Board Game: Stop Thief!

A board game set in a dystopian world where all law enforcement is performed on a gig economy. But on the other hand, folks trying to rob you blind might actually get caught. 

Or, maybe, a reboot of a 1979 family game, and I'm just being silly. 

The Game: Stop Thief!
The Publisher: Restoration Games
Time: 20-30 minutes
Players: Me, Michelle, Amanda

Game Play: The premise is that you're a PI, and you're responding to active break-ins committed by a wide variety of thieves paying homage to thieves in pop culture. It's a hidden movement game, except that the thief isn't a player, it's represented by an app. So every turn, the thief moves around the board:

But the thief moves on numbered spaces. The app gives you an audio (and visual, actually) clue on your turn, which tells you if the thief is actively stealing shit, walking inside, walking outside, opening a door, or breaking a window. It'll tell you what building they're in and what street they're on, but beyond that you need to figure out based on the progression of clues where they are. 

I'd be inclined to just let Parker steal, I'm sure she's doing it for a good cause.

After you get your clue, you play a card, which allows you to move X spaces and sometimes to get a little bonus, depending on which PI you're playing. The first one I played had several cards that gave decent move rates, but that gave three free move if you start outside a building. The second one, who looked a lot like Owen Wilson, had several high-value move cards but then the cards that gave private hints (which show where the thief is right now) or allowed me to pick up my movement cards were pretty anemic. 

Here's the first one. I guess she just likes being outside.

When you catch up to where you think the thief is, you can make an arrest. If you're wrong, you pay a $1000 fine to the bank. If you're right, you get whatever the bounty is on the thief, and a new crime spree starts. First one with enough money to retire (which varies by how many people are playing) wins!

Michelle won the first game, she looks so pleased with herself.

Opinions: I never played the 1979 version, which Michelle tells me had an audio component built into the game board, but obviously didn't have an app keeping track of the thief. I think it's a nice family game, though. There's some strategy and it's not random (no dice, and the only card draw is for which thief turns up), but it's not as involved as a lot of the other games I own, and it's quick to explain and to grasp. 

Keep? Yep.

Board Game: Sleeping Queens

Sleeping queens, feel the beat of the tambourine...

The Game: Sleeping Queens
The Publisher: Gamewright
Time: 10-15 minutes
Players: Me, Michelle, Gus, Amanda

Game Play: It's a card game! Two general types of cards, queens and not-queens. You deal out all 12 queens face down (sleeping), and then everyone gets a hand of the other cards, which do various things. Kings wake queens up so you can collect them, knights steal other players' queens (but can be countered by a dragon), sleeping potions put queens back to sleep (but can be countered by a magic wand), jesters let you flip up the top card and maybe take it, and number cards can be played singly, in pairs, or in an equation (like, a 2 and a 3 and a 5, because 2+3=5) to pick up a like number of cards from the deck. First one to 40 points or 5 queens wins!

Ssh, queens are sleeping

Opinions: Obviously a game with some appeal if you're teaching kids basic math, but it's a fun, light card game on the face of it. It's a little too light for my tastes, I think (if we're playing a card game that we're gonna focus on I want something more involved, and if we're playing something to just shoot the shit I'd almost prefer Euchre), but the artwork is cute, the rules are easy, and it's a fun, quick pass-time. 

Also there's a queen of pancakes.

Keep? Sure

Character Creation: Operators

Totally spies!

The Game: Operators
The Publisher: Samjoko Publishing
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the on

Operators is a game that is dedicated - laser-focused, you might say - on emulating technothriller and spy stories. That's kinda why I was interested. It's definitely a genre that I love, and the existing RPGs on the subject that I've played (Blowback, Night's Black Agents, Headspace, Demon: The Descent) have shown that there are a number of different ways to approach it. And as I'm playing through Hitman 3, I figured it'd fit in nicely. 

And like...there are a lot of things about the game that I like. The card-based system for fights and chases is pretty cool. The step of campaign set-up that has everyone contribute pictures of locales and actors to feature in the "movie" that is the game, likewise awesome and I may just steal that for whatever I wind up running next. 

But the system is this weird hybrid of Fate and PbtA - it's got PbtA sensibilities about sharing the narrative load, failing forward, play to find out, and so forth. But then it uses Fate dice, except not the Fate ladder and not Aspects. If you've got a 1 in a skill, you need 1+ on the Fate dice to succeed. Minuses don't subtract pluses, they just add complications, which is cool, except that all complications require is the player to narrate around them. 

A lot of story-focused games foist some of the narrative control onto the players, and I'm a big fan of that, but it seems to be the go-to move in Operators. Everything has some collaboration. And I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing, mind, I just felt, when I was reading it, that there were some rough edges that hadn't been sanded down (might've been the editing; "scene" and "seen" are not interchangeable, y'all). 

Anyway, I think it's unlikely I'd run it unless a player specifically asked, because I have other games in the genre that I know I like, but never say never. Let's make an operator!

Oh, that's the other thing I thought was weird about this book: It's organized weird. It all just kind of slops together, to the point that information gets repeated or expanded, but I found myself wondering when the game was going to start. On the plus side, lots of examples of play, which I always enjoy. 

Anyway, the game suggests that if I don't have a concept handy (which I don't) that I start by assigning Skills and see where that takes me. Okey-doke. I get five skills at 1, four at 2, and the rest at 3 (remember lower is better). 

Oh, this is fun. Skills are never explained. Like, at no point in the book does the game explain the difference between Talk (Soft) and Talk (Hard), or what exactly they mean by Infiltrate vs. Surveille. Jesus. All right, then. Let's put my five 1s into Shoot, Fight, Move, Infiltrate, and Drive. I'll put my 2s into Talk (Hard), Surveille (not a word), Steal, and Fix, and that means Hack, Treat, Conceal, and Talk (Soft) get 3s. I picture this guy as being trained as a soldier rather than a spy. He's got some chops with regards to stealth, obviously, and he's smart and quick on the uptake, but he's much better at threatening or beating information out of people than hacking it out. Obviously he's American. 

Specials, then (doing...one of their songs). This consists of Training, Discipline, and Trademark. Training is a broad-based background, Discipline is a narrower skill set, Trademark is a signature move. Well, let's delve into the huge-ass background section and see what appeals.

Well, there's a big long section on Delta Force, so sure, we'll say my guy trained in that elite group. For his Discipline, we'll say he's practiced at infiltration, specifically scaling buildings. And for his trademark...hmm. How about "dropping silently from the ceiling", kinda ala Jeno Reno in Leon. 

