Star Wars - part 2 "A Walk in the Park"

Episode 47: "A Walk in the Park"

June 25, 2016

Following the successful rescue of the prisoners from the Imperial star galleon Discord Anvil, the prisoners who were not members of the Rebel Alliance were released in small groups at various location to avoid any Imperial entanglements.

In the wake of their successful mission, the members of the New Jedi Order and the leaders of the Antarian Rangers traveled to the Rebel headquarters at Echo Base on Dagobah. This was Taanar Ryl's first visit to the steamy swamp planet. She landed with her master Niranya Repp aboard the Star River Venture, and they were greeted by Princess Leia and her protocol droid C3PO, who appeared to have a particular affection for First Ranger ADX.

Princess Leia called ADX away to have a private discussion, while the rest of the group split up to take care of their own affairs. Lowarra wanted to restock her supply of missiles and get in some time in the Rebel's pilot training module, while Dash had some maintenance done on the Star River Venture, and Neri showed Taanar around the base and told her about her time training there with Master Yoda - including his peculiar practice of riding around on Neri's back while she ran through the swamp. Taanar wondered if this was a normal part of Jedi training.

Neri also introduced her new padawan to her favorite meditation aid, her much-loved koogle tube (a device like a cross between a rain stick and a lava lamp). Neri swore by it as an aid to her meditation, but Taanar discovered that her shipmates had no love for the device and kept threatening to pitch it out the airlock. Taanar herself didn't find it very helpful or appealing.

After concluding his meeting with Princess Leia, ADX located his teammates to tell them that Leia had asked them to conduct an important mission on behalf of the Rebel Alliance. A high-profile intelligence resource known only as "Harvest Purple" needed to be retrieved from the planet Columex within Imperial territory. The instructions told them to leave a message on a social media holonet site looking for "swoop bike" enthusiasts. The code phrase to use to confirm the contact was "I saw the Queens of Fluxx play on Brental", to which the response was "You can dance the skippit to them."

Due to the heavy Imperial presence on Columex, it was decided that only a small team should make the contact. Neri, Lowarra, Dash, ADX, and Taanar took a YT-1210 class ship, the Mithrim Montes, which was one of the ships the team had acquired from the Banking Clan stash they had found. To pass through Imperial customs, they pretended to be an empty cargo ship looking for cargo. Everyone had to put away their weapons, as Columex was under Imperial weapons restrictions. Neri and Taanar hid their lightsabers in ADX's internal hidden compartment, along with a grenade Lowarra wanted to bring. Neri and Dash strapped on holdout blasters, much to Taanar's surprise. It turned out that the restrictions applied only to energy weapons; Lowarra's bowcaster didn't count.

After landing at the Flavian City spaceport, the group ran into some customs agents who questioned that they were bringing a proscripted species onto the planet - meaning Lowarra. Neri was able to convince the inspector that he didn't need to see her documentation by using her Jedi mind trick. The group then leased a large ground speeder and sought lodging at an inexpensive hotel near the spaceport. Once at the hotel, they observed that the major news story on the local holonet involved a woman named Mellie Limgu. Taanar didn't pay much attention to the reason the woman was attracting so much attention from the media.

Unfortunately there was a Biscuit Baron restaurant not far from the hotel, a favorite dining location of the whole group (with the exception of Taanar, who had never been to one before). Dash tried to no avail to talk her friends out of going to the restaurant and possibly drawing attention to themselves. Later she lamented having to be the responsible adult in the group. She reluctantly accompanied the others to the Biscuit Baron, where they all bought happy meals but were disappointed to find that the toys inside were no longer 'Adventures of Bleedo' figures but instead were 'Heroes of the Empire'. Everyone but Neri got stomrtrooper figures. Neri got a bantha.

While they were introducing Taanar to Biscuit Baron's enormous biscuits and lamenting that this location didn't have their favorite blue sauce, the group was interrupted by the arrival of some local constables, who wanted to know why ADX didn't have a restraining bolt, what Lowarra was doing there, and where Taanar's parents were. Neri managed to explain away all of these things by claiming that her droid didn't need a restraining bolt, that Lowarra was her hired bodyguard (which had been true in the past), and that she was Taanar's guardian. After this interruption muted their mood they returned to their rooms at 'The Flophouse'.

The following day, they drove their rented speeder to the Cerulean Gardens, where the contact had told them to seek a message on a specific park bench. Dash went to look for the message, while Neri and Taanar roamed the park pretending to be casual visitors. ADX and Lowarra remained in the speeder to avoid attracting too much attention. As Neri and Taanar sat down on a bench not far from the one Dash was heading for, Neri happened to notice that there were an unusually large number of droids about, some in the park and others in flyers overhead. The pair were approached twice by men trying to sell them spice. They began to wonder if perhaps local law enforcement were conducting a sting operation in the park.

Meanwhile, Dash found the message from the contact and left the token to show that she had picked it up, a bag of hazel sprouts. But a service droid told her that littering wasn't allowed, and she was forced to pick up the bag and take it to a waste receptacle, where she tried to make it obvious while at the same time blending in with other rubbish. Neri had warned her by commlink about the large number of droids in and around the park, so they decided to meet at the speeder and return to their hotel.

As they drove toward the hotel, Dash opened the message from "Harvest Purple" and found that it was instructions to meet the contact that night at a club called Club Syndrome, and wear a red jacket. Fortunately the swoop biker jacket Dash had acquired just after their arrival in Flavian City happened to be red.

On the way to the hotel they went through the Biscuit Baron drive-through and picked up more happy meals. This time Neri got an Emperor figure, but it sadly melted when Lowarra dropped it in a cup of soda after being told by Dash that such toys were reputed to be equipped with listening devices.

