New Year's Eve 2023!

It has been a year here at Gaming with the Gnomies, and for the near future, the unwanted troubles seems to continue into January.  

Still, I've seen a lot worse troubles on some of the blogs I follow, and I don't mean just a decrease in gaming time.  Thanks to everyone who's commented, whether on the blog, while talking to me at the HMGS cons, or even my Monday night online group.  The waves of life can capsize your ship in an instant, and sometimes a word at the right time is all that's needed to keep it upright.   

2024 will be a celebration of ViscountEric's 50 years on the planet (give or take some reincarnation).  More to come!

Project 350:  The final tally for 2023 is 483 (316/167)  from  477 (316/161)  .  The December holidays clear off a number of scheduled posts, but so long as I remain on social media, they are usually replaced with future holiday posts.  Plus I did need to start compiling days for the #CharacterCreationChallenge

#CharacterCreationChallenge 2024

 It has been confirmed that TardisCaptain will again be hosting the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge.

The idea of creating 31 new characters over the course of a month might seem easy for some, but most people have resorted to careful planning and some early prep time to get things going smoothly from the get-go.  

I've got a couple themes for this year, a lot of varied Call of Cthulhu characters, some statted out for Savage Worlds instead to start, then a bunch of fantasy at the end.  The middle I might stat out some un-original characters into one of the zine RPGs I own: Pew-Pew.  The serial numbers will only be partially filed off, but I'd like to see if it works better than the licensed RPG products.

(IOU) A Long Island Iced Tea, Made in Newark

After years of analysis and human sacrifice, the ArchDean of Illuminati University determined the winter break and subsequent winter mini-session to be the least profitable time of year, so the break was restricted to four weeks tops to accommodate the large numbers of holidays across the multiverse that  always fell around December and January in IOU's calendar.  There was still an outstanding contract with the tenured faculty giving them a fifth week, so there was a free week after finals.  Most thought it was just a way to squeeze more profit out of the smoothie machines, but student clubs determined it to be a windfall.  Budgets for clubs were finalized at the end of the year, and were based on end of the year membership, so the final week of mandatory school were clubs hunting the student body and cajoling them into joining them.  

For star Moopsball player Buckshot Calvert, hiding in the bushes seemed like the best course of action... until the Horticulturalist Club starting makin their rounds.  

Buckshot is actually a real person.

He sauntered out of the bushes, and his white jacket provided some camo on the snow-covered Pent (their Quad had an extra side).  

With hooting and hollering, Buckshot tried over something hiding on the ground.  

Buckshot had tripped over an African-American midget wearing a waiter's outfit, brandishing a weapon.  

Art "Maitre'D" Dowling

"Yo, what's this shit about?"

"I'm sorry my good fellow?"   Buckshot apologized.

"What the fuck you from?"

"Are you trying to imply that I'm uppity?"

"Are you calling me uppity, Buckshot?"

"You are too short to uppity...."

"I'll call us even if you throw the next game."

"Or I can slap your head, take your gun, and run away."

"You finished strong there, but you started real weak, buster."

There were bigger problems appearing on the Pent.  A large group of student, with mindless devotion to a single man and all wearing red baseball hats, emerged .... on horseback.

"Maitre'D" wasted no time, pulling out a blinged out Segway and slowly trying to drive away.  

The group, turned their ponies and charged.   The Mongolian Student Horde Organization was looking to expand across campus.  

Make the Khan Great Again!

One lone individual emerged to lead the charge across the pent.  Somehow Keith Stone had joined the Mongolian because they offered ponies, although he misheard that as pony bottles.  Seeing this as his chance to lose the losers, he charged forward.  Maitre'D fired his weapon, hitting the pony and causing a great tussle with Maitre'D and Buckshot.  

Keith Stone, Always Smooth

"That went poorly!"  Keith exclaimed.  

**FADE TO BLACK**

The trio found themselves contained an outside pen from the Mongolian house.  

Buckshot was second guessing the Confederate Flag belt buckle that was eye-level to Matire'D,  He popped the gate open, and brazenly left.  His sports stardom spellstruck the Mongolians, but the second he hit a public sidewalk, every other club noticed him:  The Beaver Tamers Clubs, the anime club, the Goth Penny Collectors, the Goths Who Collect Pennies, and the the Mongols main competition, the Visigoth Numismatists.  

The other two followed him, Keith grabbing a can of yak beer for the road.  

With the Visigoths fighting the Mongols over the rights for Buckshot, the trio dove back into the bushes.  

"You know where nobody goes after finals?"  Maitre'D asked

"The Library?" Keith Stone answered.

"You got it, dawg."

Unfortunately, it appeared that the Belgian Toast Club had set up an illegal rave at the library.  Hovering fifty foot above the library was a very two-dimensional triangle spinning around.  It began to move away from the library.  Anyone out in the open seemed to be telekinetically lifted up by the triangle, and once it touch the object, the people disappeared.  

Keith Stone stared up, took a sip from his yak beer, and in a rare moment, shared his beer with the others.  

The spinning triangle seemed to change direction if it hit any object, forcing students to change the direction of their fleeing.    Two human female Freshthings ran towards the trio, as well as a giant carrot dressed like a female opera singer.  The guys joined forces/hit on the fleeing females. and joined being chased by the floating triangle.  

The triangle was gaining on him, pulling Matire'D up into the air. Buckshot turned around and lept up to grabbed him by the wrists. Despite the save, both were now being pulled up by the power of the triangle.  

Keith, knowing that cylinders beat triangles, began chucking cans at the triangle,   Unfortunately, his aim has horrible, and struck both Maitre'D and Buckshot in the head.  Their hold on each other broken, they began floating separately, and faster towards the traingle.

Near their doom, the Maitre'D and Buckshot were saved by the Minority Student Union.  Composed of one-off transfer students from other galaxies, anthropomorphic ducks in Chewbacca cosplay, and a few Tongans, they owned the sufficient technology to temporarily neutralize the triangle's power.  Matire'D and Buckshot fell to the ground.

"Man, now I'm gonna have to go to one of their meetings," Maitre'D exclaimed.

Keith Stone was empathetic, "I'll go with ya, man!"

With that, the triangle remained hovering, stopped spinning, and began moving back towards the library raid.  

The anthropomorphic duck in cosplay directed them towards the large tents next to the rave, and handed them beverages.  

"What's this?"  Buckshot asked.

