Ancient Dread: The Loch Chess Monster

Continued: 

Moving on to the next room past the next set of double doors. Inside the walls are marble and decorated w/ arms and armor. One side in white metal , the other black.

There are two lances, two long swords, two miters (hats), two breast plates, and two short swords on each side. There is a single crown on the white side.

Strongbow chooses a white short sword. Ivory grip, silver, and white steel for the haft.
Rod chooses the white crown. White gold inlaid w/ pearls, mother of pearl, and diamonds.
Echo begins to choose a white lance but the dwarven spirit inside her compels her to choose a black one, obsidian lance, onyx haft, and blackened bronze. It's weight is nearly more than she can bare.

A checkered board is laid out in front of us. It appears to be floating on water, easily jumped onto. It contains numerous statues, one side white, one side black. We match up our chosen items with those on the board. The black king has the white pearl glowing brightly on his crown. Our third item.

Strongbow leaps to reach an equivalent spot and falls throughthe board onto the water. He pulls himself up onto the board and takes his place along w/ Rod and Echo. A silence befalls the room.
Rod calls to one of the white pieces to move and it responds. The game begins. Pieces swiftly fall through the board as they are taken. Eventually a quandry comes up. Echo is moved involuntarily into a position to take Strongbow. A pawn takes her. She falls through and manages to swim to the shore. We check the king and it falls through the board into the depths below.

Rod and Strongbow feel a loyalty to the Dwarven empire. Echo attempts to have her water wisps retrieve the statue but they are devoured by a sea monster. Rod summons a Shadow Beast to delve and retrieve the statue. After a time, we realize it wasn't coming back up. A combined effort between the two mystical creatures wears down the beast and they manage to drag the statue to shore. Strongbow manages to pry it out of the crown. The geas goes away.

Now we have to obtain the crown. The last door leads to a bridge, unstable looking, a 50 foot span of river to a small island. On the other side is some sort of Dwarven crafts table. Echo ties a rope to a point and walks across, securing it on the other side. On the table is a crown of a meteoric metal. Intricately carved. It seems to have its own presence. It has three spaces for the jewels. What order is the question. We decide that power and loyalty feed into Dominion. Loyalty is on the right hand and power on the left.

Echo calls on the skills of Grim Ax to place the gems. On the table is a case for the crown. We place it in the box and latch it. Echo feels its pull. We return to the Ashman. He is ecstatic and burns through the wall of corpses. Beyond the wall is a tunnel leading to our final destination. The Ashman warns us that his opponent is a Baalrog that is raising an army and will do everything he can to stop us. No more puzzles, just blood and ashes.

Ancient Dread: Roll the Bones or Greed is Good for You.

Continued:


Following intuition, we avoid the North door and move on to the Easterly one. A strange sight befalls us. It is reminiscent of a great hall but is in ruins.

 A small gravel pit is in the center of the room w/ another obelisk. No gem tops this one. A great stone table is on the North side, carved in many Dwarven designs. On the other side, a skeletal dwarf w/ glowing, hateful eyes stands behind a half-moon bar, the back stocked w/ many fine. In the center of the back wall is a chained dwarf corpse, glowing w/ power from its chest. On the obelisk is an inscription which, surprisingly, we are all able to read. It makes itself legible.

To all great leaders, must ye show fealty. Give in not to pride, avarice, or debauchery. Only through these shall ye know truth.

Hung on the obelisk is a large sword, similar to a lochaber axe but with a shorter haft and longerblade , and a battle axe. There are many gouges and divets taken out of the obelisk. The dwarven bartender, as if reading our thoughts, tells us that they have dwarven mead and wine. Echo and Rod suggest that the bar is debauchery, the obelisk pride, and the table avarice. On the table is a very worn but lovingly crafted wooden box. 4” x 8”. There are no outside decorations. Echo volunteers to open the box. Inside is a pair of felt lined wooden cups and numerous bone dice.

Strongbow goes up to the bartender, sits and asks for a glass of his finest wine. The Dwarf asks if I am ready for this challenge and to accept fealty. He places a goblet of fine dwarven crystal in front of the elf and pours a glass of wine. It smells enticing, even for a dwarven vintage. It has an honey and oakey smell to it. Strongbow takes a taste. The bartender states that the challenge is fealty to the Dwarven lords. He continues drinking for a bit then declares he’s done. The bartender states “Your fealty is accepted”. A beam of yellow light shoots from the corpse on the wall and strikes Strongbow in the chest. Completely against his constitution, he feels slightly compelled to follow the dwarven lords. Echo bellys up to the bar and starts drinking heavily. Four drinks later and she is on the floor.

