tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68817850787040195892024-02-14T14:52:37.810-06:00Zombie Logic From Thomas L. Vaultonburg, Outsider PoetOutsider Poetry, web comics, zombie movie reviews, artwork, and commentary on politics, fantasy football, and modern culture by Outsider poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger830125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-88406287990223767282024-02-12T20:40:00.000-06:002024-02-12T20:40:10.272-06:00An Amazing Illustration By Tré From Our New Book Moonscape Phase I <p><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">For a whole year my partner Tré and I wrote a book in haiku form about the phases of the moon and where we were individually and together on our journey during those moon phases. Then Tré took the haiku pairings we had created and drew an illustration for each one. Seventy separate illustrations. </span></p><p><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">It only took Tré three months to do the illustrations, which is an incredible pace when you see how intricate and full of nuance they are. I remember how much fun it was as Tré unveiled each new illustration. </span></p><p><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">Now after almost a whole year of editing our book is finished! Moonscape Haiku Phase I is the first of a trilogy of haiku books we will be doing together. Treescape and Dreamscape will be the second and third.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">After the Solstice/The Longest Night is page 69 from that book.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwUrZhc8toz-xXU9KW3tmQOwtUnHImmklmGTKv08-NskVAD3PSWfyyFOmsVn0tsYNOZX6oloLNxYoJ8jEPWGqQ6ghzhsqN2um0hRD8uIpjMADnFgYimhm8rPiSjYtWhX2JlONAKiiv0Sp6Mbrlvdo53OG4wMu_g57karQhENsXidYFC1FpBSmOTDZX5Kj/s5100/P%2069%20(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5100" data-original-width="3300" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwUrZhc8toz-xXU9KW3tmQOwtUnHImmklmGTKv08-NskVAD3PSWfyyFOmsVn0tsYNOZX6oloLNxYoJ8jEPWGqQ6ghzhsqN2um0hRD8uIpjMADnFgYimhm8rPiSjYtWhX2JlONAKiiv0Sp6Mbrlvdo53OG4wMu_g57karQhENsXidYFC1FpBSmOTDZX5Kj/w414-h640/P%2069%20(1).png" width="414" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">The entire book is this incredibly lush and intricate, and the printer did an impeccable job of capturing the subtle gradients of Tré's shading. I've never been more fulfilled and excited to show others what we've been working on for over two years now. You can see the video about how Moonscape came to be and how it all turned out here at our Kickstarter. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/997641262/moonscape-haiku-phase-i?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=Moonscape">Order Moonscape</a><br /></span></div><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-24544323532354497952019-05-02T19:58:00.001-05:002024-02-13T11:36:07.183-06:00Dungeons and Dragons: The End of Our Tal Dorei Campaign, and My Thoughts About It<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I started our year-long Tal Dorei campaign last May as Large Silent Friend, a Firbolg Druid who had been banished from his village as an adolescent for unwittingly smothering a miraculous creature he was bringing back to his village to show everyone. He followed the Blood Hunters Banlys and Trogg into the city of Tal Dorei having no idea what would happen next. My reasoning with this character was that he could be a fish out of water, sort of like a Crocodile Dundee, and present a counterpoint to everyone else's reaction to the city. This never manifested in our campaign at all. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifTrIVb_VTFmn-ys0NuPdjSV86cA9QNm3ICcsLQSd5El_EAA4cMUnmxTQQsXnQq8WKzkdX2M1CVf0BHdpX6jCM6sWARzQRPQLVqhoSC5wRAHh6TnlYRJ_y5ZOrBW2-vPNMcA75KT-aGfCe/s1600/Large+Silent+Friend.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="683" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifTrIVb_VTFmn-ys0NuPdjSV86cA9QNm3ICcsLQSd5El_EAA4cMUnmxTQQsXnQq8WKzkdX2M1CVf0BHdpX6jCM6sWARzQRPQLVqhoSC5wRAHh6TnlYRJ_y5ZOrBW2-vPNMcA75KT-aGfCe/s320/Large+Silent+Friend.jpg" width="227" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: times, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;">Large Silent Friend</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Our campaign ended this Tuesday after I took the Dungeon Master seat three months ago and drove it home with a fairly cliched storyline where Asmodeus used the vacuum of power inherent in the Tal Dorei system to reunite with his son Graz'zt, and manipulate the party into destroying anyone who could have stopped him, culminating in a final battle where the party decimated Vox Machina.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They made it fairly easy by snagging the Hand and Eye of Vecna, then all separately agreeing to deals that would have them killing off Asmodeus' only real competitor, the Mother of Ravens. The player who portrayed Pliz'skin, who was the one who took the Hand of Vecna at a black mass, then bargained with Iggwilv for the Eye, was a real joy to watch play, because he just bulled forward at every opportunity, and never asked or cared if anyone was going to follow. It was a damn lot of fun to watch someone play it that way, and really fit in perfectly to how I wanted to finish this campaign.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Which dovetails into my review of Tal Dorei. I start by saying I didn't read the sourcebook. It just wasn't very interesting, but I did assimilate the part about how the gods of Exandria had been banished. This story point led to what seems like the obvious end to any Tal Dorei campaign. Once any godlike entity anywhere in the Multiverse gets wind that there are no gods in Exandria, they are naturally going to want to fill that vacuum and seize power. When our original DM, the magnificent Travis Legge, allowed the campaign to veer into Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, then The Dungeon of the Mad Mage, the die was really cast. The gate to the Forgotten Realms was opened, and the party actually moved Trollskull Alley into The Cloudtop District of Tal Dorei, and opened Trollskull Manor, renaming it Trogskull Sporksbar, after two characters who had died in battle. For the second half of our campaign it could be said we were always in the Forgotten Realms. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And if you're in the Forgotten Realms, the gods, devils, and demons are NOT banished. Halaster Blackcloak found a way to open a portal and invite Graz'zt and Iggwilv through, and from that point on it was a ll a matter of corrupting the players for three months into doing their dirty work until they brought through the Lords of Hell, a convoy of Hellfire Engines, and legions of lower devils to take over the entirety of Exandria.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It is natural the final battle would be with Vox Machina, the previous heroes of Tal Dorei, who remained Chaotic Good for the most part, and played a prominent role early in the campaign, even lending the party their vestments. I haven't watched the Critical Role podcasts, but the Vox Machina had several tactical weaknesses in the composition of their party, not the least of which was some confusing multi-classing, and they after four rounds of combat really presented no resistance to our Planescape Tuesday's party. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I think they may have been more composed for entertainment than actual D and D playing. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One of my interesting takeaways is that even after having killed Vox Machina, a group of celestials playing a Stryper song in their bar at a battle of the bands, and having plunged the city into the iron fist of Asmodeus, the party didn't consider themselves evil at all.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'll admit after one character foisted the Hand and Eye of Vecna there really wasn't any going back, and all they could have really done was confront and overwhelm him. Otherwise, they just had to go along and get along, which they did. It presented some real difficulties for me as a DM because I had four characters who were either leaning Neutral Good, or at most Neutral, and one character who was now literally the Hands of the Devil. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I also broke one of the cardinal rules of being a Game Manager and asked if I could play my own character, Large Silent Friend, as I really just wanted to join in the fun. They agreed. It wasn't as much of a burden as I would have thought. Mostly he just hung out and wild shaped so he could absorb tons of damage. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On a personal level, getting to sit in the Dungeon Master's seat right as I turned fifty was a bucket list item. The first week I was so overwhelmed and nervous all I could think to do was have have Halaster compel the party into an auditorium where they fought an identical party composed of simulacrums of themselves created by the lich Trobriand. This was a fun battle and allowed me to play them against them, so I learned a good deal about their abilities and weaknesses. The next week they went to Trobriand's Graveyard and tracked down Trobriand, played by Doobie Brothers singer, Michael McDonald, and almost managed to kill him aboard his prime creation, The Shockerstomper. I say almost because Trobriand cast a Meteor Storm at the end of the battle and killed everyone but Pliz'skin and Zox Clammersham, who brought them back with a Wish spell. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwRMW0APgLt6cHkg96nrz7Wt1n7Uwz-sqHohgw5k0HnCZgwEe2R74ZiildOCm6lMjXHclfEj-D1dnodiGjOkDxeVZj7uHiL7BjWaWu1L76coMSSPtNjD7_-IP3U71KXDhFPhUDbsLxyxfC/s1600/Shockerstomper.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwRMW0APgLt6cHkg96nrz7Wt1n7Uwz-sqHohgw5k0HnCZgwEe2R74ZiildOCm6lMjXHclfEj-D1dnodiGjOkDxeVZj7uHiL7BjWaWu1L76coMSSPtNjD7_-IP3U71KXDhFPhUDbsLxyxfC/s320/Shockerstomper.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Shockerstomper, helmed by the Lich Michael McDonald, er, Trobriand, designed by Jack Mathews</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I remember my first foray into Dungeons and Dragons took place at the height of the <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2016/10/there-are-stranger-things-than-dungeons.html" target="_blank">Satanic Panic</a>, and we were banned from playing at school, then one by one, in the basements of our friend's houses. In the end all I had was the books, and no one to play with, until I came home one day and mother had burned the books. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'd have to say waiting over thirty years to play again, then getting to Dungeon Master a campaign, was damn sweet. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Tal Dorei is fine. I'm not looking to bash it. The city is a totally solid place to base a campaign. But you'll probably end up somewhere else before it ends. Of course, that's almost always true in the Multiverse that is Dungeons and Dragons. Can't wait to sit in the DM seat again.</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-77837708454378269552018-12-12T20:59:00.000-06:002018-12-12T20:59:09.738-06:00Mermaid By Jenny Mathews<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-large;">This is what's on my rolltop desk right now. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqsS9vum57ahwB3KP6TY1ABbUTKk08rIm0rUqHqcRPYGKaZUiKbQjDr8Mm5fdii47SsGWOVsNDHf-uY0Z9lXDU964GgmPuRjAoSJbiyzSxzCfYd590-T_Ov81r7OyGm85eThPG1ki9BzgV/s1600/IMG_1378.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqsS9vum57ahwB3KP6TY1ABbUTKk08rIm0rUqHqcRPYGKaZUiKbQjDr8Mm5fdii47SsGWOVsNDHf-uY0Z9lXDU964GgmPuRjAoSJbiyzSxzCfYd590-T_Ov81r7OyGm85eThPG1ki9BzgV/s400/IMG_1378.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-27372045976516264592018-07-24T19:25:00.001-05:002018-07-24T19:26:28.877-05:00Zombie Logic Press Productions VHS Intro Animation<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Growing up as a teen in the 80's the video store was a sacred place in my life. And the animations for a hundred different horror movie distribution companies still elicit a Pavlovian response from me. There's still a void in my life sometimes on Friday night when I feel this irresistable draw towards the video store, but there isn't one around. </span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hearing of my longing for those days, and knowing I wanted nothing more in this life than an animation for my own production company, Zombie Logic Press, my workout partner and long-time friend Tim Stotz set out to work.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And today after our workout at the Y, instead of doing cardio, we decided to finish this...</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Or rather, he decided to finish it while I sat there and drank a Candian Club on the rocks. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Well, I did help a little, by providing the sound effects. And now forever after I have my own animation for my production company. Now we just have to finish my movie Dead Drunk.</span> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: black; color: #1d2129; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-66031243048849432612018-07-22T11:15:00.000-05:002018-07-22T11:15:09.490-05:00Buy The Blood Dark Sea By Dennis Gulling<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: orange;">What amazes me about the poems in this
book is how elegantly they delve into some really dark subject
matter, but are never once prurient, or mean-spirited. There's
humanity to these observations of people in some pretty awful
situations. But there's also a sense of humor and no judgement. These
things happen. The Blood Dark Sea is the kind of book where you can
be glad they are happening to someone else, and a poet with a keen
eye and flair for the subject matter is there to report back, so to
speak.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRU0MqESGGve0s6wj0GVrRtvUV2_g3XAkuuBpJoBdz4E5PKbmNl_S_fqB8G4IOB-Pc9X3b6y1aU9K5mvYKLNW-8ZsfRIa12jHXC4oZMLICIAeiVtjMnMiDNsLESaCigC-sNUHyI_oHsnzA/s1600/04.24.12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="143" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRU0MqESGGve0s6wj0GVrRtvUV2_g3XAkuuBpJoBdz4E5PKbmNl_S_fqB8G4IOB-Pc9X3b6y1aU9K5mvYKLNW-8ZsfRIa12jHXC4oZMLICIAeiVtjMnMiDNsLESaCigC-sNUHyI_oHsnzA/s1600/04.24.12.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This illustration by Jenny Mathews is a pefect visual metaphor for the lives of the people described in the poems of The Blood Dark Sea, a book of noir poems.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtf9jWUzGub0cdrHXmPDbk9X04BDS8TMAdgjLw-lhLc0DKMbLjxrNA-GAYPkYdQUcrxgi5BSvx1TkufzIdx4CV8D3EFUmNBohV2W9V6MLjgPbY6iEXF7YkGhBGdm2PPlhAq59uhZ3bgOn0/s1600/Blood+Dark+Sea+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="503" data-original-width="335" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtf9jWUzGub0cdrHXmPDbk9X04BDS8TMAdgjLw-lhLc0DKMbLjxrNA-GAYPkYdQUcrxgi5BSvx1TkufzIdx4CV8D3EFUmNBohV2W9V6MLjgPbY6iEXF7YkGhBGdm2PPlhAq59uhZ3bgOn0/s400/Blood+Dark+Sea+cover.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Blood Dark Sea By Dennis Gulling</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-55393349148237332892018-06-06T14:10:00.000-05:002018-06-06T14:24:39.744-05:00Tal' Dorei Week Four: The Senator Meets the Centaur, and the Heat Is On<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bromm and Spork emerge gingerly from a hedge where they had been lost for some time in a maze. The first sight they see is a centaur galloping towards them. It is being hunted by a group of five goblins. The centaurs turns to face its pursuers and thrusts a javelin at them, narrowly missing their captain. Recognizing the centaur as Nevon, a child of Archheart they had been sent to safely guide to the city of Emon, Bromm joined the attack against the pack of vile goblins, slashing one with his longsword and dealing a fatal blow. Spork targeted another with his short bow, and delivered an arrow into its chest, but alas it was not a fatal score. The goblins descended on the ad hoc party and invited Bromm to a stabbing frenzy party. He accepted their invitation and was stabbed several times by goblin daggers, but survived. The battle teetered back and forth until the ill-fated sleuth Spork was once again reduced to the horizontal position he has become so familiar with by a goblin stabbing frenzy. Bromm and Nevon had no choice but to continue the battle, which they did, dispatching the remaining goblins without too much effort or further loss of blood, then attempted to stabilize Spork. Bromm introduced himself to Nevon and explained it was his mission to return him to the city, and since Spork was fighting for his life they decided to throw him across the centaur's back and head to Emon for help.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nevon the Centaur</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile in Emon, the monk Pliz'skin had been charged with the task of assembling the motley band of madcaps he had so recently met to rendezvous with a contact named Reynard at the Leaky Tap and receive the details of a mission of utmost importance.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Pliz'skins first stop was the Cloudtop District where he found the Firbolg druid Large Silent Friend gently digging a hole in which to plant a lovely rose bush in the yard of affluent scientist named Rifton. The only unusual detail is LSF was now a brown bear. After a few details concerning the mission and a low key roar of agreement from the brown bear, the two set off to find the gruff but lovable Goliath Bloodhunter Trog, who no doubt was off on some grand and dangerous mission. However, they did not find their friend Trog embroiled in some daring adventure, they found him wandering in front of his apartment mumbling something about authority and cold days in hell that could be counted before he served in anyone else's army. It was of no difficulty for the master of truth Pliz'skin to convince Trog to join the operation. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Next we paid a visit to Trog's fellow Bloodhunter Banlys, who had become roommates with Torie. The brown bear was asked to wait outside as Trog and Pliz'skin went inside to find Torie trying to assemble the pieces of what seemed like some sort of puzzle. As with Trog, not much effort was expended in the convincing of the Bloodhunter to go on a sortie where fiends, fey, and abominations would almost assuredly be encountered. "I can't get this to work" Torie could be heard saying over and over. Finally, she too put the pieces of the puzzle in a bag and joined the team. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Off to the Lyceum to gather up Amaris. Having recently passed the test to attain the Right of the Sophomore, Amaris, like almost everyone else in the entire Lyceum, was engaged in a wild celebration to rival the finest bacchanalian thrown by any group of orgiastic Satyrs. Sporting a toga and smoking an herbal substance that seemed to have merry-making properties, the prospective forensic coroner greeted her friends in a jovial manner. Things took a slightly more tense turne when Amaris introduced the two Bloodhunters and the Firbolg, all sworn to destroy the undead and unnaturals, to Sandwich, an undead falcon that remained perched on her shoulder eyeing the three warily. Detecting the cognitive dissonance Trog was experiencing, and wanting to stave off a bird squashing incident that would no doubt be misconstrued as an act of aggression, the definitely-not-a-snake Pliz'skin used his powers of persuasion to calm the Goliath and convince him allowing the presence of one undead creature would eventually lead to the destruction of much more powerful undead creatures. Talking Amaris into leaving her house party and join in the mission was as easy as promising her lots of shit would get broken and lost of monsters would get hurt. There would be blood. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Unbeknownst to the rapidly growing party, in a dive of a dump of a bar, a Kenku Rogue named Poirot, was meeting with a shadowy figure named Reynard in a booth. What was discussed between the two before we arrived can only be speculated upon, but upon entering the Leaky Tap we were greeted enthusiastically by a female Goliath bartender who was quite smitten with the male Goliath Trog, who dispensed with the flirtations and instead ordered dwarven ale for all who were interested, which was everyone. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Poirot the Kenku Rogue</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Taking the opportunity the alcoholic beverages and resulting good-times were creating, Pliz'skin seized the opportunity to skulk off into a corner to meet Reynard, who he found accompanied by a skulky, cloaked and hooded creature trying to be as discreet and unobtrusive as possible. The three dark creatures seemed to add shadow to shade as they clandestinely discussed their machinations.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Have you assembled your team?" Reynard probably inquired of Pliz'skin, who probably confirmed that he had. Continuing, Reynard confided that some evil presence had melted through the crater into the Undercity and killed some of his guard. The mission was to descend into the catacombs of the Undercity and find out who or what was responsible, and destroy it if possible. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Pliz'skin returned to the party with specifics about the mission. Trog confronted him and wanted to know what was in it for him. Twenty gold pieces was sufficient to secure Trog's blessing that we move forward. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wanting to start right away, we headed to the city gate where it was known we could enter the Undercity. This is where we witnessed Bromm, the centaur Nevon, and the unconscious Spork riding towards us as the throngs of city dwellers in the slums looked on with keen interest. A centaur is a creature of much wonder, even in a city like Emon. Seeing that Spork needed healing, Large Silent Friend resumed his Firbolg form and cast Cure Wounds on the woebegone detective. Upon seeing their friend healed, the party gave Spork a gentle round of ribbing for once again finding himself on the losing end of a fight with a much smaller creature. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bromm then recused himself in order to meet with Tyronious the good half-elf Senator from Syngorn.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nevon says LSF will know what should be done to protect the child of Archheart from danger, and consulting his comrades LSF and the others agree Nevon would be safest with them even on their treacherous undertaking, Bromm's urging that the centaur should be taken to Tyronious aside. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Amaris was easily able to persuade the centaur to go on a "cool adventure" with us.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bromm meets with Senator Tyronious, who asks him where the hell he has been. Tyronious wants to get a declaration of war so he he can fight the Ravagers and increase his power. He also wants an accord between Syngorn and Emon. He sends a threatening message to the ArchMage: sign the accord and support my declaration of war, or else. A few moments the ArchMage appears in a rage. "I will sign your accord, and I will support your declaration of war, but you and I are going to come crossways sometime soon." The senator sends message to his home city of Sangorn to prepare for war, and calls an impromptu public address where he buffalows the gathered crowd and reporters by promising peace, prosperity, and a significant tax cut. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We make our way to the entrance of the Undercity just north of the Cloudtop District. City Guards are stationed at the entrance. How will we get in? The Kenku Poirot suggested if he were able to talk with them perhaps he could learn something about procedure that would allow us to make our way into the Undercity. Because he can only mimic speech he has heard, Poirot has difficulty relating what he had learned to Pliz'skin, but the two decide the best way to get into the Undercity is for Pliz'skin to disguise himself as a high ranking member of the City Guard and tell them there is an emergency a few blocks away. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What would we find beyond the gates to the Undercity?</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The canard worked like a charm, and the Kenku Rogue quickly dismantled the lock on the gates, which creaked loudly as they parted, as if they hadn't been opened in years. We quickly entered, knowing the City Guard would soon be back, and angry, and closed the gates behind us. Trog immediately lit a torch to pierce the Stygian darkness, and we began the arduous task of navigating the eternally menacing maze of the Undercity. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We were immediately assailed with the stifling smell of brimstone. All of us knowing the myths of the Undercity, we knew fire elementals could not be too far away. The heat was even near the entrance almost unbearable, and was likely to get far worse. Only a couple hundred feet in Poirot discovered the remnants of what must have been a guard station. The leavings made it clear this was a well-used guard station. But why was no guard on duty at the moment? Whoever was using this location as a lookout was clearly not the City Guard. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Fifteen more minutes of plunging into the serpentine depths of the Undercity made it apparent to the scout Poirot that moving forward would just be too dangerous. The heat and a noxious gas would assuredly overcome most of us. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Feeling that his resistance to fire, poison, and gas would protect him, Pliz'skin volunteered to go ahead and determine the feasibility of the rest of us moving forward, and discovered we were merely in a pocket of noxious gas approximately 100 foot long. Our torches would no doubt ignite the gas, possible reducing us to cinders. However, if we were to extinguish our torches we might each be able to traverse the pocket of smothering gas and get to more hospitable conditions. Banlys went first, crawling on her bird wings, and once safely on the other side of the foul cloud lit a torch for the others to use as a guide. Pliz'skin remained halfway through the darkness in case any of us were overcome.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One by one we made our way towards Banlys' torch, and found the air much cooler on the other side. Ahead we heard a bubbling sound. Having dark vision, the Tiefling Amaris, her undead falcon, and Pliz'skin scouted forward, eventually discovering a chamber where an ambient light shimmered in the distance. In the chamber they found two sets of leather armor, and the accoutrements of two members of the Clasp all badly scorched or melted by the heat. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Amaris rejoined the party to relate what she and Pliz'skin had seen in the cavernous chamber, and Pliz'skin no doubt investigated the Clasp member's belongings. The rest of the party joined Pliz'skin in the chamber, and we cautiously approached the blue, ambient light. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, topside, Senator Tyronious and Bromm were led to the Defense Ministry building and taken to a secret room where a sealed portal was opened, allowing them access to the Undercity. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The ceiling was glowing red, and where cracks had formed lava spilled to the floor of the chamber. Drawing nearer, we observed three figures. Two were elementals, and they appeared to be holding in place a human woman who was glowing blue, wearing plate armor and knee high boots. She was shrinking in fear and terrified of the elementals. The Bloodhunters Banlys and Trog immediately identified her as an undead ghost who was bound to the plate armor she was trapped in. It was binding her to the material plane, and the elementals were apparently making sure she stayed in this place. Only the most powerful magic could make this happen. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Large Silent Friend took the initiative and transformed into a giant constrictor snake, and slithered towards one of the elementals, but was unable to reach it. However, he was not seen because the elementals were distracted by the ghost. Poirot shot an arrow into the elemental on the right, and it struck him, releasing a cloud of steam, but appeared to not damage it at all. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Topside Bromm looked down the portal, but decided not to descend.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Spork surmised he also would not be able to damage the elementals and </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">hypothesized his talents would be better spent further investigating the chamber. In one of the corners he discovered some water pipes, which led him to believe we were directly under the city, but also that if we could break the pipes the water might help us extinguish the fire elementals. He shot an arrow which lodged itself in one of the pipes, releasing a trickle of water. "Go for the pipes" he yelled to the rest of the party. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Amaris had used her turn to advance on one of the elementals, and from her vantage point she was able to ascertain the arrow Poirot had shot did indeed inflict damage on the fiery creature, which allowed her to Toll the Dead, which caused a pool of lava to explode from the elemental's chest, but it still stood. It turned to face Amaris.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The other elemental remained in place to prevent the ghost from moving, but the other dashed forward and was poison sprayed by Pliz'skin. Pliz'skin then dashed back to a safe distance, and Trog used the opportunity to Crimson Right the creature of fire, creating a target of ice on its chest and smashing it with his mighty hammer. The blow cracked its chest open, and lava spewed forth, but it also survived.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Topside Tyronious had taken the plunge through the portal into the Undercity, issued a telepathic proclamation that all undead creatures would be damned, ran to the chamber, witnessed the ghost cowering before a table, and saw the two elementals engaged in battle with the party. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Torie then reached into her purse and retrieved the results of the project she had so arduously been working on. It was a gun. Which she used to shoot a crossbow bolt into one of the pipes, releasing a shower of water that flooded into that area of the chamber.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nevon threw a javelin, striking one of the elementals, and Banlys struck another with her great axe. We found ourselves in the thick of a protracted battle with two mighty opponents who seemed to have no intention of letting us get to the woman in armor.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Upon seeing his chief hurtle into the chamber, Bromm also decided to take the plunge into the cavern, but as soon as his feet hit the floor the two guards in the Ministry of Defense immediately aimed their crossbows at Bromm and Senator Tyronious and fired a volley of bolts. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This was certainly a shock. After all his machinations and manipulations, someone apparently had betrayed the good senator. But who? </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To the rest of us currently embroiled in a heated battle with fearsome elementals it mattered little, Tyronious and Bromm were now down here in the same predicament that the rest of us were. Now we were all on the same team by necessity. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">1) Large Silent Friend: Firbolg Druid</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">2) Banlys: Aarakocra Blood Hunter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">3) Trog Gunga Galunga (Googie): Goliath Blood Hunter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">4) Bromm: Human Fighter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">5) Spork Fastwhiler: Human Ranger</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">6) Pliz'skin: Monk </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">7) Tyronius: Half-Elf Warlock</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">8) Travis Legge. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ContagionRpg/?hc_ref=ARTHLFiTlEuamrJS6qH8fAVAulhdSY0qKvIw1fhrUI905f-SxJWnL-AdH9l4I-tHJp4&fref=nf" style="color: #aef66b; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Dungeon Master </a></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">9) Amaris: Tiefling Wizard</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">10) Nevon: Centaur</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">11) Poirot: Kenku Rogue</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-19556783952322840112018-05-30T13:37:00.001-05:002018-05-30T13:51:50.866-05:00Tal' Dorei Week Three: Solving the Mystery of the Raven Feathers and the Shit-Eating Senator<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As we waited for the mysterious monk Pliz'skin to exit Gilmour's Glorious Goods we agreed to all go to our respective temporary living quarters and meet up in the morning to pay the Tiefling Amnon a visit.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Little did we know (or still know, technically), the Senator Tyronious was returning from a meeting with his fellow public officials in Syngorn to discuss their policy towards the Emerald Tower, which had until recently been of no real tension between Emon and Syngorn. But on his way back to the capital city of Emon to keep the meeting with the Arcane Master he was meant to show up at two days ago, and who knows what other secret business, the good senator and his entourage was ambushed on the normally safe road between the two cities by a gaggle of orcs and goblins demanding a toll in order to pass. Not wanting to divulge that he was a senator, Tyronious agreed to pay the toll of two gold pieces per head, but also took the opportunity while dealing with the dumb creatures to employ his wile to gather information. Claiming he was sent by General Bloodfist, he managed to pursuade the orc leader to divulge the location of the main Ravager camp. He was then given a highly out of character salute by the orc leader, who he rewarded with two extra gold pieces. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, back in Emon, the party gathered at Spork's office to discuss how to approach Amnon. It was soon agreed we would strongarm the Tiefling in an attempt to gather information and retrieve both Sean Gilmour's stolen artifacts and Kaeleth's missing journal pages. But upon arriving at the small house it seemed to make more sense if a stealthy person poked around a little bit to get the lay of the land before we descended like an army of noisy hobgoblins all willy nilly. Inspecting the perimeter of the house, the self-selected stealthy personage, Pliz'skin, discovered the house completely dark and apparently empty, but also smelled out a trail of blood that led into a basement. Two creatures had enetered the domicile an hour before dawn, perhaps two Tieflings, or maybe even a Genasi. Returning with his report it was decided he would simply knock on the front door while the gentle Druid Large Silent Friend and the mighty Goliath Trog would wait at the back door in case anyone decided they wanted to leave in a hurry. The Blood Hunter Banlys perched on the roof to gain a bird's eye view of the entire scene. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Amaris volunteered to knock, reasoning that one Tiefling would not seem as threatening to another Tiefling. Pliz'skin concurred, and transformed himself into a Tiefling also with the Hat of Disguise he had obtained under questionable circumstances at Gilmour's Glorious Goods. The door opened, but only a crack, but upon seeing Torie, the Tiefling woman who had began to open the portal hastily slammed it. Torie shouted "That's Chastity," the Tiefling who had defeated the detective Spork in a battle of brains two nights previous. "Go away" came a raised voice from behind the door. The two Tieflings and mysterious monk disguised as a third Tiefling did not go away.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was at the same moment the back door flew open and yet another Tiefling made an attempt to bolt from the building. A failed attempt, as a gentle Firbolg Druid and rather unamused Goliath were waiting for just such a happenstance. Ironically it was not the frightful Goliath, but the lumbering Firbolg who managed to wrap the scurrying creature up in his arms and assure him he would not be harmed if he simply co-operated. The fell creature did not co-operate, and instead also ignored Trog's demand to surrender, lashing out at Large Silent Friend with the dagger he held in both hands. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In front Pliz'skin had barged his way into the house, and right behind him Amaris cast a spell that caused Chastity to recoil in fear. Unsatisfied, Pliz'skin raised his hand and sprayed the terrified woman with a noxious cloud of gas that sent her to the floor writhing in pain until she lost consciousness.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'm not saying Pliz'ssssskin is a Yuan Ti, but I'm also not not saying it</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At the same time in the back, Banlys had shot a crossbow bolt at Amnon, which revealed he was wearing an armor made out of the skin of other creatures. The wriggling Tiefling managed to slip out of Large Silent Friend's embrace, and was rewarded for his effort by a thunderous hammer blow to the knee provided generously by Trog. However, the response was far from what one would expect from one whose knee had just been demolished by a thudding strike from a giant hammer. "It's about time," the lamentable creature murmured, appearing to enjoy the pain. Soon after Banlys' battle axe slashed his midsection, exposing more of the makeshift armor he had apparently cobbled from the skin of other beings. Grinning, and seeming to enjoy the skirmish more and more the bloodier it got, Amnon sprung up and flailed at Trog with both daggers, narrowly missing. He took this opportunity to turn tail and run, rounding the corner of the house and out of sight. Large Silent Friend followed.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Inside Pliz'skin, following a faint trail of blood, was led to stairs descending into a basement. Festooned along the stairs leading down was a grisly discovery that might have sickened a less unfeeling creature: the stripped hides of what seemed to be several humanoid creatures, cured with mint and pine cones to disguise the nauseating smell. At the bottom of the stairs Pliz'skin saw the body parts of many creatures strewn about as if the were merely discarded pieces of trash. He also saw a door on the other side of the room. Large portions of creatures that had been ripped apart were suspended from chains and hung fom the ceiling. The steely Pliz'skin concluded whoever had done this was a demented, dangerous fiend, and decided it would be a good idea to go back upstairs and tie Chastity up while she was still incapacitated by his noxious gas.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Outside, though, Amnon was not about to be subdued. or so he thought. Following close behind as he attempted to round the corner of the house, he came face to face with Amaris, the coroner's assisstant, but before she could cast the Cause Fear spell she was chanting LSF cast Thorn Whip and ensnared the serial killer in a lasso of thorns, pulling him to the ground. It was at this very moment Trog took advantage of the doomed creature's prone state to deliver a resounding blow to its spine. It was a blow that would have caused most to reconsider the path they have chosen in this life, but undaunted, the wretched soul remained true to his ill-advised plan to suffer an epic ass-whooping and spit back at Trog with Hellish Rebuke. His effort was repaid with another slashing blow across the back courtesy of Banlys' great axe. He laughed maniacally, but dropped his daggers and said "I yield. I yield."</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was at this moment Pliz'skin appeared, apparently having decided if Chastity died she would be of little help answering questions, so he dropped her at Large Silent Friend's feet to be healed, and took advantage of being unencumbered by her weight to take a running start and head butt Amnon into unconsciousness. It is said by some that Amnon's daggers were inscribed "Mother" and "love" in Infernal, but such rumours are mere speculation as the daggers instantaneously seemed to disappear. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trog immediately began questioning Chastity in his Goliath accent which sounds a lot like a Russian accent. It seemed the main gist of his line of questioning was "What the fuck are you doing here, and why?" Chastity broke down immediately and said something about just trying to save the world from darkness, then asked if we really wanted to interrogate her right here in the open. That made sense, so we carried all of those who no longer could carry themselves down the stairs into the torture dungeon. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Chastity the Psycho Tiefling who thinks she is saving the world from evil by committing unthinkiably evil acts</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Once in the privacy of the two butchers' macabre work room, Chastity once again repeated her assertion that everything that was being done here was merely an attempt to save the world from an encroaching evil. "Well, not Amnon", she said, "he's just a psycho." Which the psycho confirmed himself after being welcomed back to consciousness by a slap of Trog's meaty backhand to the chops, by responding to Trog's question about the torture dungeon by saying "It's a hobby." Bad answer. But he did confirm that all of this was an effort by Chastity to "Save the world," and that what they were really trying to do was "build somebody." He was merely living out his fantasies by committing the murders and gathering the body parts at Chastity's behest. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Turning to Chastity, Trog motivated her to reveal her evil intentions. "There is a darkness consuming us. We come here (to Emon) to find orcs and goblins and evil everywhere. And the heroes of our age (Vox Machina) will do nothing about it." She revealed a dark obsession with each member of the Vox Machina, and blamed them for doing nothing as an evil crept into the world. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But the door. What's behind the door Trog asked. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"The door is not locked," she replied. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Before Large Silent Friend could cast a cantrip to protect his Goliath friend, the intrepid Goliath had entered the room to discover a table containing a partially finished flesh golem. A flesh golem that appeared to be a very rudimentary and amateurish attempt to mimic a half-elf with blond hair. But why a half-elf.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Without coercion or even a twist of the wrist Chastity proudly blurted out: "We are trying to bring back Vax, the only hero of the Vox Machina who ever tried to save this place."</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trog asked the obvious question we all wanted the answer to. "Was it Kaeleth who put you on this nefarious quest?" She answered curtly that it was her own will to resurrect Vax, and no deception was detected in her words. In fact, she was very outraged that the Vox Machina seemed unconcerned with helping do anything about the current foothold evil seemed to be taking in Exandria.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trog suggested that perhaps meeting Kaeleth might give Chastity an opportunity to voice her complaints face to face, then asked about the missing pages of Kaeleth's journal, which Chasity conceded that she had stolen, but found to be of no use in her obsession to bring Vax back. Escorted to her room where she claimed she kept the pages by an increasingly impatient Trog, Chastity screamed that they were missing.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Oh, you mean these pages, Pliz'skin hissed, producing the pages from a fold in his robes and claiming a breeze had blown them onto the floor. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But what were we to do with these two heinous psychopaths, having seemingly solved the mystery that Torie had originally paid the detective Spork Fastwhiler two gold pieces to solve? Shouldn't we really get those two gold pieces? Should we really take them to Greyskull to meet a vengeful Kaeleth who would almost assuredly kill them in a fit of fury? </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Amaris said there was one person we could ask for advice: Professor von Schlezzler, head coroner of Emon and her mentor. More advice is sometimes better than less, so Amaris called von Schlezzler on her sending stone, and he advised her that Kaeleth would be unmerciful if we brought these two to Greyskull. He recommended turning them over to the proper authorities, but if there's only one thing every member of this party agrees upon it's that there are no proper authorities, a credo Trog was about to demonstrate abundantly by bringing his hammer down on Amnon's neck. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But only an instant before he delivered the certainly fatal blow, Pliz'skin intervened to remind him we still hadn't recovered the items he stole from Gilmour's Glorious Goods, and without those items we wouldn't receive the reward we were promised by Sean Gilmour for their recovery. Ever open to the voice of reason, Trog inquired politely about the location of said stolen items, and learning their whereabouts brought down the hammer flush on the mad butcher's neck with a crack. Was he still enjoying the whole bloodbath at this point, we had no idea, but as for us we had accomplished all of the tasks that had been set before us and were off to collect our rewards.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But which reward to collect first? Sean Gilmour's promise to pay us for the return of his purloined items, or Kaeleth's implicit promise of recompense if we returned the journal pages.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We surmised the easiest order of operations would be to schlep the Tiefling off to Greyskull to meet Kaeleth, then head to Gilmour's to collect our reward. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Somehwere else in the city at that exact moment a senator from Syngorn named Tyronious had called a press conference where he had summoned The Minister of Defense and other top officials, who were obviously concerned about what he would say. Tyronious said he was there to recount the incident on the road from Syngorn to Emon, and to warn the assembled press of the impending threat from the Ravagers. Relating a semi-accurate retelling of the actual incident, complete with a harrowing tale of how he was beaten nearly to death by Ravagers, and forced finally to survive in a ditch on a diet consisting only of his own tears and horse shit, Tyronious weaved a spellbinding tale of dark hordes slowly descending upon the civilized cities of Exandria, and concocted a call to action meant to stir all citizens into a frenzy of fear and hypervigilance. In mid rant Tyronious spell was broken by the Minister of Defense himself, who called the press conference to a halt and pulled Tyronious aside, saying he was aware of the problem, but could do nothing until war was declared, a small detail Tyronious could help with.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Charging Tyronious with forming a committee to investigate the problem, the Minister intimated to Tyronious that if he could provide the pictures he'd provide the war. Tyronious accepted the offer, and sent out underlings to find his missing senechal Bromm, who for some reason had simply been misplaced.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Probably about the time this meeting was taking place, we arrived at Greysckull, where we saw two Gnome children playing in the grass merrily. Greeting them, we quickly discovered they had no desire to answer any of our questions, and went to get their dad, who turned out to be the renowned Bard Scanlan, who immediately charmed and put us all at ease. He explained all the recent turmoil had resulted in the Vox Machina deciding that they needed to maintain a constant presense of at least one member at Greyskull, and that he had drawn the short straw. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Vox Machina Bard Scanlan Shorthalt</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ever diplomatic, and not one for beating the bushes, Trog asked if we could speak with Kaeleth. Ever graceful, Scanlan said it may be possible, but definitely chancy to draw Kaeleth's ire. This of course did not phase Trog, who assured Scanlan his request was in earnest, The Bard acceded, but insisted a feast was in order first, and invited us to the war room. Asking his children to retrieve his diamond tuning fork, he tapped it on the table, producing a feast beyond any of our wildest imaginations. As we ate we felt refreshed, rejuvenated, inspired, and incredibly serene. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After we had our fill Scanlan inquired who was the leader of this mish mash of a troupe, and being the anti-authoritarians we are by nature, none would come forward to claim they held sway over any other of us, so Scanlan's attention fell upon the Tiefling Amaris in a seeming attempt to cajole her into being assertive. "Is this the one responsible for these atrocities?," he said, motioning to Chastity. "And one last time I ask you if you really want me to summon Kaeleth." Amaris nodded, and Scanlan left the room to summon his fellow Vox Machina member. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Moments later Kaeleth appears, and immediately extends her hand, which results in the life being visible drained from Chastity, who falls to the floor like a dessicated husk. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Did you locate my missing journal pages" she asked almost as a continuous action to having drained Chastity of life. Pliz'skin produced some of the pages from the journal, and Kaeleth took and examined them, inquiring if we had read them. We replied that we had not. She said some of her pages were still missing, and Pliz'skin insisted he had found no more pages, she said she would go to the house and investigate herself. "Thank you", she said, "the Ashari and Vox Machina are in your debt." With that she disappeared.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Scalan re-appeared and asked how we intended to dispose of Chastity's body. We said we hadn't intended to at all, and asked if he could do it. He said no, and threw Amaris a Bag of Holding in which to carry the body away from Greyskull. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We decided our next stop would be Gilmour's Glorious Goods. A female human clerk greeted us and informed us that Sean Gilmour was away on business, but had left instructions that we be paid 500 gp for the return of his misappropriated propriations. We divided the bounty among the five of us presnt, making each of us more than capable of buying our own places to live in Emon. Large Silent Friend also bought himself a bonzai tree to deal with the loneliness and bewilderment of going from the only home he had ever known in the forest to the bustling capital city of Exandria.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While at Gilmour's we also saw the afternoon edition of the Emon Chronicle, with the headline Shit Eating Senator Says Ravagers To the North. In a dark room somewhere nearby that shit-eating senator was just receiving a report that several centaurs had been found impaled on pikes on the road north to the Throne of the Archheart. What is this shit-eating senator's plan? Will we soon become embroiled in some political intrigue? Are the winds of war wafting into Emon? </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Large Silent Friend's notes: I thoroughly enjoyed this three session whodunnit immersion into the world of Tal' Dorei and the city of Emon. It wasn't until night three that we took up arms against an opponent because our opponent was the dark mystery we were immersed in. This is the third campaign I'm playing with these players. We have been in Planescape, Dragonlance, and now Tal' Dorei. We've meshed as a party and I think understand each other's tendencies and when it's time to let someone else have the spotlight, and when to just hang back. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Have to get my Tal' Dorei guide this week at Top Cut Comics</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After receiving our blessing from Kaeleth and our reward from Sean Gimour we naturally considered our mission a roaring success and decided to buy our own homes and blend in where we thought we most fit into the bustling city of Emon. Trog of course immediately put his mighty hammer up for rent as a sell sword, Pliz'skin went back to his monastary to study the truth, Bromm remained missing-in-action, Banlys slipped off and will no doubt be there when needed, Amaris rejoined Professor von Schlelling, Tyronious plotted somewhere in a back room, and the detective that started it all, Spork Fastwhiler was gone. What had ever become of him? Egad, was he one of the horribly mutilated bodies we had seen in that basement? Had we been thornwhipping, hammering, crossbowing, and great axing his skin only earlier in the day? No matter, it seems certain as these characters try to settle in and make their names in Emon that a call will come from somewhere, most probably soon, for them to re-assemble in order to fight some gathering darkness. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But until that happens you can find Large Silent Friend, the fish-out-of-water second level Firbolg Druid in the Cloudtop District being gardner and pet trainer to the rich and famous, and pruning his bonzai at night and missing his friends.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">1) Large Silent Friend: Firbolg Druid</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">2) Banlys: Aarakocra Blood Hunter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">3) Trog Gunga Galunga (Googie): Goliath Blood Hunter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">4) Bromm: Human Fighter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">5) Spork Fastwhiler: Human Ranger</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">6) Pliz'skin: Monk </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">7) Tyronius: Half-Elf Warlock</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">8) Travis Legge. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ContagionRpg/?hc_ref=ARTHLFiTlEuamrJS6qH8fAVAulhdSY0qKvIw1fhrUI905f-SxJWnL-AdH9l4I-tHJp4&fref=nf" style="color: #aef66b; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Dungeon Master </a></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">9) Amaris: Tiefling Wizard</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2018/05/tal-dorei-night-one-notes-from.html" target="_blank">Week one</a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2018/05/our-tal-dorei-campaign-week-two.html" target="_blank">Week two </a><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-39045987238014855652018-05-24T20:14:00.001-05:002018-05-24T20:14:29.589-05:00Calumet Baking Powder and Symbolism of Native American Genocide In The Shining<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the drawbacks of having the greatest artist in America, Jenny Mathews, as my partner, aside from taking a drink out of a glass containing paintwater occassionaly, is that she makes dozens of paintings that I want. This one that she did for the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/577577979266852/" target="_blank">Come and Go Motel Show</a> blows me away. I love the colors and pop art sensibility, but there's something else going on here. The theme of the Come and Go Motel Show is several area artists are given a motel room to set up their wares. I'm sharing a room with Spooky Houston, Food Stamp Davis, and Folk Goblin. I will be showing in the bathroom as Zombie Logic. Jenny's paintings are from famous spooky motels and hotels in horror movies, including the Overlook from The Shining. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Calumet by Spooky Houston</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There are a couple of reasons this is my favorite, and why I think it's sheer brilliance. Most fans of The Shining are familiar with the documentary Room 237 and the numerous fan and conspiracy theories surrounding the movie. Kubrick supposedly hid clues about everything from the the moon landing to the Holocaust in the scenery, but my favorite, and what I consider the most cohesive theory is that the genocide against Native Americans is the true curse of the Overlook. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In this still we see both Tang and Calumet baking powder on the shelf behind Jack Nicholson, and it is postulated that since Kubrick was so obsessive about the details of his movies that this is no accident. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I'm not sure how much baking powder would be used in a season at a hotel like the Overlook, so I can't say that's a lot of baking powder, but that seems like a lot of baking powder. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And now that baking powder has been immortalized in a painting by Spooky Houston, a painting that can be seen at the Come and Go Motel Art Show June 29th, but don't be surprised to see a sold sign on it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Zombie-Logic-Press-123811506902/" target="_blank">Zombie Logic Press</a> on Facebook</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-73029587140382022132018-05-23T01:40:00.000-05:002018-05-23T01:41:29.538-05:00Our Tal' Dorei Campaign, Week Two: Greyskull Keep and Gilmour's Glorious Goods<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Little did our party realize as we wrapped up our scrutinization of the murder scene at the estate of the nobleman Kormallis that we were about to be joined by a new member. From out of the sky the Firbolg Druid Large Silent Friend spotted a small dot growing larger and larger, until it was clear to him a very rare Phoenix was approaching rapidly with two riders. As it made its landing on the lawn, the Phoenix exploded into ashes, and the riders introduced themselves. The older, grey-haired gentleman was Professor von Schlezzler, a renowned necromancer and the head of the City Morgue inside the Alabaster Lyceum. But it was the younger, nerdy looking Tiefling that was soon to join us in our increasingly serpentine web of events. Her name was Amaris, and she was both a wizard and an apprentice of von Schlezzler, but an aspiring adventurer and aspirant to a position in the dark arts. The undead falcon that perched upon her shoulder and eyes us all stonily was a clear indication we were dealing someone marching to the beat of her own drum.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Meanwhile, inside the manor, the Fighter Bromm, standing in for the senator Tyronius, asked the servant if she had a key to Kormallis' library. She did, and went to her bedroom where the key was on a chain she retrieved from the bottom of a trunk. Simultaneously to Bromm finding Kormallis' journal in the library. Professor von Schezzler has cast a spell and animated the ghost of Kormallis, who arises and upon being questioned clearly does not realize he is dead. He is of no use and is allowed to go to his final rest.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Von Schlezzler, a seasoned investigator, working in tandem with his pupil, Amaris, soon concluded that Purple Worm poison had been used on Kormallis. This clue was key because Purple Worm poison could only be obtained in two places: The city of Kamil, or Greyskull Keep, the stronghold of the Vox Machina, though they had long ago all but abandoned it to move on to personal pursuits.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was agreed Spork Fastwhiler would set off on his own to pursue the many leads he now had, including the story of Marshall Ulder Ravenguard, a hero in the battle against Vecna, who may have a very important role in the current murder spree, and the rest of the party would head to Greyskull Keep to determine if anyone had been there recently making an effort to obtain purple worm poison. Professor von Schlezzler gave his protege Amaris a sending stone and instructed her to join the search for evidence and report back with any discoveries we were able to make.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The trek to the lower slums and the Greyskull Keep was uneventful, and we arrived by nightfall. Along the way Pliz'skin, Bromm, and Trog had skads of indelicate questions for the "whore" Torie about her friend Daisy, but made little headway into gaining her trust with their hardboiled methods. However, with her more subtle approach, the hot nerdy wizard Amaris was able to elicit from the street-hardened Torie that Daisy an elf, and that had a mistrust and aversion to the City Watch, even though prostitution is not illegal in Emon. So why was she uneasy around the City Watch? </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bromm, being Bromm, used his influence to send two underlings back to Syngorn to search for any official records that could shed some light on the Elven refugee. An Elven streetwalker was not a common thing. Something was amiss here. But what? Who was Daisy, and who was she possible working for that got her killed?