(G309 11/03/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM))

(G309 11/03/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM))

DAY 137 (wed) cont ...

[Collected Star Fleet Logs of the USS Voyager's Escort Ship - Cacophony. As compiled by LCARS auto generated routines]
[Debug note : Has someone been tampering with this?]

Log Continues ...

Kirk still had some time left in the day after the ritual to remove Mieon from Kevek's mind and put her in a Katric Arc.

He took a Skuttler Discharger down to Engineering and put in a request for it to be modified into a weapon. This had come from one of the ancient robots that had guarded the temple the Arc had come from. They told him to come back in a couple of weeks, at which point it would be 'Starfleet Ready'.

That evening he also had a chat with Celes and they agreed to keep their relationship on the down low. It was common knowledge that under these highly unusual circumstances (i.e. Voyager being lost in the Delta Quadrant!) and stressful time people were forming relationships that were strictly speaking against Starfleet Regulations.
As long as it was not openly displayed then it appeared the Captain was willing to turn a blind eye.
So, Celes, ever cautious, thought it best they met romantically only every three or four days and Kirk agreed to this.

DAY 138 (thu)

Kirk worked a standard shift on the Cacophony, supervising and helping with the many repairs needed onboard. Despite his and Dell's efforts they could not get the AI known as Adam James to move. The core seemed to function to a certain extent but was unresponsive.

In the evening he tinkered and reprogrammed his Engineering Bot.

DAY 139 (fri)

Kirk worked onboard the Cacophony once more.

In the evening he spent some time with Ceres at Sandrine's.

DAY 140 (sat)

Kirk worked onboard the Cacophony once more.

In the evening he tinkered and reprogrammed his Engineering Bot.

DAY 141 (sun)

Kirk worked onboard the Cacophony once more.

In the evening he tinkered and reprogrammed his Engineering Bot.

Today Voyager (with the Cacophony at her wing) arrived at an empty system with a very interesting Class D planet system. Early scans seemed to indicated a new element (the 247th one) and they went in to take a closer look.

Somewhat at a loose end while this was taking place Kirk was given the option of exploring the system while Voyager did some dull sciency stuff.

He opted to go check out a space hulk that had been spotted about 1 LY out from the system in deep space.

It took them 12 hours to get there.

Initially scans of the hulk informed them that it was a wrecked passenger ship once known as 'The Vele Swift'. They had no idea how long it had been here.

Scans detected life signs though, but no one responded to hails.

Kirk reasoned that perhaps someone was in need of help so he chose an airlock and had Patterson manoeuvre them up to it. They then went over to it in Environment Suits.
Finding it impossible to open they tried another and managed to use a Tricorder to persuade it to let them in.

Looking through the small window of the internal lock door they saw what looked like a humanoid shaped alien and its four legged alien pet. It took one look at them and ran off down a corridor.

As they entered the ship they were immediately attacked by aliens with Bowcasters, Duel Wield phaser pistols and melee weapons. The pets also savagely attacked them.
These aliens, they learned later were Bodarts, a savage species and very fond of piracy.

Ensign Kirk, Crewmen Dell, Ceres and Murphy made their way deeper into the ship, having a running fire fight with the Bodarts every step of the way. The battle went well for them until they met a much more powerful individual.

They could not see exactly who she was as she wore a sophisticated EV suit with a mirrored visor, but her figure was female. On either side of her were Bodarts using powerful alien weapons and shields. The female leader wielded a large and bizarre looking heavy weapon.

She seemed willing to talk at first and when Kirk asked her if she needed any help she said no and asked them to leave. As they headed back to the air lock though she let rip with her gun that seemed to be half phase rifle and half grenade launcher.
It ripped apart Kirk's shields and badly injured all of them, so much so that they only just made it back onboard the Caco.

(G308 04/03/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK) SS18

(G308 04/03/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK) SS18


[Back in the Necromancer's Spike in Pedestal, here are more notes from the journal of Merlock Tomes]

DAY 279 (14th Nightal)(December) cont ...

As stated in my previous report, my investigation into the murder of Elessarwa Nledoor had lead me to the overworlder gang known as the 'Buffalo Bunch'. These individuals were a powerful warlock called Fenrir, a fey druid known as Arahel, a half-orc barbarian known as Durz and a gnomish scout known as Billitoppe.

Following them to the Necromancer's Spike I saw that they were clearing the area of undead and monsters and thusly doing us a great service in that it would save us the bother of doing it later.

