samantha uses Postcognition in the kitchen and sees six teenagers, all panicked. One of them, a black boy of about 18, is throwing dishes on the floor ranting about poison or being drugged. Two other young men are holding each other closely, while two girls and huddled together, one (probably Mary, Joy's niece) is crying.
Samantha reports this to the others, but it leaves them with questions. If the kids are here...where are they? Who's whispering to the characters? Jordan decides to go out to the car to ask Joy some questions, but when she gets to the driveway, her legs just...stop. She tries to summon a Mental Shield, but hears a voice whisper: "you leave and I kill them all. That's a promise, lovely."
She rolls her eyes and heads back in, not wanting to test this. The envoys decide to keep searching the house and try to piece together what's happening.
Jennifer and Samantha search the bedrooms. The first one shows evidence of being occupied by two men, obviously sexually involved with each other (used condoms, etc.). They find a cell phone under the bed, with multiple unsent messages. They're all variations on the same thing: we need help, we can't leave. They aren't sure who's cell phone this is, though.
The next bedroom was occupied by two women, though they seem to just be sharing a room. There's a shattered mirror in one corner, though; looks like someone threw a hairbrush and broke it.
The master bedroom shows occupancy by a man and a woman, definitely a couple. They find birth control in the bathroom, and a luggage label with the name "Vicki Parsons," but no other identifying information.
Emily, meanwhile, decides to go out to the car and get her go-bag. It contains, among other things, a tool kit and she wants to take the doors off the hinges so they can't slam. But when she gets to the driveway, her legs stop working again. She hears a whisper "told you, lovely. Stay a while." She decides to try and find a perimeter to this effect, and she gets a little ways away, but then collapses.
Meantime, BB and Jordan have been on the porch sorting through the bags of trash (ew), and they realize that a lot of this food isn't even opened. BB has no reason to think any of it is poisoned, so he's not sure what happened to make the kids think it was. And then Jordan sees Emily collapse and runs out to her.
Emily is fine, just sleeping. Jordan raises a Mental Shield on her and she revives, a little panicked at the notion she might have been out for a while, but it's only been a minute. The envoys circle the house and find that the effect isn't a uniform circle, but it does prevent them from going down either the path to the lake or to the cars. Jordan notes that she could probably get through it with a Sphere of Protection, but they aren't quite ready to try that yet.
The envoys reconvene in the living room; Jordan wards the kitchen as well. They check out the record player and note that this album is a little strange for a group of high school seniors in 2019. Blake touches it and uses Schematic, and realizes that while the record player hasn't been used by a creature of the Unknown, it's definitely been a focus. They play the record, but apart from noticing that "In the Pines" was covered by Nirvana (as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"), they don't find anything useful.
Jordan points out that at sundown, the wards will fade. It's July, so sunset is late and they've got a few hours, but they need to come up with some kind of plan. And who or what is the creature whispering in their ears, calling the women "lovely?"
It's been a year and some change of downtime between the last case and this one, and the envoys have enjoyed the reprieve. Jeanie, Dylan, and BB are starting to think that their repeated injuries at the hands of the Unknown mean that they need to take a more supportive role. Jeanie is acting as a kind of communications liaison and coordinator around the ranch. Dylan is trying to help the cell get in touch with SAVE as a whole, which means delving into the reasons behind the cell structure in the first place. BB has been traveling to other HQs and doing training and recruitment.
Emily, meanwhile, has grown more militant in the interim. She's also doing outreach to other HQs, but her training is all about combat preparedness, since most SAVE envoys are civilians. She's resolved never to get caught unarmed again - this is war.
Other envoys are moving on with their normal lives, for whatever value of normal. Blake has become a sheriff's deputy in Owlee county (where the ranch is), Samantha has been working with the Idaho Falls police on cold cases (and recently helped close a major one), Beth Anne, feeling like she's kind of an ineffective envoy, has gone back to school and tried to do without SAVE for a while. Back in Chicago, Jennifer Joyce has worked with the HQ there a bit, but mostly focused on her career as a reporter.
Willa, meanwhile, has been looking for her father's ghost, and maybe getting a bit more reckless while investigating such things.
And so now we pick up on July 4, 2019. Jennifer is visiting from Chicago, and several of the other envoys - Samantha, Blake, and Jordan - are hanging out at the ranch. A call comes in, which Jeanie answers.
"Hi," says the woman caller. "This is Joy Taylor, do you remember me?" She sounds frantic.
Jeanie does remember Joy; they met way back here and Joy underwent some orientation in SAVE at the same time as Blake. Jeanie asks what's going on, and Joy says that her niece was on a trip to a vacation cabin this weekend, but this morning Joy woke up in a cold sweat and felt that her niece was in danger. She drove out to the cabin and stopped in the driveway, and saw Mary (her niece) waving her arms from the porch and screaming, but not approaching. Unsure of what was happening, Joy called the ranch.
Jeanie tells her to stay put and text the address, and contacts Emily, who does a roundup through the house ("we're leaving in five, grab your stuff if you're coming"). Since this is just recon, or so he thinks, BB tags along.
The six envoys: Jennifer, Jordan, Emily, BB, Blake, and Samantha, arrive at the cabin about 45 minutes from Boise to find Joy pacing back and forth by her car. She lost track of Mary and hasn't seen her since. Blake opines that what she may have felt was a premonition and she was right to call. Emily heads up to the cabin to check the perimeter, and Blake, BB, and Jordan head the other direction. Samantha and Jennifer stay with Joy.
The envoys circle the cabin and don't find anything obviously wrong, just weird. Lots of footprints around the cabin, as though multiple people were running around, but they don't seem to have a particular direction in mind. Blake notices, through the kitchen window, that there are multiple plates strewn across the kitchen floor, some broken, and also a big pile of beer cans. The back door leading into a mud room is ajar, too, and that's where the envoys meet up.
The head in, and notice that the washer and dryer have been pulled out from the wall and unplugged. Blake peeks into the washer, and hears a voice whisper in his ear "expecting to find bodies in there? Maybe later". Blake freezes and puts his hand on Emily's arm (she's about to leave the mud room and go into the house). He tells them about the voice, and they cautiously advance.
The mud room leads out into a hallway; one way leads to a great big kitchen/living room arrangement, the other to the bedrooms. The envoys head into the bigger room, and suddenly a girl of about 18 appears in the middle of the room. She screams "HELP ME" and then vanishes. The envoys are taken aback, but not harmed, and they start exploring the room.
Emily heads down the other way, checking doors and rooms, making sure they're empty. When she gets to the master bedroom, she goes in to check the attached bathroom (still nothing), but as she goes to leave, the door slams shut. She hears a voice whisper "stay a while, lovely".
Emily doesn't like being in a situation she can't shoot. She tries the door, but it won't budge - the handle won't even turn. She hears someone walking down the hall, and then hears BB call out asking if she needs help. She answers, saying that the door is stuck. BB tries is - same thing, not even a wiggle. He draws back and activates Feat of Strength and kicks the door hard enough to splinter it, but it doesn't move.
Jordan uses Line of Defense to ward the living room, hoping to draw out whatever the saw. Blake feels something rush past him in the kitchen and the door leading outside slams. Emily grabs a chair and throws it through a window in the bathroom, making her escape that way. Down by the cars, Jennifer and Samantha hear slamming door and see the window burst outward, and decide to come join them. Samantha tells Joy to get in the car and not to come in unless the envoys tell her to, and she and Jennifer head up.
The envoys reconvene in the (warded) living room and on the porch. They've discovered strangeness - all of the food in the house has been put in big ol' trash bags and put on the porch, the TV and game system has been unplugged, and there's a record player sitting in the corner of the living room with this album on it. Samantha uses Postcognition in the kitchen and sees six teenagers, all panicked. One of them, a black boy of about 18, is throwing dishes on the floor ranting about poison or being drugged. Two other young men are holding each other closely, while two girls and huddled together, one (probably Mary, Joy's niece) is crying.
Samantha reports this to the others, but it leaves them with questions. If the kids are here...where are they? Who's whispering to the characters? Jordan decides to go out to the car to ask Joy some questions, but when she gets to the driveway, her legs just...stop. She tries to summon a Mental Shield, but hears a voice whisper: "you leave and I kill them all. That's a promise, lovely."
She rolls her eyes and heads back in, not wanting to test this. The envoys decide to keep searching the house and try to piece together what's happening.
Jennifer and Samantha search the bedrooms. The first one shows evidence of being occupied by two men, obviously sexually involved with each other (used condoms, etc.). They find a cell phone under the bed, with multiple unsent messages. They're all variations on the same thing: we need help, we can't leave. They aren't sure who's cell phone this is, though.
The next bedroom was occupied by two women, though they seem to just be sharing a room. There's a shattered mirror in one corner, though; looks like someone threw a hairbrush and broke it.
The master bedroom shows occupancy by a man and a woman, definitely a couple. They find birth control in the bathroom, and a luggage label with the name "Vicki Parsons," but no other identifying information.
Emily, meanwhile, decides to go out to the car and get her go-bag. It contains, among other things, a tool kit and she wants to take the doors off the hinges so they can't slam. But when she gets to the driveway, her legs stop working again. She hears a whisper "told you, lovely. Stay a while." She decides to try and find a perimeter to this effect, and she gets a little ways away, but then collapses.
Meantime, BB and Jordan have been on the porch sorting through the bags of trash (ew), and they realize that a lot of this food isn't even opened. BB has no reason to think any of it is poisoned, so he's not sure what happened to make the kids think it was. And then Jordan sees Emily collapse and runs out to her.
Emily is fine, just sleeping. Jordan raises a Mental Shield on her and she revives, a little panicked at the notion she might have been out for a while, but it's only been a minute. The envoys circle the house and find that the effect isn't a uniform circle, but it does prevent them from going down either the path to the lake or to the cars. Jordan notes that she could probably get through it with a Sphere of Protection, but they aren't quite ready to try that yet.
The envoys reconvene in the living room; Jordan wards the kitchen as well. They check out the record player and note that this album is a little strange for a group of high school seniors in 2019. Blake touches it and uses Schematic, and realizes that while the record player hasn't been used by a creature of the Unknown, it's definitely been a focus. They play the record, but apart from noticing that "In the Pines" was covered by Nirvana (as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"), they don't find anything useful.
Jordan points out that at sundown, the wards will fade. It's July, so sunset is late and they've got a few hours, but they need to come up with some kind of plan. And who or what is the creature whispering in their ears, calling the women "lovely?"
Friday, April 24, 2020
Blue Rose: Roasted Crab and Lurking Ghoul
Last night was Blue Rose, jiggety-jig.
Last time, the party was rescued by sea-folk and taken to the tunnels beneath the Leviathan's Teeth, far under the sea. The characters manage to get there with minimal difficulty, and are welcomed by the Jarzoni sea-folk. They're a kind of formal and polite bunch, and very invested in the characters being the ones "prophesied" to end the stillness. They're taken to meet the high priest and leader of the community, Garis Cru.
