Community Game: Driftmoon VIII

Player A says, "Wait wait wait, we left the tavern kinda quickly. What all did we take with us? Fluffy and Word need to take inventory."


Word has:
Potion of Coloring Things Gold (2 doses remaining; lasts 6 hours)
Potion of Create Back Hair (3 sips remaining; permanent; only works on things with backs when ingested)
Potion of Banish Back Hair (3 sips remaining; permanent; only works on things with backs when ingested)
Potion of Reduce Weight 90% (2 doses remaining; lasts 6 minutes)
Apprentice Alchemist Leather Apron and Gloves + Clothes for Armor 1
Belt with Pouches to Hold Stuff
Big Stick
Water Flask

Fluffy has:
Normal Clothing for + Clean but damp do-rag for Armor 1
Backpack
3 changes of socks and underwear, damp but clean
Canteen
About 2 days worth of food, including dried fish, cured meat, berries, and carrots.
Soldier's Dagger
15 steel arrows
1 Silver Feather

Player B says, "Would it be mischievous of me to suggest that Word use a Potion of Create Back Hair on Walter?"

Player A says, "No, don't use the potion on Fluffy! You might find a use for it later, a dire one in which, but for the Back Hair Potion, all would have been lost.

"Okay, I think we need to really hunker down and discuss what to do here. This seems to be a major crossroad with lots of choices."

I say, "I approve of mischief. If you can make a plausible scene or description of Word getting Fluffy to drink it, then it will be so.  You have to agree on your actions, so discuss amongst yourselves."

Community Game: Driftmoon VII

Player B says, "We should go and search through Galpi's room for the key, since the room is open and that's the most likely place for it. If we can't find it there, we may need to discuss persuasive tactics to try and learn the key's location from the little girl, if she knows it."

Player A says, "I think Fluffy should carefully examine the statute of Galpi for the key (and for other possible secrets). But first he should ask how long she's been in there and get some other info if possible, especially about the lizards. It may be that he can't get the door open, or that he will be surprised soon by enemies, and it will be good for him to know as much as possible."

Walter says, "Who are you by the way? What did you mean by 'lizards?'"

The door replies, "Did you find my dad and get the key yet?"

"I don't know if you were aware...I mean I don't know how to put this...your dad is currently a statue."

"What a nightmare. Okay, I'm 100% sure. I'm 98% sure we can fix this...eventually. Just let me out!"

Walter hopes the key is in Galpi's room. He gingerly pats down the statue. It feels like solid rock, and Walter is not sure what to do if the key was in a pocket. Galpi's walls are decorated with embroidered samplers. Walter checks behind the one that had not fallen, "A stranger may not become a friend, but he will teach you." The key is not behind it. There is a note from the Mayor on the desk: "Order 234. Your snatcher customer is causing unrest. Yes, he's very entertaining with his pirate stories, but he's also been trespassing. I'm sending Cormack to arrest him. You have to let him in this time. I don't care whether you've barred him from the tavern. Yours, Mayor Bisquit." The key is not in the desk. Walter gets down on all fours and check under the bed. Jackpot! Galpi must have thrown it under there as he was reaching for his gun. Walter snatches at the key and just manages to reach it.

Walter unlocks the door to reveal a young girl ready to throw a bottle with an alarming yellow liquid at him. She lowers her arm, "Walter! It is you!" She runs past you.

"Hey!" says Walter. You find her at the kitchen sink drinking water from the tap.

"Okay," she says. "My dad's a statue. Right. Grab anything you can carry. We need to go to your dad's apothecary shop. I'm his apprentice, by the way, so you're practically my brother."

"Word?!" you say, shocked to barely remember the tiny girl who once tied your shoelaces together.

"Yeah," she says. She starts grabbing bottles from her room. There is a small desk here covered in mysterious stains. Herbs are hung in bundles from the shelf edges, and there is a rather...eldery fish on a cutting board beside a mortar and pestle.

