Atlantis: Great Work, Great Respite

Finally managed to play Atlantis (it's been a while due to various things). Here's last time.

The characters sit back and relax after the fiery chaos, Imani and Thanos especially ('cause they kinda got the shit kicked out of them). All four of them continue helping the people of Elapi improve their city. Specifically: 

Thanos takes some of the mechanically inclined Elapians into the Vril pyramid and together they suss out how it all runs. He teaches them how to maintain and, to an extent, manipulate the energy flows, so that the city doesn't suddenly flood. 

Akala takes a small contingent of citizens up to Deshdara and meets with Ashmerata, establishing relations and trade between the cities. 

Imani teaches some of the Elapians how to fight and defend their city (she tries to recruit a few of them to help her take on the Gorgons, but they're not interested). 

Eithne brings her understanding of engineering and alchemy to bear and helps the Elapians design new architecture that will resist the crushing depths of the ocean, should the pyramid fail.

The heroes leave Elapi, return to the surface, and soon decide to go their separate ways for a while. They split up, and spend nearly two years on their own. 

Eithne travels to Hesperia searching for a particularly difficult-to-find alchemical component. While there, she has an unexpected fling with an Atlantean sorceress named Sora. She's sworn off getting involved with other Jinn - it just never works out.

Imani goes in pursuit of the god Eloah, whom she saw in a Vril pool when she was young. She doesn't manage to catch up with the god, but does find a temple of Eloah in Joktan and spends time there learning. 

Thanos spends his time in and around Khem trying to free more slaves, and he avoids using magic to do it. He feels that, for one thing, over-reliance on his magic will mean he'll be unprepared if for some reason he can't fall back on it. And besides, he uses the Dark Arts. He doesn't want people's freedom tainted.

Finally, Akala returns to the flying city of the Owl-People. The city has been slowly losing altitude, and she's checking on what kind of progress has been made. While there, she works with the city authorities to bring a criminal gang to justice! 

And then, in the year 512 Meta Kataklysmos, the nation of Khem closes its borders and cuts off all contact with the outside world. This is definitely something that draws attention, and so the four heroes meet up once again in the capital city of Dabba (northwest of Khem), Cyrene, also called the City of Spiders. 

Movie #651: Secretary

Secretary is an erotic drama starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, Jeremy Davies, Stephen McHattie, and Lesley Ann Warren.

Lee (Gyllenhaal) gets out of a mental institution and rejoins her rather dysfunctional family, and almost immediately starts self-harming again. In an attempt to have some kind of life, she takes a job as a secretary for a lawyer named Edward Grey (Spader), and while he's pretty intense and rather weird, things go pretty well...

...until one day he bends her over a desk, forces her to stare at a typo she made, and spanks her. (There's actually a bit of D/s foreplay that comes before this, but that's the big intense moment.)

The movie follows rom-com patterns in some ways; girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl leaves other boy (Davies) at the altar to get first boy back, but the central conflict here is less about Lee and her awakening and more about Grey and his repression. He finds his own urges disgusting and that leads him to reject Lee and, frankly, do some pretty awful things, before Lee finally breaks through to him and they settle into a life that allows them both to be who they are.

It didn't occur to me until I watched the movie this time that it's about a young, naive woman who goes to work for a rich(er) fellow named Grey who is into BDSM, and note that this came out years before Fifty Shades of Grey. Coincidence? Probably, but who knows (and I haven't read the short story on which Secretary is based). It's tempting to say that this movie portrays BDSM more accurately, and maybe that's true in some ways, but I think it's fairer to say that it portrays how BDSM can go wrong more accurately and why communication is so important. In fact, the only bit of the movie that I really dislike is how Lee's erstwhile boyfriend/fiance, Peter, is treated. She leaves him at the altar, and he finds her sitting at her boss's desk wearing her wedding dress, refusing to leave. One can forgive him for being a bit confused, and I really wanted Lee to, if not be kinder to him, at least apologize later.

Performances make the movie. Spader is, as usual, deliberate and captivating in his portrayal of Grey. Gyllenhaal goes from mousy and damaged to sexy and less damaged, and I really appreciated that when she and Grey break up, she goes looking for other doms rather than repressing herself or self-harming again. 