Garis is sitting in a chamber with a volcanic vent, and the characters join him and talk about their mission and their experiences thus far. He tells them what he knows about the "stillness" - there's an island in the Teeth that is perpetually in springtime, blossoms growing around a tomb and always pleasant and warm, even when the sea rages around it. He claims this is because there's a "witch" buried there and this is due to her influence, even after death. The characters gather this is probably Miriana's Tomb, and her being regarded as a witch by the uber-pious Jarzoni isn't surprising.
They ask Garis about the Mask and what they might need to do to destroy it, but he doesn't know anything about the Mask specifically. He notes that there's a shadowgate between here and the Tomb, and his people have tried to destroy it but have failed to even dent it. Kisha notes that the party destroyed a shadowgate once, but feels that might have been luck as much as anything. In either case, the characters are going to encounter that shadowgate on their way up.
Garis tells the party that the sea-folk will accompany them up, but by custom they don't go further than the seamount. At that point, the characters will need to start following a map leading them up through the tunnels into the Teeth. He offers them crab roasted in a bucket dangled down into the vent, which Dobbin and Whirlpool eagerly accept, and Arlen rather tentatively tries (seafood's not a big part of Rezean cuisine and he isn't sure how to eat it). Garis asks what else the characters might need and says he'll provide whatever he can, but of course he's limited by the fact that they're in caves at the bottom of the ocean (Dobbin is out of luck where arrows are concerned, for instance). He leaves them to talk over their needs, and to rest.
The characters talk a bit, and decide that they'll need basic provisions - food, water, and breathing pearls - but beyond that they're pretty well good. Dobbin wonders how exactly they are going to destroy the Mask, and Arlen casts a Vision spell. He sees Nettas, the darkfiend, grabbing the Mask and putting it up to its head, merging with it and sending out a blast of black energy that drives the characters back...but now the darkfiend is bleeding. The characters figure that maybe letting Nettas have its skull back will make it vulnerable, though it seems they'll be in for a very difficult fight.
They hear a scream outside in the tunnels, and rush out. Garis is lying on the ground in a tunnel, and a horrible gnarled creature is squatting by him, chewing on his shoulder. He's got a dagger sticking out of his stomach, and he's bleeding out. The creature has a trident strapped to its back, and that as much as anything allows the characters to recognize it - Qinis. He released Garis and runs.
Kisha charges after him. Dobbin fires an arrow, which whizzes by Kisha's head and strikes Qinis. Whirlpool casts Cold Shaping to freeze him, and manages to freeze and frostbite his skin, but Qinis is faster than Kisha and makes it to the slope leading to the ocean. Whirlpool considers going in after him, but, remembering how badly Qinis hurt him the last time they fought, decides against it.
Meanwhile, Arlen casts Cure on Garis to save his life, and removes the dagger from his stomach. He recognizes it - it's Whirlpool's dirk, which Whirlpool lost hurling it at Qinis. He gives it back, and Garis stands, still injured but out of danger. He orders some guards posted to make sure Qinis doesn't return.
The characters return to the vent chamber and look at the map of the tunnels leading to the Teeth. There are three routes. One takes them through small, jagged, tight tunnels, but once they make it through those, it's pretty much a straight shot to the shadowgate and then the Tomb. One has larger, easily traversed tunnels, but with lots of dead ends and double-backs, and the map is incomplete. The last is the shortest, but opens to the ocean frequently, leading to flooded passageways.
The party pretty much immediately dismisses the last route; too easy for Qinis to ambush them, and too easy to drown. The other two pose different problems. Arlen advises against the wider paths. It's easy to get lost, and if that happens they're screwed. If they take the jagged, narrow tunnels, they'll be in for some claustrophobic wiggling, but it won't take as long and at least they aren't going to wind up wandering the tunnels forever. Also, if they find it's too hard, they can backtrack and take the middle path.
With that plan in place, the characters level up and prepare for their journey.
Last time, the party was rescued by sea-folk and taken to the tunnels beneath the Leviathan's Teeth, far under the sea. The characters manage to get there with minimal difficulty, and are welcomed by the Jarzoni sea-folk. They're a kind of formal and polite bunch, and very invested in the characters being the ones "prophesied" to end the stillness. They're taken to meet the high priest and leader of the community, Garis Cru.
Garis is sitting in a chamber with a volcanic vent, and the characters join him and talk about their mission and their experiences thus far. He tells them what he knows about the "stillness" - there's an island in the Teeth that is perpetually in springtime, blossoms growing around a tomb and always pleasant and warm, even when the sea rages around it. He claims this is because there's a "witch" buried there and this is due to her influence, even after death. The characters gather this is probably Miriana's Tomb, and her being regarded as a witch by the uber-pious Jarzoni isn't surprising.
They ask Garis about the Mask and what they might need to do to destroy it, but he doesn't know anything about the Mask specifically. He notes that there's a shadowgate between here and the Tomb, and his people have tried to destroy it but have failed to even dent it. Kisha notes that the party destroyed a shadowgate once, but feels that might have been luck as much as anything. In either case, the characters are going to encounter that shadowgate on their way up.
Garis tells the party that the sea-folk will accompany them up, but by custom they don't go further than the seamount. At that point, the characters will need to start following a map leading them up through the tunnels into the Teeth. He offers them crab roasted in a bucket dangled down into the vent, which Dobbin and Whirlpool eagerly accept, and Arlen rather tentatively tries (seafood's not a big part of Rezean cuisine and he isn't sure how to eat it). Garis asks what else the characters might need and says he'll provide whatever he can, but of course he's limited by the fact that they're in caves at the bottom of the ocean (Dobbin is out of luck where arrows are concerned, for instance). He leaves them to talk over their needs, and to rest.
The characters talk a bit, and decide that they'll need basic provisions - food, water, and breathing pearls - but beyond that they're pretty well good. Dobbin wonders how exactly they are going to destroy the Mask, and Arlen casts a Vision spell. He sees Nettas, the darkfiend, grabbing the Mask and putting it up to its head, merging with it and sending out a blast of black energy that drives the characters back...but now the darkfiend is bleeding. The characters figure that maybe letting Nettas have its skull back will make it vulnerable, though it seems they'll be in for a very difficult fight.
They hear a scream outside in the tunnels, and rush out. Garis is lying on the ground in a tunnel, and a horrible gnarled creature is squatting by him, chewing on his shoulder. He's got a dagger sticking out of his stomach, and he's bleeding out. The creature has a trident strapped to its back, and that as much as anything allows the characters to recognize it - Qinis. He released Garis and runs.
Kisha charges after him. Dobbin fires an arrow, which whizzes by Kisha's head and strikes Qinis. Whirlpool casts Cold Shaping to freeze him, and manages to freeze and frostbite his skin, but Qinis is faster than Kisha and makes it to the slope leading to the ocean. Whirlpool considers going in after him, but, remembering how badly Qinis hurt him the last time they fought, decides against it.
Meanwhile, Arlen casts Cure on Garis to save his life, and removes the dagger from his stomach. He recognizes it - it's Whirlpool's dirk, which Whirlpool lost hurling it at Qinis. He gives it back, and Garis stands, still injured but out of danger. He orders some guards posted to make sure Qinis doesn't return.
The characters return to the vent chamber and look at the map of the tunnels leading to the Teeth. There are three routes. One takes them through small, jagged, tight tunnels, but once they make it through those, it's pretty much a straight shot to the shadowgate and then the Tomb. One has larger, easily traversed tunnels, but with lots of dead ends and double-backs, and the map is incomplete. The last is the shortest, but opens to the ocean frequently, leading to flooded passageways.
The party pretty much immediately dismisses the last route; too easy for Qinis to ambush them, and too easy to drown. The other two pose different problems. Arlen advises against the wider paths. It's easy to get lost, and if that happens they're screwed. If they take the jagged, narrow tunnels, they'll be in for some claustrophobic wiggling, but it won't take as long and at least they aren't going to wind up wandering the tunnels forever. Also, if they find it's too hard, they can backtrack and take the middle path.
With that plan in place, the characters level up and prepare for their journey.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Legend of the Virtual Elements
This being the new normal, we did some Legends of the Elements online last night. Last time was like a month ago.
Anyway! The characters trek back to the village of Jasmine with the until-recently angry mob, and also carrying the old man that Ember inadvertently set on fire. They take him to the healer's hut, and Khatun notes that the healer's hut is full of herbs and objects that she doesn't recognize - they don't seem to be typical of the village people, and they don't look like they're from the Steppe, either. The village healer is a very young man, barely an adult, and he sees the man's burns and kind of panics.
Ember, who's pretty familiar with burns, finds some herbs and preparations in the hut that should help, and Khatun adds water to make a salve. They spread the stuff on the man and he falls asleep, and the shapers talk with the healer in a bit more of a relaxed way.
The healer, Crell, tells Khatun that he came from across the Western Sea and wound up in Sand Port, but then was driven out by the flood and wound up in Jasmine. He had some training as a healer, but not much, so he's kind of learning on the job. The previous healer died without training an apprentice (she was...difficult) and, at her insistence, was buried with all of her materials.
Ember considers this. The healer of Marn, her home village, had notes and wisdom that he'd written down, and his home was in the cliff wall above the village, so it might have survived the conflagration that destroyed Marn.
Meanwhile, Feng looks around for other shapers. He sees a few small tattoos - folks who are learning how to use shaping powers - but the only full-fledged shaper he sees is a hard-looking woman with blue and black tattoos that mark her as a Metalshaper. He approaches her and she tenses into a defensive stance. He assures that he's not there for her, he just wants to know how she trained as a Metalshaper. She tells him that training one's will to be like iron and reshaping literal iron aren't so different, once you figure out how. He asks to train with her, and she scoffs - she knows him, and she hears the spirits whisper his name. She tells him, though, that if he goes to where the Small Dog River empties into the Western Sea and finds the spirits there, he might have the will he needs to learn what she can teach.
Ember convenes the group and says that she wishes to go to Marn to find the wisdom of the healer, Laird, and asks for their help. The characters agree, but decide they'd like to build a boat and travel up-river to the village (which they can do with Khatun's help). They take a couple of days to construct a raft, and Gerde takes a trek around Red Rock back to the village of Senda to let everyone know they're alive and get some provisions. She returns, and they climb aboard the raft.
Khatun's watershaping propels them easily up the river, and they beach it as they hear the Dog Falls in the distance (where the Big Dog river crashes over the cliff; it sounds like a whole bunch of dogs growling). Ember remembers that sound well; she grew up here.
The characters walk into what's left of the village. It's been 10 years since the destruction of Marn, and the huts are mostly empty shells. The whole place is covered in rich, black, loamy earth, and green moss and plants. Ember finds the remains of her home, now barely visible, and falls to her knees, weeping. Khatun tries to comfort her, but feels heat coming off of her and backs off. Gerde approaches her and helps her meditate and find her pace. Feng, meanwhile, not really equipped to do emotional maintenance, pays attention to the spiritual landscape - and feels a disturbance.
