Realms Toowoomba Session # 45 Recap [RPG]

[22 Kythorn 1372]

In Mirabar, Fargrim awakens tired and drawn. His sleep was once again plagued by nightmares of terrible unliving abominations covering the land, but a new vision stood out from the rest. In it, worshippers of Myrkul performed a dark ritual involving unspeakable horrors. When the ritual was finished, the leader of the unholy congregation proclaimed that "The rites of transference are almost complete! All Faerun will reap what they've sown on Highharvestide!" When the others realize Fargrim is unwell, he explains what he saw. Dolcetto takes a particular interest. Soon thereafter, the adventurers leave the city and walk to a glade to the south. Dolcetto leaves a small doll in the crook of a tree to help him remember the location, and Mellia teleports everyone to Tunak's campsite.

When they arrive, Tunak explains that Cammy stole Mellia's horse and rode off to the east. Mellia says she and the others need to reach Silverymoon quickly, so that they can find a magical means of transporting themselves to Thay to rescue Cain. She would teleport them to Silverymoon, but she has never visited it before and thus is unfamiliar with it. Tunak offers to take the travelers on his carriage, but the others are reluctant due to its slow speed. After introducing herself to Tunak, Dolcetto suggests another option, this one involving magickally conjured steeds. However, the plan will have to wait until tomorrow to be put into effect as she needs time to memorize the spell. She notes that travel will be speedier if the group can cross the river and follow a trail into Silverymoon instead of travelling through wilderness.

Mellia notices that Bettina seems moody and withdrawn. After a brief inquiry, Mellia realizes that Bettina is upset with Markus for being so tardy. The spellcaster explains that Markus is somewhat addlebrained from his friend's sudden disappearance and needs time to heal. She persuades the reluctant ship's mistress to travel on foot with Tunak and wait at an inn in Silverymoon until contacted. Then, Mellia flags down a passing barge and bribes one its pilots to ferry herself, Fargrim, Dolcetto, and Markus across the river to the small village of High Hold. There, the group find rooms at an unremarkable inn. Mellia and Dolcetto bury their faces in their respective spellbooks, while Markus continues to talk to the "Cain" bucket and Fargrim talks to an obese merchant named Torrick about the terrible nights' sleep the dwarf has been having. Torrick says that if there's anywhere in the North where someone will find a restful slumber, it's in Silverymoon.

[23 Kythorn 1372]

In the morning, Dolcetto mouths an invocation and two beautiful horses appear out of thin air. Markus and Fargrim try to ride together on one of them, but the steed stumbles under the weight of the two males and all of their gear! The decision is made that each of the males will ride with one of the females. The four adventurers make extraordinary speed heading east, as they push the conjured steeds hard and replace them periodically with magickally-created fresh ones. In just hours, the group see Rauvinwatch Keep in the distance, a sprawling castle and watchtower on a great spur of rock overlooking the river and the road into Silverymoon. The four adventurers are stopped by a patrol of the Argent Legion, and Dolcetto comes under particular scrutiny for her obvious planetouched-features. The guards are friendly but cautious, and warn the group that evildoers will find no refuge in Silverymoon.

The adventurers enter Silverymoon via the west gate and are immediately treated to a beautiful sight. The bustling city is dominated with trees and exquisite stone architecture. Balconies and curving stairways flow alongside many of the buildings, and in the distance to the southeast is the gleaming silver Moonbridge connecting the north and south banks of the city. An atmosphere of peace and tranquility envelops the city, and Fargrim feels that the constant nightmares that torment him would be held at bay as long he remains within its walls. The adventurers make their way to the inn mentioned by Bettina, Wayward House, and find it to be a place of quality decor and quiet, efficient service. The adventurers look askance at the price, but soon find that Silverymoon is simply an expensive place to visit all around. While the others check in, Dolcetto returns to the west gate where she had seen a hired crier saying something about adventurers being wanted. Dolcetto talks to the youth and hears that a strange old wizard named Terrigo Multivar is seeking sell-swords to perform a task for him, and that he offers payment in either gold or transportation across Faerun. Dolcetto finds out that two adventurers have already accepted the deal, and are spending the night at Wayward House before setting out on the task in the morning.