The Dwarf rejects her.

Rod moves up to the obelisk. The bartender follows. “Trial by stone?” Yes, replies Rod and takes the sword. The Dwarf takes the axe. Rod swings and takes a chip out of the obelisk. The dwarf strikes but the axe loses a piece. They continue the duel. After several more strikes, Rod breaks the stone in half. A beam of yellow light strikes her in the chest. She feels inclined towards the dwarves. Stone crumbles down into the gravel and a new one builds up. Strongbow moves up and draws Melina and strikes the stone against the protestations of the dwarf. As a piece comes off the stone, a burst of energy hits Strongbow in the chest, knocking him back several feet. The dwarf looks crossly at him. “You have failed”.

The dwarf walks over to the table and takes out the bone dice. Echo, managing not to waver, sits. The dwarf states that she must make a wager. She places the groups treasure bag, easily worth 200k gold, on the table. The dwarf pauses. Out of seemingly nowhere, he pulls out a beautiful gem and a bag of coins. He pushes the bag forward. “My first bet”. We place several magic items on the table. The dwarf matches w/ several other magic items.

Echo places the pink gem, the entire focus of our quest, onto the table. The Dwarf is befuddled. He glowers at us, filled w/ undying hate. “You have made an enemy this day”. The bones are rolled.
The dwarf rolls a 3.
Echo rolls a 7.

Unimaginable knowledge along w/ our riches are ours.

The wall spectre disappears. We collect the second gem.

They Grow Up So Fast

Nine years ago (+2 days) I posted this pic of a new addition to the trailer.


Today we celebrated and he got his first gun, a 10/22:

Ancient Dread: The Ashman

Continued:

Passing through the portal, we continue our trek. The neighborhoods seem to get more ornate as we progress. The atmosphere, reminding us we are under millions of gallons of water, is disheartening. It feels…… thick. The emberflies continue to light our way. The passages narrow to a path. A gate blocks our way. To our left is a mound of rubble. Something tops it. Echo, the most nimble of us (unusual being a humie) climbs the rubble. Standing in front of her is the Ashman. He invites the group up after greeting her. He is standing in the middle of a circle. Echo and Rod recognize it as a Circle of Summon Devils. His skin looks like glowing coals.
He reminds us that the enemy of his enemy could be his friend and that the enemy we have in common is ‘Scorch’, a demon. He tells us that beyond the gate is a vault that contains something he wants. If we obtain it for him, he will get us past the next barrier which is otherwise impenetrable, a wall of animated corpses. Without his help, he claims, we will not have enough power left to defeat Scorch and his minions. The item he wants is a crown, made from arrogance. He is telling us the truth.
Continuing, he informs that the crown is in multiple pieces and that he will provide us with information on even greater enemies. We agree to work with him and he relates to us a story:
A dwarven king ruled the island and demanded his priest make him a crown. The crown was made but the priest made a second, later known as the fanatics crown, creating blind loyalty and dominion over those that served him. It was this king that caused the destruction of the island. The crowns jewels were separated into power, dominion and loyalty. Three stones must be placed on the crown.
Ashman gives us a box and warns us not to touch the crown. Three trials must be completed, the crown assembled, then brought back to him. He will then clear the way for us and owe us several favors which we may claim now or later.
We walk down to the gate. A pair of huge knockers hang from leering faces. It opens easily when we use the knockers. A building ahead of us is the vault. Behind it is a lake. Coming from the side of the building is the wall that Ashman told us about. From the ground to the roof is a writhing mass of animated corpses, moaning and squirming. Echo pokes it and narrowly avoids being grabbed by numerous hands.
Returning to Ashman, he tells us the first three trials are related to the items we need to recover. The fourth is a trial of desire, we need to reject our greatest wants. He gives us his name… Cinder. We move on to the vault. A giant building. Runes carved in many places. Entering the building is a long corridor. There appears to be some ancient traps that no longer work. At the end of the corridor is a circular hall, domed. Three doors lead out from it outside of the one we’ve entered from. A fence blocks off the back and in the distance is the lake and island. In the center of the room is another summoning circle. This one for Jinn. In the middle of the circle is a lamp.
Rod prays for guidance. He says we should bypass the temptation. We ignore the circle and lamp and move to the first door. It is filled w/ a reddish hue. In the center is an obelisk, at it’s peak is a glowing gem. Supposedly the gem of power. There are four statues. Three man height. One giant. All sense as presences. I attempt to pull it out using telekinesis. It stays put. Echo summons a phantom to try and grab it. As soon as it touches the stone, the statues begin to move towards us. Rod and I charge one, Echo, King and Ackdor charge the other. Two shoot arrows at Ackdor, another hits me w/ a lightning bolt. The melee continues. Ackdor continues to get hit w/ arrows while we strike various golems. After the three destroy the one w/ the sword, I notice that our hits on the magic user have had no effect. I realize that like calls to like. Echo destroys it immediately w/ her ball lightning. I drop my shield and sheath Melina, the archer is mine. His fear causes his next shots to fly off target. The rest of the group focuses on the giant. I quickly eliminate the archer and then we all turn on the giant. It eventually falls. The obelisk crumbles and we gather the gem in the box.

