More NFL Predictions

Pro Football Weekly

Last month I blogged about the Sporting News' predictions for who would win each NFL division. Since I think it'll be a fun experiment to see how accurate these predictions turn out to be once February rolls around, here's who Pro Football Weekly is predicting to win:

AFC East: Patriots
AFC North: Ravens
AFC South: Colts
AFC West: Chargers

NFC East: Cowboys
NFC North: Packers
NFC South: Saints
NFC West: 49ers

Super Bowl: Packers over Colts

Comparing the two magazines' predictions, it looks like they predict the same winner for five of the eight divisions, with the difference points being the AFC East (Jets vs. Patriots), the NFC North (Packers vs. Vikings), and NFC South (Saints vs. Falcons). They also predict completely different teams to play in the Super Bowl.

My Predictions

As a control group for this experiment, I'll go ahead and make my predictions as well. In order to have a little fun and distinguish my picks from the previous two sets, I'm gambling big in the AFC West and NFC East and (even bigger) in the NFC West. In several months we'll see whether or not the big-time magazines should have drafted me . . .

AFC East: Patriots
AFC North: Steelers
AFC South: Titans
AFC West: Raiders

NFC East: Redskins
NFC North: Packers
NFC South: Saints
NFC West: Rams

Super Bowl: Titans vs. Packers

Torchwood: "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" (S2, E1)

"Hey kids, did you miss me?"

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Season Two, Episode One

("Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunites to fight a rogue Time Agent.")

WHAT I LIKED

* A great opening. Not only is Cap'n Jack back, his first scene with Captain John--fighting and kissing--is enormous fun.

* Captain John! I'm a big James Marsters fan, and he adds the right touch of swagger, menace, and sexy to the role.

* Jack & Ianto agreeing to go on an actual date--a nice nod to their evolving relationship.

* The very end. "I found Gray!" An intriguing pointer to something in Jack's quite-mysterious past . . .

WHAT I DIDN'T

* The blowfish alien. Just seems a bit too jokey to me, much like that goofy shark-headed demon (the "Loan Shark") from Buffy Season Six's Tabula Rasa.

WHAT I'M NOT SURE ABOUT

* Captain John mentions there are only seven Time Agents left--an interesting throwaway remark, that I don't think gets picked up later in the season.

COMMENTARY/DELETED SCENES

* Unlike Season One, the North American DVD release doesn't contain any episode commentaries. There are deleted scenes, but not for at least the first three episodes.

TORCHWOOD DECLASSIFIED

* Discussion of the Captain John character. The role was apparently written especially for James Marsters. After years of Spike's accent, it's weird hearing the real Marsters in interviews because he has a very American drawl.

* How they filmed the stunts for the Captain John/Captain Jack brawl and the Captain Jack falling from the rooftop scenes.

Pete Von Sholly's Extremely Weird Stories [Comics]

This is a very over-the-top collection of horror/weird comic book stories using an interesting technique. Sholly hires actors and then photographs them performing scenes from his sketched layouts. Later, he adds word bubbles to the photos and puts them in sequence to create a story. There's custom artwork for the monsters and a lot of strange special effects. It's very creative, even though the plots don't really get beyond the EC horror "twist-in-the-tail" style. The TPB is worth picking up cheap if you're interested in something a little different . . .

Guest Post: Phantom of the Opera: Love Never Dies

The Wife here....

Our resident blogger has been after me to contribute a guest post here for some time. During our recent jaunt over to Merry Old England, we took in a performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera sequel. I mentioned at the time that I would like the chance to share my POV and Hubby suggested a guest post. So here I am!

CAUTION: This review contains spoilers. And is long. You have been WARNED!

I am a musical fan. Have been ever since I was a little girl, thanks to my parents shared appreciation for musicals, both on-screen and on-stage.

When the original Phantom of the Opera came out, we all saw it on stage and loved it. Years later, when I saw the Phantom of the Opera movie, I was swept away again by the music, the spectacle and of course, how hot Gerard Butler looked as the guy in the mask. Why in the world would Christine ever choose to run off with that clearly-not-as-hot Raoul? (Other than of course, the Phantom's tendency to go murderous on assorted opera personnel. It's not your deformed face, dude, it's your extreme anti-social tendencies!)

