Wednesday, August 3. 2005Nalathisor: Conversations with an Orc
The five of us left NewKeep, and headed towards the Northwest of the lands. After about half a day's journey we came across a man sitting on the side of the road next to a wagon. No sooner had the old man finished telling us that he was attacked by orcs who had taken his wife, than Jackle fired an arrow off into the trees. Apparently he had seen a foot dangling from the trees. His proficiency with the bow helped him land a fatal blow as after he fired his arrow, and orc dropped dead to the ground.
However, in true Jackle fashion, he didn't bother to see the exact layout of the situation, as 3 more orcs jumped out. Poor Thelonius was surrounded with an orc on either side of him. In front of the monk was what seemed like the leader of the orcs. He was holding a dagger to the throat of a woman, we could only assume was the man's wife. Soon all our weapons were drawn. The orc began muttering something, and being versed in the language of the Orcs was able to translate. He told us to put our weapons down or the woman dies. I attempted to strike up a conversation but he kept insisting on us putting our weapons down. I attempted to get my compatriots to lower their weapons, as the current situation was not good for the woman being held hostage. Jackle was resistant to put his bow down, but in the common tongue I told him not to worry, that he was the fastest draw among any of us. Apparently I was too loud, as the orc than muttered, in common, "I speak common". I really should stick to using Elven or Draconic between Jackle and I. I continued a conversation with the orc leader trying to keep him distracted. Thelonius and I seemed to be on the same page though, as while I was conversing with the leader, the monk quickly was able to sneak up and disarm the leader, freeing the old lady. Jackle immediately fired his bow, and watched as his arrow found it's final resting place, embedded deep through the throat of the main orc. The other orcs were finished in short order, although the monk did suffer some wounds. It appears that he was early in his training, as he tends to throw his punches rather wildly. Sometimes doing nothing more than cooling his enemy off with a slight breeze. We took care of the old man, Thomas, and his wife. That night during camp, some of the remarks Llan and Jackle made, caused me to think they know more now than they did before. I decided to get Llan alone and find out what he knew. During our conversation Llan, told me about the steps he took to track down his father. How he sent a letter to him, so they could meet in NewKeep and he could confront him. I offically welcomed him to the family. Truthfully he's always felt like family to me, ever since he was young. Llan truly seemed interested in getting to know his father. I figured I'd not ruin his happiness now with the sad news of his mother. Jackle on the other hand, wasn't taking this whole father thing serious. But then again what would I expect. After all he wasn't there while he grew up. He just sired the boy and left. We camped for the night, before continuing the 10 day journey to GladeKeep. Tuesday, August 2. 2005Nalathisor: A Quest Begins
The night at the residence gave my brother and I some time to catch up. Afterall we hadn't seen each other since he was in Hillydale 25 or so years previous. If it weren't for that visit back then, this trip may not have been needed. The more things change, the more they stay the same apparently. He hasn't changed all that much, his mission in life still seems to be that he doesn't really have a mission in life. He still just prefers to wander the land, and spread his love around to any willing and able bar wench. But he's still my brother and it's good to see him again.
I managed to get him to accompany me on my quest. He thought it would be good to be together again, just like old times when we travelled together, before I settled down. He never knew why I chose to settle down at that point. He wouldn't understand. Continue reading "Nalathisor: A Quest Begins" Tuesday, August 2. 2005Pride and Humility
ESPN.com's Page 2 is currently running a week long battle for the soul of sports. Today is Sports Pride vs. Sports Humility.
Patrick Hruby makes a solid case for pride winning out. That is until he gives his examples. I'm not going to go in too in depth, but I wanted to point something out about his group of examples. Continue reading "Pride and Humility" Monday, August 1. 2005Nalathisor: Prophetic Poetry
We didn't get long to rest, as Llan soo woke Jackle and I to let us know that the etting had been periodically sticking his head out of the ruings. Sure enough after watching for a few moments the ettin stuck his head out of the ruins. He also motioned for us to approach, and then motioned for us to do it quietly. Apprehensive, yet intrigued we approached the ruins. The ettin asked us to come in, but told us to be quiet as his other head, Muck, was sleeping.