"I've got a potion that turns things gold. Just the color, I mean. It doesn't sound great, but it was really complicated, you have no idea. I've got a back-hair remover. I've got a back-hair adder. That one was sort of an accident. I've got a weight-loss potion, but it only makes you like 90% lighter and doesn't change your shape, so not really what the people want in a weight-loss potion."

"What's the one you were gonna throw at me?"

"Leave that one," she says. "You got anything useful? WHO KNOWS what we may find out there?"

"Wait...what happened here."

"Okay, long story. They thought they were looking for me, so they hid me in here, but it turns out they were looking for your dad and wanted me so they could find him. By 'they,' I mean the lizards. I mean, and also my dad. The 'they' who was attacking was lizards. Your mom ran past calling them 'Rakan' or something. 'The Rakan are attacking.' I've never heard of them. They look like lizards. I heard, 'They've turned the mayor to stone,' so maybe they were meeting with the mayor at first or maybe not, but anyway I figured out the stone thing, so I knew, or alternatively, I could have misheard. Um, I also heard some of the lizards come in to search here, and they were all, 'Where is she?' and someone ran in and said, 'Come on, we've found him. The Master awits! We don't need the apprentice any more.' I think your father is not petrified because I heard someone say, 'Let him go.'"

"Are any of them still around? Do we need to be quiet?"

"I haven't heard anybody since you showed up, and you turned out not to be a lizard. On the other hand, I think we may be the only ones not petrified. Come on, I'll take you to your father's shop."

"I only have some basic supplies and a dagger. And I've been to the shop before."

"Oh no. The old one COMPLETELY blew up. He had to move it. He has been anxious lately. He's been researching something, but he didn't say what. In the lab day and night, no rest."

"He wrote me about a jewel. My brother too, apparently."

The tavern is just outside the walled portion of the town. Word takes you straight to the gate. Throw a small window, he can see Adahn the gatekeeper, still sitting in his chair, turned into stone.

To the West is the village wall. To the East is the well you were shoved into. To the South is Northrop Lake. To the North is a stable, and the tavern is on the lake front.

Community Game: Driftmoon VI

Player B says, "Walter needs to get a weapon out of his knapsack if he has one, or if not then look about the room for a weapon. If no weapon is available, he should still approach the door cautiously. Then thrust it open suddenly with a loud shout to gain the element of surprise on whoever/whatever is inside, even though he'll probably end up finding a friend or ally."

Walter takes out his dagger, takes a deep breath, and rushes the door. "Ayyyyyy!" he yells. He pounds the door with his shoulder while yanking the doorknob, but the door doesn't give.

Someone on the other side screams like a little girl. Actually, it might be a little girl. "Who's out there!" she yells.

Walter jumps back from the door. "Who is that?" Walter shouts.

"Um, um, um, oh geez, friend or foe?" squeaks the door.

"This is Walter son of Winston. Can you open the door?"

"Walter? No, you're not Walter. Walter moved."

"Look, I came back. Open the door. What happened here?"

"My father locked me in here when the lizards came. I don't know where he is. I'm really thirsty."

"Your dad is Galpi?"

"Is he out there? If you aren't a bad guy, he would tell you where he hid the key..." The voice trails off and falls silent.

Community Game: Driftmoon V

Player A says, "A pot that has boiled itself dry is bad news. I hope there hasn't been CRISIS X during Walter's knock-out.

"I suggest that Walter pinch some food, wash up a little in the kitchen to appear as normal as possible, and cautiously venture out into the pub. If there appears to really be no one about, he should do some snooping in the opened room. If after snooping about the pub and there is truly no one about, he should pinch the arrows. Right now he should only take food, as that can be plausibly explained as 'hungry customer helps himself' if he gets caught."

You find some local cuisine: evil berry juice, dried tomato fish, hot carrots, some cured meats, and a few cans of food. You wash up in the sink and run some cold water over your sore head. You feel a bit more human. As you are drying your hands, you realize that all this time, you have heard nothing but a few birds singing in the distance.

