We're Going Underground

So after one of the most awful days in a long time (and no, it hadn't anything to do with Melodifestivalen) we continue our adventure by, setting out toward a tower in search for ghosts. You gonna call the Ghost Hunters. So we arrive and finds three horses outside the tower. After some checking we find some valuable jewels and scrolls. Since the owners probably is inside the building I told our kleptomaniac dragonborn not to touch anything. We enters and I start to use my dungeoneering skills. I find a trip line connected to a pendulum, the sharp blade type. We step over and finds the tower going up and down. We also finds magic streaming from below so take the obvious route. Up we go! And there we only find some old person searching through books and scrolls. We enter and demand registration for the tower or everything will be claimed in the name of Lord Neverember. We went from Ghost hunters to Estate Police? Feels like a downgrade. He tells us that there were three other people searching for the Neverwinter Nine and gives me a book about having information on a black dragon... named the same as our dragonborn. Gee, I wonder if there is some connection?

So I borrow the book until we leave the tower. We head down the stairs and I detect another trap. A floor tile connected to crossbows in the roof. Our battle-minder decides to take it out in case of a quick retreat. He hits the hammer on the tile and... fails his reflex save and is struck with a POISONED arrow. Thank god it wasn't me getting hit. I did a quick heal that actually worked (actually I think that's the first time I succeeded in a heal roll). We move onward until we are greeted by a battle scene. A drow priestess and her minions fight a mind-flayer and it's troop. It turns into a stalemate and both retreat back to their domains. Below them we see the three adventurers following them into the shadows. Using my stealth skills me, the dragonborn, the bard and the barbarian follows and sneak up on them, calling down the rest of the party as long as it safe. The dragonborn enters the light and call upon them. Establishing contact (with us doing a choreographed musical number jumping forward from the shadows) we decide to leave the tower for a moment not to upset those who lives in here.

What do they want then? Well, they want to join us. So our temporary leader Garion the battle-minder (who's temporary for doing stunts like activating traps in dungeons. HAHA, that joke was actually mine. I'm a comical genius). Since we know nothing about them we tell them to wander to Neverwinter to present themselves for the lord. They didn't like it that much and our dragonborn wanted to "test" their strength so we had a duel. Me and the bard set up a temporary hospital while the dragonborn and one of the adventurers duked it out. The battle-minder was the judge and the rule was until they were bloodied. Supposed to at least. The dragonborn was first below the point, but he healed himself and continued the fight anyway... so we cheated it feels like. I saw it more like our leader tried to stop it and the combatants pushed him away to finish the fight. And then he dealt such a blow that the adventurer couldn't heal himself. Well, one point to us.

They leave and we return into the caverns. Sneaking up to the former battle we stand in front of a gate and three caverns, one with human tracks leading in to them, another with spider legs and the thirds with even bigger spider legs (this one we deduced was the priestess cave). Of course, the gate led to the mind-flyer so that was out of the question, but since I got a drow killing bonus, we headed after the priestess. Which lead us to an underground city... oh boy! After being idle to much we heard shuts from the city pointing toward us so we run back the tunnel and take the other spider track tunnel. The barbarians remove our tracks and we prepares for another battle. And here the session ends.

Turning Circles

So, how did it go against the servitor? Well, let's wait with that. Let us first take a look into the Adjutant's room with the tech-priest and assassin. Since the person behind the tech-priest arrived later his character just went up and left. The assassin decided to leave, sadly for him he was stopped in the chapel by some priest or novice who asked if the adjutant would see him. Trying to shift focus away from him he tried to "fake" that he just stumbled upon the dead body and needed help. Most of it is actually true. Sadly for him the novice didn't see it that way and tried to call for help. Old knife comes forth and he tries to silence this witness. The die isn't that nice so he fails... several times. In the end when he hears sound of people approaching he bolts for it and run away. After putting some distance between him and the angry mob he slows his speed. Not noticing the creatures in the shadows he is surprised attacked and garroted until he passes out.

