D&D post game 10-14-17

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Well the party numbers were down a little this week. The paladin was off praying and the mage was off seeing to his books and cauldrons of grease. However, the bard was back in the group this week a tad bit rusty, but still available to help.

 

It has been a year since the events of the Stonekeep Harvest Festival and the night of terror that surrounded it. For all the celebrating it was also a time of reflection of the events of the previous year.

 

This time of year also drives up the occurrences of the dark arts in the region, being the autumnal equinox and all that. This year is no different. It seems the residents of Old Towne (the lower class and more slummy part of Stonekeep) are being troubled with some grisly murders. The Watch Captain and some guards approach the party to ask for assistance. The reputation for getting jobs done is what these guys are known for. It seems a possible cult has set up shop in Old Towne and the guards are looking for help discovering the location. They are very undermanned right now due to heighten security for the festival activities. You know people are all afraid of what happened last year and all that.

 

After a short information dump, the party sets off to Old Towne to investigate the sites of three ritualistic murders. The only problem is that they could really use a holy many or someone trained in some arcane knowledge to help decipher clues.  After some investigation, interviews and blind luck, the party discovers that these murders are part of a cult ritual that must involve some demon type stuff. They back track where the cultists are entering town and set an ambush.

D&D Pre-game 10-14-17

The sun set 26 hours ago.

A hunched figure shuffles along a small dirt path toward a small marble building.

Small objects fall from his person as his pace quickens.

As he approaches the building he stops and studies the door. It is made with twin pieces of polished marble. Set in the center of the door is a golden warhammer crested with a set of scales. He reaches toward the door and pulls his hand back as the skin begins to fizzle and pop.
He reaches out again toward the door and recites a series of phrases in a language none have heard in ages. The golden crest begins to melt and the stone doors slowly begin to swing open. The figure shuffles inside.

He looks upon a small single room. Two small statues of warriors in heavy armor flank the door. Scones line the walls.  A simple stone platform stands a few feet in front of the figure. Atop it rests a shrouded body. Behind this platform is a set of finely crafted and detailed plate armor.
The figure shuffles forward and then stops and smells the air.

“You can come out now. Just because you can travel the shadows doesn’t  mean you can mask your presence from me.”

A thin figure drops form the ceiling beside the suit of armor without making a sound. He lands with a flourish and bows before the figure in the doorway. He then stands, adjusts his purple and black judogi.

Halloween Reboot #2 The Blob

"The Blob" hit theaters in 1958. It was remade 30 years later. The original stars Steve McQueen in his I think his first movie role and is looked at now as a take on the horror of communism. A big red menace gobbling everything up and cannot be stopped, you know just like those pesky Commies back in the late 50’s. It was a B movie if there ever was one, albeit a fun B movie about killer space goo.

1988 rolls around and The Blob has been remade. It is still a pile of unstoppable goo, but is it a better B movie than the original?

THE PLOT

We are introduced to a sleepy town of Arborville, California a ski town during the off season. A few high school kids are introduced: the jock, the cheerleader, the nogoodnik, the small town sheriff, the uppity sheriff deputy, the local holy man, uppity nurse, sex crazy teen and all the other typical character tropes. The story centers on the cheerleader Meg and the nogoodnik Brian.

After the various character introductions a meteorite comes crashing to Earth. It is  discovered by a hobo who decides to poke at it with a stick. This leads to a small ball of snot attaching itself to his arm. The hobo eventually gets to the hospital where the ball of snot devours/dissolves most of him and the football jock before slipping away to slime more people. Of course Meg sees all this  and nobody else does and of course nobody believers her either. You know that old chestnut.

Now the blob continues to grow and devour people through dissolving them. More and more townsfolk get gobbled up and still the town is clueless. Well that is until the blob invades the local movie theater and drops from the ceiling on the crowd. No people can see the problem and the town begins to panic. Good thing that a special science branch of the military or a militarized branch of the CDC arrives. They are after the meteorite for science. When in actuality they are after the blob because…… it was a bioweapon. A bioweapon they shot into space to keep the planet safe. See the military knows what this is but not how to stop it. Space was the safest place for it, because why not right?

Your sweet top  and my totally rad hair will do what these scientists can't!

So….. the blob is out of control grabbing and melting everyone it can. The military cannot stop it. Meg and Brian discover the only weakness this killer amoeba has is cold. The townsfolk barricade themselves in a church and fend off the slime monster with fire extinguishers. Eventually, Brian remembers that the machine shop he works at (sometimes) has a truck hauling a trailer of liquid nitrogen for the local ski resort’s snow making machine. This of course leads to the big showdown where the blob meets the liquid nitrogen truck and Meg with a M-16. Well you can guess what probably happen next, especially if you have seen Terminator 2.

Real life news, nothing nerdy to see here.

I type this for me as a record for me to always remember this little face and the day she left us.

For the last almost 9 years Olivia has been a part of my family in whatever formation it is/was.

Olivia was a rescue from a previous relationship. She had been left for dead in an apartment with a broken jaw. So here is a little black and white cat with no  bones in the front of her lower jaw. This means that her tongue sometimes sticks out funny. When the previous  saw her little face she fell in love. When she heard the story of her abuse it sealed the deal and the little cat came home with us.

A week after she came home with us.

