13

 

Haven't updated in a while since I've been working and traveled a lot during the latest weeks so no dnd and no time for nothing else. Let us then talk about 13, Black Sabbath latest album. Personally I like it, has a couple of decent songs, Loner probably being my favorite after a couple of listenings. Maybe not as good as the older albums, maybe even the worst Black Sabbath album since the older albums had several really good tracks on them. Of course, being the worst Black Sabbath album is hardly anything bad. Maybe the impression will change over time, at least it's better than Ozzy's latest solo album which I haven't listen to since I got it. Here he at least have decent song writers around him pushing his limited singing to outstanding heights.

The only thing that bothers me is the title, 13. Is it referencing 2013? Or is it some retconning over which albums counts as "real" Black Sabbath albums? The fact is that this is the 19th studio album. The only way 13 would match up is if you take Ozzy's 8 studio albums together with Dio's 3 and Ian Gillans Born Again (probably since it had Geezer and Ward as well as Iommi). The only piece of evidence I have is a compilation CD that featured songs only from those eras released sometime between 2003-2006 (of course that could just be due to a limited running time of 2 CD:s which makes it hard to get all, but then the question is, why even bother with the Gillan era?). Maybe I' just rambling, but it's fun to see it reach nr 1 in several countries.

Update: I was a bit tired yesterday so let us go deeper today with thoughts on each song. End of the Beginning a song in the same tradition of Black Sabbath and Eternal Idol as a slow and doom sounding song. God is Dead? is what I can guess the reincarnation of the demo Scary Dreams from the  early 2000. Loner as I said is my favorite with a faster and heavier beat. Zeitgeist is said to be a spiritual successor to Planet Caravan and I can see it, slower, about the universe and I can hear some special drums in it, not as good or mystifying as it though. After this, the songs goes in to each other and becomes noise in my ears. I probably just get tired and don't find something to distinguish them from each other. It's just a matter of time. Worth nothing is that the final songs ends with the sound of rain, thunder and church bells making it a good book end and completion of the circle so to speak. If it wasn't for all extra songs depending on what version you bought. At the moment there is four of them, and I just miss one of them. Wonder when that one hits youtube.

Smoke and Illusions

We didn't have everyone participate in this week game leaving me, the psychic and cleric... on a rescue mission in a gang hideout, that feels really comfortable. We leave the tunnel were we saved the scum and end up outside were the smoke lies heavy and in colors of red. Apparently there is a fire coming from the soldiers we left behind and we can hear screams. We head over there and what do you know, the cleric steps on one of the mines... so we leave her there as we tries to get some help. At the house we see that the fire is originating from there and corpses of mutants and three of the soldiers lies around it. The psychic uses his power to locate the sergeant and find him in some rubbles. The psychic patches him up while I stand guard. I hear a sound above me, luck up and sees a pale slim and tall mutant. I shout a warning and fire my shotgun and misses, the creature attacks the psychic and puts him down to one wound. The psychic grapple the monster and break looses, the monster misses his attack and... so do I leaving the psychic to obliterate the creature with a psychic attack. We get the sergeant to his feet and convince him to help us save the cleric.

Meanwhile on the minefield the cleric is being haunted by the vision of her dead mother trying to do... Something I guess, but she resist the illusion and only gets some mental disorder out of it, nothing big. We return and the sergeant tell us to stay while he walks up to her. And quickly pushes out of the way, taking the blow himself. A bit sudden don't you think? Anyway, we head into the gang hideout and walk up to the passageway were there used to be guards. They apparently left us a present in the form of a grenade on a string. And now co e a part which doesn't make sense. I just wanted to tie a little rope on the string and place it a bit away so we can easily use it as a trap against enemies following us, apparently you needed to be a demolition expert or security guard or whatever for that. It doesn't make any sense, can't I just macguyver it?

We enter a corridor and I hear a gunshot, we look into a room and someone is murdering tech-priest en masse. We call him out, but he ignore us so the psychic uses his psychic attack again... not without causing some problems making us see the warp confusing the killer while I gain another insanity point before the man is killed. We search the room and find a chain belong to our tech-priest when suddenly we hear the sounds of people running outside the door. And here it ends.

Speedy Recap

Seems I fell out of the rythm I had going. Well, well, lets recap two dnd sessions then. The others starts of infiltrating a gang hideout they found below the house they attacked the ogrins in. To get past a security point the scum fained as a newcomer with the tech-priest as his prisoner, who got beaten up and sent to a sweatshop. The scum didn't fool everyone a bit later five thugs ambused him, but he staved them of and killed them with his hammer.the cleric searched another tunnel and found a storage room for the weapons the gang smuggled and she took of into the ventilations, finding and killing one of the psychic bugs, drenching her in purple blood. The psychic headed back to HQ with information about the weapon operation. The commander gives him six soldiers to take along and tells him to get me as well from sick bay.

