Character Creation: Spookshow

OOOOooooOOOO *rattle chains*.

The Game: Spookshow
The Publisher: Clockworks (now defunct)
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Spookshow is a game that takes the double meaning of the word "spook" (that is, a ghost or an intelligence operative) and combines it, so you're a ghost that works for the CIA. The basic conceit is that some ghosts have "the Touch", which enables them to become solid. While solid, they're effectively alive - they need food and sleep and so on - but if they die, it's not permanent (though it is inconvenient). Governments have been using ghosts as spies for as long as there have been governments.

I don't know if that all holds up to scrutiny, but I've enjoyed RPG settings with far less internal logic. So let's make a dead guy!

The character section starts off by asking us to consider when the character lived. The oldest one can be is from the 18th century, because any older than that and you don't have enough of a connection to the living world to be hanging around. Fair enough. Assuming that this game is set now-ish, I'll say my character died recently, three years ago. He was in his early 20s when he died, so that puts him born, what, early- to mid-90s (fuck me, I'm getting old). Let's say he was born in 1992, and died in 2017.

Next thing I'm asked to consider is my country of origin, kinda. The US isn't on the list because "only Native Americans are originally from North America." Um, OK. So do you want to know my phenotype? My family's ancestry? I don't think so, since "British" and "Russian" are also on the list. Hey, "Australian" is on the list. Does that my an Australian character has to be Aboriginal? Christ in a sidecar. My character is fucking American, with all of the ugly history that implies. He's half Puerto Rican, but it's hard to tell by looking (he's got black hair, but his mother's blue eyes and his skin is fair). He died of the flu - he was working as a coder for a video game company, pushed himself too hard, got malnourished, and caught the flu at a birthday party for a coworker's young daughter. He died in his apartment a week later. His name is (was) Jaylen Reyes.

OK, next up: Occupation, did that. I gotta pick which type of ghost I am. They fall into splats (called Shades), which determine powers and outlook. I think Jaylen is pretty clearly a Poltergeist; he worked himself to death and now he feels like he's on vacation. That makes my Focus Psychokinesis. It looks like I don't get any other Numina (that's what powerz are called here) to start, but since there isn't a fucking example of chargen or a step-by-step (the book does the thing where it includes the full list of Numina with systems after the part that tells you which Shade gets what, so there's not really a coherent "make characters like this" section, blargh) it's hard to know.

Anyway, the next thing I do is my Persona, which is my spook-identity. See, this is why it's useful to have a table or a sidebar with a summary of chargen. Anyway, Jaylen goes by Anders A. Doont (which is an anagram of Todd A. Anderson, because Jaylen thinks he's clever). Everyone gets a Reference number, the higher it is, the most your identity will stand up to scrutiny. Do I just...pick it? Oh, wait, there is a character generation system! And an example! Fucking hell. The "Character" section starts out giving instructions like you're making a character, and never once refers you to this section.

OK, so I've done some of this out of order. Concept stuff I've pretty much done, but now I gotta do Traits. I can roll randomly or allocate points. Let's roll.

So, I wind up with 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6. Well, could be worse. I'll put my 1s into Strength and Cohesion (Jaylen is easily distracted and still thinks of himself as frail). I'll put the 2 into Speed and the 3 into Control. The 4 goes into Semblance (he's personable enough), the 5 into Awareness, and everything else (Association, Aptitude, and Creation) get 6s.

Now some derived traits. Movement is 1 (walking) or 2 (running). Fortitude varies by body part, but it's gonna be pretty low. I need to pick an Occupation off a list, because it gives me a bonus to something. OK, what the hell. All of these Occupations are old-timey. "Healer?" "Academe?" There's literally no mention of computers anywhere. Geez. Well, I figure Craftsman is pretty close, which would give me one more Cohesion. Fine.

I've picked my Shade already. So, Numina. Do I get more? Kinda. They're ranked, and I start with 1 in my Focus (Psychokinesis), and then I get 8 points. Raising my Focus would cost 5, buying a new Numina at 1 would cost all 8. So if I buy Psychokinesis up to 2, what happens to the other three points? Blargh. Well, I want Technopathy...or do I? Nah, I think I want Magnetism. That'd be fun.

And, back over to my Persona. I'm a hacker, obvs. This helps determine Skills and Specialties. I get (Aptitude + Cohesion) in Skill points, so 8. Specialties are basically groups of Skills; if you have a rating in one, you have that rating in all of the associated Skills. I'll blow 6 of my 8 points and take a rating of 2 in Equipment (which gives me Computer and so on). The last two points, I'll put one in Ciphers and one in Handguns.

Next up is Agency Affiliation. I could roll, but I think Jaylen is best off in the FBI. Grade is basically experience level; let's assume I'm at the bottom, so Grade Zed. I have Clearance 1, Tech Rating 2, Weapon Rating 0 (just as well), Contact Rating 1, no Sobriquet (not a badass spy yet), and Reference 1, but I could have spent leftover points on it (booo, not mentioning this sooner). Eh, that's fine.

Otherwise, that's pretty much it! I think Anders/Jaylen kinda hates being a ghost, and really hates working for the FBI (he was raised not to trust the government). So why's he doing it? I think that when first died, he was under the impression he couldn't leave the apartment and haunted the shit out of it for about a year. Finally it got rented out as an FBI stakeout point, and he watched them work to bust some very unsavory characters, and gave them advice about their systems (which they couldn't hear...so he thought). When it was all over, one of the agents finally broke cover and told Jaylen that this was an opportunity for him. Jaylen said he couldn't leave, and the agent said he could fix that. As far as Jaylen knows, he owes his freedom of movement and his "Touch" to the FBI's ghost squad. If he ever finds out they lied and he could have left at any time, well, that's gonna be an interesting day.