Branches burst up through the loam and grab him, pulling down into the dirt, tiny tendrils wrapping themselves around his body and caressing his tattoos. He calls for help and Khatun tries to pull him loose, but the branches grab her, too. Gerde earthshapes, turning the ground harder so that the branches can't pull them as easily, and Ember, trying to learn a lesson about rash action, observes the plants and realizes that they aren't multiple organisms, but rather one big one.
Khatun freezes the branches holding her and gets free, and Feng Mindwarps the plant-creature into freeing him, but is infected with a maniacal hunger. He grabs the pack of provisions from Gerde and starts gobbling their provisions, and Gerde, taken aback, watches, trying to figure out what's going on.
Ember realizes that there's a mound of loam growing, cutting them off from escape. She yells at them to run, and heads for the cliff wall. She and Gerde climb right up and head into a cave; Khatun and Feng both reach for the same handhold, but Khatun gets it first and makes it in. The plants grab Feng and try to pull him back down, but Gerde grabs him and yanks him into the cave.
The plant creatures whisper, calling Ember's name, and saying that she burned them to ash and sent them into the loam. Feng finds a tunnel in the back of the cave, so at least they're not trapped, but Ember starts to break down. The others try to keep her grounded, but she loses control, and flames erupt from her body...just as they did when Marn was destroyed.
Next session, we'll see what happens next!
Anyway! The characters trek back to the village of Jasmine with the until-recently angry mob, and also carrying the old man that Ember inadvertently set on fire. They take him to the healer's hut, and Khatun notes that the healer's hut is full of herbs and objects that she doesn't recognize - they don't seem to be typical of the village people, and they don't look like they're from the Steppe, either. The village healer is a very young man, barely an adult, and he sees the man's burns and kind of panics.
Ember, who's pretty familiar with burns, finds some herbs and preparations in the hut that should help, and Khatun adds water to make a salve. They spread the stuff on the man and he falls asleep, and the shapers talk with the healer in a bit more of a relaxed way.
The healer, Crell, tells Khatun that he came from across the Western Sea and wound up in Sand Port, but then was driven out by the flood and wound up in Jasmine. He had some training as a healer, but not much, so he's kind of learning on the job. The previous healer died without training an apprentice (she was...difficult) and, at her insistence, was buried with all of her materials.
Ember considers this. The healer of Marn, her home village, had notes and wisdom that he'd written down, and his home was in the cliff wall above the village, so it might have survived the conflagration that destroyed Marn.
Meanwhile, Feng looks around for other shapers. He sees a few small tattoos - folks who are learning how to use shaping powers - but the only full-fledged shaper he sees is a hard-looking woman with blue and black tattoos that mark her as a Metalshaper. He approaches her and she tenses into a defensive stance. He assures that he's not there for her, he just wants to know how she trained as a Metalshaper. She tells him that training one's will to be like iron and reshaping literal iron aren't so different, once you figure out how. He asks to train with her, and she scoffs - she knows him, and she hears the spirits whisper his name. She tells him, though, that if he goes to where the Small Dog River empties into the Western Sea and finds the spirits there, he might have the will he needs to learn what she can teach.
Ember convenes the group and says that she wishes to go to Marn to find the wisdom of the healer, Laird, and asks for their help. The characters agree, but decide they'd like to build a boat and travel up-river to the village (which they can do with Khatun's help). They take a couple of days to construct a raft, and Gerde takes a trek around Red Rock back to the village of Senda to let everyone know they're alive and get some provisions. She returns, and they climb aboard the raft.
Khatun's watershaping propels them easily up the river, and they beach it as they hear the Dog Falls in the distance (where the Big Dog river crashes over the cliff; it sounds like a whole bunch of dogs growling). Ember remembers that sound well; she grew up here.
The characters walk into what's left of the village. It's been 10 years since the destruction of Marn, and the huts are mostly empty shells. The whole place is covered in rich, black, loamy earth, and green moss and plants. Ember finds the remains of her home, now barely visible, and falls to her knees, weeping. Khatun tries to comfort her, but feels heat coming off of her and backs off. Gerde approaches her and helps her meditate and find her pace. Feng, meanwhile, not really equipped to do emotional maintenance, pays attention to the spiritual landscape - and feels a disturbance.
Branches burst up through the loam and grab him, pulling down into the dirt, tiny tendrils wrapping themselves around his body and caressing his tattoos. He calls for help and Khatun tries to pull him loose, but the branches grab her, too. Gerde earthshapes, turning the ground harder so that the branches can't pull them as easily, and Ember, trying to learn a lesson about rash action, observes the plants and realizes that they aren't multiple organisms, but rather one big one.
Khatun freezes the branches holding her and gets free, and Feng Mindwarps the plant-creature into freeing him, but is infected with a maniacal hunger. He grabs the pack of provisions from Gerde and starts gobbling their provisions, and Gerde, taken aback, watches, trying to figure out what's going on.
Ember realizes that there's a mound of loam growing, cutting them off from escape. She yells at them to run, and heads for the cliff wall. She and Gerde climb right up and head into a cave; Khatun and Feng both reach for the same handhold, but Khatun gets it first and makes it in. The plants grab Feng and try to pull him back down, but Gerde grabs him and yanks him into the cave.
The plant creatures whisper, calling Ember's name, and saying that she burned them to ash and sent them into the loam. Feng finds a tunnel in the back of the cave, so at least they're not trapped, but Ember starts to break down. The others try to keep her grounded, but she loses control, and flames erupt from her body...just as they did when Marn was destroyed.
Next session, we'll see what happens next!
Monday, April 20, 2020
Movie #561: The Prestige
The Prestige is a sci-fi/drama directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Caine, Andy Serkis, David Bowie, Rebecca Hall, Piper Pierbo, and Samantha Mahurin.
Angier (Jackman) and Borden (Bale) are rival magicians, but also bitter enemies since a water tank trick gone awry killed Angier's wife Julia (Pierbo). They spend their careers sabotaging each other's tricks in some pretty awful and violent ways, but also trying to figure out each other's better illusions. Mostly it centers on some variety of "the Transported Man," a teleportation trick. Borden starts it, with Angier's engineer and mentor Cutter (Caine) telling him it's got to be done using a double. Angier's obsession drives him all the way to Colorado Springs to meet with Nikola Tesla (Bowie), and he winds up developing a machine to make the trick even cooler...
Surface-level, the movie is about two feuding magicians, but really it's about their obsession with each other as expressed through finding out their secrets. These two men truly hate each other, to the point that they're quite happy to see other people get used, maimed, and discarded in their quest to harm one another. Cutter and Olivia (Johansson), the assistant that Angier hires and then sends to Borden as a spy, both tell them that this all ends in tragedy and they need to just walk away and live their own lives.
In that way, The Prestige is a tragedy in the classic sense, but it's also a Nolan film, which means it's presented out of chronological order (I mean, that's not all his films, but I think it's where he's happiest) and with a creeping sense of revelation and foreshadowing. It's definitely a movie with some rewatch value, because once you know the twists, you can "watch closely" and spot all the places where those twists were straight-up telegraphed to you.
I'd complain about the women in the movie getting done dirty (mostly they die, Olivia just leaves), but it's really in keeping with the movie's tragic tone and, in fairness, they have more to do than in some Nolan films. Mostly what they do is motivate the men, I guess, although both Olivia and Sarah (Hall), Borden's wife, have some good scenes. I appreciate, too, how Julia fades as Angier's motivation for hating Borden and his obsession takes him over, and he flat-out acknowledges that.
As Nolan films go, I'd put this above Inception (you don't feel it's length as much).
My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Pride & Prejudice
Angier (Jackman) and Borden (Bale) are rival magicians, but also bitter enemies since a water tank trick gone awry killed Angier's wife Julia (Pierbo). They spend their careers sabotaging each other's tricks in some pretty awful and violent ways, but also trying to figure out each other's better illusions. Mostly it centers on some variety of "the Transported Man," a teleportation trick. Borden starts it, with Angier's engineer and mentor Cutter (Caine) telling him it's got to be done using a double. Angier's obsession drives him all the way to Colorado Springs to meet with Nikola Tesla (Bowie), and he winds up developing a machine to make the trick even cooler...
Surface-level, the movie is about two feuding magicians, but really it's about their obsession with each other as expressed through finding out their secrets. These two men truly hate each other, to the point that they're quite happy to see other people get used, maimed, and discarded in their quest to harm one another. Cutter and Olivia (Johansson), the assistant that Angier hires and then sends to Borden as a spy, both tell them that this all ends in tragedy and they need to just walk away and live their own lives.
In that way, The Prestige is a tragedy in the classic sense, but it's also a Nolan film, which means it's presented out of chronological order (I mean, that's not all his films, but I think it's where he's happiest) and with a creeping sense of revelation and foreshadowing. It's definitely a movie with some rewatch value, because once you know the twists, you can "watch closely" and spot all the places where those twists were straight-up telegraphed to you.
I'd complain about the women in the movie getting done dirty (mostly they die, Olivia just leaves), but it's really in keeping with the movie's tragic tone and, in fairness, they have more to do than in some Nolan films. Mostly what they do is motivate the men, I guess, although both Olivia and Sarah (Hall), Borden's wife, have some good scenes. I appreciate, too, how Julia fades as Angier's motivation for hating Borden and his obsession takes him over, and he flat-out acknowledges that.
As Nolan films go, I'd put this above Inception (you don't feel it's length as much).
My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Pride & Prejudice
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Character Creation: Spire
Finally got around to reading an RPG for project purposes, so here we go.
The Game: Spire
The Publisher: Rowan, Rook, and Decard
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
Spire is a game I think my group could get behind; you're playing drow elves living in an immense vertical city, but they're under the thumb of the imperialist high elves, and you're revolutionaries. Very big focus on rebellion and what that means, and one being part of a sect that will absolutely result in death if you're found out. System looks interesting, too. It's one of those "GM doesn't roll dice" dealies, which I enjoy. Well, tell a lie, the GM does roll dice, but only to determine damage, not to figure out narrative shit, which is cool.
So anyway, making a character is pretty quick. I'm playing a drow who's a member of the Ministry (a cult/religion/faction that is rebelling), but the first thing I get to pick is my durance. Drow can live in Spire if they serve four years under a high elf doing something (which the drow in question doesn't get to choose). I think maybe I'll pick that randomly, since I don't have a strong idea and it's something the character wouldn't get to pick. Doing that gives me Enlisted, so I was a soldier on the front lines in the south before coming to Spire. I get the Fight skill, and I get +2 Blood (which means I can take more physical stress).
Now I pick a class, which is what I'm doing now. Let's see. I don't want to be an Azurite (merchant type folks). If I were actually going to play this game, I think I'd want to play a Bound (jumpy/climby assassins), but y'know, might as well try to get outside my comfort zone a little. Carrion-Priests get a pet hyena, that's cool. Oh, wait, no, I wanted to make a Vermissian Sage, secret-hunters who have access to this weird space-bendy transport system called the Vermissian. That gives me +3 Mind and +1 Shadow stress, the Compel and Investigate skills, and Academia, Occult, and Technology domains. Neat.