The movie's final sequence: Grey leaving for work and Lee staying behind in their nice suburban house, with the neighborhood kids playing in the street and everything looking very cozy, pulling in to Lee who turns and stares into the camera for a beat, raises some questions. Michelle's interpretation was that Lee was getting bored, or at least restless, with their arrangement (let's be honest, Lee is very much into topping from the bottom). Mine was that Lee was saying "our life is as normal as yours, we live among you." 

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium-low

Next up: Sense & Sensibility

Slipstream: The Early Bird Gets the Wormtongue

Here's last time! Squawk! 

Our heroes stand before the throne of King Throx of Avia. Their compatriots amongst the Bird-Men, Captain Scrawk and his soldiers, are outside engaging the black-feather Bird-Men loyal to Prince Craw. And indeed, Prince Craw is here, whispering in his father's eye like a serpent. 

Iris has seen King Throx before, though never met him. She notes that he's thin and pale, a shadow of his former self. The royals are defended by three well-armed Bird-Men bodyguards, and the characters have only themselves and Whoot, the guard that defended them during the last session. 

Iris charges forward and gives her battle cry, and the soldiers attack while Craw hangs back and guards his father. Iris fights with the bodyguards, as does Whoot, while Zeenia sneaks past (invisible!) and tries to get to the king. Oola, having recently developed tech that lets her turn invisible, does so and tries to sneak through the guards - but one spots her. "Invisible! They're invisible!" he cries, and blasts at her with his ray gun. Oola just creeps up and puts him to sleep. 

Zeenia, meanwhile, slips past Craw and tackles Throx, knocking the crown from his head. Unfortunately, the crown that's causing the trouble is on the Prince's head, not the King's (Zeenia just misheard this info during the planning stages). Craw spots her and flies in to the attack!

And then suddenly, the whole floor tilts. Oola and Iris keep their footing, and they continue the battle. Iris runs one of the guards through and charges forward, but Whoot takes some wounds and falls. The sleeping guard...continues sleeping. 

Zeenia battles the Prince, Iris joins, and Oola runs up and tries to yank the crown off, but Craw is too fast. The floor shifts again and people switch targets - Iris engages Craw, and steps back to shoot at him rather than swordfight (since he's clearly the stronger fighter). The sleeping guard awakens and flies in to attack Oola, and the other guard stabs into Zeenia's gelatinous body and pierces her water tank. She crumbles, gasping for breath, and then the floor shifts again, dumping her off the platform to a 500 foot drop!

But all is not lost! Whoot recovers and fires at Craw, stunning him, and Iris follows up with another shot that drops the Prince. He falls dead, and his crown rolls off his head. The king stands straighter, and the remaining guards flee just as Captain Scrawk and company enter the hall!

Zeenia is retrieved and healed, and the heroes are given the king's thanks. Captain Scrawk tells them that Prince Boolar is being sent to die in a mine on Radios, but getting to him would require breaching the Barrier, and no one knows how to do that without being blown up by Queen Anathraxa's warships. The king tells the heroes that if they return Boolar to him, their names will be sung along with Avia's greatest heroes and they will earn his respect and a showering of kingly gifts. The heroes, of course, are in. 

Captain Scrawk gives them some money and weapons, and tells them that Whoot will accompany them as a bodyguard and messenger. When they have news, they're to drop him on a hi-tech fragment so he can get home and inform the king. For now, though, they need to find a way to do the impossible - breach the evil Queen's Barrier!

Chill: Put Daddy Down

Today we ended a case! Here's last time.

Blake awakens at the ranch, with a big Flintstone lump on the side of his head (as the Fresh Prince once said). He gets up and walks around the house, but doesn't see anyone - no Dee, no Darnell, no one. He goes downstairs and finds Carla, Willa's grandmother, in the living room watching TV. He asks if she's seen anyone, but she hasn't, not even the dog (Sweet Baby Jesus) in a while. He gets them some sandwiches, and then texts the others. 

The others, meantime, are at the storage unit where they saved Hilary (Willa's mom) from hanging. Blake doesn't seem to have any issues, so they decide to head back to the ranch. Melinda, unfortunately, has somewhere to be, so she goes off on her own.

At the ranch, though, Blake is very much having issues. He goes outside to look around, but feels so confused that he can't make the phone work. He goes back into the house, and once he gets into the living room his head clears. He texts Darnell and gets back a bunch of gobbledegook - "lkn 4 dag bbr". He tries to call Dee but gets her voicemail. 

