Session 6: To kill the Naga

I had my sixth session last week for the D&D campaign.  It was climatic, they had a couple tougher encounters than they expected and they had an encounter that was supposed to be harder than it was.  The discussion when the group started out was how to beeline their progress to defeat the big bad of the complex.  They had a map and they wanted to use it.  Looking at the map they realized what was on the map and what was not on the map.  There was a direct path to the main event, but there was no place where the prisoners could be kept and there was no place that the treasure would be, unless it was piled around the big baddy.  

The real question was where would they go first.  They headed down the path and they were going to explore the various possible directions they could go, and there were many, although a few of them went into the same room.  Most of the rooms ended in mud and they were still scared of the mud from the last time.  The mud would have been a difficulty, the mud would have been difficult to traverse, but it was harmless otherwise.  The big tight that it would have done is made the terrain difficult to cross; it would reduce their speed by half.  Technically, the mud would have been more difficult for the Gnome as it was a foot or more deep.  They chose to follow and explore the regions where the path was dry, well not outright mud.  I did mention that they could see tracks heading one way, as one of the residents on the first level  worked on the second level.  They followed the tracks.

They explored one of the possible directions until they discovered water and then they retreated, which if they had continued they would have discovered the main treasury.  Nothing big, just 300pp, 600gp, 1000sp, 1000gp in jewelry, and 500 go in gems.  Which would have really had been the big haul.  Oh well, they did not know that I had planned on a quick retreat as the cave complex collapsed.

The group continued up to a door where the tracks seemed to enter.  The problem was that they were without a light source, all the characters could see in darkness but in black and white with grey scale, but that means that it is more difficult to discern what they see, they are at disadvantage in fact.  They opened the door and they entered a large room with a zombie.  One zombie would not last long, they unloaded on the the poor zombie and dropped it almost right away.  The problem was, this was not a zombie, but a 1e Coffer Corpse and it was only harmed with magical weapons, which they had none and magic, which they did not try to use; I kept track of all damage that they 'did' and told them that the zombie took their damage and appeared not to slow down.  Fire and other spells cause damage to it but nothing else.  The zombie 'died' and then rose up as a special attack that caused fear, which a lot of the characters failed their saving throws for and ran in terror.  They ended up causing over '100hp' of damage before it really died.  

Next they happened upon the location of the prisoners and they freed them and rested for an hour before continuing on.  They came on to a cleric and a Wight that were waiting for the characters, because the Cleric knew the Coffer Corpse was fought.  I was toying with having two Wights but I decided only one.  With two attacks every round, two mig have been too much, especially since the Wight is immune to normal weapons.  The fight did not last as long as the last one.  They fought with more magic and the ranger shot the Cleric with an arrow and then the Bard cast sleep on him; walked up to the sleeping Cleric and cut his throat.  The wight died again a little later.  They decided that they would destroy the alter and in the process they activated the secret door and they found a passage that ended at a wall.  They broke the wall down since it was made of mud and discovered the rear entrance to the Naga chamber.

They had surprise.

They attacked.

The Druid became a spider and shot a web unto the Naga.  The Bard inspired the main fighters to move to attack and they did so effectively.  The Ranger peppered the Naga with arrows.  The naga acted last in the fight order which meant a free fighting action for the group.  They had nearly killed the Naga before it could act.  It acted and it broke the webs and dimension doored to a different area of the combat.  The beast was half in the water and half out and the characters could only attack it from the front.  And they would have to move more than once to get to it, so it could get in a few attacks, maybe kill a few with a lightning bolt spell.  

The bard was not going to have any of that, he rushed forth and inspired three of his allies that it was the time to finish off the the beast.  He urged them to move faster and to attack true.  The effect was that the three characters were able to rush forward two moves and attack!  The ranger blasted the Naga with his bow, the Dwarf hewed it, and the paladin charged into battle again, the Druid ran across the ceiling and dropped down to bite the foe.  The cleric blasted it with a spell and the Naga died.

The yuan-ti were not inactive.  The two were fighting in the fight but they were just as surprised as the Naga was.  They fired their bows and attacked with their weapons, but when the Naga fell, the one went to escape through the secret door, that was no longer secret and the other fought to cover its escape.  But e characters were not having any of that two of them chased the fleeing foe and they caught it and killed it.  Which spoiled a chance at having a recurring villain.  Except it did not.  Nagas are immortal, they come back.  This Naga was a creation by an artifact, but that does not mean it can't come back, when it does the powers that it will have are less powerful, the charm won't last as long, but it will pursue them.  

