Random Dialogue

Continuing the trend of background on Demons and Devils of the D&D world, Zuggtmoy graces the cover of November’s Dragon magazine. The Demon Queen of Fungus and plant monsters is joined by illithids, the Lords of Dust, and the Shadar-Kai.

“Monsters of the Mind” expands on the underground civilizations of the Mind Flayers, offering up a bestiary of some of the depraved critters that the Ilithids have crafted. Covering a wide range of CRs, everything from a tentacled dragon to a swarm of brain-sucking leeches is detailed. The only time I can see this article really being all that useful is if you’re planning a Mind Flayer-centric campaign and want something more than brainwashed slaves to throw at your players. Interesting imagery, though.

Another article from the Demonomicon of Iggwilv details the cover demoness, Zuggtmoy. The Foul Queen of Fungi ramps the creepy factor up several notches, with information on her cultists, their practices, and some of the creatures she has at her beck and call. I don’t know why, but they’ve certainly been liking the subtly disturbing for the last several months in Dragon. They’d better not stop, is what I’m saying. In any case, good stuff here. I really like this series of articles, as it gets under the skin of the world in a way I find very appealing. The cultist details add a sense of continuity to what might otherwise be the random actions of faceless thralls. For example, one sacrifice to Zuggy involves a procedure the cultists call “Zuggtmoy’s Cradle”. A victim is tied up with rope of their own hair and buried in a bog with a breathing tube. Fungal spores and gruel are fed to the buried sacrifice, who screams for days before the spores consume them from within. Tasty details.

More demonology with a Keith Baker penned article on The Lords of Dust, the rakshasa rajahs of the Eberron setting. Like many of the big bads in the world of Eberron, The Lords of Dust are a secret cabal with a specific focus. In this case, less powerful rakshasas are working for the return of the all-powerful Overlords. These deathless demons were shut away by an army of dragons and couatls, and so in Lovecraftian style they slumber hidden away in the depths of Kyhber. While the setting as a whole is geared to show low level adventurers a good time (kings are only like level 10 or so, for example), this article attempts to alleviate the complaints of those who say there are no high level threats looming in Eberron. Even the lieutenant rakshasas are still quite high level, making the Overlords epic-level threats. Once the adventuring party has refought the last war and won, what is there left to do? Oh, that’s right, demon kitties!

The Shadar-Kai were one of the races thunk up for the 3.0 Fiend Folio, and ended up being something of a fan favorite evidently. This Shadow-bound race of fey certainly has a lot of interesting stuff to it. They’re constantly being pulled back to Shadow, and use pain and concentration to keep their evil selves locked onto the Material plane. While normally I’m not a fan of ‘race’ Ecology articles, this one was enlightening and expanded admirably on the Fiend Folio entry. Wormfood this month is a forgettable bit of business on buying magic in the free city. While it’s easily transferrable to any large city, it’s not all that interesting. Bazaar of the Bizarre is similarly underwhelming. Magic Face Paints. Yes, face paints. They’re basically potions, and only work for 24 hours after they’re applied. Eh. I never fail to find something wonderful in the Class Acts section of the magazine, and this month is no different. Substitution levels for Hafling Wizards. They basically get to pick a spell not necessarily on the Wizard spell list at 3rd, 5th, and 12th levels. Interesting.

Overall I felt this was a weaker magazine than some of the most recent issues. While I liked the cast of villains they put forward in this issue, overall the magazine for D&D players felt very much more like a DM’s guide. Can’t win em’ all, I guess.

Frelling Holidays and their togetherness quotients. Bah.

Okay, that was harsh. I had a lovely Thanksgiving. I even took the holiday as a sign to lay low this weekend, and low laying I did. After a completely lovely evening with just Katie and myself on Wednesday, Thursday’s sociality was welcome. We had some delicious food (as always) at the Giacominis. With dogs looking on there was talk and nascent food-comas formed. When we left there, we headed over to my mother’s place. Mom’s place was hopping this year, with 18 people crammed into the living room and dining room areas. After our second dinner we played the movie game, and I held my own fairly well. Or so I’d like to think.

Friday Joe and Abby had us over to their place for A Very Hobbity Thanksgiving 2.0. We did a pot-luck, and the atmosphere was very much A Long Expected Party. Katie had to work, so Elijah was my date. We brought supporting players like cheese, wine, and and angel food cake. All in all the evening was as successful as it was tiring. Mr. Tiegs stuck around for lunch the next day, and it was three Zenkes (Katie, Paul, Me) who joined him. We had Perkins, the first time I’ve been there in some time. Not that I was missing much, but it’s nice to come home to old favorites.