Dolcetto returns to the inn and tells her companions about the opportunity. Markus and Fargrim seem interested, but Mellia thinks the group should focus on a more direct way to get to Thay. Nonetheless, the foursome ask the chamberlain for information about other adventurers staying at Wayward House, and he leads them over to a table in the common room where two men are sitting. One of the men is wearing robes with the cowl up, while the other is a burly fellow with a shovel nearby. Conversation reveals that the first man is named Myst, and Dolcetto realizes that he may have the same heritage she does. The second figure, who is quieter and focussed on drinking, is named Gelkar. The two adventurers have known each other for some time, and acknowledge that they've already accepted Terrigo Multivar's offer. 

Following the directions given by the crier, Dolcetto leads Mellia to the ramshackle house of Terrigo Multivar. Inside, they find the rooms covered with books and arcane paraphenalia on every conceivable surface and apparently in no particular order. Dolcetto is fascinated and soon finds herself lost flipping through tomes, some quite rare. Mellia makes her way through a series of rooms and finds Terrigo, who appears as a slightly befuddled elderly wizard with long droopy mustaches but a very short beard. Terrigo leads Mellia to another room and pulls a dropcloth away from a full-length mirror built into a standalone frame. Images appear in the mirror in succession, many of landscapes but some of rooms or city streets. Terrigo explains that he found the mirror as a young adventurer buried in the sands of Anauroch and that it might be an artifact of ancient Netheril. According to the old wizard, the mirror serves as a magickal portal to the place shown in the mirror. The image changes every thirty seconds, but in a predictable pattern that repeats every 24 hours. Those who step through the mirror are automatically drawn back after a period of time has elapsed, but there appears to be a random range of duration that varies from place to place. Terrigo says he had spent years of his life exploring the different places depicted in the mirror and recording the results, but that as he grew older he'd taken to hiring adventurers to do the exploring for him. Presently, he explains, he's hiring sell-swords to help him retrieve one of his prized possessions (an amulet) stolen by an intruder just this morning. Terrigo says he returned home early from a lecture at the Lady's College to discover the intruder, and after a flurry of spells the burglar was revealed to be a drow—--which the city's mythal should have deterred! The intruder jumped through the mirror and has yet to return. Terrigo promises that adventurers who assist him will be rewarded with gold or travel to any place the mirror allows, and at Mellia's request he confirms in his notes that Thay is a possible option. He says he knows little about the place the drow jumped to, as the last explorer he sent there in 1361 never came back. He suspects the drow itself didn't know where it was going, and sought only to escape. He cautions that Mellia should not think about his offer too long, for the location the drow fled to will appear again in the mirror tomorrow at mid-morning.

After leaving the house, Dolcetto and Mellia talk about whether assisting Terrigo would be a wise idea. Mellia remains skeptical and expresses concern that the group could spend days or weeks wasting time wherever the mirror will take them to instead of rescuing Cain. Dolcetto suggests the group is unlikely to find a faster way, and certainly will not find a cheaper way. She raises the idea of using a Candle of Invocation to bring Cain to the group, but the plan involves several complications, not the least of which is coming up with the funds for the candle to begin with. When they reach the inn, Markus and Fargrim remain in favor of taking up Terrigo's offer. A frustrated Mellia stalks back to her rooom.

That night, Fargrim joins Myst and Gelkar in the common room. Gelkar is reticent to talk about his past, but it becomes clear that he has given his shovel a name! Elsewhere, Dolcetto decides that the group could use guidance, and visits the Temple of Silver Stars, a beautiful structure of curving stone that is devoted to Selune, Goddess of the Moon. Inside, a priestess agrees to perform a simple augury about whether the group should go through the mirror: "there will be great risk, and great reward" is the answer. Dolcetto returns to the inn and conveys this message to Mellia, but the latter is still not fully convinced. 

