State of Blog 4/29/2013

     Hello all! I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on and the plans for the future of the blog.
     Some bad stuff went down this past winter for both my self and my friend, Randy, with whom I do the Lounge L33ts podcast. Around the end of January, my mom suffered a severe heart attack. She thought she only had the flu, even though my dad felt there was more to her symptoms. She wound up waiting three days to go to the Emergency Room (it's commonly recommended to seek aid within ninety minutes), thus more damage was done to her heart. She was in Bay Area Aurora for a few weeks, and had a triple bypass surgery that turned into a double bypass. Then she was transferred down to St. Luke's in Milwaukee and stayed there for another couple of weeks. Before all was done, her heart had gotten down to ten percent strength and there was talk of a possible transplant. However, with help from a pacemaker/defibrillator she has gotten stronger and is at home now. In fact, she has recovered so quickly that the doctors don't think she'll need a transplant anymore.
     During all this, I dropped everything thing and was planning on moving back home, but my friends and my aunt helped convince me otherwise. Madison is decent city with a lot of culture, and I have built up a support network of friends and co-workers. I have a life down here that I'm not quite so willing to give up. While I'm a little apprehensive when it comes to affording this life, I at least have steady income from a reliable job. I just need to budget better.
     And here we get to Randy's troubles. I won't go into too much detail, but Randy lost the roof over his head and has had to move in with my friend Bob and Bob's parents. He is trying to get on Social Security while at the same time working on his resume and, hopefully, job hunting.
     I have posted a brief video on the situation with the Lounge L33ts podcast here:

http://blip.tv/LoungeL33ts

We have the episode filmed, and I am currently editing it. In addition I have set up a Lounge L33ts email and Youtube account which will soon be seeing activity. I'm planning on uploading the latest episode, then going back and posting the first season episodes in between to help people get caught up. We're going to try something a little bit different: roleplaying sessions. It won't be every episode, but every now and then, we will hop on as our characters and give their point of view on what's happening within their world. There will still be regular episodes where we talk as our selves, but this will help provide a little variety.
     I'm still working on the final part for "The Way to Kumas." I was planning to have it finished quite sometime ago, but then my mom had her emergency. I want to have an ending that wraps up the situation for the characters but allows for further stories to develop off of it. My aunt has told me it's "like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, except much better." I have yet to see the newer movie, but there does seem to be some similarities. I'm planning on being able to write my next short story within a month.
     And so that's what has been going on lately. Between my mom's heart attack, possibly moving back home, and helping Randy move, the blog has been a bit empty. It's time to get back to work.

The Way to Kumas Part IV

IV.

      Glyphs could be seen running along the walls near the ceiling and the floor, glowing with the same light as that coming from the decapitated head. There were images of cattle, birds, fish, mountains, forests, and people. As well as something else. It had the body and arms and legs of a human, but the symbol was twice the size, and it was headless. This unsettling creature's image was scattered amongst the images of landscape and animals.

      Their guides traveled fast indeed for people who had never been to the place. They passed a dark corner from which came a clicking sound followed by a blast of air. Something heavy hit Growgash in the shoulder and she cried out in rage, spinning deftly with sword in hand. Before her in the gloom, large almond shaped eyes floated burning with a wild green light. The thing hissed and a skittering of many armored feet sounded as the eyes rushed forward. Her sword sliced the air before her and clattered against what felt like twin blades.

      The eyes now rose upward to where the ceiling must be. And then the boy warrior was in front of her, sword in hand. The glowing orbs dodged to the right and he took a chance to swipe at the thing, only for it to back off to the left. It seemed to size him up as he edged forward with a double grip on his blade.

      “Don't be a fool, boy,” the half orc sneered. “It's just playing with you.” The youth seemed to pay no attention. The boy was a distraction and as he hopped lightly about she considered the thing in front of them. Her mother's studies had taught her enough, that a thing with a head and and legs may not have a neck. But if it has a front, it should have a back....