That evening they went to Club Syndrome as instructed. Dash went in alone, while the rest accompanied Neri as her entourage. Dash was soon approached by a woman who spoke the code phrase to her. This woman turned out to be Mellie Lemgu, wearing a brown wig to disguise her blond hair. Just after Lemgu made contact, two ISB agents appeared in the club, blocking the exit. Neri and Lowarra staged a distraction so Dash and Lemgu could leave, while the two women tried to deflect attention from Lemgu by kissing and pretending to be a couple. Lowarra feigned intoxication and Neri pretended to be angry with her, and the group left the club.

Dash and Lemgu took a lift to the roof garden, where they encountered some swoop bikers who began to flirt with them. While the two women chatted with the bikers, Lemgu purloined one biker's keys. Dash then used her holdout blaster to blast another, and the duo stole two swoop bikes and escaped the club. When the bikers tried to pursue them, the rest of the group in the speeder briefly blocked their way.

As they left the club behind and headed back to the Mithrim Montes, Mellie Lemgu announced, "Take me to the Wheel."

Star Wars: A New New Hope

Before I present my summary of our Star Wars RPG session last night, let me provide some backstory. My husband and several of our friends have been playing a Star Wars campaign about twice a month for a couple of years. This game is run using the Saga Edition d20 rules system specifically for Star Wars. The campaign is set during the time period represented in the original movie trilogy, but with a major twist: Han Solo, Chewbacca and the Millenium Falcon arrived at the Mos Eiseley Cantina on Tatooine a little late, and missed out on the opportunity to give Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker a lift to Alderaan. Instead, the player-characters are the ones who took Obi-Wan and Luke to the Death Star to rescue Princess Leia, aboard their ship, the Sky River Venture. They did eventually meet Han Solo and befriend him, which has proved a bit of a problem, as he and Dash have an attraction but Neri has been told by Master Yoda that she must find a way to get Leia and Han involved with each other.

The player-characters in this campaign have since become members of the Rebel Alliance, just like Luke did in the original movie. Luke was unfortunately captured while they were aboard the Death Star, and they were unable to rescue him. Eventually the PCs helped to destroy the Death Star, instead of that role going to Luke. Luke has returned as a trained Jedi, but in this version of the story he may have had most of his Jedi training indirectly from his father Darth Vader. Consequently the PCs took a long time to trust him. Meanwhile one of the PCs, Neranya Repp (played by my husband) has realized she is Force-sensitive and has become a Jedi herself, trained first by Obi-Wan Kenobi and later by Master Yoda.

Recently the PCs have come to realize that perhaps the Jedi weren't the nicest people and it wasn't a good idea for them to have become part of the Republic military. They also realized that the Rebel Alliance weren't always treating them with respect or appreciation for all they had done for the Rebel cause. They had become a bit disillusioned. The turning point came when their droid companion ARD, a former Sith droid who has been mind-wiped many times, was nearly destroyed by Darth Vader (who also severed Neri's hand during the same encounter).

After his Wookiee friend Lowarra installed ARD's back-up memory chip in a new body, ARD began to remember many amazing things about his past. He realized he had served the Sith during the Old Republic, 4,000 years prior to the current events of the campaign. He also knew that during that time period, the Jedi did not involve themselves in the political or military affairs of any government. They were an order of monastics, who only interacted with the rest of society in order to perform altruistic deeds. After learning of this, the friends Neri, Dash, Lowarra and the renamed ADX decided that together they would reform the Jedi order in the image of its long-ago form, as well as reinstating the Jedi support group of non-Force users known as the Antarian Rangers. ADX had also told his friends that during the Old Republic, sentient droids were treated as full citizens, something he wished to see again and something his friends agreed with. As their first step in that direction, ADX was given the position of First Ranger in the Antarian Rangers. He, Dash and Lowarra would lead the Rangers while Neri and Luke Skywalker led the newly reformed Jedi.

The group decided to separate themselves from the Rebel Alliance, though they would still work alongside the Rebels to perform actions such as freeing prisoners and providing food and medical supplies to groups being oppressed b the Empire. Shortly after this decision was made and Neri announced the reformation of the Jedi, she was contacted by a reporter who wanted to interview her. Thought everyone was concerned that this might be an Imperial ambush, they agreed to meet the reporter. When he arrived at the meeting location, he revealed that his true intention had been to ask Neri to teach the ways of the Jedi to his daughter.

This is where I come in. I've been attending the game sessions with my husband for some time, occasionally helping the GM by running an NPC. A few times I expressed a bit of envy that my friends were involved in such an exciting game. So when the GM decided to introduce a padawan for my husband's character, he invited me to join the group and run the padawan as my character. He even allowed me to change the character's race and gender to suit my own preference, as the introduction of the padawan had happened at the end of the session and very little information about the character had been presented to the other players. Moments after the character was revealed, Imperial forces attacked and the new apprentice's father was killed.

Last night was my first session of the game as an official player. It's going to be interesting playing a 14-year-old, first-level character when the rest of the group are 12th or 13th level. But I think it will be a lot of fun. I can't wait for our next session.

Apologies to my fellow players for any mistakes or omissions in what follows.

Star Wars - Episode #46: "Apprentice Ship" 

Player-Characters:
Neranya 'Neri' Repp - female Corellian (human) noble and Jedi
Dashell 'Dash' Creel - female Corellian (human) pilot and computer expert
Lowarra - female Wookiee warrior and mechanic
ADX - sentient droid warrior and tactician
Taanar Ryl - female Togruta Jedi padawan

The starship New Hope, carrying Neri, the Antarian Rangers, and Princess Leia, had traveled to Verdanth to take supplies to besieged Bothans there and release prisoners from an Imperial detention facility. Han Solo and Chewbacca flew in aboard the Millenium Falcon to decoy Imperial TIE fighters and customs corvettes. After the Imperial ships had been destroyed, teams traveled to the planet's surface to complete their mission, handily wiping out the battle droids that were guarding the detention center.