"I've partied with these dudes," Keith answered, "They know their drinks.  Top notch beyond my tastes.  Too much Neptunian Soy and their Long Island Iced Teas taste like their made in Newark."

GM:  An impromptu Christmas game of Risus IOU, created three roles on my massive IOU random event table.  Our random plot points: (A) "Jenga Khan",  (B) "Bermuda Triangle moves around like a roomba!"  and this pic (C)

 Everyone added Ally:  Minority Student Union (11+)

Another Month of Gaming (January 2024)

Another new year, another crack at looking through every month's issue of Game Trade Magazine from Alliance Games Distribution, looking at the new gaming solicitations.

For those of us who haven't played along at home before, I only have a few ground rules.  

1. I don't list everything.  That's what the actual issue of the magazine is for.  Issue #287 of Game Trade Magazine can be found at your FLGS or online in pdf form here.  I have ten years of retail experience and decades of talking shop with store owners and managers on the East Coast, and I've had a pretty good track record of not diving headfirst into obscure but awesome RPG lines, and especially miniature games.  
2. I avoid "PI" product.  PI stands for "Please Inquire with Your FLGS."  It usually means that the store is not getting their normal wholesale discount for the product. While distributors do have different discount structures (usually a base discount rate, with contractually stated specific discount for Games Workshop, WotC, etc), the PIs are usually at an even lower rate.  If you want the item, great, your FLGS could still get it to you, but outside of sales, realistic wholesale costs and MSRP keeps your store in business longer.   Ergo, I usually avoid Ultra-Pro and Warlord Games products for this reason, unless I think the product could be a great seller.    I will note various TCG/CCG product if they are the standard booster/starter arrangement.  
3. I brake the items up in three categories, a) my must have want list.  b) my money-is-no-object list, which also includes inexpensive items I wouldn't actively order through my FLGS, but might pick up as impulse buys,  c) What I would ponder ordering if I ran a game store nowadays.  
4. The Old Man Rants about production, quality, pricing, and random clouds in the sky are free!  I sometimes forget that the 90's were more than twenty years ago, even if my knowledge of inflation and production costs is current. 

ViscountEric's Gaming Want List

Nothing!

ViscountEric's Money-Is-No-Object Want List

Exalted Funeral

Spirals ...................................... $8.00

Free League Publishing

Dragonbane RPG: Standee Bases $1.99

Paizo Publishing

Starfinder RPG: Flip-Mat - Shopping Mall ............................... $16.99

The Imaginary Store List (The Pegleg Gnome)

The Army Painter

Wet Palette: Wargamers Edition ..................................................... $44.99

Warpaints Fanatic: Complete Paint Set .......................................... $759.00

Warpaints Fanatic: Mega Paint Set ................................................. $199.99

Catalyst Game Labs 

Shadowrun DBG: Edge Zone Deck Box (2 pack) ........................... $11.99

Shadowrun RPG: Critter Deck ......................................................... $14.99

Shadowrun RPG: Scotophobia ......................................................... $49.99

Shadowrun RPG: Sixth World Core Rulebook City Edition Berlin ..... $49.99

Shadowrun RPG: Wild Life .............................................................. $49.99

Chaosium

Runequest RPG: The Glorantha Sourcebook ................................... $44.00

Call of Cthulhu: Arkham .................................................................. $59.99

Cubicle 7

Doctor Who RPG: Adventures in Space ........................................... $39.99

Doctor Who RPG: Gamemaster's Screen .......................................... $29.99

Doctor Who RPG: The Secrets of Scaravore Adventure Book ......... $34.99

Evil Hat Productions

Monster of the Week RPG:  Tome of Mysteries HC ......................... $35.00

Exalted Funeral Press

Bloom: Adventure for Mothership ................................................... $14.00

Mausritter: Boxed Set ....................................................................... $55.00

Mausritter Estate Collection ............................................................. $55.00

Squishy: Quick Start Horror Game ...................................................$15.00

Squishy: Campfire Carnage.............................................................. $22.00

Squishy: The Halloween Babysitter ................................................. $15.00

Free League Publishing

Blade Runner RPG: Case File 02- Fiery Angels .............................. $39.99

Dragonbane RPG Rulebook HC ....................................................... $39.99

Dragonbane RPG Bestiary HC ......................................................... $39.99

Dragonbane RPG Monster Standee Set ............................................ $24.99

Goodman Games

DCC Dice: Half Pound Random Assortment ................................... $49.99

Compendium of Dungeon Crawls Volume 1 (5e) .............................$49.99

Compendium of Dungeon Crawls Volume 2 (5e) .............................$49.99

Fifth Edition Fantasy #25 - Seven Days of the Serpent God ........... $10.99

Zero Level Rulebook (5e) ................................................................ $10.00

Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastelands ............................................... $50.00

Prisoners of the Secret Overlords .................................................... $19.99

Space Bulk ............................................ $30.00

Looney Labs

Camping Fluxx ..................................... $20.00

Loke Battle Mats

Giant Book of Battle Mats Wilds Wrecks and Ruins ........................ $46.99

Mongoose Publishing

Paranoia: The Core Book ................................................................ $49.99

Paranoia: The Accomplice Book ..................................................... $49.99

Paranoia: Computer Dice ............................................... $24.99

Paranoia: GM Screen ..................................................... $19.99

Cheap old man rant here.  Paranoia is one of those games that have had multiple iterations in the 21st Century, but nothing seems to match the low-key rules, hi-strung insanity of the original.  And I can't personally justify $100 to GM the game that's still run as one-shots or mini-campaigns.  YMMV

Traveller RPG: Adventure Class ...................................... $49.99

Traveller RPG: Mysteries of the Ancients ....................... $59.99

Now, Traveller, on the other hand, seems to continue to generate product.  The reprinted material makes me wish I just cleaned out FLGS of their inventory in the 90's, but c'est la vie!

Monster Fight Club

Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone ......................................... $120.00

I'm familiar with Monster Fight Club from their multiple appearances at HMGS cons (Cold Wars, Historicon, Fall-In!).   Just from that impression, I know the Cyberpunk miniatures rules will be good.  I will always flinch at what to order for all the other figures box sets.  I'm been trying to get my head around $6-7/figure costs in boxed sets, for plastic figures, for years now, and that sort of investment in a product line requires dedication by the store staff to promote it.  

Monster Scenery: Chain Link Fences ........................................... $30.00

Monster Scenery: City Streets ...................................................... $30.00

Monster Scenery: Industrial Cargo ............................................... $30.00

Compared to figures, if it is 28-35mm, the scenery pieces look like a good investment.   The buildings, roads, and Witcher line?   I'd take a hard pass for now.