Markus, meanwhile, has been meditating and has decided to take another try at winning the sword of the legendary Blademaster Isobe Noboru. He travels to Noboru's academy and, following protocol, challenges Noboru's fifth best student to a duel. The student, a large half-orc with pale skin and a greatsword, accepts immediately. Markus and the student, Kronk, enter a specially-enchanted dueling chamber designed to test combatants' ability to fight in less-than-ideal circumstances. In this duel, the room throws up great fountains of fire, but, as with all duels in the room, actual death is quite unlikely as wounds are simulated. When the fight begins, Kronk charges into battle and lands a powerful slash on Markus' torso. The adventurer quickly responds, however, by knocking Kronk's sword out of his hands and jabbing him with several quick rapier thrusts. Kronk tries to recover by swinging wild fists, but Markus easy dodges the lumbering half-orc's attacks, and the duel is soon resolved in Markus' favour. Markus then challenges Noboru's fourth best student, a handsome cat folk duelist nicknamed El Capitan. The duel is set for the morning.

[24 Kythorn 1372]

In the morning, Mellia sets out to find alternative ways to get to Thay quickly. First, she visits the Lady's College, a well-reputed wizardry school in the Conclave of Silverymoon. A tutor explains to Mellia that teleportation spells are barred within the city due its magickal wards, and that most wizards with the power to travel great distances quickly are too focussed on other endeavours to spend their time earning money providing others with transportation. The tutor goes on to say, however, that as a Fellow of the College, Mellia could gain access to every spell in the library's vast repository of books and gain other advantages as well. The entry fee is steep, however: 5,000 gp. Mellia asks instead for the name of a shop specializing in scrolls or spells-for-hire, and is directed to a building in Northbank called The Shining Scroll. Inside the long, narrow shop, Mellia encounters a woman with short blue hair, sparkling green eyes, and strange tattoos. The woman introduces herself as Xara Tantlor, the store's proprietor. Although she has various scrolls and potions for sale, she does not have the Scrying spell Mellia is looking for, and although she will Teleport individuals for a fee, she lacks access to more powerful magickal travel spells. Mellia is frustrated, and when she complains and then asks for a referral to another shop, she is quickly shown the door.

Markus returns to Isobe Noboru's training academy for his duel with El Capitan. The top student announces that the victor in this duel is the first duelist to score four hits on his opponent. This time, the enchanted dueling room creates a series of small platforms that appear and disappear at random intervals. The platforms have little effect, however, as a glitch in the magic makes the same ones disappear and appear repeatedly. The duel between Markus and the charismatic El Capitan is an ugly one on both sides, full of poor swordplay and awkward parries. Markus' rapier is heavily damaged in the duel, but El Capitan is dazed for several seconds after catching a glancing blow from the hilt of Markus' blade. In the end, with each swordsman tied at three hits, El Capitan succeeds in landing the fourth, winning strike. Markus returns to the inn, dejected.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Director's Commentary (9/06/2017)

Fargrim's nightmare at the beginning of the session, referencing Highharvestide, was my not-so-subtle sign that the PCs need to hurry up.  It also set a fixed point at which the campaign would end, something that gave me some peace of mind.  It was still months away on the in-game calendar, however.

The PCs reach Silverymoon in this session, a city with a *lot* of lore and an entire sourcebook devoted to it.  I did the best I could, but it's really hard to "accurately" portray a city with so much written about it.

Terrigo Multivar, the somewhat senile old wizard in possession of a magic mirror to other places & planes, was an addition to the campaign I really liked and would use again.  Indeed, he could serve as a sort of "patron" for an entire campaign devoted to exploring strange, unknown places, allowing the PCs to experience new adventures without tremendous travel time involved.  His presence in this session was because I needed an adventure hook to introduce two new PCs and (hopefully) get a traditional adventuring "mission" in--for far too many sessions, the PCs had wandered here and there without a lot in the way of encounters.  Mellia has an understandable reluctance to getting side-tracked on her personal goal of rescuing Cain, which is an issue I've experienced myself as a player in a sandbox campaign: it's hard to align a character's personal goals with the goals of a group of disparate individuals.