Taanar Ryl had only been with her new Jedi master Neranya Repp for a little over a month, and had never seen such massive destruction before. She was shocked when she felt the deaths of the crews aboard the two Imperial customs corvettes. She was awed by watching Neri and her friends eliminating the droids. Neri lifted a transport vehicle with her Force power and smashed it down atop several droids. She also used her lightsaber to deflect blaster fire. Lowarra and ADX were equally impressive, Lowarra blasting droids with her rocket launcher and ADX with his built-in blaster cannon and well-placed grenades. Lowarra even saved Taanar when she was targeted and the courageous Wookiee interposed to take the blast herself. Taanar was inspired to overcome her feelings of inadequacy to shoot at the droid that had tried to shoot her, but her skill with a blaster didn't equal her desire.

Though young Taanar was disturbed by the sight of Imperial guards who had resisted and been shot, her heart was lifted when the Bothan prisoners were released and expressed their gratitude to her master and the Rangers. After the teams had freed the prisoners and Dash had accessed the computers to acquire some information they sought, they blew up the detention center on their way out.

Back aboard the New Hope, Neri received a communication from Luke Skywalker, who had gone to seek a Jedi who had survived the Jedi Purge, Kanan Jarrus. Skywalker reported that he had spoken to Hera Syndulla, leader of the Rebel Phoenix Squadron, who told him that Kanan Jarrus and his padawan Ezra Bridger had gone missing after Ezra was turned to the Dark Side by contact with a Sith holocron device.*

Later they received news of an Imperial convoy transporting high-profile prisoners. Han Solo joined them to advise them that the star galleon carrying the prisoners would drop the transport pod and send it into hyperdrive at the first sign of danger. ADX devised a plan to use the New Hope to ambush the convoy and distract the galleon, while the Sky River Venture latched on to the transport pod and followed it when it went to hyperdrive. They decided to take some of the old Trade Federation combat droids they had acquired as back-up troops.

Although it required some expert piloting skill, Dash was easily able to shadow the transport pod and pursue it when it went to hyperdrive. By the time this happened, the New Hope had all but destroyed the star galleon despite its heavy shielding. The small contingent of guards aboard the transport pod was easily overpowered and the 24 prisoners aboard the pod were released.

Once more aboard the New Hope, Neri took time to talk with Taanar and encourage her not to bottle up her grief over her father's death. If she didn't feel comfortable speaking to her master, she should seek out someone else such as Dash or Lowarra with whom to share her troubles.

At the end of the session Taanar reached 2nd level.

*Kanan Jarrus, Hera Syndulla, and Ezra Bridger are characters from the animated tv series Star Wars Rebels.

Movie Review: Apocalypto

Apocalypto (2006)
Directed by Mel Gibson
Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Raul Trujillo, Mayra Serbulo

I wanted to like this film. There was so much about the concept to like: the Native American cast, the setting in the Mayan civilization, the dialogue in the Yucatan Maya language. But it almost immediately was a disappointment to me.

First, it really isn't set in the Maya civilization. The protagonist, Jaguar Paw, lives in the jungle with his family. When he and his fellow hunters are captured and taken to a Maya city as sacrificial victims, they are clearly not members of that culture. They have never seen a city of stone houses before. Once I realized that, I was actually irritated that they were speaking the same language as their captors, as they would certainly not have shared a language, though perhaps their tongues might have been very similar.

In addition to my disappointment that the film wasn't really about the Maya people, I was also unhappy to find it unrelentingly grim. Jaguar Paw barely has any pleasant screen time with his family before everyone is killed or captured by the Maya warriors. The Maya themselves are presented as very unpleasant, hedonistic people who are busily destroying the environment to build to build bigger palaces for their king. They are cruel to those with a contagious illness, and their city is filled with reminders of human sacrifice. I'm sure director Mel Gibson was trying to make an environmental statement and commentary on modern materialism, but it was so heavy-handed that I couldn't appreciate it. I couldn't feel any empathy for the Maya at all; from the opulently-dressed and indolent nobles to the sadistic warrior who keeps threatening Jaguar Paw, they were presented as cardboard villains.

I had wanted the Maya to be depicted as highly civilized, intelligent and technologically advanced people they were, but all the focus seemed to be on how ruthless and obsessed with bloodletting they were, while Jaguar Paw's tribe were presented as "gentle primitives". It was a typically irritating presentation of tribal people as simple and noble, while the civilized people are evil, especially because they believe in blood sacrifice. In the end when the Spaniards arrive it almost seems as though they are meant to be saviors, though Jaguar Paw rejects them.

While Jaguar Paw is trying to avoid being sacrificed and escape his captors, his wife Seven and young son are trapped in an underground cave where they hid when their village was attacked. It was predictable and annoying that one of the Maya warriors almost notices her, and then for no reason cuts the rope that Jaguar Paw had left to help her climb out of the cave. This kind of thing happens in every action movie where someone is hiding from a menacing bad guy, and it's so boring. Seven, who is heavily pregnant, spends the rest of the film trying to get out of the cave, only to be trapped when a torrential downpour starts to fill the cave with water. Really? It rained enough in half an hour to fill the cave? And to make matters worse, of course she goes into labor, just to add some artificial suspense.

Jaguar Paw, after escaping the Maya, spends the rest of the film trying to get back to his wife and son, which of course requires him to go through a kind of gauntlet of fights with the Maya warriors who naturally relentlessly pursue him. So basically he reenacts Die Hard in the jungle. In typical action movie style he gets back just in time to keep Seven from drowning. It was all so predictable. The only elements with any originality were the cultural setting and language.

Maybe someday someone will make a movie about the Maya, one in which they are three-dimensional people that we can relate to and where human sacrifice isn't the only thing they do. But that isn't this movie. It would have been nice, too, if the Native Americans had been behind the camera as well as in front of it, and the expert on Maya culture serving as a consultant had been someone from Central America instead of from a midwestern university. Maybe then the film wouldn't have felt so condescending.

[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 8: The Rising Dead

4-24-2016
Session 12

Characters:
     Azzaria
     Igby
     Kaa
     Sula and Nyema
     Uto

The Ruby Scarabs loaded their borrowed cart with all the items they had taken from the Silver Chain gang and their mysterious allies, and returned to the temple of Pharasma. On arriving they found that there were too many people there for them to find a place to store all of their items. They decided to go to the Tooth and Hookah, where several of the group had rooms, and leave the items there.