QOTD: Illinois Carry

So Rep. Robyn Kelly, is going to attend a meeting about 'gun control'.  This is the one who had her seat bought for her by Mike Bloomberg to the tune of $2.2m.

Love this description of what will happen over on IllinoisCarry:

I've seen the Robin Kelly machine in action.
She will arrive late.If WLOWV is smart, they will have a dancing bear or some bleeding heart to keep the troops entertained until her arrival.
When she shows up,She will proclaim how the NRA does not like her, and calls her a gun grabber.
She will next say that she does not like being called a gun grabber.She will then offer her gun credentials, which is her granpappy had a gun under the counter in the family grocery store in Harlem, and she has seen this gun.
After that, she will announce her common sense plan for grabbing your guns.
She will leave early, before taking any questions.

Sounds about right.

Knights & Knaves of Gun Control

Regarding the last minute rule implemented by the Social Security Administration reversed by Congress today.

From the Brady Campaign:

The gun lobby lap dogs in Congress have done it again. This week, thousands of Americans jammed Senate phone lines with calls. America’s mayors, prosecutors, and law enforcement officials spoke out. And Brady supporters like you flooded their Senators’ inboxes with emails.
But the gun lobby lap dogs in the Senate ignored these warnings. They listened to the corporate gun lobby instead, and voted to roll back critical protections that kept guns out of the hands of people with mental illnesses that make them a danger to themselves or others.
Still, our collective voices made a huge difference in this fight. Your calls and emails swayed several Senators who might have otherwise voted the wrong way, and came within just a few votes of victory.

From the NRA:

Fairfax, Va.— The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) today applauded the U.S. Senate's passage of H.J. Res. 40, a joint resolution to revoke a final rule made by the Obama administration that would strip law-abiding Americans of their Second Amendment rights. The resolution passed by a bipartisan vote of 57-43.

“Today’s Senate vote was the next step in rolling back some of the egregious government overreach that characterized the Obama era,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA-ILA. “Congress is reversing a last-minute, back-door gun grab that stripped law-abiding Americans of their rights without due process.”
Late last year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) finalized a proposed rule to ban certain recipients who use a representative payee from owning firearms. This ill-conceived action stripped some of the most vulnerable Americans of their right to keep and bear arms without due process.
The NRA immediately opposed the Obama administration's efforts when the proposal was first announced in summer of 2015. The NRA has fought every step of the way to ensure that social security recipients are not stripped of their rights without due process of law.
Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress is allowed to dispose of any actions an outgoing administration initiates in its final six months. This rule was implemented during that time frame. The bill received bipartisan support, passing the House last week House by a 235-180 vote. Today's bipartisan Senate vote of 57-43 is the next step in reversing Obama’s unconstitutional gun grab. The bill now moves to President Donald Trump’s desk.
“We look forward to President Trump signing this important legislation into law,” concluded Cox.

The NRA thanks Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for their work on this important legislation.

So according to the Brady Campaign, a senior citizen needing help w/ their finances is a 'danger to themselves and others'.  In other emails, they've used the expression 'dangerously mentally ill'.

Tell me again how this is about 'gun safety' and not an outright drive to restrict guns anyway they think they can get away with?

Ancient Dread: The Maze Runners

Continued:

We enter the tunnel. Dwarven sized, it presents some issues w/ the taller members of the group. While ominous, no being has been in here for millennia. As we move through, we sometimes have to take alternate routes to progress. A tingling in the back of our minds feels like we’re being watched. The architecture, again while dwarf, seems almost from a completely different civilization. For several days we encounter nothing but boulevards.