The ribbins finding the dead man and message implicating them tried to shift blame here as well, but couldn't find any cleaning tools. The psychic then spotted a fuel pipe above them and found the most logical step to shoot a hole in it, drenching himself in fuel. Knowing that he could be in real danger he headed of for the showers and a change of clothes while the cleric put her outside of harms way and threw a candle igniting the fuel while she ran away. The consequence of this was that the whole damn thing exploded shaking the whole ship, destroying that floor and the fire spreading. The cleric tried to save all the people she could find, leading them toward safety. She was thanked with lots of donations... that she refused to take. The psychic on the other hand dropped his clothes and took a shower. After a while he heard some people coming into the room, talking to each others. Suddenly he heard a bang as they kicked up the door to the stall on one end. Then the next, and the next. Waiting as they got closer he went under the wall to the one they just checked and therefore escaped them. He heard them talking about somehow lost track of him and that their boss would be very unhappy. After they left he quickly dressed in some new clothes and looted his old ones. In one pocket he found a piece of leather, of course it was one of the spider-things. He whacked it to death with his staff. He later joined up with the cleric and both headed back to our sleeping quarters.

The scum on the other hand headed for the armory and become acquainted with the black market. So he geared up and left. Walking away he met the tech-priest who had been assigned a mission to kill of the keeper the ribbins spoke with, Cathol. They headed back to the armory and got him some ammo and then went to our sleeping quarters. There they knocked on the door for our secret code and entered the door. They found three people in there, armed with guns and clubs. Backing out they saw four other people in the corridor pointing at them and shouting. Battle time. They took cover in another corridor and started firing their weapons at the attackers. The ribbins that were headed this way heard the commotion and rushed to their aid. The cleric firing her gun and the psychic finding a flamethrower that he used, burning a man that began running into our room. The scum not wanting to be left our used the bomb he picked up from the mad priest on the planet Festus. Three more people burned to death. The rest was killed by the bullets. Without due an alarm was sounded (probably the fire alarm) and they quickly ran for it (of course after the scum had the opportunity to loot the dead bodies for weapons to sell and ammo to use). Running down the corridor they came upon a patrol of guards who started chasing them (since they pretty much ran from the cause of the alarm I would presume... and that they are disliked by almost everyone anyway). During the chase the psychic suddenly feel the presence of the other psychic onboard and that he is near. Finding a corridor leading him closer he take charge and the rest follows into a dark room which they barricade and illuminate. Too late they see the psychic who dominate the scum and start attack our own psychic, locking them in melee combat. Two mutated henchmen attacks as well. Since karma seem to be quick on the ship, the psychic is a pyromancer and sets the cleric and scum on fire as well. A though battle later they finally are subdued... or rather executed when they got the upper hand and they could finally take a breather. Of course one question still remain unanswered, what was I doing?

Well, standing in front of the locked gate that also was chained up and a deadly terminator at my back I found a book register on all the people and pulled out the pages, put them in my robes and pulled out my gun to shoot away the lock... I succeed jamming the lock with two bullets. I can feel the noose of death tightening around my neck. Taking a quick look at the pages I stole I see that the murder victim (aka the one we aren't responsible for) visited a specific shelf so, since I can't get out I bolt into the shelfs to keep the servitor away from me and finding some answers. Running up and down and cycling around the servitor I rush past the specific shelfs, grab scrolls and books, take a glance and rush unto the next shelf for even more information. After some time I shaken away the servitor for a while I can sit and examine the evidence for the moment. All in all it seems that the Arch-Adjutant (who was killed before we came to the ship) examined the mutant siting on the lower decks and that the confessor tried to stop him. The adjutant (whom the tach-priest killed) seemed to be one of two spies sent to this ship in order to destroy all "aliens" (aka all who don't belong on the ship). Suddenly the sound of pistons pumping and metal scraping on the floor was heard just at the corner of the shelf so I got up and ran away. After some running I could still here the servitor in the background and decided to take a peak past the shelf closest to me. Doing so I felt a club on my shoulder and then someone shocked me with an electrocuting weapon. Falling onto the floor I could feel them tying my arms and legs and in the distance the servitor could be heard coming closer until it picked me up and carried me away.