They had already cleared two levels of the tower and had found their way to the third. Here they entered a room of mirrors where they were attacked my three magical monsters created from the mirrors themselves.
The gang made short work of these creatures and showered glass shards all over the stone floor.

I should also mention that the six mirrors in this room were also magical and showed views of various places around Pedestal.

From here they continued down another corridor and through some abandoned rooms until the arrived at the Shrine of Orcus. Here they were attacked two fevers and a choker. These are quite nasty undead elementals but even so the gang made short work of them. It was a messy battle, with burning coals from the braziers being knocked everywhere. Once they had finished in here they went back to one of the smaller chambers and rested for the remainder of the day.

DAY 280 (15th Nightal)(December)

This was the Buffalo Bunches fourth day in the Necromancer's Spike.

Around about one in the morning they had rested enough and continued on their way. The only way forward was down some steps to the inner sanctum of the spire.

The steps were rotten and when Durz stepped on them they collapsed. He was not gravely injured though and the others were carried down to the lower area by Fenrir using his demonic wings.

Before them was a corridor with six alcoves along it, three on each side. In each alcove was a victim of Fadheela, all turned to stone except for one part that was still alive. One of the statues still had eyes that stared at them with madness as they passed, another had hands that seemed to reach out for help. There were two children as well and a strange angelic being, the only statue that was not a drow or a duergar.
The last and most horrible had a mouth that still screamed and screamed in hoarse terror.

At the other end of the corridor was a crossroads with four more statues. These were completely stone this time. There were doors in the north, east and west walls. Green light pulsed around the door to the west and every so often they heard the discharging of electricity.
This seemed to be the door where their next challenge waited for them...

(G307 18/02/2017 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, MJ) RL4

(G307 18/02/2017 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, MJ) RL4

[Back with Rollo and gangs adventures in the undead infested town of Barovia]


DAY 342 (9th Alturaik)(February)  cont ...

You may remember then, dear reader, that myself, Sylvia, Yli and Mr Pie were hacking away at undead nasties in the far away town of Barovia.
We had been on the way anyway, but we had also a been given a cryptic message had been sent by their Burgomaster, a man called Kolyan Indirovich. We'll get to him later though.

We entered the town square and saw that it was barricaded at each entrance except for the eastern one through which we had arrived.

Here we saw an armoured lady fighting a decent sized group of zombies. We met them with the usual
tactics, namely cleric magic, lightning bolts, arrows and bears.

There was an entomber in amongst the undead (the same sort of thing that Fenrir and his crew were to later face in the Necromancer's Spike) and I tried an Inferno spell on it, but with no effect.

Yli's arrows zipped expertly into the battle, between the lady and the bears, sniping the undead one by one. As I watched I saw that the lady was tougher than we'd first thought and not quite as urgently in need of rescue as I had imagined.
As she bashed one to death, Yli took the head off another with an expertly placed arrow and my bears fell down a well in their eagerness to get at the last of them.

Once the combat was ended we made out introductions. The lady was a cleric of Lythander by the name of Ashlin. She was a member of a small company that called themselves 'The Lightbringers'. Her companions were known as Fendrik and Mathilder, but they had gone further into town and up to the church.
They too were looking for the Sunsword.
Ashlin went on to say that she thought that a woman known as 'Madame Eva' might be able to help, but she lived west of town and presumably more undead prevented easy access to her.

Well, anyway, there was an inn here, inhabited by the living, so for safety's sake I popped back and brought the wagon, the driver and Geyven Tallmer to it. We then helped Ashlin and some of the villagers rebuild the barricade on the eastern edge of the town square.
The driver wasn't all that happy about entering the lion's den, as it were, but Tallmer doubled his fee and that placated him a little.

The cart and horses were stored away in Bill Drath's Mercantile and we went to wash the dust  from our throats in the Inn across the street known as 'The Blood on the Vine Tavern'.

(Looking at the sign it had once been called 'Blood OF the Vine Tavern' - Vampire theme pub?)

The main room was pretty well packed with about ten families worth of people, presumably chased out of their houses and sheltering from the undead. As we went in, two men came out.

I also noticed a man dressed like a nobleman in one corner, drinking wine from a goblet. Firstly, though I talked to Arik the land lord and arranged food and drink.