They found the inn's entrance blocked by several zombies and a large ooze, which was in the process of consuming a zombie. Kaa crept around to the rear of the inn to see if there was a back entrance, but found it had been boarded up from within. He spoke with someone inside, who told him the Tooth and Hookah was full of refugees, some of them injured, and that they were running low on food and the water supply had gone bad. The people inside were reluctant to let anyone else in, but indicated they would if the Scarabs could get rid of the creatures at the front door. While Kaa was convesing with the people inside the inn, Sula spotted three strange creatures with long clawed arms seemingly floating along a street nearby.

Kaa returned to the group to share his information with them. The Scarabs then decided to take shelter for the night inside the stable, not wanted to confront the zombies when they were weary and their magic was depleted. Unfortunately one of the zombies noticed them pushing the cart into the stable and followed them, and it was followed in turn by the ooze. The ooze had already attacked a second zombie, but it was evidently still hungry. Kaa directed a scorching ray at it, and the creature rushed at him with startling speed. The zombie also moved toward Kaa. Igby stepped up and slew the zombie. The ooze grabbed the fallen zombie and then reached for Kaa with its pseudopod. Azzaria sliced the ooze in half, but it reformed as two oozes. Sula imbued her club with the element of fire and struck the first ooze, while Igby borrowed Azzaria's mace to smash it. The first ooze died and dissolved into a puddle that seeped into the ground. Kaa sent another scorching ray at the second ooze and it quickly followed its other half.

After the oozes were destroyed, two of the strange creatures Sula had seen earlier appeared. They stopped some distance away and seemed to be watching. After a moment they were joined by a third. Kaa called out to them in the tongue of the Abyss, telling them that they could find better meat elsewhere. The three creatures appeared to confer with one another for a short time, then drifted away.

The Scarabs persuaded the people within the Tooth and Hookah to admit them, but were obliged to leave much of their loot in the stable as there was no space for it inside. One man mentioned that some sort of "feral man" had attempted to talk his way into the inn earlier, while others told of being attacked by zombies. Igby cast healing spells on some of the injured people, several of whom had contracted ghoul fever. Sula examined the water and determined that something dead seemed to be contaminating it.

The next morning, members of one of the other adventuring groups at the inn agreed to escort some of the people back to their homes. The Scarabs lent them their cart to carry those who were unable to walk. Uto cast create water several times to supply the inn. The Scarabs themselves planned to go and investigate the well to see if they could purify the water supply.

When they reached the well, the Scarabs found a number of dismembered bodies that appeared to have been slain and partly eaten by zombies. Sula and Kaa both sensed something unusual in the area. There was a rustling sound, and suddenly Qasin the psychopomp reappeared. He praised them for rescuing Ptemenib, and in gratitude gifted them with a ushabti of the willing servant, which could summon an invisible servant similar to the result of an unseen servant spell. He also told them that the temple needed their help.

The Ruby Scarabs decided to complete their investigation at the well before returning to the temple of Pharasma. Uto discovered that the well had been poisoned, but could find no way within his power to remove the poison. The group headed back toward the temple, finding that there were a few merchants in the marketplace, though not many customers. When they arrived at the temple they found fewer people there than on the previous day. They were greeted by the armorer Minya the Whip, who had purchased Akhan-tepi's chariot at the auction. Minya expressed gratitude to them for rescuing Ptemenib, and presented them with a suit of mist mail. He also told them that should they visit his shop he would always offer them a 25% discount on his wares.

Igby was approached by Amber, one of the other members of the Four Lanterns, who told him that the rest of the group were going back to Andor with their leader Marcus, who had been traumatized by his encounters with the undead in the Necropolis. Before wishing Igby farewell, Amber gave him four scrolls, one each of burning hands, color spray, grease, and shield, as well as a finely crafted dagger.

At the temple the Scarabs learned that there was trouble in the Asp district of Wati, though the information was second-hand and somewhat incomplete. The report said that some dog-like creatures were attacking zombies and the living alike. The group headed off to the Asp district to find out for themselves. As they entered the district they heard sounds of fighting, and found two somewhat dog-like beasts fighting with several zombies. As they watched, they saw one of these creatures bite into a zombie and seemingly pull the ka spirit from its body. Thought the creatures had canine bodies, their heads were the skulls of crocodiles. Uto recognized that these were esobok, another type of psychopomp, which came from Pharasman's plane and specialized in stripping the ka from those whose spirits were not whole, such as undead.

Because the esobok didn't seem to care whether their targets were living or undead, the Scarabs decided they were a menace and attacked. Uto tried speaking to them to discourage them, but one of the esobok charged Kaa. Kaa was able to stun it with his fists. Igby set his sword blade aflame and struck one of the creatures, which seemed vulnerable to the flames. Azzaria then killed it, and its body disappeared. The second esobok howled when its companion vanished, then pulled the ka from a zombie.

As Sula moved in to attack the second esobok, one of the zombies attacked her, wounding her. Azzaria, realizing by the first esobok's disappearance that it had been summoned by someone, shouted to get the attention of the summoner. No one responded. Sula bashed at the esobok with her club, which had little effect. Uto healed most of the damage the zombie had done to her, but the zombie hit her a second time doing even more injury. The esobok grabbed Igby and began trying to extract his ka. Seeing that her club was little use, Sula called on Nyema to attack the zombie, while Uto healed Sula again.

When the zombies and the second esobok were finally gone, the Scarabs realized that the zombies were all recent dead wearing symbols of the old god Maat, and all of them had had their left eyes torn out by a claw. One zombie wore the robes of an official of the court. The group decided to follow the direction of blood smears leading away from the spot where they had encountered the zombies.