The characters gathered up the treasure that they could find and when they accomplished that, the temple complex began to fall apart and I forced them to use thier skills to dodge and weave through the collapsing mud pile in the swamp until they gained the entrance.  The first person failed their athletics check and a section of the roof collapsed on her, the gnome that came to the dwarf's aid also failed and was sucked in to the mess getting them free, the next few rolls were blessedly high as they fought against the speed of the collapsing temple.  The chance to explore the rest of the temple was no-longer an option they got out as it became a swirling mud pit.  They had the treasure they found and they had the prisoners to take back to the Town.  They might return to see if they can sort through the wreckage in hopes of recovering the remaining treasures.

They still have to get back to the town.  They from there might head to Greysteel and hand in their ears.  They might decide to tackle some of the other problems in the area.  With them taking out a challenge level 8 monster with two challenge 3 aids, shows that they are more powerful than the game is designed for.  They still have a lack of magical weapons.  Which means some encounters are beyond their skills, but this will change.  When they fought e Naga, most of their spells were depleted and they still won.  The artifact they picked up is still a mystery, artifact fragment.  The next fragment they find might just link up and create a thirst for more….

Why GMO?

Why are you so, so very GMO friendly, one might ask.  It is not because the science says that it is good, that GMO crops are better for the environment, which they are.  It is because I am a Humanist.

Humanism means that I wish the best for Humanity, I want us to succeed.  I try my best to lower the hurt in the world, which is why when a friend is suffering I try to help.  I make decisions about what to do with my life on things like what I can do for humanity.  I don't drive a car for many reasons like because I don't need one to get around and if I ever need one often enough to make the alternatives an inconvenience.  I have a bike and I can walk; public transit in this city sucks, but it is manageable.  So, no car.  I am a vegetarian for environmental reasons, because vegetarianism has less impact on the world.  No one is going to over fish for me.  No cow has died for me since 1992.  

Climate Change; it scares me.  

The more you know about Climate Change, the more it will scare you.  I mean clutch your children and cry scary.  

I see the major options for alleviating Climate Change as not just reducing and eliminating carbon emissions, but sequestration of the carbon that we have pumped into the biosphere as well.  That is the prime concern, which I believe that we should stop everything else and just do that until we have stabilized everything and reduced the effects and most importantly introduced some negative feedback loops to counter the positive feedback loops that we have working against our current Climate.  

What does all that have to do with GMOs?  Simple.  We are not succeeding and we, when we wake up to the threat, which I believe we have not fully woken up to yet, need to blunt the impacts of it Climate Change on our population by altering how we live.  

They have invented a passive water collector a couple years ago, it harvests water out of the air, just like the water collectors from Dune.  We need to mass produce those and set them up everywhere it is too dry and where people live.  Because as Climate Change continues, the dry regions where people live will become drier and then it will get worse.  I mean, the dry regions where things have gotten worse already are really dry and I mean they no longer have ground water, because that is gone already, like Yemen.  There is a war there you know.  Drought equals war.  Drought equals people displacement and that means war.  Climate change means drought, which means displacement, which equals war.  Clear?  No?  Drought means crop failure, which means starvation, which means people are dislocated and they eat the food that others have which means more starvation, which leads to hoarding which leads to war.  War leads to environmental destruction which leads to more starvation and drought and displacement and war.  That is a positive feedback loop.

GMOs.  Self fertilizing, drought resistant, frost resistant, insect resistant, herbicide resistant perennial crops.  Do you see that?  Also add higher nutrition to that mix.  Plant this plant that does not exist yet, except in pieces and you get to put a check in the effects of climate change.  A very small check.  

Self fertilizing, means that the plant fixes nitrogen like legumes and clover, which means less fertilizers created out of the air created through the use of petroleum.  Making it universal on plants means stronger plants.  Drought resistance, duh, water scarcity means they may get less water and if plants are more resistant to drought that means they are more likely to survive when it happens, but it is not a guarantee.  When Australia had its drought, it lasted years and years.  South Africa too.  The drought that tipped off the wars in Syria and Yemen lasted years.  Just more likely to survive on less water might be enough.  Frost resistance means longer growing season, it means that our crops would be able extend their growing season increasing their chances to be harvested and thus lessen the odds of famine.

Insect resistant crops mean that the crop would be more likely to not be eaten by insects and more likely to be eaten by people.  The funny thing that I hear anti-GMO people talk about is that they are most against this aspect.  So BT is a natural toxin to insects, it is organic, made by a bacteria and it is an approved Organic pesticide.  But when you spray it, it kills every insect it encounters, spiders, praying mantis, honey bees, wasps, lady bugs and things that eat the plant like aphids.  They all die.  And that means when the BT is washed away you have to apply it again and if you don't the next wave of plant eating grasshoppers will devastate your crops because there are no beneficial insects alive from your first spraying campaign.  So BT infused plants work like this: the toxin is in the plant, so it only directly impacts the insect that eats the plant.  The insect that eats the plant sickens and dies or sickens and stops eating the plant.  And spiders and ladybugs and bees and praying mantis don't.  Simple.  Oh and BT only affects insects, because the toxin affected a physiological affect that only insects rely on.  So not toxic to humans at all.  Which is not true of all pesticides, especially some Organic Pesticides.