I get the basic Core Abilities for my class, which are Back Door (once a session I can enter the Vault and find info from alternate realities), The Vault (while in said Vault, I can perform an Investigate check on any subject), and Obsessive Researcher (at the beginning of each session I'd get a Knack in a skill or domain of my choice, but I can't do the same one twice in a row).
And then it looks like I get two Low Advances from my class to start. Not for the first time, I wish for an example of chargen. Ah, well. Assuming that I am reading this right, I'll take That Didn't Happen (once a session I can reroll all the dice in my pool), and Dead Drop (I know where to find stuff that other scholars or alt-universe mes have left).
Neat! Equipment, then. I either get a crossbow or a dagger and some armor. I'll take the latter, I think it's a better fit for his military past.
Bonds: I get one with an NPC and one with a PC, but I'll just do the NPC. The first one is a bond with an academic, guardian, or researcher of the Vault. I'll say his name is Verian, and his specialty is cartography. I like the idea of this crazy drow trying to map the Vault and all of its exits/entrances. Verian, man, I just need a map of the Silver Quarter.
Cool, all that's left is a name and however much backstory I want to put in (the book notes that while you can come up with backstory before play, it's just as much fun to do it during play, which is true).
I'll say that Bxi was taken from the streets of Spire and forcibly enlisted, but served out his time wrapped in scarves (drow are allergic to sunlight) and returned to Spire. He wound up traveling with Verian, and the two of them talked about what they would like to do once they could live in the city. Fast forward a few years and Bxi got in a street fight with some other drow, and Verian yanked him into the Vault and taught him about being a Sage, which fit Bxi's temperament surprisingly well (Verian, when this was pointed out to him, just muttered something about "yeah, in this timeline" and goes back to his maps).
Bxi is chalk-white (drow are either white or black, for the most part), but he has burn scars over most of him due to his time in the sun. He regularly covers his face in scarves just out of habit, and keeps his hair long to help cover his neck.
And I think that'll do it.
Monday, April 13, 2020
Movie #560: Mean Guns
Mean Guns is a terrible, but watchable, action/drama starring Ice-T, Christopher Lambert, Michael Halsey, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Tina Cote, Thom Mathews, Yuji Okumoto, Kimberly Warren, and Hunter Doughty.
Vincent Moon (Ice-T) assembles 100 killers and criminals who all work for "the Syndicate", but have betrayed it in some way, and puts them all in a prison that is going to open tomorrow morning. He then has his dudes dump baseball bats and guns of all stripes onto the folks, and tells them than in six hours everyone needs to be dead except three, and those three get to split $10 million. Everyone has a little card indicating what their particular crime was, but it's largely irrelevant. Go!
Into this mix, we have Cam (Van Valkenburgh), who was unknowingly laundering money, wanted out, got her hands on some pictures of Moon and some other Syndicate types and...did something with them (blackmail? who knows), who is the closest thing we get to a POV character. Our main characters are Cam; Marcus (Halsey), the cool, professional killer with some remorse; Lou (Lambert), the gleefully psychotic killer with blond hair; D (Warren) the government-trained assassin; Barbie (Cote) a probable sex worker brought along by mistake; Hoss Okumoto) and Crow (Mathews), two buddies who wind up shooting each other over Barbie; and sometimes we check in with Moon, watching things on the monitors.
This movie was directed by Albert Pyun, the genius behind not only the 1990 Captain America movie but Brain Smasher...A Love Story and Cyborg. Suffice to say, this guy reminds me a lot of Ed Wood. Mean Guns has some ideas with some potential. The whole setup is kind of one of them - some massive crime organization, with enough pull that one of the heads can take over a new prison the day before there's going to be a massive opening ceremony (do they do ribbon-cutting for prisons? Seems tasteless), and fill it with bullet holes and corpses? Uh, sure? There's some talk about other Syndicate folks watching this happening, but that's never revisited. There's some talk about calling Moon during the fight ("there's phones all over the place"...uh, no there aren't) and reporting who you've killed, and that gets mentioned but it never pays off.
Mostly it's just Lambet, Halsey, and Warren threatening each other. Specifically, Lambert and Warren remind me of every pair of RPG players I've ever had who are both playing "badasses" and don't know how to sell it. Halsey, meanwhile, manages some moments of dignity for Marcus, but they don't matter because the whole thing is stupid.
But one weird thing I didn't notice when I saw this before: There's a quasi-supernatural element. The prison system is referred to as "Purgatory," OK, that's easy. And then one of the suits taking weapons at the door bares fangs at a guy who sasses him (what the fuck). Later, Lou notes one of the snipers keeping people from running, and he's got big black wings (but like, Lou hallucinates because he's crazy, so who knows). Is the intent here that the characters are actually in some kind of Limbo, sending each other to Hell? Moon talks a lot about redemption, but, like everything else in this movie, it never goes anywhere.
I can't explain why I like this movie. It's low budget, badly acted and the script is terrible. But Michelle likes Brain Smasher, so maybe there's a weirdly compelling Pyun movie for all of us.
My Grade: F+
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: The Prestige
Vincent Moon (Ice-T) assembles 100 killers and criminals who all work for "the Syndicate", but have betrayed it in some way, and puts them all in a prison that is going to open tomorrow morning. He then has his dudes dump baseball bats and guns of all stripes onto the folks, and tells them than in six hours everyone needs to be dead except three, and those three get to split $10 million. Everyone has a little card indicating what their particular crime was, but it's largely irrelevant. Go!
Into this mix, we have Cam (Van Valkenburgh), who was unknowingly laundering money, wanted out, got her hands on some pictures of Moon and some other Syndicate types and...did something with them (blackmail? who knows), who is the closest thing we get to a POV character. Our main characters are Cam; Marcus (Halsey), the cool, professional killer with some remorse; Lou (Lambert), the gleefully psychotic killer with blond hair; D (Warren) the government-trained assassin; Barbie (Cote) a probable sex worker brought along by mistake; Hoss Okumoto) and Crow (Mathews), two buddies who wind up shooting each other over Barbie; and sometimes we check in with Moon, watching things on the monitors.
This movie was directed by Albert Pyun, the genius behind not only the 1990 Captain America movie but Brain Smasher...A Love Story and Cyborg. Suffice to say, this guy reminds me a lot of Ed Wood. Mean Guns has some ideas with some potential. The whole setup is kind of one of them - some massive crime organization, with enough pull that one of the heads can take over a new prison the day before there's going to be a massive opening ceremony (do they do ribbon-cutting for prisons? Seems tasteless), and fill it with bullet holes and corpses? Uh, sure? There's some talk about other Syndicate folks watching this happening, but that's never revisited. There's some talk about calling Moon during the fight ("there's phones all over the place"...uh, no there aren't) and reporting who you've killed, and that gets mentioned but it never pays off.
Mostly it's just Lambet, Halsey, and Warren threatening each other. Specifically, Lambert and Warren remind me of every pair of RPG players I've ever had who are both playing "badasses" and don't know how to sell it. Halsey, meanwhile, manages some moments of dignity for Marcus, but they don't matter because the whole thing is stupid.
But one weird thing I didn't notice when I saw this before: There's a quasi-supernatural element. The prison system is referred to as "Purgatory," OK, that's easy. And then one of the suits taking weapons at the door bares fangs at a guy who sasses him (what the fuck). Later, Lou notes one of the snipers keeping people from running, and he's got big black wings (but like, Lou hallucinates because he's crazy, so who knows). Is the intent here that the characters are actually in some kind of Limbo, sending each other to Hell? Moon talks a lot about redemption, but, like everything else in this movie, it never goes anywhere.
I can't explain why I like this movie. It's low budget, badly acted and the script is terrible. But Michelle likes Brain Smasher, so maybe there's a weirdly compelling Pyun movie for all of us.
My Grade: F+
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: The Prestige
Shadow of the Demon Lord: Easter Dungeon Crawl
Still playin', still online. Here's last time.
So! Our merry band of unholy assassins have been in the Freehold of Nar for the past several weeks. Mayfly decided it needed a way to stop people doing bad things, and wound up talking to a dwarf who was an Abjurer and following that path. Veni continues his tradition of being a mostly self-taught Wizard (and now Traveler). Genevieve receives more clandestine instruction from the Cracked Glass and is now an Executioner, and Dagmar gets back to their roots as an Engineer, creating an Eidolon named Skadi. Bashir gets into roots in a very different way, meditating on the nature of an oak tree contained in an acorn and how his essence might similarly become a tree (so he's a Woodwose).
But the main thing, here, is the fifth stronghold, the one haunted by...something, probably involving Crusius. The characters are escorted to the entrance by a contingent of dwarves, and enter what was once the main hall of the stronghold. They don't find much there - some skeletons, some debris, but they do find a door leading off into the main floor, which Dagmar tells them probably leads to the kitchens and barracks. Dagmar also says that the rich people and the rulers would have lived upstairs, but the forges and living quarters for normal folks who be downstairs. Dagmar mentions Crusius' name, and a low, lonely moan echoes from the walls. A shiver runs through the characters' minds, and Dagmar says not to mention the name again, which Veni promptly does, and feels the shiver himself. Mayfly enters its state of divine ecstasy and feels that Crusius is not upstairs, and Veni says that's good enough for him.
And indeed, they enter the main kitchen, and see someone sitting by the long-cold fireplace. The whole room smells of rot, and Veni figures this might be something dangerous. Bashir quickly identifies it as a harmful fungus, and tells them not to touch it, so Genevieve and Veni promptly go over to it, and it lashes out with poison filaments. The fauns aren't harmed too much, however, and Veni sets the thing on fire with a spell. Bashir tells them they really should listen to him about plant-things.
The party proceeds and they find the barracks. No bodies here - of course, the barracks emptied out when the threat appeared - but they loot the soldiers' trunks and come up with some money and assorted treasures (Dagmar is not happy with this desecration of their peoples' things, but decides that on the scale of things it's not worthy making an issue out of).
The only way off this floor seems to be the main staircase. Mayfly had said earlier that Crusius was downstairs, but Genevieve notes that the really valuable stuff is likely to be up the stairs. The party argues for a while, and finally Genevieve and Veni decide to go up while the other three go down.
The fauns head upstairs and find a library, parlors, and bedchambers for rich folks, but everything of value is already rotted or gone. The books are useless and yellowed, and the carpets are moth eaten. They do see a mirror in one of the bedchambers with a weird lump in front of it. Approaching it, the lump - a big blob of slime - opens one red eye and starts oozing toward them. They're initially unsure of its intentions, but then it smacks Genevieve with its pseudopods and burns her with acid. She screams, and from downstairs, the other three head up (though somewhat reluctantly; Bashir in particular isn't really interested).