The blood trail let them to the court of Maat. On the steps they met a living man whose left eye had been torn out. He fainted before he could tell them anything. They entered the courtroom to find the judge's seat occupied by a bloody skeleton wearing a fez. This skeleton greeted them, accusing them of contempt of court and challenging them to defend themselves against the charge. Skeletal bailiffs stepped forward to take them prisoner. Uto put himself forward to speak for the party, hoping that if he could convince the skeletal judge that he didn't belong there, he might leave without more bloodshed. He had recognized this judge as the infamous Sotenre, famed for his use of enucleation as punishment for defying the Pharaoh generations ago.

After Uto presented his arguments, Sotenre finally seemed to understand that his day was long past. The skeleton crumbed to dust, as did all the bailiffs who had been buried with him beneath the courtroom floor so long ago. Sotenre left behind only his fez and a magical circlet, but no one in the group could discover what the circlet's power was.

Once the court of Maat had been cleared of undead, the Scarabs escorted the injured man to his home and told him they would try to arrange for food and supplies to be delivered to his family. They then made their way back to the temple to report what they had seen. Along the way the met a group of Voices of the Spire, the militant arm of the church of Pharasma. After they told these people about the esoboks, it seemed that the Voices knew who might have summoned them, but would not say.

When the Scarabs arrived at the temple and told this story to the priests, they were taken to see high priestess Sebti the Crocodile, who was disturbed when she heard about the psychopomps. She called for the commander of the Voices of the Spire, Nakht Shepses, to join them. Shepses admitted he had summoned the creatures. He believed it was the best way to deal with the zombies, and if the esoboks killed a few innocents in the process, that was acceptable. He and Sebti had a heated argument, until finally another priest was forced to step in and remind them that they should stand together in this time of crisis.

Sebti then asked if the Ruby Scarabs would be willing to enter the Necropolis again to seek the source of the power raising the dead, as she believed it to still be within the walls of the dead city. Shepses sneered at this, and continued to insist that sending the esobok after the undead was a better solution. Finally he agreed that if the Scarabs could defeat a creature he summoned, they could enter the Necropolis. As they watched, he summoned another kind of psychopomp, a grey and sinister creature wielding a scythe.

[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 7: Rescue From the Silver Chain

4-17-2016
Session 11
Character level: 4th

Characters:
Azzaria – bloodrager (nagaji)
Igby – inquisitor (human)
Kaa – monk (tengu)
Sula & Nyema – druid (suli) and animal companion (lion)
Uto – shaman (half-orc)

Qasin the psychopomp led the Ruby Scarabs to the burnt-out remains of an old brickworks near the waterfront. It was nearly dark by the time they arrived. Kaa scouted the ruined building and heard several voices from within. He attempted to use the magic in his gloves to distract them and make the people inside think that the Scarabs were zombies approaching. But one man emerged from the building and spotted the rest of the group waiting outside. He told them to leave. When Azzaria questioned him and demanded to know where Ptemenib was, it became apparent that he knew who she was talking about. Kaa then warned that he saw another man threatening with a hand crossbow. When a second man with a hand crossbow was spotted, a fight began.

The man who had come out to talk withdrew into the interior of the structure. Kaa burned the first crossbowman with a scorching ray. Igby moved in to face the second crossbowman, and Sula and Nyema joined him. Azzaria attacked the man who Kaa had burned, wounding him so badly that he surrendered. Kaa then scorched another of the men. That man moved to stab Nyema, but missed. On a second attempt he managed to connect with the lion, using a punching dagger. Sula and Nyema then attacked the assailant. After both of them injured him he fled. The third man also surrendered to Igby.

Once the Silver Chain members had surrendered, the Scarabs stripped them of all of their armor, weapons, and equipment. One of the prisoners told the Scarabs that Ptemenib was being held in an underground area beneath the old brickworks. He estimated that there were half a dozen men in that area. He also explained that the Silver Chain gang had been able to dig a tunnel into the Necropolis to accomplish their grave-robbing. Under further questioning he revealed that the gang had recently come under new leadership, and the new leader had brought in some masked people he described as ‘zealots’. He knew little about these people, or what had happened to the gang’s previous leader. After he showed the Scarabs where to find the stairway leading down, they released him.

Kaa unlocked a well-secured door to gain access to the stairs, but he didn’t discover a trap on the staircase until a pit opened up beneath him. He was able to avoid falling in, and to reset the trap and jam it so the rest of the group could pass safely over the pit. Despite this noise and the creaky stairs, no one came to investigate their entrance into the underground lair.

At the bottom of the staircase they came to a chamber full of sump wells, where overflow from the river could be redirected during flood season. Ptemenib was in one of the currently dry wells. He appeared to have been badly beaten, and at first Kaa feared he was dead. But after the tengu climbed down into the well he was able to rouse the priest and help him climb out. The Scarabs then decided it would be best to return to the temple of Pharasma so Ptemenib could be healed.

Ptemenib’s fellow priests healed him of his injuries, and he then asked the Ruby Scarabs to return to the Silver Chain lair. The Scarabs also wanted to pick up whatever loot they could take from the thieves, so they borrowed the handcart the troubled woman had used to transport her undead husband and went back to the brickworks. On arriving in the stairway, Kaa detected that someone had done something to the pit trap he had jammed. The group continued downstairs, this time turning right instead of left toward a large room. Kaa threw his expensive new hat into the room and someone inside shot it with a crossbow bolt. Kaa rushed inside, followed first by Igby.

Inside the room, the Scarabs saw numerous crates, urns, and bales of goods that the Silver Chain gang had stolen or smuggled. Kaa faced a red-robed figure wearing a golden funerary mask, while Igby attacked the wielder of the crossbow who had shot Kaa’s hat. Kaa stunned the masked figure. Sula and Nyema then entered the room, as well as Azzaria. A second masked figure appeared and touched Azzaria with a shocking grasp spell. Igby then called upon the gods and his sword burst into flame. The crossbowman threw a flask of alchemist’s fire at Igby but missed his aim, after which he fled through an exit on the far side of the room. Just as he was about to escape, Uto cast a spell that left him immobilized in the doorway.