My stay in tge sick bay as they installed my bionic arm haden't gone unnoticed. First guest was some woman from the administratum asking for my help in retrievng a book from the warzone, if I succeded I would be granted access to information beyond anyones comprehension. Pity my fellowship is so low otherwise I could have tried smoothtalk her. Next guest was a bit more unpleasant, some mutant attack with a gun which I fought of until a wounded soldiers helped me out.the mutant disappeared into the night. Third guest was the doctors that retrieved my arm... Or so they thought. The psychic finally finds me as the bionic arm is set in place and we head out the next morning.

On our way back we're ambushed and two of our soldiers die, one in the initial attack while the other saddly died due to the psychic failing his roll causing the soldier to fall. The sniper os dispossed of. We arrive, lay out some mines and the psychic and me try to find our friends.the cleric escaped the vent, battled a psychic herself and left the tunnel and stole a mechanized bike. We joined up, entered the tunnel again and saved the scum who was cornered by the gang... (Or more accurate, almost killed him with a grenade). And that was it, two sessions, minimum of words.

Advance Wars

A while ago I discussed the Fire Emblem series of games and I thought since I didn't play any DnD this weekend I might write about the sister series, Advance Wars (or inofficially named as Nintendo Wars). So let us begin with the first game I played in the series, Advance Wars released in 2002 in Europe.

First playthrough was a disaster due to poor planning and not grasping when to charge and when to attack. After a while to when I got the hang of it it went very well. As with the first Fire Enblem there  was a tactitian introduced to make it easier for newcomers to relate and those first mission as you are guided by Nell of Orange Star as you fight of an invasion by Olaf of the Blue Moon are really good. Then the real campaign starts as you are assigned to lead Orange Stars army to counter the invasion with the newly deployed Andy as your commanding officer. This task take you across the world battling the Blue Moon, Yellow Comet and Green Earth until you find out that the one behind the hostilities is none other than Sturm of the Black Hole. You defeat him and all is well. The graphics are great and colorfull while the music is energetic and pumps you up for battle. One of the best turn-based strategy games and a great first introduction for the series. Then came a follow up in 2003.

Already you can see that the CO:s characters doesn't look that great. The story continues with the Black Hole Army invading all countries and it's up to all lands to unite against this threat. The tactitians role is gone which I must admit makes it a bit none personal. Some new CO:s for every army and one or two new units to play with. Not much to say other than I prefered the design of the first game. This game was followed by a DS game concluding this trilogy.

Advance Wars: Dual Strikes (get it? Dual Strikes? DS?) and the story this time is that the good guys have had enough and form an alliance to attack the Black Hole at their own soil while the enemy is divided by the old CO:s and new ones when Sturm was supposedly killed. This is also the first game where you don't have Andy as your first CO, but some new kid named Jake. Can't say I'm a fan of his. Again, the design of the CO aren't that good, colors feel washed out and I just don't connect with all the new CO:s. Also a new tag system is introduced where you can use two CO:s and their powers or even attack twice in one turn as well as a couple of new units. The series then shifted over to the gamecube with Battalion Wars, but that has to be for another time. Until then.

Bus, Trains And Automobiles

Some of you might recognize the title as partly inspired by this comedy. By that you can probably guess what happened last Friday. It began with me travelling to the next door muncipality for an interview. I had someone drive me there and I got a tour or the workplace for two hours and when all is finally is done I'm greeted by another car pulling up and starter cables. Our car didn't start. Lucky enough it was still good timing. I came home and prepared for my trip for my mothers 50th birthday. I pack and sleep a bit. Ready to go to the trainstation and... it rains. And my umbrella is packed down and on top of that not completely whole. I should have known something was up. Didn't matter anyway since I would relax in a X3000 or X55. So I stand there waiting... and waiting... and waiting. Electrical problems, no trains comes in or our of the station. Great!

There is even a short news sequence on it and what do you know, I am in the background twice, prominently with my bright jacket and black umbrella. Play spotting Niklas if you want. So I'm stranded. About two hours later around 19:00 two busses comes in... which goes directly to Stockholm no stops... which is clarified as I sit down in the bus so it is out for me. Of course not until I bump my head in the roof... twice. I wait even longer. Around 21:00 I'm one hour late to arrive at my final destination. Now busses comes in to tale us to Karlskoga, where a train is waiting. I walk in... and bump my head in the roof. I'm glad I packed a couple of sandwiches cause arrive to the train an ambulance is waiting as someone fainted in the train. Good god. What a trip. At least the bistro was free (except the alcoholic beverages) so I grabbed a soda, a chocolate ball and a chocolate bar. You know I like chocolate right?