Movie #547: Point Break

Point Break is an action movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty, Gary Busey, and John C. McGinley.

Johnny Utah (Reeves) is a former college football star turned FBI agent who just got transferred to bank robberies, partnered with grizzled old timer Pappas (Busey). They're on the trail of a group of highly skilled bank robbers called the Ex-Presidents. Pappas correctly guesses that they're surfers, and so Utah learns to surf after conning a local woman named Tyler (Petty), who conveniently is the ex-lover of Bodhi (Swayze), who (spoiler!) is the leader of the Ex-Presidents.

That Bodhi and his buds are the bank robbers is played as a revelation to Utah, but it's pretty obvious to the audience and I don't think it's meant to be any kind of mystery. The movie is really about the relationship between Utah and Bodhi, about whether Utah is going to do his job and bring his friend in, and about what it means to chase a thrill. All of that sounds a lot deeper than it is, though.

I like this movie. It's a fun premise, there are some cool action sequences and some fun cameos (hey, look, it's Tom Sizemore! And Anthony Kedis!), and Patrick Swayze's performance is actually really good. He unravels as his crew dies and his "ride" starts to have violent consequences, but remains in control and tries desperately to hold on to what he's got left. Reeves, meanwhile, is...Reeves. I don't think his performance is bad, I just think it would have been nice to get a little more insight into Utah's struggle and inner journey, because he clearly has on. I'm a little annoyed that Lori Petty's character spends two-thirds of the movie being included and being a participant, but then gets damseled in the third act. Can't always be Tank Girl, I guess.

The movie falls into a lot of cop-action movie tropes; the stupid boss (McGinley), the aforementioned grizzled partner, the fact that there is no way Utah went from being under arrest in the third act to being in Australia still an active agent after getting his partner killed, but it's always good to recognize what genre you're in. Overall, it's a fun watch and Bigelow's movies always have this nice touch of characterization that makes them a little deeper than they'd initially seem.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch value: Medium-high

Next up: Poltergeist

Character Creation: Exuviae

Last couple of games I've done have been little indie games. Maybe next I'll do Eberron or something equally trad and dull. I'm running this one on Saturday, though, so I'd like to get the little green dot off it.

The Game: Exuviae - Relics of House Dragonfly
The Publisher: Sean Smith 
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one!

Exuviae was the result of a Game Chef challenge (making it one of the few games from a Game Chef to see publication, which is cool). It's billed as "Maltese Falcon as directed by David Lynch," which is enough to get my attention.

The game assumes that it's the 1940s and the characters are, for their own reasons, investigating an insect cult. It merges noir and hard-boiled detective stories with alien weirdness. I'm here for it. Making a character is just a matter of answering a few questions (no stats per se), so that's quick.

What sort of character are you? One of the "givens" about the city we're in (really about the only one) is that there's a body of water nearby. And suddenly "The Downeaster Alexa" by Billy Joel popped into my head. I've used this song as character fodder before, but not for a character on this project (it was actually the inspiration for a vampire character I played a loooong time ago named Nehemiah). My character is an impoverished fisherman. His name is Amos Rust. Amos used to be husky, but he's losing weight. He hasn't trimmed his beard in a while, and his eyes are sallow and sunken. He wears a black rain slicker, boots, and heavy clothes. He lives on his boat.

What was your first encounter with the cult? Amos saw the cult's young spawning in the bay. He thought it was a school of fish at first, but they had too many legs.

Why must the conspiracy be outed? Because normal folks are starving and losing everything while these bastards take us over from the inside!

What are three things most characters find trick, but you find easy? That's a really clunky way to say "skills." We'll say boating, intimidating landlubbers, and gutting fish (if that last one seems too specific, well, I think it'd be applicable to not-fish).

Someone has leverage over you. Who? Mikey McCandless, the harbor master. I haven't paid my docking fees in months, and he's looking the other way, but he's definitely ready to squeeze as soon as I have something worth squeezing over.

You have leverage over someone. Who is it? Joe "Button" Buttenich. I save Button's life during the war. I'm too proud to call on him for charity, but he's got a decent-sized house and he's done well for himself.

And that's it, actually. Well, at least chargen's nice and fast.

Legend of the Elements: Beneath the Red Rock Temple

Last night we (the group that's been playing Blades in the Dark for the last two years or so) started playing a new game: Legend of the Elements. It's actually taken us like a month to get started; we spent a week choosing a game (other contenders included Remnants, Aletheia, Aricebo, and Iron Edda) and then a week doing chargen and setting creation.

With that in mind, a bit about the world. The action takes place (to start, at least) in the village of Senda. Senda is a farming community; they grow wheat, barely, and suchlike. Senda sits at the foot of the Red Rocks, a massive rock structure at the top of which sits the Red Rock Temple. The Temple is a holy place but isn't claimed by any particular faith or faction; the God of the Temple is a powerful spirit that gets cranky if people try to live there. The interior of the Temple is full of petroglyphs that reputedly contain wisdom, and sleeping the Temple brings prophetic visions.

The Temple has a bridge, built by Earthshapers, that leads to the city of Greycliff. Greycliff has a population of about 10,000, and has everything you'd think a big city would: artisans, temples, corruption. It sits on the Big Dog River, which thing cascades over the cliff to form the Dog Falls, and then cuts through the land as the Small Dog River before eventually ending in the Western Ocean. The city of Sand Port sits on that ocean, and it's a lot more lawless than Greycliff.