The creature lashes out at Veni, but he teleports out of the room and casts a spell on his sister making her temporarily invulnerable. Horribly, they see three more of these things oozing from other bedrooms, but manage to avoid further harm until the others arrive. Bashir hits one with an acorn and Dagmar has Skadi yeet it down a hallway (whereupon Bashir smooshes it with his maul), Veni teleports one into a wall, and Genevieve stabs the hell out of one with her daggers. The threat over, the fauns get a "told you so" from the others, which they promptly ignore, and everyone heads downstairs.
The next floor down (living quarters, remember) opens into a front room which is oddly barren. The characters notice footprints in the dirt, though, huge footprints with too many toes. Veni guesses them to be the prints of an ogre, and ogres are notoriously unconcerned with what they eat (which might explain the emptiness of the room). While the fauns think maybe that they could recruit the ogre, the others decide it's not worth the risk and insist on heading down.
Next floor down: The forges. Many, many skeletons lie strewn around here. The forges are cold, but tools still adorn them. Veni feels a magical presence, maybe a ghost, but also notes magical residue on Genevieve. It feels like Divination magic, as though someone was looking for her. Genevieve had a run-in with a witch named C'ness back in her village, and wonders if she might be near.
In the meanwhile, Dagmar finds a hidden door leading to a smaller staircase, and the characters try that, figuring it looks pretty secret. They come to an antechamber with a huge door, in the middle of which is a lock shaped like a humanoid figure, about the size of Mayfly. Mayfly gleefully jumps in and turns, opening the door, and letting them into a room of black stone with a shallow pit in the middle. Skeletons of dwarves lie nearby, and the characters surmise that this was where Crusius was summoned.
And indeed, the demon rises up from the pit, fingers of obsidian and clad in shadows. He takes a step forward, intending to leave, but Mayfly casts Dawn and lights up the room. Genevieve stabs at him, and Dagmar has Skadi punch him, but the demon claws at Mayfly and Genevieve and then stares at Dagmar. Dagmar feels hate for Genevieve rise up, and rushes toward her with their warhammer.
Bashir, speaking of hammers, enchants his maul. Veni throws a glyphic prison on the demon, which burns it, and then Bashir crushes its head. Crusius falls and folds in on itself. Dagmar feels the hate leave them, but follows through on the strike - but misses.
The characters search the room and determine that the dwarves that summoned Crusius initially might have done so without quite understanding what they were doing ("so they were idiots," mutters Veni). The party again disagrees about what to do; the fauns want to go poke around a bit more, while the other figure they should go report back to the dwarves and get the place cleaned out.
Veni and Genevieve go back to the forge and look around, eventually picking up a tool that awakens a ghost. It introduces itself as Hrul, the Forge Master, and thanks them for destroying Crusius, but Genevieve is the only one of the two of them that speaks Dwarvish and, as is typical, she doesn't understand why talking about something other than her and her accomplishments might be productive (and, likewise, doesn't understand why people are horrified to hear her brag about killing Queen Moira).
Veni, meanwhile, notices someone behind them, lurking in the shadows. He calls this mysterious woman out, and she vanishes into a ball of green fire. Veni knows a witch when he sees one, and the fire zips over and burns Genevieve, who tries to stab it (but, y'know, it's fire). Veni zeroes in on the invisible witch and casts Fuse, joining her with the wall. She tries one final curse, but Genevieve puts a bolt in her head, killing her.
Hrul is disgusted by their brutality and says as much, and fades away. The fauns poke around a bit and find a bit more money. Outside, the others report to the dwarves, and Dagmar tells them to go ahead and arrest the fauns. The fauns, of course, are not so easily captured, not when one of them can teleport.
Next time, we'll see what happens to the now-split party. And has the world been saved, now that Crusius is dead?
So! Our merry band of unholy assassins have been in the Freehold of Nar for the past several weeks. Mayfly decided it needed a way to stop people doing bad things, and wound up talking to a dwarf who was an Abjurer and following that path. Veni continues his tradition of being a mostly self-taught Wizard (and now Traveler). Genevieve receives more clandestine instruction from the Cracked Glass and is now an Executioner, and Dagmar gets back to their roots as an Engineer, creating an Eidolon named Skadi. Bashir gets into roots in a very different way, meditating on the nature of an oak tree contained in an acorn and how his essence might similarly become a tree (so he's a Woodwose).
But the main thing, here, is the fifth stronghold, the one haunted by...something, probably involving Crusius. The characters are escorted to the entrance by a contingent of dwarves, and enter what was once the main hall of the stronghold. They don't find much there - some skeletons, some debris, but they do find a door leading off into the main floor, which Dagmar tells them probably leads to the kitchens and barracks. Dagmar also says that the rich people and the rulers would have lived upstairs, but the forges and living quarters for normal folks who be downstairs. Dagmar mentions Crusius' name, and a low, lonely moan echoes from the walls. A shiver runs through the characters' minds, and Dagmar says not to mention the name again, which Veni promptly does, and feels the shiver himself. Mayfly enters its state of divine ecstasy and feels that Crusius is not upstairs, and Veni says that's good enough for him.
And indeed, they enter the main kitchen, and see someone sitting by the long-cold fireplace. The whole room smells of rot, and Veni figures this might be something dangerous. Bashir quickly identifies it as a harmful fungus, and tells them not to touch it, so Genevieve and Veni promptly go over to it, and it lashes out with poison filaments. The fauns aren't harmed too much, however, and Veni sets the thing on fire with a spell. Bashir tells them they really should listen to him about plant-things.
The party proceeds and they find the barracks. No bodies here - of course, the barracks emptied out when the threat appeared - but they loot the soldiers' trunks and come up with some money and assorted treasures (Dagmar is not happy with this desecration of their peoples' things, but decides that on the scale of things it's not worthy making an issue out of).
The only way off this floor seems to be the main staircase. Mayfly had said earlier that Crusius was downstairs, but Genevieve notes that the really valuable stuff is likely to be up the stairs. The party argues for a while, and finally Genevieve and Veni decide to go up while the other three go down.
The fauns head upstairs and find a library, parlors, and bedchambers for rich folks, but everything of value is already rotted or gone. The books are useless and yellowed, and the carpets are moth eaten. They do see a mirror in one of the bedchambers with a weird lump in front of it. Approaching it, the lump - a big blob of slime - opens one red eye and starts oozing toward them. They're initially unsure of its intentions, but then it smacks Genevieve with its pseudopods and burns her with acid. She screams, and from downstairs, the other three head up (though somewhat reluctantly; Bashir in particular isn't really interested).
The creature lashes out at Veni, but he teleports out of the room and casts a spell on his sister making her temporarily invulnerable. Horribly, they see three more of these things oozing from other bedrooms, but manage to avoid further harm until the others arrive. Bashir hits one with an acorn and Dagmar has Skadi yeet it down a hallway (whereupon Bashir smooshes it with his maul), Veni teleports one into a wall, and Genevieve stabs the hell out of one with her daggers. The threat over, the fauns get a "told you so" from the others, which they promptly ignore, and everyone heads downstairs.
The next floor down (living quarters, remember) opens into a front room which is oddly barren. The characters notice footprints in the dirt, though, huge footprints with too many toes. Veni guesses them to be the prints of an ogre, and ogres are notoriously unconcerned with what they eat (which might explain the emptiness of the room). While the fauns think maybe that they could recruit the ogre, the others decide it's not worth the risk and insist on heading down.
Next floor down: The forges. Many, many skeletons lie strewn around here. The forges are cold, but tools still adorn them. Veni feels a magical presence, maybe a ghost, but also notes magical residue on Genevieve. It feels like Divination magic, as though someone was looking for her. Genevieve had a run-in with a witch named C'ness back in her village, and wonders if she might be near.
In the meanwhile, Dagmar finds a hidden door leading to a smaller staircase, and the characters try that, figuring it looks pretty secret. They come to an antechamber with a huge door, in the middle of which is a lock shaped like a humanoid figure, about the size of Mayfly. Mayfly gleefully jumps in and turns, opening the door, and letting them into a room of black stone with a shallow pit in the middle. Skeletons of dwarves lie nearby, and the characters surmise that this was where Crusius was summoned.
And indeed, the demon rises up from the pit, fingers of obsidian and clad in shadows. He takes a step forward, intending to leave, but Mayfly casts Dawn and lights up the room. Genevieve stabs at him, and Dagmar has Skadi punch him, but the demon claws at Mayfly and Genevieve and then stares at Dagmar. Dagmar feels hate for Genevieve rise up, and rushes toward her with their warhammer.
Bashir, speaking of hammers, enchants his maul. Veni throws a glyphic prison on the demon, which burns it, and then Bashir crushes its head. Crusius falls and folds in on itself. Dagmar feels the hate leave them, but follows through on the strike - but misses.
The characters search the room and determine that the dwarves that summoned Crusius initially might have done so without quite understanding what they were doing ("so they were idiots," mutters Veni). The party again disagrees about what to do; the fauns want to go poke around a bit more, while the other figure they should go report back to the dwarves and get the place cleaned out.
Veni and Genevieve go back to the forge and look around, eventually picking up a tool that awakens a ghost. It introduces itself as Hrul, the Forge Master, and thanks them for destroying Crusius, but Genevieve is the only one of the two of them that speaks Dwarvish and, as is typical, she doesn't understand why talking about something other than her and her accomplishments might be productive (and, likewise, doesn't understand why people are horrified to hear her brag about killing Queen Moira).
Veni, meanwhile, notices someone behind them, lurking in the shadows. He calls this mysterious woman out, and she vanishes into a ball of green fire. Veni knows a witch when he sees one, and the fire zips over and burns Genevieve, who tries to stab it (but, y'know, it's fire). Veni zeroes in on the invisible witch and casts Fuse, joining her with the wall. She tries one final curse, but Genevieve puts a bolt in her head, killing her.
Hrul is disgusted by their brutality and says as much, and fades away. The fauns poke around a bit and find a bit more money. Outside, the others report to the dwarves, and Dagmar tells them to go ahead and arrest the fauns. The fauns, of course, are not so easily captured, not when one of them can teleport.
Next time, we'll see what happens to the now-split party. And has the world been saved, now that Crusius is dead?
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Board Game: Jungle Speed
Never underestimate the sheer fun potential of the game that makes you grab things quickly.
The Game: Jungle Speed
The Publisher: Asmodee, these days
Time: 5 minutes or so
Players: Me, Kai, Cael, Michelle
Game Play: The game consists of 80 cards with weird symbols, some of which match, some of which almost match, in various colors. It also includes a wooden totem (that dumbbell-looking thing in the picture). Every player gets an equal-sized pile of cards.
And then the players take turns flipping up the top card of their decks, revealing. If any two (or more) cards match, the affected players grab for the totem. Whoever loses the grab takes both their face up cards and the other players' and puts them at the bottom of their stack. Object is to lose all one's cards.
There are a few special cards. One lets the first player to grab the totem put all their cards under it, making a "pot" that the next player to take cards gets. One makes all players flip their top card at the same time (meaning you need to very quickly assess what's on the table), and one changes the rules to require matching colors rather than shapes as long as its visible.