So, I was pretty excited when I heard that they were making a sequel to the musical. The advance reviews I heard were mixed: the source content for Love Never Dies is based on the novel "The Phantom of Coney Island". That itself, is a sequel pastiche based NOT on the Gaston Leroux novel, but on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

The plot reads like bad fan fiction and hubby can testify that I am a HUGE fan fiction fan (when it is well written). Christine is summoned (along with petulant, possibly impotent husband and adorable, musically inclined ten year old son) to New York to perform for the strange owner of the hottest ticket in town, who uses unusual mechanical contraptions and freak show escapees in his show.

Of course, the owner is the Phantom, seeking to reclaim his lost love, ten years after he last saw her. Did I mention the ten year old son? The one Raoul is not terribly close to? Christine is suitably freaked when the Phantom and her son meet, though its clear she feels the old passion. Yes, that's right - some time after the end of the original musical, in fact just before she married Raoul, the Phantom tapped that.

It is important, I should note, to consider that this Phantom is definitely of the movie-portrayal type (younger, more passionate) and less the typical stage Phantom (far older and less a sexual partner for Christine as an inspiration). I gather, this is part of the reason that Webber cast Gerard Butler in the movie version - he wanted it to be clear that while Raoul represented "romantic love" that the Phantom should represent "passionate, sexual attraction" for Christine.

So how did they do with the musical sequel?

I give it a B, while the original scores a definite A+.

The London cast was gorgeous - the Phantom passionate, imperious yet vulnerable. Christine was stunning, in everything from costume to voice to make-up. The woman playing Meg Giry (who has developed an unhealthy obsession of her own) was strong and brought to life a woman who has sacrificed and worked for something she is realizing she can never have. She plays the opposite of Christine and does it beautifully.

The young actor playing the son, Gustave, was fine, dealing well with his corny role and not annoying me too badly.

I thought the casting of Raoul was a bit off. The actor worked hard and his voice was strong, but his appearance was a bit seedier than I thought it should be. I know Raoul is meant to have fallen on hard times, but I never bought that this particular man was ever a dashing young viscount.

The sets and special effects were the highlight of the show. Truly amazing - a fantastic evolution of what made the original Phantom such an eye-opener. In fact, it is worth seeing the show for those alone.

So, if the cast was strong and the effects were good, where does the show fall down?

In one place you'd expect, given it is based on "fan fiction" and one you wouldn't.

The plot, as mentioned above, is kind of hokey. But, this is a musical and if it wasn't for odd coincidences and overly dramatized events, no musical would ever take place. Thus, the plot and the tear-jerker ending (which had the effect of making me giggle, NOT I'm sure the intent) can perhaps be forgiven.

Sadly, where the show really failed to hit a home run was the music, of all things. Where the original Phantom still has the power to awe with its score and lyrics, Love Never Dies never really gets off the ground. It isn't that the music is BAD...it just isn't particularly memorable. When I heard the Phantom score for the first time, I needed to hear it again, immediately. I still listen to it, years later.

I see no particular reason to own the Love Never Dies soundtrack. There are a few stirring moments, most often when Webber ties in themes and elements of the original production. There is a lovely moment when Christine is making a pivotal decision and the strains of "Sing Prima Donna once more" are heard. That made my heart race, but sadly, those moments were few and far between.

The lyrics too, are less than they perhaps could or should have been for a sequel that has been anticipated this long. Far too much exposition for exposition's sake - not done smoothly and taking away from the song itself.

Final verdict: See Love Never Dies if you get the chance, but keep expectations moderate and don't count on it being a classic.

Final comment: I managed to mortify hubby (and crack up the girl sitting behind me) at the end of the show. There is a pivotal moment when the Phantom is trying to talk down a gun-toting Meg, who has HAD it with his obsession over Christine (and the fact that he keeps overlooking her). He's almost got her soothed when he tells her "we can't all be like Christine". This is such a bone-headed move, that I let a DUDE NO! slip out before I could stop myself. Oh well, as I said, it made the girl behind me laugh. :-)

My Fantasy Football 2010 Draft

This coming Thursday is a Holy Day of Observation in the Patrick household, as the NFL kicks off the 2010 season with a great match up between the defending Super Bowl champion Saints and Brett "Okay, one more year" Favre's Vikings. Along with the real NFL, it's the season for goofy nerds like myself to while away some time with fantasy football. Now last year, as you many (bazillions?) dedicated readers of my blog may know, was my first time drafting a fantasy football team and the Peyton Manning-led Sun Runners struggled to a 4-9 record in the regular season before winning both their playoff games in the consolation bracket to earn the # 7 spot out of 10 teams.