Herbicide resistant plants means that you can spray the crops and they are not affected by the spray.  What does that mean?  It means that since the only herbicide resistant plants are resistant to Glyphosphate, which is the least toxic of all the herbicides, with the exception of pulling weeds.  Roundup works by interfering with a process in plants.  In resistant plant, they uses an entirely different process, so are not affected.  And I admit that this does kill some plants that have beneficial uses or have non detrimental uses like milkweed.  But.  But the effects of chemical weeding means that entire crops can be weeded with just one application of the herbicide and production increases substantially.  And it is way less toxic than other possible herbicides.  The other option is to weed the fields by hand.  Or make robots do it.  Or maybe plow the fields two or three times before you plant to disrupt the weeds.  As they start to grow.  There are options, but they are less than useful sometimes and some of them creat more problems; like plowing fields causes disruption of soil habitat and increased carbon release.  Stuff like that.  

Like most of our crops are annual, which means they die at after harvesting and that introduces all sorts of bad things, like increase soil erosion and increased weeds.  It also means that every year the soil is disturbed and our crops need to compete with more aggressive weeds.  A very common thing that people who argue with Anti-GMO people is that we have been genetically modifying crops for millennia to get the crops we have now and one way that we have made them is to deny them competition.  So the drops we depend on are weak.  When they are small and they grow together in the weeds usually win out.  There are methods that allow you to defeat the weeds, like the native Three Sisters Crop combo, they planted three crops together.  Maize that grows tall, Squash that has huge low leaves which shade the ground and starve weeds of light, and beans that climb the Corn stalk and fix nitrogen into the soil for use by the squash and the corn.  But as my friend pointed out, it was a nice concept but in her plot right next to mine, she produced about five times as much food than I did.  native populations were so much lower density so they could afford to have relatively greater growing areas.  But there is another option: perennial crops.  

Perennial crops have the advantage that you don't need to turn the solid over every year.  They are rooted longterm and their network is more impervious to annual weeds.  The roots hold the soil in place, the dead organic matter from leaves hold more water and the perennial roots allow for faster infiltration of surface water, which means wetter ground for longer and more ground water and more drought resistant crops.  This means that you would need to apply even less herbicides.  If the plant fixed nitrogen, there would be no need of fertilizers, if the leaves were insect resistant, then the plant would grow better and the crop would be more full.  If it were frost resistant it would mean late and early frosts would not have huge impacts and a longer growing year for the food part of the plant.  A little more drought resistance with the perennial drought resistance and the soils more resistant to drought would mean that areas that annual crops could not grow would become arable.  Want more? Adding changes to the crop to make it more nutritious would mean that people would need to eat less to get more out of it.  Quinoa is a complete protien, which means if you could not great a variety of foods, this plant you could live on indefinitely without meat.  

We can't fix the environment, because it is too late.  People denied there was a problem so long that they denied it into a bigger problem that it might have been.  There is a lot of things we need to do now to fix the Environment but in the mean time, if we want to mitigate the effects of Climate Change we need to embrace GMOs now, we need to expand and intensify them. We need to get over the change, because there are bigger changes happening right now and ignoring them will only end poorly.  So I give you a choice: embrace GMOs or face more drought, more displacement, more famine, more war, more environmental destruction, less fixing the environment and a lot less humans and perhaps 100% less humans and if theat happens, 100% less mammals and 90% less fish and reptiles and less insects and birds.  That is your choice.  You can't see it?  It is because you can't see next Winter beyond Spring.

Unless someone invents a new technology that fixes the environment with the snap of their fingers.  If you are working upon that technology good for you, but if you are not, what are you doing to save Humanity?

Cancer vs Starvation?

Once again I got into a debate on Facebook, with strangers.  It was about GMOs and Glyphosate or Roundup.  Apparently they have found, someone has found that it is linked to cancer.  I told them I don't care.  I told them that organic total farming was linked directly with starvation and that until they could prove otherwise, it did not matter if they discovered a link to cancer.  Moreover, if they found that fifty percent of all people who ate foods that Roundup was used on after fifty years, it would still be better than two to four billion people starving to death.  It is not fifty percent of all people getting cancer.  Not even close.  

