My Top Ten Adventures: #4, N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God

Terror by night! The village of Orlane is dying. Once a small and thriving community, Orlane has become a maze of locked doors and frightened faces. Strangers are shunned, trade has withered. Rumors flourish, growing wilder with each retelling. Terrified peasants flee their homes, abandoning their farms with no explanation. Others simply disappear...

No one seems to know the cause of the decay--why are there no clues? Who skulks through the twisted shadows of the night? Who or what is behind the doom that has overtaken the village? It will take a brave and skillful band of adventurers to solve the dark riddle of Orlane!

This module is designed for 4-7 characters of first through third levels. It includes a map of the village and a description of its buildings and occupants, an overland journey to a challenging underground adventure for especially brave (or foolhardy...) characters, and a list of pre-rolled first-level characters.

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S3 was the first adventure I ever played in; I knew nothing of what was going on. As I got more into the game and bought the Advanced rulebooks, this was the first adventure I ever bought myself. The nasty lizardmen, coupled with the text I copied above from the front cover, was all I needed to plop down my paper-route money and snatch it up. After returning home to read it, I wasn't at all disappointed with what I found inside.

This is a Douglas Niles adventure from 1982. Niles was a prolific contributor to TSR in those days; off the top of my head, I can think of a few things he worked on, such as DL2, Dragons of Flame, the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, and the War Machine mass combat rules from the BECMI Companion set. I know there's more, but those are the ones I remember the most.

Niles was a proponent of the more 'story-based' gaming style that would come into its full flowering with the Dragonlance Saga. And while this predates that series by two years, it definitely shows hints of that style. This is a mystery, not a hack-and-slash adventure. The party comes upon the town of Orlane, and things are just as bleak as the cover text suggests.

Although the adventure suggests 1st-3rd level characters, I wouldn't take first-level characters into Orlane, especially with beginning players. There is a lot of stuff going on here that the characters won't know anything about, and they're going to have to be very careful to avoid getting caught up in the cult's clutches. Beginners will struggle, no question.

But as an adventure for more experienced players, this is fantastic. Exploring the town will take time and patience, and gaining the trust of any of the townsfolk will be rough going. But there are clues, and there are allies to be found if the party is cautious and clever.

The first part of the adventure takes place in Orlane, where the party first has to discover the existence of a cult that is kidnapping villagers and bringing them to the 'reptile god', the spirit naga Explictica Defilus. There, they are either charmed by the naga's gaze, or they are killed and thrown to the reptiles or reanimated as zombies. Either way, it's not good. Those who are charmed return to the town to swell the ranks of the cult; by the time the party arrives, about one-quarter of the populace are now cultists, including the constable, the blacksmith, and the entire staff (and clientele) of the Golden Grain Inn. Oh, and the temple's priests are also converts. Good luck with the healing.

Assuming the party is able to gain information on the cult and make some friends in town (including a ranger and a reclusive wizard), they can discover that the cult's headquarters is in the Rushmoors to the east. They might, if they are persuasive and in sufficient need, convince the reclusive wizard, Ramne, to accompany them on the journey. Sort of like Gandalf, except he's old and decrepit and will slow the party down significantly on the journey. But his magic might be the only thing that keeps the party alive.

Once they get into the moors, there are encounters to be had before they find the cult's lair. Inside, they will have a two-level dungeon to explore, parts of which are underwater, and the entire thing is inescapably damp and smelly. There are cultists as well as prisoners down here, along with troglodytes, harpies and crocodiles. Eventually, they will come face-to-face with the evil serpent, and it is here that Ramne will prove his mettle as he has both a minor globe of invulnerability and a dispel magic spell to offset the naga's magic. Because she's got a fireball, and she's not afraid to use it. I don't need to tell you what a 5-dice fireball can do to a low-level party, do I?

Ramne will be the party's ace in the hole; he'll throw a lightning bolt if he can, but his primary purpose (aside from the globe) will be to dispel the naga's charm magic if she gets too many party members with it. But they are still going to have to take her on in melee to beat her, and she's more than happy to oblige. She is, after all, a spirit naga with 9 HD and a poison bite, so if she's not feeling the magic, she'll chew them up. Literally. This will be a tough fight, to say the least; 3rd-level characters stand a much better chance.

If the party survives and defeats the naga, Orlane is saved. The cultists will all be freed from the charm, and while it will take time for people to regain the trust and friendship they once had, it might still be possible. And of course, the party will be recognized as heroes for their efforts.

So, what did I like about this adventure? The mystery, of course, and the epic feel of that final battle. For a low-level party, this is like fighting a dragon; all that's missing is the breath weapon. The treasure is quite generous, but not excessive. And this adventure covers all the basics: town adventuring, wilderness, and dungeon.

One odd note, though: Despite being charmed and worshiping the naga as a goddess, the clerics in the temple are still getting spells from somewhere, and not just the low-level ones that only require meditation and rest; Abrama, the highest-level cleric in the Temple (7th level) is still casting 3rd- and 4th-level spells. So, what deity is backing the naga's play and giving her clerics spells? There's a question to ponder...

And there it is. I still have my top three to go, and #3 will be yet another Dungeon magazine entry. I'll see you then.

My Top Ten Adventures: #5, XS2 Thunderdelve Mountain

One of the disadvantages of being very non-social is that D&D is a social game. And sometimes it's difficult to find a group of people to play with. Fortunately, D&D did release a few modules designed for solo play, such as Blizzard Pass, Lathan's Gold, and Mystery of the Snow Pearls.. This is the best of the bunch: Thunderdelve Mountain.

This adventure is written for a solo dwarf, between levels 7 and 9. The goal is to rescue the lost Keeper of the Force of a dwarven stronghold that was attacked and destroyed by a fyrnasca, an underground flame serpent. Simple, yes? Well, not so much.

This is a 'choose-your-own-adventure' type of module, with numbered entries for you to follow (if you go east, go to entry 25; if you go west, go to entry 54, etc.). There are six pre-generated characters, and a blank map that you can fill in as you explore; the rooms are drawn out in the entries where you first enter them. In addition, there is a runic alphabet, along with a bunch of inscriptions for you to translate that will give you clues as to what lies ahead in your explorations.

The adventure also has an 'Event Log' that keeps track of things that happen; if you kill the creature in room 74, for example, you mark off Event C in the log. Later on, you might be given a choice based on an event you may or may not have completed. It gives the story a good, organic feel as you go through and actually see results and consequences of what you've done.

The adventure is actually in two parts; there's the 'rescue the Keeper' part, but there's also an ancient artifact, the Hammer of Vitroin, that wants you to kill the fyrnasca. And since it's an intelligent weapon, it can take over your will and force you to obey. Even that is handled well in the game, though, and it doesn't limit your player agency except that you just can't leave the place until you've killed the beastie or died trying.

Since this is a BECMI module, don't expect the pregen characters to have stellar stats; two of them have Constitution scores of 10, and one of them has no scores outside the average range of 9-12. But, they're dwarves, so they automatically have great saving throws, and they're all tough fighters. Any of them has the potential to succeed in the adventure if you are careful.

So, what do I like about this adventure? First, the atmosphere. This is Wagner meets Tolkien at the Sword-and-Sorcery Tavern. Sometimes it feels like you're in the Mines of Moria; there's a definite gloom about the whole place. Second, the runic writings scattered around. They are conveniently collected on a back page (and the back foldout of the module cover), and while it takes time to translate them, it's worth the effort. As I mentioned earlier, there are clues and warnings as to what awaits ahead in these runewords, so don't skip them.

Finally, it's fun to just relax and play a solo game once in a while. Not a lot of RPGs offer solo play, so it's nice to not only have that type of adventure available, but to have one of this quality. And yes, there are suggestions for group play as well, but it's recommended that you play through the solo adventure first before running it for a group. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to take Goin Cleftfist on an adventure.

My Top Ten Adventures: #6, Tallow's Deep (Dungeon 18)

Dungeon Magazine provided a lot of entertaining adventures over the years, across all editions up to 3.5. It also provided a lot of slop that didn't read well and played just as poorly. But sometimes, there is an adventure that really grabs you and gets back to the old-school feel of 'the DM against the players'. And here was a great one: Tallow's Deep, a 1st edition adventure for levels 4-7. And this adventure answered the question, 'if goblins are such wimps, why are there so many of them?' Turns out that the answer is, 'they aren't wimps'.

