We're a day early, but using some classic gnome art to celebrate summer is a perfect time to reintroduce #InternationalGnomeWeek
I know Historicon is going to be extremely tight this year, but god knows Brigade Games is going to the top of my potential want list with their new sci-fi figs.
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BG-SFW007 - Space Base Tactical Assault Team B (3) - BG-SFW007 $9.00 USD |
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| BG-SFW202 Space Ape Troopers (6) - BG-SFW202 $18.00 USD |
Another call from my buddy Wooly, another moment where his resurgence in Battletech has started turning him into a world traveler.
He shocked me that he's travelling to the far reaches of New England just to play Battletech at New England Mech Con 2026, or by it's tagline: "Battletech on a Battleship!"
Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have decided to embark on an epic quest to reach Lathar's long-lost father. They have stopped in Fair-Town, for municipal meetings, bread-encrusted sausages .... and now are searching for answers after Squiggles the worm was kidnapped and tortured, and his worm breeding partner, Ubenda, murdered.
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Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend. He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters. Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does. Looking for trouble in all the right places. The two-time champion of the Fair-Town Queen's Joust. Recently married to the now-pregnant Thunnelda Haycock. Just received a letter from his long-lost father, and has convinced the others to accompany him to the Wildlands.
Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout. Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers. Apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"
Sonny Helianthus: an over 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable, but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. Sonny may have recently detonated an atomic device in the petrified woods... although no one else knows.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places, and finding it often. He has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair. Recently attacked and kidnapped then left for dead by an unknown group and is still recovering.
and two new additions....
Poppy and Speedy: Two of Squiggles' offspring from his first... litter(?) They're now teenagers in worm years, old enough to grab diminutive muskets and help their Manchi and his friends on this epic quest.
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A single day, two night stay in Fair-Town was getting dragged on longer and longer, as there were still too many questions about the kidnapping and attack on Squiggles and his breeding partner, Ubenda, and unsatisfactory answers. They were on day three of their visit, with the limited window to get downriver to the Wildlands.
Squiggles had miraculously been re-hydrated, but he was still piecing together what occurred through flashes of trauma.
The angry dogs.
The bald man with glasses.
Ubenda ready to mate.
And now a pair of jugglers, mocking him as he walked to Ubenda's mound.
"That's a furry worm on a mission. Don't do anything we wouldn't do!"
"We've never mated with worms..."
"Hahahahaha..."
Still, so many gaps.
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| Squiggles with the thousand yard stare. |
Sonny had been along the Driftwood section of town, getting medical information from "Mr Holt" of the White Hand. His next mission was back near the Wrong Celery, for a bookish man, Trivian "Trip" Dalston. He was found in the hall of records, his eyes behind glasses with green and clear lenses, putting together an extremely crude map from stacks of records.
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| Trivian "Trip" Dalston |
The presence of a giant sunflower and two 4 1/2 foot tall worms with muskets get his undivided attention.
Trip had an alibi, not a very good one, especially that he wasn't outside the town gates exploring. It relied on the testimony of someone he just called "Old Man" Fenswick.
It was Speedy that did make not that Trip definitely had hair, rather than the balding image scarred in Squiggles' mind. Sonny believed Trip, but would wander the back alleys to find this man.
Sonny decided to finish his other projects first, starting with a dead-end search for Ubenda's body for a proper autopsy... and burial.
The problem? Ubenda's body was missing. There was zero record that the body was received by town officials. He confirmed with others that after the White Hand was done with her body, the town guard should have carried the body inside town, they transferred to an official, or worst case, a crew of laborers to bury the body.
Meanwhile Lathar avoided asking more questions, but used his time wisely, buying more supplies to get down to KIA Academy and beyond. He did used his position on town council to observe the town laborers trying to repair and reconstruct the fallen wall.
Pete was still focused outside of town, looking at the large canine tracks... He finally went back into town to the Third Comfort Inn, and compared notes with Sonny and the others. Finding Ubenda's body became Pete's mission in life for that moment.
The next day (Day 4!)
Squiggles was physically recovered, but mentally, he was muttering vengeance.
Sonny did make a solo visit to Old Man Fenswick, a retired and deluded tinker.
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| Old Man Fenswick |
The did learn that they weren't the first people to question the guards that morning. A trio of persons had escorted Sergeant Malvek Trenholm, the head guard in charge that night, to somewhere else in town. The other guards quickly concocted that he was going to be the scapegoat, as he was supposed have cleaned up the crime scene, after everything was said and done.
They kept pressing the guard, threatening write-ups and reports. The guard was non-plussed.
"Do what you need to, if Malvek is indisposed, go talk to his boss, Brom Holloway."
Brom Holloway, Captain of the Guard, and fellow town councilman with Lathar.
They continued to ask what the proper procedure was with a body appearing outside the wall. A two man detail should have carried the body to Tower 14, where bodies were deposited before other officials showed up.
Lathar and Pete walked directly to Tower 14. The towers were large enough for cover in the rain, and a pipe chimney sticking out of the roof. The lone guard walking that section of the wall rolled his eyes from the duo's command, and descended the steps into the tower.
The door open, and both were hit with simply putrid blast of air.