       Behind them were Jaxom and the monk and his apprentice. “Monk!” she whispered harshly. “When I give the word, release the light at that thing. Blind it!” His motionless form left her with little hope as she moved around to the back of the thing. A yell came from the front as the beast lounged forward, providing the perfect opportunity for the half orc. She scrabble up the slippery scales of it's back. Blackness still surrounded them when the crunch of a mortal wound broke the stillness. Then came a “thwak” as Jaxom's sword hit against the armored hide.

      Where is that blasted priest! Even as Growgash raised her blade, she felt the beast shift beneath her. It reared, and a blaze of light flashed, illuminating the pathway behind and casting the beast in silhouette. The great sword of the half orc sliced an arc in front of her, but as the head toppled she made sure to turn away from the light. Everything plunged into darkness then and she could feel the lifelesss body of the beast sink to the ground.

      “Jaxom?” Growgash tried to peer ahead of her, where there seemed to be a figure curled up in a corner. When she touched it, there was only a sticky wetness.

      “Help...” came a spluttering gasp. It was the young mercenary huddled in a ball against the glyphs. There was no help for him now, so the half orc finished him off with a thrust of her sword. Then she turned to follow the glyphs down a steep passage. It seemed like hours, and still there was no sign of Jaxom or the priest and his ward. The fragments of other strange symbols began to appear at chest height. She knew the breaking of these letters meant the breaking of spells, especially those wards against intrusion. The broken writing became more erratic and cluttered until it covered the ceiling and floor. No one was meant to come down here, the orc warrior thought. Why so much protection? What was down here? And where were the others?

      Ahead came shouts and then a bright light illuminated the corridor. Growgash stepped through an archway into an illuminated room. Jaxom was there stumbling backward until he hit the wall behind him. He was clutching his eyes. In the center of the room was the priest, his apprentice kneeling before him. From within the sleeve of his robe, the mage pulled a sinister blade and held it under the boy's chin. Then he glared at the half orc woman.

      “The way to Kumas is paved with blood and bones!”

The Way to Kumas Part III

III.

     The breath of the travelers came heavy now. It felt as if they had been running for days, although the night sky had yet to lighten to dawn. Flanking Growgash, the two older men struggled to keep pace. Finally the one with beard turned to shout across to her.

      “This jaunt is not for me!” The other looked across from the other side of the half-orc.

      “Indeed, cousin, 'taint for me, either. What say we make our stand here?” The one with the scar over his eye answered. Jaxom pushed them on with Growgash at the rear. She glanced back and saw their shadowy pursuer rise up upon the two men and over them. Then there were angry shouts. The darkness seemed to rush over the two only to leave them standing astonished, but unharmed. They turned back to glare furiously at their escaping comrades, soundless curses on their lips.

      The half-orc turned to look ahead of them, and her eyes met the priest’s.

      “If it catches us, we will be dead,” he said with certain fear in his eyes. “We make for the temple. Once there we will be...” And he continued on with redoubled speed, as if Hell itself were at his heals.

      “We will be what, old man?!” but her scream was lost as all five dashed haphazard through the thick undergrowth. Beside her, she saw the young soldier go down, and leaping a broken tree, she scooped him up and flung him over her shoulder. “Stop struggling, little pig, or I'll throw you to the wolves behind us.” And indeed, there were wolves behind them now. The half orc could hear the familiar snarling growls, but she dared not look back no matter what fantastical shape their pursuers took.

      Ahead their salvation loomed in the form of a stone door built into the side of a small overgrown knoll. The priest and his boy stopped short, just long enough for the former to slice his thumbs and press them into the stone on opposite sides of the entrance. Then they were greeted with darkness ahead and from behind, but to Growgash, the entrance to the tomb was a bit less animated than their enemies. She regretted this thought with a last push into the stifling blackness. Safe but not safe.

With a thud, she dumped her load upon the warm stone floor and approached what looked to be the silhouette of Jaxom. The bag the priest carried glowed blue with just enough light to guide their way.

      “What is this place?” the man asked their wards, his eyes flashing angrily in the dark. “And what of the others left behind?”