</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Greyskull Keep, home of the Vox Machina. Sort of. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Arriving finally at the grand and majestic Greyskull Keep, no particular investigative expertise was required to discover the two feet we saw sticking out from under the portcullis. Bromm shouted "I am a representative of the Senator from Syngorn, show yourself," but the feet did not show themselves. We soon discovered why. The third murder victim belonged to those feet. The scene was as grisly as the previous two, and done in the same ritualistic way, except this time it was the tongue that was removed. Trog used his Bloodhunting skills to determine no fiends or fey were involved in the heinous act. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The party wanted to established a time frame in which the murder had been committed, and noticed neither the torches or brazers appeared to have been lit in days, making it apparent this crime had most likely been committed previous to the other two, which would mean the culprits had come specifically for purple worm poison, and maybe something else. But what? The only way to find out was to enter the keep.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Entering with no resistance and with no indication anyone else was present, we proceeded to a large hall that contained a table with nine chairs, maps, and artifacts we realized could only have belonged to the fabled Vox Machina. This was no doubt their war room. Nothing else in the room was of much interest, except a door to the West whose lock had been broken. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A Glyph of warding was on the door, and the room beyond had seemingly been entered quite recently judging from the fire damage we witnessed. Apparently just breaking the lock was not the only condition essential for entering this room safely. Yet the ever-determined Monk Plis'skin set to work with his thieves' tools to perhaps disarm any traps, but in the attempt set off the glyph, burning himself badly. He was, however, able to determine the detonation of the fire glyph gave us fifteen seconds to enter the room, which all of us did. Once inside we knew were were in a treasure room worthy of the Vox Machina. Artifacts, potions, scrolls, and weapons of all types were present, including what we recognized as the Sword of Kas, used to defeat Vecna. It was also abundantly clear to us that disturbing any of these artifacts would certainly be a futile and fatal gesture. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What we did note was that someone else had been more successful in purloining certain of these artifacts, including purple work poison, scrolls involving resurrection and contacting other planes, and the journals of the Vox Machina themselves. Whoever had managed to steal what was protected so well must have known what they were looking for and how to avoid being disintegrated doing so. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But our pressing problem was how to get out of the room without activating the fiery glyph of warding again. Torie believed she had noticed a way to do it without activating the ward. She was wrong, and was burned severely on her arm. Large Silent Friend was able to heal her partially, and the rest of us exited the treasure room safely.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trog insisted on moving forward, and we made our way to a door down the hall. Amaris contacted Professor von Schlezzler on her sending stone, relaying the information we had collected so far, and was told to continue ferreting out the castle. We made our way to the door at the end of the hall and found it to be locked. Plis'kin further discerned through careful scrutiny that any attempt to open the door without the proper key would activate a trap. The ever-sharp Trog postulated the caretaker we found at the gates of the keep might also have keys to the keep, which turned out to be exactly the case. The only slight complication is that he had ALL the keys. Twenty in all. The studious and observant Amaris believed she might be able to find the right key, and quickly decided she knew which one was right for this door.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trog insisted he be the one to try the key, and as we braced for impact we were relieved to learn she was right. Sort of. The door didn't open, but a Magic Mouth appeared and refused to respond to any of our inquiries, including Bromm's declaration that he was some sort of official official from an official place. Instead we were informed that it was the mouth's duty to alert the Vox Humana that the door had been violated.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We heard a whoosh of wind outside the window, and a Half Elven Druid woman appeared from nowhere, with a walking stick that looked like an upside down umbrella. All residents of Exandria knew this was Keyleth, headmaster of the Air Ashari, and member of Vox Machina. What could she have thought seeing our motley crew inside of her Keep? Informing her that the gatekeeper had been murdered only raised her vexation with us as we became the prime suspects. We tried to explain how and why we came to the Keep to further investigate the series of murders that was happening, but she seemed far more concerned about the other caretaker of Greyskull Keep, Lynn, and increasingly vexed at our very presence in her sacred place.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Keyleth, headmaster of the Air Ashari</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bromm moved to question the druid, but her attention was entirely fixed on finding the other caretaker of Greyskull Keep. We split into two groups, and Keyleth went up the stairs with Bromm and Amaris went up the stairs to the caretaker's quarters, while Trog, Plis'kin, and Large Silent Friend entered the chapel, where all of the gods had alters. Seeing an alter to the Wild Mother surrounded by plants that had been neglected for several days, Large Silent Friend made his offering to the Wild Mother and quickly nursed the plants back to health, learning from them that they had been uncared for in five days, thereby confirming the timeline that had been established by Trog that the murders here had taken place even before the murders in Emon. The perpetrators had come here first. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Upstairs Keyleth discovers the body of Lynn, treated in the same vulgar manner as the other murder victims,except in her case her eye was missing. The body was laid out in an outline of raven feathers, and a drawer that had been left partially opened had raven feathers strewn before it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was at this inopportune moment that the always diplomatic Bromm made the error of questioning Keyleth about the ritual murders, the missing pages from her journal, and any possibility she may be involved in trying to resurrect her lover, Vax, who had sacrificed himself during the battle against Vecna, eventually being transformed into a revenant. His line of questioning was met by a flying backfist from the typically demure druid, and an admonition that "If you ever disrespect me or the memory of Vax again, I will wear your skin." However, Bromm's impetuous, ill-advised maneuver did get the druid to speak to summon us to the war room where she told us about many matters that shed light on the details of Vax's death, Vecna, and the betrayer Arkhan, the dragonborn betrayer of Vox Machina.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Banlys asked the very logical question why would Greyskull Keep, if it contained such important artifacts, be left to the protection of only two caretakers. Keyleth explained all members of Vox Machina would have been teleported back if anyone had disturbed any of the artifacts, raising more questions about who exactly could have known enough about circumventing the safeguards to enter and exit with certain artifacts without alerting the Vox Machina.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">She wistfully related the tragic details of her last days with Vax'ildan, how he made a bargain with the Matron of Ravens that transformed him into a revenant, and how Arkhan had betrayed the Vox Machina to accrue power with the goal of opening the gates of hell and allowing his dark queen, the Scaled Tyrant, to return to this plane.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was at this time the irascible Trog blurted out that he would like to speak to the hero of all Goliaths, Grog. Keyleth obliged, and Grog appeared. An instant later a huge tankard of ale appeared in Grog's hand. before Trog sat Grog Strongjaw, grand puba of the doink. Trog asked many questions of Grog, mostly about Arkhan and the cult of the Scaled Tyrant. This made Grog somewhat sullen and the sadness and regret showed in his demeanor, but he answered the questions put to him by his fellow Goliath. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Grog Strongjaw</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bromm then opened up a line of questioning about the details of Vax's transformation into a revenant, and Arkhan's betrayel. The taciturn Goliath conveyed that he never thought Keyleth's attempt to allow Vax to live on was a good idea. Asked what ever became of the hand of Vecna, Grog boasted he cut it up into many pieces, then scattered it across the world, including dropping it into volcanoes, but he also volunteered the intriguing tidbit that Keyleth had requested and been given a piece of the thumb.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trog then expressed his admiration for his hero and asked if he could have some memento from their meeting. The legendary warrior complied by removing his bracers and tossing them onto the table before Trog.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At this point we had so many possible paths to follow it all seemed overwhelming. Was Arkhan and his cult responsible for these murders in an attempt to summon the Scaled Tyrant? Was someone trying to resurrect Vecna? Was it even possible Keyleth was so grief-stricken by the loss of Vax that she had resorted to dark methods in an attempt to bring her love back? Was there even another shadowy player who was yet to reveal its presence behind all of this mayhem? </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Little remained to be done at the Greyskull Keep, but Amaris wanted to perform one more examination of the second caretaker's body, and doing so discovered stone flecks consistent with the skin of a basilisk. What part did this creature play in this fourth murder, or more accurately, the second murder, but the fourth we had discovered?</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Leaving the Keep Keyleth implored us to find the missing pages of her journal, which were about her relationship with Vax, not any dark plot to resurrect her lover, and when we found them were were to not read a word of it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Plis'skin says he knows a place where we might learn more about how all of these elements come together, and soon we found ourselves at Gilmour's Glorious Goods. Plis'skin now takes the lead and asks the woman behind the counter, a half-elf named Sherri, if anyone has been in recently looking for basilisk poison. She quickly says she must go to the back to inform Sean Gilmour, human sorcerer, and owner of Gilmour's Glorious Goods, that we are asking. Plis'skin tried to follow her to the back, which made her very uncomfortable, and when Sean Gilmour appeared he upbraided Plis'skin about being creepy, then looked into his eyes and said "Oh, you're Yuan-Ti, forget it."</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Gilmour's Glorious Goods</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When asked about the basilisk poison, Gilmour related the tale of a recent employee he had, named Amnon, who had begun acting suspiciously, snooping through Sean's journals and customer logs, eventually absconding with several valuable magic items, darts, disguises, and basilisk poison. He didn't believe Amnon was a bad fellow, just misguided, or perhaps run amok. But by whom? Bromm at this point excused himself to the washroom, where he discovered a magic hole in which to do whatever business he had intended to do, and Plis'skin and Sean retired to Sean's office, where the details of their discussion remains unknown to the rest of the party.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When the two emerged Plis'skin inquired about a hat of disguise he was enamored with, and was told it cost 500 gp. The party had no way to pay for such an item, so Bromm stepped in and asked if he could run a line of credit in Tiberius the Senator from Singhorn's name. Sean agreed, but said any item not paid for in sixty days would have it's magical powers reversed. At this point Bromm reneged and left the establishment. At this point the wily Plis'skin signed the contract Sean had pulled out, and was the proud owner of a hat of disguise.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As his final nicety, Sean told us he was actually quite a good friend and benefactor of the Vox Machina, and put us on our way to the dock district where he believed Amnon lived, having sent him a turkey as a gift on a recent holiday. The rest of us left Sean's Glorious Gifts and rejoined Bromm. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Thus ended week two of our Tal' Dorei campaign. With more questions than answers, for sure. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Review what happened in <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2018/05/tal-dorei-night-one-notes-from.html" target="_blank">week one </a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-23252173811358281182018-05-16T18:57:00.001-05:002018-05-16T21:36:13.806-05:00Tal' Dorei Night One Notes From Planescape Tuesdays<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Our Tal' Dorei campaign began last night, and none of us knew what to expect as we sat down at the table. I think it's safe to say none of us was expecting a gritty, noir-style murder mystery. Which is what we got.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Taking place some time after the Vox Machina had dispatched the dreaded Chroma Conclave and the bane arch lich Vecna, our campaign begins in an Emon rebuilt partially by the crime syndicate The Clasp, and restored to a thriving city of some 280,000 creatures, mostly human, but with a substantial population of humanoid creatures of all races. A cosmopolitan city with a robust shopping district, government, military, and noble classes, as well as busy docks and slums. The Vox Machina is still with us, but has largely moved on to other pursuits away from Emon, maintaining Greyskull Keep just outside the slums on the Southern side of the city. It is a time ripe for new heroes. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">How we all got to the capital city of Emon is still a little hazy, but the seven of us found ourselves settling in various sections of the city, not knowing each other at all.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">My name is Large Silent Friend, at least that's what the creatures of the forest call me, and since I am a Firbolg I have no name but the one I am given by those around me. I was exiled from my tribe as an adolescent when I inadvertently caused the death of a magical creature I wanted to show to my elders. I grew up in the forest guided by the Wild Mother. But recently Ravagers have been encroaching into these sacred lands. And where there is evil, Blood Hunters seem to follow, and that's how I met Banlys the Aarackocra and Trog the Goliath, both Blood Hunters I moved to Emon with last week.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We arrived in Emon on the 11th day of Undular, at the height of the festival, which meant nothing to any of us. We crashed at the meager apartment of Banlys' and Trog's mentor, Thelius, who was happy to see us, but having two giants and a bird in his small space soon started to try his nerves. We needed to move, but first we needed jobs. Fortunately for us our first opportunity in Emon soon knocked on the door. Literally.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The City of Emon, capital of Tal' Dorei</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A former City Guard turned private detective named Spork Fastwhiler knocked on the door and demanded to speak with Thelius. He seemed as if he had just ended up on the losing end of a tussle, and we soon were to learn this was exactly the case. While investigating the strange, ritual murder of a street walker he had been swept up into a mystery that was soon to involve us all. The mystery was soon to entail ritualistic murders, missing hearts, raven feathers, cults, necromancers, The Matron of Ravens, the two local crime syndicates The Clasp and the Myriad, and who knows who or what else, but it became clear a chain of events had been set in place that would eventually effect all of Emon, and the entire world itself.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But what part did we play in this Universal imbroglio?</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What did Spork already know that he wasn't telling us? What the three of us did know, and we had to take Spork's observations at face value, was that he was contracted by a street walker named Torie to investigate the murder of her friend, named Daisy, in an alley in the dock district near Thelius' apartment. Pouring over the scene, which had already been combed over in a cursory way by a clearly unconcerned City Guard, Spork deduced the grisly murder was actually a much more coordinated and surgical attempt to remove the young girl's heart. And what part did the raven feathers play in the scenario?</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">His investigation soon led him to the Frozen Sicle tavern where he quickly realized a Clasp member was using a corner table to sell alura root. He learned the Clasp member's name was Dagger, and he was soon to find out why. Following him out of the Frozen Sicle he saw Torie on an adjacent corner, and decided to cross the street and join her to spy on Dagger. Against her admonitions, he followed Dagger to a shabby tenement where the small-time alura dealer was apparently waiting to confront him, drawing both his daggers. But before the two could scuffle a Tiefling named Chastity entered the scene and attacked Spork psychically, causing him to fall to the floor clutching his suddenly aching head. Dagger seized this opportunity to redraw his daggers and "suggest" it might be a good time for the private dick to retreat from the dock district. The bull-headed Spork dug in and was resolute to not accept the recommendation, but Torie convinced him otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And soon after Spork knocked on Thelius' door. Which is where me, Trog, and Banlys' story begins. However, the story does not start without some bruised feelings, as Spork insulted Trog by referring to him as dumb muscle. I saw my new friend bristle and restrain his rage, being the disciplined creature he is, but I knew the slight would not soon be forgotten.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Spork had questions for Thelius. Questions about necromancers. Questions about the Matron of Ravens. Questions about missing hearts and the Myriad and the Clasp. Being a seasoned Blood Hunter, Thelius knew quite a lot about each topic, but there were aspects of this crime that mystified even him. Further investigation was needed, and Thelius was all too happy to suggest the three of us move into Spork's office for the night pursuant to meeting with a monk of the Cobalt Soul who might know more about the mysterious events that were unfolding. We rested and headed to the Temple District first thing in the morning.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That's where we met Pliz'skin the monk of the Cobalt Soul.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Pliz'skin, Monk of the Cobalt Soul</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Was he happy to see us?</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Probably not.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Was he hiding something?</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Probably.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Steely, cold, and matter of fact, Pliz'skin listened to our story, then was instructed by his master to join us to help solve this mystery. He didn't seem to like us, but he was skilled, confident, and clearly more than capable of handling himself. Our group now included five.