GMO food crops produce more nutrition per given area than purely organic food crops.  They produce more food that people will eat.  Granted I know people who see a black dot on a banana and conclude it is time to throw it out, green is the new ripe.  Would these people eat an apple with a worm hole in it?  Corn with a few kernels eaten out?  Hell will they eat a carrot that is bent?  Forked?  I love mutant veggies and will pick them out for their oddness, like grown together mushrooms, but they are not very presentable on the dinner plate, not perfect, but are perfectly nutritious. 

Sorry slight delay, was accused of buying into propaganda that organic food has lower yields.  I had to do a google search.  It took me a couple seconds and then I had to read the article, it was a survey of a hundred or so research papers that came to the conclusion that organic yields were 20% lower than conventional farming practices.  I did not even use GMO in the search perameters either.  

What they say is that no body is going to change anyone's mind on any subject.  With every proof of information that is irrefutable, true believers will just double down and knuckle under and hold fast to their beliefs.  You can't change their ideas because they are emotionally linked.  There is a way to change their minds and it involves presenting information that can substitute their own which a proper rational explanation.  Give them more information and hope that the seeds take root.  But it is usually a lost cause.  

I admit that I am emotionally involved too.  When they insult my arguments, by blood boils, but they typically don't attack my arguments; they attack my character.  So, I admit that I find it hard to talk with them.  They tell me that I must work for Monsanto, because I defend them so much.  I would love to work for Monsanto, hopefully they would pay me more.  I could have more time to pursue my interests, shower my girlfriend with more attention, because we all need a hobby.

D&D2 more background stuff

The ruins of Gladen the Domain of Relic the Thief a kingdom that rose because of the power vacuum when The city of Aswland was Sacked by the warlord Grumak'rak and his Orc Horde.  The city first grew from the refugees that fled the Warlord's path.  Then the river luckily stayed close to that side of the valley for years and the resulting trade allowed the city to grow in leaps and bounds.  The fortune of the city held out further when the river did move by building a canal that lead to the river.  The city stayed relevant to the area thanks to the King of the city who was able to fund great public works, after his death it was revealed at he was the notorious Thief named Relic.  He had played many of the powers in the region off against each other while gathering great artifacts to manipulate the flow of the river and later dig and reinforce the canals.  So great was his influence that the city lasted some fifty years before being absorbed into the new nation to the South.  The Earldom of Causnought.  The city has been cannibalized of stone and marble.  But there are some structures that were left relatively intact.  These are the homes of monsters, and other such creatures.

The other large ruin is the Ruined city of Stuj, named after that warlord that defeated Grumak'rak and his Orc Hordes.  The treasure allowed him to set up his city on the banks of the Trandle River and attract many of the people from Aswland.  The proximity to the Dwarven city did not hurt the town.  It soon grew and expanded.  One hundred years after its founding, there was an especially wet year in the continent and the River flooded its banks high enough to top the walls of the city.  When the flood subsided, the city was destroyed.  Silt had settled ten feet deep inside the walls and the sturdy walls kept the water inside for several years.  The people fled with the largest and most influential merchants and settled at Trandle's Stand, the point that marked the high water mark of the river in that flood.  By city ordinance, no living structure is allowed between that mark and the river.  By design, all the warehouses on the river have an entrance that is above that high water mark and none below.  There has been no flood that high since, but it happened once so the city fathers are intent on it not happening again.  Stuj Is a different kind of Ruin.  The ruin is four hundred years old, but it has remained un-looted.  Partially this is because the entrances to many of the buildings are deep under ground now and buried deep, but the other reason is that many of the buildings are haunted by undead.  The locals refuse to come as close as to touch the walls and none will spend the night near the walls.  Boats traveling down the Trandle have no difficulty of passing by the city if they leave at first light.  Going up the river is another thing altogether.  There is a town that has grown up at the spot down river of the city where boats have no problem passing the city if they leave it at dawn.  There is a rumour that there is a powerful Vampire that lives in this ruin.  There is known to be powerful demons also living here.  As well as a plethora of undead.  There is treasure here too.  There may even be a dragon living here too.  It was a small city and very wealthy too.  

The City of Causnought is only three hundred years old.  It grew quickly after the fall of Gladen, two hundred years ago.  It is situated on the Gwendyl River, above the high water mark of the flood of hundreds of years ago.  The city grew first as a holding of the kings of Gladen and later with the blessing of the Elves of the Wöse.  When the city of Gladen finally dwindled down to nothing it was Causnought that picked up the slack.  It was used as a minor trade port of the Dwarves and of the Elves.  It was of minor importance until the Dragon attacked the Free City, then trade from e Empire increased through the Elven Wood and the city began to grow.  The people feel much safer so far from the Dragon, but not so safe as to not be vigilant.  The forces of the Dragon Carved out a larger portion of the land between the free city towards the Earldom and the patrols have increased proportionally.  As have the number of Dragon sized weapon installations on the city walls.  