The new PCs introduced here are Myst (the back-up for Cain's player) and Gelkar (the back-up for Ralkin/Tunak's player).  We'll see a lot of more of each.

I made plenty of mistakes with the campaign, but one of the things I did that I thought worked really well was getting the other players to secretly make up and run NPC sword-fighters to battle Markus in the arena.  The catfolk El Capitan was the NPC created by Fargrim's player, and he gave the character so much role-playing personality he really stole the show and would introduce the character again later as a PC.  I may have mentioned in a prior commentary that I put a lot of thought into having different configurations for the arena and different victory conditions so that each duel was fresh and different.

The Buffy Comic Project: "The Death of Buffy, Part 1"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer # 43

(Dark Horse, Volume 1, 1998-2003)

Creators:  Tom Fassbender & Jim Pascoe (story); Cliff Richards (pencils); Joe Pimenel & Will Conrad (inks)

Setting:  After Season Five

T.V. Character Appearances:  The First Slayer; Buffy (flashback only); Dawn; Willow, Tara, Spike, Giles, Xander, Anya

Major Original Characters:  Mr. Richardson (school principal); Coma (seller of mystical items)

Summary:  After Buffy's death, Spike drinks alone and mourns her loss.  He locks the broken pieces of the Buffy Bot in a chest.  Elsewhere, at a nearby school, Dawn gets into a fist-fight with another girl in the hallway because the girl called her "Gravestone Girl".  Dawn is taken to the principal's office for solving her problems through violence.  That evening, Willow, Tara, Xander, and Anya are returning from a double-date when they're attacked by a pair of vampires.  The vampires are defeated after a difficult struggle.  The next morning, Willow and Tara, who are staying at Buffy's house, receive a phone call from Principal Richardson.  They've been pretending that Buffy is still alive so that Dawn is not taken away, but are quite upset when they hear that Dawn was in a fight.  Principal Richardson insists that Buffy meets with him, but the women come up with an alternative: they send Giles instead.  Giles is able to persuade Richardson that Dawn will stay out of trouble, but the other Scoobies are torn over how to take care of Dawn now that Buffy is dead.
On a hillside overlooking Sunnydale, a trio of older gentleman vow that on this return to the town, they will not leave without "the scrolls."  Later, they find the mysterious bandaged woman known as Coma in the sewers underneath the town.  They demand the scroll, and when she resists, they kill her bodyguard and take the scroll.  Coma vows revenge.  Meanwhile, a frustrated, angry, and grieving Xander kicks down the door to Spike's crypt, planning on staking him through the heart.

Review:  It was a great idea for a storyline to fill in the gap between Seasons Five and Six, and the creative team did a solid job with it this issue.  One can definitely imagine Dawn getting in trouble at school and the rest of the Scoobies trying to figure out how to take care of her while also dealing with their own grief.  Too early to tell about the plot development involving the mysterious scroll, so hopefully it'll be something good; this creative team has done an excellent job on characterisation, but often come up with rather dull plots.

Notes

* The issue opens with a flashback of Slayers throughout history; I recognize the First Slayer, what I think is Yuki Makimura from issues # 35-38, and the Chinese Slayer killed by Spike during the Boxer Rebellion.  There's a few others that I think probably come from the Tales of the Slayers short stories or comics, but I don't have time to look them up unfortunately.  One is a Slayer in what looks like French Revolution times, one is dressed as knight during the crusades, and one is a blonde woman killing a Nazi vampire.

* Dawn really picked up some combat skills during her time watching Buffy.  She beats the crap out of the girl who was taunting her.  I'm not exactly sure why the girl is taunting her with "Gravestone Girl", since Buffy's death has been kept a secret.  Have the other kids seen Dawn hanging out at the cemetery?