You edge through the beaded curtain. The dining tables are set with clean dishes as they would be before the dinner rush. The innkeeper, Galpi's personal room is standing open. You knock on the heavy carved wooden door saying "Hello?" to an empty room. An embroidered sampler reading, "The hospitality of your house is the measure of your heart," has fallen to the floor. You replace it on the wall and look around the room some more. You spent your boyhood attending weddings, birthdays, and parties at the inn, so you recognize Mr. Galpi now, perfectly represented as a statue beside the bed. The statue is very clearly and distinctly reaching under the bed to pull out a solid stone gun.

You run back to the dining room and look at the statue there. It looks exactly like Rince the Hatmaker. You fall against the table, rattling the dishes. From the door of the closed room, there is a loud THUMP. You remember that that door is the other private bedroom in the Inn.

Year 2015 Lists: Books I've Read This Year Half-Year Edition

I haven't read much good stuff this year yet.  Hopefully the post-July period will see better luck.

Squire's Tales by Gerald Morris--a heart-stirring adaptation of the King Arthur legends.

The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir--A traditional sci-fi novel of Asimov descent.  Strictly no characters whatsoever.  Science to word ratio is 1:1.  The subtitle is there so you will know you have a novel on your hands and not, say, a work of Noh Drama or a lawn flamingo.

Dirty Parts of the Bible by Sam Torode--a barely-adult pastor's son is sent on a cross-country mission in the 30s and chivarously sacrifices anything in his power for every woman he meets.  On the title, your guess is as good as mine.

Rachel Griffin Series by L. Jagi Lamplighter--A group of students goes to magic school in a world vulnerable to destruction from instabilities in the multiverse.  Rachel is an interesting character that one never sees these days--a young teen who is giggly and boy-crazy.  She is not involved with her ONE TRUE LOVE WHO IS HER DESTINY BUT TRAGICALLY IS IN ANOTHER ROOM RIGHT NOW; she simply crushes on whatever boy that happens to be around.  A much more realistic portrayal of middle-schoolers than the usual.  And, that cover on the second one.  I love it.

Allan Mendelsohn the Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater--two boys meet a series of weird guys, culminating in one who sells them a course on developing one's psi powers.  I like the way the crazy slowly creeps up in this book.

Wayward Pines by Blake Crouch--A federal agent finds an amazing amount of resistance to his investigation in a small town.  He also can't seem to leave...

Unsung Villains by Missy Meyer--Meyer's chic-lit superhero series continues.  This time, our heroine leads a caper on her own.  It's all pretty low-key but enjoyable.

Hard Luck Hank by Steven Campbell--Hank is dense enough to deflect bullets.  He thinks of himself as a small-time tough on a ganster-ridden space station, but people keep asking him to save the universe.

Queen of the Trailer Park by Alice Quinn--The charm of this book is its not-quite translation to English so that the pages are filled with interesting turns of phrase.  This is about a French welfare mom who alternates applying makeup and miniskirts with yelling at the Mafia and herding her kids.

Sweet Dreams are Made of Teeth by Richard Roberts--The Archetype of Being Chased in Dreams is our protagonist, and the plot is the origin story for Jeffrey Dahmer.  It just gets weirder from there.  I don't know, man.

Ill Met by Moonlight by Sarah Hoyt--Fairies mess with a young apprentice glovemaker  and his wife.  The humans may escape, but will life ever be the same afterwards?  Much of the text is Shakespeare quotes worked into the story.  An interesting endeavor, but the resulting story is a bit meh.

Year 2015 Lists: Games Played in 2015 Half-Year Edition

Lili Child of Geos--You play a grad student who is researching for her dissertation on an obscure island.  What this actually involves is chasing down living mounds of dirt and violently ripping flowers out of their backs.  You can use flowers to purchase upgrades or keep them to...write your dissertation.

MASSIVE CHALICE--Careful turn-based combat over a backdrop of a centuries-long battle with a Cloud of Evil which is slowly covering the entire world.  By the time your battle is over, many generations will have come and gone.  This game is currently riding First Class on the Internet Hate Train.  *eyeroll*

Sine Rider--This game attempts to teach the young'uns about function transformation via letting them adjust constants so that the people on a sled on the function ride through certain dots.  It uses some non-standard terminology, though.