Paizo Publishing

Pathfinder RPG: AP Seven Dooms of Sandpoint ..........................$54.99

Hardcover available for $69.99

Pathfinder RPG: Core GM Screen ................................................ $24.99

Pathfinder RPG: Flip-Mat - Boarding School ..............................  $16.99

Pathfinder RPG: Monster Core (HC) ............................................ $59.99

Pelgrane Press

Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous ........................................ $39.95

Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Savage Worlds - Pinebox Middle School RPG ................................ $39.99

Savage Worlds - Pinebox Middle School Archetype Cards ............. $ 9.99

Savage Worlds - Pinebox Middle School Boxed Set ....................... $124.99

Savage Worlds - Pinebox Middle School GM Screen + Adventure.. $19.99

Savage Worlds - Pinebox Middle School Map Pack #1 ................... $14.99

Savage Worlds - Pinebox Middle School Map Pack #2 ................... $14.99

I don't remember this being on crowdfunding, so this is an ambitious project if it's been traditionally developed.  The "Kids on Bikes" genre is pretty messy, so this might be the "high school sanitized" version of their East Texas University setting .  

Prolific Games

Cultists,& Cthulhu 2nd Edition ....................................................... $24.99

Random House

D&D: A Long Rest for Little Monsters (A Little Golden Book) .....  $ 5.99

I tend to avoid mainstream book publishers, but IT'S A LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK FOR DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS!!!!  I might order a bunch of these for the imaginary store and keep them by the register.  This is the ultimate impulse buy for gamers (the majority who still play only D&D) with kids.

Sirius Dice

Be My Nat 20 D20 Necklace ................................................................. $30.00

Thirty bucks is a little high in my book, but not by much.  And if it's available before Valentine's Day, you could move a few and justify keeping one on display all year long.    Their dice are also in the reasonably priced spectrum and look pretty good.  

Skybound Games

Sheep in Disguise ....................................... $19.99

Steve Jackson Games

FRAG ......................................................... $24.95

Ultra-Pro

As I said in the preface of this month's post, I tend not to list anything for Ultra-Pro.  Their new line of  Magic: The Gathering deck boxes, sleeves, and other storage solutions just look sharp and clean, and that may be the problem.  Everything is a Magic mana symbol with a crisp white background.  These should sell well, but they're not going to age well after weeks of play/use.

Wizards of the Coast

Magic: The Gathering CCG:  Dominaria Remastered Collector Boosters

Magic: The Gathering CCG:  Dominaria Remastered Draft Boosters

Wizkids

D&D Phunny Plush ............................. PI

I don't like the PI on Wizkids stuff, but the Black Dragon, Bullywug, Rust Monster, and Intellect Devourer are adorable  Prices on pre-orders for these things look to be under $20.  

D&D Icons of the Realms - Adult Moonstone Dragon ....................... $99.99

More a question than a rant, when the inevitable D&D 6e comes out, are we just rebranding the rare dragon types, or we rebuilding a dragon collections starting with the basics again. 

Marvel Heroclix:Next Phase Pizza Party - Hawkeye .......................... $29.99

Marvel Heroclix: Next Phase Pizza Party - She-Hulk ......................... $29.99

Pathfinder Battles:  Death Coach Boxed Miniature ............................. $59.99

Pathfinder Battles:  Gholdako Boxed Miniature .................................. $39.99

Pathfinder Battles:  Leshy Window Boxed Set .................................... $59.99

Pathfinder Battles:  Yamaraj Boxed Miniature ..................................... $39.99

Pathfinder Battles:  Set 25 - Armies of the Dead Booster Bricks

Annual Holiday Swag Haul

 I have survived Christmas, or most of it, at least.  Last year had ice storms, deep freezes, and rancid meat.  This year was much nicer.  

The girls had some problem with my FLGS and my customer data to select a gift for me, I'm quite satisfied they only went with a copy of Barking Kittens, and a handful of loose dice from their dice table. 

The only other significant item I got over the holiday, was a softcover copy of The Game Master's Book of Random Encounters for five bucks at Five Below, while I was shopping for stocking stuffers for the kids.

The only gaming related stuff I gave out to the kids was to Maja.  After requesting a chess set, then Chinese Checkers for last Christmas, we're delving into Mah Jonng this year.  Should be fun! 

(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #12 - Tippy Toe, Tippy Tap

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers travelling into the wastelands, in search of... The Mutant Master:

=================

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with Restorationist ties. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.

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.

Ramsay Kallax:  Mutated Ram from the far-off KIA Academy with a predilection for ancient treasures... and the occasional head-butt. 

==================

After the fight with the fish-birds, the party took a few extra hours the following morning to rest.  Sneaky Pete had been hurt badly and already needed a change of bandages.  Finishing the mission in the fastest and most efficient manner possible was paramount to get him back to civilization and some significant rest. 

By mid-day the group could hear a dull roar off to the distance.  By mid-afternoon the roar was quite load, and they turned the bend in the river to find a dam.

Everyone was amazed to see lights on the dam, although for their distance the buildings off to the right were quite dark.  Sonny marveled at the work of the Ancients, but also was quite worried by the excessive mist behind the dam.  The mist had a disturbing shimmer to it, an iridescence that seem to come off the water behind the dam.  

Ramsay questioned the decisions, "Is this what 'Sorebush' wanted to send us to?"

Sonny answered, "It stands to reason that New Men would live on the edge of strangeness."

Pete suggested that part of the group split off on each side of the river and investigate the dam proper and what was beyond.  Lathar was insistent he could ride up on No Name, distract whomever they encountered, ride away if need be, and allow the others to flank and investigate.  The others found that plan far too brazen, given themselves unwanted attention of an unknown cadre of mutant humans with unknown mutant powers.  Lathar vehemently disagreed but decided to stay back.

"Squiggles isn't the most dependable, mentally, so you're putting a lot of stress on him."

Pete worked his way across the river to walk up the left bank, Squiggles took the current, right side. 

Pete came out first, emerging onto a barely-used road that led to the top of the dam.  The road continued on the other side, but  on top of the concrete walkway were two odd pillars built on the center of the path, a few feet off of the trails that could lead someone there.  They were built out of grey blocks, iron rungs to climb on top, and random orange marking that looked to be paint.