Outside of Greycliff, we have the Seven Rings Temple, where Spiritshapers train. This temple contains the Black Spring, where ink wells up from the ground. Monkeys called Ebon Howlers live in the temple and are treated as holy. 

Shapers are tattooed, and the inks are based on their element; Fireshapers' inks are made from ashes, while Earthshapers' inks are made from crushed up minerals. Spiritshapers in this region get their ink from the Black Spring.

• Feng, the Spiritshaper: Feng's mother was a crafter, while his father was from Greycliff. He studied at Seven Rings. Feng tried to summon a great sea-spirit at Sand Port, but that didn't go well and he was driven back to Senda.
• Ember, the Fireshaper: Ember is from the village of Marn, around the Red Rocks from Senda. She accidentally destroyed the village learning to control her power, and her grandmother was the only survivor. They relocated to Senda.
• Khatun, the Watershaper: A rider and herder from the Steppe, Khatun is a trader and would-be ambassador of her people. She plans to join the farming and herding communities. 
• Gerda, the Earthshaper: One of a large family from Senda, Gerda is a farmer and a land-worker. She cares about her people and her land first and foremost, but she also promised Feng she'd guard him during summons.

The four of them are in the caves beneath the Red Rocks as Feng summons the God of the Temple, looking for wisdom. Gerda provides an ornate bowl of grains, and Feng touches the ground and calls the spirit. It appears, the grain dust settling on where its tattoos would be, and asks what Feng is looking for. He says that he's looking for wisdom, and the spirit asks him how wisdom is passed along. Feng says it has to be shared, or taught, and the spirit recommends he listen to his companions in order to find the wisdom this place has to offer.

The group looks about, but then realizes that the back wall of this cave isn't there anymore. They search a bit (though Gerda considers taking the bowl home first). Ember conjures some light so they can see, and they find petroglyphs on the wall. Khatun starts reading them and notes that one of them looks like it indicates a cliff, and then promptly falls down a hole. She winds up clinging to the side of the wall, and Gerda creates a ledge for her to crawl up. Feng, meanwhile, also studies the glyphs and hears a voice in his ears, telling him that footsteps are treading on land where no living people should be. He expresses a desire to help, and they ask what he would do. "Put them to rest," he says, and the voice responds SWEAR. Feng does, and feels he has made an Oath.

Khatun isn't ready to climb out quite yet, though. She stands on the makeshift ledge and drops a pebble into the abyss, and hears a plop at the bottom - water. In fact, she thinks she hears moving water. Perhaps it's an underground river? Feng, wanting to see, leaps into the abyss, but everyone else is a little more patient and lets Khatun lower them down on a waterspout.

Feng is unhurt, though. They all wind up in the river, and Khatun directs the flow to get them together and the water carries them along into a big cavern full of stalagmites and stalactites. They're also rushing a little too quickly toward a sharp bend, so Gerda creates a ramp they can all roll up. They explore a little, but then a stalactite falls and nearly hits Gerda, and Ember decides they need a bit of light.

She illuminates the room, and the characters see a bunch of people with slightly greyish skin and shaper tattoos. They leap to attack, and Ember, in panic, burns one of them. He staggers away, his flesh melting, and he falls into the river. Khatun calls up a wave and knocks a few of them over, and Gerda calls the rocks together and forms a fence, blocking more of them off. Feng mind-controls one to force him to attack his companions, but the man resists and he reaches for the ceiling and calls down a rain of stalactites. Gerda deflects them, but exhausts herself in the process.

Khatun isn't interested in killing these people (or, y'know, dying) so she looks around for a leader. She finds a guy clinging to a big rock formation across the river, and calls on him to cease hostilities. He agrees, and walks across the river to the characters. The characters apologizes for trespassing, and the Cave-Shaper acknowledges this, but then they bring out the man that Ember burned. Ember apologizes - she got scared and lost control. The leader says that the man won't live through the night, and hands Ember a sharp stone knife. She plucks up her courage and stabs the man, killing him.

The characters ask what they can do to atone, and the leader tells them that there's a place along the river where the water continues on, but the River stops, where everything dies. This, Feng realizes, is what the voices he heard were referring to. The characters agree to correct this, whatever it is, and continue along the river.

Demon Lord: The Queen is Dead

Here's the write-up I mentioned in the last post.

Last time, the characters fought some beastmen and a couple of assassins, and then took one of said assassins to the city of Seven Spires for trial. There, they met up with Genevieve, who'd gotten herself to the city somehow (they kind of glossed over that, in what would become a running theme).

They spend some time in the capital city. They do some shopping; Dagmar has some hard leather armor made, several of them bought weapons (Genevieve buys a hand crossbow, which was pricey but came in handy!), and Veni creates a new grimoire, funded by selling magic scrolls. Mayfly buys some parts for shadowsight lenses and tries to have Dagmar install them, but it isn't the kind of work they did and Mayfly winds up needing to pay a crafter to do the work. All is pretty much well. Oballa, the spy for the queen, agrees to have them talk to Queen Moira about demon-related things, the Inquisition, and so on - she wanted them to stay in the city until Mirra (the assassin) is sentenced, just in case their testimony is necessary.

So on a balmy spring evening, the characters are escorted in to a parlor through a pathway in the royal gardens. They're asked to leave their weapons outside, although Dagmar and Genevieve both hide weapons on their person (Dagmar hides a dagger in their beard, and Genevieve is skilled enough to conceal all her stuff). They're sat at a table facing a fireplace, Oballa stands nearby, and two guards flank the Queen herself.