He then went on to tell us that his name was Krym. He was a cleric of Heironeous, and was one of the three adventurers who sought out the evil sorceror, Stonydyalus. During the battle they had managed to defeat the wizard, but not before the other adventurers were slain and he had been turned into an ettin. Unfortunately the other head was the one who had the most control, and was the one responsible for the atrocities wrought on the town. The only clues that Krym had for resolving his situation was a poem. Two heads have we, but born with one. Suddenly we could hear the townspeople approaching. Llan went to look and see what was going on while Jackle and I tried to solve the riddle. We were able to come to the following conclusions. The six-armed king was referring to Hextor, the brother of Heironeous. We were also able to find out from Krym that as a cleric for Heironeous he tended to be overzealous, and would assault other priests who would disagree with him. This fit nicely with the poem. We knew, however, that this information would do nothing to appease the mob growing outside, that Llan was dealing with. Jackle decided to search the upper level of the ruins and was able to find a scroll. After some nifty jumping and leaping about he was able to grab the scroll and passed it down to me. I quickly opened the scroll and noticed it was a polymorph spell. I recited the incantation on the scroll and watched as Krym was restored to human form. The three of us then joined Llan outside and explained the situation. With everything resolved we headed back to town. I figured I'd stay at the same residence as Jackle that night. This would give us a chance to catch up. Besides it felt good to be back in action together. I could also try and find out exactly how much he knew about Llan, and their relationship to one another. In the morning I would see if I could get Jackle and Llan to accompany as I searched for her body, and for those responsible. However, I figured I'd wait to let them know the full details of who we were searching for. Monday, August 1. 2005A Mournful Journey
--From the Journal of the Rogue Wizard Nalathisor
Why did I leave? If I had just stayed, I wouldn't have needed to make this trip. Finally though I made it to Newkeep where I'd be able to find him. No sooner had I entered the town though, then I saw some all too familiar equipment out on a horse. Why was my brother Jackle there? Was it only be a coincindence that he was there? Did they know each other? Did Jackle know that he is a father? Although I do use that term loosely, sire is more accurate. The residence he was staying at seemed to be asleep so I decided to explore the town a bit. Continue reading "A Mournful Journey" Monday, August 1. 2005New Serenity Trailer
Despite the fact that the Sci-Fi channel has ran both halves of the Firefly episode Serenity in full screen format, despite the fact that it was made for widescreen, and there's even a couple of shots that you will miss important stuff if it's not in widescreen, I'm happy that Firefly is back on t.v. What's making it even better is they are going to start showing behind the scenes production footage, and interviews from the filming of Serenity (I highly recommend the movie), and they started it off by showing the new trailer.
I've seen all three trailers now, and really enjoy this one the best. Just thought I'd share. And because there hadn't been a Serenity/Firefly related post in a while. Thursday, July 28. 2005I'll see your "litigious" and raise you "moronic".
Okay to be fair, I've thought all along that the stink raised over the HotCoffeeMod was always a little idiotic, if only because the game should have been rated Adult's Only in the first place, and was pretty bad before the mini game was found.
Now comes the news that an 85 year old woman has sued Rockstar Games for damage caused to her because she claims that she was "damaged" when she discovered that the the rated M for Mature audiences game she purchased for her grandson had sexual minigames. At the time the game was purchased, the grandson was 14 years of age. Nevermind the fact that on the case of the game it already stated "Strong Sexual Content" prior to the increase in rating. What the heck was she doing buying a game rated for 17 year olds and higher, to her 14 year old grandson in the first place? If everyone is so worried about the content in the games that kids are playing, maybe they should look less at the developers and more at the people who are buying or letting the kids play these games. As bad of a game as GTA:San Andreas is, in this case at least, it would seem to me that the problem is the Grandma herself. Then again, since the Grandma is getting on in years she probably saw this as a quick way to make a couple bucks for an inheritance for the aforementioned grandson! Tuesday, July 26. 2005Sick of all the Nostalgic Crap
It was announced today that they are going to make a Voltron movie. This is of course on the heels of them announcing that there will also soon be a cgi Smurfs movie, and a cgi Ninja Turtles movie. Ninja Turtles is of course recently seen a resurgence in the video game markets with a crappy (right Giggler) game last year.
This after the following lineup of movies that came out this year: The Longest Yard, Star Wars III, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, Bad News Bears, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and Bewitched, with Dukes of Hazzard right around the corner. Sure some of these movies were good (Charlie, Longest Yard, Batman), of course some of them weren't so good (Bewitched, Star Wars). Not to mention the countless covers of songs that seem to be on the airwaves now a days. Is anyone else sick of the entertainment industries seeming refusal to come up with good original mainstream entertainment for us to enjoy, and instead decide that they must rape and pillage the memories of our youth by hiring someone like Michael Bay to direct a live-action Transformers movie, nice opening to "The Island" there buddy. I don't mind the occassional sequel, or remake, especially when done well (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), as opposed to seomthing just put out there to make money, quality be darned (Star Wars), but I also like to see new original works, or adaptations of things that hadn't been given proper treatmen before like Lord of the Rings or Chronicles of Narnia. I think that all the Screenwriters, song writers, video game makers, etc. are locked into a room, strapped down to electric chair that sends immense voltage throughout their body, until they come up with something new, different, and/or Original. The worse part of all this, is it seems that when something new and different is produced, studio's manage to screw it all up. Wednesday, July 20. 2005Apparating in Hogwarts
So quick question, and maybe it was mentioned in earlier books and I've forgotten, but If a spell has been put on Hogwarts to prevent Apparating or Disapparating while in the grounds, how can House Elves do it with no trouble?