* The letters' page starts with a scathing but (I think) quite well-argued letter about the poor quality of some past issues (# 39 specifically).  On the other hand, the other letter writers seemed to think # 39 was super-keen, so who knows . . .

* Fantastic artwork on this issue's art cover.  The series finally got away from the heavily cartoony/manga style that I don't think worked well.

Next Issue

Fun Factoids About Jhaeman's Detritus

The following information comes from Blogger and is all true, even though I have no explanation for most of it.

*  This audience for this blog is overwhelmingly German.  In terms of all-time page hits, surfers in Germany were # 1, by a massive 4-1 margin over the next closest country (the United States).  Indeed, the audience from Germany alone is more than the next nine countries combined on the list.  I have absolutely no idea why.

*  In the top 5 list of keywords that brought people here, all are variations of the blog's or my own name except for one:  "truth or dare".  Why would people searching "truth or dare" come here?  This one I actually do have an answer for: my review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer # 6 which includes the phrase "spooky truth or dare" next to a pic from the comic of Buffy and friends having a sleepover and playing the game.  Other popular reasons people come here are "buffy comics" (makes sense), "call of cthulhu character sheet" (which I've never placed on this blog), and "avengers unplugged" (I did write a capsule review of this some years back . . .).

*  The most popular all-time post is the Buffy one mentioned above; that's followed by another Buffy comic review (# 5), which I speculate is popular because it contains a picture of Buffy & Willow embracing along with a joke line "The scene that launched a thousand Buffy/Willow slash stories".  In short, there are a lot of people who come here looking for something quite particular and end up disappointed!  The third most popular post is a short story from the Clone Wars Campaign, A Brief Stint in the Great Beyond; it's a really good story (if I dare say so myself), but I have no idea why it's so popular compared to all of the others I've placed on the blog.  Spot # 4 is filled by my walkthrough of the first mission in the Torchwood online game, and the fifth by a discussion of the 1993 Hawkeye limited series.

* On a monthly basis, this blog averages between 1500 and 2500 hits.  Except for July 2013, when it had over 55,000!  Yet, not a single one of my ten most popular posts were placed online in or near this month.

* There are 1195 posts on this blog, and 349 non-spam comments.  Hey, a .292 batting average is okay for Major League Baseball . . .

* Finally, an update on whether I am still The World's Most Famous Jeremy Patrick:  no.  According to Google, I've fallen to # 2 behind someone who has a Facebook account.  Damn you Mark Zuckerberg!

Realms Toowoomba Session # 44 [RPG]

[19 Kythorn 1372 continued]

In the library of the Oracle's Circle, Mellia's research into magickal means of finding the Crown of Horns is largely unsuccessful; she finds references to the dangerous Contact Other Planes spell she already knew about, and reference to a powerful spell to discern the location of objects that requires one to have had the object in one's possession. In the evening, after dinner, she becomes woozy and starts to faint. Fortunately, Fargrim catches her. Mellia explains that she over-exerted herself teleporting the group such a great distance, and that she needs to be more cautious in the future.

That night, while sleeping, Fargrim has visions of Nesme besieged by legions of undead creatures led by a dark knight mounted on a flame-breathing horse. In the vision, walls of ice so high they almost block out the sun surround the city, keeping the invaders at bay.

[20 Kythorn 1372 (Summer Solstice)]

In Mirabar, Dolcetto explores the city. She's generally disappointed by the lack of scholarly resources available. She does find a book stall and picks up a small tome on geology before returning to her room to finish enchanting Fargrim's greataxe. When it's done, she heads to the north gate to await the promised arrival of her new travelling companions. Several heavily-laden carts of ore arrive from the city's mines, but there is no sign of the adventurers. Dolcetto returns to her inn, contemplating whether she should start looking for another group.

Near the Rauvin, Tunak spends another uneventful day at the campsite. Bettina is obviously growing impatient with the fact that, after disappearing suddenly, the others have still not returned (despite having left a note saying they would be back days ago).