Blake goes and looks around the house, but doesn't see anything amiss. He goes back to the living room and Carla is gone, but he finds her on the porch smoking. They chat for a moment, and then something unseen strikes her, knocking her backwards. Blood gushes from her face and her head strikes the porch. Blake stands up and tries to protect her, and Douglas appears in front him and tells him to move. He refuses, and Douglas punches him and knocks him down. Blake gathers his wits and activates the Quicken discipline, and pulls Carla into the living room. Douglas appears outside the door and snarls in rage, but can't get in (Blake doesn't know it, but the living room is still warded).

As this is happening, the other folks are driving up the road to the ranch (specifically, Father Will is driving). Something jumps out into the road and Father Will hits the brakes, but not fast enough. They get out of the car and realize that Ruth (Dee's niece) has been hit, and is on the ground unconscious. Jordan snaps into EMT mode and starts working on Ruth. 

Darnell then steps out of the woods and tries to explain or help, but can't seem to get his thoughts together. Jordan uses Mental Shield on him and his head clears, and he tells them that the four of them that were at the ranch (Dee, Ruth, Jeanie, and Darnell) left it to chase the dog. They got separated in the woods. Realizing that something bad is happening, they get Ruth into the car and head up to the ranch. 

They pull up to the front door and start taking Ruth into the house. Jordan spots blood on the steps and calls out to Blake, but then the bottom step shatters. Jordan keeps her footing and Willa grabs Ruth. She activates Eyes of the Dead and doesn't see anything, but feels Douglas behind her. She looks behind her and sees Douglas there. He tells her to "bring the bitch out." She refuses, and he gestures at her, rendering her blind and deaf. 

Willa yells that her father is here, and Beth Anne activates her Eyes of the Dead. Seeing Douglas, she leaps onto the porch and socks him (Astral Attack!) knocking him backwards. Father Will tries to get into the living room to help out, but his feet stop working and he falls. He crawls in and regains his footing, and Jordan, finally having had enough, activates Sphere of Protection. 

Willa's sight and hearing come back, but she doesn't follow Jordan into the living room. Instead, she staggers out off the porch and uses Voice of the Dead, drawing her father's ghost into her. Beth Anne looks on, ready to punch again. 

"Let me have her," Douglas growls. 

"Not gonna happen," she responds. 

"I don't want to hurt you," he says. "I just want her."

"She's changed," says Willa. "She's different now."

"Doesn't matter," he retorts. "You wouldn't understand. You're still alive."

Willa realizes that her father has changed. Before when she channeled his ghost, he didn't really want to move on - he wanted her to hurt and grovel, but that was really it. But now he wants to hurt Carla, and that's really all he wants. Willa isn't at all ready to let that happen, though (partially because she's pretty sure Carla won't survive it), so she says "You can take it out on me."

Willa and Beth Anne suddenly feel the world spinning and then blacking out, much like being entirely too drunk. They both collapse, and the windows on the front of the house break. Father Will looks outside and see them lying on the ground, and Jordan hands over triage to Darnell and goes out to help them. They regain consciousness, and Willa uses Voice of the Dead again - but her father doesn't respond. "I think he's gone," she says.

"Gone for now or gone-gone?" asks Beth Anne.

"I think gone-gone."

The others help Beth Anne and Willa into the ranch. Blake notices their breath smells like cheap whiskey.

Movie #650: Black Widow

Black Widow is the...I dunno, millionth? movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and stars Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz, David Harbour, Ray Winstone, O-T Fagbenle, and Olga Kurylenko.

Much of the movie takes place shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, when Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) is on the run from...whatever branch of international law enforcement General Ross (William Hurt) works for. She evades him because he's a fuckin' chump, picks up a trailer in Norway from her homie Mason (Fagbenle), and promptly takes possession of some mysterious red junk that undoes Red Room mind control, courtesy of her sister Yelena (Pugh). Sorting this all out reveals the truth behind the "Dreykov's daughter" lines from waaaaaay back in Avengers, as Dreykov (Winstone) is revealed to be the sadistic fucker behind the Red Room. 

The trick, of course, is that Natasha's "mother" Melina (Weisz) is the scientist that came up with the mind control, and her "father" Alexei (Harbour) is the super-powered muscle he used to employ. She and Yelena recruit them both to take on Dreykov's flying fortress and his deadly, superpowered daughter Antonia (Kurlyenko), now known as Taskmaster. 