Suddenly Azzaria heard an urn shatter on the other side of the storeroom, and she saw something that looked like a cluster of internal organs rising off the floor. She approached to attack the gruesome aberration. Sula had summoned fire to her hand and threw it at the thing, but it seemed to do little harm. The second masked figure, a woman, had moved near to where the organ creature was and had collapsed due to the wounds Azzaria inflicted on her. Now the organ thing descended on her, ripping out her intestines and incorporating them into itself!

After absorbing new organs into its body, the horrible thing lashed out with trailing entrails at Azzaria, Kaa, and Sula, then moved away from them. Kaa and Sula were injured by its blows and felt weakened. Igby meanwhile had run after the man who fled. Finding the fellow unable to move, Igby killed him. Kaa, Sula, and Nyema attacked the organ monstrosity, with little success. Igby joined them in trying to destroy it. Uto cast a spell to prevent the masked man from dying so he could be questioned later. The organ monster then moved to slam into Uto.

Two men and a hyena appeared through the far door. The hyena lunged toward Igby, and Uto cast a spell on it to calm it, but the spell failed to affect it. Sula then sent Nyema after the hyena and the lioness slew it. The men then fired their crossbows at Nyema. Meanwhile the horrid monster attacked Sula. Igby ran to engage the two newcomers, while Uto healed Sula. Sula hurled her last handful of flames at one of the men and directed Nyema to attack the creature. The creature then grappled Kaa. Azzaria, Sula, and Nyema all attacked it again, and Kaa struggled free of its grasp. The monster fled toward the door through which the Scarabs had entered, and Igby struck the final blow to kill it, while Kaa finished off the last of the Silver Chain men.

The party members searched the bodies of the fallen masked people and Silver Chain members, and came away with a significant quantity of armor, weapons, potions, and magic items. They also examined what was in the storeroom, though that proved to be mostly mundane items and some mummified corpses. After they had completed their examination of the storeroom, the Scarabs found a door that had been boarded up. A passageway led to another door that was also blocked. Kaa was concerned that there might be undead imprisoned on the other side, as the door showed evidence of only recently having been blocked. But he heard no sounds coming through the door.

The team then approached a door that lay beyond the sump wells. This door was unlocked. As they entered the room beyond, they found themselves facing another masked man, this one holding a glowing red sword. The man immediately ordered his two companions to kill the Scarabs.

One of the man's two female comrades cast burning hands at Azzaria, Sula, and Nyema, but it had little effect. The other woman touched Azzaria with shocking grasp. Kaa acrobatically moved past his friends to stun one of the women with his fist, while Sula attacked one woman with her spear and Nyema clawed at the other. Uto killed one of the women. Their leader withdrew further into the chamber. Azzaria pursued him and killed him.

After the masked man died, Uto was able to identify his glowing red blade as the Natron Fang, made of mineral salts that would allow it to overcome mummies. Kaa uncovered the secret door leading to the tunnel that connected with the Necropolis. In a chest in the room, the Scarabs found jewelry and gems worth thousands of gold pieces, as well as a magic haversack. A small chest held priestly vestments like those worn by Ptemenib. In one crate were four triangular stones representing the four elements, but these were not magical and no one knew what purpose they served. Finally, they found on the leader's body a note advising him to work with the Silver Chain gang to help him find a mask that would facilitate the resurrection of Hakotep. The note also mentioned the Sky Pharaoh, who some of the Scarabs thought was the same person as Hakotep. The note was signed Meret-Hetef, a name no one recognized.

Loot acquired:
Leather armor +1
5 hand crossbows
5 punching daggers
masterwork thieves tools
5 antitoxins
5 silver chains worth 50 gp
5 potions of cure light wounds
5 flasks of alchemist's fire
4 flasks of holy water
5 climber's kits
5 saps
5 sunrods
5 crowbars
2 spellbooks: cantrips (all), mage armor, shocking grasp, burning hands, disguise self
2 potions of undetectable alignment
2 scrolls of whispering wind
5 flasks of oil of taggit
5 daggers
10 darts
2 shortswords
2 cloaks of resistance +1
 2 sets of thieves tools
2 brass masks worth 25 gold each
8 gold pieces
6 turquoise worth 10 gold each
Natron Fang sword - +1 kopesh, ovecomes mummy's DR
amulet of natual armor +1
5 jars of ancient honeyed wine
3 kegs of saffron worth 150 gold each
Tin bird with 3 bird feather tokens
Gems and jewelry worth 3,765 gold

Next: Part 8, The Rising Dead

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Directed by Zack Snyder
Starring: Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Jessie Eisenberg, Gal Gadot, Jeremy Irons, Lawrence Fishburne, Holly Hunter

SPOILERS BELOW. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I've been avoiding reviews and web forums and blogs about this movie, but I couldn't help hearing that some people are very vocally unhappy with it. After getting my chance to see it, I don't understand why. I enjoyed it. It wasn't without flaws, but I came away feeling pleased and satisfied that I saw it and looking forward with enthusiasm to the movies that are currently slated to follow on is heels.

Just off the top of my head, here are a few things that I particularly liked about this movie:
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman's lasso
Wonder Woman kicking butt
Alfred
Setup for the Justice League movie
Setup for the Wonder Woman movie
Cyborg
Darkseid, maybe?

I've also heard a lot of complaints about this movie being dark, both thematically and visually. I didn't find it too dark thematically; this movie is about the moral questions raised by having a person as powerful as Superman in the world. It's also about how Batman has kind of lost his way and his interaction with Superman ultimately helps him find the way back to fighting the good fight. A lot of the film's action also took place at night, so of course it was visually somewhat dark. But not too dark to see what was going on. It wasn't depressing or gloomy or relentlessly unpleasant.

There is a lot going on in this movie. It not only introduces Batman and Superman to each other, it also introduces Wonder Woman to both of them; briefly brings in Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash; and introduces Superman's long-time comic book nemesis Lex Luthor. It lays the initial groundwork for the formation of the Justice League, and hints that the Justice League may be needed to combat a much bigger than human threat (possibly frequent Justice League villain Darkseid).