The characters talk to the Queen a bit, and she talks about rulership and the responsibilities thereof. She says that she found a journal written by her great-great-great uncle that talked about the idea of using leadership as coordination, to help people come together and be their best, and she feels that she could aspire to that ideal rather than just be a figurehead for the Church.

The characters listen to all this, and then Genevieve pulls out her crossbow and puts a bolt in the Queen's neck.

The guards, Mayfly, and Bashir are caught completely flat-footed. Dagmar hurls their dagger and hits Genevieve in the arm, but too late, she's already cleared the table and stabbed Queen Moira in the chest, killing her. She moves to the nearest guard and stabs him as well, and Veni throws up a force field spell around the characters. Oballa conjures up fog, and the guards (out of their depth) flee to sound alarms. Mayfly tries to help the queen, but she's beyond magic, so it casts a healing spell on the wounded guard.

Veni and Genevieve flee and the others follow shortly after. The fauns see a gardener motion to them, and flashes the symbol of the Cracked Glass. She ushers them into a shack and tells them to stay put, and not to open the secret door at the back unless it's life or death. The other characters catch up with the gardener and ask if she's seen two fauns. She denies it, but Veni tells her the characters are with them and she shrugs and lets them into the shack.

Some tense words follow. Dagmar, Bashir, and Mayfly take Genevieve to task for her actions, but Genevieve says that this is her job. She's been open about being an assassin and a terrorist this whole time, and Veni backs her up, but does admit that this puts them all in an awkward position. Bashir strongly considers wringing the changeling's neck, but realizes that without his gear (including his hard-won minotaur horn, dammit all), he might not win that fight.

The characters hear guards and alarms outside, and eventually decide that remaining here is unwise. They open the door and descend into a stone hallway overgrown with fungus. Dagmar identifies the fungus; dwarves have various names for it but if you get infected with the spores, you might die and come back as a "fungal hulk." The characters cover their mouths (except Mayfly, obviously) and soldier on.

Up ahead, they hear a shuffling, thumping sound. Dagmar spots the hulk, and it charges. Dagmar tries to roll out of the way, but the hulk bats them against the wall. Veni throws a fire blast at it, and Genevieve runs up and stabs it, but that just makes it release corrosive spores.

Mayfly is at something of a loss, since most of its spells require that the subject can see or feels fear, but Bashir lights a torch and whacks the hulk. Veni throws a rune spell on it and it charges right through, exploding and burning, and leaving itself open for one more torch-bash from Dagmar. Now wounded, the characters move on, and eventually emerge from the tunnel, just outside the royal palace.

Shortly, a carriage pulls up, driven by the gardener/assassin. She gets them in and drives them out of the city, tosses a pouch of money to Genevieve, and moves to leave. Dagmar asks who called in this hit, but the assassin doesn't know and wouldn't tell if she did. They're a guild of assassins, this is what they do.

The characters decide to head northwest, along the Deepings Gorge to the Narrow Pass through the Shield Mountains. They still intend to head for the Northern Reach, because regardless of what else happens, they need to save the world, and they aren't sure if they're going to need Genevieve or Veni (or both) for that. 

Character Creation: Circles of Power

Just finished running Shadow of the Demon Lord, so there's a write-up for that in the offing, but I've been wanting to do this for a while and I'm behind on my characters anyway.

The Game: Circles of Power (Apprentice Edition)
The Publisher: Genesis of Legend Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: Never played this, but it's PbtA
Books Required: Just the one

 
Circles of Power is a PbtA fantasy game in which you play magi, but also a member of a marginalized community. If you're the sort of person that uses "SJW" in even a moderately derogatory way, first of all, stop, but then also this probably isn't your cup of tea. I like the idea and I love that the core game play kind of revolves around using magic to change the world, but there are a couple of things that I find kind of heavy handed.

But anyway, let's make a character. First thing I do is pick which kind of magic I'm using (the playbooks here are Traditions). Hmm. I love conjuring type magic, so I think I'll do that. I'm meant to start with name. Hmm. OK. My character's name is Plague. He's acknowledged as a member of the Burdened community (this plays into disability; Plague's is that he has no eyes). He works as a musician, specifically a weird string instrument that he designed himself.

Now, views on the Dominant Society. Plague feels that it needs to be Appeased and Improved. It's too deeply entrenched to overthrow and destroying it would be violent and ultimately dangerous, but there's shit we could fix.

My magical foci are Drums and Bells. And now we get into the weird stuff.

What terrible event struck you because no one would help? Plague was helping a friend to detach a wasp's nest from his house, and the things in that nest...weren't wasps. They swarmed on him and chewed his eyes right out, and then continued to follow him. He has a swarm of these horrible wasp-things living on him, and that led to him being exiled (please note that they've never stung or attacked anyone else).

Relationships! And these are with NPCs, so I can do them. Arman, a priest from the Dominant Society, is my Friend. It was his house that had the nest. He still talks to me, but he talks too loud, which is weird because I'm not hard of hearing, just blind.

Selene, a painter from the Forsaken Community, is my Lover. She doesn't mind the bugs. Yeah, it's weird. I don't really feel comfortable with her all the time, but it's what I can get.

Martje, a veteran of the Burdened Community, is my Colleague. She sings and plays a lute, and we perform together, but we don't actually have much in common otherwise.

And now I have six points of research to distribute amongst my three spells, which are Mortal Summons (lets me summon a person), Conjure Elementals (like it says), and Apportation (teleport an object). If I allocate three or more points to a given spell, it becomes a Ritual, meaning I get to play with the particulars a little. Hmm.