The oligarchs of Trandle's Stand.  The city has been ruled by a council of Guildmasters for as long as anyone can remmeber.  They are more concerned about money than anything else, but this does not mean that they do not worry about the defence of the city.  There is close to twenty different guilds but a seat on the council is dependent on income of the guild, so there is much concern about that.  Things have changed in the past generation.  Increased trade with the Dwarven Empire has meant that money is higher than in the past, so there is more money over all so more trade and more Councilors.  The city does not have a guard or a army, but it does have laws that say that mercenary armies must contribute ten percent to the city in times of peace and a third in times of war.  The Dragon taking the free city has increased the numbers of mercenaries in the city and the increased control of the area after its fall, and now when the Dragon has made a push for control too.

One of the darker sides of Trandle's Stand is slavery.  The practice of slavery is not well known, there is no slave market in town.  It is complicated.  The practicing of a guild trade is often expensive and the Oligarchs understand this; they make it that way.  One method of paying the fees is to sell the guild an offspring and attempt to repurchase them after five years.  Selling someone allows is payment for a period of five years.  The gamble is whether the family can make back the guild price of five years, plus interest of one year in the five years.  Often the guild will train the slave in the guild trade during that 'indenture' period and if the child can be bought back, the family will have a well trained guild worker.  However, not all children are suitable to the trade they are sold to.  In these cases the child is sold to military applications or hard labour, or more likely in the slave markets of Gutral Mastekeena.  Some families make it a habit of selling their children to pay for guild fees.  But this can be a dangerous practise, if the guild does not make its money back because of substandard merchandise, they have been known to declare the family in breach of contract and enslave the whole family.  It is a story that is circulated widely enough that most people make sure that the children that they sell are old enough to be useful or with full intention to pay the guild back.  Another form of indenturtude is failure to pay taxes.  There are laws that say that the guild slave may buy back their freedom by earning the original debt plus interest as well as the price of board, but since the Guildmasters has the final say as to the value of the work that the slave does, in practise few well trained slaves gain their freedom.  Many guildhalls have a number of slaves in residence, this causes a fair amount of resentment as it limits the numbers of apprenticeships availible.  Slaves are marked with solid neck coffel with the guild mark prominently displayed.  The material of the coffel denotes rank, iron, copper, silver and gold.  

New Background Slave.  

Proficiencies, Athletics, Insight

Tool Proficiencies: one set of Artisan tools or one Martial weapon and medium Armour.

Equipment: set of common clothes, a token to remember of your parents, a small knife, a belt pouch with your Master's insignia, and a tally as to how much is left on your indenture.  

Feature:  Valuble Property

Because you wear a coffel people who might be inclined to rough you up become disinclined, knowing that the penalty for damaging Guild property is quite steep and that killing you might result in their enslavement.  Also because of your coffel, you represent your master and you can get away with small purchases by saying that they are for your master, however, when your master finds out you may be in some trouble.  

D&D2 ideas

The trouble with running a scratch D&D session is that it is wholesale new and that means you have to have a follow up adventure in the planning stages before you even run the first adventure.  The first adventure runs this Sunday.  If you are playing in that adventure, you can STOP reading now!!

I have setup the area for the initial adventure to be in a region that has been farmed for thousands of years.  There is a very large and mature river dominating the area and a very large Mountain range.  The land is very flat.  I put elevation lines on the map the area that the river floods regularly is hundreds of kilometers wide.  There are ruins of cities over a thousand years dead.

The area is claimed by one of two nations and they tax and patrol these regions and lately they send military in to fight the roving bands of marauders. The initial invasion is over, that was a few months age when the Adventurers were born in a trial of fire.  The nation's leaders have called for help identifying locations of raiders.  And to this end the Heroes of Ricket's Hollow have been called.  

In a ruin far from the city, the militia leaders have suggested a lot of raiding has been coming from.  They explain that the region is distant enough that moving forces there to quash the raiders might leave other areas closer to the city vulnerable.  They will move against the raiders once they have been identified and located with proof.  And that is what the leaders want them to do

The ruin is the city of Awsland, the city that King Awsland built, it was renamed after him years after his death.  The ruins are not as vast as the city was, much of the city was carted off and used to build other cities, many of which became ruins themselves.  But there is a fair amount broken places in this ruin, and even one intact building,the central dome of the palace.  