The opposite side of the dam held an extremely wide lake or reservoir   The buildings behind the dam were further away than they first looked, and on an island.  The lake was about five feet shorter than the top of the dam.  

Squiggles path to the dam was closer, but there was sparser vegetation and wide swath of short grass fields.  He spotted Pete crossing the road towards the lake, so he crossed his road and ventured closer to the buildings on the island.   There was no sign of activity in the multi-floor structure, but he did spot three long, narrow, metal boats on the shore of the lake.  

Squiggles was first to turn back and report his findings, but as he dashed across the road, he stumbled and froze, staring up into the sky.  A lone bird of prey was a flying up in the sky.  He managed to gather himself together and hid in the grass before his brain corrected himself.  At first glance, he though it was incredibly close, and if he wasn't careful, about to swoop down upon him.  Upon a second review, Squiggles realized the dreaded bird was much much higher, and much, much larger than he could even fathom.   The others may have worried by the smoke-belching living metal flying overhead closer to Fair Town., but to Squiggles, this was doomsday on giant wings.

Ramsay, Sonny, and Lathar were still under the trees and were not aware why Squiggles was so frantic when he returned.  Pete came back a bit later whispering "Tippy Tap Tipp Tap!"

Lathar was not amused, "It's supposed to be Tippy Toe Tippy Toe, and you shouldn't be saying it while you're crossing the river coming back. "

It was decided to investigate the pillars on the dam first, before moving towards the island.  Lathar stashed No Name in the nearby brush and everyone moved cautiously to the pillars. 

Pete was the first to climb up the hand holds to the top.  The top for a steel grate, with a circular passageway beneath it leading down with more iron hand holds bolted onto the side. With the help of Lathar, they were able to removed the grate and gently lead it up against the pillar.  

Squiggles was given a rope to tie around his torso and ordered to climb down, which he begrudgingly complied.

As he descended, Squiggles quickly determined that the tube went all the way down to were the water flowed through the dam, and that whatever light was at the top of the pillar was the only source of light for the entire journey, so it wasn't too surprising that more than halfway down, he couldn't spot the loose iron hand holds and fell when they gave way.    The rope would have saved him anyway, but in the tube, his oversized lift belt caught a more secure handhold and stopped the fall, with the Mutant Earthworm upside down.... and slowly sliding. 

Dangling upside down, Squiggles held onto dear life, seeing the speck of light high above him, just enough to illuminate the outline of a human skull laying across from him in an odd alcove.   He managed to lift himself out of the fortunate wedge, checked his line and swung over to investigate.  

All that remained in this small area. was a complete human skeleton, and just a journal, with many of the front pages ripped out.  

Not being a big reader, he tossed the book in his pack and jumped back over to finish his descent.  With no other issues, his foot eventually hit moving water.    He tugged on his rope twice, and the other party members on top help pull him back up. 

Squiggles showed Sonny the book, and the sunflower read the lone passage remaining: 

"I, Sir Aden of Bastion, pen this document so that any of my brethren that follow might somehow learn from my folly. Mayhaps some brave squire shall find Ulmin with my posthumous help. I came here to find Ulmin, but fell into the mutant scums' devious crap. Unable to escape, I spent two days and nights here before I heard voices from above. The accursed mutants had come co see what had fallen into their trap . They taunted me mercilessly. I killed one of them with the sun ray, which quieted their cackling for a time . I threatened them with dire consequences should they not surrender their worthless lives to me. It was of no avail. Unbeknownst to chem, the walls of this trap echo and reverberate, so I could hear their vicious plot to murder me. I have torn all the pages from my journal, save these. I have broken all my possessions and tossed chem into the murky waters below. The mutant scum shall not get them. They shall not benefit from my death!"

The prospect of even parts of ancient devices in the water below motivated Pete to tie the rope around his waist and descended the tube. 

"Where are you going?" Sonny asked, quite concerned.

"The dude dropped all his treasures in the water.  If I can poke around and see what's down there."

The group agreed, and down Pete went, with an oil lantern for extra light.  

Reaching the bottom, he prodded the water with his stick, finding that area to be a meter deep and three meters wide.  Further prodding failed to reveal anything, or luckily, trigger anything.  

Pete used the lantern to look around, but failing that, extinguished it and dove into the water to search the bottom for any artifacts.  After a minute of searching, it was certain, the current was just strong and constant enough to move items further downstream... and the slope of the passage was beginning to further descend. Coming back up for air, Pete recognized that his dreams for a treasure hunt were for naught.  He tugged on the his rope twice to get pulled up. 

The wet weasel was happy to see and feel the full effect of the sun again, but was concerned to see Sonny's distraught look.  The mutant sunflower didn't have true eyes, but Pete could feel his optical centers bulging.  A quick pat down with his paws pulled swaths of fur off the weasel's body.   Pete didn't feel so good.   The shimmer from the mist above the lake matched the new shimmer of the weasel. 

The Glow might claim another victim.

Next:: #13 - The Isle of Ulmin

Merry Christmas 2023!

Christmas Eve 2023

(GURPS) Eric Jacobson, Gamified - Year Thirteen

It's been another crazy year, where even the fondest of Christmas traditions seem to be bothersome to me.  One tradition that almost passed me by entirely is my odd attempt at gamifying my on-again off-again dream journal, and translate them into character points for a GURPS (3rd Edition) version of myself.  I've been doing things this way for over 30 years, and the dream version of myself isn't some glorified super-hero...

It's Tom Arnold character from True Lies (Albert Gibson).

ST: 10 DX: 11  IQ: 13  HT: 12

Advantages:  Charisma +2 (I'm a heckuva guy), Common Sense, Luck, Voice, Light Hangover (50)

Disadvantages:  Bloodlust, Near-Sightedness, Gluttony, Stubborness, Sense of Duty (Friends) (-35), Dependents (Family) Enemy: LDS Cabal

Skills:  Skills in bold received points, but not increase.  Bold with a (+) indicates an increase in skill.  New skills to the list for this year are in bold with (New).  Not exactly rocket sciences