At the Oracle's Circle, Mellia tells her companions that her research has been fruitless. In the hallway, she encounters Procul, and the sneering student threatens to summon the school's headmaster. Mellia decides to hurry her friends outside so she can cast the spell to teleport them back west. As she begins intoning the arcane syllables of the spell, however, a good-looking man in his late 30s, wearing wizard's robes, emerges from the forest. He stops up short when he sees Mellia, and calls her name. Flustered, Mellia tries to decide whether to continue or abort the spell; resolving to continue, she then can't decide whether the destination should be Mirabar or Tunak's campsite.

The indecision causes the spell to fail, and Mellia is forced to explain her presence at the tower to Gideon Stormcrowe, Headmaster of the Oracle's Circle. Mellia reluctantly introduces Markus, Cain, and Fargrim. She says they're friends she made in the course of the fieldwork for her research project. She's evasive when asked about her progress on the project, why she's returned to the tower, or how long she's planning on staying. Gideon is somewhat perturbed by Mellia's attitude, but secures a promise to have dinner together that evening to discuss matters further.

The four adventurers decide to walk into the forest so that they can converse in private. Mellia apologizes for her failed attempt to teleport them away, but promises to try again the next morning. Fargrim tells the others about his vision of what was happening in Nesme. The group feel that, once again, they are being scryed upon. Seconds later, the Red Wizard named Felix Ruul emerges from a magical portal, levitating almost twenty feet in the air. He instantly hurls a massive ball of flame at the group, snarling that Cain has brought this upon himself. He denounces the cleric's failure to travel to Nesme as ordered, saying the result has been the ascension of the Aurilite clergy into positions of leadership in the city. He states that he volunteered to bring Cain back to the Flaming Brazier in Bezantur for discipline and punishment, but that he hopes Cain will resist.

Two gargoyles perched on the roof of the Oracle's Circle immediately swoop down on Ruul, but their claws only scrape pieces of stone from the wizard's body, while an arrow shot by Markus shatters against an invisible barrier. Ruul starts his counter-attack, but Cain surprises him by agreeing to go with him. "It's the only way," he explains to the others. The other adventurers don't seem convinced, but do not actively try to persuade Cain otherwise. A disappointed Ruul flies down to where Cain is and teleports him away.

Afterwards, Mellia voices her frustration over losing Cain, saying that she blames herself for distracting him from his task. Fargrim is clearly angry as well, shattering furniture in the tower's library. But Markus seems to be the most dramatically affected, as he's taking to calling a bucket with a crude face carved into it "Cain." The three adventurers vow that they'll find a way to get Cain back.

While the two males travel into the forest to visit an old friend of Mellia's for a healing salve, Mellia has her promised dinner with Gideon. She tells him that Allia is staying with others at the moment, and asks for his help in retrieving Cain. He says that Thay is an incredibly dangerous, distant place, and that he could not in good conscience send one of his students there. He tries to contact Cain with a Sending spell, but it fails due to his lack of familiarity with the cleric. Mellia remains determined to rescue Cain, and decides that she may need an expert on religion to aid her interaction with the Kossuthian temple hierarchy: Dolcetto.

[21 Kythorn 1372]

In Mirabar, Dolcetto spends the day learning a new flame spell and posts a notice seeking other bands interested in finding information about Myrkul and the Crown of Horns. Before long, however, she's visited by Mellia, Fargrim, and Markus, as the adventurers teleported to the glade south of Mirabar earlier in the day. Dolcetto hands a pleased Fargrim the enchanted greataxe that continually glows and has dwarven runes engraved on it. Mellia tells Dolcetto about their desire to retrieve Cain. Dolcetto says she has heard of the Flaming Brazier, but that it is such a distance away that travelling there would take quite some time. Dolcetto says the primary centers for worship of Kossuth in Faerun are in Thay and Mulhorand, but she has heard of a small temple in Mulmaster. The group decide their best bet is to teleport to Tunak's campsite, and from there to travel overland to Silverymoon. In the Gem of the North, hopefully, they will find either a powerful spellcaster or a magical portal that will take them to Thay.
-----------------------------------------------------
Director's Commentary (August 19, 2016)

Two big things this session!