But most of the movie is about Bruce Wayne/Batman. This is a Batman who's been at it for a long time, and has grown bitter and angry as a result. The events that took place in Man of Steel have made him turn that anger toward Superman, as the surviving representative of the Kryptonians who caused so much destruction in Metropolis. He's lost perspective and become obsessed with punishing Superman for those deaths he couldn't prevent, though he's clearly channeling some of his own anger at himself for not being able to prevent the deaths of his own parents. The story hints at a lot of other details about Batman's life prior to the appearance of Superman, but it doesn't give much information. We don't get to find out why Bruce Wayne has abandoned his family home or what destroyed it. Nor do we know which Robin worked with him or what happened to that Robin. It's only hinted that he even had a sidekick, but I suspect a lot of his bitterness isn't just about not being able to protect his parents; it's about not being able to protect Robin.

As a consequence he's become more of a loner, with only his faithful retainer Alfred to aid him. Alfred is pretty darned useful; he helps construct the Batman armor and pilots the Bat-plane by remote control. But although he remains devoted to Bruce, it's clear he's not at all happy with the direction Bruce's life is going, and he's not reluctant to express his displeasure. Jeremy Irons was brilliant as Alfred.

In the end, of course, Batman and Superman have to work together to defeat a threat. Batman recognizes the error of his ways, thanks to Superman's willingness to sacrifice himself to save lives. One detail I particularly enjoyed was realizing that Bruce Wayne's mother and Clark Kent's mother had the same name, Martha. It's one of those little details that can bond people together.

Most of the Batman versus Superman storyline was inspired by The Dark Knight Returns, but the threat that pulls them together as a team was drawn from The Death of Superman, the comic in which Superman died back in 1992. This time around, though, the monstrous Doomsday isn't an alien killer genetically engineered long ago by the Kryptonians, but a creature created by Lex Luthor from Kryptonian technology and genetic material. Lex in this version of the DC Universe is younger and crazier than his comic-book incarnation, but he's still just as determined to get rid of Superman. Not satisfied with just making a monster to kill Superman, he first tries to ruin Superman's reputation, then threatens the lives of Superman's loved ones. I'm not sure I really liked Jessie Eisenberg in that role, but Lex is such an over-the-top character anyway that Eisenberg didn't really feel too out of place to me.

Now to Wonder Woman. No one calls her that at any point in this film. In fact, she doesn't even have a name for most of it. But when she finally puts on her armor and goes into battle, she is AWESOME! I've always loved the Justice League animated version of Wonder Woman, who is as powerful and nigh-indestructible as Superman. This Wonder Woman was that Wonder Woman, and that made me very, very happy. I'm even more excited to see the Wonder Woman movie now. I liked it that she wasn't a blue-eyed European woman with an American accent, too, though I'm sure some comic book purists are screaming that Gal Gadot has brown eyes (eyeroll).

I can't help adding what this movie made me think about the expected Batman solo film starring Ben Affleck. The script hasn't even been written yet from what I read, but this article from io9 made me wonder what they'll do with that story. BvS set up Batman to be the driving force behind the creation of the Justice League. As I mentioned earlier, this Batman is a man toward the end of his career. I wonder if perhaps part of his solo story will be showing him realizing that both he and Alfred are older, they can't keep on doing this, but he doesn't want to leave Gotham without a protector. That could then lead to him finding another Robin, and learning to let go of his fear of losing those he cares about.

If I have to mention any flaws in the film, it's that it focuses more on Batman that I would have liked. My favorite DC characters are Superman and Wonder Woman, and I want to see movies about them, not more movies about Batman. The movie also had perhaps one too many dream sequences. One of my coworkers told me that the first time he saw this movie he found it very confusing. I knew right away that the dreams were dreams, but those visual cues might not have been obvious to all viewers. My coworker, by the way, went back to see the movie four more times, so clearly the confusion wasn't enough to deter him. I have half a mind to go see it again myself, just to put paid to all the people who have labeled it a flop.

To sum up, I would give this movie 3 1/2 stars out of 5. I expect that I'll enjoy Captain America: Civil War more when it comes out next month, but I didn't regret seeing Batman v Superman and would definitely see it again.

Let the Games Begin

I'm fortunate to have some friends who enjoy board/card/dice games and will sometimes invite us over to their home to share their games with us. This week we played three card games: Incan Gold, Pirate Den, and Red Dragon Inn. The links lead to the write-ups for each game on Board Game Geek if you'd like more details. Here I'll detail a brief overview of how each game works and my impression of it.

Incan Gold

Since we started with Incan Gold, I'll start there, too. Incan Gold, like all three games described here, is a "push your luck" style of game. Players are Indiana Jones-style adventurers exploring an Inca site. The card deck details the treasures, artifacts, and hazards they encounter during their exploration. One game consists of five rounds, with each round made up of any number of turns. The three types of cards are drawn randomly from the deck, one card each turn.

Treasure cards have a numeric value represented by treasure tokens. When a treasure card is drawn, the treasure value is distributed evenly between the players. For example, if the card is worth 12 treasure tokens and there are 5 players, each player is given two tokens, and the remaining tokens stay on the treasure card. If the treasure value is less than the number of players, all the treasure stays on the card. Players store their treasure at their camp, which is represented by a little paper tent each player is given at the start of the game. If a player chooses to go back to camp, they can pick up treasure tokens that are still on the cards.

Artifact cards are specific items, such as golden idols, that are worth 5 treasure. Since there are far fewer artifact cards than treasure or hazard cards, these aren't automatically given to the players when they're drawn. Instead they stay on the table until one of the players decides to go back to camp. At that point the player can pick up an artifact on the way back and take it to their tent.

Hazard cards represent things like cave-ins and mummies that can block the way for the adventurers. There are five types of hazards, and three cards for each type. If a single hazard card of any type is on the table, it has no effect. But if more than one card of the same type is drawn, all of the players must flee back to camp, abandoning any treasure or artifacts that are still on the table. A hazard card that sends all the players back to camp ends the round.