This time around I have a much better idea of how the game works, and an extra year's knowledge of which players are productive and which ones tend to be streaky. I quite like who I ended up with, and I can pretty much guarantee the new and improved Accelerated Sun Runners are going to be competitive.

But wait, there's more!

The Wife wanted to see what all the hullabaloo was about, and decided to draft a team in the same league as me. She doesn't know much about football beyond the names of handsome starting quarterbacks, but she'll probably end up beating me anyway!

Regardless, here's my team for 2010:

STARTERS

QB Tom Brady Not my first choice, but still one of the top five QBs in the league . . .
RB Ryan Mathews A little bit of a gamble here, but everything points to him getting a lot of carries for the Chargers.
RB Ahmad Bradshaw He looked great in the preseason, and I'm pretty sure he's edged out Brandon Jacobs for the starting role in New York
RB/WR Donald Driver Yes he's getting older, but with Aaron Rogers behind center, he's going to get some catches . . .
WR Wes Welker As long as he stays healthy, he will rack up some yards.
WR Terrell Owens He and Ocho will be so much fun to watch, I just had to have one of them.
TE Jermichael Finley Again with the Rogers effect.
D/ST Jets All that hype on Hard Knocks better pay off.
K Ryan Longwell Operative theory being that the Vikings will move the ball well, but have to settle for a lot of field goals.

BACK-UPS

WR Darrius Heyward-Bey This guy has worked incredibly hard during the off-season and has a much more accurate QB, so I figure he's worth a look.
QB Matt Ryan The Falcons are a dark horse prediction for the Super Bowl, and Ryan could have a very big year.
RB Laurence Maroney I'm not real happy here, as the Patriots aren't a great running team and Maroney might not get many carries, but he was the best available. I'll probably drop him to waivers if an undrafted back starts to surprise people.
TE Visanthe Siancoe He's a big producer.
D/ST Falcons A pure shot in the dark here, as there weren't many good choices left.
RB Peyton Hillis A sentimental choice, as he looked awesome in the Browns' preseason games and I have to have at least one Browns' player on the squad.
K Garrett Hartley With the Saints offense, he'll be kicking a lot of extra points.

Clone Wars Campaign Recap # 40

You may notice reading the intros to these recaps that I always use very neutral terms when discussing the player-ran characters: I refer to them as "PCs", "protagonists", "characters", "adventurers", "the party", etc., but I never adopt the far more natural gaming moniker "heroes." This session is a good example of why I make the distinction (and the next session is even more of a reason!). I don't require the PCs to adhere to any sort of code of conduct, and I try to tailor the stories to the type of characters they play--sometimes it's hard, as heroic characters tend to have easier adventure hooks than non-heroic characters (especially when the PCs are independently wealthy), but anything else would be a kind of rail-roading that I wouldn't want to see in the campaign unless I had made it clear to everyone from the very beginning. Star Wars Saga Edition does provide for Dark Side Points to be awarded, but it doesn't really make a difference for non-Jedi characters.

So in this session, we see (1) Doxen steal a teenage girl's ID papers (which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but in a city occupied by the futuristic equivalent of Nazis, turns out to be pretty cruel); (2) Array carjack an innocent civilian by shooting him in the face! (we rolled Array's Intimidation check versus the civilian's Will Defense twice, and the latter was higher both times, but Array apparently really wanted that landspeeder . . .) and (3) Stefan Cassadine's stated plans to overload the reactor of Mongui's civilian power supply, destroy the civilian food and water supply, and stage a massacre of civilians are objectionable to only one of the PCs (Krevlax, the short-lived voice of reason). On this last point, the players to this day will quibble about what they knew and when they knew it, but to my mind it's all right there in the recap, and the fact they decided to keep working with Stefan after a slight tinkering of his plans is pretty damning evidence. Anyway, we'll get into this more next session when his near-genocidal plans are actually carried out.