Opinions: We played a couple of times with just the three of us (myself and the kids), and then added Michelle into the mix, and what we found was that the difficulty jumps considerably when you add more players. I've played with as many as eight players, and keeping track of what all's on the table at a given time is a challenge at that level. As it is, I wasn't kidding when I said that a game that incorporates a physical component is good; it keeps the players engaged and requires brain-body coordination (which is why I used to play this game with my students when I worked K-8).
Keep? Yep.
The Game: Jungle Speed
The Publisher: Asmodee, these days
Time: 5 minutes or so
Players: Me, Kai, Cael, Michelle
Game Play: The game consists of 80 cards with weird symbols, some of which match, some of which almost match, in various colors. It also includes a wooden totem (that dumbbell-looking thing in the picture). Every player gets an equal-sized pile of cards.
| Like so |
| Don't let Cael's disaffected stare fool you, he really enjoyed this game. |
Opinions: We played a couple of times with just the three of us (myself and the kids), and then added Michelle into the mix, and what we found was that the difficulty jumps considerably when you add more players. I've played with as many as eight players, and keeping track of what all's on the table at a given time is a challenge at that level. As it is, I wasn't kidding when I said that a game that incorporates a physical component is good; it keeps the players engaged and requires brain-body coordination (which is why I used to play this game with my students when I worked K-8).
| Kai's disaffected stare is more practiced, but he's 15. |
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Movie #559: Predators
Predators is (so far) the last good movie in the franchise, starring Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Mahershala Ali, Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov, Louis Ozawa, and Walter Goggins.
In what I think is a pretty natural progression for the series, this movie sees the predators kidnap a bunch of people from Earth who are trained (or just natural) killers and drop them onto a game preserve planet in order to hunt them down. We've got an American Spec Ops or mercenary Royce (Brody), an IDF sniper Isabelle (Braga), a Spetznaz soldier Nikolai (Taktarov), an RUF guerrilla Mombasa (Ali), a cartel enforcer Cuchillo (Grace...just kidding, Trejo), a murderer on death row Stans (Goggins), and a doctor named Edwin (Grace) who seems really out of place. They figure out they're not on Earth, and the group gets picked off one by one until they bump into Noland (Fishburne), a former US soldier who has survived on the game planet for years by scavenging from other victims. So of course he tries to kill them.
Shit goes crazy, several more people get killed but manage to take out two of the three "Super Predators" chasing them, until finally it's just a classic predator (Derek Mears) and a huge Beserker Predator (Brian Steele), who are at war. And then Edwin reveals himself to be a psycho killer (qu'est-ce que c'est) and decides he wants to stay here because the whole planet is like him. That...doesn't work out for him.
So, not everything here works, but a lot of it does. It would have been nice to get more backstory from the characters, because we really just get scraps and a lot of them do more telling than showing (Nikolai and Hanzo do pretty well at demonstrating who they are through action and incidental dialog, while Mombasa and Cuchillo pretty much just tell us "here's how we used to kill people"). Brody's Royce treads a fine line between being a Lone Wolf Badass (rar) and finding reasons to stick with the group, and it mostly works. I really like the reveal of Edwin being a serial killer, and I wish we'd had more time with it because I think Grace sells it. Likewise, Fishburne's character telegraphs his betrayal six ways to Sunday and it's fun watching him play an antagonist.
Predators is an early 2000s movie in the same way that the first movies hit the 80s and 90s (skipping Aliens vs. Predator because it was kinda crap), and you can definitely feel the influence of Robert Rodriguez as a producer.
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: High
Next up: Mean Guns
In what I think is a pretty natural progression for the series, this movie sees the predators kidnap a bunch of people from Earth who are trained (or just natural) killers and drop them onto a game preserve planet in order to hunt them down. We've got an American Spec Ops or mercenary Royce (Brody), an IDF sniper Isabelle (Braga), a Spetznaz soldier Nikolai (Taktarov), an RUF guerrilla Mombasa (Ali), a cartel enforcer Cuchillo (Grace...just kidding, Trejo), a murderer on death row Stans (Goggins), and a doctor named Edwin (Grace) who seems really out of place. They figure out they're not on Earth, and the group gets picked off one by one until they bump into Noland (Fishburne), a former US soldier who has survived on the game planet for years by scavenging from other victims. So of course he tries to kill them.
Shit goes crazy, several more people get killed but manage to take out two of the three "Super Predators" chasing them, until finally it's just a classic predator (Derek Mears) and a huge Beserker Predator (Brian Steele), who are at war. And then Edwin reveals himself to be a psycho killer (qu'est-ce que c'est) and decides he wants to stay here because the whole planet is like him. That...doesn't work out for him.
So, not everything here works, but a lot of it does. It would have been nice to get more backstory from the characters, because we really just get scraps and a lot of them do more telling than showing (Nikolai and Hanzo do pretty well at demonstrating who they are through action and incidental dialog, while Mombasa and Cuchillo pretty much just tell us "here's how we used to kill people"). Brody's Royce treads a fine line between being a Lone Wolf Badass (rar) and finding reasons to stick with the group, and it mostly works. I really like the reveal of Edwin being a serial killer, and I wish we'd had more time with it because I think Grace sells it. Likewise, Fishburne's character telegraphs his betrayal six ways to Sunday and it's fun watching him play an antagonist.
Predators is an early 2000s movie in the same way that the first movies hit the 80s and 90s (skipping Aliens vs. Predator because it was kinda crap), and you can definitely feel the influence of Robert Rodriguez as a producer.
My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: High
Next up: Mean Guns
Friday, April 10, 2020
Blue Rose: The Sinking of the Misery
Last night was Blue Rose, my last semblance of normalcy in a world ravaged by disease.
Last time, our heroes fought some pirates, only to see their bodies rise up as the walking dead. The zombies attack, and the sailors on the Misery rally and fight back. The characters battle them, killing a couple, but then Arlen activates his Purifying Light. This drives most of the zombies overboard in terror, and the sailors and the characters make short work of the few that remain.
They examine the bodies left, and find that they're diseased and covered in sores. Arlen finds a blossom in the mouth of one of the zombies, as though it had coughed it up. He notes that Ulasta, the Exarch of Envy (whose servants the characters have battled before) is the patron of the unliving, and Whirlpool recalls sailors' stories of an island that grows blossoms that, if eaten, can supposedly cure any disease. Kisha notes that while the blossoms might cure the disease in the moment, upon the death of the body the true price of the flowers are revealed.
The characters throw the corpses overboard, and continue on their journey. Shira advises the characters to get some rest; they'll be at the Teeth in about eight hours. The party retires to their cabin to sleep.
Some time later, Dobbin and Arlen wake with a start. They hear, or feel, something from below. They wake the others quickly, and head out onto the deck. It's still dark, and much of the crew is asleep. The helmsman says that the ship bumped something, and says that unfortunately sometimes sea creatures get too close to the ship, but it's not really anything to worry about. The characters have been through too much to not worry, however, so they peer into the water. Whirlpool takes it a step farther and leaps in to have a closer look.
Beneath the ship, he sees Qinis clinging to the keel. He watches as Qinis gestures with his trident, and a huge sea serpent lunges up from below and nudges the ship. Whirlpool starts to swim up to warn the others, but Qinis sees him and launches himself, driving Whirlpool deeper into the sea. They fight, Qinis striking with his trident, but Whirlpool, in an uncharacteristic display of caution, flees for the ship. He yells for a rope and the others pull him up. He gasps "Qinis. Eel. Ow."
Dobbin nocks and arrow and mind-links with Pansy, hoping her dog can help her draw a bead on the beast. Kisha rallies the sailors (who are panicking), and tells them that their only hope to outrun it, so they get to work making the ship go faster. Arlen tries to summon the serpent, hoping to send it away, but realizes that the thing is warded, and he can't get through it.
The serpent strikes again, dumping Whirlpool and Kisha into the sea. The characters hear cracking from below. Pansy smells the serpent and Dobbin takes aim, knowing that if she doesn't place the arrow perfectly it won't even penetrate. Arlen casts Move Object and pulls his compatriots back to the ship, and then tries to scry the creature so that he can cast a spell on it more easily, but can't manage to focus. Dobbin fires and blood boils up from below, but the serpent strikes, bursting through the hull and destroying the ship. Arlen and Kisha are thrown into the water, but the others keep their footing. Arlen, now able to see the serpent, casts Animal Messenger and manages to breach the ward. The serpent leaves, but the ship is sinking.
The surviving sailors head for the longboats, but then Qinis emerges from the hole in the ship and heads for the cabin, presumably to steal the mask. Whirlpool intercepts him, but Qinis is reading and engages him with his trident. Dobbin fires arrows, and sends Pansy in to aid Whirlpool, but Qinis is holding his own.
Kisha manages to crawl back up onto the ship and taunts Qinis, trying to draw him away from the chest. Whirlpool takes the opportunity and grabs the chest, moving it away from Qinis, and Arlen, now on a longboat, casts Scrying. He sees the chest and pulls it to him with Move Object.
Meanwhile, Whirlpool summons all his strength and anger and casts Cold Shaping at Qinis. The magic freezes the pirate solid, and as the ship sinks, his body slides into the sea.
The characters make it to the longboats, but they are cold, the boats are overloaded, and they're still miles from the Teeth. They resign themselves to a long, hard journey, but then they see shapes swimming below them. Sea-folk surface, but these sea-folk are paler and more somber than the Aldin ones - these would be the Jarzoni sea-folk the characters have heard about.
They ask if the characters are the ones prophesied to end the stasis. They clarify that there's an island in the Teeth that is eternally still. The heroes figure that sounds like where they're going, and the sea-folk give them breathing pearls so they can take them. Dobbin apologizes to Shira for the loss of her ship, and says that she hopes they'll all see each other again. Shira agrees, and the characters dive into the ocean with the sea-folk, heading to the undersea caverns beneath the Leviathan's Teeth.
Last time, our heroes fought some pirates, only to see their bodies rise up as the walking dead. The zombies attack, and the sailors on the Misery rally and fight back. The characters battle them, killing a couple, but then Arlen activates his Purifying Light. This drives most of the zombies overboard in terror, and the sailors and the characters make short work of the few that remain.
They examine the bodies left, and find that they're diseased and covered in sores. Arlen finds a blossom in the mouth of one of the zombies, as though it had coughed it up. He notes that Ulasta, the Exarch of Envy (whose servants the characters have battled before) is the patron of the unliving, and Whirlpool recalls sailors' stories of an island that grows blossoms that, if eaten, can supposedly cure any disease. Kisha notes that while the blossoms might cure the disease in the moment, upon the death of the body the true price of the flowers are revealed.
The characters throw the corpses overboard, and continue on their journey. Shira advises the characters to get some rest; they'll be at the Teeth in about eight hours. The party retires to their cabin to sleep.