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Druid Large Silent Friend</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We were a group set in motion to discover who it was that was seeking dark knowledge.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Dark names and societies dedicated to evil were bandied about. Was it a cult of the Matron of Ravens? Was it the Chain of Oblivion? Adherents of the Scaled Tyrant? Maybe just one solitary madman, albeit a very powerful madman adept in necromancy and ritual. One piece of evidence that could not be overlooked is that the raven feathers had been magically treated so as to not be traced. That was a powerful magic and limited the search to powerful necromancers and certain cults. But it did not limit it to one, and so the search was afoot.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The master of the Cobalt Soul set us on a path to the Alabaster Lyceum. The Alabaster Lyceum is the arcane college and research facility for magical and divine artifacts in the city of Emon.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"The building appears to be built out of white marble, with very high ceilings, stretching up in some areas as high as 80 feet. Much of the building appears to be lit by magical orbs that are either set into the walls or into chandeliers. Some of the rooms have carved pillars depicting battles between devas and demons that spiral up the pillars. The building has guards near the entrances adorned with silver and gold armor wearing elven-like helmets." -from criticalrolewikia </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> So we were off to the Alabaster Lyceum, where adolescent guards refused us entry. We had no written appointment. It was at this time that Trog's anger, still seething from Spork's initial insult. boiled over. He angrily pounded on the force field of the Lyceum and demanded that he be allowed to enter the college of knowledge despite their refusal. The force field held, and we were sent on our unmerry way to seek written permission to enter the arcane college.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trog Gunga Galunga (Googie) the Goliath Blood Hunter </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Our adventure next took us to the Cloudtop District and the office of the Master Arcanist, Allura Vysoren. A headstrong bureaucrat of the highest order, she also was less than overjoyed to see us. In fact, she was already expecting to meet with the august senator from Syngorn, Tyronius. The only snag is that Tyronius was back in Syngorn with a five day migraine, and had sent his seneschal Bromm to stand in for him. Vysoren was not amused. As the lackey hemmed and hawed, trying to stave off the bureaucrat's rising anger, the conflagration was further complicated by an unannounced investigator's knock on the door. "If this isn't about a murder I have no time for you Vysoren roared," but just as she said those words her sending stone began to glow, and as her eyes rolled back in her head she received the message that the nobleman Kormallis had been murdered in the most grisly and macabre way.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Although Spork's story about the murdered street walker fell on deaf ears, the new revelation that a nobleman had been murdered in a similar manner sparked the overly officious officials' interest, and Bromm was charged with the task of escorting us to the crime scene to investigate and report back the new details of what had now become an official case. We were to meet the detective Marcolas and stay out of her hair while simultaneously doing our own inspection of the crime scene.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This time it wasn't the opulent gentleman's heart that was missing, it was his liver. However, the modus operandi was exactly the same: an expert break-in and entry followed by a grisly mauling and disfiguring of the body, excepting the part of the body that was to be surgically removed, which miraculously remained pristine. Raven feathers had been pressed into the carefully scattered parts and were found under the fingernails. It was a scene that seemed carefully orchestrated to make it appear as if the Matron of ravens was involved. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Was she? Did someone just want us to think so to throw us off the track?</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Spork and Bromm and Pliz'skin culled over the scene of the crime while the rest of us waited outside. They questioned Kormallis' servants, an aged husband and wife, gleaning whatever clues they could from them. On a whim Large Silent Friend decided to talk to the hedge maze and see if the shrubbery had noticed anything unusual the previous night. To his surprise, they did, and told him of two creatures with skin the color of nightfall who had entered through the east door and exited through the west. They asked if they would ever see their beloved master again and were told by LSF that he had passed into the next realm. The Bloodhunter Trog recognized their description of the infernal looking creatures as Tieflings, and the session concluded with us wondering if all of this was related to the Tiefling Chastity who had sent Spork to the floor clutching his head the previous evening.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The session ended with all six of us wondering where this mystery would take us. And what exactly had the Bloodhunter Banlys observed? I am sure there are now six different versions of reality that we must piece together in an effort to work together as a cohesive team to solve this mystery and defend our new home against whatever sinister and dark forces are at work here. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Dramatis Personae</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">1) Large Silent Friend: Firbolg Druid</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">2) Banlys: Aarakocra Blood Hunter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">3) Trog Gunga Galunga (Googie): Goliath Blood Hunter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">4) Bromm: Human Fighter</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">5) Spork Fastwhiler: Human Ranger</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">6) Pliz'skin: Monk </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">8) Travis Legge. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ContagionRpg/?hc_ref=ARTHLFiTlEuamrJS6qH8fAVAulhdSY0qKvIw1fhrUI905f-SxJWnL-AdH9l4I-tHJp4&fref=nf" target="_blank">Dungeon Master </a></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">9) ?????</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2016/10/there-are-stranger-things-than-dungeons.html" target="_blank">Playing Dungeons and Dragons During the Satanic Panic</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-34213321141021056392018-04-29T03:17:00.002-05:002018-04-29T03:18:30.525-05:00You're Always Playing Planescape Whether You Know It or Not<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Our Planescape Tuesdays campaign that started in Dragonlance and ended up with the Great Wheel turning and wiping the entire multiverse out of existence concluded this Tuesday. Well, to be truthful, the campaign began almost two years ago with a cast of characters that didn't even include many of the people who were in the room Tuesday night, and only three of the characters, Rowan, Dench, and Kerfuffle, but nonetheless as the great light overtook us and the Great Wheel turned, eight of us were playing the fifteen characters remaining in our campaign. My two characters were the High Elf Bloodrut Silverthistle and the human Elritch Knight Perterberator.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bloodrut Silverthistle</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This campaign actually began half a year ago confined to the world of Krynn, but soon spiraled out of control and careened towards the Planescape campaign we though had concluded prior to starting Dragonlance. My character, Bloodrut Silverthistle, is a High Elf wizard who dreamed that there were other worlds out there somewhere. Turns out there were, and as soon as the mists of Boravia rolled in and the spider queen Lolth made her presence known, Bloodrut's only goal was to somehow get out of Krynn. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'll tell that story later, at least what I remember, but what was so memorable about Tuesday night's finale is when we got to the DM's house he had a plastic hex stage laid out on the table and a box full of plastic miniatures at the ready. Being the final showdown of a two year campaign we knew we were in for a battle royale that included at the very least our mortal enemies Lolth and Acererak, but soon expanded to include Orcus and the Gnoll god Yeenoghu. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Aramus Perterberator</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'd had a couple of weeks to strategize for this battle as we played one offs until we could get everyone in the same room, and the strategy that seemed to make the most sense, and ultimately worked, was to attack Lolth with my Great Weapons Master bonus, then use Arcane Charge as a bonus action to teleport away, also casting Ottilukes Resilient Sphere with Action Surge (I'm 20th level). Bloodrut's strategy was to prepare for inevitably being reduced to zero hit points, which she did by casting a Contingency spell that would activate a Blink spell if she were reduced to zero hit points, which eventually happened, sending her to the Ethereal Plane. Since she had a Ring of Healing she was restored to at least one hit point and would still be there floating around if the entire Universe hadn't ended only moments later. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Even though her plan was to hang back and play a support role, perhaps buff others up and even throw in a damaging spell if possible, Bloodrut got to steal the show for a moment when she thrust herself into the middle of the action and decided to go for broke and cast a Disintegrate spell against Lolth, who had been taking oceans of damage from our fighters. What Bloodrut did not plan for is that Lolth would roll a critical fail, thus not making her saving throw at all AND doubling the damage, which turned out to be a mammoth 164 points. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As is our tradition, our DM asked me how I wanted it to go and I said "So long, Arachnerd." Lolth slowly melted into a pile of component spiders, then was gone from our Planescape world.... forever.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However the battle was not over. Orcus and Yeenoghu remained, but were soon to be rejoined by Perterberator and Patsy the Minotaur's nemesis... Acererak.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Patsy Tightbreeze. The Minotaur.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With that blood-curdling cackle he had become famous to our party for in our skirmishes at The Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, and seemingly everywhere else we ever traveled, the legendary lich was called back by the demon prince Orcus for one last go-around. No matter how many times we thought we had killed Acererak, made a deal with Graz'zt to trap him in sphere of annihilation on a desolate demi-plane forever, or just plane blasted him off the battlefield as we had only moments before, the son-of-a-bitch always returned. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And every damn time he was cocksure that he was going to show us a beating like we'd never imagined.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I don't think the group has ever had a better time. The Old Grand-Dad was flowing, and nothing our DM threw at us could stop us. The gnome Gnixon had a wish gun he fired after a couple of rounds of sustaining damage and restored us to full hit points and spell slots. From that point, no one, not even the gods and demon lords stood a chance against us. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As the battle wound down the light overtook us and the Great Wheel spun. The world we had known was no more, but the new Bard of Ormin, our very own party member Argar Da'argagaar was allowed one final act, and he chose to teleport us all to the False City of Ormin to live out our lives in the new world. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Both Bloodrut and Perterberator had mixed feelings about never being able to leave Ormin and join the eternal battle again, but the world on Krynn that Bloodrut wanted to change no longer existed, anyway, and as for Perterberator, he holds out hope that never really never means never and he'll find a way to slip free from the peaceful prison of Ormin and re-establish The Hall of Bad Dudes and travel the planes righting wrongs and spreading freedom and enlightenment for all. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With a face like this there's no way Aargar can walk the straight and narrow forever. Aargar and Perterberator will be out there again someday soon doing what they do best: cause problems, then solve them. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As for our group: we're on to Tal' Dorei. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-65784969367264080732018-02-11T22:26:00.000-06:002018-02-11T22:26:07.349-06:00"Venus 2000" By Rockford Artist Joe Tallman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Last weekend we went to Joe Tallman and Allison Wuest's show at J.R. Kortman here in Rockford, and I saw this piece that really knocked me out. Since my heart surgery I'm always drawn to works of art about the human heart, or in this case, the robot heart, which in my case has even more applicability. Jenny got me this piece for my birthday and had it framed by the resident genius at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/habitatforart/" target="_blank">Mainfraim</a>. Aside from it just being a wonderful piece, I like that three different local artists and gallery owners can share in the benefits. I think we should all make an effort to buy from people we know in our own neighborhoods. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Venus 2000" By Joe Tallman. See more from Rockford artist Joe Tallman <a href="https://www.facebook.com/joetallmanillustration/?hc_ref=ARRDHUijH-ISNKKInlcdD_mAXevpYBC5ewrVoWJ3Kgx_Yq7VExZ9MolUrk48rQMcuFQ&fref=nf&pnref=story" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-56640256194718823202018-02-11T17:28:00.000-06:002018-02-11T17:28:17.279-06:00A Few Fantasy Novels Banned At My High School During the Satanic Panic<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">During the rabid years of the Satanic Panic, circa 1983, they started removing books from the Byron High School library, then eventually cracked down on anyone playing Dungeons and Dragons on school property or reading "objectionable" books on school grounds. All weekend I've been trying to recreate in my memory a list of a few of those books. Then I did what I always do: I went to Ebay and Abe Books and started buying those books for my library. Surprisingly, after that episode in my teen years I never read sci fi or fantasy at all, but for the past year I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons on Tuesday nights and my interest has been rekindled.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Before I list the books I must relate another memory that puts it in a little more perspective for me. At that time we got a young librarian from NIU who was young enough to notice a bunch of us were hanging out during lunch and playing D and D instead of shooting baskets or outside smoking. He asked us what types of books we were interested in the library acquiring, and he got requests from a lot of us. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We were overjoyed, and started checking the books out.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Others were apparently not overjoyed, and a few weeks into the books arriving they were pulled from the library shelves and never returned. Then we were banned from playing Dungeons and Dragons on school grounds, and eventually many of us bought the books on our own but soon found out they were banned on school property, also.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">1) Hobgoblin- John Coyne. Hobgoblin is the first of the books I remember having read. It's about a teen who loses himself in a character he plays in a fictional RPG named Hobgoblin. Apparently Coyne had seen his nephew playing Dungeons and Dragons and wondered what it would be like to write a novel where a character actually came to life. I haven't read anything else by this author, but he was known for some lurid material, and there is some sex and violence in this book. Not as much as in about a thousand other books in the library no one was complaining about, but Rona Jaffe's Mazes and Monsters had really started a frenzy. Speaking of. The second book I bought was...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">2) Mazes and Monsters. Rona Jaffe. I learned a new term today. Problem novel. The <b>social novel</b>, also known as the <b>social problem</b> (or <b>social protest</b>) <b>novel</b>, is a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". For some reason AIDS wasn't considered a problem during the Reagan administration, but role playing games and fantasy novels were. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black;">We came back for the Spring semester, and the young librarian was no longer there. For the first time there were now electronic chutes at the door which monitored the egress of books with a chip. Whereas before the congregating of a few nerds in tha back room was of no interest to anyone, our gathering was now scrutinized closely.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black;">What I can tell you about that group of kids is that one of them became a high-ranking Marine officer, more than one, and even more than two made a lot of money in Silicon Valley, and the one who came closest to freaking out and becoming like a character in one of these "problem books" now lives on one of the most hum drum and Pleasantville roads in this town. That would be me. And I'm still contemplating flipping out and just entering a fantasy game one evening and not returning at nearly 50. Here's a few of the other books I have already ordered or will still be ordering.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJA4K8YdI01jjtbo9bcB8SRACLSwRXUSIfP_GeCa1RH3ZyFe69k2YzeAmNVb9dSHul0ndKzjP4Jr4nF1fSS60jzyQuwYscAEDKxYhR7PtvC_NOoKu2xPYfz55RlqsP-NNfJigRBNvBM7GN/s1600/Magician+Raymond+Feist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1114" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJA4K8YdI01jjtbo9bcB8SRACLSwRXUSIfP_GeCa1RH3ZyFe69k2YzeAmNVb9dSHul0ndKzjP4Jr4nF1fSS60jzyQuwYscAEDKxYhR7PtvC_NOoKu2xPYfz55RlqsP-NNfJigRBNvBM7GN/s320/Magician+Raymond+Feist.jpg" width="237" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">3) Magician. Raymond Feist. At Crydee, <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pug_(fictional_character)" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Pug (fictional character)">Pug</a>, an orphan boy is apprenticed to a master magician. Suddenly the Kingdom is aswarm with alien invaders, destroying the peace of the kingdom. Pug and his friend <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashen-Shugar/Tomas" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Ashen-Shugar/Tomas">Tomas</a> are swept up into the conflict, with Pug's destiny leading him through a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midkemia#Rifts" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Midkemia">rift</a> to a new world.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">That sounds vaguely familiar to me, but I'm not sure if I finished this one. Just ordered it from Abe Books. Saw copies selling for several hundred dollars, but I settled on a more economical book club version. Here are a few of the others I remember.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWeBUY5Z2TtKwHmnRHMHLhnHh9Kv2FszCNs4RDGBj7Dtj7R7XlZ3nW4vlpaVQOq_DjqfLweZr3D_2XA56e25Fut6GlfCeKU5CriWgaIAmFwauCPz0jTQcILCn9Joo5PFDo8MJblDghfk-x/s1600/Mists+of+Avalon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWeBUY5Z2TtKwHmnRHMHLhnHh9Kv2FszCNs4RDGBj7Dtj7R7XlZ3nW4vlpaVQOq_DjqfLweZr3D_2XA56e25Fut6GlfCeKU5CriWgaIAmFwauCPz0jTQcILCn9Joo5PFDo8MJblDghfk-x/s320/Mists+of+Avalon.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">4) The Mists of Avalon. Marion Zimmer Bradley. In this one the Camelot and King Arthur legend is told from the perspective of the female characters. Morgan la Fey is less of an evil witch bent on destroying the Knights of the Round Table than a druid priestess trying to save her pagan religion from zealous Christian barbarians. I wonder why they didn't like this one.