Acrobatics   9 
Accounting 11 
Acting 13 
Administration 20    
Animal Handling 11 
Anthropology 11 
Archaeology 10 
Area Knowledge: Baltimore 11
Area Knowledge: Iceland 13 
Area Knowledge: Lehigh Valley 14 
Area Knowledge: New York City 13
Area Knowledge: South Africa 13
Area Knowledge: Michigan Upper Peninsula 11
Bard 20 (let me...entertain you!)
Bicycling 11
Boating 9
Boxing 10
Brawling 13
Camouflage 14
Carousing 12
Climbing 10
Club 11
Computer Ops 14 
Conspiracy Theory 11
Cryptography 10
Dancing 10
Demolitions 12
Diplomacy 13
Drive Tractor Trailer 11
Drive: motorcycle 9
Driving: Auto 15 +
Driving: Diesel Locomotive 11
Engineering 12
Economics 12
Electronics   11  
Electronics Operation  11 
English 14    
Fast Talk 13
First Aid 13
Forensics 12
Forgery 10
French 12
Geology 10
Guns: Pistol 15 
Guns: Rifle 14
Guns: SMG 13
Hiking 11
History 17
Hobby gaming 14
Hobby: Models 12
Intell Analysis 11
Interrogation 11 
Judo 9
Law 12
Leadership 13 +
Literature 10 (New)
Mathematics 10
Mechanic   11
Merchant 11
Meteorology 11
Naturalist 10
Navigate 10
Occultism 14
Performance 13
Physician  10   
Pilot: Jetpack   9 
politics 14
Psychology 11 +
Punning 11
Running 13
Savoir Faire 17
Saxophone 12
Scrounging 13
Sex Appeal 15

Shadowing  11 (NEW)
Sport: Basketball 10
Sport: Football 9
Sport: Golf 11
Sport: Ice Skating 8
Sport: Volleyball 9
Stealth 12 
Strategy 11 
Streetwise 11
Survival: Mountains 12
Survival: NBC 13
Swimming 10
Tactics 13
Taxidermy 11 (New)
Theology 11  
Wrestling 11 

315.5 points

It's been a rough year for real-life me, so the dreams have been few and far between, and full of subterfuge, intrigue, and a lot of car issues.  Don't worry, I'll continue to check the brake lines this winter.  

God Jul 2023!

Winter is Definitely Here, If It Wasn't Already

 

(Gamma World) This Is Not a Test #11 - On to Koto

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers in the far-off city of Jainus, in search of... The Mutant Master:

=================

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with Restorationist ties. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.

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.

Ramsay Kallax:  Mutated Ram from the far-off KIA Academy with a predilection for ancient treasures... and the occasional head-butt. 

==================

Working their way down the stairs of the apartment the mutant human they were tailing had eluded them lived, there was verbose discussion as to what to do next.  

Lathar carried the unconscious body of Squiggles over his shoulder.  

Lathar

Pete suggested that they take a roundabout route to leave neighborhood and evade any potential tails.  By the time they successful navigated the neighborhoods, and gotten lost repeatedly, they arrive in the downtown.  

Sonny was insistent on visiting some sort of shop that sells maps.  He was attracted to a curio shop called Focused on the Past.  An extra sign in the pane glass window read, "Restorationists receive 10% off on Quarkmah."  Not knowing if it was that time, he led the group in. 

Inside, there were rows and rows and shelves, floor to ceiling.  Behind a counter was a mutated plant, a bush, who had groomed its face to create a large moustache.

"Oooh, a sunflower... and you brought friends."

"Indeed, we are in the market for some maps."

"No offense, but do you folks even know how to read a map."

"We do."

"Then let me show you what I have."

The bush was atop a stool on metal casters.  He pushed himself over to a collection of rolled-up paper.

"Any maps in particular are you looking to catch your fancy?"

"Looking for a particular town... Ulim."

The bush got very quiet, and questioned Sonny of his companions?  Were they all trustworthy?  Did the blonde human a mind reader or read up on the Knights of Genetic Purity a bit too much?  When Sonny assured him of secrecy and loyalty, the bush continued.

"What name do you go by?"

Sonny smiled, "I go by... El Seed."

"You can call me Sore Bush."

"Okay, you know that asking around for the secret location of the lair of the Iron Society is going to get you in far worse trouble than you could possibly imagine."

Sonny opened up his bag, displaying an adequate amount of domars.

"I can provide you a number a maps at a reasonable price, but I don't think any will include Ulim.... Waitasecond... let me see if I can do this the easy way."

A few minutes of searching through maps, and Lathar became a bit bored.  "I'm going over to the bar across the street.  Ramsay, grab Squiggles."

Once they left, Sore Bush inquired if the crew had found anything, "Worst case I just drew this one up for 100 domars."

Sore Bush's map was primitive and showed the town of Jainus and the river leading up to a dam and a couple lakes.  

"Up river, people call the Koto Dam magical.  Lots of glow further north.  Perfect place for a megalomaniacal mutant leader in need of a secret lair."

Sonny sighed, but nodded his head.  "If we could maintain cartographer/purchaser confidentiality, I'm happy to pay."

"But of course.  Neither of us are preferred neighbors to these folks.  Let's not make this more difficult.

Sore Bush answered a few more questions about the growth of the Iron Society's rapid growth in town, and the encroaching Glow, but the after Pete paid an extra 50 domar fee to keep things even quieter and walked out. 

Across the street, Squiggles woke up, wearing sunglasses, squeezed between Ramsay and Lathar  in a U-shaped booth in a bar at the Assorted Bees Bar.

"Where are we?  What happened?"

"You've had a rough day, Squiggles, have a drink," and with that Lathar moved over a cup of liquified manure.  

"Maybe I can lay off the sauce for awhile."

Lathar hailed over one of the servers. "What's next the big town if we head north?"

The server gave him an odd look, "From here, there's full glow two days north upriver. Way downriver is Kia, but that's where you guys came from, right?"

"I hear that there's a good plant community down there.  Kia Pets, they're  called," and with that Sonny emerged from behind the server.  "Can we get extra drinks for us and our friends?"

With the server gone, Sonny tried best to elbow Lathar in the ribs, "Did you not hear Sore Bush say asking around is just a sure-fire way to attract attention?"

The crew did a horrible job of obvious misdirection, if there were any people following them. Lathar paid for all the food and drink, and they left.  Destination: the south gates of Jainus. 

From the southern gates, they travelled outside the walls of the town until reaching the north gate of town.  They then  began to follow the river north: Destination: Koto Dam.

The rest of the evening and the following day were completely uneventful.  Pete and Lathar attempted to copy each others maps by the campfire.

The river was usually quite wide, but extremely shallow. 

Into the afternoon of day 2, Squiggles and Pete spied the familiar black smoke of the flying living metal far, far off into the distance.  Preoccupied with the distant living metal, three larger figures flew down from the trees! 

