Dungeons & Dragons Night: "Thunderhaven and the Fire Cave"

Those who know me know that I enjoy the occasional night of Dungeons & Dragons pen-and-paper gaming. We have been playing through a campaign currently involving a team of adventurers (who have chosen 'The Fighting Lygers' as their moniker), who have been questing around a created region of a medievalist fantasy world centered around the three major cities of Windhill, Darrowbank, and Thunderhaven.  Though this wasn't the first adventure with this group, I decided it would be fun to record and share the adventures of the party during their quests and campaigns.

The Story So Far:
The party began their adventures in the city of Darrowbank.  Darrowbank was a small city caught in the midst of a long-standing war between the much larger city states of Windhill and Thunderhaven.  They had many adventures in Darrowbank, including saving a vinyard from marauding kobolds, clearing an old sentry tower of goblins, besting a crooked quarry-owner in a fist-fight, stopping a dangerous and close-minded 'Pacifism Cult', stopping a would-be lich in an enormous mausoleum, halting the opression of a local hill giant, participating in a gladiator tournament in Gladiatortonshirevilleburg, and saving the town of Primrose from a young green dragon.  Through the adventures, the party managed to acquire a number of powerful items, armor, and magic items, including a mystical chalice that, when combioned with two others like it, would create a mysterious, but extremely powerful potion.  They also were given a farm outside of Primrose as a reward for stopping the dragon.

"The Fighting Lygers" 

• Kaluryn Parfore, Martial Wizard, Leader of the Lygers. (Represented on the white-board by Pewter Wizard Figurine)
• Zax, Minotaur Barbarian (Represented by Large knight figurine with flail) 
• Grimnash Honeyloaf, Dwarven Fighter. (Represented by small Street Fighter II "Blanka" figurine)
• Reinhardt, shapeshifting Bard. (Represented by wooden "pawn" peg)
• Gjertrude, Elven Druid.  (Represented by glass dragon figurine)
• Faye, Human Rogue,  (Represented by orange ninja figurine)
• Constance Burrows, Halfling Vampire / Rogue. (represented by purple duck figurine)

Party Members at Lyger Farms:

• Lelumina, Elven Cleric
• Taymos Busy, Human Wizard, Former member of Thunderhaven Mage-Police (Yellow Pewter Figurine)
• Grygor, The Hill Giant of Darrowbank Hills. (Hulk Hogan Finger-Puppet)

 The Lygers arrived in the sprawling fortress city of Thunderhaven with the intentions of finding a blacksmith with a magic-powered forge capable of fashioning the dragon scales they acquired into armor for their druid, Gjertrude. The recent events in the campaign involved one of the party members, Zax the Minotaur Barbarian being arrested in the city of Thunderhaven under accusations that he murdered a beloved inn-keeper. After catching wind of the city's corruption, the party felt it best to free their companion. Under the pretense of visiting him, the group encountered a woman in the prison cell next to Zax who claimed she was once a member of the city's elite Mage-Police force, that used powerful magic to maintain order and regulate spell-casting within the walls of Thunderhaven. Eventually, ther party decided to trust this woman, a wizard named Taymos Busy. They pushed their way through the brick wall behind Taymos' cell, and fled into the sewers beneath the city, looking for a way out.

The Party made their escape from the city sewers, running into fierce slimy creatures in the murky depths of the fortress city. Among these creatures were Otyughs, and Bone-Claws, the latter of which emerged from a pile of corpses and trash that the party was investigating for treasures.

While Zax and Taymos made a quick escape to the party's farm, "Lyger Farms" outside of a town called Primrose on the road between Thunderhaven and Darrowbank, the rest of the party chose to accept a quest from the master-blacksmith. In return for fetching a fire-orb made from the trapped essence of a dangerous Fire Elemental, they would recieve free access to the forge for their own use.

The party entered the black obsidian fire cave, and were met with great pools of lava, and hundreds of tiny steam and flame vents lining the floor of the cave. The fire Elemental Lord was waiting for them, and began to use his influence to cause giant pillars of fire to erupt from the floor of the cave and barrel down on the adventurers (Represented as Bottle-caps on the white-board).

The Fire Elemental Lord was a dangerous foe, who caught several of the party members on fire during the battle. Fortunately, Constance emerged from her hiding place to quickly douse the fires with a carefully prepared pool of water hidden inside of her bag of holding.

At the end of the battle, the group proved victorious, and had managed to charge a small magic orb with the essence of the Fire Elemental.  They returned hastily to the city in order to return the orb, repower the magic forge, and make preperations for the Joust to be held in Thunderhaven in the coming days.  The prize of which is: The hand of Princesss Camille, daughter of the King of Thunderhaven!

Favorite Video Games #3: "Grim Fandango"

My history began with this game the day it was released. My actual playing of it, however, did not.