      The apprentice boy turned to them, “Worry not of them. They were dead before, and are still now. Their shares are yours. If you live. If we live.” He turned to his master and the old man nodded.

      “What do you mean? They looked alive enough back there,” Growgash heard herself say.

      “Yes, the trick is to convince them they are alive.” With that, the boy and his master turned to move further into the tomb. “This is the place of our gods. We will not be safe here.” His young, high pitched voice echoed through the passage. Behind her, Growgash felt the hand of the young mercenary grope at her shoulder.

      “Wh-Where we goin'?” his voice wavered.

      “Forward,” the half orc turned to follow the others before the light could grow much dimmer.

Breath Deep

"Okay, you're going to feel a small pinch..."
There was a small pinch. And another one, and another one, and another one. Then time seems to skip.
"Okay, you'll feel some vibrations and hear some noise. If there is any sharpness, please let me know."
"Have yous tarted the gas already?"
The assistant smiles and nods. Everything is very floaty and I giggle a bit. Breath deep through your nose, not through your mouth. Your legs are shaking, try wiggling them or they'll cramp up. The doctor doesn't use a very good razor does he?
"Okay, can I have the sharpie?"
It's really loud. Boy that light is bright, bright enough for me to see the weaving on the doctor's scrubs. The stubble stands out on his jaw and neck like tiny black tree trunks on chocolate.
"Okay, and now the bee."
More noise. I can't hear myself think. You're breathing through your mouth again, breath through your nose. Long, slow breaths. The legs are shaking again. Seems to happen every time with the noise. My knees and wrists feel heavy, maybe that's why my legs are shaking. Long, slow breaths.
"Okay, now the sharpie."
This low pitched squealing is going to deafen me, if the oven in the coffee shop doesn't. The weaving in the scrubs stands out. I must look goofy, with my tongue lolling around in my head, my eyes rolling upward to stare at the small blue mounds of the weaving. They are like tiny blue foot hills leading into a brown and black forest.
"Okay, Erin, now you are going to hear some crunching and popping noises."
Breath deeper. Sounds just like when you got your braces in. Breath deeper, long, slow breaths. The mask is annoying as it lays against my cheek. It's bigger and more clumsy than I thought it would be.
"Now the large."
I wonder where we'll head off to after this. Maybe out to dinner, but I won't be able to have much. I can't wait to play on Lord of the Rings Online. I need to make a dwarf Guardian. I feel floaty again, but at the same time, my wrists and knees still feel heavy.
"Okay, now Erin, we'll have to ask you to close your eyes for this part."
I do so, and feel dry spaghetti being pulled across my lip, once twice, thrice, and then a short tug.
"Okay, we're all finished. Let's get you into the oxygen."
Breath deep. Everything is numb on my left side.
"Well, I was expecting it to be a difficult extraction, but it went much better than I thought." The doctor crosses his arms. "We'll probably look into taking the upper two out, then later at taking out the lower right. We'll go over some rules for when you get home, and get some prescriptions ready for you. I do not want you to go home and go to sleep. You need to pick up the medications and take them with some food on your stomach. Are there any questions?"
"No doctor."
"Okay, we'll schedule you for a followup exam to see how everything is coming along. Have a god day." He smiles and leaves as the asssitant turns and starts going over a lot of the procedures that I can't remember.
"Don't worry, I have everything I just said written down here," and she holds up a piece of paper.

The Way to Kumas Part II

II.

      Below the canopy of the trees, the sparks struggled through the kindling. Growgash snorted in frustration at the mercenaries' attempts to light a blaze large enough to roast their dinner. They had refused help from her and the priest and apprentice, not that their employers had really offered any. Jaxom spurned their company as he did not trust the look of them.

      With the blaze finally lit and the small game they'd caught eagerly devoured, the company settled for the night. Growgash drew first watch and Jaxom stayed with her as he was next. As she unsheathed her sword for cleaning, she noticed the blonde man inching towards her.

      “You're a brave one, to approach me when I have my sword out,” she eyed him.

      “You think I wouldn't notice you staring at me earlier. You orcs have curious taste in mates...” her ears pricked at his hot breath. “But you're attractive enough, and a good fighter.”