Each player also receives two cards to represent the actions they can take in a turn: go forward, or go back to camp. The cards have no text on them, just images of either a woman with a torch entering a doorway, or a man exiting. Players lay out the card for their action at the beginning of the turn, face down, and then when everyone is ready all players turn over their card.

The game doesn't give any options for players to have other actions besides go forward or go back. They can't steal treasure or artifacts from each other, or play a card to have more than one card drawn from the deck. or negate the effect of a hazard card. The players also aren't given any characters to play; unless they choose to name themselves or try to incorporate some roleplaying elements into the game, the game provides none. My final complaint is that players who choose to go back to camp to store their treasure are out of the game for the rest of the round. The rounds are short, but that's still more time than a player should be out of play. I found Incan Gold the least entertaining of the three games, although it wasn't entirely without fun.

Pirate Den

Not surprisingly, in Pirate Den you play a pirate. Each player gets a character card, which has a picture of a pirate on it. There are both female and male characters. They don't have names and the character you choose has no practical effect, but it's still a fun touch.

After choosing your character card, you are given a stack of cards which are numbered 1 - 4 and have one, two, or three different colors: red, blue, or yellow. There is also a 0 card, which has no color. This is the "bury" card.

Each round, one person draws 15 gem tokens at random from a bag. These tokens are red, blue, or yellow, like the colors on the cards the players receive. After the gems are drawn, the players choose to play one card, based on how many of each color gem is on the table. The effects of the cards are resolved in order by the numbers on the cards, from smallest to largest. If a person plays a blue 1 card and there are 10 blue gems on the table, that player can claim them all, as long as no other player has also played a blue 1 card. If two players play the same card, they split the gems between them. If no gems were drawn of the color that player chose, but other players have claimed gems of that color during previous turns, that player can steal gems from the other players. Should no one play a 1 card, then any 2 cards on the table are resolved next, followed by 3 cards and then 4 cards, if any. Should anyone play cards that have multiple colors, they can claim gems of all the colors on their card, if there are any unclaimed gems of those colors.

The object of the game is to get five Gold tokens. Gems can be exchanged for Gold tokens. Once a player has acquired five Gold tokens, the game ends. But if no one has that many Gold tokens, the game continues, even when the players run out of cards. This is where the "bury" card comes in. A player can play the colorless 0 card at any time. This card allows the player to "bury" her treasure, by converting five gems of the same color into one Gold token. This card also allows the player to reclaim all the cards from her discard pile. It's not necessary to have any gems to convert to Gold tokens for a player to play the 0 card.

Pirate Den is a quick, fun game. Even though players are stealing gems from each other, it can be played in a way that is fun for someone like me who doesn't like competitive games.

Red Dragon Inn

Red Dragon Inn was the most fun for me of the three games. It's also the most complex of the three to play.

The premise of the game is that the players are fantasy adventurers who have returned to their favorite watering hole to drink, gamble, and relax. Each player chooses a character, such as Zot the Wizard, Dierdre the Priestess, or Dimli the Dwarf, and receives a deck of cards and a tile to track their chosen character's only two stats: Fortitude and Alcohol level. As they drink, gamble, and fight their way through the game, the characters lose Fortitude and gain Alcohol, which is tracked by moving a token along the numbers representing each stat. If one token passes the other, or the two tokens meet on the same number, the character passes out and is out of the game.

The player starts with a hand of seven cards drawn randomly from that character's deck. If they don't like the cards in their hand, at the beginning of their turn they can discard any number of cards, even their whole hand, and draw more cards from their deck up to a maximum of seven. The cards are divided into several types: Action, Anytime, Sometime, and Gambling. Action cards are typically to make other players do something, such as lose Fortitude points or take an extra drink. Anytime cards can be played at any time, most often to negate the effect of a card played by another character. For example, if one player plays a card that would cause another player to lose 2 Fortitude, the victim can play an "I don't think so" Anytime card to negate that effect. That's actually the name of the card, by the way. Sometime cards are similar to Anytime cards, except that they are playable under more limited conditions. A Sometime card might be used to avoid anteing up in a round of gambling, for example, or to avoid the effect of a Drink card.

Drink cards are not character-specific cards. Instead there is a "Drink Me" deck that sits in the center of the table. Each turn the players must choose a card from the top of this stack and give it to one of the other players. Other players can use Anytime or Sometime cards to avoid taking more Drink cards. At the end of their turn, each player has to turn over the top Drink card on their own character tile, if they have any Drink cards on their tile, and take the effect written on the card. Most Drink cards cause the character to increase their Alcohol level, but some can also cause Fortitude loss, and occasionally there are cards that have no effect or actually return Fortitude points or reduce the character's Alcohol level.

Each character also has some Gambling cards in their deck. A Gambling round can be initiated by playing an "I'm in!" card, which is a card that appears in every character's deck. Once one of these cards has been played, the gambling continues until resolved before play moves to the next player's turn. Other Sometime cards can affect the result of gambling, such as a Winning Hand card that allows a player to take control of the gambling, or a Cheating card that has a similar effect.

Players also have gold. They start play with five gold pieces, represented by five cardboard tokens. Gambling can cause a character to lose gold, or they can spend gold to make certain card effects happen. If a character loses all her gold, she is out of the game.

Red Dragon Inn is obviously slower to play than Incan Gold or Pirate Den, since it has more actions that players can take each turn. You can play a game of either Incan Gold or Pirate Den in less than half an hour, while Red Dragon Inn takes at least an hour to play with five players. But it offers more opportunities for humor and roleplaying since you are playing an actual character with a certain amount of personality implied by the text on the cards.

Conclusion:
If I had to choose just one of these three games, I would definitely pick Red Dragon Inn. But if your time is limited, try Pirate Den. I would give Incan Gold a pass. It just doesn't give players enough effect on what happens in the game.