Back in Dragon magazine 127 there was a legendary editorial called 'Tucker's Kobolds'. It was about a sadistic DM whose kobolds were deadlier than dragons despite having d4 hit points. He used them tactically, and gave the kobolds enough of a cunning strategy that they could wipe out even high-level parties by using traps and ambushes. This adventure did the same thing for goblins.

The adventure starts off with the party arriving at a small frontier mining town which has fallen on hard times. Turns out that the silver mine was near a goblin lair, and when the miners broke through, the goblins wiped them out. Then they wiped out the search party that went to find the miners. Now, the townsfolk are scared to death and need adventurers to clear out the goblins.

However, these goblins have carefully studied Sun Tzu and Clausewitz, and they are loaded for bear. Imagine the Vietnam War, except you're in a series of tunnels that are too small for you (unless you're a halfling or gnome). And the enemy is hitting you from all sides...including above. Ever had a dozen giant centipedes drop on your head? A better analogy might be the Mines of Moria, except the rooms are a lot smaller. Balin's Tomb is your destination, complete with suspenseful drumming as the goblins hunt you down. Murder holes, arrow slits...the goblins are ready and waiting.

There's no heavy plot here; there's no big bad to fight at the end. However, there are 85 goblins in a single room, including their leader, Grishog and his pet worg (along with six others). The one saving grace the party might have in this room is that 1st-edition fighters can attack one goblin a round per level (a 5th-level fighter can attack five goblins in a single round). And after that, there's a long, dark passage that leads to goblin undercities where the Goblin King is planning war on the surface...

There is some nice treasure to be found at the end, but many parties won't ever get to it; the traps and ambushes are lethal and intended to be so. To beat this adventure will require tactical skill, tremendous fortitude, intelligent spellcasting, and no small amount of luck. This is a meat-grinder of an adventure, sort of like the Tomb of Horrors but with more monsters and fewer no-save traps.

So, why do I like it? Because I like all those things. I had a party go through this adventure with only one survivor, and he was lucky to get out alive. He was a gray elf fighter/magic-user, with all the arrogance that goes with that race. Well, the arrogance went away in a hurry after this nightmare of an adventure. Dwarves and gnomes would love this adventure, of course, and it could lead to a military campaign as the goblins come storming out of the lower caverns to destroy the local settlements and wage war on the surface folk.

Next time, I'll head back to the BECMI line for an adventure that bears some similarities to this one.

My Top Ten Adventures: #7, SF0-2, The Volturnus Trilogy

I never specified they were all D&D adventures, did I?

Sorry about the delay; I literally worked twenty hours in the kitchen yesterday preparing for two farmer's markets today, so I didn't get a chance to post. But despite exhaustion, I'm making this post so I don't fall two days behind.

Anyway, the Volturnus trilogy is for the Star Frontiers game. Or, for those who bought it after 1982, the Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn boxed set. Star Frontiers was a science fiction game that really hearkened back to the pulp science fiction adventure stories. Not the sterile, 'men with screwdrivers' stories of Astounding and Asimov, but the action-packed adventures of planetary romance, or E.E. Doc Smith's Skylark in Space and Lensman series. The stuff that inspired Star Wars.

The original Star Frontiers (and later Alpha Dawn) was not focused on spaceships at all; that wouldn't happen until the release of the Knight Hawks boxed set. Rather, it was more in line with the stories of John Carter of Mars, or Leigh Brackett's planetary stories. Spaceships did exist, of course, but they were abstract; they were ways to get to where the adventures actually were. Alpha Dawn was about Tatooine and Endor, not X-Wings and Tie Fighters.

As was customary for TSR's boxed set games of the era, an introductory adventure was included. It was SF-0, Crash on Volturnus. It came wrapped in a map of a part of a starship that was the transport vessel taking the PCs to another place; there's a pirate attack, and the PCs are forced to abandon ship. Their escape pod is damaged, and they crash on an unknown world, which is Volturnus.

The rest of the module involves finding a way to survive in the hostile desert environment, and the party will encounter the Ul-Mor, a primitive alien race that will take the party in and allow them to join the tribe if they pass a test. Before they get to that, however, they have to pass through an underground cavern complex, and of course there's an earthquake and they are separated from their guides, and have to make their way through the complex alone. TSR's dungeon crawling roots die hard, don't they?

So, they eventually pass the caverns and the test, and become part of the Ul-Mor tribe. This leads to the following adventures, where the party discovers a threat to the planet and must unite the other indigenous tribes of Volturnus, including the Kurabanda and the Edestekai, in order to fight off a Sathar invasion. They can also encounter two other races: The Mechanon, a highly-advanced robotic race, and the Eorna, who are evolved dinosaurs and are the remnants of an advanced technological civilization. Assuming the PCs can get these disparate groups to get along, they have a chance to fight off the Sathar. But it won't be easy.

So, what do I love about this series? As I said, it is a tribute to the pulp stories of old, and I love those pulp stories. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense; why are the Eorna so weak, or how did these different forms of life all develop sentience on this world? And you know what? It doesn't matter. Who cares? It's FUN. And it really captures the essence of what the Star Frontiers boxed set was trying to convey. It's not hard sci-fi; it's entertaining sci-fi. The science serves the story, not the other way around.

Plus, Star Frontiers was a great science fiction game for kids and teens. It wasn't nearly as hardcore as Traveller, nor did it have the philosophical depth of Star Trek. The goal was playability and fun, and it succeeded at that. I think it would have had a much longer shelf life had Gary Gygax not lost control of the company to someone who owned the Buck Rogers IP and thus canned Star Frontiers while it was just getting a facelift.

And that's it for this one. I'll get back to D&D again next time with another obscure but awesome adventure from Dungeon Magazine.

My Top Ten Adventures: #8, The Castle of the Blind Sun

Well, I never said they were specifically modules, did I? This 2nd edition adventure appears in Dungeon #49, and was the cover feature for the magazine that month. The origins of the adventure are quite interesting; it started with some pieces of art. The story is detailed in the editorial, but basically it was an attempt to reverse the normal process of adventure design, where an artist would interpret the writings of the author. Now, the artist would provide the pictures, and an author would write an adventure around them. The result was this adventure. It's a high-level affair, for levels 10-15, and a bard is highly recommended.

So, the Castle of the Blind Sun is the home of a high-level bard named Gangwolf, who as he aged lost his sight. His friend, the wizard Kamalotus, helped design a castle that would sustain the bard in his retirement, while being invisible and incorporeal to those outside of its walls. The only time it would be accessible was during a solar eclipse.

Unfortunately for Gangwolf, a charlatan named Octavia tricked her way into the castle and poisoned him. He died a week later, and Octavia now has the run of the place. However, she can't get to the treasure; it's too well guarded, and she's just a bard, albeit a high-level one. However, there are other treasures in a bard's castle: Compositions! She would be the greatest bard in the world thanks to those unknown masterpieces.

There's more background involving elves and a magical recorder, but basically, the party gets involved because of one of the peasants on their land tells the court that the swamp to the west is now a beautiful forest, and a blue-feathered griffon ate one of his cows. Clearly, sorcery is to blame.

The swamp was actually a disguised elven forest. If the party investigate, they'll end up captured by an elven priestess who has a blue-feathered griffon in tow. Turns out that the griffon is actually a polymorphed elf, and the priestess needs the party's help in freeing him and restoring the swampy disguise of the forest. They find the ruined tower that belonged to the wizard who built the castle (and disguised the elven forest), but he's long dead thanks to a retributive strike (he broke his staff of the magi in a fight with his rival) that blew up the tower. However, there is a music box that is a key to the Castle of the Blind Sun.

Eventually, the party will get into the Castle, where they will meet Adagio, the flesh golem butler. The whole castle is a wondrous place, filled with the treasures and memorabilia of a high-level adventurer, including an actual grand piano (imported from another world via spelljamming ship). Sweet! Anyway, eventually they will have to deal with Octavia. It is possible to resurrect Gangwolf, but Octavia did feed his body to a pack of harpies, so it might be tough to track down his actual bones to do it.

So, what's so awesome about this adventure? Is it the fact that I think bards are really cool? No. Is it that the antagonist is diabolically clever? No. Is it the castle itself and how amazing the whole thing is? No. Is it the encounters? No.