The assassin finally woke up, hanging upside down in some dungeon-like prison. Tied with ropes and chains he looked around and saw me, face to the wall, lying on the floor. After telling him about the information I got, the jailer warned us and then continued. Whispering this time we tried to asses our situation, but I guess the jailer felt it necessary to keep us in line so small mutants with electrocuting poles arrived zapping the assassin. They left me alone since I pretty much shock in fear already. They seemed to sadistically enjoy it. It didn't stop us though. I tried to break my ropes, but strength isn't my best attribute and since the lucky rolls during the information search I was back to my usual self... with fail after fail. Nothing accomplished both of us saw some thin, tall mutant looking at us with mouth open and slow eyes. Making just some inhuman-like sound the thing left. Shortly afterwards we picked up the sound of small insect feet. Shaking in fear I could in the corner of my eye see spider-like creatures crawling down the chains that hold the assassin until they covered his face. He tried to blew them away, but that only aggravated them so they began eating and clawing at him while he screamed and tossing and turning himself. I screamed for help, but nothing happened until the thing from before returned and took the "spiders" away from him and then it left again. After an hour or so the jailer had return with a bunch of small mutants with electrifying poles. Still, it felt more tolerable than what the other group had done.

Interview With A Vampire

Here we are, in a crypt, with a vampire staring up at the ones opening her coffin. As I pretty much saw coming (although I didn't write it, but it was pretty much obvious) she begin asking us what we were doing here. Yeah, it was more of a friendly neighborhood vampire then the blood sucking Dracula. So she showed us to her husband Vlad were the dragonborn had a lengthy discussion and wanted back a sword he had given Vlad a long time ago. He would give back the sword on one condition. We took care of the cultist in the chapel. Seeing no problem with that we fast-forward these minions and left the leader, questioning him and left him run away (supposedly reformed although I have my doubts). Back into the crypt, get the sword and then, against all laws of preservation the dragonborn starts to haggle with Vlad over a crown (that he stole from this very tomb) to get 100 gold for each person in this party. I don't see that as a strategy worth pursuing if we want to live. He gets played anyway and only receives 6 gold coins, and that is because Vlad is on a good mood. So we all leave fast enough and continues to Waterdeep. The question every one has is... why are we here again?

A bit lost we get a hotel room. The bard leaves to see his foster parents and finds out that his foster mother been killed by the guards working for Lord Neverember, our employer. So he schemes on an uprising, but it's not ready be deployed yet. In the hotel the dragonborn has hit the tavern for food, the barbarian and battle minder went for the adventures guild to get some extra cash and finds information about a bounty on a witch (one of the witches the dragonborn need us to kill as well so I begin sharpen my kill tactics since I must take the kill before anyone else). he wizard head to the library, but finds nothing. I went down to the tavern and took seat with the dragonborn and ordered in some wine and bread. Eating and drinking I started to listen in to the conversations around me and was tipped of on a place called Cryptic Garden which was supposed to be haunted (imagine this tall elf sitting in a chair and stretching his ears, balancing the chair more and more as he tries to get closer to the people talking and almost falling). Telling the dragonborn about this piece of information I sweeps my glass of wine. Ending the session story-wise more or less as we discuss our plan of action, taking us first to Cryptic Garden for the ghost-hunt and then onward for the witch-hunt and lastly back to Neverwinter.

Lucky Number Seven

Friday gone, another space adventure. Really interesting this one. Our dear assassin decided to stalk our murder suspect for a while. Since that was the only lead we had at the moment. So he followed him around. In the end he sneaked into the Adjutant's office, searched around (but since this is our group of course, he failed his rolls and only found a decorative skull with an I on it). Being a bit more thorough this time he decided to camp out behind the curtains to find out more. So there he waited. A long time. 