      “Unlike some I could mention...” she looked across into his dark eyes. Very few human men were equal to her height, let alone taller than her. The canopy of the dense forest trapped the heat from the day and her leathers were chafing badly. A bead of sweat dropped from the man's chin onto her hand. On the other side of the fire there was movement.

      The priest and his apprentice awoke and took up positions on opposite sides of the fire. Then steepling their fingers they began to mutter in unison. The younger mercenary peered from under his blankets nervously while his companions buried themselves in irritation. Abruptly the chanting stopped but the two worshipers remained at their posts. From the corner of her eye, Growgash saw a spider's silken web stretch and billow outward without aid of a breeze. Indeed, the air all about them seemed deathly still and the fire seemed dimmer by the moment.

      Beyond the ring of protection black shapes formed and lumbered closer. Growgash and Jaxom lept up, swords ready as the older men rubbed sleep from their eyes and crawled to their weapons. No matter how tightly the younger man held his sword, the blade quivered in his grip. Now the shadow figures towered over them, still obscured by the darkness despite the rapidly dwindling fire.

Simultaneously the priest and his charge jumped to their feet.

      “Leave! Now! We cannot hope to fight these beasts!” and they did so, dashing away from the fire. For a moment the shadowy figures arched over the blaze, then swallowed it in pursuit. There was still light, however. Ahead of the soldiers, Growgash saw the bag slung over the priest’s shoulder. It glowed brightly with the same blue light from before. What's more, it was moving, as if a knot of snakes were writhing inside.

The Tale of Narn the Barbarian

     Narn wasn't born on the battlefield or in the pages of a pulp fantasy novel. He was born out of a few hundred lighted dots on a screen, based on a preselected image of the Diablo II Barbarian class. Through a mix of armor, weaponry, and slap dash skill point assignment, he became a killing machine... of sorts. Along with his plucky amazon sidekick, who sadly never saw the same kind of weapons upgrade and thus wound up dying repeatedly, he traveled the wild lands of Sanctuary, seeking fame and fortune. It turns out sidekicks aren't cheap to resurrect.

      Back in 2008, a girl I worked with, we'll call her “Amazon Vegan,” convinced me to buy the Diablo II Battle Chest, which, at the time, contained the original Diablo, Diablo II, and the Lord of Destruction expansion. She had everything planned out for us: I would play a “tank” and she would be the ranged fighter. It was a weekend around Easter, and I had had a particularly bad day at work. To console me, we went to VA's apartment and, with her husband looking on, installed Diablo II on my old Compaq Presario laptop.

      Now back in the early 2000's, I had seen the counter monkeys at my local comic book store play Diablo II, and it looked interesting. Unfortunately, my parents were lagging far behind when it came to home PC's, so playing the game on our computer at the time was out of the question. In fact, it just still barely ran on the laptop. That might have been due to us leeching off the local RadioShack Wi-Fi.

      This was the first time I had played a video game with the hopes of beating it on at least the normal difficulty. We had a Sega Genesis when I was young and I played a little Sonic the Hedgehog here and there. Now I was being introduced to fairly complicated RPG mechanics and character building, and it was a little bit intimidating. I had to learn to sort through loot, use gems and runes, level up my skills, repair my equipment, read a map, read a mini map, and use various hot keys. Teaming up with a level 97 electricity sorceress, we were able to make it pretty far into Nightmare mode. Then I had to quit to work on the Geek.Kon convention for the summer. It was fun while it lasted, though.

      Towards the end of my run on Diablo II, I ventured into the world of MMO's with a subscription to City ofHeroes. Like with Diablo II, I had seen some of the people at the University of Wisconsin Madison Anime Club playing it before meetings and became interested. My system was just barely able to chug through it. On top of that, I had never really played a video game that had a 3D interactive environment to it. I literally had to learn how to walk all over again using the WASD controls and the mouse.

      Soon, Narn ached to return to the battlefield. I remade him in CoH as a Willpower/Battle Axe Tank. One of the most satisfying things is slamming a battleaxe into the face of a startled Hellion. Narn is still growing in this universe, so expect to hear more of his adventures in Paragon City.