I freely admit I was not expecting to enjoy this movie as much as I did. That's nothing to do with anyone involved. I was just afraid it wasn't going to be engaging because we know the future - obviously Natasha survives because she dies in Endgame. Obviously she's going to take down the Red Room because it's not a factor in future stories. But what I wasn't expecting was for the movie to focus as much on Yelena as it did, nor to focus on Natasha's erstwhile family and her past while still keeping the emphasis on the "now" of the movie. Taskmaster turning out to be Antonia was also a nice move.

The cast is fantastic, especially Pugh as Yelena. I think Black Widow as a character kind of suffered from being brought into the MCU when and how she was - way back in Iron Man 2, and being so strongly associated with SHIELD that after SHIELD fell (and after Joss Whedon's handling of the character in both Avengers movies) she never really had a chance to become as strong a character as she should have. I think Yelena Belova has the potential to carry a movie much sooner than Natasha did, and I hope she does because she's a lot of fun to watch.

The other thing about this movie is that the fight scenes have some real crunch to them. The fight choreography was clearly trying to convey different themes in different scenes, from the messy apartment fight where the sisters reunite to the fast, efficient fight between Taskmaster and Natasha. Sure, Natasha takes enough damage that she absolutely should be dead, but whatever, it's a comic book movie. 

This is a movie that could have been a lot more bland, or even insulting, than it was, in the hands of a director that didn't have the same sensibilities as Cate Shortland. To wit, Alexei's line asking Yelena if she's on her period was in the script. Her response, where she bears down and points out that she doesn't get a period because she was sterilized without her consent, is perfect because it doesn't let Alexei or the audience off easy. I could have done with a lot more of that in the movie generally, but I think it all came together well. 

Also, the meme with young Natasha (Ever Anderson) asking to go back home and snarkily saying that no one would ask to go back to Ohio can go fuck itself, thanks.

My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: Secretary

Character Creation: Obolites, Sausages + Raccoons

Or something. 

The Game: Oubliettes, Sorcery, & Reavers
The Publisher: The Rune^Forge
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Well, yes, obviously it's a forced acronym (OSR), but at least they included the Oxford comma. Anyway, OS+R is a fantasy game that really doesn't have a lot of setting to it. There seems to be quiet a bit of passion behind it, but it's all in the GMing philosophy (rulings not rules, blah blah). I don't have a lot of interest in OSR generally, but I admit it's not a well I've fallen down. 

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised at how quick the book was to read. That's what happens when you don't have a setting, I s'pose, but still. I guess it's not fair to say there's no setting, since there's some page count devoted to deities and the races have funny names and all. 

Well, let's do this. 

Step one, gather ye rosebuds while ye may your ideas into a loose concept. There are playable giants in this game (they're not, like, 80-foot things, they're NBA player sized), and I kinda like them. I also want to make a mage, since I went to all the trouble of printing the grimoire sheet, so let's make a mage-giant. Conceptually...I dunno beyond that. I'll need to reread the race write-up and see what else this suggests, if anything. 

Step two, apply Attribute mods. The game makes some noise about how it's just the mods, rather than the ability scores that translate to the mods, and like, yeah, that's cool and all. So my array is 2, 1, 1, 0, 0. -1. Hmm. What do I need to cast spells? Int and Cha, doy. Well, I'll put the -1 into Dexterity because it doesn't matter if this character is, strictly speaking, viable. I'll put the +2 into Int, my +1s into Cha and Str, and Wis and Con get 0. Cool, on we go. 

Step three is to note my race and all the "Benfits" and Drawbacks. At least it's spelled right on the sheet. What Benfits do I get? Well, I get a free +1 in Str or Int, that's cool. Think I'll put it in Int, just to make myself as Mage-y as possible. I also get to cast the Sense spell innately, but only for auras. As far as Drawbacks, I attack small targets with Hindrance, and I can't have (or at least I can't start with) Expertise in Dexterity. Sounds good so far. 

Now, class! There's only three, Warrior, Jack, and Mage (though Warrior has a bunch of sub-types). I know I want to be a Mage. So that means I basically can't wear armor (I can, but it means I get Hindrance on everything), I get Expertise in one weapon, I get Attribute Expertise in Intelligence or Charisma (maybe and? I need to look it up), I get Leverage on all tests to resist magic (that's cool, mages should be a little more resistant to spells), and I can do little non-damaging magic effects. 