This sesson ended with what was probably Bel Sekand's finest moment in the campaign: his swashbuckling escape from being hanged. It was quite exciting and a lot of fun, and the whole rescue is also remembered for probably being the first time a plan put together by the PCs went off without a hitch.

Updated (July 31, 2012):  I added in a previously secret scene where Stefan complains about Arresta's "do-gooder" friends and she persuades him to deceive them about the true extent of his plans.  To this day, all of the players, including The Wife, vigorously insist that had no idea what Stefan was up to.  They lie!  I also added in a brief scene covering what Bel Sekand was up to in prison.


SESSION # 40

In her stateroom aboard the Ka’ja’les Dar, the woman known to some as Jocasta paces nervously. She can see the streaks of hyperspace fade to pinpricks of stars and then back again, as the ship makes a series of increasingly difficult micro jumps to navigate a sector of space so hazardous it is listed in navcomp databases only for completeness’ sake. Full of unstable stars, gravity wells of uncertain reach and dense clouds of unknown stellar matter, the sector is conclusively listed as uninhabited and uninhabitable. But that is a mistake, for hidden somewhere in this cosmic aberration lies a colony of Arkanian off-shoots, genetically modified to transcend human limitations. Ever since she had known him, her most trusted advisor had only expressed one desire for himself: to return home. And although Kronos will not live to see it, Jocasta intends to keep her word. But that is not the only reason she has taken such a risk…

And a galaxy away, would-be revolutionaries on Mongui have met their first taste of defeat…

Having successfully made a HALO jump, the clone commando Array makes his way from his landing zone to the city of Mongui, wrapped around the foot of Mount Joralla. Moving through the environmental shield, Array finds himself in the outskirts of the city. Patrols in this region are present, but in a minimal capacity and the area shows signs that many buildings, damaged during the civil war, remain abandoned. Locating a scavenger yard where he is able to stow his gear, Array begins to make his way towards the pre-planned rendezvous at the Spacer’s Cluster cantina. However, his path takes him past a work gang of aliens, each marked with a blue “x” on their uniforms. Seeing that the slaves are supervised by only two guards, Array decides to attempt a rescue.

Using a dumpster for cover, Array draws two blasters and opens fire on the guards. However, the single-shot reactive charge built into their armour lets lose a tremendously bright flash when hit and only the glare-sensitive face shield on Array's helmet prevents him from being blinded. The guards quickly call for reinforcements, draw their energy-tipped maces, and attack. Sensing time running out, Array decides to steal a passing landspeeder, but the owner is unwilling to cooperate and Array shoots him in the face and pushes the driver's body out of the vehicle. The Purity First Initiates take out their fury on the landspeeder until Array hits the accelerator and smashes one of them into the wall of a building housing the slaves. The commando shouts for the work crew to get into the vehicle, but they are too cowed to go along.

Moments later, Purity First air support arrives in the form of two IRD (Intercept/Reconnaissance/Defence) starfighters. Their heavy blaster cannons reduce the ground-car to rubble and Array is barely able to jump out in time. Unphased, he fires his ascension gun at a IRD hovering just meters above the ground and is jerked into the sky when his line wraps around its wing. The startled pilot tries to shake Array off, but the commando manages to open the cockpit and toss the pilot out, leaving Array in control of the vehicle. Although unfamiliar with the starship, Array quickly grasps its relatively simple controls and executes a perfect 180 degree turn and opens fire on the other IRD. The shot hits the Purity First vehicle in the engine housing and it explodes. Array takes the opportunity to fly back to the scavenger yard, where he hides the vehicle under assorted debris.

On board The Knife’s Edge Stefan Cassadine quietly opens the door to the nursery, where his wife has taken up residence after their argument. Arresta, sleeping with her back to the door, refuses to acknowledge her awareness of his presence and, after a few moments, Stefan quietly leaves. The next morning, they both take part in a call to Etti IV (using the ship's hacked Holonet feed), but afterwards Arresta makes it clear that she hasn't yet forgiven Stefan. She does work with him to create a cover story intended to deceive Purity First spaceport controllers. A few hours later, their story is put to the test when the yacht approaches Mongui--it seems to go over well, but some weakness in their falsified transponder and ship's logs fails to pass muster and Arresta realizes that the flight plan they are given would take them on an approach away from the starport and on a course to be intercepted by IRDs. She warns her husband that they have been compromised, leading Stefan to give the order to jump to hyperspace.