Inner Turmoil is exactly what it sounds like. It's what makes the character relatable. I think that my guy, while he was never exactly an idealist, went AWOL when he realized that we weren't even trying to do anything positive or constructive in the Middle East. It was literally just about money and power, and every time he was home and someone said "thank you for your service" he just ground his teeth.

Right, that's all but the shouting. I'll say his name is Graham Dalby, born in Allentown, PA. Graduated in the top fifth of his class and got a football scholarship to U Penn, but chose to join the Army instead (in no small part due to pressure from his brother and uncles, all Army men to one degree or another). He really found his place in the Army and decided to go career, and wound up in Delta. He had a few missions he might have felt good about, but mostly it was shit he had in no way signed up for. You follow orders, though, and he did, until he couldn't anymore. Now he's a merc, happy to be his own boss. He's not as smart or subtle as some of the other folks he works with, but he can clear a room and break into a penthouse, so that's gotta count for something.

Graham is white, blond hair (when he doesn't dye it), blue eyes, built like what he is - all American starting football player golden boy. He has multiple tattoos from his time in Delta, which might well be a problem for him (and a potential source of complications) in play.

I think that'll do it. 

Young Centurions: The Sticky Conclusion

Finally managed to finish the "one-shot" that we started here. We were down a player, so we didn't have Mickey back, so we decided he gave a rousing speech and then was abducted by aliens or something (actually I just forgot about him). 

The characters follow their lead to a nameless dive bar, hoping to find the infamous Thick Stan. They walk right in, and CB walks up to the bar and asks to do some work in exchange for food. The bartender looks him over, and then growls at him to go grab a bin from the back and collect glassware. He gets started on that, and the characters spot three thugs at a table in the corner. One of them is an immense fellow, broad of shoulder and girthy of neck, who can only be Thick Stan. 

Penelope, subtle as a train, stands upon a table and addresses the room. She offers money to whoever will give her information about the train wreck that happened today. The room subtly shifts and people surreptitiously glance at Thick Stan, who growls and shakes his head. The money is apparently too tempting, though, because one of the patrons tugs Penelope's dress a bit and motions toward the door.

Penelope and Leigh head outside and hide in a shadowy stoop. Meanwhile, inside, CB hears Thick Stan growl to his cronies, "go outside and make sure girl doesn't talk. Also get money." They stand up, and CB trips, spills glassware on them, and knocks them down to buy the others some time. Thick Stan stands up and lopes toward the door, and his cronies follow. CB knows he needs to go help, but he spilled the glasses and, Nose to the Millstone, he feels he needs to clean up first.

Outside, the dude who offered info finds Penelope and reveals that a young woman, about the same age as Penelope, was in the bar the other day looking for folks to do a "job," and he heard her speaking to Thick Stan in Slovak. In fact, they left together! Penelope slips him some money and he heads into the street...and straight into Thick Stan. 

Stan picks him up by his throat and shakes him till he gestures towards Penelope and Leigh, and Stan tosses him aside. Penelope runs around Stan and finds herself coming up on the two mooks. Stan grabs for Leigh, but Leigh dives between his legs, grabs his suspenders and pulls, knocking him ass over teakettle. 

Penelope runs into the bar, a thug on her heels. CB grabs her and spins her around, sticking out his foot to trip the thug. Penelope then starts talking to the bar patrons, getting them fired up about the possibility of not having to answer to Thick Stan all the time!

The other thug, meanwhile, goes after Leigh, but the Spirit of Exploration is just too damn quick. Leigh dives between this guy's legs and yanks down his trousers, and then runs into the bar. Stan follows, and arrives to a not-terribly-friendly crowd. He tries to stare them down, but Leigh slips in among the people and spreads the rumor that Stan is secretly a cop. The crowd turns against him, and he leaves with a snarl.

Penelope bribes one of the thugs (who are not at all interested in dealing with these kids any further) to tell her where Dobra might be, and they reveal that she said something about the Drake Hotel, downtown. The characters head back to the hospital where they tell Herr Hoffmann that Dobra was responsible for the train crash, but he refuses to believe it. After all, they didn't see Dobra at this bar, and he can't believe that she would do such a thing. The characters decide they need to go talk to Dobra directly.

They secure a carriage and arrive at the opulent hotel, which fortunately puts Penelope very much in her element. She talks to the concierge and learns that Dobra is in the penthouse, and they ride the elevator up (which fascinates Leigh, who's never been on one). They arrive at the penthouse to find a guard reading the paper, and he throws Penelope's little card right back at her and tells them to leave. They talk him into asking if Dobra will see them, and CB shoulders the door open. 

Dobra and a bunch of tough-looking fellows are in the room, including Thick Stan. Things look like they might get ugly, but the characters deftly talk Dobra down, slowly learning about her and her motivations. Penelope, noting that Dobra doesn't seem to care about money, finally realizes that Dobra feels that Everyone Needs to Know (Her) Name. Leigh, following up on that, realizes that Dobra is the Shadow of Fame. 

They each launch a barrage of accusations and speculation about her motive, and Dobra finally gives up and tells the thugs to leave. She agrees to tell Hoffmann what really happened, and tells the other characters to leave her alone. 

The next morning, the characters are summoned to a townhouse to meet with Herr Hoffmann, and he reveals the truth - he is a representative of the Century Club, a society dedicated to the betterment of mankind. The characters are Spirits, embodiments of the new century. "I have so many questions," says Leigh. 

"Ja," says Hoffmann, his eyes lighting up. "Gut!"

Slipstream: The Sad Fate of Sandpit

Last night was Slipstream, so here we go!

Previously, our heroes traveled across the Slipstream to Sandpit, a fragment that was the first recipient of Queen Anathraxa's Death Dust. They found a pirate ship, and landed their own vessel a distance away to sneak up to the village. 

As they approach, they see the pirate crew, under the command of a huge, rotund Memnite, looting the village. Oola notes that the largest building in town is locked from the outside, and she sees no villagers - apparently these pirates have taken the whole village captive. 

And with that, Iris is off! She sneaks around a building, but a pirate spots her. That's fine, it's not like she would have taken him by surprise anyway. She shouts her battlefield introduction and drives him back with a flurry of fencing! 

Zeenia, meanwhile, becomes invisible and creeps up into the midst of the pirates, then unleashes her tentacle swarm and smacks them around. The pirate captain fires a ray gun at her, but misses (he can't really see much more than a shimmer), and the other pirates rush out of the house they were looting to join the fight. 

Oola, meanwhile, climbs onto the buildings and runs across to the chimney of the structure where folks are being held captive. She slips down the chimney, and reassures the Tropicos (the natives of Sandpit). One of them, Jahmon, speaks Streamer and through him she's able to coordinate them starting to escape. 