Once I had recovered from all the fighting I went over and introduced myself to the nobleman.
His clothing was expensive looking but stained. He seemed pretty relaxed considering everything that was going on, or just drunk perhaps.
When he said he would talk to me, but that 'talking was thirsty work,' I resisted the urge to walk away and ordered more wine. He opened up and sighing he said,
'My name Ismark the Lesser, my father was Kolyan the Burgomaster. His body now lies in the mansion. My sister is still there and refuses to leave the place. This all began in the church. It was Danovich. Then the zombies came. Fendrik and Mathilder went to investigate the church... Strad, is in his castle. He is a devil! My father stood up to him, with a Holy Symbol of Ravenkind... But one morning father was found dead by poison and the Symbol no longer worked. Erina, my sister, sits vigil on his body and will not leave the mansion...'

Poor Ismark seemed in a bad way and I felt terribly sorry for him. It looked like there was a lot to sort out in this cursed town.

What the future holds for Trump

(Written on the 27th of Feb, 2017 - My Trump News addiction now unstoppable!)

If someone with no experience had run for, and won, the biggest job in the world as President of the United States and they had no experience of politics at all then perhaps it would be workable if  they were a good person.
If they were a billionaire, say, with no experience, but with a good heart and a clean consicence then perhaps they would be up to the job. They would have a tough time, for sure, but with hard work and  integrity then it would probably be ok.

Donald Trump is not a good man. He is not even an average man. He is clearly a pretty bad man.

This is my prediction then, based on the way things are going at the moment (28/02/2017) that his presidency will not last the year. I would almost go as far to say he'll be dead by the end of the year, and probably by his own hand. Here is why.

Now, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the ludicrous wall along the border of Mexico and the unconstitutional Muslim Ban are all disasters. They are political disasters though and for a man as thick headed as Trump possibly survivable. Most likely they will all get blocked and ammended and  when his core voters get pissed off that he renaged on all of his promises he will blame the Democrats, the media, the protestors, everyone and anyone other than himself. Of course.

His ties with Russia, on the other hand, are criminal and likely treasonable. As well as not being a good man, Trump is not a clever man. It's amazing, considering the amount he has done and the amount that is being dug up that he has lasted as long as it has, but it is only a matter of time.
Not even a clever man could wipe out the crooked path that lead him to the White House, fate is  catching up with Donald.

If like me you watch all the US news channels with ever increasing horror you know that the left leaning media are digging and digging and what they are digging up stinks.

There are rich pickings. Ties to Russian oligarchs like Dmitry Rybolovlev. Deutcshe Bank. Ties to  shadowy middle men and cronies of the Kremlin like Paul Manfort.
The 'dodgey dossier' of blackmail material against Trump is now looking like stone cold facts and not  conspiracy theory stuff. The White House, the FBI and CIA are leaking and leaking, and as more informaiton comes to light the extent of the corruption is astounding.

Forget Watergate, this is just about the biggest political scandal in US history of all time and it's hardly got started yet. Putin dropped a hand grenade in the White House and once it all comes to light the consequences will be... well, right now I find that part of it hard to predict, but whatever happens you can bet it will move the doomsday clock another minute closer to midnight.

Putting aside the stuff that hasn't been fully proven or investigated yet there is plenty of evidence in plain sight. Look at cabinet picks like Mike Ryan, Rex Tillerson and Wilbur Ross. Men who if not  out-and-out Putin stooges are at the very least highly favourable to Russia.

As the scandal deepens, Trump will have nowhere left to hide. Mark my words, he'll be lucky to get  away with impeachment.

If and when he is impeached then the real investigations will begin and the level of treasonable activity will come to light. Putin won't want him, so what's left for Trump? If he does top himself in Mar-A-Lago some time this year then I won't be surprised!

(G306 04/02/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK) SS17

(G306 04/02/2017 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM), MJ, HK) SS17

[Don't blame me! We are running two games now...]

Deary me, I seem to have my notes all in a muddle again. Rollo here, I seem to have written some  of my notes on the back of transcripts that came into my possession that were penned by the famous Pedestal detective...

[Merlock Tomes continues his report]


DAY 278 (13th Nightal)(December) cont ...

I lay in wait at the bottom of the stairs unseen and unchallenged by those brave adventurer's that it was my duty to observe. Fenrir the warlock, Dwerry the sorceress, Durz the Barbarian, Billitoppe the gnomish scout and Arahel the shapeshifting druid.

It was eleven o'clock in the evening now and they appeared to still think that the room they were in was a good place to rest.