After the ship completes a short jump into an empty sector of space, Arresta asks her husband what contingencies he has in place to make planet fall. Unfortunately, Stefan is stymied – the false transponder has always proved reliable in the past. Arresta fights the urge to offer Stefan encouragement for fear he will think her feelings towards him have changed. She suggests talking to Master Creen and though Stefan is sceptical, he agrees. While he is gone, Corinne arrives and suggests that if her sister can convince Bel’s pilot to disobey orders, then they could use The Rakish Charm to get to Mongui.

When Stefan returns, he tells Arresta that Creen cannot aid them and that the Jedi Master’s interests are “in other happenings”. His wife archly inquires whether these mysterious interests of Creen’s coincide with those things that she and her husband do not discuss. Arresta brings up Corinne’s idea and Stefan agrees to it. When Arresta tries to convince him to remain behind and to let her go on her own, he refuses to budge, citing concerns for her safety – they will travel together or not at all. After jumping back to the outer edge of the Essowyn system and docking with the The Rakish Charm, Arresta and Corinne have little trouble convincing Bel Sekand's personal pilot to take them where they want to go.

Down on the planet, Doxen, Krevlax, Korkoth and Bel Sekand are assessing their options after their narrow escape from the excavation site. Bel’s eyesight returns after the night's uncomfortable sleep aboard the runabout, and he declares his intent to stay with the ship. Doxen isn’t pleased with this plan, but he leads Krevlax and Korkoth on the long march toward Mongui City. Since neither Doxen nor Krevlax speaks Huttese or Gammorean, they are reduced to communicating with Korkoth via crude sign language. Unbeknownst to everyone, however, the smoking, slow-moving runabout was easily followed and Purity First has dispatched probe droids to see if the ship will lead them to the rebels' base. When the group splits up, one droid stays with the runabout while the other follows Doxen's group.

After several hours' march, Doxen and Krevlax realize that they are being followed. Krevlax feigns setting up camp while Doxen, who has remained hidden, destroys the droid with two well-placed shots. They continue on their journey to the city. When they get through the shield, they make their way to Corinne’s abandoned salvage yard and search out a suitable hiding place. Doxen realizes though, that they are not alone--he spots Array hiding in a scrap pile. The group decides to wait until the next morning before trying to contact Arresta.

Back at the runabout, however, Bel Sekand has not been so lucky. He realizes too late that IRDs are headed his way He attempts to flee, but the slow-moving shuttle is quickly surrounded and fired upon. He briefly considers making a run for it, but then realizes that death would be the only result. He surrenders and is escorted down to the spaceport, where he and the runabout are searched--leaving Purity First with evidence to analyze about the identity of the new resistance.

Bel's refusal to cooperate with his interrogators leads him to spend the night in the prison, which is now mostly comprised of "xenons."  Bel seeks out their leader, a wookiee named Fahruurk, and says that if they help him escape, he can guarantee help from the outside.  Fahruurk is dubious that Bel actually has any of the things he claims (a ship, bodyguards, etc.) but says that if Bel is able to show proof, then Fahruurk and his followers will lend support.

Bel's refusal to cooperate with his interrogators leads him to spend the night in the prison, which is now mostly comprised of "xenons." Bel seeks out their leader, a wookiee named Fahruurk, and says that if they help him escape, he can guarantee help from the outside. Fahruurk is dubious that Bel actually has any of the things he claims (a ship, bodyguards, etc.) but says that if Bel is able to show proof, then Fahruurk and his followers will lend support.

On their second approach, Corinne is able to successfully convince the Purity First authorities that The Rakish Charm was on an expedition to the Outer Rim when it developed an engine leak and needs emergency refueling. As they land, they receive communication from the planet that Bel has been arrested and will be hung at noon the next day. Arresta asks her sister what she would like to do – how much does she want to risk for her would-be paramour? Corinne feels that Bel is owed at least some attempt to save his life. Arresta agrees and privately cautions Stefan to contain his glee at Sekand’s situation, since they require Corinne’s on-going goodwill. As they land, Corinne quickly modifies the communications frequency and they secure their weaponry prior to the standard customs inspection. They pass with no sign of any problems and are granted papers with a twenty-four pass for access to the planet.