Well, I actually don't see Mortal Summons as being terribly up his street, so I'm gonna put four points into Conjure Elementals and two into Apportation. That doesn't do anything to Apportation (other than it means I have less research to do in play to upgrade it), but it does bump Conjure up to a Ritual, meaning I get to swap out a drawback for an enhancement. I'm gonna remove "the conjuring doesn't require the use of expensive material components" and add "the elemental looks fully human," so I can summon something that doesn't draw a lot of attention.

And then I also have a familiar; mine is the swarm. It helps me get around, keeps me from bumping into walls and blundering off of cliffs and whatnot, but I still can't see and I have bugs crawling on my head. Plague is used to it, and they don't bite or sting. Not sure what they eat, though...

And that does it!

Blue Rose: Sweet Blossom Pirates

"Sweet Blossom Pirates" sounds like a show pitch in a game of Channel A, but I promise it makes sense.

Last time, our heroes rowed into the Leviathan's Teeth with eight soldiers from Jarzon. Arlen is the only one who's any kind of navigator, so he's charting the course around the jagged rocks and peaks. Every so often they see a bit of a building that looks man-made (as the Teeth are the remains of the city of Falzanoth), but mostly it's just rock, some lonely looking seabirds, and, beneath them, sharks.

They don't find the Tomb before dark, so one of the soldiers points out a big flat boulder jutting up out of the water, and says that it should remain so even at high tide; good place to camp. The party moors their boats, builds a fire, and gets some sleep...

...but then Dobbin and Pansy wake up to a group of people getting out of boats onto the rock. Said group is at least 20 strong, and worse, four of the guards from the heroes' party have joined them. Two of them have the chest with the Mask. Dobbin shouts an alarm and everyone gets up and grabs their weapons, but the leader of the pirates steps forward. He's a tough-looking sea-folk with a trident, and he introduces himself as Qinis, captain of the Sweet Blossom (told ya). He tells the characters that he'll be taking the chest. They, of course, prepare to fight, but he tells them to think it through. They're outnumber four to one, and the pirates have torches aimed at their boats. If they're left here with no way off, they're shark food.

Dobbin tries to reason with him - does he know what he's stealing, and how evil it is? Qinis laughs ruefully and tells her that there are factors in play here she doesn't understand, but what's odd is that he doesn't have the power-mad obsession that a lot of folks who have made a play for the Mask do. In the end, the characters swallow their pride. The pirates leave (and take one of their two longboats with them), but Arlen, wasting no time, summons an albatross and sends it after them.

The characters get on the remaining boat and start following the bird; Arlen sends another one back to the Tempered Heart with a note for Admiral Pov. The heroes take the longboat out into the Bay, and Kisha thinks about where they're headed. If they hug the coastline, they'll pass by the Sansian Plain, the Shadow Barrens, and finally the Kingdom of Wyss. If they head due south, though, they wind up at the Pirate Isles. That's...probably where they need to go.

The next day, the Tempered Heart pulls up to them and brings them on board. They explain what happened to the Admiral (who is furious that his men betrayed him), and explains that the Pirate Isles have their own sort of government, headquartered in the island town of Mashae. The Isles have their own warships, and getting into a fight would be a diplomatic incident, so Admiral Pov can't just roll up and start making demands. He has no problem pull into port and starting negotiations, however, and if the characters want to go ashore, well, that's fine.

The complicating factor here is that there's an island in the Isles called the Dark Isle, and that's probably where Qinis has taken the chest. Belus takes Dobbin aside and tells her that no one lives on Dark Isle except a cult of sorcerers, meaning the characters won't have a lot of cover. They need to be careful.

The Heart pulls around the eastern edge of the Isles toward Mashae, and the characters get on a longboat and head for the Dark Isle. They beach the boat, and set off into the dark, looking for the Mask.

Waters Recede

Not a post I'd expected, or wanted, to make anytime soon. Doesn't feel all that long since I did one like this, and that one was only a year after the last one. Anyway.

This past weekend, we said goodbye to our corgi/retriever mix, Si. I want to tell you his story.

We brought Si home in August of 2011. At best guess, he was about 3 months old when he came home with us. He was in a shelter way out west of us (I don't remember what city, I just know we stopped in Lima on the way home) and was there with his brother, who looked just like him but with longer "socks." When we brought him home, he was the size of two of my shoes laid end to end.

Si quickly got along with his bigger packmates (Leo and Sephi). He bonded with Leo especially, and in the years before Leo got old and slow, they had many a lovely romp in the backyard.

Si was opinionated and chatty. We had a going theory that he really thought he was using words, as he'd sit in front of you and do a kind of whine, wuffle, growly sort of thing. He'd also wiggle his butt and stomp his front legs (corgi stomp!) when he wanted a treat, and was quite happy to direct your gaze with his eyes. He was active and frisky as a younger dog, and the retriever side of him came out when he got to play in water.

Si as a submarine.

Si was incredibly affectionate; we joked that he was codependent. He liked to be on as many people as possible, so when we'd sit on the couch, he'd often put his front end on one person and his butt on another and stretch out. He loved chest scritches and he would stand in front of you, sit back on his haunches, and stand there with a derpy look on his face to get them. And, of course, he loved having his belly rubbed.

Pets plz

PETS PLZ

Si was loud. When he wasn't chatting, he'd bark at strangers, cars, squirrels, or whatever else. Squirrels in particular were a favorite. He'd sit beneath trees in our yard, holding conversations ("BARK BARK BARK" "CHIP CHIP CHIP"). He loved winter and romping through snow with Leo and Sephi, and he would happily chase sticks, snowballs, frisbees, or whatever else you felt like throwing. He would bark at strangers and new gamers, and was particularly upset by very tall people. Our going theory was that if you were too tall, Si couldn't see your head and assumed you didn't have one.