I, being the pessimist, figured she would be gone with a few weeks. She was very thin and very weak. That didn’t last.

Always slept in and around the X-mas presents.

A few days later and her appetite was fine as she switched to an easily eatable wet food diet. She was doing all the typical cat activities. More surprising was how she warmed up to us and other humans. One would think after having a person break your jaw/face and leave you might not be too keen on humans. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Olivia soon staked her claim on my lap, behind me on the couch and next to me (or on my pillow at times) in our bed. For a cat that the previous wanted to be her cat, it was anything but that.  

Fall and winter fireplace spot

High on catnip

Everything was swell with her for 8 years, then  earlier this year a respiratory infection wrecked a lung and she has since had some breathing issues. She had developed an abscess probably due to an aspiration event. Meds helped, but it was temporary fix. I knew it would be.

Three days ago (almost six months later) and she was having breathing issues again. A trip to the emergency vet clinic and she was stabilized, but  barley. Three days later and she was losing the fight. I had to make that decision that I knew was coming. It was tough and I hated it. Especially since, when going to see check on her, she would perk up and act like everything was going to be ok. She fought the issue, but it was a losing fight and every day she would get tired faster and look a little worse.

A choice and one I hate having to make.

A common sight during movies, or binge watching.

The cat with the little broken face and big heart is gone. The little cat on the night stand meowing to tell me it is time for bed. The little cat who sat behind my head while watching t.v. to swat me in the face with her tail to let me know she was there. The little cat that would dive in boxes, tubes and piles of wrapping paper at X-mas. The instigator. The red dot chaser. The little cat who could…until she couldn’t any longer.

Good bye “Little Face. “

Good bye Olivia.

All my naps on that ratty couch and most nights in bed this was the scene.

Halloween reboot #1 My Bloody Valentine

2009 vs. 1981

My Bloody Valentine

The original film was released in 1981 and was a Canadian horror import. It was one of a slew of early 80’s slasher cash-ins that also involved a holiday. Thank you Friday the 13^th for stuff like this! It dealt with a crazed killer miner around a Valentine’s Day dance and a mining accident. The only redeeming bits are a fun shower victim and the fact that like 9 minutes were cut to get this movie from Canada to U.S. theaters. I have never seen these cut minutes, but I can only hope it was really bloody, naked stuff or in a prefect horror world both!

PLOT
It is Valentine’s Day 1997 in the mining town of Harmony. All is well until the Hanninger mine has an issue and a collapse happens trapping six miners. Days later the miners are found and five are dead and one Harry Warden is in a coma. After he is taken to the hospital it is realized that Harry murdered the other five miners with a pick axe to ensure he got all the air in the collapsed tunnel.
Jump ahead one year and Harry Warden awakens from his coma. He then goes looney in the hospital and kills a bunch of people. Then he disappears. Well and manages to leave a calling card of a human heart inside a heart shaped box of chocolates.

Another jump of ten years and one Tom Hanniger is back in town ( It is discovered it was his mistake that caused the mine collapse 10 years prior) to deal with the selling of the mine. Even better it is just about Valentine’s Day. Even better still….horrible murders begin again. Even better still….it is a guy dressed as miner with a gas mask covering his face and brandishing a pick axe. Harry Warden in back to murderize the citizens of Harmony again on Valentine’s Day or is he……….

Halloween month! I'm doing reboot horror again...

Another October and I’m at it again going  over horror re-makes to see if they are better or worse (usually much worse) than their original counterparts.

This year I decided to hit "My Bloody Valentine", "The Mummy" (the most recent version with Tom Cruise), "The Blob" and "The Amityville Horror." 

Sure the original films are all very dated with  the original "My Blood Valentine" from 1981 being the most recent. This year I choose horror movies where the original film didn’t do a whole lot to impress me. Sure there are some standout moments in all of them, but I never really enjoyed the entirety of these movies.

So here I go into the world of horror movie reboots to see what they have to offer, or what is also known as ...
...Hollywood is so out of ideas and will remake anything for a buck.

First up is the 2009 "My Bloody Valentine."

Mass Effect Andromeda, finally done.

Since I have had this game from release day, I thought it about high time I sit down and finish it.

Now I was/am a huge fan of the original Mass Effect Trilogy. I grew to love the characters, the story, the game play and even didn’t mind the crappy ending of the final act. It was a series about the journey and not the destination. A great sci-fi game and story told over three games.

Now Mass Effect Andromeda comes along. I dove in and started playing and then I trailed off and stopped, started and stopped again. I just didn’r have the love or drive like to play like the previous Mass Effect trilogy.

Here the setting is another galaxy 600 years away from Earth. The task is to colonize this place and all that fun stuff. After some ship, space and alien issues your craft arrives in the Andromeda galaxy. Now it is time to start exploring and start to colonize. Well that is until some group of aliens called the Kett begin to cause issues. Plus there is this wyrd robot tech on planets that needs to be interfaced with that might be the key to terraforming. Plus the majority of the big Arks (ships full of friendly known aliens) have gone missing during/ after their arrival in Andromeda. Your sibling is in a coma, your dad is dead, the  bureaucracy is all heads up their ass and you are the new Pathfinder for the mission.

You know all the staples needed to get you out exploring the galaxy.

The Kett. The bad guys for this game.