As night falls on Mongui, the group at the salvage yard listens to the comm channel from the stolen IRD. They too learn about Bel Sekand’s capture, as well as hearing crude descriptions of Array’s armour and Krevlax. Knowing that Array is too conspicuous in his armour, Doxen conducts some reconnaissance, looking for new clothes for the clone. He steals a purse containing identity papers from a drunken teen-age girl and then decides to mug a young man and steal his clothes.

Unwilling to remain in the close confines of The Rakish Charm, Arresta convinces Corinne that they should find a nightclub where they can both gather information on the local situation, as well as obtain some much-needed stress relief. Seeming somewhat surprised at the offer, Corinne agrees and the two former Regents of Mongui depart. They arrive at a bustling nightclub and promptly make their way to the bar. They indulge heavily in elaborate (and over-priced) alcoholic beverages while dancing and chatting up the locals. Between drinks, they manage to learn several key pieces of information: The local populace is frustrated with Purity First and are unhappy with their forced conscription process. Every week one seventh of the population (on a rotating schedule) is compelled to observe the execution of a non-human (or “xenon” as Purity First calls them). Occasionally, the one executed is a human arrested for being an alien sympathizer. The key leaders of Purity First on the planet are Pedron Rhial, the Marshall-General of Purity First, and the Warden of the prison.

Arresta begins to feel the effects of the alcohol. She translates her sister’s encouragement to “forget about men for a night” into a drunken call to her vexed husband, who demands that Corinne bring his intoxicated wife home immediately. The girls ignore him and continue to dance the night away. When they finally stumble back to The Rakish Charm, Stefan is waiting up to take custody of Arresta and put her to bed. In the morning, Arresta awakens to her smug husband offering her a steaming cup of kaf, but manages to hide her massive hangover while relating the information gathered during her “outing”.

[A.G. 1010]

Doxen waits until morning, then contacts Stefan and updates him on the current situation. They discuss the fact that Stefan would consider it a personal favour if Bel Sekand were to suffer an “accident” while attempting to escape his execution. It is agreed that all parties will regroup at the salvage yard. Arresta pulls aside Tarn’s sister, who is among Bel’s bodyguards, and indicates that they have a common acquaintance and that she would like to speak more with her after this mission. Kelsa Tamarand appears baffled, but agreeable to this suggestion. The last step before leaving the ship is for Stefan and Arresta to use every element of Stefan’s reputation to intimidate the pilot, to make sure he does not depart without their express permission.

Arriving at the salvage yard, Stefan, Arresta and Corinne meet Array, making note of the night-clubbing outfit Doxen stole for him. When the group is comfortable that the new arrivals haven’t been followed, they meet up with Doxen and Krevlax. Finally, Corinne’s loyal supporter, Lt. Jaarza. arrives to represent the resistance movement and the strategy session begins. Initial conversations are well under way when Stefan abruptly commandeers the conversation to lay out the plan that he expects them all to follow. They will first destroy the civilian power supply by overloading the reactor, making it look like a blunder by Purity First. Next, they will destroy the communication center to prevent Purity First from calling for reinforcements or countering propaganda. After destroying the food and water supply and staging a massacre of civilians, Stefan suggests that Purity First will be forced to withdraw in the face of overwhelming pressure from the local populace once their "showcase" planet is reduced to almost apocalyptic conditions.

Krevlax immediately protests against the implied slaughter of civilians and Corinne sides with him. Doxen and Arresta attempt to offer reassurance that Stefan only meant that the entire massacre would be staged, but not everyone is convinced. The others join in, offering a variety of suggestions and questioning whether this plan will take too long to achieve success. Finally, Stefan pulls his wife aside for a private conversation.

When they are alone, Stefan expresses his frustration with Arresta’s do-gooder friends and their unwillingness to follow orders. She defends them while assuring him that she believes the majority of his plan to be tactically sound. He insists to her that he wants this campaign to be over with so that they can get on with the rest of their lives – which, he forcefully reminds her, will be spent together. Arresta pledges that she will help him with this campaign. However, although she cannot resist allowing him to kiss her, she avoids agreeing with him about his plans for their future. Turning the topic back to the Mongui strategy, she soothingly reminds him that appearances are important and that he needn’t share his entire strategy with the whole team.