Tuesday, July 19. 2005Well...
Maybe not the only thing ;)
Thursday, July 14. 2005Ahhh, the Joys of True Love
Found this Story, and just had to share it with you.
Divorced Couple Argue Over Virtual Items I guess it was just a matter time before we would start seeing this ... a couple filing for divorce in China is arguing over custody of their computer game characters and virtual items. According to the Chongqing Business Post, Mr. Wang from Chongqing and Ms. Ye from Huibei met last September on Shanda's online game Legend of Mir 2. Wang saved Ye's character from being killed by another player and the two quickly fell in love. The couple married at the end of October but decided to get a divorce this last June. During their marriage, the couple jointly played over ten Mir 2 accounts, attaining level 40 to 50 status for all of them, which I am told is quite high. All the characters and virtual items are estimated to be worth 40,000 to 50,000 Yuan, and Wang said that he wants to keep the accounts and virtual items and is willing to give their joint apartment to Ye. However, Ye wants to split the apartment and game items equally (how do you split an apartment?). Remember, if you are going to share your virtual items with your significant other make sure to write your name on all your items! Sometimes even true love isn't enough Thursday, July 7. 2005Getting Sports
I don't know if anybody here knows this, so I'm going to let you in on a secret. I like sports.
I like the camaraderie. I like the competition. I like the passion that goes with it. I like watching it. I like reading about it. I like listening to it. And despite what my physical appearance may suggest I like playing it. What I don't like, is the increasing evidence that the people who run sports, just don't get sports. Now I know that sports has turned into a huge business, and I'm okay with it, but it still bothers me when the people who are running the sports leagues, etc. don't get the first thing about what sports is about. Take for example the NHL. Because the two sides were so busy squabbling about inconsequential things they all lost track of the sport and have now missed an entire season. To top it all off Jeremy Roenick, actually came out and told fans they could kiss his gluteus maximus if they had a problem with the league being on strike. But more recently what's upset me happened during the Tour de France. Now a lot of sports have unwritten rules, or code of ethics. For example hockey has a code of honor that dictates when it's okay to start a fight and when it's not. In cycling there is an unwritten rule about not wearing the Yellow Jersey, which goes to the overall leader of a race, when it was obtained due to a crash. In one of the final turns of Tuesday's fourth stage, overall classification leader Dave Zabriskie became involved in a crash, which allowed Lance Armstrong to become the overall leader. Later that day during review of the Race, Team Discovery Channel, for which Lance is riding this year, noticed that had there not been a crash, it was actually to close to tell if he would have been able to make up the :02 deficit, to get the yellow jersey. So prior to the start of the fifth stage Lance made it known out of respect for Zabriskie and the situation surrounding the crash, he was not going to ride that stage wearing the Yellow Jersey. Once again people who run sports, but don't get sports, would not allow this homage to occur. They forced Lance to change his mind and wear the Yellow Jersey. For all the sports can mean on the field, it's really too bad that people off the field don't get it. However, it is good to see that in this day of the spoiled, prima donna athlete (re: Jeremy Roenick, Terrell Owens, 95% of all NBA-ers), that some athletes still get it. Thursday, June 30. 2005Only 70 More Days...
Okay so the title was inspired by Mad Giggler's recent post. Truth is, I've been wanting to type something for a couple days but couldn't think of what it was. Looking at the site, I notice there's a fair amount about T.V., Movies. Lots of Poetry, and now a post about Books. There's obviously not enough stuff about Whedon, Buffy, Angel, Firefly or Serenity. But there's absolutely nothing about Sports. More Importantly nothing about Football.
So I'm ending that. Although It won't be too much of a comment as My Annual League Preview will be up in about a month. Now that the atrocity that was the NBA Finals is over, the NHL still is ceasing to exist, and MLB is pointless before the last month or so (I mean come one 162 games, is it really necessary for that long of a season?), we're stuck in a dead zone of sports. There's no real scoreboard watching to be done anymore, and about the only newsworthy articles over the next couple weeks will be the NBA Free Agency, but that won't last long. 70 Days until the Defending SuperBowl Champion New England Patriots(Man I hate typing that), start the season by facing the Oakland Raiders, and head case Randy Moss. That still seems like a long time, Heck that's only 22 less days, than the countdown to Serenity's release. Fortunately in less than a month teams will begin reporting to Training Camp, which means we'll start to get football related news. And not just reports about that cry baby T.O. griping that he needs to have his 7 year contract, that he signed only last year, reworked so he can better provide for his family. We'll get real news. News that will help inspire the hope of fans of all 32 teams. You see the beautiful thing about the NFL is all teams start the season thinking they can actually go all the way this year. Heck even the 49ers, who went 2-14 last year, are talking playoffs, though they are mainly just fooling themselves. It's not like the MLB where the teams with the money can buy their way into competition. It's not like the NBA, where fans of Atlanta, and Clippers went into last year without hope. It's not like the NHL, because they NFL actually plays games. In the NFL parity reigns supreme. Afterall last year's New England Patriots was only the 2nd time 6 years that the SuperBowl Champion had even made the playoffs the previous year. Even the Cincinatti Bengals, who used to be the laughing stock of the league, has put together two non losing seasons in a row. In the NFL hope springs eternal. At least during the spring, because come fall the Rams will crush all . (See even I can rhyme) Monday, June 27. 2005Superman vs. Batman
It's a debate that has been going on for many years. Who would win in a fight between the two. Ask a large enough sample of comic book/superhero fans, and you'll get a large enough group on either side.