In the central dome there is a camp of a kobolds.  The Blood Claw Clan has quietly set up there.  There were 60 of them when they moved in.  There are 40 now, with six Dragonborn leaders.  They ran afoul of a wight and now it has a bunch of Kobold specters too.  There is a Minotaur that was using the the ruins of the Palace as is lair and there is a medusa living in the chapel.  The chapel has some stone Kobold statues and some warning signs on the walls.  The Minotaur has dined on a few kobolds, but his lair has suffered from having the kobolds being here; they have walled up a few of his exits and trapped others and there are signs by the Kobolds.  

In addition to these threats, there is a small enclave of Goblins already living in the ruins.  They had been using the area as a raiding base for years and they see the winds of change and are making nice with the Kobolds and preparing for an alliance.  There are thirty goblins and five hobgoblins.  Right now the alliance is very shaky and anything could disrupt it.  

There is a small outpost outside the main set of ruins with about fifteen goblins in it.  They were associated with the other groups but that was before the Hobgoblins came in.  Their chief and a few loyalist went with him.  They are held up in a abandoned mostly ruined crypt/chapel for the Knights of Awsland.  The chaple would provide a great base as it is defensible.  There are two secret doors in the Chaple.  One leads to a crypt with five ghouls in five of the sarcophagi and five skeletons outside.  The temple is dedicated to a forgotten goddess, actually another variation of the Green Sun goddess.  The second secret door leads into a passage that heads 100m to a spring and out past the chapel. There is another secret door leading to the spring and there is signs that farmers and shepards have used this as a shelter in the past.  The language in the Chapel is an Archaic version of The River Trade tongue.  Still readable just archaic.  The main area has frescoes showing knights respecting their commander at the alter and grasping his hand in comradeship. There are words beneath each caption.  The pictures are out of order, the phrase must be reordered and spoken to unlock the statue to open the secret doors.

Reading some books

I have been reading more lately.  It is like I got over the problem that I had with reading and just flowed from book to book.  This year, so far, I have read nine books.  Usually I will have read more, but for some reason I was not reading this last year.  

This spate of books included some that I have been waiting for, like Tool of War by Paolo Bacigalupi and his book, The Doubt Factory.  The former was a sequel to his Ship Breaker series, a Dystopian Future, that we seem to be heading toward, although, I don't know if our future will be as rosey as his very dark depiction.  The later, was a Conspracy Theory novel, which was dark enough and believable enough to be true, and at us worrisome for a book to be that believable.  Let's just say that I would, if I could, limit who reads this book, lest they become true believers about the content.

There was also Andy Weir's new book, Artemis.  If you don't know who Andy Weir is, it is because you don't read the book and just watch the movie.  The movie was: The Martian, starring Matt Damon.  I suspect that you can wait for the movie, because one movie means two movies.  It was a good book.  And the characters will be whitewashed for the movie, because who would go to watch a movie whose main character is a genius, Saudi woman.  I mean really, they will cast Jennifer Lawrence.  And they will have special effects gallore.  Mostly because 1/6 gravity.  But the book will be better, because the book does flash backs better.  And the flashbacks are all too colourful for movies.  You know really edited down.  I was surprised how much they kept the science in the Martian though, so who knows.

I got to read a book that I have been waiting for, for more than five years.  A slow writing Megan Whalen-Turner churned out episode 5 in the Queen's Thief series.  It had less of its charm that the other books had, but it was a deeper novel this time around.  And she provided a world map which I enjoyed.  But then I turned it on its side and I recognized the Mediterranean, slightly changed, all the names changed, but definitely based around Greece.  Still a nice read.  

The Mountain of Kept Memory was a nice book.  A little predictable, but it was a nice one shot book.  Rachel Neumeier paints a post apocalyptic world where all the gods have been dead for millennia, but the artifacts have been left lying around for any Tom, Dick and Harry to grasp hold of and build an empire out of the world, or more likely afflict the world with a debilitating plague that turns people's skins inside out after a brief fever.  Yeah.  Post-Apocalyptic is really an understatement.  What happens when the janitor created to clean up the mess left by the gods starts to die.  The result is right here.

The Hallowed Hunt I just finished yesterday.  Written about a decade ago, it is a story of a nation with a past, whose past has not actually died, just defeated and wants revenge.  Twists and turns that leave you guessing, but whose plot actually makes sense.  Interesting

I did mention earlier that I finished the Third Book of the Stormlight Archive?  I remember when Lord of the Rings was thought to be a huge undertaking.  1070 pages split into three books because the publishers did not think people could handle it all at once.  Not now.  Oathbringer, was the third book of the series and now the series tops out at close to 3500 pages, with another 4 or so books to come.  It is big, it is involved, it is really quite good.