During all this I need to say that the train personal that was stranded with us did an excellent job eventhough many would say otherwise. You could feel it that people was tired when we got close to 21:00 and felt irritated on both sides when some haven't eaten or anything like that. But they did good with talking to the travellers and informing people on what happened and took care of most problem arrising as connection points and such. Of course the trip isn't over. When I sit down I read the magazine in front of me and the first page is an ad with the text:

"The journey is the reward"

I didn't ask for a reward. Also the full-moon glared at me during the final stage. I arrive in Södertälje at 23:55... four hours late. And now a one hour trip in a car to my parents house and straight to bed. Woke up at 7:30 as the sun lights up the whole room since there is curtains or sunblocker of any kind.  Both on Saturday and Sunday. At least it was a nice party. And then it was the trip home. I hitched a ride with my sister halfway and rhe only problem was a small green car that even a car with a trailer in tow passed it by. Later I was supposed to take the bus... 10 minutes late and no functioning toiletts. At least the weekend was consistent.

A Bard's Tale

It was a short session this time sincemost of it went to loot the wizards office giving us some extra gold and magic items of our own choosing. I got some boots and a amulet of healing or whatever it was called. The important thing was that it had resistance poison. I got two extra things, but I didn't have time to pick them out since I got a call I had to take care of. Anyway, when we finally got everything together we split the party again. Me and the dragonborn got the prestigious duty to claim our reward with the lord while the others summoned some flying steeds and headed of to the shrine where they found the necromancer. They find him in battle with two knights from Neverwinter and charged at him, throwing fire balls around them and despatching the undead creature the necromancer had risen. The knight thanked them and wondered if they would join them against Lord Neverember, which of course they said no to. They then headed back to the city.

Meanwhile me and the dragonborn went to the lord and were able to tell such stories that we got 120 platina for the job and a letter expressing the condolences to our wizard for hurting his leg in the fierce battle against the traitor wizard. A person the dragonborn spewed acid over and cleaved in two with one strike. I also sold my horse and put the price through the roof expressing the beuty of this magnificent white steed with its glimmering golden mane as the sunlight strikes it. A poet I am! Then we just wandered the streets. The two most evil characters in the party, sadly we didn't do anything since we are pretty much scared by our battle-minder leader who wouldn't hesitate to kill children if it was the right thing to do. And they call us evil. Walking along the streets we heard some news that Waterdeep was on fire while frost giants attackeqd from the north amd an evil witch was up to no good. This attracted the ear of the dragonborn meaning we had a goal. We told the gang when they came back as the sun set so we preper tomorrows journey. And it ended pretty much here. Sadly I can't join next sunday either so we shall see what happens.

Doing The Omoralisk Schlagerfestival '13 (3)

So Denmark won, Norway got 4th, France 23e while Finland ended up at 24th. Guess my top four was all over the place. Also, while watching it I realized all my picks was blond women, hm... what should I interprit that as? Then we have Sweden at 14th, almost in the middle and sure enough, it was kinda meh. Armenia didn't do better and ended up as 18th. Still saying that Albania should have taken the spot, eventhough it only got place 15 in the semi-final. Still an awesome song:

And of course the swedish tradition to mention that most of the songs are written by swedes, or performed by swedes or half-swedes or any ancestor at all, or the choreographers are swedish, or anyone in the team speaks swedish and finally the sound technicians are swedish. It's a miracle we don't call it the Swedish Song Contest since we clearly dominates it (that is sarcasm by the way). I don't know if we hit a low bottom with the swedish commentator always mentioning that we owned Estonia until 1721 when we lost it to Russia. Point being, eventhough we lost, we still won somehow cause all that matters is Sweden. And who said we aren't patriotic?

Also interesting of note is that with the exception of Azerbadjans victory two years ago this decade has been pretty good for the germanic countries (aka Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany). You could also argue that Germany doesn't belong and it is the scandinavian countries that are clearly dominating the contest. Could it be correlating to the strength of the nordic model and its stability in an instable economic world? Or is it trying to tell us the end of the model is near (especially if you consider our victory in 1990 and the finance crisis that hit us the year after, that actually was made possible by a political decision in 1985, the same year we hosted that years contest after our victory in 1984)? Well, we just have to wait and see until next year.