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUe3DDpSbdcxEA93xHkTMvoJNMCXXkb0SyYxka6X3zReQx5DX1igPAzOplb7wQ6JmAb1v6hNf6EqS6gtzLGuhtTmS0mP1nEoLui87gfbcKwIFGEYfC8WWER4WISBhmRZW9gPWN3kypGzK/s1600/The+Crystal+Cave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinUe3DDpSbdcxEA93xHkTMvoJNMCXXkb0SyYxka6X3zReQx5DX1igPAzOplb7wQ6JmAb1v6hNf6EqS6gtzLGuhtTmS0mP1nEoLui87gfbcKwIFGEYfC8WWER4WISBhmRZW9gPWN3kypGzK/s320/The+Crystal+Cave.jpg" width="221" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">5) The Crystal Cave. Mary Stewart. In this one, written before the ohers, I think in 1979, the Arturian legend is told throuh the eyes of Merlin. This is the first of a trilogy, and is about his adolescent years and travels as he comes into his own as the sorcerer and prophet he is. This isn't my copy. I haven't bought it yet.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCfbbF9cBhvNG_yv_Tk9gT6APklR9TpZUrWzrFeZVapUmXiGgSrKO2uwVxbPDv-4FBhUubGGkrsn4og6lr9hZRyCOnfHLuimwYCFX6lX_30VmStyJfMgC0693xH7IxtCpIUp3s4yiYKU6o/s1600/Sanctuary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCfbbF9cBhvNG_yv_Tk9gT6APklR9TpZUrWzrFeZVapUmXiGgSrKO2uwVxbPDv-4FBhUubGGkrsn4og6lr9hZRyCOnfHLuimwYCFX6lX_30VmStyJfMgC0693xH7IxtCpIUp3s4yiYKU6o/s320/Sanctuary.jpg" width="218" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">6) Sanctuary. Edited by Robert Lynn Asprin. 22 stories of heroic fantasy including: The Gate of the Flying Knives, by Poul Anderson; Blood Brothers; by Joe Haldeman; Looking for Satan, by Vonda N. McIntyre; The Secret of the Blue Star, by Marion Zimmer Bradley; Myrtis, by Christine DeWees; The Price of Doing Business, by Robert Asprin; Shadowspawn, by Andrew J. Offutt; Shadow's Pawn, by Andrew J. Offutt; The Face of Chaos, by Lynn Abbey; Sentences of Death, by John Brunner; To Guard the Guardians, by Robert Asprin; Vashanka's Minion, by Janet Morris; The Dream of the Sorceress, by A. E. van Vogt; The Fruit of Enlibar, by Lynn Abbey; Goddess, by David Drake; Spiders of the Purple Mage, by Philip José Farmer; A Man and His God, by Janet Morris; Then Azyuna Danced, by Lynn Abbey; The Rhinoceros and the Unicorn, by Diana L. Paxson; The Vivisectionist, by Andrew J. Offutt; A Gift in Parting, by Robert Asprin; Ischade, by C. J. Cherryh. Also includes maps of Thieves' World, introductions, and essays.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This one I'm looking forward to getting and reading. Maybe again. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-OU-za4hTcigHy2-nVRlDTX92RFXsLTGvRKjEEq9uMx-JUEYZLk5UtDOt_8uAP0O-UzVgaugj58J3Nf7p8aDr7RZr7z4EJvzEdssZD7JdVjwTrFBSgriCM_BNWqX0JdOMlhycHTEJAC40/s1600/The+Chronicles+of+Amber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1297" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-OU-za4hTcigHy2-nVRlDTX92RFXsLTGvRKjEEq9uMx-JUEYZLk5UtDOt_8uAP0O-UzVgaugj58J3Nf7p8aDr7RZr7z4EJvzEdssZD7JdVjwTrFBSgriCM_BNWqX0JdOMlhycHTEJAC40/s400/The+Chronicles+of+Amber.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">7) The Chronicles of Amber. Roger Zelazny. <i><b>The Chronicles of Amber</b></i> is a series of <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_novel" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Fantasy novel">fantasy novels</a> by American writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Roger Zelazny">Roger Zelazny</a>. The <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel_series" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Novel series">main series</a> consists of two <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_arc" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Story arc">story arcs</a>, each five novels in length. Additionally, there are a number of Amber <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Short story">short stories</a> and other works.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Amber stories take place in two contrasting "true" worlds, Amber and Chaos, and in shadow worlds (Shadows) that lie between the two. These shadows, including our Earth, are parallel worlds that exist in, and were created from, the tension between opposing magical forces of Amber and Chaos. The Courts of Chaos are situated at the very edge of an Abyss. Members of the royal family of Amber, after walking a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pattern_(The_Chronicles_of_Amber)" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="The Pattern (The Chronicles of Amber)">Pattern</a> that is central to Amber, can travel freely through the Shadows. While traveling (shifting) between Shadows, one can alter reality or create a new reality by choosing which elements of which Shadows to keep or add, and which to subtract. Nobles of the Courts of Chaos who have traversed the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logrus" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Logrus">Logrus</a> are similarly able to travel through Shadow.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Ordered those last night. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">When I talked about this to one of my Planescape buddies, also a child of the 80's, he told me about the Streisand Effect, whereby when you try to erase something from the memory of others it just creates the opposite phenomenon, and the thing becomes even more powerful. This is a list of books I may very well have read, enjoyed, and not remembered very much at all if there hadn't been some concerted effort to make them off limits to me, to demonize their content. The effort was even more insidious now that I think back about it because what they were really trying to do is get me to censor myself, to passively accept their introjects and their sense of morality and never question it again. The censor would become internal, and I would have believed it was really me, not them. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A few weeks into that second semester I was suspended for continuing to bring these books in. I had gone as far as to ask for them from a book club for Christmas, and would share them with anyone who was interested. It has been a lot of fun for me reclaiming these memories from the void, and like the character in The Chronicles of Amber who has amnesia, seeing the books laid out before me in a growing pattern as I remember one after the other. Some of these are most decidedly not literary classics, but I hope you, too, will pick one up and read it, whether the ghost of Edwin Meese likes it or not. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-13003361760633944152018-01-28T14:08:00.003-06:002018-01-28T14:20:46.970-06:00The Poetry Reading<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Poetry Reading</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Uptown Cultural Center's</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Liason for Community Education</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Steps to the podium and gives a brief speil</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">About the essential nature</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Of poetry in the community,</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And how poetry is for everyone,</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Then sneaks off through a back door</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The moment the poetry begins.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I see her in her office</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With her feet up</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Reading Cosmopolitan.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As the poems about oppression </span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And loneliness begin in earnest,</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The poets read their poems</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">About the callousness</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Of a public apathetic</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To their sacrifices,</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Then disappear one by one</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After reading</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Until finally it's just me,</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The open bar,</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And poetry...</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Again.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">-Thomas L. Vaultonburg</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-18741951765176061432018-01-26T13:05:00.001-06:002019-10-02T16:10:35.241-05:0043 (and growing) "Bad" Horror Movies Every Horror Fan Must See <span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is a list of horror movies I watch on a semi-constant basis with a few quick notes to remind me what they are when I forget. It is not intended as a detailed synoposis of those movies, and unless you're a dedicated fan of horror these movies probably won't entertain you at all. Note: I made this list in the car between Wausau and Dr. Evermore's Forevertron in North Freedom, Wisconsin. I'm in the early stages of memory loss, and it's just a list, folks. It's meant as a tribute to all the low budget horror films that have meant so much to me all my life, not something to fight about, but I'd enjoy it if others wanted to talk about any of these films or similar ones that have meaning to them. Maybe some of these movies will help you get through some hard times and dark nights with their unpretentious devotion to the genre the way they have for me.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">1) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/03/screamtime-1983.html" target="_blank">Screamtime</a>: Anthology piece shot in Britain, but with introductory segment shot in New York. Has the gnomes story I really enjoy.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">2) Nightmares: Anthology piece with Emilio Estevez in the Bishop of Battle segment.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">3) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2015/01/in-search-of-blood-manias-elusive-peter.html" target="_blank">Point of Terror</a>: Peter Carpenter vehicle about a small time lounge singer who has aspirations of being a star.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">4) Night of Horror: Confederate zombies pursue a rocker and his friends.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">5) Werewolves On Wheels: Great soundtrack by Don Gere. Biker werewolves who take on a Satanic cult.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">6) Enter the Devil: Wonderful regional B movie shot in Texas and with a unique take on the Satanic cult genre.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">7) The Offspring (From a Whisper To a Scream): Awesome Vincent Price anthology piece about Oldfield, a Southern town where the sins of the past always come back to haunt those in the present.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">8) Toxic Zombies: Pot growers crop dusted by the DEA transform into zombies and pursue those unlucky enough to be anywhere in the vicinity.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">9) No Blade of Grass: Stark, cynical assessment of human nature after an environmental disaster plunges humanity into chaos.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">10) <a href="https://thingsofthedead.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things</a>: Favorite movie. A theatre troupe of young Hippies land on a small island with a cemetery to perform a Satanic ritual meant to raise the dead. It works.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"So what's with this little thing we're askin'?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">11) Shockwaves: Aquatic Nazi zombies rise from their shipwreck to hunt down members of a shipwrecked crew on an island with an abandoned resort which Peter Cushing lives in.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">12) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/01/elviras-movie-macabre-episode-45.html" target="_blank">Psychomania</a>: Biker gang punk learns secret of immortality from his psychic mother.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">13) Mansion of the Living Dead: Incredibly misogynistic Jess Franco movie starring another island resort and living dead reminiscent of Ossorio's Blind Dead.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">14) Revenge of the Dead: French movie mistaken for a zombie movie by those disappointed it's really a mystery with another abandoned spa and only one zombie.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">15) City of the Walking Dead: Probably the first fast-moving zombie movie.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">16) <a href="https://welcometothemonsterclub.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">The Monster Club</a>: Co-favorite movie of all time. Vincent Price in another anthology piece set in a London night club for monsters.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What happens if a Shadmock whistles?</span></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">17) Alabama's Ghost: Bizarre piece of nonsense released as a Thriller Video hosted by Elvira directed by a scuplter.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">18) The Spookies: A car-wrecked group of goofs happen upon an abandoned house that really isn't bandoned.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">19) The Phantom of the Paradise: Paul Williams as Faust.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">20) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/03/zombielogics-incredibly-brief-movie_1195.html" target="_blank">Scream and Scream Again</a>: Price, Lee, Cushing.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">21) Dracula 1972 A.D.: Chhristopher Lee as a Dracula in swinging London.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">22) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/03/escapes-hosted-by-vincent-price.html" target="_blank">Escapes</a>: Quaint but charming low budget anthology piece "hosted" by Vincent Price with the great Cup of Joe segment.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">23) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/01/elviras-movie-macabre-episode-98-pigs.html" target="_blank">Pigs</a>: First saw on Movie Macabre. An on-the-run mental patient meets the only other person crazier than her at a remote diner that serves the meat of pigs that survive on human flesh.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">24) Gargoyles: ABC movie of the week in early 70's about the re-awakening of ancient gargoyles in the Southwestern desert.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">25) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/03/zombielogics-incredibly-brief-movie.html" target="_blank">Messiah of Evil (Dead People)</a>: Eerie, atmospheric movie about the return of the Red Moon to Point Doom, California. Great scenes at the theatre and Ralphs.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">26) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/11/zombie-logics-incredibly-brief-movie.html" target="_blank">Simon, King of theWitches</a>: Written by a real expert on witchcraft, avoids many of the cliche tropes of movies about witches.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">27) The Cold: Shot at the now demolished <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/05/northernair-hotel-and-awful-movie-bill.html" target="_blank">Northernaire</a> Resort in Wisconsin, the tale of three oldsters who invite several strangers to their resort off season every year to play a deadly game. William Rebane directs.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">28) Zombiethon: Compiled footage from several zombie movies sliced together with several amusing interstitial shorts.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">29) Night of the Comet: Against inconceivable odds, two sisters in different locations survive a meteor cataclysm.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">30) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2016/12/movie-macabre-seaso-3-episode-13-dr.html" target="_blank">Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Hype</a>: Oliver Reed in an unusual retelling of the famous horror story.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">31) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/02/class-reunion-massacre.html" target="_blank">Class Reunion Massacre</a>: Shot in a Southern military academy, several people gather for a high school reunion. You know the rest.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">32) The Beast Must Die: Werewolf mystery. Who is the werewolf? Who isn't the werewolf?</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">33) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/01/elviras-movie-macabre-episode-96-house.html" target="_blank">House of the Dead </a>(Alien Zone): The original House of the Dead, shot in Omaha. A low budget anthology piece about a pilandering convention goer being shown the wages of sin by an undertaker.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">34) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/01/elviras-movie-macabre-episode-101-joel.html" target="_blank">Joel M. Reed's Bloodbath</a>: Great anthology piece.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">35) Funeral Home: Canadian horror movie about a young woman who goes to stay with her grandmother for the summer at the home where her grandfather was an undertaker.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">36) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/04/zombielogics-incredibly-brief-movie_8098.html" target="_blank">Night Train To Terror</a>: Bizarro anthology piece with the greatest musical intro of all time and Bull from Night Court in two of the segments. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Everybody's got something to do. Everybody but you. </span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">37) Ghost Ship: Nazi ghost ship.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">38) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/09/andrew-davis-made-me-watch-hard-rock.html" target="_blank">Hard Rock Zombies</a>: A favorite at <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/08/street-trash-zombie-night-and-dead-drunk.html" target="_blank">Zombie Night</a></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">39) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2013/04/a-name-for-evil.html" target="_blank">A Name For Evil</a>: Robert Culp as an architect who leaves the city to return to his ancestral home, but soon finds an angry ancestor doesn't want him there.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">40) Satan's Children: Florida news guys swindles his friends to make this anti-Satan cautionary tale about a young man who leaves his broken home only to be raped by Molly Hatchet and then joins a Satanic cult.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">41) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/05/boneyard-starring-norman-fell-and.html" target="_blank">The Boneyard</a>: Phyllis Diller, Norman Fell, an offbeat lead character, and a zombie poodle in an oddly effective dark horror movie.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">42) The Video Dead: A haunted television mistakenly sent to a California suburb unleashes a David Bowie zombie.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">43) Creepshow 2: "Thanks for the ride, lady."</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Newly remembered</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">44) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/04/zombielogics-incredibly-brief-movie_27.html" target="_blank">Ghostkeeper</a>: Canadian snowmobilers are stranded at a abandoned resort. First Wendigo movie I am aware of.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">45) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/04/humongous-1982-zombielogics-incredibly.html" target="_blank">Humongous</a>: Canadian boaters are shipwrecked on an island where a Big Head Todd monster still lives in an abandoned resort.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">46) Warlock Moon: A college girl is lured by a charming stranger to an abandoned resort where cannibals ply their trade.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">47) Screams of a Winter Night: At an abandoned resort (getting the idea?) in Louisiana, a group of young college types trades urban legends, then becomes one. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">48) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2014/11/peopletoys-1974.html" target="_blank">Devil Times Five</a>: At a ski lodge deserted for the season, the owner beckons his daughter, her boyfriend, and Boss Hogg and his alcoholic wife to be murdered by a cross-dressing Leif Garrett and a 15 year old albino the director was banging, because it was the 70's</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Devil Times Five</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">49) Nightmare In Blood: The first horror con ever turns bloody when a movie vampire scheduled to appear turns out to be a vampire. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">50) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/12/the-baby-is-1973-slice-of-absurdism.html" target="_blank">The Baby</a>: A grown man is treated like a baby by his two sisters and mother. A truly unusual movie. It is horror.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">51) <a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2012/05/death-by-dialogue.html" target="_blank">Death By Dialogue</a>: Almost forgot this gem, but that's why this list is here. A group of college student visit one of their uncles, who lives near an abandoned film set, and snooping in the basement finds a mysterious script whose contents come to life as they are read. One of the best decapitation by a heavy metal band one stumbles upon performing in the forest scenes ever. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">52) Hellgate: A movie I used to confuse with Death By Dialogue because the settings seem so similar. Ron Palillo (Horshak from Welcome Back Kotter) is in this one about college students who end up in an abandoned Western Ghost Town attraction that comes back to life. Or something like that.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">53) Tourist Trap: The Rifleman, Chuck Conners, owns a tourist trap wax museum. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">54) Dead and Buried: For some reason had blocked this one from my memory, perhaps confusing it with something else, until a couple months ago, when I finally watched it, and will again, hopefully. Coastal town full of pyschos murders tourists and... little bit like The Fog or Messiah of Evil.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">55) Mark of the Witch. Anitra Walsh as a witch who returns to a college town to seek vengeance on a ersatz Leslie Nielsen type who condemned her death in a previous life. </span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-83722048237516869482018-01-25T21:30:00.001-06:002018-01-25T21:30:55.914-06:00Outsider Poetry: Love Poem For Valentine's Day 2018<a href="http://www.outsiderpoetry.com/2018/01/love-poems-for-valentines-day-2018.html?spref=bl">Outsider Poetry: Love Poem For Valentine's Day 2018</a>: Just wanted to be self-indulgent and post one of the love poems I have written for my partner. This year she decided to type some of them u...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-47721789324292542652018-01-24T21:15:00.001-06:002018-01-25T14:39:23.382-06:00Planescape Tuesdays: Argar Da'argagaar and Aramus Perterberator Destroy the World, Then Save It, Then Destroy It Again<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Dragonborn sorcerer (and con man) Argar Da'argagaar and his thick friend Aramus Perterberator, a blaqueguard fighter, burst from the Stygian darkness of the Underdark like spring hares running from the hounds of hell, having very recently done their very favorite thing: cheating a rich and powerful tyrant out of his riches. Only this time, like many other times, something went slightly wrong with the plan. The ancestral relic warhammer they were hired to retrieve for a Dwarven king was discovered to be a fake. And once again, the chase was on.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Emerging from the Underdark into the almost crueler light of their beloved home of Faerun, the two career five-and-dimers quickly slipped into one of their tried-and-true escape routines, disguising themselves as a Phlan city guard and his draconian prisoner. Little could they even envision in their wildest schemes that it would not even be possible to hide from the frenzied knot of labyrinthine</span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> events that would sweep them up like helpless capybara in the iron talons of a Manticore.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black;">Pursued by enraged dwarves, Aarg and Peterberator concluded it would be best to put as much distance between them and their latest boondoggle as possible, and a shadowy, slinking figure at the edge of the forest offered them the opportunity to do just that. "My name is Girtith" said the Deep Gnome, who was blind. It seemed he had appeared from nowhere, but after a volley of small talk it was established that he, too, was in a mood to be anywhere but here, and knew of a way to escape.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: black;">After a few hours of trudging through the dense and brackish Gnotwood Forest, the choking brambles gave way to a clearing where the new band of allies saw a whimsical, yet welcome sight: a tall, gray tower festooned with what looked like a wizards hat on top. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Oddly enough (perhaps not so oddly in retrospect) the Deep Gnome knew of a secret entrance, and guided Aargar and Peterberator to a friend he knew who may just be able to help them with their being chased by angry dwarves dilemma. So it was decided they would meet the mad genius who inhabited the top floor of the tower. It was decidedly not decided that when they met the Cloud Giant who inhabited the tower that the entire structure would start to rumble and launch itself into space moments later. So much for proper introductions. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It also was not expected, gauging from the Storm Giant's shocked reaction, that the tower would be boarded by Phyrexian space pirates only moments into the "Hello, who the hell are you and why are you on my spaceship tower thingy?" conversation that was just starting to get good. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Madness ensued. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Cloud Giant was more than capable of fending off the pirates, but what he couldn't have accounted for was the unquieting effect the combination of </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator can have on otherwise merely out of control circumstances. It's possible the goodly, but slightly whacky giant may have had a sphere of annihilation in his possession, and it's also possible that sphere of annihilation may have been mesmerizing to one </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar, and although details are sketchy, a Mage Hand may have appeared from "somewhere" and made an attempt to grab the sphere, thereby creating a chain of events that culminated with the Cloud Giant being swallowed by his own Sphere of Annihilation and the walls of the tower exploding, and </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator being ejected into the Astral Plane. Allegedly.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was while floating aimlessly through the Astral Plane that </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Aramus Pertberator met the band of fellow reprobate loonies that would simultaneously become their thickest friends and oft times their greatest enemies. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Managing to grab hold of a cylandrical platform in the midst of the ether, </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator were immediately attacked by a Ranger named Dench and a winged Kobold named Podo. Perterberator managed to secure </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar's release in exchange for breaking the choke hold he had on the winged Kobold. And that is how </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator met the party of characters with whom they would subsequently destroy the very fabric of the Multiverse, then reshape it into something even better.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">After some ruffled feathers and puffing of chests, moderating voices like the Mystic Borana and the Bard Rowan managed to keep </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator from killing their new friends who had attacked them first with no provocation, but there wasn't much time for peeing for distance because even in the Astral Plane you're never really alone, as an airship drew closer the party saw the ever-serious face of Gith herself, would-be liberator of her people from the Mind Flayers, twisted into a mask of determination. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Being trapped on the Astral Plane with no way to return to anywhere that seemed familiar, the party agreed to help free Gith's people from an Illithid slave encampment where their minds were slowly being drained by the parasitic Mind Flayers. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh13NNxx6Tjlgyk2bVcbqtdiA-MaqKUF1_Wt2JTFBIOZdjvN28qrWqEpVh7s-kxQYKMEM4vrZ2IgrEkfq27tnLzE0vDHDNxZ8qNXOTWWh-Sr50F3egJTiNxL3BXRXzB99SvnH5726aqmev9/s1600/Mind_flayer_-_5E.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="350" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh13NNxx6Tjlgyk2bVcbqtdiA-MaqKUF1_Wt2JTFBIOZdjvN28qrWqEpVh7s-kxQYKMEM4vrZ2IgrEkfq27tnLzE0vDHDNxZ8qNXOTWWh-Sr50F3egJTiNxL3BXRXzB99SvnH5726aqmev9/s400/Mind_flayer_-_5E.jpg" width="290" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mind Flayer</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But first Gith managed to open the floating obelisk the party had previously been clinging to to reveal a horde of treasure that made </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar's eyes spin. In an act of foolish generosity Dench played quartermaster for the party and doled out some legendary magical items, including a Rod of Lordly Might, which went to Kerfuffle the Orc barbarian, a Staff of the Magi, which </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar gladly accepted, and Plate Mail +2 and Defender longsword which made Perterberator nearly unassailable by non-magical means. Had the party amassed this historic cache of legendary items previously? The answer was hardly relevant to Arg and Perterberator at this point. It was time to kick some Mind Flayer butts (minds?) and free some slaves. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With the Halfling Rogue Chinaski taint stabbing everything in sight, the party managed to hack and slash its way through the living, vegetative vessel of the Illithids, and reach the pool where a powerful Mind Flayer lich was waiting to make a smorgasboard out of the soft and tasty minds of our party. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He did not succeed. Through a combination of psionic attacks, a volley of arrows, and a near-fatal Barbarian charge from Kerfuffle, the lich was dispatched, and the gith slaves' minds were freed into the Astral Plane. Unfortunately, the portal of the ship opened up, and the party was also "freed" into the Astral Plane. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Exactly how we found ourselves sucked out of the Astral Plane and into Barovia we may never know, but looking back the Dark Powers may even have been involved, but there we were, barely sure of each other's names. We wandered the blighted landscape of Barovia, undisturbed, although feeling constantly under observation, until we found a Vistani encampment. There the Bard Rowan, under the influence of a Vistani tea, was able to spy into the shadowy past of </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator, and made aware of some of their more dubious decisions, was bribed into not revealing these past, youthful discretions to the rest of the party by being given permission to use their past skullduggery in a legendary song.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Many plans were discussed at that campfire, knowing eventually it was inevitable Strahd would beckon us to his castle and most likely end our lives as we knew them. To complicate matters exponentially, the Ranger Dench had been possessed by the brother of Strahd after destroying the Book of Vile Darkness, and was reticent to discuss any plan that involved doing away with Strahd at all. Angers flared, threats were issued, and no plan of action could be agreed upon by the majority.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One thing everyone did agree upon, however, was that it would be a grand idea to summon the wizard Mordenkainen with a tuft of his beard that had been obtained by the party in a previous encounter with the thaumaturgist. Mordenkainen, we surmised, hated Strahd more than any other living creature, and would be more than happy to aid us in keeping the balance by defeating him. We guessed wrong. Mordenkainen arrived angry as a minotaur with a bee in its bonnet, and began casting a spell immediately. Perterberator had no inclination to see the results of the high wizard's utterations, and put him in a sleeper hold. Upon awaking the wizard was slightly more amenable to small talk.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was then the adventurers learned Strahd was finally to marry Tatyana, and in an act of generosity we were all invited. Mordenkainen included. Many in the party were willing to celebrate along with the Strahds and move on, but </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator had more noble ambitions. Ambitions they shared with the wizard Mordenkainen in an emergency strategy session that lasted long into the night. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Strahd von Zarovich</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The plan unfolded with the normal precision </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator were known for, and had the same devastating consequences that always seem to issue forth from doing the right thing in a deft and noble manner.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The feast was magnificent. The ceremony began in the morning and went off without a hitch. Strahd von Zarovich, the vampire tormentor of the Barovian people, plaything of the Dark Powers, and all-around douchenozzle, had finally been re-united with his love and all his hopes and aspirations of ruling Barovia as a mortal man were being realized.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Alas, there's the rub. Strahd von Zarovich was now a mortal man. And as all mortal men are, he had this tendency to die when overwhelmed with physical damage, or beheaded by an Eldritch Knight named Aramus Perterberator. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mordenkainen, </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar, and Perterberator were pleased with the results of their secret plan, but others who had not been consulted, were less so. Among those less pleased happened to be Dench von Zarovich, who shot Perterberator with his Oath Bow, failing to kill him, and other party members who gave fine and ineffective lectures about regime change and why inaction is a perfectly noble and reasonable choice in almost all circumstances. But one other entity was displeased. The demon lord Graz'zt. The skies turned black and peals of thunder rang out as the debonair but deadly demon prince descended to the roof of Ravenloft Castle.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Melee ensued. Perhaps, and I use this word knowing its proper context and scope, epic melee. Strahd was there. Mordenkainen was there. Graz'zt was there. And </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Aramus Perterberator were there. That morning at Ravenloft Castle. Others were also there, but were they?</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Graz'zt was finally subdued, and driven to the edge of defeat by a barrage of powerful spells, psychic attacks, and brute force. It is possible even Dench von Zarovich stopped attacking teammates long enough to sink an arrow into the demon lord. Clearly surprised at the pluck and determination of his adversaries, the demon lord grabbed the head of Strahd and vanished.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The people of Barovia were free. At least as free as the people of Barovia can ever be. But </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and Perterberator had made numerous and powerful enemies in their short time as players in the Multiverse.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar is a trickster. He's a con man. And he's a charlatan. He hates authority and has an overwhelming compulsion to steal from the wealthy and powerful. Aside from all that, swell Dragonborn. Solid dude. Heart in the right place even when he's engaged in a swindle. And the swindle he came up with next may be the greatest in all known lore. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Dench von Zarovich could not get over the death of his brother Strahd. No peace within the party was possible unless something was done, but how could any character of good conscience stand by while Dench resurrected one of the most evil villains in the Multiverse. </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar hatched a plan. A canard. One that would both set the Multiverse on its ear and eventually save it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Graz'zt</span></div>
<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As bold as a bucket, </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar summoned Graz'zt, and as game recognized game, they concocted a scheme the demon lords themselves would be proud of. Graz'zt was to create an ersatz copy of the head of Strahd to placate Dench in his efforts to resurrect his vile brother. When he reuinited the head with the body the resurrection would fail, but he would believe it failed because it was never possible, not because he had been duped. Meanwhile, Strahd's soul would be relegated to the void, forever in the possession of the demilich Acererak. Once again, the plot succeeded magnificently, then failed miserably. And worst of all, in exchange for his favors Graz'zt had received in return the means to enter the citadel city of Sigil. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On our way to the meeting where Graz'zt would seemingly reluctantly return the head of Strahd to Dench, we had a marvelously entertaining battle Against the Giants, where they launched huge ice balls first at our doomed cart, then at us with huge hockey sticks. With his newly obtained Fireball, </span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Argar Da'argagaar and the party took out the giants, then cleared the slaver's stockade they were running. We made it to the city of the Drow at the appointed time, and as agreed Graz'zt huffed and puffed, then launched the head at Dench.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Against the Giants</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Strahd's head secured, Dench immediately returned to Barovia to resurrect the evil fiend. As planned, the resurrection failed, but Dench was palliated in believing he had done all he could do. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was at this time we learned than the demon lords Demogorgon and Orcus had entered the prime material plane, and if not stopped would eventually gain power over the city of Sigil and many other planes of existence. On our way to seek out Demogorgon we happened upon a village of Kuo Toa and Chain Devils engaged in a ceremony to call forth some beast from the seas by offering it a large net full of humanoid creatures of all kinds. Naturally we felt obligated to free the woeful creatures being used as fishbait and stop whatever fiendish summoning was going down. Having done so we discovered to our horror a huge beast who was emerging from the depths was actually...</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Demogorgon.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Demogorgon</span></div>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Our Tiefling rogue remembered he had a wish left to be used and wished that Demogorgon would be defeated. Which he was. By Tiamat! who also emerged from the depths, dispatching Demogorgon with ease, then turning her attention to us.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Correctly assessing we had no chance of surviving a fight with Tiamat our charlatan Sorcerer Argar did what he always does... tried to trick the devil. But in this case he did have one piece of information Tiamat found worthy of sparing our lives for. Graz'zt was in Sigil, and unless stopped would soon take over the City of Doors and become the most powerful creature in the multiverse. Tiamat agreed to spare us in exchange for being banished to Sigil.