Fearless Fantasy--This game is a series of combats with a painfully thin story.  To do combat moves you have to swish your mouse around in specific patterns, which is fun!  The art is REALLY WEIRD

100% Orange Juice--I can't figure out whether this game is in English.  Is it English with the consonants removed?  Or am I grasping for meaning from a language I can't understand?  A very luck-based board game.  Real title:  "Ah-unna pa-sen oh-ah-szu"

Grim Fandango--I had never finished this game before the new remastered version came out.  This is often called the best Point-and-Click of all time, but I prefer the Monkey Island series.

Morphopolis--The advantage of this game is that it is sometimes $0.10.  The disadvantage is that it would be about 5 minutes long if your bug moved at a normal speed.  Instead...30.  Very pretty, though.

Brothers, a Tale of Two Sons--Two brothers climb and jump their way across a big fantasy world to collect medicine for their father.  If you actually play this with your brother, and he keeps killing his character accidentally, emotions may result.

Her Story--Interesting non-linear storytelling.  You attempt to piece together your mother's story by searching a database for clips from her arrest interviews.

XCOM Enemy Unknown--I liked the fact that the female scientist was a weird staring hunchback with protruding eyeballs, but then I realized that was just the art "style."  Fun, but the big budget was used for endless nagging cut-scenes (and not improving the art).

Saints Row 2--A painfully bad game.  You can watch my SLOW playthrough progress on my blog (here).

Dwarf Fortress--Latest bug:  many chickens think one-night stands are beneath them, but chickens can't get married, so eggs are rare.  This year's release will include Dwarven Poetry.

Divinity Original Sin--a 2-player game that's great for connecting with a distant friend

TIS-100 and Untrusted--two games which are just coding.  The second uses JAVA.  The first is VERY DIFFICULT.  I am on puzzle 16, and we are to the point that actual paper and pencils are involved.

Year 2015 Lists: Movies Watched in 2015 Half-Year Edition

The Heat--Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in a typical cop movie, except the typical cop movie has at most one woman in it, and she's never given the funny lines.

We Are the Best!--Three Swedish middle-schoolers form an awful punk band while their tween drama slowly reaches critical mass.

Horns--Daniel Radcliffe grows a rack of firey ram's horns and develops psi powers when he is accused of murder.  I also do that.

Frank--MICHAEL FASSBENDER.  A band full of crazy people is infiltrated by a sub-par but EARNEST musician.  He becomes obsessed with another band member's paper mache head.  5 STARS MICHAEL FASSBENDER

Moonstruck--Cher plays a middle-aged romantic who has given up on finding love.  Nicolas Cage's hair is the broody love interest.  YESSSSS

The Mirror Has Two Faces--This used to be my One Romance Movie.  Now that I have found see above, I have two.  Contains actual math.

John Wick--So basically, don't kill Keanu Reeve's dog.

A Bunch of Movies Where Someone Wanders Around a "Haunted House" and Searches for Jumpscares--This plot needs to die.

Babadook--I don't think "scary" movies work on me.  But at least it is not see above.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night--Remember, just because you are a vampire now doesn't mean you shouldn't wear your hijab.

Miss Granny--I...

Mad Max Fury Road and Beyond Thunderdome--My veins are now running PURE AWESOME.

Young Doctor's Notebook--An old doctor (Jon Hamm) recalls his youth (Daniel Radcliffe) while trying not to hate himself too much.  Young self makes it very difficult...

Snowpiercer--In a world of snow, the entire human population lives on a moving train, and boy are they angry about it.  Premise Plausibility Rating:  China Mieville.  Punch, fight, fight, suffer, horrible realization (TM), fight, brood, blahdity blahdity blah.

What We Do in the Shadows--Four vampires are in "a flatting situation" in New Zealand.  This movie makes me very happy.