So, what is it?

Well, it's that this was the first adventure I ever read that came with a soundtrack. I'm a classical music aficionado, and this adventure is peppered with recommended music for different scenes. Most of the suggestions I recognized and can see how they fit; some of them were less familiar, but I tracked them down nonetheless. For example, when the party starts exploring the elven forest, the recommended music is "Summer" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. What a great mood setter! And when they explore the ruins of the wizard's tower and encounter the spectre that used to be his rival, it's Night on Bald Mountain from Modest Moussorgsky (that's the one at the end of Disney's Fantasia). When the party encounters the aforementioned harpies? Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries (also known as 'Kill da Wabbit' for you Looney Tunes fans). There are nearly a dozen of these recommendations, and they really add to the mood of the adventure.

So, yeah. As an adventure, it has some interesting parts, but it's not a classic that will be remembered like Tomb of Horrors or Temple of Elemental Evil. Still, that music elevates it to a different level, all the way into my top ten.

Next, I'm going to go way off the beaten path. See you then.

My Top Ten Adventures: #9, B1 In Search of the Unknown

I'll preface this one by saying that if anyone is expecting to find the successor to this module, Keep on the Borderlands, on my list, you will be disappointed. I may be the only gamer on the planet who doesn't like that module, but that's okay. It's responsible for my least-favorite gaming memory, which I won't get into. Suffice it to say that in my opinion, this module was a much better introductory adventure for beginners than B2.

B1, In Search of the Unknown, is one of the earliest adventure modules ever published by TSR. Written by Mike Carr (his only D&D credit), it was included in later editions of the first Basic D&D Set (Holmes Basic, first published in 1977). It was designed as a way to introduce players and Dungeon Masters to the game in a way that gave the DM a certain amount of agency in setting up the encounters within the structure of the module. It was first published in late 1978, with a monochrome cover (the cover above is the new trade dress, first printed in 1981). By 1979, however, it had been replaced in the Basic set by the Keep on the Borderlands.

Modern gamers would have a tough time with this module; it's got absolutely no plot to it. It's just a couple of large maps of an abandoned adventurers' stronghold, originally built by the legendary adventurers Roghan and Zelligar, who disappeared years ago on some adventure. Now the characters have found a map leading to this abandoned place, where they can seek their fortune among the vast treasures that surely lie within.

And that's it. No one to rescue, no Mcguffin to find, nothing. It's just an exploratory adventure where you look for things to kill and take their stuff, the way D&D was meant to be. This hearkens back to the pulp adventures that inspired the game, where Conan or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser would be seeking mysterious treasures. And while it's not the pulpiest adventure TSR produced, it certainly gave a clear idea of the style of game that was expected at the time. Sure, the DM could certainly put something in the complex that the characters need to find, but that's entirely on the DM, not something the module expects.

So, what made this such a great introduction to the game, and why do I wish I'd started with this instead of last night's adventure? Well, this one gives a lot of advice for DMs. Six pages of it, in fact, at the start of the module, and the text is dense. Subjects such as module preparation, time, experience points, effective DMing tactics, a legend table...it's all there, stuff to help a beginning DM get his feet underneath him before running a game for players. There's a bit of background, some of which can be related to the players as rumors and stories about the caverns of Quasqueton (pronounced KAS-ke-tawn by me). The maps are supposed to be fairly easy to map, although the caverns on the second level will be a pain.

At the back of the adventure is the player's section. It's just one page, back and front, so it can be removed from the module and passed to the players. It includes basic tips on game play, as well as background on the adventure that they would have heard about. Oh, and there are also a bunch of named characters for them to pick from if they want to just grab-and-go. Of course, it only gives the character's name and class, so there's no idea as to what their stats might be. Those appear earlier, and there are twelve for each of the four classes (seven, including the races). So, you might decide that you want to play a cleric, and Wilberd the Silent looks like a name you would want. The DM then looks up Wilberd's stats on his list, and there you go. Wilberd actually has decent stats, by the way. These lists can also be used for hirelings and henchmen, if the party decides to hire them. So, there's lots of great advice for beginners on both sides of the DM's screen.

The main feature of this module, though, is that the monsters and treasure aren't placed; that's for the DM to do. Each room is given a description (and occasionally a very small treasure, like a comb worth 1 gold piece or a coin in a drawer), but no inhabitants. Instead, there is a list of monsters in the back that the DM can choose from. And he is expected to put no more than 16 to 20 of them in the module, leaving some out altogether. Bear in mind, there are 56 rooms (or caverns) in this module, so only about a third of them will have any monsters to fight. This leaves plenty of stuff to explore without having o fight for your life.

The treasures are also listed in the back, ranging from as small as 20 silver pieces all the way up to magical weapons and armor. There are 34 of them, but only about 20 should be placed in the module. And the DM has free reign to put anything, monster or treasure, anywhere he wants in the complex. And while the rooms don't come with monsters and treasure, there are some classic and memorable rooms here for players to discover. There's the classic Pool Room, with fourteen pools of liquid, some of which are magical, some of which are deadly...and the only way to find out is to either dip your finger in or taste it. Good luck. There's also the teleporting room, the garden, and the cavern of the mystical stone, for example. All of these will test the characters in some way, and all can be customized for the DM's needs.

It's a Basic module, so it's for character levels 1-3. However, this is a true beginner module; 1st-level characters are the best choice, simply because the challenges here aren't generally going to be overwhelming. Even the toughest monsters on the list (the ochre jelly and the black widow spider) don't have to be included if the DM doesn't want to. So, even if a player has the module and reads through it, there's absolutely no way for them to know where to expect monsters and treasure, because the DM stocks it himself. And no two expeditions are going to be the same.

So, why is this #9 on my list? Aside from all of the above, as I said, it's probably the best introductory module D&D ever had. Yes, it's better than Keep on the Borderlands. This module strips the game down to its most essential form: the dungeon crawl. In a sense, it's a mini-megadungeon, with only two levels to explore. However, enterprising DMs can certainly expand it if they want to; who knows how deep Rogahn and Zelligar delved while building and expanding the Caverns of Quasqueton? This is the adventure I used to teach my son to play D&D, too. So, it deserves a place on this list for that reason alone.

My Top 10 Adventures: #10, S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

I've seen a few countdown videos about people's favorite RPG adventures, and I decided it was time I did one of my own. I'm going to limit this to TSR products, so no 3rd edition adventures; those would be discussed on my other blog anyway. So, these are old-school adventures, starting with the very first D&D adventure I ever played in.

Old-school gamers are looking at this like, 'that's where you started?!' Yes, it is. When I was twelve, my parents decided I need to get a (social) life. My father heard about a Dungeons & Dragons club at the local library. Despite my lack of interest in a social life, he brought me to the library and got directions to the room where the club was meeting. Turns out it was just one small group of players, a couple of whom I knew from school; the others were much older, being in high school and clearly far more wise and experienced than I was.

So, this was in 1982. The 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide was on the table, and old-school gamers know that there is a section in that book that talks about introducing new players to the game by giving them a separate adventure where they can learn the basics as a low-level character. This was not how I was introduced to the game. Instead, I was handed a small strip of paper that had been cut out of a book that had some arcane writing on it. I reproduce it below:

Any old-schoolers recognize that? Fortunately, they at least took the time to write out what the various numbers meant: Lvl, S, I, W, D, C, Ch, Align, AC, HP, and Move. Perfectly clear to the neophyte gamer, right? I had absolutely no clue what I was doing there. And as you might guess by the picture at the top of this post, we were in the buried spaceship underneath the Barrier Peaks. Yes, my very first experience in fantasy role-playing was in a science-fiction spaceship. I love the 80s so much.

So, what do I remember about this? Not a lot; as I said, I had no clue what we were doing. I had never seen a rulebook. I had never seen any dice that weren't six-sided. And they didn't really give me much to work with. I do remember the vegepygmies and the lasers. The library did have a copy of the old Moldvay Basic rulebook on hand, but the group (who were, as I mentioned, much older and wiser) told me that wasn't the 'real' rules. After all, they were playing Advanced D&D. Well, I was a beginner, so I borrowed the Basic book from the library and read through it in a couple of days. It was absolutely fascinating, although I didn't see any vegepygmies in there, nor did I see any laser pistols. Still, it was amazing, and set me on a life-long journey of fantastic adventure and imagination.