Si wanted to be right there in the middle of everything and everyone. It was hard to sit on the floor without getting a snerfle in the ear. He wanted to be close to people, and would sleep on the floor behind my chair during games.

Si amidst bins of books.

A very dapper pirate.

When Leo died, Si mourned. He got extra clingy for a while, gained some weight (because he wasn't romping as much; Sephi was too old and slow for that), and kept close to us. When we brought Artie home some months later, he perked up and played with the new puppy, romped with her, and was typically gentle.

As Si got older, his muzzle got gray. Sephi left us last spring, and Si became Elder Statesdog. He retained his dapper tuxedo look, but with a bit more distinguished coloring. He got slower and while he still chased after Artie, and later, Sandy. He was a bit more snappy with Sandy as she got bigger and a bit more protective of his toys and bones, but he remained responsive to direction. He did develop a habit of zipping off into the woods to chase deer, squirrels, and whatever else, and he was notably slower to come in when called. He remained affectionate, though, and was always down for some petting.

And still very much liked to be on us.

Last Saturday morning, I went to let the dogs out of their crates and found that Si had died in his sleep. He wasn't sick, and hadn't been acting differently or showing any pain. The vet's best guess is that he had a heart attack or a blood clot. He was, after all, almost 9, so although he wasn't exactly ancient by dog standards, he certainly wasn't young, either.

Si was a good, loyal, affectionate dog. He was a good companion to me, Michelle, my kids, my stepkids, and my other dogs. He even made it into an RPG called Strays.

Sandy and Artie have been looking for him lately. They nose around his crate (I haven't had the heart or the energy to take it out to the garage yet), they poke around the woods, they go upstairs or into the other rooms. They're just pups, really, and they don't understand. I think they miss him. I know I do.

Poseidon, Dog of the Oceans, "Si", April 2011-February 2020

Movie #546: Pocahontas

Pocahontas is a mid-90s Disney animated musical very loosely based on the story of Matoaka ("Pocahontas"), but "historical accuracy" isn't something we worry a lot about here. It stars Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Linda Hunt, Billy Connolly, Russell Means, James Apaumut Fall, and Christian Bale.

We open in Jolly Olde Englande, as an expedition is about to set sail for the "New World," under the command of Governor Ratcliffe (Stiers) and the leadership of John Smith (Gibson). References to "savages" abound, and then we switch to the inhabitants of this so-called "New World," including the chief Powhatan (Means) and his daughter Pocahontas (Bedard). What follows is beat-for-beat the story of any number of other Disney films (Moana, Beauty & the Beast, Little Mermaid) - girl wants to be free and explore and not be married at 16 or whatever, but then finds a guy that Daddy doesn't approve of. Along the way, cute animals do things.

I think what I hate about this movie is that it's the standard mid-90s Disney princess fare, and is therefore sanitized to hell and back, but like, we know how this story ends. Governor Ratcliffe, in this movie, shoots at Powhatan and winds up wounding Smith, and gets taken back to England in chains. In real life, he was tortured to death. In the movie, Pocahontas watches Smith (whom she loves, after a magical tree, voiced by Hunt, made everybody speak English rather than teaching Smith to speak their language, which is convenient for the audience but has some weird implications) sail away. In real life, she was captured and encouraged to convert to Christianity, and of course, we know what eventually happened to her people and her land.

I think more than the polished version of history, what bothers me about the movie is the "well, both sides are at fault here" view that it takes. Both sides sing "savages!" in counterpoint, and the message is supposed to be "rash violent action is no good," but like, the white dudes have literally been singing since they got here about how they're going to fuck up the land, steal the gold (there isn't any), and shoot any savage they see. The Natives are more like, the spirits tell us these white dudes are ravening, greedy creatures who will continue eating everything until we're all dead, so we should kill them now while we still can, and of course they're 100% correct. Hard to get on board with the "let's all get along" message when we know how the story actually plays out.

Anyway, I appreciate them casting First Nations actors in the appropriate roles, but if there's one thing Moana showed us, you need someone with that background to write the music and lyrics, too, or else it comes off like a musical written by a white guy (no disrespect to Alan Menken).

My Grade: D
Rewatch Value: IINSIAIFWT

Next up: Point Break

Chill: The Bull is Dead

Chill, chilly-chill-chill. Here's last time.

The envoys are having some problems. Jeanie and Mohammed are on the way to the hospital. Blake and Willa have left Bob Houston's house (and the carnage therein) and are heading to the cabin, but Blake is badly ill. Samantha is in the basement of said house with Sheriff Manny Wall, and trying to explain why two of his deputies are dead. And Jennifer Joyce is on her way into town, and is bringing along Alfred Johnson, another SAVE envoy, for backup.

Samantha realizes that there's no way to lie her way out of this, and instead, tells Manny the truth: She and her friends investigate and hunt monsters, and Casey Lynch has become a monster and killed his deputies. Manny doesn't quite believe this, but is way too traumatized to do much else. Samantha manages to talk him down from a panic attack and he asks what they should do. Samantha honestly isn't sure, so they all decide to fall back to the cabin and regroup.

Meanwhile, a strange fog has sprung up (Willa nearly drives off the road, but manages to right the car in time). She and Blake arrive at the cabin, but Blake immediately vomits blood - the Unknown disease seems to be getting worse. She manages to get him inside, and Jennifer and Alfred arrive. Alfred, as it happens, is a doctor (a medical examiner, but still) and is schooled in the Restorative Art. He stabilizes and treats Blake, and also helps out Willa (who has some cracked ribs). The others arrive, and everyone pools data. Jennifer does a bit of digging, but isn't able to find anything specific enough to help, but Samantha figures that maybe they didn't finish the funeral - by burning the body.