Suddenly, the area opens into a courtyard. It is illuminated by some sort of natural reddish hue, hanging in the air like embers. A giant fountain, w/ a four pointed star as its figure, centers the yard.

Echo’s attempts to grasp one of the embers proves fruitless, staying just out of her reach. On either side of the fountain are buildings w/ a wall farther out ahead. The fountain is dry. Nearby we notice a hatch. Ackdor and King manage to rip open it, leading into a dark pit. Looking down we hear water. Rod climbs down and steps into some shallow, rushing water. Some sort of old maintenance tunnel.

We decide to investigate this side of the wall first. Opens that used to be there are filled w/ rubble, making them impassable. The western building has steps leading to a second story. A guard building. At the top, a guard walkway continues along the top of the wall. About halfway down, it is collapsed. The east building looks to have been explored. A wooden bridge spans partway across a chasm that abruptly ends.

A quick exploration of the buildings, we note one building only has light from the emberflies. Echo enters. A man sits there, looking to be ash and ember himself, in front of a fireplace. He shushes her then disappears. The room itself was once a forge, relatively large. Echo discovers some sort of tunnel system. We decide on the sewers. They seem to be a maze as they branch off repeatedly. Damnable dwarves. All dead ends. We return to the forge vents. Ancient ash causes some serious discomfort as we move through the vent. We move past the wall and into another section of the bazaar. It has mostly caved in. Moving through the rubble, a building far to the west has survived. Rod opens the door and is greeted by a gust of wind. It comes from another chasm. A bridge leads across it. Roping eachother together, we attempt to cross. The bridge stops partway across leaving a gap too far to leap. Echo summons a phantom to carry us across.

A third section of the bazaar, we find another forge and hatch. Down the hatch. An open space leads out to four directions. More damn dwarf tunnels. We follow the lefthand north rule. Many dead ends. As we move north, the water on the floor gets hotter. Climbing over shelves gets us to another hatch, cool to the touch. We exit.

A new area. Covered in skeletons both Dwarf and Human, all seeming to have died in agony. Scorchmarks are everywhere. The buildings, seemingly built at random, are burnt out husks. In front of a sigil, a pyramid floating in a sphere of energy, is the Ashman. He giggles and disappears. Touching the pyramid, we pass the first shrine.

Call to Action: IL Gun Bills Witness Slips

Call to Action

Witness Slips Needed

Witness Slip Instructions

With the 100th General Assembly almost in full swing, the coming week brings several threats to our Second Amendment rights and the hope of advancing those rights, with your help.

Brush off the dust from your keyboards, find those old passwords, and let our legislators know that we remain unified in our support of the Second Amendment!

File Witness Slips Now!

Log on to the ILGA Dashboard, Create a New Account, or complete the required fields manually:

I, IDENTIFICATION: Enter your personal information. Enter "NA" for the Firm/Business or Agency and Title fields unless you are officially representing an organization.

II. REPRESENTATION: Enter "Myself" unless representing an organization.

III. POSITION: Unless instructed otherwise for a particular bill leave the description field at its default value "Original Bill". Indicate your position by selecting the "Proponent" or "Opponent" radio button.

IV. TESTIMONY: Select the "Record of Appearance Only" radio button.

If filing manually, complete the Captcha challenge and agree to the ILGA Terms of Agreement.

Then click Create Slip.

Oppose

HB271 Handgun Ammo Serialize - OPPONENT

HB329 Concealed Carry Prohibit Place - OPPONENT

HB504 FOID Card Terrorist Watchlist - OPPONENT

HB521 Lost & Stolen Firearms Penalty - OPPONENT

Support

HB308 Firearm Transport – PROPONENT

HB365 Firearms Military Non-Resident – PROPONENT

HB377 Concealed Carry Bus License - PROPONENT

HB413 2nd Amendment Preservation – PROPONENT

Witness slips can be tracked here:

HB271 Handgun Ammo Serialize – OPPONENT

HB308 Firearm Transport – PROPONENT

HB329 Concealed Carry Prohibit Place – OPPONENT

HB365 Firearms Military Non-Resident – PROPONENT

HB377 Concealed Carry Business License - PROPONENT

HB413 2nd Amendment Preservation – PROPONENT

HB504 FOID Card Terrorist Watchlist - OPPONENT

HB521 Lost & Stolen Firearms Penalty – OPPONENT