So, why is this module on my list? Because it was the first. And I found a copy of it in a pawn shop in Charlottetown last summer, so of course I had to get it. It's the only 1st edition product I currently own. But it is a wild ride of an adventure regardless of my own nostalgia. There's not a lot of treasure in there, certainly not in comparison with other high-level adventures of that era. In fact, there is not a single magic item within. That's not surprising, since it is a long-buried spaceship, after all. But the monsters...oh, the monsters within. Aside from the vegepygmies, this module also introduced the aurumvorax, bloodthorn, choke creeper, forester's bane, froghemoth, russet mold, brown pudding, squealer, tri-flower frond, twilight bloom, webbird, and the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing. All of these would eventually be included in the Monster Manual II. More than half of these are plant monsters, which is pretty cool. After all, when even the local flora are hostile, it's definitely a wild adventure location.

Oh, and that character up above that I had no idea how to play? He's from the G-series of modules, appearing as one of the pre-generated characters for the original tournament. And as silly as the name is, don't blame me; I just played him.

Another Painful Goodbye...

 

Yes, the puppy that's been my blog profile pic since I started is no more. Dexter sadly passed this afternoon at 5:30 local time. He's been living with our oldest boy and his girlfriend for the past couple of years, but he's still been part of our family.

He was only eight years old; cancer took him. Vet bills to treat that are simply out of our reach, and there was nothing we could do for him. He was supposed to see a vet on Tuesday, but today he was drooling blood, and Ashton took him to Charlottetown for an emergency visit. The vet said she could give him steroids, but it would only delay the inevitable for a couple of days. They made the hard decision and said goodbye.

Losing a pet sucks. Losing two within six months sucks rocks. My wife doesn't ever want to get another dog because it hurts so much to lose them. I'm looking at it from another point of view; a dog's life is full of wonderful memories, and those memories are worth the pain at the end.

I'll never forget the first time we met Dexter. It was shortly after our other dog, Harley the Shi-tzu, died; Raven was about four years old, and she missed him terribly. She would sit on the back step for hours, moping and waiting, hoping that Harley would somehow come back. Of course, that wasn't going to happen, but you can't explain that to a dog.

We started looking for another dog to hopefully cheer up Raven. We looked at a few dogs that didn't really fit what we wanted. Then, we found a little puppy who was being fostered in Chatham, and we made arrangements to have a meeting to see if he'd get along with Raven. We couldn't have imagined it would have gone as well as it did.

When Dexter showed up, he was wearing a Superman cape that trailed behind him as he ran. And he ran. Oh, did that little puppy run. As soon as he got in the backyard, he locked eyes with Raven, and the two of them took off with the worst case of the zoomies I have ever seen. I tried to take a picture of them. I tried to take three or four, actually. But they were moving so fast that by the time the shutter snapped, they were out of frame. I felt like a World War II fighter pilot trying to lead my target so I could capture the moment. But it was no use. He wore that Superman cape for a reason; he was identifying as Krypto the Super-Dog. And Raven was keeping up with him every step, her depression gone in an instant.

The next day, Dexter officially came home. He was the happiest dog in the world, as long as he wasn't left alone. He hated to be alone, barking for hours if we had to leave. So we tried to keep at least one of us home as much as possible. He became a fixture in our bed, and I mean that literally; I nicknamed him 'Wall' because despite his small size, he stretched out between us like the Great Wall of China. And there was simply no moving him.

Dexter made the move out to PEI with us, driving in the back seat of Dannielle's truck the whole way here. He adjusted very quickly, and absolutely loved the wide-open freedom of the farm. After Ashton bought his own place, he brought Dexter with him. It wasn't as wide-open as the farm, but he still had plenty of space to call his own.

We knew last year that he was sick, and that the cancer might not be benign. But he got through Christmas, and we were hoping it would stay dormant. Unfortunately, it didn't. He's struggled for the past month or so, and when my wife went to visit them yesterday he didn't even climb up on her lap, which was his favorite bed for most of his life. So, we knew it wouldn't be long. Unfortunately, we had less time than we thought.

So, once again we say goodbye to a cherished member of our family. Dexter was a fantastic dog, loyal and protective, with the fastest tail-wag I've ever seen. There's a reason dogs are called 'man's best friend', and Dexter was the platonic ideal of that sentiment. We will miss him terribly.

Goodbye, Dexter. I hope you, Raven and Harley are all playing together like the family you always were. Godspeed.

Finding the Groove

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had a few books I wanted to get written this year. Frankly, though, our business is taking off and putting enormous demands on our time, and that time sink is only going to get deeper. So, I'm going to have to consider the possibility that I might only get one or two books done this year. I'm just not sure which ones I want to get done. Should I stick with fantasy? Go back to science fiction? Maybe do some more of my steampunk superheroes? Or go back to where it all began, and write another Cameron Vail mystery?

Ideally, I want to do all of those this year. Realistically, there's just no way I can do it and get anything remotely resembling actual sleep at the same time. So, I'm going to have to pick and choose.

A mystery is actually not that difficult to write; I wrote the second one, The Missing Magnate, in eleven days while working at a full-time job. I literally wrote it in between customer service calls, completely off the top of my head. So, that's very doable.

For fantasy, I have three different series that I want to continue: The Shadowmage, for which I already have the full ideas sketched out for the second book; Meterra, my first fantasy series, for which the books are generally shorter; and the Gemswords, which has been my dream for an epic fantasy series with a bit of a twist.

Science fiction? I've only done the one book, Bard Conley's Adventures Around the Solar System. The advantage of science fiction is that I'm not limited to any particular theme; I could do another Bard Conley book, or just go in a completely different direction.

Steampunk superheroes is something I would like to keep going with; it's not a common subject, and while I'm not doing actual comic books with artwork, I can still tell the stories in a pulp style. Of course, I would be continuing in the Gilded Age, where I started off with Awakening and continuing the stories of the new breed of enhanced people (and animals).

So, any suggestions from the readers? If you've read any of my stuff, let me know what you thought, and what you'd like to see more of. If you haven't, I've got links to six of my books above to get you started. I do want to get back into the writing groove, and while I can't commit to the schedule I was hoping for, I can at least get something done and published in 2026.

Legend of the Silver Screen: Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks is not a name that most people today will recognize. Neither the original, nor Doug Fairbanks Jr., who followed in his father's footsteps into the movie industry as both an actor and producer. But he is easily one of the most important and most influential movie stars of all time. He was a founding member of United Artists in 1919, and the following year effectively introduced a whole new genre of movie to the audiences of America: The swashbuckling action/adventure movie, with the magnificent The Mark of Zorro. Yeah, I'm on a theme right now. Bear with me.

Fairbanks started out as a comedic actor, but that field was full of extraordinary talents such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Still, Fairbanks, who debuted on screen in 1915, had an athletic prowess that made him stand out among his peers. He specialized in romantic comedies, rather than the highbrow slapstick (now there's a contradiction in terms) of Chaplin and Keaton. He met Mary Pickford, then the most popular actress on the planet, in 1917, and their long-standing affair (both were married to other people) was something of an open secret in the Hollywood scene. They eventually divorced their partners and married each other, and were considered Hollywood royalty among fans of the silver screen all over the world. In 1919, Pickford, Fairbanks, Chaplin, and director D.W. Griffith formed their own production studio, United Artists, in defiance of the studios that were monopolizing distribution and exhibitors across the nation.

By 1920, Fairbanks was one of the most popular actors in the world, and had starred in 29 pictures, most of them of a comic nature. But then he read Johnston McCulley's The Curse of Capistrano, and immediately knew he had to make that story into a movie. And so he did, with the aforementioned Mark of Zorro movie. It was such a big hit that Fairbanks immediately went to work on other adventure-costume movies such as The Three Musketeers (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Baghdad (1924), The Black Pirate (1926 and the first color swashbuckling movie), The Gaucho (1927), and The Iron Mask (1929). These were all silent movies; Fairbanks didn't do as well with audiences when talkies came along, and his health was declining at the same time; his athleticism wasn't what it used to be. By 1934, he was retired from movies altogether, and passed away in 1939 at the age of 56.