Late last year I read: All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault.  I keep thinking about it.  I want to read it again maybe.  I want a sequel or another book in that universe.  Based in Canada, superheroes and darkthings.  So awesome!

#PaoloBacigalupi

#AndyWeir

#MeganWhalenTurner

#RachelNeumeier

#BrandonSanderson

#TheDoubtFactory

#ToolofWar

#Oathbringer

#PatrickRothfass

That last one is because I am waiting for you to finish your trilogy.  Because the first book was the best book I have ever read.  Really.  The best.  The Best.

Two games in one weekend

I ran two games this weekend, so I was a little frazzled at the end.  The first game was the another installment of the Six Bean Dip Freaks.  The freaks are starting to come together as a group but they have started to do a lot of Metagaming too.  They were provided with an inaccurate map which included a direct way to the second level, and they chose to ignore it, because it included a large open room and a mud puddle in the middle.  They reasoned that it there was going to be a place with a large monster, it would be there.  One character walked into one mud puddle and was attacked by Green Slime, so they avoided all the other mud on that level.  Ha ha ha.  When they ran into the pool of water they turned back from that too, but admittedly, the gnome was way too short and wearing armour.  The dwarf was also worried that it would be too deep too.  

They circled around and discovered that there was a pool of water in the way.  They threw some mud to see if anything reacted to the mud.  Two waves occurred and two tongues lashed out and grabbed the gnome's magic shield.  Then they were forced to attack the frogs, because the gnome wanted his magic shield back.  The bard used an area effect spell to kill both frogs and they were able to get the shield back.  At the same time they discovered that there was a false wall on the one side of the pool with three chests.  One filled with copper, which they ignored and the other two had silver and electrum and one had minor gemstones.  Basically they left the treasure there for later recovery.  They then left the area heading towards an area that was already described by the inaccurate map.  They discovered a blank wall where the map said there was a door.  So they cursed the map maker and when off to explore another area of the dungeon.  

The series of brief combats resulted, they listened at the doors, heard nothing, then checked to see if they were locked, then they bashed the door down, which was funny, because it was the smallest party member that did the door bashing.  The door popped open after one hit when the gnome broke the bar.  And they rushed in discovering two people lounging in chairs drinking wine.  On escaped and the other lost his head, which is a standard reaction to most people encountering the Six Freaky Bean Dip group.  They chased the fleeing person around the corner while they other ruined the chair with his blood.  They put the last person to sleep and then fought the last foe who was in his room.  Against a third level party, this collection of people had no hope, especially when they had a well thought out plan of attack.  They captured the sleeping assassin, and interrogated him, finding just another charmed fool.

They walked up to the blank wall and searched it.  They found a secret door, which meant that the rogue that created the map, had not lied to them, he just did not realize that the door was secret.  The secret door led to the underground lake and a boat.  The boat seated the characters and they skulled across the narrow neck of the lake avoiding the crocodiles that were interested in eating them.  Which just goes to show how cruel these characters are, they did not want to feed those poor starving reptiles.  They loked down the corridor and found a cross road two of the directions appeared to contain mud and that was reason enough to go in the other direction and follow the map.  The map was not perfect and this resulted in more complaints about the map maker.  Next time I think I will get them to make the map.  

They fought two sets of troglodytes and collected their ears.  Then they went down the stairs.  I think they did quite well at encountering almost 80% of e creatures on the first level.  I think they avoided two monsters.  But they bypassed some magic items.  It was kind of funny, they spent some detail looking at the quality of a found weapon and none looking at a weapon that w being used.  I hope that they do not rush down the map and just leap to the last encounter.  If they do, they will very likely miss the prisoners and the main treasure and a few other things.  On the other hand they will be a lot weaker too 

The second game was an experiment.  I wanted to have a novel character creation system that created a character than e player chose and that had better than average stats.  One of the standard methods was to take the scores of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8 and distribute them to the 6 stats, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.  So I told them to place their scores as 12, 12, 12, 12, 10, and 8 and then to apply racial bonuses and that was it.  They had their background too.  Then I told the players that they were traveling and were attacked and knocked unconscious and when they recovered, they were in the other older inn in town.  The Jolly Red Wyrm, an inn that was a thousand years old and was more museum than accommodation place; it had a bar and places to stay, but the rooms were small and the windows even smaller.  The free spaces on the wall were covered with weapons and armour and equipment from hundreds of adventurers over the years.  A major difference was that the inn had a curator whose job it was to clean and maintain the equipment, as well as keep a record of who donated the equipment.