This so irritated me, their insistence on camping out in a room with five exits, that I arranged a little surprise for them and lured a gang of marauding skum up from the bowels of the Spike to go and harass them. These were agents of Imaug the Aboleth and I whispered to them, and thus to Imaug himself that the warlock he had nearly snared on Oceanbridge was within his grasp once again. In truth I would be just as happy to see the skum all dead as Imaug is no friend of House Dusklorn.

Initially Fenrir talked them out of attacking. He has a very silver tongue that one and he used it to convince the leader of the skum that he was not the warlock they were after. The leader sent two of his followers to scout ahead, but one came running back chased by an Entomber and a Wraith from the graveyard that lay beyond the room they were all in.

The battle was swift and deadly, Dwerry killed four skum with a single fireball! Arahel decided to play dead, wishing to not waste her energy on an easy fight I assume, while the others killed and chased off the skum, blasted the Entomber to nothing and killed off the wraith the magic missiles.

After that they rolled up into their bedrolls again.

DAY 279 (14th Nightal)(December)

By three in the morning I was bored, so it was with some small happiness I noticed Jajob the Drider had been sent up from below to investigate and report back to House Dusklorn. He had ten or so of his big spiders in attendance. I warned him that the adventurer's camped out in the room above were pretty dangerous but he decided to take a look anyway and squeezed past all the corpses of vampire spawn and skum blocking the stairs.

He came back with his hair singed and all his spiders dead. I gave him a 'told you so' look and he snarled at me as he went back to his lair to wash up and wrangle up more spiders for his entourage.

I continued my vigil and at ten in the morning they were attacked by a gang of gargoyles from the graveyard. This had nothing to do with me, it was purely because they were camped in one of the busiest areas of the Spike.

The gargoyles attacked with acid jars and tanglefoot bags, but were soon either slain or chased off like all the others.

By eleven their magic users were rested enough to continue and they ventured into the graveyard and robbed the mausoleum that was in the right hand corner.

After some skulking about in the corridors around their camp room they found a secret door that lead them up to the 'over look' a small cliff that looked over the graveyard. Here a giant  Desiccator and an undead illithid (a forlorn husk) attacked them.

This was probably their most challenging battle so far as the Desiccator really hammered into Durz and did him a lot of damage. The illithid was quickly dealt with but it took a while to kill the powerful giant.

After that they searched the caves behind the overlook but did not find much.

(G305 28/01/2017 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, MJ) RL3

(G305 28/01/2017 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, MJ) RL3

 And so we entered the town of Barovia, myself, Mr B, Sylvia, Yli and Tie-Pie.

The first thing we saw, looming out of the fog between the buildings was what looked like three zombies. Sylvia used her spiritual powers to turn them away from us though and they ran off back into the murky streets.

Tie-pie then cast a Fireball spell that exploded above them, lighting up the mist in a most spectacular fashion. Meanwhile, off down a side alley Mr B had found an undead witch sort of thing and started worrying at it. Sylvia turned it as well, making it cower away from us in the dead end of the alley.

From the other direction came some strange large rat creatures, but they were no threat really as by this time I'd summoned up a squad of bears (giving the crocodiles a rest!) and they went and killed the witch and protected us from the rats. With the bears and the flaming sphere that Tie-Pie had summoned and the deadly arrows of Yli they were all soon dealt with.

Once things had settled down and all the undead were now properly dead, it seemed that Tie-Pie was in the mood for some mischief. A chaotic sort of fellow I think, and since I had been instructed to be more like him by my elders and betters I joined in the fun.

It started with him edging his sphere ever closer to me, enough to singe the corner of my cloak. I stepped back, but he kept the sphere on me, so in return I ordered my bears to do a 'Bear Pile On'. All five grappled him to the ground and jumped on him until he was under a massive pile of fur.

Well, after less than a minute the sphere and the bears dispelled and that was the end of that.

We carried on up the street and tried a door to our left. It contained two zombies which Tie-Pie and Yli quickly killed off with magical rays and arrows. I cast Hypothermia on one to finish it off. These were more powerful undead than your average zombie it appeared to me.

I decided it was best just to leave the doors alone and bid us all continue into the centre of town. Through the mist we saw a body lying on the road. As we got closer two large maggot type things rushed at us from the body and attacked.

As battle was joined, more undead nasties joined in, zombies from left and right and flying skulls (Vargouilles I think, like the ones we'd met in the Plane of Shadow). It was a full on assault as we shot back with arrows, magic, clerical magic and bears. There was so much going on  that there was hardly any room to add yet more bears into the carnage so I simply struck out at the  nearest enemies with my scimitar.