Fairbanks' legacy is monumental. He was the first president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the guys who hand out the Oscars), the first (along with Pickford) to put hand and footprints into the wet cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the first to receive a posthumous Honorary Oscar in 1939. And of course, he was the blueprint for stars like Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power, who would both reprise roles made famous by Fairbanks (Robin Hood and Zorro, respectively).

So, when you watch an action movie, especially one with acrobatics and swordplay, take a moment to remember the man who started it all just over a century ago. And maybe check out his body of work; most of it is in the public domain now, even in the United States. All the movies I listed above are in that category, so you can see them for free online.

Not a Good Week...

My apologies for the lack of posting the last few days. As you can see, things weren't exactly great. Thursday saw a very narrow escape from what could have been much, much worse. Trying to avoid a snowplow on the road, I stupidly hit the brakes and the car slid off the road, missing the guardrail by maybe three inches, going into a gully and hitting a sign and a tree. Had we gone over the guardrail, it's very likely the car would have flipped over into the gully, and the snow was waist-deep. It's only by the grace of God that things weren't worse. The tow truck driver was able to pull it out of the gully and bring it to the farm; we were less than a mile down the road from our house when it happened, so it was an easy trip.

The insurance adjuster hasn't been by yet to look at the car, but since the front wheel is completely off and the front end is a total mess, I'd say it's pretty much a guaranteed write-off. We'll see what happens.

So, I'll get back to posting properly soon enough; I'm still a bit shaken up by the experience since Garrett, our youngest and autistic child, was in the back seat. He's been complaining about his wrist, so we're going to get him to the doctor's office on Monday to get him checked out. It doesn't look broken or sprained, but we'll find out Monday.

The Curse of Capistrano (1919)

Well, why not? I mean, I just reviewed a fantastic movie that spins off from this story; now it's time to look back at the original Zorro story, The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley. It's set in the early 19th century in California, about a hundred years before the writing. So it would be like someone today writing a book set in the early 20th century. It doesn't seem all that long ago when you think about it. McCulley's grandparents might have been living at the time the story is set.

Anyway, The Curse of Capistrano first appeared as a serialized novel in All-Story Weekly, from August 9th to September 6th, 1919. It was an instant hit, and made even more popular when one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., adapted the story into the movie The Mask of Zorro, which was released in 1920 and became the template for the action-adventure genre of movies.

The movie is a close retelling of the original story, much more than later adaptations would be. And while much of the story would seem cliché to modern readers, back a century ago those clichés were just getting started. McCulley weaves a skillful tale of what appears to be two separate men: Don Diego Vega (the de la Vega comes many years later), a foppish Spanish nobleman who has the energy of a wilted flower and the drive of a broken-down Pinto, and the dashing masked swordsman, Zorro, whose skill and daring enthrall the countryside even as the government hunts him down. It isn't until the very end of the book that the truth is revealed, that Zorro and Vega are the same man. Shocking, I know. But back then, this was not a common trope. So readers of the time would likely have been at least somewhat surprised, if not shocked at the revelation.

Of course, moviegoers since the original 1920 release knew early on who was behind the mask of Zorro; they just had to recognize the actor, if they didn't already know the story. But McCulley takes pains to ensure that secret is closely kept as long as possible. And it works. Even knowing the truth, the distinction between the two personas is crystal clear, and it's impossible to imagine that the lackadaisical de la Vega could possibly be the sinister man of mystery.

So, what's the story? Well, you know it well enough already. Zorro is going through the California countryside terrorizing government officials who are themselves terrorizing the peasantry of the territory (this is set decades before California becomes a state; in fact, it isn't even American territory yet). The plot is quite lengthy, so I won't quote it, but you can read it here if you don't want to read the actual story. But it's a really good story, so you really should read that instead. Or, if you prefer audiobooks, that's available for free as well.

So, if you want to read or hear one of the stories that inspired the Batman himself, check it out. And yes, Zorro was so influential that Bruce Wayne's parents canonically took him to see The Mask of Zorro the night they were killed. Even the Golden Age Batman (who watched the 1920 version).

The Mask of Zorro (1998)

 

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this movie before. It's still one of my favorites. It's got action, adventure, humor, romance...really, it's very nearly a perfect movie. It never takes itself too seriously, but it never becomes a farce, either. The fact that it's got a measly 6.8/10 rating on IMDB shows that site is not to be taken seriously. Rotten Tomatoes is at 86%, which is better, but still short of the mark.

Here's the plot summary, via Wikipedia:

In 1821, masked swordsman Zorro defends the commoners of Alta California from Spanish oppression. Corrupt governor Don Rafael Montero sets a trap for Zorro at the public execution of three peasants. Zorro stops the execution, and Montero's soldiers are defeated by two young brothers, Alejandro and Joaquín Murrieta. Zorro fights the remaining soldiers and thanks the brothers by giving Joaquín a medallion. Montero deduces Spanish-born nobleman Don Diego de la Vega is Zorro and attempts to arrest him at his home. A swordfight and then a fire breaks out, and de la Vega's wife Esperanza, whom Montero covets, is murdered in the process. While the building burns, Montero takes de la Vega's infant daughter, Elena, as his own before imprisoning de la Vega and returning to Spain.

In 1841, Alejandro and Joaquín are bandits and conmen trying to steal a strongbox. They, however, fail and are caught by Captain Harrison Love, employed by Montero's company. Alejandro escapes, but a wounded Joaquín commits suicide. Meanwhile, Montero returns to California with the now adult Elena. Because of Montero, Elena believes her mother died in childbirth. Montero's reappearance motivates de la Vega to escape captivity. He encounters a drunk Alejandro and recognizes the medallion he gave his brother. He agrees to make Alejandro his protégé in order for them to take revenge on their respective enemies, Montero and Love. Alejandro agrees to undergo de la Vega's intense training in Zorro's secret lair underneath the ruins of his family estate, in hopes of being named his successor.

While still being trained, Alejandro steals a stallion resembling Zorro's steed Tornado from the local garrison, masked like "Zorro" and barely escaping. De la Vega scolds Alejandro, asserting that Zorro was a servant of the people, not a thief. He challenges Alejandro to gain Montero's trust instead. Alejandro poses as visiting nobleman Don Alejandro del Castillo y García, with de la Vega as his servant Bernardo, and attends a party at Montero's hacienda. There, he earns Elena's admiration and enough of Montero's trust to be invited to a secret meeting between noblemen. Montero hints at a plan to overthrow Mexican rule in California and proclaim it as an independent republic by buying it from Santa Anna, who needs money for the upcoming Mexican–American War.

Montero takes Alejandro and the noblemen to a secret gold mine where peasants and prisoners are used for slave labor. He plans to buy California from Santa Anna using gold mined from his own land. While walking in a market, Elena meets the woman who was her nanny. She tells Elena her parents' real identity. De la Vega sends Alejandro, now Zorro, to steal Montero's map leading to the gold mine. Zorro duels Montero, Love, and their guards at the hacienda. When he escapes, Elena chases him, attempting to retrieve Montero's map. After a sword duel, Zorro kisses her and flees.

Fearing Santa Anna's retribution, Montero decides to destroy the mine and kill the workers to leave no witnesses. De la Vega tells Alejandro to release the workers on his own so he can reclaim Elena. Alejandro sets off, feeling betrayed by de la Vega's vendetta. De la Vega corners Montero at the hacienda and reveals his identity, before Montero captures him. While being taken away, de la Vega tells Elena the name of the flowers she recognized upon her arrival in California, convincing her that he is her father. She releases de la Vega from his cell. They proceed to the mine, where Alejandro and de la Vega duel and slay Love and Montero respectively, avenging Joaquin and Esperanza. Elena and Alejandro free the workers before the explosives go off and find the mortally wounded de la Vega. Before dying, he makes peace with the pair and gives his blessings for Alejandro to continue as Zorro and be with Elena. Sometime later, Alejandro and Elena are married with an infant son "Joaquín", whom Alejandro names after his brother and tells of the deeds of Zorro.

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Ah, memories. The summary doesn't really do the movie justice. I've read the original Zorro book (The Curse of Capistrano), which I will have to do a review on. This is not connected to that book at all; the Zorro story has been told and retold and remade so many times that this is more of a sequel to the 1940 Mark of Zorro movie, or possibly the Disney TV show (since Zorro isn't publicly unmasked in this movie). We'll just chalk it up to a new setting entirely.