Pete staggered to the wall, lowered to the ground, overcome with the stench.
Lathar took over, looking at the collected refuse in the room. The guard confirmed that no bodies had been delivered... in weeks.
So it was time to revisit Brom, in his office.
Next: #122 - A Weasel in My Meat Attic
After a great Saturday and good night's sleep, I went on an quest to chase Big Boy.
No, I haven't changed my persuasion, nor is he a rival competitive eater. "Big Boy" refers to the 4-8-8-4 massive locomotives the Union Pacific ran from the late 40's to the early 60's. Union Pacific 4104 was completely refurbished and has been running excursions. As part of the nation's birthday, it's been attracting crowds heading east, ultimately stopping at Philadelphia for July 4th, and heading through the classic Horseshoe Curve near Altoona the week after, on its return journey home.
Big Boy was escorted by local excursion steam locomotive trains between Pittston and Jim Thorpe, spending Saturday night in Nesquehoning, before coming back up to Pittston with excursions, and traveling to Steamtown National Historical Site for a short display until it's ready to travel to Philly.
An extended delay allowed me to straighten up the apartment before heading where I used to live, Mountain Top. It seemed like an extended stay, so perfect time to drive up Penobscot Mountain and find parking.
It was a beautiful madhouse, cars parked everywhere and traffic jammed six mile or so through town. A quick swing on to the Interstate and I started taking back roads as I tried to follow, catch up, and ultimately find the pair of locomotives as they descended the mountain.
I didn't see my first glimpse of it... I HEARD it. I was trying to find a vantage point in Pittston, and there's bridge construction I'm way too familiar. Except I never added two and two together and realized it's as the base of the ascent/descent for the mountain. As I cross the narrow bridge... I could hear a blast of the Big Boys whistle, over a quarter mile away. It was terrifying. I don't know what wouldn't leave the state, much less get off the track.
The second glimpse was from a vantage point high above a popular crossing. The Big Boy Train, ran parallel , just ahead of the 2-8-0 Reading & Northern #2102. The 2102 is a good sized train I've seen a few times and watching them in the crossing, it was like a Lionel train running alongside an HO model.
I actually caught the excursion train twice, as the dual tracks merged into one at Dupont/Duryea. And upon checking the UP tracker, I realized the Big Boy was stopped and needed to wait for the excursion train to unloaded before in itself to the Reading & Northern terminal. I parked at a local grocery store's lot, walked up the hill, and waited twenty minutes until the gate crossing lit up and bars dropped. I found a spot away from the people filling, but definitely within the 25-ft distance the railroad folk recommended we stay OUT of.
I have no pictures or videos of it. I fumbled with my phone under 10% power before saying screw it and just absorbing it's majesty.
It's biblical in scale. Terrifying in close proximity. The 2102 2-8-0 makes the ground rumble as it passes. Big Boy make the ground freaking shake. The pictures and videos do not do it justice. It is an amazing piece of American engineering, and I'm so happy to get to witness it in full motion.
The video is from Friday and Saturday, but it's pretty epic... the video makes the train look small.
For most of the year, at least one day of the weekend, I'm driving down to handle yard work and run errands for my mother. Most of the time it's an afternoon of cutting grass, trimming, raking... changing light bulbs and batteries, keeping things tidy, occasionally scrubbing through what's now decades of nicotine and living alone.
The fringe benefits of the trip is usually visiting the numerous game and hobby stores in the Lehigh Valley. Between Trains and Lanes, Cloud City, and Mythic Beasts and Brews, just those three alone were withing bike-riding distance when I was a youngin. There's not much I'm buying when I visit, but happy to turn over cash when there is...
In my trip to Mythic Beasts last week, for some spicy watermelon concoction that hit the spot (and my algorithm apparently), I got a quick text, a blast from the past.
"Hey you could have said hello if you were in the area."
My buddy Brian, not the Battletech playing Wooly, but another long-term friend, a regular in my Hackmaster and 20's Cthulhu games, a regular at the last game store I ran, Griffon Game, during *cough cough* the turn of the century. Heck, for years, I'd finish work around noon and with our schedules, we'd grab lunch somewhere and hit a series of games stores, sometimes the ones out to Allentown, sometimes into New Jersey.
An all around good guy that I've only seen for conversations at Historicon when we each have a moment.
And he kinda knows I'm down there most weekends... and I should text him more...
So we arranged for to meet for lunch and talk things over some chain restaurant beers.
After yard work all morning (and a random spat of genealogical questions from my cousin while I recovered... involving affairs, occult, and the Lindbergh baby kidnapping,) that beer was frickin' delicious!
The good news is that after COVID broke up the in person gaming, within 10 minutes we were talking about the same old stuff, like nothing change (minus my divorce, the kids moving three hours away, and their imminent graduations.
A wonderful simple Society of Boring Men.
No gaming was on the docket, although talk of future stuff was started, and the usual pipe-dream of restarting that Hackmaster game from 2001 to 2004, The Burning Trogs Rule!
Robots, droids, living metal...artificial life forms, every neighborhood in Carf used service bots for rudimentary jobs. Heck, some of them even had light weaponry on them for protection against the bandits and raiders. But the bots have developed a purpose, a survival instinct beyond their programming.
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