Three large, feathered, winged fish flew down and attack Lathar and his steed, No Name.  Their jaws snapping, but barely causing any damage.  A terrified Squiggles rolled off of No Name and into the bushes.

The Explorers unloaded a barrage of flintlock fire, but not enough damage to drive them off.   Pete was chased through the brush by the creatures, suffering two painful bites.  Getting surrounded in the bush allowed the party to close in to melee, driving two of them off.

Sonny fire a projectile seed at the final beast, killing it.  

Dinner was difficult to clean, but ending up being very filling.

GM Notes: The toughest thing with Gamma World is the assumption that every town has a carographer, or a cartographer's society.  It should be noted that most towns in GW are just above primitive, with a few inconsistent dashes of Renaissance tech.

Next: #12 - Tippy Toe, Tippy Tap

Christmas Skeletons and Inflatable Dragons Beware!

 

(Gamma World) This Is Not a Test #10 - Big Jake

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers travelling to the far-off city of Jainus, in search of... The Mutant Master:

=================

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with Restorationist ties. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.

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.

Ramsay Kallax:  Mutated Ram from the far-off KIA Academy with a predilection for ancient treasures... and the occasional head-butt. 

==================

The party was cleaning up the carnage left by a sneak attack of the Iron Society on the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Thought.

Artemus took one look at Sonny, "It's a good thing I didn't need any help with those hissers back then. That would have been ugly.  But, we're all standing, so that's a good sign.  Brother Tyrell, get up, we're all standing."

Sonny could only nod, as he was tending to a very confused Squiggles.  He had no recollection of anything that happened. 

"Artemus, why is the Iron Society conducting an open attack on you?"

"I'm not sure if it's an open attack on us, or you guys..."

"Why would they attack us, what the fuck did we do?"

"I don't know.  What DID you do?"

Sonny was at a lost how anything they were working with the Restorationists trickled over to Iron Society.

"Do the Iron Society have a large presence in this town."

"It's sizable, no worse than any other place I've visited.  They're territorial in their neighborhoods, but not outside of it."

Sonny recapped their adventures at Level A Inc, revealing some connection between their missing Restorationist and a character called the Mutant Master.   Artemus inquired further and admitted he was aware of a blue-skinned mutant raising a ruckus amongst their kind.  He wasn't leading everything, but had a very fervent following.

Taking the group to the side, it was decided that they needed to track down some Iron Society members leaving their headquarters and interrogate them for more information.

Staking out the Iron Society neighborhood was easier said than done.  The party together would stick out like a sore thumb. Despite being a weasel, Sneaky Pete had the most experience and skill with picking a mark and following them.  Lathar could be mysterious enough with a cheap cloak and a little gravitas  The rest of the crew were significantly staggered towards the neighborhood border to less volatile areas.

It took an hour and a bottle of wine, but they finally their was one obvious person who stood head and shoulders above the crowd.  Nicknamed "Big Jake" by Pete, we has a tall, bald character in a bright white puffy vest.

"Big Jake"

"Big Jake" made a bee-line through the main street, heading right towards the adjacent neighborhood.  A behooded Sonny picked up the queues, and Ramsay followed suit a half block later.  

Big Jake's strides grew longer and Ramsay could barely keep up, barely keeping within eye contact with Sonny.  The three in this pursuit had broken contact with Pete and Lathar, enough so that they missed the pursuit turn up a side street, and they continued into a late afternoon farmer's market, in the process of closing up for the day.

Lathar could only emit an exasperated sigh, but was distracted by a buzzing voice above him.

*Bzzzz* "Lost friend?  Need some help?" *Bzzzz*

Above Lathar was a four feet tall wasp, hovering in the air.   Armed with a sickle and hammer, he wore a large medallion and a bowler hat with holes for his antennae.

*Bzzzz*"Yeah, we're closing up shop, so if you're looking for something in particular, I can help you out."*Bzzzz*

"Yeah, we're here for a few last-minute items, like some bread."

Lathar bought some replacement provisions, and a selection of baguettes, and Pete selected a candle. 

They retraced their steps and ran into Sonny who was looking for them.

Sonny, Ramsay, and Squiggles had kept the tail.  The human ducked into a side door of a three story building with an abandoned cheese monger's shop on the first floor. 

Sonny slipped into the door as stealthy as he could... and immediately ran into the man, checking his mail from a series of cubbies.  Spying the cubby he was looking into as 24, he grabbed a nearby plant in a pot in the lobby, "There you are, very funny..." and walked back out the door.    After meeting back up with Ramsay and Squiggles it was deemed more important to find their two missing team members.  Sonny told Ramsay and Squiggles to hold their position while he walked down to find Lathar and Pete.

Discovering they found out where Big Jake lived, Lathar was excited, "Well, let's deliver his groceries to him!"

They reunited with Ramsay outside the building.  Lathar and Ramsay went through the small lobby and up the stairs.  Two steps from the top, Lathar stopped the ram. 

"Ramsay, I'll present this dude with the bag of food, but how will we subdue him?"

Ramsay generated some electricity between his horns. "I can zap him...." *CRASH*

A loud ruckus erupted from the second floor, with a lot of thumping and yelling.  Lathar dropped the groceries, pulled out his sword and ran forward.  

The door for #27 was wide open, with a broken table, and a worm fly on top of it.  The worm jumped back up an charged through the door.  Lathar followed in pursuit.  

The door led to a small apartment. occupied by a older, balding middle-aged human.  He was holding back Squiggles with one extended hand.  He lifted to see Lathar, "Who the greef are you?  Get out."  He grabbed a large table leg from a broken table, pushed Squiggles aside, and moved towards Lathar.

Kyrl of Jainus

Ramsay checked in on room #24, all the while yelling through the opened door.  "Help, help my friends are under attack!"  There was no response from that room, although other heads were popping out of other doors on the floor.

Squiggles got up again, and dove at the human.  The human spun around, and hit the worm, sending him flying into a pile of dirty laundry.

"I'm a hard working human, you bandits need to leave me alone and get out of here!"

Lathar sheathed his sword, put up his hands, and slid over to Squiggles, "Buddy, what the hell are you doing?  Let's get out of here while we're offered a chance."

Squiggles was unconscious.

Lathar grabbed Squiggles and dragged him into the hallway.   The human slammed the door behind them, sending all the pictures on the walls crashing to the ground.  