The set pieces in this movie are wonderful. The opening scene where Zorro I pulls off his final rescue is swashbuckling in all its glory. The finale is just as exciting, but for me the most exciting scene and the one I watch over and over is Alejandro's first true appearance as Zorro, when he infiltrates Montero's hacienda and steals the map to the mines. That whole scene is just brilliant in every possible way. The sword fighting is beautiful, the choreography is exquisite, and the denouement where Zorro has to fight Elena in the stable is the cheeky cherry on top of the beautiful sundae. The stunts and practical effects are top-notch as well, and there isn't any CGI to distract from the story.

You can tell that the entire cast was having an absolute blast in this movie, even the bad guys. There is some scenery chewing here and there, but that's to be expected in a movie like this one. Banderas is Zorro like no one ever has been before him. For one, he's actually Spanish; none of the previous Zorros on film were Latinos of any sort (except the one who played the character in a Spanish movie from 1953). Douglas Fairbanks, Tyrone Power, Guy Williams, Duncan Regehr...even George Hamilton played the character in a comedic movie. For that matter, Anthony Hopkins plays Zorro in this movie, and he's definitely not a Spaniard. Nor does he even bother with a real Spanish accent; neither does Stuart Wilson as Montero. They are both English to their core. And Catherine Zeta-Jones is Welsh, but she was absolutely stunning as Elena. It wasn't her first movie, but it was her breakout role.

This movie is one of those movies that can be rewatched over and over without losing its shine. I've stopped counting how many times I've seen it. I highly recommend it to everyone; it's family-friendly, and even the stable fight never descends to gratuitous sexualization. It's a movie that you can sit back, relax, and just enjoy the ride.

Getting Back Into the Swing...

It's been a while since I published a new book. It's been a while since I wrote a new book, too. And it's time to correct that. I'm feeling the writing itch again, and I want to get a few books written this year. I can think of four off the top of my head that I need to get done by the end of the year, maybe five. But jumping right in isn't feasible when you're busy in a bakery, so let's get something small in to get the juices flowing again, shall we?

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GRAND CENTRAL STATION

“Grand Central Station!” came the announcement over the loudspeaker system. “This train route ends at this station. Please disembark quietly, and enjoy your stay.”

I grabbed my laptop case as I waited for the rest of the crowd to slowly make their way to the platform. The porter was polite, but bored; there are only so many times you can say ‘thank you’ and ‘have a nice day’ before it becomes monotonous.

When I finally got to the platform, I saw a pile of suitcases being unloaded from the back of the car. I waited in line with the rest of the travelers until I finally saw my suitcase join the pile. I showed my ID to the porter, who nodded and let me relieve him of the burden of watching over my property.

I remember being excited as I left the platform to join the throng of people in the streets. I saw a fleet of cabs taking on passengers, and I thought that hurrying to the street might give me a better chance to catch my own. I looked at my watch as I dragged my suitcase to the end of the line; I had half an hour to make it to my appointment.

I was in luck! There was a cab still available at the intersection, and no one else around to grab it. I quickened my pace; there were other people coming up behind me, and I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.

Then I heard a tremendous roar that sounded like a hundred airplanes at once. Whirling around, my blood congealed as I saw a huge dragon land in the middle of the cross street. Cars blared their horns and tried to turn around to get away from the monster, but it ignored them all, focusing instead on an armored figure astride a horse on the other side of the intersection.

“Hey, there’s another one,” said a man behind me, a businessman in a three-piece suit.

“Wonder if he’ll do any better than the last guy,” replied the guy next to him. He wore workman’s clothes, a belt of tools around his waist.

The dragon roared again, and the knight lowered his lance and charged as pedestrians and cyclists hurried out of the way. The knight crossed the intersection, aiming the lance right at the dragon’s heart.

Before he could drive the shiny point into the dragon’s breast, it took a deep breath and spewed out a volcano’s worth of fire, smoke and ash, engulfing the knight. When the smoke cleared, the horse and rider were black and charred like a Chicago-style steak. A moment later, the dragon spread its wings and took off, flying between the city buildings.

“Guess not,” said the first man.

“You’d t’ink they’d know better by now,” remarked his companion. “It’s always the same thing with them guys; charge right in, get roasted. You catch the game last night?”

I turned to them. “What’s wrong with you people?” I demanded. “You act like this happens all the time! That was a freaking dragon! Doesn’t that freak you the hell out?!”

The two men looked at each other, amused. “Tourist,” observed the businessman as he got in the cab I had been aiming for.

The workman just turned back to me, grinning. “Welcome to New York City, pal.”

Worst Bad Day Ever...

Just a quick little something I wrote a while ago.

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As he let go of the hissing snake he had thought was a vine, Todd reflected that after surviving the mudslide, escaping the quicksand, frantically fleeing through the jungle from a native tribe that belonged in a Tarzan movie, narrowly avoiding the slavering jaws of the hungry tiger, and riding the rockslide that had somehow managed to not kill him while dropping him into a watery moat surrounding an ancient ruined city, he not only had ruined his expensive clothes and shoes while climbing out of the muddy water, but he had also lost his passport and camera to the many dangers that had plagued him since arriving in the jungle, and now that he found himself falling out of the tree and over a waterfall that plunged a few hundred feet into a canyon below, he quickly pulled out his cell phone, speed-dialed his mother, and just as he was saying, “Mom, you’re not going to believe the day I’ve had,” he lost the signal as the phone’s battery died, and as the reeking sweat under his armpits reminded him that he had used a very poor anti-perspirant, his final thought before hitting the water was that he was going to give Adventure Tours the worst review in TripAdvisor’s history when he got home.

And That's Why We Call Her Spider-Cat...

Actually, that's Sylvester. Spider-Cat is the one identifying as an owl.

Cracking the Whip

Yes, it's the weekend, which means more work for us. The Saturday market is the culmination of a week's efforts to bake a bunch of bread and baked goods in order to convince people that it's the most delicious stuff they've ever eaten, and they should buy as much as possible. Running a family business like this takes a lot of work, but I have to say, the rewards are pretty sweet.

First of all, we're working from home. No getting up to drive to a job. I get up in the morning, brush my teeth, get dressed, and head to the kitchen to make dough or bake loaves. Simple, easy. I can take breaks at any time and spend time with my boys or the dog, or just chill out and relax for a little while. Best of all, I get to spend time with my wife. We don't spend all of our time together, but we work as a team to make this a success. It's a full partnership, and it's the best thing we've done since our kids were born.

In this day and age, it's tough to find gainful employment, particularly for someone who has just started getting senior's discounts. Jobs are not quite scarce, but jobs that pay enough to support a family on a single income are as rare as hen's teeth. So, the only workable solution is to go into business for yourself. Is it easy? Hell, no. In the run-up to Christmas we were preparing about 30 Christmas boxes that required bread and baked goods, and I pulled three straight days of 16-hour shifts. In half a week I got overtime. I fell asleep on the stairs with my head leaning on the wall at one point. Dannielle and Ashton got a good laugh out of that.

But even though it's a lot of work, the rewards are more than worth it. We don't have to pay rent since we work from home, we get to claim nearly everything as deductions, and we are selling pretty much everything we bake. And we get free bread and treats. Sure, it's usually the stuff that doesn't pass quality control, but it still tastes great even if it doesn't look quite as beautiful as we would like.

So, all in all it's something I would recommend to anyone who is struggling to find their place in the rat race: find your niche and monetize it, turning it into a business. You'll be surprised at how much it can change your life. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

Reason #215 Why I Love It Here

I was watching a video on the top 10 National Parks in Canada, and I was pleasantly surprised to find one that I've been to. Most of the parks are out west, with the Rocky Mountains being a prominent feature in many of them. But #9 on the list was none other than PEI National Park.

I remember going to this park a couple of years ago with friends of ours; we made a day of it and toured a few spots on the eastern side of the island. This was the capstone of the day. When we got there, we were given a few options for walking through the park; there was a shorter walk, and a longer one that was several kilometers long. Dannielle wasn't thrilled about it at first, but it turns out that the walk was worth it.

The main part of the walk was the long wooden boardwalk/bridge that wound through the woods before continuing on through a marshy area, ending in a flight of steps that led over the dunes to the beach. It was a hike, but totally worth it in the end.