Let's look up this Expertise thing. Oh, this is simple enough; I have Expertise in two Attributes (and, not or) and so I add a d4 to my d20 when I roll those Attributes. Cool. I'm also supposed to name my giant at this point. Looking at the race write-up, giants tend to dress skimpily to show off their tattoos, which tell their life stories. That's pretty dope. I also need to choose if he's a Steppe giant or Lodge giant (is this defined anywhere? Not really). Well, let's say he's a Lodge giant, because I want him a little more acquainted with civilization. His tattoos start on his feet and hands, and work up his shins and wrists, the idea being that as his story continues they'll continue inward until his last tattoo will go over his heart. 

No guidance on naming conventions, so I'll name him Craunagh. That seems like enough letters for a fantasy name. 

Now I need a Birth Auger (sign, basically). This is random, so I need some percentile dice. 12 gives me...the Scales! I can add +2 to any Attributes (up to 2), once a day. That's pretty cool. Doesn't say how long it lasts, but whatever. 

Pick gear. Sure. Actually, this game has a setup kinda similar to Blue Rose in that you get a set of gear rather than spending money (though that's an option too). I'll give Craunagh a Research Kit (ink, paper, lamp, oil, almanac). I get a weapon (close or ranged) and technically armor, but I ain't gonna take that. I think I'll take a mace, just because it's not a weapon you see a mage carrying much (and because the notes say you can throw it and I think that would look cool). I get 13 coin (a d12 + my CHA and I rolled well). 

HP, Composure, Defense, and so on. I guess I start with 4 HP, because my class die is a d4? It's not well explained. Composure is a d6 plus either my Int, Cha, or Wis modifier, and I'll take Int, thanks. Rolled a 5, that gives me 8. Defense is a -1 (Dexterity mod), but if I were using a spell to change it it'd be different, and again, it's not explained especially well. I guess using examples is against the OSR philosophy. 

Languages...holy cats. I speak High Giant, Giant, Dwarven, and Trade, and then I pick two, and then I pick three more. That's...a lot. So basically there's only one on the list I don't speak, and we'll say that's Eldrym, the elf-language. 

Motivations! This is a four-pronged thing: Seeks is goals, Covets is innermost desire, Devoted is to whom I'm loyal, and Foible is something that makes me vulnerable. So what makes Craunagh tick? 

Well, I'll say that he seeks a glorious heart Hruswar (that's the tattoo thingie). He covets magical knowledge and power. He is devoted to himself and his legacy, and his foible is that he can't abide being called a liar (that shit gets you a mace in the bonce, friend). 

I think that's everything on the first sheet, so let's turn to magic! I start with 4 First Order spells plus my Int modifier, so that's 7 spells. I start with a single Focus, which is just a consumable thingie that I can use in a few different ways to help me cast. Mostly this is just picking spells, so let's do that. 

Well, Arcane Strike is nicely general. Strikes one target and does damage ignoring DR. I'll say that Craunagh's fingers ooze black smoke, which rots a target's flesh (it's a Fell Weave spell, it's supposed to be nasty). 

Bar the Way magically locks things, that's cool. I think glowy writing similar to his Hruswar appears over the door. Decipher lets him read things (which, like, he's a pretty good polyglot anyway). Glowy eyes? Sure. Divination lets him ask his shadow a yes/no question. I figure his shadow's eyes glow along with his when he uses this spell. Shield is your basic damage absorby spell, so maybe his tattoos glow (as he gets more tattoos and his magic gets stronger, this would continue to look cooler). Slumber, puts things to sleep (doy), back to the black smoke, except this smoke smells sweet. 

I get one more spell, but the sheet only has six slots. I figure that last one I'll take Illuminate. A basic light spell is always a good idea. 

And that's about it! Craunagh is about 7 feet tall (about average for his people). He's got deep purple/indigo hair and light yellow eyes, and his face is a resting sneer. He's pretty haughty for a dude with 4HP, but what are you gonna do. 

Cairn: Caravan Massacre

Here's last time! This is this time! That's a crappy sentence, but I don't care!

A few weeks have passed since the Traveling Knights helped Ashfeather recover from being Dire, and now it's summer. In fact, it's just a few days before Highsummer, the longest day of the year. The nocturnal Traveling Knights wake up, but Ratatosk is heading to bed. There's a knock at his door, and he opens it to find a mouse there. He recognizes the mouse as an assistant to the Lord Mayor. The mouse tells Ratatosk that the Lord Mayor wants to talk to the Knights, but they need to stay quiet. Someone has been hurt, and Brownberry doesn't want to cause a panic.