The rest of us was still in our room, except me who had gone to tackle the bureaucracy, more on that later. The rabbits and the tech-priest (our scum couldn't join us this session) more or less waited in the room until a knock on the door was heard. The tech-priest opened and was summoned to the adjutant. He left and the rabbits was left all alone. Then they heard something in the ventilations drums above them. The psychic brought a chair and looked up. There was some kind of leathery piece in there so he jumped to pull the ventilation "door" down. He failed of course so the cleric had to jump up and pull him down. They picked up the leather piece and it turned out to be... a mouth with teeth and spider legs (shrugs) that tried to take a bite of them. The psychic infused some pain and it died. They tried to leave, but the door was locked. That didn't stop the cleric from breaking up the door and leave. While they headed for the medical bay for an examination of the creature the cleric also spotted another of those "things" on the foot of the psychic so she pulled it of and the psychic shot it with his revolver. So now they had two of them. At the medical bay all information they got was that they didn't have clearance for that information and needed to ask a keeper for that. The servitor handling the examination of one of the creature then disposed the body in fire. They headed over to there after some coins changed paws and more or less the same scene played out. The keeper denied them any access and took it upon himself to dispose this "common vermin" that infested the ship. An important thing to note is that right before they entered they heard from the computer that something was supposed to be "seen to", whatever it was it couldn't be good for us. They left and while walking down the corridors they heard a shot, they turned around and found a dead body with some writings in blood on the wall. This couldn't be any good.

Back at the tech-priest he finally arrived at the adjutant's office waiting for him to turn up. When he finally did he gave him an offer he thought the tech-priest could refuse. To help the adjutant with some things and in return advance in the tech-priest order. All fun and dandy, if the objective was to kill our psychic rabbit. The tech-priest refused and the adjutant more or less threatened him with "if you don't kill this person you all might die". The tech-priest decided to make some threats of his own (which no one was happy with due to what happened last time he tried: the general-store owner), which he failed. The adjutant than began to mock him that he wouldn't dare since it would mean a death sentence for us all. Well, that didn't stop him from actually kill the adjutant. He only meant to hurt him and prove that he could, but now the dices decided to roll full 10's on the damage rolls, giving full damage. Didn't help that the tech-priest couldn't decide if he really wanted him dead or not so he used up all his faith points for nothing, leaving the adjutant dying on the floor. At this moment the assassin comes out of his hiding place. After some debate they kill the adjutant with a knife and leave him there, buying some time through the bureaucracy. No one was terrible happy about it, the assassin wanted to use the waste disposal grinder, but after some hints from the DM that idea was abandoned.

What did I do during all this? My mission was to find out whatever happened to that missing section. So while I was in the archive I searched out the scribes who handled the ships internal janitorial services. While there I showed some interest in the damaged books and was given a batch of books to take to the restoration scribes. There I tried to lie so that they would show me the "supposed damaged section books". i failed. What do you expect with my dices? Anyway, this started me walking all around the archives with a batch of books ready for restoration. In the end, since I failed all my rolls (only gaining 77 or just 7 several times) I ended up in the forbidden areas where I wasn't supposed to be. I had shaken of the guard and the one who let me in had locked the gate behind me. There I tried to find some log books that could help me, but of 77. Then I heard some metallic sounds down the bookshelf's. I tried to hide, but you know, 77. And out of the shadow a servitor emerges with claw hands saying "new target identified: Kill Nemo Dakkar". So I drop the books in my hand and run toward the exit, realizing that the gate is locked. Standing there shaking the bars I scream for help, but there is no one there that can help me. And there it ends for this session. Probably gonna shot the lock on the gate and run, but I'm sad I didn't throw the books on the servitor. Well, we shall see how this turn out. Right now it's just a complete mess.

Doin' the Omoralisk Schlagerfestival '13 (1)

So in between the different campaigns there was also some kind of music competition. I write "kind of" since my basic understanding of this competition is that it should only be newly written material for the show. So when I listened this Saturday, how come most of the songs sounded eerily familiar even though that was the first time I heard them? Take for example one of the ones that headed of for the second chance in Karlstad, Segersted and Damli which sounds like... huh? There is no clip from the song? How about the other winners? No? What about the ones that won last week? Taken down by SVT? Well, that sucks. How unlucky for you (or more correctly, you lucky bastards). Guess I can't show you the plagiarism that runs rampant through these songs then until they reached the final and everything's over. Which means that I have nothing else to say than that the songs was highly unoriginal and no single good song among them. If this continues there will be a lot of bad songs to discuss in the final and second chance.