Outside, the battle continues. Iris defeats the pirate she was fencing with and engages more, but then Zeenia slips behind the pirate captain, wraps a tentacle around his neck, and yanks back. His neck breaks with a crack and the pirates, having just seen their captain get killed by a ghost(?), run. 

The Tropicos thank the characters and try to offer Oola a bag of trinkets as payment, but she refuses. They do ask Jahmon about the Death Dust, and he responds that there is no cure - developing one would have taken years, but the Dust did its work in months. The fragment is slowly beginning to recover and some farming is possible, but the Tropicos are anemic and undernourished. Jahmon also reveals that the Tropicos all have mild psionic ability - they can talk to animals. That was was Queen Anathraxa targeted them, but he doesn't know why that meager power should offend her so. 

He tells the characters that there was talk about going to ask the Oracle of Nivek for help, but the people of Sandpit were too afraid to leave (and they still are). The heroes agree to check out the Oracle for them, and board their craft to fly to the (relatively) nearby fragment of Nivek. 

Nivek is a jungle fragment (it's also "Kevin" spelled backwards, but I don't know the significance of that), inhabited by insect-like beings. The characters can't find the Oracle (rumored to be a huge statue in the jungle), so they land at a lakeside village. As they disembark, they see a crowd of Nivekians listening to another in some kind of regalia, addressing the crowd with frantic chirps and slicks. They ask the Nivekians around them if anyone speaks Streamer and can translate, and they learn that this fellow is frantically trying to calm the people down. He scans the crowd and points out our heroes, and claims that they are the saviors who were revealed to him in a vision!

He beckons them forward, then leans in and whispers for them to play along so he can calm the crowd without anyone getting torn limb from limb. The characters agree, and the priest brings them inside his domicile.

Next time, we find out what he's just volunteered them for.

Movie #636: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a action/fantasy/comedy thing based on a graphic novel (though probably not very closely), directed by Edgar Wright, and starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Aubrey Plaza, Allison Pill, Ellen Wong, and Jason Schwartzmann. 

Scott Pilgrim (Cera) is an early twenties hipster who has just started dating a 17-year-old Chinese schoolgirl named Knives Chau (Wong). His friends and bandmates waste no time telling him how pathetic that is, but he knows. He's not especially interested in Knives in a sexual or even romantic way, he's on the rebound from his "Big Ex."

But then he meets Ramona Flowers (Winstead), who does interest him romantically. To woo her, however, he learns he must defeat her seven evil exes in combat to the death! Video game style!

Wait, what? 

Ah, magical realism, possibly my favorite genre. The movie has hints of it before Scott's first battle with Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), but when the fighting start it just goes completely balls out. And sure, people present at the concert where this happens are taken aback, but it more has the feel of "oh, wow, these two dudes are going to fight over this girl" than "holy shit, that dude is literally flying and just killed two people by throwing fireballs."

Scott proceeds to date Ramona, and all along the way he gets ambushed both by her past (exes played by Evans, Routh, Mae Whitman, etc.) and his. Scott's "Big Ex" is Natalie, now Envy (Larson), whose band made it big and she's now dating Todd (Routh), one of Ramona's evil exes. The conflict of Scott's inner struggle with his own fear of being alone, his own issues with self-worth, his entitlement and selfishness dovetails with his growing feelings for Ramona and his concern that one of these exes is going to kill him. And, of course, he has to come to terms with the fact that everyone has baggage, and maybe Ramona is too much for him?

All of this comes to a head when her seventh and most powerful evil ex, Gideon Graves (Schwartzmann) shows up and takes her back, and Scott has to push himself and defeat his own inner demons to beat him. Defeating said demons means dealing with how he hurt Knives as well as what a shit he's been to his friends, but that's growing up for you. 

So, I really like this movie. I don't often enjoy Michael Cera's acting, but when it's the right role for him (here, Zombieland, Shaft) then he's perfect. Kieran Culkin plays his roommate/mentor Wallace, helping him complete his hero's journey (this is actually called out more or less explicitly in a deleted scene). Winstead manages to play Ramona as somewhat aloof but still charmed by Scott's sweetness, which is hard because frankly Scott deserves a kick in the ass much of the movie. And then there's the supporting cast, which features fantastic bits from Plaza and Kendrick. 

Speaking of deleted scenes, there's another one where Scott, instead of going with Ramona through a magic door at the end, chooses to stay in Toronto with Knives. Again, the relationship looks more like a friendship than anything else - they're back to playing video games at the end - but I like the way it turned out in the theatrical release. Not so much because Scott "gets the girl," but because he chooses to move on with his life, drops out of the band that he was holding back and wasn't really interested in, and follows something (someone) that he's passionate about. Will it work out? Probably not, honestly, but at least both of them will walk away from this relationship having worked through some of their baggage. 

(Oh, also, Cael watched this movie with us and was just blown away by the whole concept of magical realism, which made me very happy.)

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: High

Next up: Scream

Board Game: Escape the Dark Castle

We were going to do a one-shot last night, but then we didn't, so it was board games ahoy! 

The Game: Escape the Dark Castle
The Publisher: Themeborne
Time: 30 minutes or less, like a pizza
Players: Me, Amanda, Michelle, Gus

Game Play: Escape the Dark Castle is a cooperative game in which you're all prisoners (wrongly incarcerated, not that that really matters in context) trying to...do the thing what the title is. The titular Dark Castle is randomly created every game by dealing 15 of 53 cards, and then one of five boss cards. If anyone dies on the way out, you all lose, because apparently these prisoners are fuckin' ride or die.

The Castle before the storm

Every turn, a player turns over one of those cards and reads out what's on the other side. A lot of them have monsters to fight, some have opportunities to get items or rest or healing. 

Note those black dice up there. Those are "chapter dice," while you roll a single "character die." All of the dice have the same symbols - a fist for Might, an eye for Cunning, and a cat's asshole (*) for Wisdom (still not sure about that last one, maybe I'm just not Wise enough). Monsters, then, have a preset number of dice, often plus "roll one die for each player," meaning a given monster might have Fist-Fist-Eye-Eye-Eye-Asshole. Then when you attack, anything that matches one of the monster's dice removes it, and if the monster is still alive it damages the people fighting. The character dice are all different; they'll have a better chance of rolling whatever that particular person is best at. Pretty simple. 

The hapless prisoners

You also have item cards, which do various things - weapons make fighting more versatile, food gives you health, potions do all kinds of shit. You get items after every fight, and you need to use 'em or lose 'em, because a given player can only carry two. 

At the end, you face a boss, who probably has some kind of special wrinkle (I say "probably" because we only faced one and he mopped the floor with us). 