Some time later, Dobbin and Arlen wake with a start. They hear, or feel, something from below. They wake the others quickly, and head out onto the deck. It's still dark, and much of the crew is asleep. The helmsman says that the ship bumped something, and says that unfortunately sometimes sea creatures get too close to the ship, but it's not really anything to worry about. The characters have been through too much to not worry, however, so they peer into the water. Whirlpool takes it a step farther and leaps in to have a closer look.
Beneath the ship, he sees Qinis clinging to the keel. He watches as Qinis gestures with his trident, and a huge sea serpent lunges up from below and nudges the ship. Whirlpool starts to swim up to warn the others, but Qinis sees him and launches himself, driving Whirlpool deeper into the sea. They fight, Qinis striking with his trident, but Whirlpool, in an uncharacteristic display of caution, flees for the ship. He yells for a rope and the others pull him up. He gasps "Qinis. Eel. Ow."
Dobbin nocks and arrow and mind-links with Pansy, hoping her dog can help her draw a bead on the beast. Kisha rallies the sailors (who are panicking), and tells them that their only hope to outrun it, so they get to work making the ship go faster. Arlen tries to summon the serpent, hoping to send it away, but realizes that the thing is warded, and he can't get through it.
The serpent strikes again, dumping Whirlpool and Kisha into the sea. The characters hear cracking from below. Pansy smells the serpent and Dobbin takes aim, knowing that if she doesn't place the arrow perfectly it won't even penetrate. Arlen casts Move Object and pulls his compatriots back to the ship, and then tries to scry the creature so that he can cast a spell on it more easily, but can't manage to focus. Dobbin fires and blood boils up from below, but the serpent strikes, bursting through the hull and destroying the ship. Arlen and Kisha are thrown into the water, but the others keep their footing. Arlen, now able to see the serpent, casts Animal Messenger and manages to breach the ward. The serpent leaves, but the ship is sinking.
The surviving sailors head for the longboats, but then Qinis emerges from the hole in the ship and heads for the cabin, presumably to steal the mask. Whirlpool intercepts him, but Qinis is reading and engages him with his trident. Dobbin fires arrows, and sends Pansy in to aid Whirlpool, but Qinis is holding his own.
Kisha manages to crawl back up onto the ship and taunts Qinis, trying to draw him away from the chest. Whirlpool takes the opportunity and grabs the chest, moving it away from Qinis, and Arlen, now on a longboat, casts Scrying. He sees the chest and pulls it to him with Move Object.
Meanwhile, Whirlpool summons all his strength and anger and casts Cold Shaping at Qinis. The magic freezes the pirate solid, and as the ship sinks, his body slides into the sea.
The characters make it to the longboats, but they are cold, the boats are overloaded, and they're still miles from the Teeth. They resign themselves to a long, hard journey, but then they see shapes swimming below them. Sea-folk surface, but these sea-folk are paler and more somber than the Aldin ones - these would be the Jarzoni sea-folk the characters have heard about.
They ask if the characters are the ones prophesied to end the stasis. They clarify that there's an island in the Teeth that is eternally still. The heroes figure that sounds like where they're going, and the sea-folk give them breathing pearls so they can take them. Dobbin apologizes to Shira for the loss of her ship, and says that she hopes they'll all see each other again. Shira agrees, and the characters dive into the ocean with the sea-folk, heading to the undersea caverns beneath the Leviathan's Teeth.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Movie #558: Predator 2
Predator 2 is a sequel from they days during which sequels still used numbers, and starts Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Rueben Blades, Maria Conchita Alonso, Bill Paxton, and Morton Downey Jr. I include that last one not because he's pivotal to the movie but because his presence, more than anything, dates the film.
In the distant future year of the 1997, LA is a war zone between rival gangs (Colombians and Jamaicans), and the police are just caught in the crossfire. Our focus character is one Mike Harrigan (Glover), your standard "loose cannon what plays by his own rules", and he immediately earns that distinction by shooting a bunch of dudes before some more dudes are carved the hell up by the Predator (Kevin Peter Hall, obviously playing a different member of the alien race).
Harrigan and his team, including best bud Danny (Blades), newcomer Lambert (Paxton), and woman Leona (Alonso) try and track down this mysterious figure that's killing gang members, but then it kills Danny, and now it's personal. Complicating this is a "federal task force" led by the enigmatic Peter Keyes (Busey), but really, they're after the Predator. This all comes to a head with Harrigan vs. the creature, of course, and Harrigan kills it, but there are several other Predators here and one of them tosses him an 18th century pistol as a reward for killing one of their warriors.
Honestly, this movie would be completely forgettable except that we get to see a trophy case containing the skull of a xenomorph (as in, from Alien), which of course led to crossover movies later on, both of which were terrible. But with that said, I dunno, I kinda like it. It doesn't have any cast in common with Predator but it's clearly set in the same world and it doesn't contradict the first movie, either (one minor niggle is that in this movie, the predator can see into the infrared spectrum without his mask, whereas the one in the first movie couldn't, but hey, maybe this one wears contacts or something). Glover gets to be loud and violent, in contrast to his more staid role in the Lethal Weapon movies, and the supporting cast is...well, it's OK. I think Alonso was kinda wasted in the role, honestly.
I like the setup scenes as much as the action ones. The scene where King Willie (Calvin Lockhart), the Jamaican drug lord, meets the alien is nicely tense, and the scene in the graveyard where we see the predator consider frying a little kid with a toy gun is also fun. This predator has some gear that the first one didn't, but I don't feel like the tech escalation was so great as to eclipse the first movie.
Generally, I think this isn't a bad film, and it's not as over-the-top as it probably would have been had it been made a few years later.
My Grade: B-
Rewatch Value: Medium-high
Next up: Predators
In the distant future year of the 1997, LA is a war zone between rival gangs (Colombians and Jamaicans), and the police are just caught in the crossfire. Our focus character is one Mike Harrigan (Glover), your standard "loose cannon what plays by his own rules", and he immediately earns that distinction by shooting a bunch of dudes before some more dudes are carved the hell up by the Predator (Kevin Peter Hall, obviously playing a different member of the alien race).
Harrigan and his team, including best bud Danny (Blades), newcomer Lambert (Paxton), and woman Leona (Alonso) try and track down this mysterious figure that's killing gang members, but then it kills Danny, and now it's personal. Complicating this is a "federal task force" led by the enigmatic Peter Keyes (Busey), but really, they're after the Predator. This all comes to a head with Harrigan vs. the creature, of course, and Harrigan kills it, but there are several other Predators here and one of them tosses him an 18th century pistol as a reward for killing one of their warriors.
Honestly, this movie would be completely forgettable except that we get to see a trophy case containing the skull of a xenomorph (as in, from Alien), which of course led to crossover movies later on, both of which were terrible. But with that said, I dunno, I kinda like it. It doesn't have any cast in common with Predator but it's clearly set in the same world and it doesn't contradict the first movie, either (one minor niggle is that in this movie, the predator can see into the infrared spectrum without his mask, whereas the one in the first movie couldn't, but hey, maybe this one wears contacts or something). Glover gets to be loud and violent, in contrast to his more staid role in the Lethal Weapon movies, and the supporting cast is...well, it's OK. I think Alonso was kinda wasted in the role, honestly.
I like the setup scenes as much as the action ones. The scene where King Willie (Calvin Lockhart), the Jamaican drug lord, meets the alien is nicely tense, and the scene in the graveyard where we see the predator consider frying a little kid with a toy gun is also fun. This predator has some gear that the first one didn't, but I don't feel like the tech escalation was so great as to eclipse the first movie.
Generally, I think this isn't a bad film, and it's not as over-the-top as it probably would have been had it been made a few years later.
My Grade: B-
Rewatch Value: Medium-high
Next up: Predators
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Character Creation: Mecha
Well, now! Let's get in a big machine, then!
The Game: Mecha
The Publisher: Heroic Journey Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
Must've gotten this game in a bundle at some point, because I just have the PDF. Finally reading through it, and actually it's pretty interesting. I have (and have made characters for) a few other mecha-focused games, but this one has a setup I like. All of the players get to frame a scene, and then it's time for a fight! Definitely would evoke the anime TV show feel they're going for, I think.
Making a character requires picking an SRS (setting reference schematic), which is a framework for the game, but also determines who has mechs, what models are available, and so forth. There are three in the book (and a section on making one's own). One is a high school setting with mechs inspired by classic cars, one is a space-opera-esque kind of thing, but one is a this weird setting where the "gods" have forced humanity to live below their Heaven. People only live about 20 years (but age quickly), blasphemy is punishable by death...but some folks are "godblind," meaning that the gods are blind to them.
(As an aside, this is explained by the narrative slipping into second person and telling us that we felt a pull to the outside of the city, whereupon a mech beckoned us to get up in it and dumped a load of exposition. I like the premise, but the execution is clumsy, particularly since the writing is a little unpolished.)
Anyway, Travis gave me the theme song for today ("Rhythm Nation," Janet Jackson):
Which, of course, is why I had to pick the setting about rebellion against the gods.
OK, then! On to character creation. Mecha and Pilot get created simultaneously, which is handy.
Not entirely what all this means yet, but let's beginning at the beginning: Create the Pilot and Mecha Concept. Well, the idea here is that I've been tapped by the Free City to liberate people from the oppressive Gods, but before that, I was just a member of the Living City (like, the city literally screams and bleeds). One thing I noted was that the gods assign you a job when you turn 5 (which is really 20, remember), but if you're injured, you might be put down on the spot or reassigned as necessary. So I'm gonna play a character who was a professional footballer, but was injured during a match and, unable to keep playing, was given a job as an announcer at matches (heck, he knows the game and the players).
As for the Mecha, I want speed and precision, the things he was known for before the injury. I'll flesh that out as I can.
Step Two: Choose a Model. There's just one model available in this SRS, the Liberator (but we're told it's customizable, so that's good). This gives me bases for my stats, but then three Optimization Points, which are called "Bonus Points" in the Liberator stat block, which is just bad proofing. Anyway, I note my bases:
Step Three: Select an Archetype. This is a base for the pilot, but again, they vary by SRS. Let's see which ones are available! Uh, just the one:
Step Four: Spend Stat Optimization Points. Or "Bonus Points," as they're sometimes known.
Well, let's start with the mech. Speed and Weapons, I think, are the ones I want to boost. Highest I can start is 4, though. I'll pump one into Speed to push it to 4, leave Armor and Tech at 2, and put the other two into Weapons to push it to 3.
Now for my pilot. Well, my Strength and Agility are pretty weaksauce, so let's raise those both to 3.
Step Five: Link Stats. Oh, now this is interesting. A mecha's stats are a combination of the values of the machine's traits and one of the human's stats, but I can choose which goes with which. Or, put another way, if I were playing a nerdy mathematician kind of guy, linking Armor with Will and Weapons with Intelligence would be fine. For my ex-footballer, though, I'll link Weapons with Agility (6), Armor with Strength 5), Movement with Will (7), which leaves Tech and Engineering (4).
Step Six: Purchase Skills. Same as with stats. These can't go higher than 3, however, so my Mecha Combat is maxed. I'll put one point into Personal Combat, one into Social, and one into Medic.