Sword Dance

Saturday and Neverwinter Campaign time. We all stand by the crypt belonging to the Von Drakenstein (not the most original names, but it gets the idea across). We enter the passageway down, finding markings and symbols all around us, until we find a door. Inside there is a coffin belonging to a former bard Ivan. A lot of treasures is to be found as well as well as magical items. Temptation is a nasty thing so we all more or less fondle the jewelry, but decide against it in the end to rob a grave. Our dragonborn friend on the other hand have no problem relieving the deceased with a moneybag who me and 2 others don't have any problems with to share, giving us a boost of 200 gold each. Double standard, I know, but I didn't see him take it, therefore I don't count it against him, harder to explain the crown he also took. We also open the coffin and see this old dead guy, more or less laying in the vampire position. I also springs a trap that for some reason show me that we are nearing sunset. We continue to the next room, of course after avoiding the magic trap that would have burnt anyone opening the door, Home Alone-style of branding more or less I would presume.

Here we find a fully decorated room with another coffin. This one is named Boris. We search around and as usual my rolls leaves much to desire. Nothing of interest others than that the person in the coffin has more elf-like qualities (or more correctly, vampire-esque). We also find his diary showing notes from the 13th century until the 16th. Probably worth mentioning is that we are in the year 1479. Yeah, he's probably undead. Contrary to all instincts to get the hell out of there we head further into the crypt until we find an open door. The battle minder cousin of mine has had enough and walks just in followed by the rest of us, me being in the rear. In there we find his long lost master. WHAT A COINCIDENCE! Plot twist ahead. My cousin almost walks up to him if it wasn't for the dragonborn who stopped him in time after sensing something was of. Nice, he saves my cousin, but leaves me taking an arrow to the chest. He was supposed to protect me! Battle time ensures after we find out he plans to make himself immortal using some blood rituals. Of course, the dragonborn first have some question when the battle minder and the master prepares for battle. Most about another resident of this family crypt, Vlad. He's here somewhere, but enough of this. Have at you!

Our wizard strikes first... our tries to strike, but he misses. Next up the barbarian... who misses. Our bard enters the scene and gives us all a bonus to defence and strikes with some mockery at the master swordsman. Then it's my turn. Since he had high AC my only option was to use Sure Shot. So I roll my dice... it fails. I re-roll through the power of the daily... it fails. I use my elven accuracy for a third chance... NATURAL TWENTY! With some damage rolls it all comes down to 37 damage. THIRTY-SEVEN DAMAGE! After the rolls were done I also remembered I forgot my + 2 brutal accuracy skill to the damage as well as making him my quarry for another d8 of damage. Didn't matter since he still wasn't bloodied by that. Then the dragonborn strikes. He hits a natural 20 using one of his daily powers. Geez, we are on a roll tonight. And lastly my cousin tries, but fails his attack. The sword master spins around with his weapon hurting the battle minder, barbarian and dragonborn. The wizard makes his move and throw a magic ball at him. The master answers with a counter-attack of necrotic magic which the battle minder repel back on to him, making both take damage. And then the barbarians turn is up. She more or less slice him into two pieces with one stroke of her axe. Dammit, I wanted the kill when I finally understand how to use the damn dailies.

The battle is over so the others carry the body outside while I search the room finding only women's clothing and a golden cup with rubies. Unfortunately it also contains stains of blood. Not wanting to mess with the habitants of this crypt I put it back and tells my "friendly" kleptomaniac dragonborn servant to leave that as is. The others return and find some love letters and we head over to the coffin and opens it. Inside we find a beautiful woman. And she open her eyes and... end of session. Oh boy, scary stuff ahead and who are we gonna call?