The terror of the underworld, or "Chip" to his friends

Opinions: Well, first of all, this game really needed an editor. The back of the box refers to it as a "fatnasy adventure game", one of the cards talks about the "peel" of a bell, and so on. But if we're gonna have errors, I'd rather they be spelling errors than tortured sentences that make the rules hard to figure out. 

As for the game player, I actually quite like it. The rulebook talks a lot about how it's simple to pick up and play, and I think it is. Said rulebook also says that it'll kick your ass, and that's also true - you really can't just bumblefuck your way through because everyone has to survive, so you have to approach combat, resource distribution, and so on with a careful eye on who's hurting as well as who has the best chance to defeat a given monster. 

I look forward to giving it another go at some point; it'd be interesting to see how a different mix of castle cards changes the experience. 

Keep? Yep.

Character Creation: Azamar

OK. Really doing this today. Woo!

The Game: Azamar
The Publisher: Wicked North Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

So, I've tried multiple times to do a character for this game, and every time I open the PDF (I got it in a bundle years ago) I think, oh, that's a pretty cool cover, character sheet is nice and clean, maybe this will be fun. And then I start reading, get bored, don't keep reading it, and wind up switching to a different game. But today I'm gonna really do it! (Though I don't promise I'll read the whole thing.)

Azamar is a fantasy RPG, and I don't, offhand, see the "hook." But what I do see is a history of the game world (the titular Azamar) that goes through the past millennia but only takes a couple of pages, which is nice. Let's see. Right away there's a slight niggle - I'd really like a glossary. The history is cleanly written but it's using words like "Wyvine" and "the Fabric" and I'm not sure what those mean in context. Ah well, on we go.

OK, having read the history and current state of things, I'm still not hooked, but there are a couple of elements that make me happy. Magic gets a focus and some context, and there were dragons at one point that were one humanity's side, but they seem to have fucked off after big wars with Fiends and other Capitalized Things. Now they're getting coaxed back, which is cool. 

Character creation starts by informing us that we can play beginning characters (Tyros) or veteran characters (no cool nickname supplied). Also that some characters are Blur-Touched and can thus use magic. OK, then.

Meant to start off with concept, but man, I got nothing, except that I want to be Blur-Touched. There's a handy "roll some dice, get a background" table, so I think I'ma use that. The roll gives me "instructed in secret, given the tools for survival." That sounds kinda fun. Let's look at the races and see to whom that might apply. Ooh, yeah, I'll be a Tre'uoall. They're kind of shit on by humanity because the Big Bad of the setting back in the second millennium was one (and humans bear a grudge), so it makes sense that a Tre'uoall with something special about him might be instructed in secret. I'll say my guy has golden eyes (mentioned as a rarity among the race, and believed to be magically delicious significant). 

Guess I should get a little more specific about who trained me. Let's say that my guy was born to a Tre'uoall family in Azamar City. Tre'uoall who dwell in the human cities are considered not true Tre'uoall (kinda sellouts, y'know) but my character's parents saw his weird golden eyes and figured destiny might have bigger things in store. They secreted him away to Dorissit, or rather, the wilds outside Dorissit, where he was raised by his people and taught magic and harmony with the world. I'll say his name is Oza'meri ("Azamar" is a derivative of the Tre'uoall name for the continent, Oza'moora, which is pretty on brand for humans, I gotta say. Figure my guy's name means "of Oza'moora" or something). 

OK, I think we can move along. I get 10d to split between the five attributes, and they get a free point already. 3d is average, so if I split them up evenly that'd be average across the board, but c'mon. Let's see how magic works, I want that to be good. 

Oof. All right. One of the things I'm meant to have chosen during step one is "Trade." I was assuming, given that literally no attention is paid to this in that section, that it was basically part of concept, but it actually acts as a restriction later. To wit, you want spells, you gotta be a wizard. There's no goddamn index in this book, either. Blargh. Fine, I'm a wizard. Anyway, it looks like Willpower is the important skill for magic, and that's under Persona, so I shall dump three of my 10d into Persona for a total of 4d, I'll put one into all the other ones except...hmm, what's my dump stat? Aptitude, I think; I don't see this guy as particularly mechanically inclined. 

Derived traits are next, and OH FFS. The book defines them, but doesn't tell you the fucking formulae. GUYS. Oh, wait they're on the character sheet. STILL. 

Hit Points are 36, Move is 6, Initiative and Vitality start equal to their parent scores (3 in both cases). Now I get 7d in Skills. Skills start equal to their parent attribute, so I have 4d in all my Persona shit. Wonder if there's a maximum? I don't see one. There are Specializations listed, but no info on how or whether to take them. 

You know, there are pre-gens, let's look at one! HA. They don't have Skill points spent. OK, well, I don't have all day. I'll put 2 points into Willpower, boosting it to 6. I'll put one each into Athletics, Dodge, Ranged, Sneak, and Survival, and that's 7d. 

Next step is trying to tell me Hit Points is Str x 3. The character sheet says it's Str x 12. Moving along. 

Fucking hell. The next steps are just the derived traits, which you told me to do in an earlier step. You know, this book has editors credited. What happened?

Anyway, I get 12 Cinema points (7 to start + 5 for my wonky background). I can use those to buy Features. Let's see! Well, Destined seems to fit. Once per session I can pick a roll and add a hefty bonus. That eats 6 of my points.

God, I hate these. There's one called "Snuffler" that means you sniff real good. There's one called "Gifted" that means you...are mechanically inclined. What even. Oh, and then there's one called Magical Aptitude that means you get a bonus with a "specific Magic." What does that mean? WHO KNOWS.

Well, spells have costs, so I assume you have to buy them individually? None of the pregens have spells, although some are Blur-Touched. Jesus, I'm so done. I'm gonna give my guy Purify, allowing him to remove magical effects and make food safe to eat, how bou dah? 

The last step is to figure out starting money and equipment, but there's no guidance on how much I get and I hate shopping anyway. Fucking done. 

Oza'meri is average height and weight for a Tre'ouall of his age. He wears a cloak with a hood and tries to keep his eyes hidden, but y'know, that's hard. He carries a bow for hunting (and, if necessary, self-defense), but prefers to keep his magic for purification. He doesn't want people to see him as hostile. 

(If I were playing this guy, I'd totally use my Destined bonus for combat every session. Guess what your destiny is, sucker?)

Movie #635: Persuasion

Persuasion is a film version of the Jane Austen novel of the same name, and stars Amanda Root, Ciarán Hinds, Simon Russell Beale, Fiona Shaw, Victoria Hamilton, Sophie Thompson, Richard McCabe, and Susan Fleetwood. 