Step Seven: Choose or Apply Configurations. I can pick two, and there's not an SRS specific list so they're all fair game. I'll take Flanker (I'm more maneuverable), which gives me a choice of Traits between Fast and Lumbering. Fast, obvs. And for my other Configuration, I'll take Striker, it's just too perfect. Trait...hmm. Sharp or Blunt. I'll take Blunt. My guy's not a jerk, he just doesn't sugarcoat.
Step Eight: Choose Traits. I'm Fast and Blunt, and then I get two more. I'll be Energetic and Loud. GOOOOOOOAAALLL!
Step Nine: Choose Weapon Systems. It's not so much "choose" as "make up." All I'm doing is saying the name, the range, and the type of damage (and type doesn't really matter much. It's also named inconsistently. Sigh). Now, because I'm a Striker, I can use any weapon at medium range if need be. I get three weapons systems.
Well, I want a Loudspeaker Boom (0/Sonic). The mech can release a loud noise that rattles anything nearby, but it doesn't work well at range. I want a Plasma Ball (6/Energy); the mecha forms a sphere of plasma and hurls it (or kicks it). And finally, I'll take a Slide Tackle (2/Impact), which is just what it sounds like.
Step Ten: Give your Pilot a Goal. Oh, nice. This is the standard achieve your goal, get an XP thing, but you get more XP based on how long you've had the goal before reaching it. That's cool. I'll say that my pilot's goal is to help his squad achieve a clear victory. Doesn't have to be winning the whole war, just one unmistakable W, buddy.
Step Eleven: Give your Mecha a Protocol. Same thing, but for the mecha. Hmm. Let's go darker. The mecha wants to Kill a Godseed. I like the notion that my pilot hasn't quite clued in to the whole "this is war" thing yet.
Step Twelve: Pick Equipment. Aw, MOM. Do I have to? Actually, this is easy, I either get armor and a weapon or two weapons. I'll take armor and a weapon. I'll take armor (some kinda vest, I guess) and a collapseable baton.
Step Thirteen: Record starting Overdrive. Well, I would, but there's no place on the sheet for it.
Anyway, my character looks about 25, but that really means he's been alive for about six years. He's got black hair and olive skin, and still wears his hair in braids. His name is Carlos Corrida, he's tall and strong and fit, but he still walks with a limp from where his leg was broken during play.
His mech doesn't carry an obvious weapon, but it has boosters on its legs (to assist with the tackle) and its forearms are large because they house the generators for the plasma ball. It's black and green, and has multiple jets in the joints so that it can jump and run without much warm-up. It's called the Wing.
And that'll do it!
Monday, April 6, 2020
Movie #557: Predator
Predator is a sci-fi/horror/action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Sonny Landam, Jesse Ventura, Shane Black, Elpida Carrillo, Richard Chaves, and Kevin Peter Hall. It's pretty goddamn 80s.
Dutch (Schwarzenegger) is the leader of a squad of elite soldier-dudes (which branch of the military they report to isn't entirely clear; Dutch enjoys a great deal of autonomy but he's still obviously in the service). They're brought into a South American jungle to retrieve a MacGuffin (a helicopter got shot down and had important people aboard), led by Dutch's old Nam buddy Dillon (Weathers), now a CIA spook.
It's a rollicking good time at first; they find some skinned bodies, take out a guerrilla encampment, capture a guerrilla woman (Carrillo), but then they start getting picked off one at a time in ways that just don't make a lot of sense. Their assailant seems to disappear into the jungle, never trips a trap, and seems to bleed glowstick fluid. 'Cause he's an alien, hunting them for sport! Of course, not even a sweaty muscle montage can stop it, and Dutch winds up the only surviving soldier dude.
Y'know, joke all you want about the homoerotic undertones, the 80s machismo, the absolutely absurdity of Blain (Ventura) carrying around a gun that's supposed to be mounted on the side of a goddamn helicopter - lord knows we did while rewatching this. But I really like this movie. The premise is nicely scary and simple, and while Dutch does wind up killing the alien, it takes out his whole crew and very nearly kills him in the process. The movie does right by having the core group of victims be small. We get to know all of them at least by name before they get killed, and Mac (Duke) actually has moments after Blain dies that border on touching. Likewise, while no one is ever going to accuse Carl Weathers of being an amazing actor, his interactions with Dutch and Mac are fun.
We fall back on tropes a little bit; Billy (Landam) is a Native American so of course he's an amazing tracker and so on. In general, though, it's a good action flick and it's a shame that the franchise never quite manages to get quite as good as the first (although the next two movies on my list are part of that franchise and they have some enjoyable bits).
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: High
Next up: Predator 2
Dutch (Schwarzenegger) is the leader of a squad of elite soldier-dudes (which branch of the military they report to isn't entirely clear; Dutch enjoys a great deal of autonomy but he's still obviously in the service). They're brought into a South American jungle to retrieve a MacGuffin (a helicopter got shot down and had important people aboard), led by Dutch's old Nam buddy Dillon (Weathers), now a CIA spook.
It's a rollicking good time at first; they find some skinned bodies, take out a guerrilla encampment, capture a guerrilla woman (Carrillo), but then they start getting picked off one at a time in ways that just don't make a lot of sense. Their assailant seems to disappear into the jungle, never trips a trap, and seems to bleed glowstick fluid. 'Cause he's an alien, hunting them for sport! Of course, not even a sweaty muscle montage can stop it, and Dutch winds up the only surviving soldier dude.
Y'know, joke all you want about the homoerotic undertones, the 80s machismo, the absolutely absurdity of Blain (Ventura) carrying around a gun that's supposed to be mounted on the side of a goddamn helicopter - lord knows we did while rewatching this. But I really like this movie. The premise is nicely scary and simple, and while Dutch does wind up killing the alien, it takes out his whole crew and very nearly kills him in the process. The movie does right by having the core group of victims be small. We get to know all of them at least by name before they get killed, and Mac (Duke) actually has moments after Blain dies that border on touching. Likewise, while no one is ever going to accuse Carl Weathers of being an amazing actor, his interactions with Dutch and Mac are fun.
We fall back on tropes a little bit; Billy (Landam) is a Native American so of course he's an amazing tracker and so on. In general, though, it's a good action flick and it's a shame that the franchise never quite manages to get quite as good as the first (although the next two movies on my list are part of that franchise and they have some enjoyable bits).
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: High
Next up: Predator 2
Character Creation: Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse
It's rodent time!
The Game: Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse
The Publisher: Shoreless Skies Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Haven't played this game, but I'm very familiar with Fate and I've read all of Beverly Cleary's Mouse & the Motorcycle books (though it's been a while)
Books Required: Just the one
As is probably obvious from the above, this game is heavily inspired by The Mouse & the Motorcycle, which, if you don't know, is a children's novel about a mouse that discovers he can make a toy motorcycle move by making bike noises while riding it. In the last novel, Ralph S. Mouse, he loses the motorcycle, but like the octopus in the famous parable recounted by one Philip J. Fry, he gets a race car. That's as may be, however.
The game can be dialed from G-rated on up, depending on how much violence and cussing you like in your whimsical mouse-biker stories. I have a theme song, however ("Long Hard Times to Come," Gangstagrass):
I can't believe I've never used this song. I keep thinking I have and I just don't remember what for, but I don't have a good way to check. Maybe I should start keeping a list or something. Fuck it, anyway, moving on. (ETA: Sonofabitch, I have used it. I thought so.)
I start out in the usual Fate way; I need some Aspects. I need first a concept and a trouble Aspect. I want my mouse to be a hot-tempered little thing, angry at the world. I suspect his mouse colony was wiped out by the city infestation inspector, and that's just a little too real for him. His Concept, then, is Rebel With a Tragic Past. My Trouble is going to relate to my temper, not my tragic backstory. His Trouble is That's it! The Boots are Coming Off! (which is a reference to a Patton Oswalt bit).
Now I get three more Aspects, and the way to approach this is just tell my mousie's story and see what shakes loose.
So, my mouse was out one day scavenging for food, and when he came back, his sister Delia met him at the entrance to the colony, begging him not to go in. He didn't, so he never saw exactly what happened, but there was a ghastly silence from inside and a faint chemical smell. He and Delia ran and never looked back. Delia hooked up with a biker mouse who belonged to one of the clubs in Thunder City, and he and my mouse talked about what biking meant, what freedom meant, and he acted as a kind of surrogate father/mentor to my mouse. He learned that "freedom" isn't just some nonstop party. When you gain freedom, typically you lose something, and it's up to you if the trade is worth it.
That mouse's club moved on, but Delia stayed, unwilling to leave behind the last of her family. She had a spare bike that her boyfriend had made for her (I think he was a Spanner), and she and my mouse managed to scavenge enough parts to build him one, too.
Now, at this point we'd open things up for my mouse's story to intersect with other players', and have a basis for our gang, but it's just me. So what I will say is that my mouse likes other biker mice and has a pretty open-minded take. He's passionate about liking others, just like he's passionate about basically everything.
So, Aspect-wise, I'll say that I'll Never Abandon Delia, Freedom Always Has a Cost, and You Might Be All Right.
Cool, now Skills. I get Driving at Good for free, but then I can lower it to take Bike Stunts later. Otherwise, it's the standard pyramid. So what is this mouse's Great Skill? I can't see it being anything other than Combat. For my Goods, I'll take Mechanics and Endurance. For Fair, I'll take Will, Sneak, and Provoke. And then Average, I'll take Movement, Contacts, and Rapport (I only get 3 Average, I guess).
Stunts! I get three for free, and I can buy more if I feel like it. I'll take Brawler (+1 stress inflicted when I'm fighting mooks). I kinda want something tied into him just snapping and jumping into a fight, so I'll make one up called Walk the Walk; I get a +2 to Combat rolls if I've first successfully inflicted stress with Provoke. And, finally, I probably should do something non-fighty. How about a Rapport stunt called We're All Friends Here; I get +2 to use Rapport to Create an Advantage if I'm with other biker mice.
Awesome. I don't think I want to spend refresh for more stunts, so that stays at 3. Now I need a name and description.
His name is Tone. He's a little gray mouse (he's surprisingly tough and strong for his size), and he wears a little leather jacket, leather boots, and a scarf (pants are for losers). He does indeed kick off the boots before getting into a scrap, and he's aware it's kind of a stupid thing to do, but he doesn't want to get them torn up.
And now for his bike. It's pretty weird; like a lot of mouse-bikes, it's largely made from found parts. The handlebars are made from the crossbar of a mousetrap (which is pretty badass, you gotta admit), and Tone wraps them in black tape. The rest of it is part of a toy motorcycle, part of an old circuitboard, part of whatever the hell else Tone could find before he and Delia built it. The bike looks pretty thrown together, but it rides. Actually, I think I'll base my Bike Aspect on that: Ain't Pretty, but It Rides.
I could lower my Driving Skill for Bike Stunts, but I don't think I need any. That means Tone's Driving stays at +3, and I'm pretty much ready to hit the road.
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