When Elijah left that afternoon and Katie went to work, I dove headfirst into something I’ve been depriving myself of for weeks now. With patch 1.9 on the horizon (possibly even available for download tomorrow), I decided to throw myself back into World of Warcraft. I was already closish to 60, and I wanted the chance to familiarize myself with Grodin-as-he-was before I get the chance to remake him in the new Paladin mold. In 48 hours I went from level 51 to level 54. That may not sound like much, but that’s well over 300,000 experience points. I basically did nothing on Sunday but play WoW, pausing only for some dinner and to pay some attention to my lovely wife. Grodin is on track for the big six oh sometime before the new year. I hope. I didn’t make 60 before the one year anniversary of retail, but maybe I’ll make 60 before 2006.

I read the fourth book in the series about the Boy Who Lived back in August. I liked it, alot. It’s the first Harry Potter book I’ve really gotten into, and while I tempered my expectations for the movie based on some commentary I had high hopes for the flim version as well.

While I think that the movie adaptation of Azkaban was slightly better, Goblet of Fire was still a tremendous experience. First and foremost, dang have those kids grown up. There is a reason that Cleo calls him Radcakes. Even I think that Mr. Radcliffe is growing up to be a very handsome young man. While I’m still not looking forward to the Phoenix whine-fest, Potter’s awkward steps into adulthood were well handled in this format. Ms. Watson and Mr. Grint are similarly respectable nowadays, and … good lord. IMDB says Emma Watson was born in 1990. I was already killing dragons when she was born. I’m so old. Besides reminding me of my age, all three of them did a crackerjack job portraying the Potter adventuring crewe. While Mr. Grint (thanks to Ron’s nebbishness) really came out the loser in this situation, I was pleased by the decision to remove the House Elf sub-plot from the film. It was the only irritation I had while reading the novel, and made Hermione overall a much more hard-nosed character.

Plot changes were much more frequent than in the previous movies, and there were numerous edits obviously made for time. Besides the elves, the entire Quidditch entry into the novel was extremely abbreviated. Unlike previous movies, there was almost no time left over for their actual classes, and the obnoxious ramblings of Rita Skeeter were almost entirely missing from the proceedings. Overall, Goblet felt much more rushed than even Azkaban. There was wall-to-wall plot to move through and while there were some pauses to take a breath they were very few and far between.

Visually, the Azkaban style has carried over into the later film. While I know there are some who liked the light and fluffy version of the Potter world from the first two films, the dark and spooky reality that Newell has conjured from the ashes of Cuaron’s last flim is extremely appealing. That said, Mr. Newell does not have the same skill with the camera as Cuaron does.

This combination of plot speed and the slightly less adept camerawork meant that I came away from Goblet not quite as impressed as I was with Azkaban. Prisoner of Azkaban, as a movie, blew me away. The visual texture and adept handling of the story in that film were testaments to Cuaron’s skill as a director. Goblet, on the other hand, left me feeling like someone who had ridden out a tornado. Plot flying at me left and right, and what part of the year is it now, oh look there goes the ball and wtf it’s the last challenge now and hey the movie’s over. To be sure, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the book more, though. It’s still the first book I’ve really gotten into. The Weasley twins totally made it worth watching. They need their own damn show. Good times.

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1 egg
1 can cream style corn
1 can whole corn, drained
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix box

Mix ingredients until combined.
Bake in a greased square baking pan at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

For Holidays I double the recipe. To do so simply multiply the amounts by 2, both dishes can be baked at the same time.

Recipe Courtesy Caroline Sumner.
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The reason I haven’t posted for a few days is simple. I only have a certain number of words in me each day, and lately my words have been very, very busy. Monday we had a review of Mario Kart DS, which continues to be a truly wonderful experience. I see myself playing this game for a long, long time. Which is good, because it’s the second game I gave a 10/10 to, and the only other game I’ve given that score to (World of Warcraft), I’m still playing. Yesterday I had three relatively big stories to put up: Ask the Mythbusters, a call for questions on probably the most requested interview subject we’ve had, The Xbox 360’s Launch, and a review of Movies in Fifteen Minutes.

As expected, despite some last minute hopes I am sans 360. Not, I admit, that it seems like I’m missing out on much. Reactions have been decidedly mixed across the board, and I can’t say I’m very surprised. That said, I’m looking forward to getting one. PDZ is something I’d like to try out for myself, and Gears of War still makes my eyebrows go up every time I see footage or screens for it.

Besides all that, I’ve been generally having a nice couple of days. Saturday was mostly spent working and tweaking a project. I should be able to turn in my first draft of that project today, so I’m pretty happy about that. In the evening some folks came over to paint miniatures while Alan, Erich, and I goofed around. Sunday was, of course, Shackled City. We had our first mostly roleplaying session (as opposed to dungeon crawling), and it went extremely well. The characters are starting to settle down into the city now, and I can honestly say this last session was probably my favorite so far.