OK, let's see...what happened here. Annie (Root) is a rich English woman whose rich English father (Corin Redgrave) isn't actually so rich because he's in debt. So he decides to "retrench" (rent out his opulent house and move to Bath), which he does to Admiral Croft (John Woodvine). Annie was once proposed to by another sailor man, named Popeye Frederick Wentworth (Hinds), but she rejected him because he didn't have any money, and now he's justifiably cold to her. Also, Annie's older sister Mary (Thompson) is constantly in search of attention and praise. 

Anyway, we're treated to approximately a dozen scenes where Annie is doing a Thing with other rich English people, Frederick gets invited along, and we get a close up of either or both of them to know that they're uncomfortable. This beat, I cannot stress enough, happens over and over and over again. Meanwhile, more and more characters get introduced, the actors all look very much the same, and they all murmur quietly to themselves while looking scandalized by everything. 

Look, I understand that period drama reflects the mores of the period. I get that. But it's so hard to feel any sympathy for these people, pining away for people that they could totally have if not for all these stupid rules. Likewise, they're white British people during the 19th century, so, like, fuck 'em? Everyone looks so sad and everything moves so slowly, making it really jarring during the couple of times where something really dramatic happens. 

Amanda Root anchors the movie as well as can be expected as Annie, but I kept mistaking her for Mary and vice versa. I also never got a strong sense of her personality - like, she seems like she's a black sheep, but why is never really illuminated (and I'm sure if I were a 19th century scholar I'd know, but I'm not, I'm just an idiot who likes movies). Really, the only time things liven up is when Admiral Croft and his wife (Shaw, easily the most interesting character in the movie) show up. 

I'm not necessarily a fan of this kind of movie anyway, but I found Pride & Prejudice so much more watchable. 

My Grade: D-
Rewatch Value: IINSIAIFWT

Next up: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Atlantis: Current Events

Into the ocean, end it all. 

Last time, the heroes prepared to dive into the mysterious underwater city below Deshdara. This time, they...did that.

The heroes drink their Uthlanga Milk, meaning that they can breathe water for 12 hours (except Eithne, who just turns herself into a Triton). They dive below and into the room that Eithne found when she came down here before, and Akala finds the entrance on the other side. The wall of this building has collapsed, and the heroes can see the city stretching out before them. 

Much of the city is dilapidated and damaged, but they see lights in various places. Looming over it all is a pyramid. Akala guesses that the pyramid might be Ophidian or Atlantean in design, and Eithne definitely feels magic coming from it. They split up - Akala and Thanos head towards the pyramid, while Imani and Eithne swim down into the city to see what's making the light.

They find something they didn't expect - agriculture. There are several fields surrounded by bubbles of Vril energy, keeping the ocean out, and human women and girls tending crops of berries and mushrooms. There are also fields that don't have the bubbles growing seaweed in neat rows. Eithne and Imani stay back, not wanting to scare anyone. The humans are pale, but they don't look sick or hurt or enslaved. They swim away and find another building, also in a bubble, this one two stories and rectangular. Inside they see men and boys, and much like the women, these fellows are pale but mostly healthy-looking. 

Not entirely sure what they're looking at, here, they decide to catch up with the others. 

Meanwhile, Thanos and Akala are heading toward the pyramid when they catch sight of a glow down by a series of caves. They find a bubble surrounding the cave formation, and an entrance leading to a dry hollow. They decide to find the others and see about entering it, and with the group united, Thanos sticks his hand through the bubble. He easily passes through it, and the four of them enter this strange cave. 

They find that the outer chamber is dry, but there are tunnels leading off in various directions. This whole system of caves looks natural, too, not carved. Akala spots something in a room down a tunnel, something that looks like clean, white bone. She wriggles through the tunnel and emerges into a room with writing and pictures carved all over it. She immediately forgets about the bone and starts trying to translate it. It looks like Khem with a strong influence from old Atlantean, and it's the kind of graffiti that children and teens would carve. She also picks up the "bone" - it's actually a doll carved from coral.

Thanos, meanwhile, squirms down another tunnel and emerges through the bubble into the water. He hears a loud rushing of water - there's a strong current around here somewhere, but it's not touching him. He turns around and sees a young Triton boy carrying a wooden box, and manages not to spook him terribly. The boy asks (in something enough like Khem that Thanos can understand) why he's not dead, and Thanos responds "magic," which the boy accepts. Thanos says he's an explorer and he means the boy no harm, and tells the boy that there are others in the cave. The boy enters, convinced that Thanos isn't going to hurt him, and meets the others. 

Akala figures out his dialect right away - he's speaking Khem with a strong influence from Atlantean and Lemurian. He introduces himself as Chike, which Imani recognizes as a name common to northern Gondwana, maybe Gorgos or Dabba. Akala fires questions at him, and he tells her that the city is called "Elapi." He opens his casket and takes out a bit of dye or paint wrapped up in seawood, and starts painting the doll. 

Things are fine until he mentions that they love "the Weeping Lady" here. Akala recognizes this as a reference to Oshún, a god from the same pantheon as Orunmila, the one she worships. She makes the mistake of saying that Oshún is one of the less annoying gods, but you can't let any god have too much influence or their heads get too big. Chike panics, drops the doll, and flees. 

The heroes figure that Chike is likely to get adults help, and decide to get out of the caves and head towards the pyramid. As they swim that way, Imani feels the current getting stronger and tells them to stop. They swim down along the sea floor, but if anything it's worse there. Eithne and Akala don't feel like fighting the current since they don't know where it would take them, but Thanos really wants to reach the pyramid and charges ahead. Imani follows to try and keep him safe.

Good thing, too! The current gets remarkably strong very quickly, and sweeps them along the pyramid toward the side. They manage to grab rocks and handholds on the sea floor, and Imani pulls herself onto the pyramid. She yanks Thanos up, and they shimmy along the pyramid to the edge to see what's past it (that's where the current is going). They see...nothing. Thanos drops a light and it's just swept away into the dark. He casts a spell to create light out in the water, but it illuminates nothing, just the abyss. 

Imani and Thanos swim upwards along the pyramid, and Thanos determines that this pyramid is Ophidian in origin but that it's had Atlantean interference over the years. There's definitely a way in, but he doesn't know what and he would need to know more about the pyramid and the city before he could make a safe guess. What they do realize, though, is that the current settles down closer to the top, so they can reunite. Eithne notices that she's feeling tingly, though, and they decide to back off (strong magic has unpredictable effects on Jinn). 