It was unexpected, but beautiful. Mind you, it doesn't quite look the same now as it did then; Fiona hit the dunes hard, flattening them out. I haven't seen it lately, but I'm sure there's plenty of new landscape to see. If we get the chance to go back this year, I think it would be a great idea.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that; it's yet another reason why I love it here. One of the most beautiful parks in this huge country, and it's just an hour and a half away from my house. Awesome.

A Classic Comic Story

I recently read this classic two-part story in X-Men 141 and 142, cover-dated for January and February 1981 (but on spinner racks in stores in the fall of 1980). I've never been a huge X-Men fan, though I do prefer the original team (Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, Marvel Girl) to the more popular team from the 70s and 80s with Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Storm. But while I've heard plenty about this particular story, I've never actually read it before.

The super-quick rundown: The story starts in the far-distant future of...2013. The Sentinels run America and are threatening the rest of the world; they've killed off almost all the superheroes and villains, mutant or otherwise, and mutants are forced to live in camps. A small group of survivors from the X-Men have a desperate plan to send one of their number back in time and stop the events that led to this grim dystopia. That one is Kate "Shadowcat" Rasputin, wife of Colossus. The plan is successful, and Kate's mind is sent back in time to possess her younger self, who just happens to be the newest recruit of the X-Men. She tells the current team what is about to happen, and they rush to DC to stop the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from killing Senator Kelly, Professor X and Moira McTaggart, which is what triggered the really bad future. While the X-Men are fighting the Brotherhood (led by Mystique and consisting of Pyro, Blob, Destiny and Avalanche), in the future the X-Men are trying to infiltrate and shut down the Sentinels base inside the Baxter Building. It...does not go well for them. Even Wolverine gets killed in this one. But in the present, the X-Men do stop the assassination. At that point, we don't see anything more in the future; all we do see is the aftermath of the assassination attempt, which sees the US Government start up the secret Project Wideawake, which is of course related to dealing with 'dangerous muties'.

John Byrne plotted this story out; Chris Claremont wasn't really into this, so Byrne got co-plotting credit to go along with his outstanding artwork. Byrne never intended for this to be anything more than this two-part story; the question of what happened in the future was left unanswered. Maybe that timeline was erased, or maybe it was an alternate timeline that still continued on; Byrne's preference was that it just vanish.

Of course, Marvel went back to this well time and time again. The mutant hysteria thing was always at the forefront of Marvel Comics throughout the 80s and 90s, even in books that didn't have anything to do with mutants (such as the Avengers or Spider-Man). One of the characters from this story, Rachel Summers, would reappear later on as a time-traveling hero. And, of course, one of the most popular X-Men movies was based on this storyline, although it was set in the early 70s rather than the early 80s, and Wolverine was the star (naturally).

So, what did I think of it as a story? Well, it was a grim tale of power gone amok and what happens when the government sets loose super-powerful AIs with adaptable robots that can kill any opposition. It's bad. Very bad. And the future X-Men did not fare well in their efforts; all but Rachel and Kitty are dead by the end of it before the timeline is changed, and as I said, we don't learn their fates at all once the present X-Men succeed in their efforts to stop the assassinations. I've never been a fan of grim stories, really. But the desperate plan to change the past and the contrast between the child Kitty Pryde and the woman that possesses her is well done. The X-Men are just as I remember them; Wolverine is a savage who isn't afraid to kill; Storm is a new leader, unsure of her position and abilities. Nightcrawler and Colossus are heroic enough, and Angel was always my favorite anyway. Professor X doesn't have much to do in this except learn that the possessed Kitty is telling the truth, and get knocked out by Mystique.

As I said, it's a classic story, and I think it works well as a standalone story. I don't think they needed to revisit it so often, although I won't lie and say it was unexpected. It was a very popular story at the time, and popular comic stories always get a boatload of unnecessary sequels, prequels, and expansions. It's just the way of things. So, as a story I'll rate this a solid 8 out of 10; as the beginning of an endless parade of mutant hate stories, I'll drop it to about a 6.

Spring Planning

Last year was a rough one for the farm. We had to get rid of our pigs because my health precluded taking proper care of them. They were quite tasty, though. And I didn't do any gardening at all, so we didn't even have our own fresh produce to supplement our groceries. The result, of course, was a much higher grocery bill for the year. So, I want to get back to the gardens this year and get some real food growing.

I learned in 2023 that I couldn't push too hard; I just don't have the time to fill the gardens the way I originally wanted to and take care of them properly, especially not with our bakery business taking off. But that doesn't mean I can't do something. And I will.

Obviously, I can't do anything until the spring thaws out the ground and gives me the chance to actually dig. But most gardeners and farmers are already planning things out, so I'm going to have to do the same. Even if I just stick to the smaller garden, there's plenty I can do in that space to give us some excellent fresh veggies.

So, I'm going to stick with the simple stuff to get myself back into the gardening groove. Root vegetables are a good choice; carrots, onions and beets are popular with my family. Turnips, not so much. Potatoes are ridiculously cheap on this island, but last year's crop was not very good due to the lack of rain we got. So, I might put some potatoes in the ground just in case.

My wife really likes tomatoes, so I'm going to get some of them planted as well. Tomatoes have to be done early; I'm going to try to get them started in the house so as to get a head start. I could just buy some seedlings when the time is right, but I have tons of seeds here, so I see no reason not to try to do it myself. I can always buy the seedlings if my attempts fail.

The biggest issue I'm going to have with the gardens is the chickens. While some of them are fenced up, the ones in the barn are free-range and love to play in the garden in the summer, regardless of what I'm trying to grow. So, I'm going to have to put some sort of fencing around the gardens to keep the birds out. Something else to think about as the seasons change.

Oh, yes...squash. Dannielle loves squash, and I would like to grow some this year. And a part of me wants to give corn one more shot; I've tried it three times and gotten nowhere with it, so I might wait until next year to try again.

So, there's plenty to think about and prepare for as spring approaches. As long as I don't overdo it and put too much on my plate, I think it will be a great year for the gardens. I certainly hope so, anyway; that's one of the main reasons we moved here in the first place.

But we'll see. There's still lots of time until then, so I've got the time to put together a good plan. I'll share it here once I've got it figured out. But until next time, stay warm. Because it's -18° out there right now, which is just wrong.

The Early Church Fathers

Last year, I put together a comprehensive reading plan of the three programs that I've been following in my collective Catholic study: The Bible in a Year, the Catechism in a Year, and the Rosary in a Year. It's a very handy spreadsheet, but I added something of my own: the writings of the Early Church Fathers, starting with the Didache, the first-century catechism of the faith. I finished three volumes of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and read through Clement of Rome, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius of Antioch, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, The Shepherd of Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, and the majority of Tertullian's works. All the aforementioned writers (except Tertullian) are now recognized as saints by the Catholic Church. Yes, it's a lot. But I learned a whole lot about the beliefs and teachings of the early Church in the process. I'm now working on Volume 4, which will conclude the writings of Tertullian along with Minucius Felix, Commodian, and the first and second parts of Origen's works; that should take me through to April.

So, what have I learned from these men? Well, first of all, they were Catholic. They taught the hierarchical structure of the Church, the real presence of the Eucharist, the primacy of the See of Peter, salvific baptism, the importance of Mary, the Trinity, the importance of relics and honoring the saints...it's all there. It's been said that 'to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant', and Cardinal Newman was correct. There simply is no distinctly Protestant doctrine anywhere to be found in the early centuries of Christianity.

The second thing is that these men were committed to the faith; many of them (most of them, in fact) were martyred for the faith. Ignatius of Antioch wrote his seven letters on his way to Rome to be killed in the arena by wild animals; Polycarp's martyrdom is recounted in one of these oldest documents (he was burned at the stake). But they refused to compromise what they had been taught; Ignatius, Clement of Rome, and Polycarp were immediate successors and students of the Apostles themselves, so their words have a lot of weight when it comes to understanding what the early Church believed.

Third, the doctrines they taught, while not formally codified as dogma, still show how the Church developed and understood those dogmas. For example, while the Trinity was not formally defined and codified until the Nicene Council in 325, it was still clearly taught earlier than that:

Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the times of Tiberius Caesar; and that we reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove.” Justin Martyr, First Apology, 13 (A.D. 155).