Grim Fandango was a very highly anticipated adventure game from the core team of adventure game creators at Lucasarts, the video game devision of Lucasfilm Ltd. It was released the day before Halloween in 1998, and told a surreal but epic noir-styled storyline (in the vein of the Maltese Falcon), set in the world of the dead, heavily inspired by artwork created in association with the Dia de los muertos celebrations in Mexico. At the time that I purchased it, the game required 32MB of RAM to play. I only had 8. The game would frequently lock up, and be unplayable because my computer did not meet the minimum requirements to play it. A year or so later, after I had the opportunity to upgrade my computer, I was finally able to play the game that had tempted me for so very long

The main character of the game, Manuel Calavera (or 'Manny' for short) begins the game as a reaper, shepherding a poor dead soul to the land of the dead. As it turns out, he's little more than a travel agent, attempting to pay off debts he accrued in life by working for the Department of Death in the afterlife. From this downtrodden platform, he stumbles across an elaborate conspiracy that has been robbing the honest souls entering the afterlife of their just dues, as well as thieving Manny of the lucrative clients he deserves to help him pay off his community service debts.

The game stretches across 4 years, and introduces the protagonist Manny to a vast array of intriguing and amusing characters, including the loud and brash Glottis, a “travel spirit” whose existence relies on driving very, very fast. There’s also an old sea captain, a cranky TSA agent, a very unlucky French butler, a determined man attempting to cross the ocean floor on foot, and a Che Guevara-inspired revolutionary. Meeting and interacting with the intriguing characters is most of the fun of this epic game, as Manny Calavery attempts to solve the mystery of who is behind the nefarious scheme to steal honest souls’ tickets on the “Number 9”, a train that can ferry the souls of the dead to the land of eternal rest in 4 minutes instead of the 4 years the journey might take otherwise.

Most of the characters in the game are modeled after calacas skeletons which are common in Dia De Los Muertos celebrations. Other characters in the game are closer to typical 'Tim Schaefer' fare: bizzare anthropomorphic bee-men, orange monsters, and vampiric fire-beavers. There are many puzzles to solve, and sinister forces to stop. The charm and inventiveness of the world is what made the experience so endearing to me. The locations and story were just so unique and creative, that it made me want to learn more about Dia De Los Muertos, and about South American history and culture. The game was funny too. The dialog was sharp and witty, and a joy to experience.

My Favorite Games: #4 "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim"

One of my favorite games of all time is “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim”, commonly referred to simply as “Skyrim”. It is the fifth game in the long running Elder Scrolls series of games that deal with a huge fantasy world, full of elves, orcs, humans, lizardmen, cat-people, and more. Each game in the franchise has focused on a different region of the world, but Skyrim is one of the most exciting provinces to date; spanning the frigid northern part of the continent, and including environments ranging from frozen tundras, to snowy mountain peaks, to damp bogs, to forest paths.

The game’s story begins with an unnamed character being carted off to his or her execution for being “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and being associated with a wanted criminal who killed Skyrim’s last king. As you are about to be executed, a dragon suddenly attacks. No one in the world has seen a dragon for thousands of years. In the confusion you escape, and from that point on, you are free to explore this gigantic world.

The world is populated with numerous villages, cities, caves, fortresses, and ancient ruins. As you explore, you begin to uncover a prophecy that tells of the return of the dragons and the end of humanity. In the past when the dragons were subjugating or destroying the people of the world, a defender would be born known as the Dovahkiin, or “Dragonborn”; a warrior with the soul of a dragon, who is able to destroy the monsters permanently. The Dragonborn is sent on a quest to discover a way to defeat Alduin, the dragon-lord, and save the people of Skyrim from total destruction.

There are also many other things to do in the world besides following the main questline and saving the people. There are guilds you can do quests for and rise to leadership positions of. These include the Thieves Guild in the “mafia-run” city of Riften, The battle-hardened Companions of Whiterun, The Mage College of Winterhold, and the illusive Dark Brotherhood assassins guild. Along with all that, there are hundreds and hundreds of side quests you can complete in order to help people in various cities, or to acquire ancient and powerful weapons to help you in your mission to destroy the dragons.

Throughout the game, you’ll fight a variety of enemies that inhabit the wilds of the province of Skyrim. One of the most exciting enemies you’ll encounter are dragons: ancient beings resurrected by the evil dragon-lord, Alduin. Fighting these enemies is dynamic and incredibly exhilarating as they fly around, land on buildings and rocks, and breath fire or ice while trying to destroy you. When you finally bring one of the dragons down, it feels very rewarding. One of the most interesting aspects of the game for me, is simply exploring the fully-realized and enormous world of Skyrim. There are so many interesting places to discover, that sometimes my favorite thing to do is to just wander the landscape, and explore any forts, dungeons, or caves that I come across. Most of the time, they will be filled with bandits, trolls, or evil wizards. You can spend a ton of time just exploring these interesting and beautiful locations, without even contributing to the overarching quest to stop Alduin. You can also buy a house in any of the major cities, become Thane under the Jarl’s in each of their holds, and even find a wife and get married! To top it off, there’s also a major questline involving picking a side in the civil war going on in Skyrim, and leading that respective army to victory; thus unifying the province. There really is a massive number of things to do in this world.

In conclusion, this is a game I would recommend to anyone. It’s fun to play, and very rewarding to explore. The combat is satisfying and varied (You can use swords, shields, bow-and-arrows, magic spells, axes, or hammers). As Dragonborn, you also have the ability to “Thu’um” or Shout at your enemies, using the ancient dragon language to forcibly push enemies away, breathe fire or frost, and even slow down time! Very fun, indeed.