One player selected some heavy Platemail, a Greatsword, a crossbow, a buckler shield, a slotted helmet with no decoration and a tabard.  This selection game the player's character great strength some constitution, dexterity and charisma.  That build lended well to a fighter.  One player's character grabbed some light armour, a scimitar and short sword with a small bow, a shield, a helmet with some frilly pom-poms, and a belt of pouches.  This gave her character a large boost to her dexterity, charisma, constitution, and wisdom.  Although very eclectic, the high dexterity lended well to a rogue class, al though she was not enthused about that, I pointed out that she could be a good rogue and I did not mention that there was a lot of options availible at level three.  The last player selected heavy robes, a long sword and a dagger and a short bow, a spell book, a helmet with a holy symbol and a belt of pouches.  This selection was spread out adding to Intelligence, charisma, dexterity, wisdom, constitution and strength.  This player selected a wizard.  None of the ability scores was especially low, nothing very high, intelligence was high though at 16.

The curator told the characters that it  started with a down on his luck soldier paid his bill at the inn by giving them his sword and how later he claimed that his luck changed after that day and he won his fortune and later his fame.  He later returned to the inn and donated the rest of his old equipment.  The curator then shows off the equipment of King Awsland the First.  The kingdom lasted many years and you can find the ruins of his palace overlooking the Great River.  Many years passed and many would be adventurers came by and donated their first weapons and tool of their trade in hopes of acquiring some of that 'Luck', but it was not until the Orc Hoarde some five hundred years ago passed through the area leaving a vast swath of wreckage, including Awsland's city, but on coming to the inn, the Orc Warlord Grumak'rak stopped the hoarde here, so he could place his Shield, and great Warclub in the Inn's care did it become clear exactly how far the inn's fame had travelled.  

Among the various contributors were: Grumak'rak shield and Warclub, Awsland's Dagger, dragon Helm, Greatsword, and Platemail.  Belesandra's wooden shield, scimitars, and woodland lore, Celaphan the Barbarian's equipment, Archon the Sorcerer, Meph the wizard, Stuj the warlord, Relic the Great, who burgled the best and was never caught, revealed after his death to be the King of Gladen, High priestess of Yesdreia, Gank, true sword of Brandia and Manuth the Diviner.

The characters went looking for things they could use to protect the town.  They discovered 60 planks, a barrel of nails, a barrel of pitch, a tun of lamp oil, and some clay jars.  They used many of the carts outside of the inn as well as timbers from burned out houses to limit the movements of the attackers, they pounded nails into the boards and laid them on the ground.  They built fires in the fields to let them see further from the inn and they blocked off the bridge.  The only thing they did not think of doing was to build a trap with the oil and the pitch.  I ruled that e bridge was very old and well made of stone and would take longer to destroy than merely lighting it on fire.  They set up the on the inn roof and in the inns paddock to fight the foe, which turned out to be about fifty kobolds and their leader a Dragonborn warrior.

The kobolds came in two waves and in two directions.  They tried to cross the river bridge but it was blocked off and this delayed the second group from attacking.  The first group was injured by the nail boards but piled into the paddock.  They split into two groups and attacked around the barn.  The one group swarmed the fighter and the other swarmed the Gnome.  Both groups were peppered with arrows from the roof and spells.  The fight was briefly interrupted by five winged Kobolds that landed on the roof and attacked the defenders there.  This caused the civilians to run and force the Wood elf to fight them five on one.  The kobolds at the bridge broke through the barricade, making it to the inn just as the first wave was finished off.

The characters had to drink four of their six healing potions as they fought off the Kobolds.  The kobolds fought with advantage as long as there was another Kobold close by.  They swarmed over the fences and they attacked the characters.  The fighter swung his Great sword and killed two kobolds with every swing, the Gnome attacked with scimitar and dagger and killed one or two kobolds with every attack.  When the dust cleared, all e remaining Kobolds were fleeing and then ten more attacked with a Dragonborn leader.  The fighter called out the leader and challenged him to a duel.  They charged forward and clashed, but the enemy did not go down in the attack, even though it was severely injured.  The Dragonborn looked like it was going to bathe the Fighter in fire and cook the fighter in his Platemail, but the wizard just fired a potent Fire bolt at him and finished it off.  

The characters were obligated to give back their borrowed armour, but the stat raises were left in place.  It was an interesting way to make characters.  I might try it again.  The method left the characters with 6 more points higher than the other method that they suggest.  Which would mean that characters would start out with higher stats than they could roll too.  I will make the three characters that missed the session to do the same to get their stats.  Maybe my friend will do it and try for a paladin.  

The truth is I am worried for him, he was e reason why I was running this game and he missed because his Chemotherapy was so bad.  But maybe that is good news.  We can hope.  This was the guy that introduced me to better roleplaying and it was they guy that gave me confidence to run games.  I ran Temple of Elemental Evil for him years ago and many hundreds of hours of Exalted.