Well we now finally get to find out..... sort of. You see, last year Warner Bros., who owns the film rights to both franchises, decided that in the wake of all the recent comic book based movie adaptations scoring well at theater box offices, it was time to reboot both film adaptations. Originally the idea was to have the duo actually battle onscreen in a Superman vs. Batman movie. They then decided that they would reboot each franchise separately. Batman fired the first volley, as the Christopher Nolan directed Batman Begins hit theaters June 15th, with Christian Bale as the Dark Knight. Personally I loved the movie. Of the 4 Batman Movies made since 1989 (1997's Batman & Robin, and all it's bat-nipple glory never existed), this was the best. It does a great job of helping us understand the relationship between Bruce and his parents, and helps us understand what makes a billionaire playboy, become a man in a bat suit. We also get to see many of the important relationships in the Bat-verse be formed. I wasn't alone in my enjoyment of Batman Begins. It has been #1 at the box office during it's two weekends in theaters, and has currently racked up 121.7 million dollars. Next summer will be round two as Superman returns to the theaters with the appropriately names Superman Returns. Unknown Brandon Routh will be donning the tights as the Man of Steel. Hopefully this will not only be a two round battle. Rumors are already abounding about work starting on the Next Batman movie (All important people were signed to three year contracts), and Nolan himself has said he always envisioned a trilogy. If Superman is given the same caring treatment that Batman had, Warner Bros. will surely greenight sequels, and we can find out over the next 5-7 years once and for all, who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman. Even if it is only a fight for your movie going dollars. Friday, June 24. 2005The Movie Going Experience
I love going to the theater to see a movie. In fact I go so often that when I decide to go rent a movie from my local rental place, it's hard to find something I haven't seen. There's something special about seeing a movie on the big screen. I love that magical moment right after all the previews and advertisements, when just as the lights go out, and the logo for whichever company produced the film hits the screen. This is the moment where anticipation is at its highest peak. The movie has yet to be a success or failure, at this moment what you want the movie to be, and what the movie really are meet.
I've noticed over the last 5-10 years that I seem to be of a dwindling crowd who still treats going to a movie as an experience. More and more when I go to movies I hear people taking screaming babies. People who will answer the cell phones, or even make a call on their cell phones during the middle of movies. Or people who just sit and talk non stop during a movie. I don't mind talking to your neighbor about something related to the events on the screen, but do it in a way to be respectful of those around you. A movie is not a place for conversation, which is usually why it's not always a great first date idea. Nights like last night, however, make me remember why I love going to a movie. As was said on here before the server crash-o-doom that wiped everything out, Mad Giggler, Daboo, Andy and his wife, my wife, and myself were among the lucky few who managed to snag tickets during the five minute window they were still availabe, for last night's advanced screening of Serenity, the movie based on Joss Whedon's Firefly. We were packed in a room with a couple hundered fanboys of the show and of Joss. Most everyone there had seen the episodes of Firefly. There were a few Firefly virgins there as well, like our own Daboo, but for the most part everyone there were already fans of the show. It was great as the movie sprawled out in front of us, as jokes were made and everyone lauged. When an inside comment was made on screen, it produced the approrpriate reaction from the ranks of browncoats in the theater. Every person there was there to enjoy themselves. Every person there wanted everyone else to enjoy themselves as well. This wasn't just a movie, this was an event. As Joss Whedon told us all before it began, this was something special. He was right! This was why movies are made. Sure I plan to be there on Septemeber 30th, when the movie is released, and I know I'll enjoy myself. But I know the experience I had last night will be the better of the two. It's the magic of times like last night that keep me going to theaters to see movies. It's why I'll always go, and I'll always hope that people will learn to once again treat the movie going experience correctly. As for the movie itself, all I can say is wonderful. I may be a fanboy, but it still was the best movie I've seen all year. It has something for followers of Joss and Firefly. It's also enjoyable for people who have never seen an episode or even the trailer for the movie before. Just ask Daboo. And can you believe that River is made out of Chocolate? Warning: Link contains profanity |
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