They decide to head back to Houston's house and investigate the basement. Alfred determines cause of death (broken neck and head trauma). Samantha uses Postcognition and sees the deputies in the basement, looking around the room in horror, and then they turn away as Lynch's body heals. The bones, coal-black, regrow, the flesh fills in, and he stands up. He snaps one deputy's neck and caves in the other's skull with his fist, and then bares black teeth in hunger, but stops and salutes before sinking into the floor. 

Manny calls the Blue Mountain Hospital in John Day and checks on Jeanie and Mohammed; both are stable. The disease seems to have run its course. Samantha calls BB and checks in, and BB notes that things are fine, although it's snowing pretty hard. Manny is confused by this. Normally weather starts in town and moves toward the ranch. The envoys worry that the draugr has gone back to the ranch to eat. They know that iron hurt Lynch before, and they only have a few shells with iron left. They decide to stop by Lonnie Patton's place and borrow some rebar. Blake also makes the effort to make some iron arrowheads for Jennifer, and Manny grabs a gas can and some flares. Thus armed, they head to the ranch.

The snow worsens as they approach, but Manny plows through until the truck stops and stalls. They get out, and start plodding through the snow toward the house, but then they see the silhouette of a man. BB, in the house, sees the man as well and realizes it's Lynch, and opens the window and yells at him to fuck off. Lynch charges and turns into the flayed bull, but the envoys are ready.

Willa and Alfred shoot the bull, and Jennifer hits it with an arrow. It stumbles and collapses, and Alfred shoots it again, killing it. It changes back into Lynch, and Manny splashes it with gas and lights it up. It burns for a while, but then the fire goes out, and the corpse is still there, charred. Alfred senses the Unknown, and it's still strong and present...and Lynch sinks into the ground.

The envoys quickly take stock. They only have a couple more iron-filled shells, and Jennifer has two more arrowheads. Simply burning the body didn't work - maybe they need a pyre, something more funerary? Alfred hears the scream of an animal from the barn, and the envoys realize the creature is feasting again. BB, Samantha, Blake, and Manny start building a pyre, while Felix, Alfred, Willa, and Jennifer go after the draugr.

They open the barn and find it eating a horse by the double-handful in its giant form. When it sees them, it snarls and the barn goes completely dark. The envoys don't have a bead to draw, and they're sitting ducks...but then the light comes back, if only around them. Felix stands there with his arm outstretched, finally conjuring the Sphere of Protection. Willa taunts the creature and tries to lure it out, but all it does is growl from the dark. Alfred, though, concentrates on sensing it, feels its direction, and fires. He hears a howl of pain and Jennifer and Willa fire in the same direction. They see the giant collapse and shrink to human form as the darkness dissipates.

Alfred picks up Lynch's body and carries it back to the pyre, and Samantha, noting Manny holding a hatchet (to chop wood for said pyre), realizes that for all its desire to be respected and given a funeral, Lynch is still an undead monster and there are preventative measures for such things - like beheading. They chop off head and burn his body to black ash, which Felix collects and arranges to bury on the ranch, away from prying eyes.

The envoys head back to Boise, ready for a long, well-deserved rest. Manny says that he'll find a way to cover what happened here, although it's likely to cost him his job. Willa invites him to come the ranch, if he wants.

Movie #545: Pleasantville

Pleasantville is a fantasy/comedy starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, Don Knotts, and J.T. Walsh.

David (Maguire) and Jennifer (Witherspoon) are twin siblings in high school; their grade isn't stated, but I assume they're seniors based on comments they make about college. One night, while Jennifer has a date with whom she plans to watch a concert on TV (although the implication is very much "Netflix and chill," as it were) and David intends to watch a marathon of his favorite old-timey sitcom, Pleasantville, the two manage to break the remote. A kindly passing magical TV repairman (Knotts) gives them a new one, and it zaps them both into Pleasantville, where they take over the identities of the two children of the Parkers, George (Macy) and Betty (Allen).

Their presence immediately begins to disrupt the town, as Jennifer has sex with the hunky basketball team captain (Paul Walker) and David shows his boss at the malt shop (Daniels) that he's not bound by the routines that have always governed their lives. First objects, then people begin to take on color, and from there the movie becomes the most ham-handed racism metaphor imaginable (right down to the signs in storefronts that read "no coloreds"). Eventually, they show the town that becoming "colored" is a matter of embracing one's inner passion, whatever it is that consists of (love, art, fear, hate, anger, sex, etc.), the whole town gains color, and the rest of the in-universe world apparently fills in. Before there was no "out" of Pleasantville, but now there's a Springfield only 15 miles away (hopefully not the one where the Simpsons live), and Jennifer opts to stay and go to college there while David returns home to his somewhat unstable mother (Jane Kaczmarek).

So...I like this movie, but it raises some weird questions. Isn't David and Jennifer's mother going to notice that, like, her daughter has just vanished? The magical TV repairman refers to seeing reruns of Pleasantville in which the changes the twins make are visible (which, considering how much sex the people of Pleasantville have after Jennifer introduces them to the concept, you've gotta figure would raise some eyebrows). Have other, normal people noticed this, too? Are George, Betty, and Bill going to enter into a poly relationship now (we can only hope)?