Last night’s SR session went pretty well also. I think I’ve worked out a way to handle Matrix, Astral, and Meatspace issues all at relatively the same time. As long as I’m somewhat well rested, and fed, I think that I should be able to handle the realities of 2070 okay. Today Katie and I are taking some time just to hang out. We’ve both been going pretty full force on our jobs recently, and we’re going to take a well deserved day to just hang out. We’ve got a few errands to run, and we’re finally going to clean out my wallet of gift cards. We’ve had a couple hanging around since the wedding, and we’re finally going to get rid of them by snagging some knickknacks and whatnot. Tonight I’ve secured us reservations at Quivey’s Grove, a lovely restaurant near our home. After that we’re going to catch a moderately late show of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which we’re both looking forward to. As I mentioned previously, GOF was the first Potter book that really hooked me. I’m quite looking forward to seeing it in cinematic format.

I actually don’t know what the plan is tomorrow. I know we’re doing two dinners and such, but I’m not sure about time, or whatever. I have the morning shift, but I don’t expect that to interfere with Turkey consuming duties. Happy Thanksgiving, humans.

Ahh, the joys of a new machine. I’ll be honest: the shiny factor didn’t wear off. I’ve been really enjoying just puttering. And more than puttering … games look like teh awesome now. It’s going in the mail to coworker ScuttleMonkey but before it heads out, again ( see below), I’ve installed and played through the first few levels. Considering I couldn’t even play the game on Bandersnatch, it’s like a crazy fantasy playing it now. It’s scary and beautiful, not unlike HL2 but with a lot more mean-and-nasty. Playing through the beginning of Half-Life 2 for the third time is still not old. I’m a lot more sure of myself, obviously, but otherwise it’s just as fresh as it was the last time.

Everything looks better. City of Villains is absolutely magnificent, World of Warcraft isn’t phenomenally more beautiful, but the anti-aliasing has taken everything up a notch or two in crispness. Then… then there is Civ IV. I um….I have a problem there. Katie actually came home tonight from work, and I sort of missed the part where she came in and said hi to me. Because, you understand, as the leader of the German people it was imperative that I kept the despotic Romans and conniving Russians from infringing on our great people’s land. Review coming up on Wednesday. I hope I manage to get stuff done between now and then.

I will, of course. As per usual I have lots of stuff I’m aiming to get done this week. A Mario Kart review for Monday, and a review for The Movies for Friday are hopefully in the cards.

As for this past week, Wednesday night I allowed myself to be slaughtered at Poker with Aaron and Brian. My time spent playing the free tables at Pokerstars.com appears to be for naught so far. Thursday Katie and I had lunch with Alan and Brian at Ians. Damn that’s good pizza. Afterwards we picked up Alfred from the service center. His battery had gone and gotten leaky, so they cleaned up the corroded connections and hooked me up with a new battery. Money, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. Today Paul and I had lunch. Always nice to see the brother, and even moreso because we had a nice conversation over Bluephies.

I also checked in with the mail situation. Our new rural carrier was actually a problem all around. We found some mail returned to us that we thought had gone out. Unfun.

Tomorrow we’re going to be doing some figurine painting, perhaps. To be honest I’m considering staying home to write, because there are literally thousands of words I need to get out of my fingers in the next few days. Tough stuff. Sunday is Shackled City, playing a little bit longer than normal. We’re not able to get in a game next weekend, so we’re going long on the two weeks surrounding our off week. Going to be a roleplaying heavy session, finally, a nice break from the dungeon crunchiness. Next week is Thanksgiving. That means corn and stuffing and a tryptophan-induced nap. Ah, U.S. holidays.

I’m typing this out on my new PC, Manxome. In the tradition of my first PC (Jabberwocky), the gaming rig Brian built for me a few years ago (Bandersnatch), and my laptop Vorpal, I’ve named my newest PC in the tradition of Lewis Carrol’s nonsense-word-filled poem. She is faster, a sleek and sexay black, and everything is going all cylinders. I’m still going through the slow process of getting all the software I want to onto her (my first girl PC, btw), but for the most part I’m a happy user. Thanks again to Brian for his assistance getting her innards in order.

The only casualty, I think, is 7 emails that I stupidly downloaded after I installed Thunderbird but before I imported my old email, and my Half-Life 2 game saves. That last is frustrating, as it represents a lot of time on my part but, eh… I’ll just have to replay the game again on my new rig. Truly a shame.

Alfred (my Saturn) found his way via tow truck to a service center today. I haven’t heard what the verdict is, but I’m hoping it will be something relatively minor. I really don’t need another money vortex in my life right now. In fact, I’ve had a really frustrating day.

We have our health, though, and I don’t have anything of substance to complain about.

Indeed, recent events have spurred me into taking a more aggressive stance on the independent projects front. I think I might be getting myself into some pleasant trouble. Here’s hoping things play out.

In the near future, I have an article I need to get written, hopefully by the end of this week. Let’s hope the shiny of a new PC will dull a little by Friday.