When they are alone, Stefan expresses his frustration with Arresta’s do-gooder friends and their unwillingness to follow orders. She defends them while assuring him that she believes the majority of his plan to be tactically sound. He insists to her that he wants this campaign to be over with so that they can get on with the rest of their lives – which, he forcefully reminds her, will be spent together. Arresta pledges that she will help him with this campaign. However, although she cannot resist allowing him to kiss her, she avoids agreeing with him about his plans for their future. Turning the topic back to the Mongui strategy, she soothingly reminds him that appearances are important and that he needn’t share his entire strategy with the whole team.

The Cassadines return and Stefan announces that, thanks to his “lovely wife”, he is persuaded that certain elements of his plan which make the others uncomfortable can be revised. After a long strategy session, a two-fold plan is agreed upon. Corinne, Jaarza, Krevlax and as many of Bel’s bodyguards as can be convinced to participate, will attempt a rescue at the site of the planned execution. With that as a distraction, Stefan, Arresta, Doxen, Array and Korkoth will attempt to take out the civilian power plant. Prior to the two groups splitting off, Doxen and Arresta have a hurried conversation in which they discuss their concerns with sending Krevlax on the rescue attempt, but they agree that their friend is well-suited to that particular mission, even if they will miss his talents on their own task. Arresta also shares with her colleague that her sources have obtained intelligence that the Hunter Harno’s clan-mates searched the area around his murder and located the hiding place used by his executioner. There, they managed to locate trace elements of DNA on the stub of a thick death-stick left at the scene. Since the DNA belonged to a very rare species, they quickly fingered Doxen as the likely culprit. Doxen, however, insists he would never have made such an unprofessional mistake.

The Cassadines and Corinne return to the ship where the former retrieve the remainder of their weaponry and the latter attempts to rally Bel’s bodyguards into accompanying her on the rescue attempt. Corinne is very persuasive and manages to gain their support, bringing five bodyguards along with her and leaving one (Tarn’s sister) behind with the pilot.

Bel Sekand’s rescue team slowly makes their way through the sewer tunnels leading to the prison grounds where the execution is scheduled to take place. At a parade ground in front of the prison, a reluctant crowd has gathered to watch the hanging, with a full Phalanx of Purity First guards behind them. Finally, the Warden and the Marshall-General arrive and denounce Sekand as a race traitor who deserves to die. With his hands bound behind him, Bel is led out onto the gallows platform that stands ten metres above the crowd and just below the balcony from which the leaders of Purity First will observe his execution.

Just as the executioner prepares to put the noose around his neck, Bel stuns the crowd by suddenly performing a feat of acrobatic skill and flipping himself over, bringing his manacled hands in front of him. At the same time, his comrades who have been stealthily creeping closer, decide to strike. A shots hits the executioner, but the blinding flash that accompanies a direct hit on his armour causes Bel to once again lose his sight. Still, the bold crime lord is resourceful and immediately adapts his escape plan. Crying out to the crowd, he stagedives into their waiting arms, before being swept up by Krevlax who has fought his way into the courtyard. With the others laying down cover fire, Krevlax runs for the tunnel with Sekand slung over his shoulder. Although several of Bel’s bodyguards are blinded in the exchange of fire with Purity First, all but two successfully make their escape. In the sewers beneath Mongui, Bel Sekand’s shackles are removed and the swash-buckling crime lord lives to fight another day.

Return to Clone Wars Campaign Main Page

The World's Most Famous Jeremy Patrick (again)

Back in October of last year, I wrote this post about how my status as the world's most famous Jeremy Patrick (determined purely by Google rankings) was threatened by Geocities shutting down and my old website becoming defunct. Alas, my prediction came to pass and for several months I was out of the top ranking. But hard work, a little luck, and daily burnt offerings to Odin the All-Seeing eventually combined to thrust me back into the number one spot.

"Vain" you might say? "Pathetic" you might think? "Is this juice still good?" you might ask.
Oh yes. But the bottom line is that I am the world's most famous Jeremy Patrick, and you are not.