Knowing now that there is a civilization of sorts down here, they decide to make themselves known. They swim towards the city and realize that there are paths connecting the Vril bubbles, but the light these paths give off is faint enough that they're hard to see near the brighter areas. They swim back to the fields, and then to the darker areas (Eithne figures that since Tritons can see in the dark, that's where they might be hanging out). They find a building that has not been maintained or cleaned over the centuries, collapsing and foreboding, and Akala spots claw marks on one wall. Thanos opines that the demon they killed might have been living here. Could they get that lucky?

None of them want to roll those particular dice, so they backtrack and find another building, this on a temple to Oshún, based on the carvings. A Triton woman comes out to talk to them and following a close call where she misinterprets Akala's claim that they killed a demon for a threat, invites Akala, Imani, and Eithne into the temple. She refers to them as "priestesses," and Akala deduces that she's uses the word to mean "women." No such luck for men - she directs Thanos to the building that Imani and Eithne saw earlier, where the men are living. She offers the women food, and they settle in to try and piece together what happened to the city of Elapi.

Board Game: Eschaton

Plans for Predation laid low yesterday, so we played a board game (well, a card game. I mean, it has a board. Y'know) instead. 

The Game: Eschaton
The Publisher: Archon Games
Time: This game took us a few hours; if everyone knew it it'd go a little quicker, but not much
Players: Me, Travis, Gus, Megan, Jenn

Game Play: Eschaton is a deck-building game. The premise is that all the players are heads of cults, preparing for the return of the Dark Lord. You recruit cultists and get relics and monsters and so on to build up enough Favor to be the right hand of said Sauron-like guy. 

Like most deck-builders, you start with a small deck with enough oomph to get you started, and you deal yourself five cards every turn. Cultist cards (which make up the bulk of your deck) give you some amount of Zeal (which lets you draw more cards, cycling your deck faster), Divination (letting you draw from an Arcana deck, which gives you magic and creatures and so on), Influence (which lets you recruit more cultists, but also throw around plagues and curses) and Aggression (which lets you put troops on the board and move them around). You can also sacrifice your cards, meaning they don't come up in your deck anymore but they're still counted at the end of the game, which is a great way to get rid of cards that are useful early on but aren't so much as the game progresses.

Game board, conclave of cultists, etc.

Play proceeds in rounds (every player taking a turn = 1 round), and at the beginning of a new round you draw a card from the Event deck. This either gives you an Event (which are actually often beneficial and give you stuff) or an Omen (which gives you a task to complete before the next Omen arrives). Towards the bottom of the Event deck is Armageddon, at which point the game ends and you total your points. 

Deadly cultist leaders

My arch-nemesis

Like a lot of deck-builders, there are multiple approaches to strategy. You can build up your deck with relics and so on that give you points, which means focusing on Divination. You can try and conquer the board, which requires Aggression. You can send plagues (which kill off troops on the board) and curses (which reduce an opponent's Influence), but that costs your Influence, which means you won't have as much to spend on cultists. In our game, Travis won, but only because he'd picked up an Aura that doubled the point rewards for Relics and he'd picked up a shitload of Relics. If I'd been able to dispel that aura, I'd have won, and my strategy was chasing Omens. 

Opinions: So, I think the consensus was that the game has potential, but it's lacking in a lot of areas. For one thing, the player area boards are just shit.

So there's a space for your deck, and then the bigger space is the sacrificial pyre and a space for Auras and curses and so on. But no space for your discard pile, and the whole thing is two separate pieces, which does nothing to help organization. 

Also, the game is just so damn grey. The only bits of color are the cubes, and the board has some design elements that matter (borders between territories) and a bunch more that don't (roads within and across territories, mountains, forests, etc.). Color would have done wonders toward differentiating them, and would have made the map, like, interesting to look at. Likewise, the font on the cards is really hard to read (it's not critical because of the way the cards are laid out, it's just annoying). 

Rules-wise...I dunno, I think it's fine. It's a solid enough deck-builder and I didn't feel while playing it that the result was arbitrary. There's always some first-time fumbles and it'd be interesting to play again with the same group and see if knowing the game improves it at all. I've played much worse deck-builders, but I've also played much better ones. 

Keep? Sure, for the moment.

Chill: Willa's Bad Night, Mr. Buck's Last Day

Today we finished up our current case in Chill. On we go!

Last time, four of the envoys (Father Will, Blake, Samantha, and Jennifer) spent most of the night running house to house dealing with Mr. Buck, and Jordan and Willa were nowhere to be found. So let's catch up with them.

They leave the restaurant and start chatting about Mr. Buck and his head, and how they might be reunited and what that might accomplish. Jordan texts Elle, the girl who found Mr. Buck's head, and asks if they can stop by tomorrow to borrow it. And then they look around and realize that they're not where they should be - they're way the hell out in Bruneau. In fact, they're right next to where they were when they encountered a very powerful ghost over three years ago. 

Concerned with how this happened, Willa starts to turn the car around, and then looks in the backseat and sees her father. 

(Do note that Willa killed her father in self-defense; it's the fact that he haunts her that got her into SAVE.)

So Willa kinda freaks out and starts driving straight ahead, gripping the wheel with white knuckles. Jordan grabs her lip balm and makes a mark on the dash to activate Line of Defense. The ghost lunges forward and yells "NO" and strikes Jordan, but then the ward goes up and he vanishes.

They drive on the down the road a ways and Willa starts to calm down. Jordan tries to text the others, but there's no signal out here. They figure they should be out in civilization soon, but then the right front tire explodes. 

Willa loses control and the car careens off the road onto the dirt. Fortunately they're both wearing seatbelts and don't suffer serious injury (just Mild, haw haw). Willa sees her father pacing in front of the car, drinking from a phantom whiskey bottle (Old Crow, if you're interested). He hurls the bottle at her and she flinches, but it vanishes when it hits the windshield. He disappears, and Willa and Jordan talk this out.

They don't want to wait until sunrise, but they don't really want to call anyone anyway (even if they could), because that might put them in danger. They decide to use the same trick they used on June Stevens, the poltergeist - Willa will summon him with Voice of the Dead, and Jordan will draw a Line of Defense around them. 

Willa activates Eyes of the Dead, but doesn't see her father. They get out of the car and Willa spots him - sitting in the bed of the truck. He glances toward Jordan and she suddenly loses equilibrium, but activates a Mental Shield and cancels the effect. Meanwhile, Willa uses her Voice of the Dead discipline and traps her father, while Jordan draws a circle around them...but now Willa is trapped with her father's ghost.

Her mouth goes dry and sick, and she smells cheap whiskey. She gags and tells her father that he's the most disgusting person she's ever met, and demands to know how to get rid of him. He tells her - he wants to see her beg for her life, and he wants to hear her say he was right. Willa refuses; they both know it'd be a lie. But he's telling the truth, and Willa can see that. 