     Narn can also be found wandering the mines of the town of Torchlight, slowly uncovering the truth behind the incursion of evil there.

     And now that Diablo III is out, Narn can return to his own universe to confront the seemingly invincible Diablo once again. No matter what strange worlds he finds himself in, he'll always be there to fight against the powers of evil, even if only for the chance to gain the best sword in the game.

Introduction: The Way to Kumas

The Way to Kumas is a short story focusing on a character I've made for my D&D group. Growgash is a half-human half-orc fighter with the usual troubled past and love life. In an effort to stretch the ol' creative writing muscles, I've started this short story. Hope you enjoy it!

The Way to Kumas

I.

     The memory of the healer's fingers tracing their way across her wounds haunted her day dreams out here on the plains. The small escort of mounted men for hire and their priestly charge plodded onward through the saw grass and meadow flowers. Every now and then a butterfly in gold and blue, or a red meadow lark would pass their ears in halting flight. The young elf healer back in York had been gifted with long curling blonde locks down to his waist, nimble fingers, and blue green eyes that seemed as if the sea had been poured into them. Jaxon was blonde. She glanced over at the strong, muscled rider next to her. Perhaps he would be obliged to sate the fire in her loins tonight. Damn that healer! She had just gotten used to being on her own, too. Not many were willing to share the sleeping space of a half-orc half-human woman, even for little more than warmth.

It had been two days, since the party left York. Hired for a miserly sum of fifteen silver to escort the priest on his pilgrimage to Kumas. The city was only three days ride from out of town, and yet she had never heard of it. But the voyage promised a chance for change.

     Beside the old, bald man rode his apprentice, a boy of thirteen. Three other mercenaries had been hired in addition to Jaxon and herself, but she couldn't speak to how generously they had been paid. Two big ugly men and a younger man of about twenty, or so. They were clean but with broken teeth and matted hair. Like themselves, their piecemeal armor was battered but also cleaned with the worst dents beaten out. Growgash eyed the younger of the three behind her. He had a nervous quality to him, although he could handle the long sword he carried on his back. She had seen to that, herself. The bruises she'd given him would heal, but his broken pride and anger were another matter.

     The goat path they traveled was narrow and overwhelmed by the tall plains grasses. Small stones lay flush with the ground where the topsoil had been worn away. Growgash was just wondering at that when behind them came a high pitched squeal of anger that made the horses reel in terror. The priest had his hand up over his head, his eyes bulging his mouth gaping. The apprentice walked his pony forward and dismounted. Clearing the brush from the path, a black and mangled thing was revealed. He lifted what looked to be a skull not of humanoid form and, taking a knife to what was left of the neck, gingerly carried the grim find to his master. The old man took the skull and stared intently into eyes long gone, then pulled a small sack off of his belt and sprinkled what looked like sand onto its crown. A blue light flowed in the wake of the sand and for a brief moment, the being seemed alive again.

     Beyond in the distance a flock of birds burst forth from distant treetops. These were no meadowlarks, but large black creatures the size of a man. As these monsters lifted heavily into the air the black on their backs caught the sunlight and glistened gold. The soldiers' eyes grew wide as saucers at the sight.
     “Great golden beasts...” the younger mercenary gasped. A deep troubled feeling mixed with greed in Growgash. This was an evil portent, for no creatures like that openly dwelled within forest, plain, or mountain. To capture one would make mean only ill fortune. She had had enough of that in recent years. To her dismay, the priest pointed and howled ecstatically toward the spot of the forest the birds had fled.

     “This the place we must go to,” the apprentice told them, also pointing towards the thick woods. Growgash eyed the others and caught their anxious expressions.

     “By the gods,” spluttered one of the older men, “one feather off them kind will pay my way ta glory!”

     They left the path and headed into the forest. The priest had his apprentice hide the skull away in a sack, the blue light managing to shimmer through the rough fabric. The half-orc mused again, how it seemed almost alive.