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What seemed like only moments later to us, The Lady of Pain was cast to the ground in front of us in her humanoid form, looking defeated. She cursed us for having sent both Graz'zt and Tiamat to Sigil, where all Hell had broken out and she had been stripped of her powers. Sigil was defenseless.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Unless.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Unless a Dragonlance could be procured there was no reasonable hope of defeating Tiamat and saving the Multiverse. Legend had it there was one place where a Dragonlance could be found.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Tomb of Horrors! We agreed we would seek out the Tomb of Horrors, and brave the mythical dungeon of certain death and its bloodthirsty master, Acererak, but on one condition. If we succeeded we all would become Factols of our own Faction on Sigil. In no position to bargain, the Lady of Pain agreed to our terms, and we set off for the Tomb of Horrors.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But nothing is ever that easy, and on our journey to the Tomb of Horrors we stumbled, quite literally into </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">White Plume Mountain</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">where no less than three party members were swallowed by purple worms. With time being of the essence we shook this small setback off and headed to the Tomb of Horrors.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Knowing the reputation the Tomb had for making even the most seasoned adventurers disappear forever, we set out with extreme caution. After much searching we finally found the entrance to the Tomb, and began the often frustrating, always engaging process of finding the secret hiding place of the demilich Acererak and the Dragonlance we so desperately needed to have any chance of defeating Tiamat. After what seemed like months of wrong turns, elaborate traps set specifically with our demise in mind at every step, and a madman's riddle ringing in our heads, we finally found Acererak's lair. And defeated him easily.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Tomb of Horrors</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Too easily.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With the chamber of Acererak collapsing around us, we decided to return to the trecherous halls of the tomb and seek the real Acererak. After encountering countless traps, vats of acid, killer tapestries, seemingly unsolvable riddles, and shape-shifting hallways, we finally acquired the keys necessary to enter Acererak's real lair. Inserting and turning the keys in the right sequence, we found ourselves face to face with the legendary lich, whose philactery rose above us in the form of giant, amorphous fetus. After several rounds of combat Acererak was actually gaining strength, and using his legendary actions and powerful spells to reduce the party to a critical state, so Perterberator used a wish he had gained from a Djinn in an urn he had opened to help us dispose of Acererak by any means necessary. The Djinn folded the lich in his arms and imploded, sending Acererak to another plane. We gathered the Dragonlance we had come for and found our way out of the Tomb of Horrors. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Once again we encountered the Lady of Pain. Seeing we had the Dragonlance she once again implored us to return to Sigil and stop the chaos. Peterberator thought we should be rewarded for volunteering for a mission that would mean certain death, and since the Lady of Pain was in no position to bargain she promised to make us all Factol leaders of Sigil if we succeeded. We agreed and a portal was opened to Sigil.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But before we could even enter the portal a quizzical creature appeared before us in a puff of smoke. He looked a little bit like this.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Dungeon Master</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The odd little creature explained to us that as well as saving the Multiverse he was charging us with one small additional task: there was a group of young adventurers who had strayed from their home and become embroiled in a series of mishhaps on their ongoing quest to return to their home. They would travel with us to Sigil, and if we defeated the evil that had gathered there, we would use the City of Doors to return them to their home. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Tiamat</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We returned to a Sigil blasted by warfare between several superpowers, including Tiamat, Demogorgon, and Phrexians. Realizing we had no hope of squaring off against any of these three foes, our Mystic proposed a bold plan: he would use his powers of mind control to bond with the Phyrexian leader, and use that dread creature's power to wield the Dragonlance against Tiamat. His ploy was succesful, and the rampaging monstrosity plunged the Dragonlance flush into Tiamat's chest, sending the five-headed abomination back to the Abyss. The Phyrexians were disbanded at our Mystic's bidding and left Sigil of their own accord. In this ingenious manner all three warring interlopers were dispatched from Sigil, but the city was left decimated. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Lady of Pain, restored to power, was true to her word, and several of the heroes of the War of Sigil were made Factols. Aargar named his faction the Aargardians, and his headquarters was established at Club Gynospynx. Aramus Perterberator established the Hall of Bad Dudes, with the purpose of restoring Sigil to her full glory and spreading freedom and enlightenment to all corners of the Multiverse. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We bid farewell to the valiant band of adventurers the Dungeon Master had placed in our care, and as they stepped through the door to some small, inconsequential planet named Earth, we knew this one final act was perhaps the thing we had screwed up the least.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And that is how our Planescape Tuesdays 5e campaign ended. Or so we thought...</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was six months of bliss for me, having had all the Dungeons and Dragons books as a teenager, but never really getting to play. Our Planescape night is now on a different campaign that involves Krynn, but as it often happens, worlds are colliding, and our Dragonlance characters will apparently soon find themselves in Sigil soon.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You can support (or even borrow) my Dungeon Master, Travis Legge by buying his own adventures contained in <a href="http://www.dmsguild.com/product/231283/Catalogue-of-Calamity?filters=0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_45697" target="_blank">The Catalog of Calamity</a> or even <a href="https://www.patreon.com/TravisLegge" target="_blank">play with him online</a> at his Patreon page he's running an Eberron campaign right now I play tested and enjoyed very much. I think there are still spots to play online on Friday mornings. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.zombielogic.org/2016/10/there-are-stranger-things-than-dungeons.html" target="_blank">Satanic Panic, Stranger Things, and Dungeons and Dragons In the 1980's</a></span>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-38369806962276660922018-01-23T17:46:00.002-06:002018-01-23T17:46:29.255-06:00Love Poem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-11522884043374805682018-01-13T18:37:00.003-06:002018-01-13T18:37:58.662-06:00Gotta Get Back In Time<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I look up, and it's another month since I've blogged, and I still have nothing to say. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Jenny got me a Dell Latitude 2006 laptop, and the keyboard actually works, so now I have no excuse not to update the blogs tonight. She also gave me the iphone 4, and I've been trying to learn how to make use of it, but it's just too dang small to make sense to me. But now I have a very old laptop and a very old iPhone and I enjoy yhem both. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The keyboard action on this Dell is like an electric typewriter. I like it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Lately when everyone is gone on Saturday afternoon I watch Werewolves On Wheels and Psychomania before they get home from karate. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Drove down to my hometown late this week to see my doctor and get blood drawn. I was very, very tired in 2017, and I hoped the blood panel would offer some clues at to why. I got the results back Friday night, and went over them myself, and nothing seems out of whack, so I think it may be the beta blocker.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We've been watching Mad Men lately, and near the end of season four I realized I want to put almost everyone in the show in The Hall of Bad Dudes, which will give me material to update that blog.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Going to have a cup of tea and get ready for the Patriots game. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-81256193866178030282017-12-06T20:15:00.001-06:002017-12-06T20:15:37.227-06:00I Was Here<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Going to spend the night here at Zombie Logic Press headquarters on the Holmes Block. Just rented Enter the Devil on Amazon video. Haven't written a word here in two months. Not a damn thing to say about anything going on. I play Dungeons and Dragons on Tuesdays, and nothing that happens in those sessions strikes me as any more bizarre and surreal that was has happened around me this year.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We got a piano this week. And a roll top desk much like the one my parents had in their home. Nothing fancy, just a department store style roll top desk, but when I saw it at the thrift store I knew I had to have it. Been looking for five years now, and this one just appeared when we were trying to waste a few minutes browsing on our way to something else. I bought her a piano and she bought me a desk.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Night of the Living Dead has been on a constant loop on the VHS lately when I'm here at the apartment. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">recently I stopped collecting vinyl records and started collecting cassette tapes instead, for a couple of reasons. First, vinyl records are just too expensive, and I never really liked them in the first place. I was happy when cassettes, then compact disks came along. I just wanted listening to the records at all, but I have no fear about putting a five dollar cassette in my boombox and listening to something like Van Halen or Tom Petty.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Enter the Devil is a really effective and unique low budget horror movie shot in Texas in the early 70's. A nice addition to the Satanic cult genre that was so en vogue then. And a unique take on it. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I was here.</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">P.S. The Devil never does enter</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-8075029702254534262017-10-09T19:05:00.002-05:002017-10-09T19:05:44.225-05:00Bloodroot Silverthistle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL5iiIse-ZA4htnc4sKsEe79YdbCAUj_pOyRE2pBhEUF2j_2EfztPgXHSWvEoOB50ZsBmzNvlxsbkE3zP-8RXXak2WWEzDrp6GU0Lam5vIypOCgF4qo2IM1muHSodLPKwe59Gqi1jVGrZI/s1600/Bloodroot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="516" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL5iiIse-ZA4htnc4sKsEe79YdbCAUj_pOyRE2pBhEUF2j_2EfztPgXHSWvEoOB50ZsBmzNvlxsbkE3zP-8RXXak2WWEzDrp6GU0Lam5vIypOCgF4qo2IM1muHSodLPKwe59Gqi1jVGrZI/s640/Bloodroot.jpg" width="329" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Bloodroot Silverthistle by Ella Mathews</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-63057854219905013412017-09-30T16:56:00.001-05:002017-09-30T16:56:36.952-05:00Moving On To the Next Thing, But Really Even the Next Thing After That<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hard to believe Bittersweet Observations is coming down Monday. It seems like just yesterday we were doing the installation. We'll have to lug those four heavy typewriters home, the 26 panels from the book that were in the exhibit, and seven huge paintings that Jenny did. I want a couple of the panels for my apartment. The truth is, as every artist knows, the second you finish something and it is displayed somewhere you move on to the next thing. Which we have. Our latest Zombie Logic Press book, Lonely Bird, will be released October 7th at a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/363584607430228/" target="_blank">book release party at Luna Datura's Curious Gifts</a>. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxES4Fq86o_yYpEPj0y6mWOInvW7g7RVl6sEMaFLWrg3oUXov6-fIuyHQchA1-PyiEOSUkpAVILZDkwF6YKgKO4l3u1X5e8_YJ-S5ysokmg-HzE2Sn3UkkmVFU37-gS12AbB5sqhX7eU6l/s1600/Bittersweet_RAMshow+Name.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxES4Fq86o_yYpEPj0y6mWOInvW7g7RVl6sEMaFLWrg3oUXov6-fIuyHQchA1-PyiEOSUkpAVILZDkwF6YKgKO4l3u1X5e8_YJ-S5ysokmg-HzE2Sn3UkkmVFU37-gS12AbB5sqhX7eU6l/s640/Bittersweet_RAMshow+Name.jpg" title="Outsider Poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg Rockford Art Museum" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Poet Thomas L. Vaultonburg at Bittersweet Observations exhibit at Rockford Art Museum</span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In fact, Jenny is at MainFraiM this afternoon staining the wooden cover for Lonely Bird. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Jenny, Jeremy, and Carmen assembling Stephen Schreiner's book Lonely Bird at MainFraiM.</span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Our good friend Ryan Davis took these photographs of us Monday. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My Smith and Corona. Can't wait to get it home and bang on it a while. </span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It was an honor and a surprise to be selected an exhibiting artist at the Rockford Art Museum. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-27176612388724362972017-09-25T09:54:00.002-05:002017-09-25T09:54:44.753-05:00Lonely Bird Book Party<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h3nUkCTAEqE" width="480"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-32552111035589802432017-09-25T09:26:00.000-05:002017-09-25T09:28:25.827-05:00“Lonely Bird” by Stephen Schreiner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwN840eZ2figq_13u8AuuRkseFRETDZdAFdARkh1GiEwYnQjxUyYHbaIW2NIZWX-TcIPMP2QgkQCLNjpwhGLxL1zn-a_DzEAclvU_ksHEKK4T9x5PZKsECn6FXT7_RhOgEyOBTy47Hmqk/s1600/front+cover+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1229" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwN840eZ2figq_13u8AuuRkseFRETDZdAFdARkh1GiEwYnQjxUyYHbaIW2NIZWX-TcIPMP2QgkQCLNjpwhGLxL1zn-a_DzEAclvU_ksHEKK4T9x5PZKsECn6FXT7_RhOgEyOBTy47Hmqk/s320/front+cover+.jpg" width="245" /></a><span style="background-color: black;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3;"><a class="_2-mg" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/dialog/edit/page/?event_id=363584607430228&acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A1%2C%22page_id_source%22%3A123811506902%2C%22sid_create%22%3A%223294813588%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22page%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22main_list%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5C%22%7B%5C%5C%5C%22page_id%5C%5C%5C%22%3A123811506902%2C%5C%5C%5C%22tour_id%5C%5C%5C%22%3Anull%7D%5C%22%7D%2C%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22create_dialog%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22page_create_dialog%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22permalink%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22surface%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&focus_field=event_description" rel="dialog" role="button" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Zombie Logic Press is proud to announce the launch of its 5th book in the Rock River Literary Series, “Lonely Bird” by Stephen Schreiner. Lonely Bird is quite a unique book for children and adults alike. The story follows the misadventures of a zany flock of birds and is appropriate for all ages.<br /></span><br /><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">The design and making of Lonely Bird is just as unique, with an artisan, handcrafted wooden cover, assembled by Jeremy Klonicki, Jenny Mathews, and Mona Lindvall at </span></a><a data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=188409954531488&extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A363584607430228%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/habitatforart/" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Mainfraim</span></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">, insuring each book will be one of a kind. </span><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">There will be a book release party on October 7th from 4-6 p.m. at 117 S. 3rd Street during Rockford Art Scene </span><a data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=519574815061789&extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A363584607430228%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/Lunadaturascuriousgifts/" style="cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3;">Luna Datura's Curious Gifts</span></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> for first-time local author Stephen Schreiner's book Lonely Bi</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">rd. The author will be on hand to sign copies of his book.<br /><br />The four previous books in the Rock River Literary Series, created specifically to publish Rockford area writers: Iced Cream by Jesus Correa, The Zen of Beard Trimming by C.J. Campbell, The Blood Dark Sea by Dennis Gulling, and Atrocious Poems A To Z by Jenny Mathews and Thomas L. Vaultonburg, are also available at Luna Datura, a storefront specializing in curious gifts that opened recently at 117 S. 3rd Street.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6881785078704019589.post-6715750772475826732017-08-28T22:55:00.001-05:002017-08-28T22:55:33.947-05:00Kolchak: The Night Stalker: They Are, They Have Been, They Will Be...<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Received these wonderful, untouched VHS tapes in the mail Saturday. Got them for the price of postage. All twenty episodes of one of my favorite television shows of all time: Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Plus the televions movies that preceded the television show, The Night Stalker, and The Night Strangler. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCBxpIPfiEMOyfxcO4oNnsbcpHLZaULBg0Ofce0neXVSCNIo3aZ4kR2N4iDe2iyyc69mx5OUp2SVB1QDZOnsB2U_vOUJrfunI92Sdlvg0bh_nwZCbEbNJd9bp1YEAYVQumvwG3hAaevJ2H/s1600/Kolchack+The+Night+Stalker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="662" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCBxpIPfiEMOyfxcO4oNnsbcpHLZaULBg0Ofce0neXVSCNIo3aZ4kR2N4iDe2iyyc69mx5OUp2SVB1QDZOnsB2U_vOUJrfunI92Sdlvg0bh_nwZCbEbNJd9bp1YEAYVQumvwG3hAaevJ2H/s640/Kolchack+The+Night+Stalker.jpg" title="Kolchak: The Night Stalker: They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be..." width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I decided to start my watching party tonight with "They Are, They Have Been, They Will Be...", and episode that aired on September 27, 1974. It's about aliens, but it's also intermingled with a story of Kolchak desperately trying to finish his reportig so he can get to the Cubs' World Series game, which he has tickets for.</span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Few television characters, maybe even only Hawkeye Pierce, are more beloved to me than Carl Kolchak. It is a shame there were only twenty episodes, but it's also a mini miracle there were twenty episodes. The special effects are never much more than comical, and intentionally so, but it all works in ways movies that have spent 100 million dollars on special effects never did. </span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Dan Curtis, of Dark Shadows, had either produced or directed the two television movies that preceded the series, but was neither producer or director of any of the television episodes. </span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It may take me several months to get through these with fantasy football season upon us, but hopefully I'll have time. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0