He finally gets fed up, though, and Willa finds her voice disappear. She forces him out and he punches her in the head. She follows up with a strike to his temple, but isn't able to focus and it goes right through him. He punches her again and cracks her ribs, and, summoning all of her strength, she tackles him right against the barrier.

Willa collapses, sweating. Her father is still trapped in the circle, but just then the police arrive. He calls a tow truck for them, and Jordan carefully keeps the circle intact. It takes hours, but they eventually get back to Boise, where they try to call the others, but without luck. They head back to the ranch, send one last text ("Sorry. We're OK. Explain in morning.") and get some sleep.

And indeed, in the morning, Blake is there and Father Will arrives shortly thereafter. They talk about what happened a bit, and then start planning out their approach. Jordan and Willa head out to Elle's house to get the skull from her, and they drop Blake and Will at Blake's car (whereupon he goes and picks up Samantha and Jennifer from the hospital). Elle gives Jordan the skull without any hitch, and Jordan looks it over, but sees no obvious cause of death. The skull is clean and bleached. 

They head back to the ranch and gather round the skull. Samantha notes that while Mr. Buck has been appearing the neighborhood for years (based on the reports of hornets and blackouts), he only got aggressive last year - which was the August after Elle found his skull. When the skull was just in the woods, he didn't hurt anyone, apart from the occasional hornet stings. Maybe they could return the skull to him? Or maybe it needs to be buried with him? 

Blake asks if Willa could summon Mr. Buck the way she has other ghosts, and she isn't sure - normally it only works with incorporeal creatures, but they aren't sure where Mr. Buck goes during the day. She tries it, and Jordan circles her again to keep anything nasty from getting out. 

It works, up to a point. Willa feels a presence, but it's not strong (or focused?) enough to communicate in words. All she feels is fear and the sense of being trapped. She tries to reach out and calm it down, and it seems to settle a bit. And then she shows it the skull, trying to communicate that they wish to give it the skull, but something gets lost in translation and she feels a thousand hornets sting her. 

Desperately, she tries to picture the place where the skull was found, but that just makes it worse. She sees herself as Mr. Buck, sawing through a dead limb with the chainsaw, but then his ladder wobbles, his saw slips and hits his neck, his muscles clench up and the blade cuts right through. His head rolls away, and the last thing he sees before dying is one little hornet land on his nose. 

Willa doubles over in terror and Jordan ends the circle. She explains what she saw, and curls up into a ball to sleep. The others talk over their next move. They decide to take the skull to Mr. Buck's grave (Jennifer does some quick research and finds that all reports indicate the head was never found, so presumably he was buried without it) and see if that does anything. They put Willa to bed; she's pretty exhausted.

They find Mr. Buck's grave and set down the skull, but see no immediate response. Samantha uses Postcognition to look back to sunrise, to see if Mr. Buck materializes here, but she sees nothing - apparently he appears near where he died. They consider looking ahead to see what would happen if they dig up the grave to reunite body with head, but Premonition doesn't allow Samantha to see that far. They decide they'll come back closer to sunset.

Meanwhile, Willa wakes up, but finds she can't see or hear. She sits up and feels something sit next to her. She lashes out at it, but doesn't connect with anything and winds up on the floor. She tries to cry out, but she again has no voice. Something kicks her in the ribs, and she hears her father growl "Just wanted you to know." Her senses return and she crawls into a corner and holds her knife out. She activates Eyes of the Dead, but he's nowhere to be seen. 

Darnell comes in and talks her down, gets her up, and takes her into the living room. Auntie Dee comes in with Sweet Baby Jesus and keeps her company, while Darnell wraps her ribs (again). He gives her some very strong pain drugs and then texts Jordan.

The others head back to the ranch and everyone rests a bit. Jordan talks to Darnell and Jennifer, and they consider whether Willa should stay here, but Darnell points out that physically she's not badly injured. Can they afford to leave her here, especially with Jennifer and Samantha also injured? 

Willa wakes up and they explain the plan to her, and the group heads back to the graveyard. Samantha uses Premonition and sees Mr. Buck standing at his grave as the others finish filling it back in. He drops his saw, the hornet's nest falls off his neck, and he vanishes.

Samantha laughs, not able to believe it's that simple. Father Will calls Detective Jackson to ask him to keep people clear of this cemetery, and he agrees. Jordan sets Willa up in a lawn chair with a Line of Defense around her. And then they all start diggin'. 

It takes a few hours to get down to the vault, and ask they start prying it open, they hear hornets. All the electronics go out, and a massive swarm of hornets closes in. Willa panics and tips the chair backwards, and the skull rolls away. Mr. Buck lunges for it and Jordan tries to make a bigger circle around the whole grave. Samantha grabs the skull and Willa yanks her into the circle...but Jordan can't muster the strength to activate the discipline. Mr. Buck gestures at Samantha and she feels a wriggling in her nose, but powers through and the effect doesn't take. She tosses the skull to Jennifer, but Mr. Buck unleashes a huge horde of hornets and they sting Jennifer within an inch of her life. Jordan manages to get the circle active, and all the bugs vanish, but Jennifer is badly hurt.

She drops the skull, but Blake grabs it and puts it on the neck of the corpse in the coffin...and everything goes quiet. Mr. Buck drops his saw, and then brushes the hornet's nest away, revealing his head. "I'm sorry," he whispers, and vanishes. 

The envoys fill in the grave and take Jennifer to the hospital, and Will texts Jackson to let him know that it's over. Jackson isn't quite ready to join SAVE, but he becomes an ally to the HQ, which is likely to be hella useful going forward. The others set about recovering - Samantha is a bit phobic about wasps, Willa is rattled by her encounter with her dad - but the case is closed successfully. Father Will is pleased to note that redemption, of a sort, might still be possible for creatures of the Unknown.

Slipstream: Across the Universe

Into the black! Well, more like pink, I think, 'cause it's not really outer space. Anyway.

Our heroes escape from Simba and begin their trek toward Sandpit, a fragment that was all but destroyed by Queen Anathraxa's Death Dust. Iris takes the helm and pilots them along the Slipsteam Wave, heading around Amicus towards Levitos:

But when they cross the Slipstream Wave, Iris loses control and the ship shuts down. The Wave bumps them some distance away, but Oola manages to get the ship working again and they're on the move. They break out of the Wave and head back towards Levitos, and land, hoping to buy a compass and some weaponry. 

(Fun fact: You take a penalty in Slipstream if you're navigating without a compass, but a compass is not listed in any of the equipment lists.) 