Sonny finally made it up the stairs to see Lathar tending to Squiggles on the ground.  The most confusing part was watching Lathar's sword coming out of his back scabbard all by itself.  

Sonny fired a projectile seed in the general area, expecting to hit some invisible combatant.  The seed flew down the hallway, as did Sonny ran over to grab the sword by the hilt.  When he touched the sword, there was no resistance, save Lathar's confusion 

Ramsay worked his way down the hallway.

"What's going on, guys"

Sonny turned to him, "Where's our boy?"

Lathar was still quite confused, "I thought Squiggles went into the apartment to follow him, he was somebody else's place."

"This is a debacle, we need to get out of here.

"We're walking out of here like nothing's happening?

"If you can carry Squiggles, then yes."

The worm over his shoulder, Lathar walked back down the hall towards the stairs.  The door for #24 was open.   From what he could see, the layout was the same, except that a window was wide open, facing the main street. 

"I think our guy left."

"So should we..."  Sonny replied, nudging his head towards the stairs.

GM Notes: If one wants to run Gamma World, I would definitely suggest having a binder full of various NPCs.  The characters talked about tailing an Iron Society member forced me to set up numerous characters, the most detailed being "Big Jake"  Let's just say that he was a character that, when provided the knowledge and opportunity to escape, masterfully created a distraction.  "Jake" will possibly return.

Next: #11 - On to Koto

Attack of the Inflatable Zombie Pirates

Oh my, has the fall been super busy!   Weekends with my girls are usually hours of practice, hours of sporting events, and even more stuff, turning those truly free days into days of much-needed near-comatose rest at Dad's.  

It's been so crazy that the scheduled Halloween game never happened, and with the high school play that Maja's in taking up a large chuck of Friday night and Saturday, we had a narrow window Sunday for rest, Christmas decorating, and the normal Christmas game... with a Halloween theme.

In Plasticville, Halloween was marred by two unrelated crimes.  Normally the theft of popular Inflatable Zombie Pirates would make frontpage headlines in the Plasticville Press, but a rash of child abductions nearly paralyzed the town. 

As Christmas neared, and there was no sign of the children, some townsfolk turned to the local Christmas Market to distract their weary souls.  The side streets near the church were cordoned off, and the seasonal booths built for vendors.  

The big difference this year?  The Inflatable Zombie Pirates have been found, they're alive, and they're killing townsfolk and setting fires to buildings.  

Only eight individuals have taken up arms to fight back, and perhaps find a way to lift the curse.  They were all elves at pictures with Santa.  It was bad enough that the company the town hired to set up pictures with Santa sent adult garden gnomes costumes, but now they have to fight giant Inflatable Zombie Pirates with a few rifles some garden tools, and a replica sword?    The things we all do over the holidays for extra money.... 

The "Gnomes" rifles seemed to easily drop two of the Inflatables, but the noise seem to drag all of them across the board.   Free of the restraints of a electrical cord, these magical constructs swiftly floated towards the gnomes and showed to be overpowering adversaries in melee.  

The gnomes would not retreat!  Another two were dropped as the pitchfork/pick axe wielding ones dove into combat and ripped the monsters to shreds.  

Just as the gnomes appeared to gain the upper hand, a cruel twist of fate (re: a Joker was pulled)  befall the day.  A few, but not all, of the "dead" Inflatable Zombie Pirates, the ones the just fell limp from their wounds, began to inflate again and move forward!  

As the second wave of Inflatables crashed into the surviving gnomes, all seemed lost.  Many cruelly perished, and those that survived fought valiantly, but futilely, against the monsters. 

The only salvation came in the form of one of Millie's gnomes, who skirt the far side of the board, avoided all contact with the monsters, and reached the church.  It took two turns of searching inside the church, but he was able to metaphysically unplug the creatures and they dropped.  

Our hero!

You can simply file this under a horde of magically constructs gone wrong, or take a more sinister Five Night's at Freddy's take on it.   This batch of gamers were mixed in their voting.  

The scenario was originally inspired by the Pulp Alley game "Demon Cow Infestation" and the oversized zombie pirates for a $1/bag at Dollar General during Halloween.  

The Inflatable Zombie Pirates will return one day!!

Reapers 12 Days of Christmas

 For the first half of December 2023, Reaper Miniatures is offering their 12 Days of Christmas promotion.  

For each $40 you spend on one order, you can select one of the 12 Days of Christmas minis offered.  With a mousling caroler, I feel obligated to mention this.  

Mandatory Basketball Rant - Winter 2023-24 #1

I know it's been a long year when I forget that I did a weekly rant on the "regular" basketball season.  I won't do week by week this year, at least by label, as we're already a month into the seasons.  I'll start by burying the lead.

Local Rec League:  Still Vice-President of the league.  Still not getting anything pushed through that needs updating, rather the board is swooning to the desires of a few, a few who will not be working with the league at all in a year or two.  We've gotten rid of the obnoxious parents from the last few years and replaced them with benevolent dictator parents.  At the end of day, despite all the hand-wringing from parents, officials, and league officials like me... the league plays on and the kids learn basketball and have fun. 

The biggest thrill for me has been Maja and her freshman teammates becoming active junior referees this season.   I'm biased, but Maja's the best of the bunch (per the official PIAA refs we use alongside them).and all of them are more active and more vocal than the last two years of recruits.  

Varsity:  Maja made the JV team as a freshman, but that just means she's a bad game by another player, an injury, or an exceptional JV game by her away from .getting some playing time.  It also means that she still attends all Varsity games, including the Tip-Off tournament they played in last weekend.  They won their first game and came back Saturday to play a New York State Semi-finalist team to a last second tying shot, but eventual loss in overtime.  Not bad for a team coming off a 8-13 season and starting a junior, two sophomores, and two freshmen this years.  

Funny story,  most of these tip-off tournaments have four teams: two local that might not play each other every year, and two out of the area teams (us and the New York team).   We knew the site was the one participating high school, and that was about an hour away.  What about half the parents didn't know is that the site was changed on the team website on Wednesday, so half of us drove to the other "local" team in the tournament... which was another 40 minutes away from the site, over dark and rainy country roads carved out by the original Pennsylvania settlers, or original native trails that were never improved upon.    We all had a good laugh once we found civilizations.

Junior Varsity: Maja got to start on the JV team on Monday.  2pts, 8 rebounds, and a flurry of other stats in a 4-point loss.  The best player on JV is also a second or third player off the bench for Varsity, so she plays the first half only.  