“[T]he ever-truthful God, hast fore-ordained, hast revealed beforehand to me, and now hast fulfilled. Wherefore also I praise Thee for all things, I bless Thee, I glorify Thee, along with the everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, with whom, to Thee, and the Holy Ghost, be glory both now and to all coming ages. Amen.” Martyrdom of Polycarp 14 (A.D. 157).

“For God did not stand in need of these [beings], in order to the accomplishing of what He had Himself determined with Himself beforehand should be done, as if He did not possess His own hands. For with Him were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also He speaks, saying, ‘Let Us make man after Our image and likeness;’ He taking from Himself the substance of the creatures [formed], and the pattern of things made, and the type of all the adornments in the world.” Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 4,20:1 (A.D. 180).

“Bear always in mind that this is the rule of faith which I profess; by it I testify that the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and so will you know in what sense this is said. Now, observe, my assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other. This statement is taken in a wrong sense by every uneducated as well as every perversely disposed person, as if it predicated a diversity, in such a sense as to imply a separation among the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit…Happily the Lord Himself employs this expression of the person of the Paraclete, so as to signify not a division or severance, but a disposition (of mutual relations in the Godhead); for He says, ‘I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter. … even the Spirit of truth,’ thus making the Paraclete distinct from Himself, even as we say that the Son is also distinct from the Father; so that He showed a third degree in the Paraclete, as we believe the second degree is in the Son, by reason of the order observed in the Economy.” Tertullian, Against Praxeas, 9 (A.D. 213).

As a Catholic online, I do get into a lot of discussions about the faith on different sites, and it's good to know that I'm not alone in standing up for these truths; I'm standing on the shoulders of giants who literally gave their lives in the pursuit of the truth. And that's why I am, and always will remain, Catholic.

Ruminations on a Favorite Game

I recently finished a series of posts on reading through the 1st edition of the Champions game. Unlike my Traveller series, I've played Champions before, and I own quite a few products including a complete set of the 4th edition Champions books. I am missing some of the other genre books for the edition, but when it comes to the superheroes, I've got the lot.

Champions is currently on its sixth edition, and I...well, I'm not a fan of the 6th edition. It changed a lot of stuff that had remained unchanged since the first edition. Characteristics were changed; Comeliness was taken right out, and the Figured Characteristics are no longer linked to the Primary ones. The base character is built on about 400 points, the game's premier villain, Doctor Destroyer, is built on 3,200 points, and the core rules are split into two books. One of them, about five hundred or so pages, is strictly on character creation. That's all that's in there. Five hundred pages to create a character. Even 3rd edition D&D did the same thing in less than 100 pages. The second core book is all about how to actually play the game.

Now, I liked 5th edition when it came out; there was a lot of detail in the core book, but again, it was massive and took up hundreds of pages just to create a character. I find the 5th edition to be extremely wordy, too. Explanations take a lot of space on the page even for simple things. And 5th edition made some questionable changes as well, removing some of the game's simpler powers and overcomplicating them in replacing them.

For example, way back in the 1st edition was the power 'Instant Change'. You can figure out what that power does pretty easily, right? It's Billy Batson shouting 'Shazam!' or Clark Kent ducking in and out of a phone booth and emerging a second later as Superman. Simple, easy to understand. And that power was still there in 4th edition, unchanged from first edition: 5 points to change from one set of clothes to your costume and back to the same set; 10 points to change into any set of clothes. Simple, easy to understand. But in 5th, it was dropped and its function taken over by the Transform power. Here's the 5th edition writeup for the 'Instant Change' power:

"This is the classic superhero ability to change clothing into a costume, and vice-versa. It uses the Standard Effect Rule. Because the character merely Transforms his own clothing, no Attack Roll or Effect Roll is necessary, and Instant Change should be considered a Zero-Phase Action. Cosmetic Transform 2d6 (one set of clothing into one costume and vice-versa; method of healing back varies based on character) (10 Active Points); Limited Target (clothes, -½). Total cost: 7 points (or, to Transform a costume into any clothing, add Improved Target Group (+¼) (12 Active Points); total cost 8 points).

That's a lot of words to say 'you instantly change into your superhero costume.' And the entire fifth edition is like that. Incidentally, that paragraph appears in a sidebar on page 152 of the 5th edition rulebook; the character creation section ends on page 224. Did I mention the part where you can find videos online of people shooting bullets at the 5th edition book and not going all the way through? That's right, the 5th edition book is itself the Armor power (with a low Activation roll).

Anyway, that brings me to the 4th edition, which I think is the best edition of the game. It's a one-book RPG, meaning you can buy just a single book and have the complete game handy, ready to play. The D&D equivalent is the Rules Cyclopedia. While I also bought the previous edition's rulebook, I didn't really get into it at first. But when I saw the 4th edition book on the shelves with a blonde ninja going at it with a Doctor Doom-type of villain drawn by none other than George Perez, I knew I was going to be taking a closer look at it. And I loved it.

The 4th edition was a collective ruleset that compiled all the different genres that made up the Hero System. First there was Champions; a couple of years later, Hero Games released Espionage!, which was later redone as Danger International. Justice Inc. and Fantasy Hero soon followed, as did Star Hero and the more esoteric Robot Warriors. All of these used the same basic ruleset; 4th edition finally brought them all together and put out a rulebook that allowed you to play in literally any genre you wanted to, from medieval fantasy to superheroes to the far-flung future. Spies, pulp heroes, mecha warriors, anything you wanted to play could be done through the Hero System.

The other thing that grabbed my attention in the 4th edition Champions was the sample hero team, the Champions. The game did originally have a team of heroes that appeared on the covers and were named in the books, but they were never statted out in any official product except (maybe) the Champions comic book from Eclipse Comics in the 1980s.

But these characters were...different. They weren't generic 'brick, powered armor, energy projector, mystic, martial artist' types. Instead, they were distinct in their personalities, and some of them played against type.

There's Defender, the powered armor rich genius (I know; wait for it) who was born into a heroic lineage and built his armor because he felt it was his duty to follow in his ancestors' footprints. His armor was notable in that it didn't have any blasty weapons, just an Entangle.

Obsidian, the nine-foot-tall alien prince, exiled from his homeworld to Earth for a twenty-year sentence. He's not only the team's brick, he's also one of their scientists, having advanced knowledge from his own culture's advanced scientific achievements, and he has the value of noblesse oblige, the idea that as a ruler, he owes protection to those beneath him.

Jaguar, the Latino detective who bears a family curse that turns him into a savage beast. He acts as a reluctant hero, preferring to use his brains rather than his powers to deal with criminals. He's a pretty laid-back guy when he isn't all fur and claws.

Quantum, the team's energy projector. Her powers revolve around manipulating nuclear bonds, but it still boils down to 'she flies, has a force field, and blasts things'. However, she's not the happy-go-lucky type; she is a vengeful demon when it comes to street criminals; her older brother was a drug dealing gang member, and her family was wiped out in a revenge attack on him. So, she's more like the Punisher than the Human Torch.

Solitaire is the team's mystic and mentalist; her backstory (thoroughly developed in later products) is that she was raised by a cabal of mystics who trained her as an assassin while convincing her that she was in fact an agent of good. On her first assignment, she made the mistake of confronting her victim (a politician) face-to-face, and he was able to thoroughly confuse her, causing her to flee instead of carrying out the assassination. As a result, the cabal now considers her an enemy and a target, and she joined the Champions in order to do good. However, she's still learning what 'doing good' actually means.

Finally, there's Seeker. The most controversial member of the team in fandom, I absolutely love him. He's that blonde ninja on the front cover of the rulebook. And he's a swashbuckling Australian ninja. Yes, you just read those three words in combination. It's such a wild mixture, but it works. He's always the life of the party, but when things get serious, so does he.

The 4th edition book clocks in at a mere 346 pages, and that includes the full rules, a 60-page section on creating a superhero game, and a 70-page sourcebook with the aforementioned Champions heroes, about twenty villains, an introductory scenario, and a full-blown adventure to get the players into the game. Oh, and character creation ends at page 134. Still lengthy, but manageable. Meanwhile, the 5th edition rulebook is 380 pages, and that's just the rules; there's no campaign material whatsoever.

So, here's to the 4th edition of one of the best RPGs of all time. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another character idea to create. Safe travels, everyone, and game on.