Tie-Pie shot the skulls out of the sky with his scorching rays and we rest took on the maggots and zombies. Once he'd dealt with the skulls Tie-Pie cast a Confusion spell in the direction of the remaining undead but the only thing he succeeded in confusing was poor Mr Badger.

He charged up and down the street at top speed, not knowing what to do, snapping at Tie-Pie whenever he rushed past him. In the end though, one of my bears killed the last dire maggot and Mr B recovered. The battle over, we continued on our way.

Good and Evil do not come with labels

Good and Evil do not come with labels

I started to write this at the weekend when the ban came in. It's now the first of February and thankfully the things that I wanted to be said have already been said by the likes of Amber Judd etc. I'll add my voice anyway.

I don't speak for any other Muslim than myself. I converted in 2005, I was completely indifferent to religion prior to that point and I'm still pretty chilled out about it, but after 12 years I identify with and understand Islam pretty well I think. I feel I am a Muslim, let's put it that way.

Us Muslims you know, vary from country to country. Moderate Muslims (like me) from countries such as Indonesia differ from Muslims in Saudi Arabia about the same as a Catholic differs from a Mormon. You can't lump us all into one group. Got that?
You get good and bad Muslims of course, but you get good and bad Christians. The Muslims I know, they want the same thing Christians want, the same thing everyone wants, to life a good happy life.
They chat to people on facebook.
They meet their friends and hang out.
They have all the same hopes and dreams as everyone else.
They know the difference between right and wrong.
They have modern, progressive ways of thinking.
They are not defined by their religion any more than your standard man off the Western street may or may not define himself as a Christian.

I would also like to point out what a red herring Sharia Law is. The far right like to point at it and say that all Muslims want to push Sharia Law onto the world. That's bollocks. I don't for sure. The majority of Muslims don't care, they follow local national laws like everyone else. And where Sharia Law is used, as often as not is does good, helping women divorce abusive husbands for instance.

Another red herring is headscarves. Now, I don't know about all Muslim nations and all Muslim women, so I can only base this observation on the Muslim women that I know. They do not choose to wear a head scarf because they care what men think. Like most women of any religion they choose how they dress based on what other women might think! The head scarf is a choice taken by the women by themselves. Trends in headscarf use come and go. Also, I know women that are so used to wearing headscarves they feel uncomfortable going outside without one on. Rather like going out without trousers on I imagine, and no one wants that.

Forget the extremists, I don't know any, but from your average sampling of Muslims you may find the occasional  one that will argue for a certain way of behaving or a certain way of doing things, but is that any different from a Christian expressing the opinion that people should live life by the Bible?

So, moving on, I like America, I like it's history, I like how it mostly tries to be a good moral nation. I like your literature and your culture. You are honestly a good bunch.

This Muslim Ban though, it doesn't make you look good. People are now aware, as it has been said  already by politicans and pundits, that by putting into place this hasty and ill-conceived ban you have  played straight into the hands of ISIS and other extremists. They must be delighted!

Are you bunch of fannies in the White House right now really that dumb? Or are you trying to spark off a religious war? In a situation like that even moderate peaceful Muslims would become your enemy. What then? Round them up into camps like the Japanese Americans in World War II? Think it through. Unless you already have and this is what you want of course in which case these words are obviously wasted.

To end then, if you really wanted to make America safe, you would not marginalise the 3.3 million Muslims in your country. Whether you like it or not, Islam is a world religion and is here to stay.
We are not your enemy.

In case you are not aware of this fact, 15,000 Americans were killed in shootings last year. Don't you think that's rather a large number? Wouldn't that make any rational person think that something should be done? I'm sure the 2nd Amendment is important to Americans, but maybe some sort of check on people just to be sure they are not mentally ill? What's the measure here? Americans are ok about being killed by other Americans but not by foreigners?

Well, we know there is no political currency in that direction eh? There are no votes in tackling gun control. There are lots of votes in victimising the strange and the foreign though. Truth and logic are just not a factor.

This is the politics of anger, fear and ingorance. At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law here, who else do we know that rose to power on the back of that?

...

Uhh one last thing...

Some Fox News chap (Hannity was it?) said something along the lines of home owners have a right to have a lock on their front door, it is a crime to fit a burglar alarm etc etc. OK, then, to follow that analogy through; what if the person at your front door is a cold and hungry child? You leave them outside to die on your doorstep? Think about it, honestly, imagine going on national TV and saying something like that.