The Knights get rounded up and brought to the Town Hall, and are led in to a small room. There's a mouse in a bed, obviously badly hurt - bandages on his arms and legs, and a large chunk of his ear is missing. Keeble Brownberry introduces him as Porrel Brownberry, his cousin. Porrel was on a caravan from the farms to the south near Goblin's Glen, when the caravan was attacked by goblins.

Porrel tells his story with quavering voice. The goblins, riding daggertusks, smashed through the caravan and killed everyone else. He says that he saw a daggertusk devour one of the other Favored on the caravans, and breaks down in tears.

Keeble instructs the Knights to go to the farms and speak to Hollan Dawnsong, the weasel manager. Find out if the goblins intend to go to war and what prompted this aggression. Rumdiggle points out that these goblins might just have been starving; maybe they just wanted the food. Keeble doesn't think that's likely, but admits the possibility. 

The Knights gear up and take a boat out of Cairn and down the coast. They disembark and find the attack site...and are pretty horrified. The wagons are still here, smashed beyond all recognition. Some of the food is still scattered around, rotting (which kind of puts the kibosh on the idea that the goblins were starving). Worst of all, there's a meerkat corpse tied to a tree. 

The Knights cut him down, and Russelet prepared the poor fellow for burial. The others look around, and Snootabur notes that there are no other bodies, but plenty of blood. They track the daggertusks south (but still no bodies), and Russelet spots a meerkat acting as sentry. He flies behind him, lands, and startles him. 

The meerkat (once he recovers from his shock) welcomes the characters and points them towards the farms. Ratatosk, though, notices that the hillock he's standing on has some kind of stone in it. He digs a bit and discovers that there's a tomb here, covered by years of dirt. There's a family crest carved into the tomb, and he recognizes the crest - Ebonblood. He hears fire and arrows being loosed, the sounds of battle, as though the past bleeds through.

Ratatosk explains this to the others, and Snootabur remembers that the Ebonblood family were weasels who were known as just and noble warriors. She knows them mostly from folklore and old songs, however. This apparently was the tomb of an Ebonblood, but Snootabur thought they were from Crystal Rock.

The Knights head south and pass through the farms, and see a bunch of mice, moles, meerkats, and a couple of hares plucking weeds and watering and so forth. They get into the center of "town" and wind up talking to Hollan Dawnsong. He, too, is sickened to learn about the caravan, but tells the characters that the goblins can't enter the farms - there's a mystical barrier that prevents it. He also insists that they leave their weapons in the longhouse while they're in town - only sentries are allowed to have weapons, and only on duty. The nocturnal folks need to get some sleep, at this point, so Ratatosk tries to talk to the farmers, but doesn't learn much. 

Sunset! The others wake up and join the farmers. There's a bonfire going and stew cooking, and a hare named Clover Shimmerbough is playing a lute and singing. Rummy recognizes the song; it's called "Don't Follow the Light." It's an upbeat enough tune, but the lyrics are pretty dark. Rummy realizes that the song originated here and it's about avoiding the goblins. 

Russelet listens to conversations and hears folks chatting about the tomb that Ratatosk found, and hears a couple of folks talking about a grave marker elsewhere in the grasslands. 

Snootabur scares up a mouse who can show them the border. They head to the marker, and Snootabur and Ratatosk examine it. It's got a crescent moon carved on it, but no other markings. Snootabur digs a bit but doesn't find a slab or anything. Russelet flies around and spots some torches out in the grasslands - goblins. Preparing an attack or just lurking? It's hard to know, and Russelet wisely decides against swooping down to look.

The mouse leads them northeast, walking the the border. They come to a wooden house, which their guide informs them is traditionally where the manager of the farms lives (so Hollan lives here now). They look around a bit; Ratatosk crawls under the house but doesn't find anything interesting. Snootabur peeks into the house and spots a box by the bed, fastened with a metal lock. The Knights talk about this a bit, and decide that breaking into Hollan's house the first night they're here probably isn't wise. 

Russelet takes to the sky and spots some goblins on the beach. Some of them are lurking in ambush, though, so the goblins are definitely ready to commit some violence. The Knights' guide tells them that the border extends past the nearby Greymantle Ruin, and they figure they should check that out, but not tonight. Ratatosk needs some sleep, and they want to make sure they have their weapons before they venture into a Titan city.