And who is the TV repairman, anyway? He refers to searching for someone who knows Pleasantville trivia as well as David does for a long time...fucking why? The implication is that he's some kind of unearthly being, but I choose to believe that he's just a mindless spirit of chaos, or perhaps a demon, looking for a way to unravel Creation. (OK, maybe not, but there's not a better solution in the movie.)

All kidding aside, apart from the sledgehammer force with which the "metaphor" is applied (and the fact that there are no black people at all in Pleasantville, which makes the racism thing ring a little hollow), my big complaint is that we barely have time to get to know David and Jennifer before they're sucked into the TV. Sure, we learn that Jennifer is rebellious and sexual and David is nerdy and...nerdy, but that's it. We get only dribs and drabs of their relationship, and it makes the impact of the switch to Pleasantville a little weak because we don't have a good enough sense of where they're coming from.

With that said, the effects are pretty impressive and the dialog is funny, so I can't bag on the movie too much. Like a lot of 90s comedies, I wish it thought through its premise just a little more.

My Grade: B
Rewatch Value: Medium-low

Next up: Pocahontas

Sausages & Other Stuff: Oscars Cookin'

Last Sunday were the Oscars, and my predictions were a little off this year, but that's because Parasite kicked all kinds of ass, so I'm happy about that. Anyway, we spent Saturday and Sunday cooking for our annual party; here's the menu:

• Once Upon a Time In Hollywood: Frozen margaritas 
• Parasite: Bugogi crostini with black garlic cheese spread
• Marriage Story: "Coastal" dips (avocado hummus and smoked salmon)
• Joker: Veggie tarts
• 1917: Salad with pickled fruits
• Jojo Rabbit: Bratwurst with sauerkraut and German potato salad
• Ford v. Ferrari: 24 hour leg of lamb
• The Irishman: Ice cream sundae
• Little Women: Raspberry hand pies

The cooking actually started Friday night; Michelle made some crackers for the dips.

Dough

Baking

Finished!

Once I got home from work, we also made the ice cream and the hot fudge sauce for the sundaes. Well, rather, we made the base for the ice cream and then put it in the fridge because we didn't feel like screwing with the ice cream maker.

Fudge sauce

Me separating eggs.

This recipe involves a lot of egg yolks. This makes the dogs happy because they get the whites.

And meanwhile, the milk heats.

When it coats a spoon, it goes in the fridge.

That's pretty much all we did Friday, but Saturday was the Day of Sausages. See, we didn't just buy bratwurst. Every year we seem to do one dish that's ridiculous labor-intensive; in the past we've made molé (which is a multi-day process), we've made and filled pasta, and so forth. This year, since Michelle got me a meat grinder for Xmas, we bought some pork shoulder and made bratwurst.

Spoiler alert: They were goddamn fantastic. They're also quite a bit of work. To start off, we soaked the hog casings for the sausage.

These look horrible, but at least they smell awful.

Crushing ice to go in with the meat.

Also a shitload of pig fat, which I had from the butchery class I took over the summer.

INTO THE GRINDAH.

OUT OF THE GRINDAH.

Sausage, pre-stuffing.

So once the pork is ground up along with ice and fat, it gets mixed with spices (coriander, mustard, cardamom, mace, and a bunch of others I can't remember) and then put in a stand mixer to get smooth.

Post smooth.

 And then the grinder gets fitted with the sausage stuffing attachment. It's...well.

Bareback!

There we go. Always use protection.

 And then the meat gets fed through the machine, and into the casing.

Little...

...by...

...little.

OK, that's about enough of that. Filling the sausages was time-consuming and laborious, but so freaking worth it. Once all the meat was stuffed, the brats got poached a little to cook them a bit (so they wouldn't have to cook as long later), and they got put in the fridge for a while. Much more work to do!

Po-tay-toes.

Yukon gold taters get boiled, and then the skins removed by hand, and sliced up. Vinegar, mustard, onions, and...broth, I think, and then mixed together and set aside.

Taters!

 

 

Also, we started the leg of lamb Saturday evening, but I don't seem to have a picture of that. So that's all for Saturday. Sunday!

Michelle started working on the dough for the veggie tarts and the hand pies. Baking is magic.

Meanwhile, I made up the marinade for the bugogi, which involved ginger, garlic, soy sauce, Pepsi, and various other things.

Beef, soakin' flavor.

More dough, this time to make hand pies.

Filling in the silver bowl...

Giant empanadas, kinda.

At this point, with the pies baking, the beef soaking, and the...snow falling, Michelle started working on assembling the veggie tarts and I started making the dips. Making the dips is pretty simple; assemble the components in the food processor and mash "go."

Salmon dip.

Avocado hummus and the remnants of the ingredients thereof.

The veggie tarts require a bit more finesse, consisting as they do of very thinly sliced squash, carrot, and eggplant wound up into spirals, representing the descent into madness of vegetables.

With sun-dried tomato pesto on the bottom!

Also Parmesan cheese!

At some point in here, the hand pies came out of the oven, Michelle glazed them, and they sat to cool.

Glazed things always look...unfortunate.

Time to start assembling crostini! That requires bread!

Which is then HACKED TO PIECES.

In what would become a strange theme, we needed to slice more things very thinly. This time it was fruit: peaches (frozen, sadly, since they're very much out of season), cherries (likewise), and honeydew melon. Sliced thin, in a bowl with some rice vinegar to pickle.

Meanwhile, Michelle had finished the tarts...

And I moved to grilling the bread for the crostini:

Cast iron is your friend

The salad components were put near each other to get acquainted, include grapefruit segments with smoked salt.

And somewhere in here, Gus came over and lent their penmanship skills.

By this time, of course, the chaos of people arriving and getting the food plated was happening, so here's the final pictures!