Sorry Gideon, wizard chicks only like bad boys.

First, the first "on-stage" appearance of Gideon, who was Mellia's mentor at the Oracle's Circle (her divination magic school).  The person who ran Mellia was very big into romance in RPGs, especially after the success of that major plot element in my previous Clone Wars campaign.  There was a lot of pressure on me when it came to portraying Gideon, as Mellia's player had established a lot of backstory involving Mellia and Gideon that could blossom into an in-game romance.  On this score, I (unintentionally) disappointed completely by making Gideon a "nice guy."  That immediately got him "friend-zoned" as we'll see in subsequent sessions.  I actually liked my three-dimensional portrayal of the character and thought I RPd him in an interesting way, but everyone else in the group just thought of him as a hapless loser.

Second, Felix Ruul teleports Cain away!  Felix, a Red Wizard, was an original part of Cain's backstory as a major rival.  Cain had been told a long time ago (in-game) that his superiors wanted him to oust the budding Aurilite (winter goddess) presence in Nesme, but he never took any real steps to do so.  So a confrontation was inevitable, and I thought I'd have a big fight for the session.  Instead, I was quite surprised when Cain volunteered to go along with Felix.  This meant that Cain's player had to introduce a new PC (as Cain would be off-stage for months of time in real life).  Moreso, it introduced a major new detour to the campaign, as Mellia launched a lengthy crusade to get Cain back.  There'll be a lot more on that in future commentaries.

Next Recap

Wrath of Ashardalon Adventure # 5: The Closed Doors

It's been several months, but The Wife and I finally got a chance to play Wrath of Ashardalon again.  In "The Closed Doors", the heroes unwisely decide to investigate a section of the tunnels below Firestorm Peak that are mysteriously closed off.  The adventure makes use of the door tokens, which frankly are not particularly interesting.  Generally speaking, the heroes wander around until they reveal the Horrid Chamber Entrance tile, at which time they place a beholder (Gauth) and several additional monsters in the Horrid Chamber tiles.  The heroes win if they defeat Gauth and those new monsters.

The Wife and I had a strange experience with this adventure.  The first two times we tried it, we got massacred, and lost before we even unveiled the Horrid Chamber.  Those games were long and featured our heroes getting worn down by enemies and traps with seemingly little to be done about it.  We decided to tinker with our strategy just a little in the third game by using four heroes instead of five (by ditching the thief), and, inexplicably, cruised to an easy victory.  Not only did we reveal the Horrid Chamber while our heroes were all still in good shape, we defeated Gauth and the new monsters without even using a single Healing Surge.  I can't imagine using four heroes instead of five as having made such a big difference, as the game is designed to balance itself for the number of heroes used.  All I can point to for the easy win after the two crushing defeats is, perhaps, pure luck; we drew a lot of tiles with white triangles (no encounters), got some very good treasures, and were able to keep the monsters from ganging up on any one hero.

The next adventure looks quite fun, as it's a "campaign" of three mini-adventures strung together . . .

Next Adventure

Vegan Police: March 2014

A month that started out okay, and then went downhill fast.  The Subway cookies will no longer be a problem, as Subway ended that deal.  The cheese pizza is a tough one to deal with because the pizza places in Toowoomba don't have pasta, and their cheese-less pizza is quite crappy; but the household loves pizza, and every other fast-food option is way too expensive.

Mar. 7:  Spinach & Feta Triangle

Mar. 9:  Garlic Aioli sauce

Mar. 11: Cheese Pizza

Various:  About a bazillion homemade sugar cookies

Various:  Subway cookies--cursed cheap meal deal!