Oola goes and buys a backup first aid kit, and as she heads back toward the shop where Zeenia and Iris are shopping for knives, sees a couple of Robot Men with man-catchers and several Levitosians with pain sticks waiting outside. Knowing that Levitosians have a habit of enslaving other races and forcing them to work in their atomic furnaces as punishment for "crimes," she telepathically contacts Zeenia and warns her. 

Meanwhile, inside, Iris has noticed that the shopkeeper is acting a little strange. Not fearful, just...weirdly eager to get their transaction done and them out the door. She asks if what they're doing is legal and he says it is, but is obviously hiding something. They decide just to buy the compass, and indeed, when they leave, the authorities stop them and verify that they just bought a compass. They're grouchy, but at least they're not enslaved. They decide to stop on Gemopia, which is where the crystal that vibro-knives are made of comes from. It's on their way. 

Gemopia is peopled with crystalline folks, but also organic lifeforms. They see some goat-like creatures as they disembark (Zeenia tries to talk to them, but Iris informs her that they're probably not sapient). They spot a couple of Gemopians coming out of a cavern, and Iris asks them for directions. He (?) indicates that there's a market in the cavern they just came from, but when the path forks, stay left. 

They get to the fork, but Oola is curious and wants to take a peek. They argue a bit (Iris rightly points out that time is a factor here), but then she notices a very large lizard skittering on the ceiling towards them. She shoves Oola out of the way just as the lizard drops, flipping over and biting at Iris. Oola, however, has already put her newly designed electric screen up around Iris and the lizard's teeth don't find purchase. Zeenia blends into the surroundings and bonks the lizard on the head with the pommel of her sword, and it flees back down the tunnel. ("Happy now?" says Iris.)

Heading down the correct path, they find an underground market - mostly Gemopians, but a few spacejocks shopping. They find a weaponsmith and he informs them that he has vibro-blades, but no batteries (they're not made here). That's fine; Iris buys a blade made from "young crystal" (only about a century old), Zeenia asks about a weapon for her. The merchant says that he could made bands with vibro-crystal to go on her tentacles, kind of like brass knuckles, and she flutters a bit. "Danger jewelry!" They work out a price, she pays him, and he gives her a knife with a crack in the crystal in case there's danger where they're going. 

Since they still need batteries for the vibro-blades, they decide to stop at Vergilmir, which Iris knows has a lot of settlers from all around the Slipstream. Vergilmir is a jungle fragment, but there are cities on the ground level (so no mucking about in trees this time). As they're landing, they notice some people watching them. These folks are in the treetops, and have long prehensile tails. Oola also notices a pile of random stuff behind them, and warns the others that they'll need to keep an eye on their possessions.

As they land, a man with a long rifle approaches and asks if they'd like to pay for an attendant to watch their ship, in order to keep the natives away. They consider it, but finally decide Iris will stay behind while Oola and Zeenia go to buy batteries (Zeenia isn't keen on the idea of shooting anyone to protect their stuff). Iris spots a native creeping towards the ship and calls him out, but he stays put and their communicate, toss each other snacks, and so on. 

Zeenia and Oola get back and find the ship open and their fire extinguisher gone - apparently that native was just a diversion. Reflecting that it could be worse, since they could have lost their newly acquired compass, they take off and head for Sandpit. 

Iris flies them between the Ice Cloud and Charadon, and enters the Slipstream Wave, but this time they're downstreaming (riding the wave rather than fighting it). They still lose power and get dragged along further than they mean to, but they get the ship working before they get past Sandpit and exit the Wave.

Sandpit may have been beautiful once, but it's a blasted wasteland now. The water is sludge and the land is desert and rock, with a few villages dotted here and there, barely growing crops. As they fly over a gully, Iris spots a pirate ship hidden there. They consider flying on, but reason that if the pirates are up to no good, they should probably do something about it. They land the ship a little ways off and disembark, intending to catch the pirates unawares as best they can.

End of the Hunt

Saturday we said goodbye to our dog, Artie. I want to tell you her story, which is all too short. 

Artie came to live with us some months after Leo died. We found her through a local rescue; she and several of her siblings were being fostered. All of them were sweet little puppies, but Artie was the one that really clicked with us. 

When we brought her home, she immediately made friends with Si and Sephi. Sephi was an old dog by this point, but she perked up a bit and licked the new puppy, and that was nice to see. Si chased and cuddled with her, and the two of them were packmates quickly. 

After Sephi passed, Artie became a good, if firm, big sister to Sandy...

And later, when Si passed, she became elder statesdog at the tender age of not-quite-two, and big sister to Terri. 

 Well, anyway, older sister to Terri. 

Artie showed us her personality right away. She was affectionate, but on her terms. She was playful, but not necessarily interested in fetching or playing tug-of-war. She loved being outside and hunting and smelling for various woodland creatures.

Toad hunt. Well, toad sniff, really

Chipmunk hunt

Sister hunt

Chipmunk hunt, redux

Sunbeam hunt

 

She was headstrong, stubborn, and independent. For all that, though, she knew when she needed help. Her coat wasn't really suited to Ohio winters, so we bought her a sweater:

And she would very patiently wait to have it put on before going out. She was pretty good about signaling what she wanted; she would ring the bell, and if she wanted out, she'd go stand near her crate. If she wanted a snack, she'd go into the kitchen and look at her food. And so on.

Successful sunbeam hunt!

In summer 2020, in addition to everything else that made that year awful, Artie started getting repeated bladder infections and then starting peeing blood. We took her to the doctor, they ran tests, and discovered that she had a mass in her abdomen. They said she might live weeks or maybe months. She lived almost a full year. 

Chipmunk hunt continues

Over the last few months, she started losing weight and getting weaker and slower. She'd have good days, but they got less frequent. She started growing dehydrated as the cancer ate everything she took in, and at the end of last week the vet told us that we had reached the point that further interventions were either going to have to get a lot more aggressive or be pointless. We made the decision to let her go.

We took her to the vet, we gathered around her and told her we loved her, and she refused to lie down. She stood there looking at us, very clearly wondering why we weren't going home and being done with this nonsense. 

I cried for Artie a lot more and a lot harder than I did for my other doggos, because Artie didn't get a fair shake. She was so sweet, she was so active and vivacious, and the cancer just stole her from us. Fuck cancer. 

 

I want to end this on a more positive note, though, so although it's a little macabre: Artie caught a squirrel last week. She was so inordinately proud of herself, and she made every effort to eat the thing whole before I got it away from her. She'd been trying her whole life to catch one, and with her pack's help, she finally managed. 

And then, a few days later, she was gone. Bucket list achieved, I suppose. The hunt was successful.

Artemis, Dog of the Hunt, "Artie," May 2018-June 2021