Freshmen: In what must be a family trait, Millie not only made the Freshmen team, but was declared a starter as a 7th grader.  But unlike Maja's 7th grade year where she ended up playing 7th, 8th, and Freshmen, Millie is locked into Freshman only with only possible chances to play "down" if things go catastrophic for those teams.  The team is four 7th, 6 8th, and 2 9th graders and is very talented, but incredibly balanced.   First scrimmage was a 61-31 rout of the local "elite" catholic school Freshman team, so here's to a healthy season.

7th/8th Team:  Unfortunately, taking and keeping the junior high talent for the Freshman team leaves scraps.   When Millie's local travel team coach took the gig, amid some controversy last summer, I think she imagined rolling through both the 7th and 8th leagues with her five core 7th graders.  Only one of her girls didn't make Freshman, so she is the workhorse for both grades.   When I wasn't getting lost in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania this weekend, I was at the old tech school gym where the leagues are hosted.   Fun fact:  the 7th graders won both their games.  Somehow I left at halftime on Saturday and didn't make it until five minutes into Sunday's game, yet I didn't miss them score any points.  They led 8-2 at halftime, and held onto with 8-5.  And despite eventually blowing out their opponent on Sunday, they were behind 4-0 in the first before I walked in to see a beautiful steal and lay-up get them on the board.  I do not want to be their good luck charm, but I'll show up as necessary.

The 8th graders had some delusions of grandeur, and when the Freshman coach only took taller, more athletics players, the other girls had hissy fits, including one that was a favorite of mine last year.  A mass exodus of girls quit the team, leaving a point guard  who was very serviceable last year when she didn't shoot.... and now she has to shoot all the time.  I miss their Saturday game due to the tournament, but I'm still trying to figure out how they won 24-10 that day, and got utterly obliterated 30-10 by a vastly inferior program.  

Youth Rec League Travel!    After years of COVID excuses, or "building back up to it" from the board, the local rec league finally decided to sponsor a team for the 6th grade Kingston Rec league.  (This is the same league the Millie's crew played in as an independent the last two years).  I've sort of positioned myself as Grand Vizier or Old Wise Man Advisor to the trio of coaches.  The team is large (11 girls), with only three with experience "off the mountain".  Their first game was Sunday night against the always well-prepared Dallas program.  After giving up an eight points in the 1st Quarter, our team finally scored a few times, to  a 21-6 loss.  It's a new batch of girls to learn names to keep score, and a lot of 5-in, 5-out substituting, but this is my 5th (!) years going to these games.  They will get better.

(Gamma World) This Is Not a Test #9 - The Early Bird

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers travelling to the far-off city of Jainus, in search of... The Mutant Master:

=================

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with Restorationist ties. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.

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.

Ramsay Kallax:  Mutated Ram from the far-off KIA Academy with a predilection for ancient treasures... and the occasional head-butt. 

==================

Despite the sign of living metal flying overhead, the dried river bed between Fair Town and Jainus proved safe travels. 

Jainus was a much larger town than River Bend, with many of the original buildings of the ancients still intact, or reused for the current day. Humans dominated the town, with obvious mutations and some with not, some with obvious Iron Society markings. 

Trying best to avoid any of the society members, they found a large, but very plain building belonging to the Brotherhood of Thought. 

"Oh boy," Lathar muttered, "Out of the frying pan, into the fire."

"What do you mean?" Sonny countered, "We had lunch with a Brother, we can ask for Artemus."

"Who's Artemus?" Ramsay asked.  

Sonny caught their ram friend up with their encounter with Artemus from the Brotherhood, his ability to turn Hissers back into normal snakes, and the potential that he was either here, or had been here in the near past.

After hanging out in the area for a bit, it was decided that Sonny and Pete would enter the Brotherhood through the front door, while Squiggles searched for a rear entrance, with Ramsay and Lathar hanging out outside.

Upon opening the unlocked front door, they came upon a large, spartan room with just a few long tables and chairs, with a handful of robe individuals sitting around a table in the far corner. A mixture of torches and ancient light devices illuminated the room..  

"Gentlemen, can we have a moment of your time?"  Sonny inquired.  Two robed individuals walked over, doffing their hoods by the time they introduced themselves. "What can we help you folk with?"

"We were wondering if Brother Artemus was around?" 

"How do you know of Brother Artemus?"

"We encountered him on the road."

"Makes sense, he'll be returning shortly, we hope.  Please have a seat and we can provide refreshment."

The one brother dashed off a side passage, while the other returned to the other brethren. 

Outside, Lathar spied a older man with a full beard, walk towards the Brotherhood building,  Lathar tried to catch his attention:

"Hey."

The man turned around, gave Lathar a gaze that would stop most mortal men in the tracks, and finally spoke,"

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

Back inside, water was brought out and small talk was kept the time.  

A loud knock could be heard from the rear of the building.  A number of confused brothers shuffled down a different side passage.  

A lone voice hollered, "I can't see!!!" and a scuffle could be heard.

Coming out of the passageway, most could see two large New Men  The one New Man was holding a simple battle axe, the other had four arms with glowing hands. They flanked a certain worm holding a flintlock pistol. 

Iron Society Thugs

The worm, who looked a lot like Squiggles, made a bold declaration, "Afternoon folks.  This... is a robbery!" and he proceeded to fire at a Brother.

Pete turned around quickly to open the front door and alert his friends, but he barely dodged the doors flying open, a concerned Artemus on the other side, and a mounted Lathar preparing to charge.    Pete couldn't even catch his breath, as he was struck by a familiar blue crackle of electricity. 

Once Pete regained his senses, he noticed there was one additional New Men hiding behind the front three, who was commanding a similar electrical mutation to him. 

Squiggles swung his mace around over his head, yelling "Yee-Ha!"

The Brothers finally jumped into action, performing a wide spectrum of mutant powers, from protective barriers, to throwing tables to block the robbers, to some simply vanishing from where they were standing.  

Despite a flurry of energy and electrical blasts, Ramsay charged in, followed immediately by Lathar on No Name.  Ramsay locked in combat with the New Man with the battle axe, while Lathar locked in with the four-armed monstrosity.    With the extra melee help, a cloud of spent gunpowder filling the hall, two of the New Men hit a hasty retreat.   

With a collapsed Squiggles on the floor, a body of the "hiding" New Man, and a horde of brothers finally descending onto the common room, Artemus surveyed the carnage, and asked the all-important question:

"When's dinner?"

Next: #10 - Big Jake