Mar. 16: Cheese Pizza

March 19-20:  Chocolate, Mac & Cheese

Mar. 22:  Puddin, Subway cookie

Mar. 23:  Cheese pizza

Mar. 25:  Peppermint patties

Mar. 27: Cheese Pizza

Mar. 29:  Cheese Pizza

Firestar (Ltd. 1985) [Comics]

I have only vague memories of the 1981-1983 Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoon, which featured the new character of Firestar in place of the Human Torch due to licensing issues.  Firestar, whose real name was Angelica Jones, got her first canon appearance in the Marvel Universe in an issue of X-Men a few years later, immediately followed by a four-issue limited series to explain her origin.

My notes on Issue # 1 say "very good, despite DeFalco!"  I've always thought of Tom DeFalco as a bog-standard comics writer with mostly forgettable stories and villains, but this story worked really well.  We're introduced to thirteen year old Angelica Jones as she starts a new school because she, her father, and her grandmother just moved.  Angelica's first day goes well, until she meets a trio of fellow students who could be the inspiration for "Mean Girls."  There's some sort of weird ice-block carving competition that Angelica is extremely excited about.  Ice is limited (?), and the Mean Girls are so mean that Angelica has a true Carrie moment and starts releasing microwave radiation which damages the ice sculptures.  She runs home, terrified at the first release of her powers, and finds that her grandmother has had a heart attack and died!  The incidents are completely unrelated, but Angelica and her Dad are so despondent that they're easy prey for Emma Frost, who detected the mutant energies and offers Angelica a place at the Massachusetts Academy.  Xavier, monitoring Cerebro, arrives as well, but is minutes too late.  Angelica has already signed with Frost.

Issue # 2 fast-forwards four months, as Angelica undergoes training in the secret basement complex underneath Frost's Massachusetts Academy.  She has some run-ins with the Hellions, but Frost keeps her mostly away from that established team.  Frost gradually puts Angelica through various tests to gauge the extent of her power, while simultaneously subtly training her to fear the X-Men.  Frost's ultimate goal is revealed: she wants to craft Angelica into a super-assassin!  Meanwhile, Angelica is lonely and sad to be away from her father.  She finds solace in long rides on her favourite horse.  During a big dance, in which the kids (New Mutants) from Xavier's school are invited to attend as well, Frost manipulates things so that Angelica panics, sets fires to the stables, and kills her beloved horse.  It's all a bid to drive Angelica further and further into Frost's grasp by making her afraid to use her powers without further training.

Issue # 3 jumps forward again; Angelica is now 15.  Frost continues training sessions in her version of the Danger Room, but has the robotic enemies that pop up take the form of the X-Men.  Moreso, she gifts Angelica with a bracelet that causes fearful hallucinations.  One of Frost's guards charged with escorting Angelica and keeping watch over her, Randall Chase, starts to feel very protective of his charge.  Later, after a brief visit home doesn't go well because Angelica's dad is fearful of her new powers, Frost stages an attack at the airport to force Angelica to use her mutant powers and lash out.  Frost's ultimate plan is revealed: she intends to use Angelica as a weapon to kill the Black Queen!

Issue # 4 is set a year later.  Frost stages a purported assassination attempt by the Black Queen, in order to get Angelica to defend her and swear vengeance, which the girl does.  Frost and Sebastian Shaw, the Black King, finalize plans for their weapon to attack the Black Queen during a formal dance.  Randall Chase, however, figures out that his boss is manipulating Angelica and rushes to tell her the truth.  He's caught though (hard to betray a mind-reader!) and Frost tells Angelica that he's been murdered by the Black Queen.  In fact, Chase is alive but imprisoned.  On the night of the formal, he escapes, though badly wounded, and manages to tell Angelica, before dying, that Frost is her real enemy.  Enraged, Angelica attacks Frost and barely refrains from killing her; instead, she destroys the entire complex underneath the Massachusetts Academy and returns home to her father.

"Good stuff, well written!" my notes say.  I like the main character, I like the supporting cast, and as an origin story, it works quite well.  Frost is a great manipulator and someone you don't want for an enemy, and you could imagine Firestar getting involved with the New Mutants or X-Men for years of good stories.  From Wikipedia, it doesn't sound like she really appeared all that often after this, but for once I can honestly say something wasn't Tom DeFalco's fault.