Space Oddity

Friday again, space adventure awaits. We were shown to some sleeping quarters once we arrived at the ship. While walking me and the psychic noticed that the people around us avoided us as much as possible and whispered and pointed at us behind our back. Our sleeping quarters were also suspicious since it was a room for 20 people, but we five (the player who plays the tech-priest couldn't make it this session so he disappeared for this time) were the only ones staying here at this time. The group quickly separated with the scum going to medical bay, the ribbins going to find some food and the assassin stayed in the room. I went to find the ships archive... but as usual my rolls fails so I get lost and wanders around confused until much later. I find the archive and a guard takes me to an old man who wants to check up on me. Sadly the bureaucracy isn't that fast so I'm not allowed full access to the books and parchment. Since I don't know much I check for the ship records on the latest events, which planets it visited and some info on my "friends". I find nothing. Not due to me failing on the tests, there isn't any information to get, except for the route the ship has taken. The interesting think to note is that the latest month on the records have somehow disappeared. Suspicious, but since I'm just a traveler it doesn't effect me... if it wasn't for the things that happened to the others in the group.

The ribbins had no trouble in getting food or such, but the scum on the other hand headed toward the armory after being patched up and find himself being followed by three crewmen, threatening him with iron bars. They didn't expect a shotgun shot to the head. He searched the dead crewman while the others fled in panic and picked up a dog tag and went for the armory to get a new suit of armor. The assassin on the other hand had some great time until the door knocked. He opened it, and got the door in the face while another crew member enters with a iron bar to more or less take care of some unwanted people aka us. The assassin takes out his sword and makes short work with him, leaving him in the psychics bed. He goes out, get some cleaning tools and begin scrubbing the blood. It's at this moment the ribbins return, looking suspiciously on the assassins activities. The psychic goes to his bed and... discovers the body. He doesn't get affected, jarred as he is, but quite annoyed over the assassin rudeness. The cleric on the other hand gets an insanity point. Wonder how long her psychic can take all this. Well, all they can do is take the body to a garbage disposal. Wrapped in the mattress and cloths, the body is crushed, if I remember correctly this caused the cleric to get another insanity point with the squishing sound of flesh and the crashing sound of skull and bones. Nice.

Back in the room another knock is heard and the cleric is summoned by the Confessor Gorbachev. She is led away by the adjutant to the chapel were she talks with the confessor explaining the situation. A week ago someone was killed (I think it was another adjutant, but I'm not sure I heard it correctly). The current adjutant blames it on recently arrived people... more or less us, even though we arrived today. It explains why every one is after us. The confessor suspects the adjutant to be behind it all, but need us to find proof of it or who really is behind it. We need to be careful though, one wrong move we might get the church on us. So, back to investigate. She gets back to our quarters and joins up with the scum who has returned. They start to discuss plans and that no one should be alone on the ship due to the unrest. Why they didn't attack the ribbins could be due to being two or that she is a cleric and they still have respect for the cloth. And me... oh, they forgot about me. Here we took a break and my imagination painted a picture of me, sitting at a desk crouched over a book while a shadowy figure sneaked up on me with weapon held high . When we returned nothing actually happened and I came back to the room. Plan was set in motion... tomorrow. The scum and I went for some food and then went to bed. Conclusion is that I will have to spend time fighting the bureaucracy. Lucky enough I got some XP to use... sadly the skills required fellowship 30, I got 28. Will be a long session next week, but after that things will change. The only good thing is that it feels like natural progression. Each time I frequently stumbles upon a problem, I learn the skill, showing progression as my character gets better and better in what he does. Now that is good character development.

Every Golden Promise Broken

Since I haven't written anything about politics for quite some time there is some issues that have surfaced that I will now share with you. Today we gonna discuss the pension system. Yes, the story is that for a couple of years now the system have diminished its returns to the seniors since, well, more are taking out there pension than people are putting in to the system, forcing the break that are put in place to balance it out by cutting the costs (aka lowering the pension). As a theorist I completely get it, better a small pension that keep the budget balanced than something that threatens to bankrupt the whole society (which is actually happening in the municipalities if I was informed correctly). I also get why the seniors are a bit upset. Unfortunately, the solutions they give pisses me of more or less. The senior organizations demands that the break is terminated (creating a financial crisis for the future, good work there) and putting it this way that "if the break hits to many times the future seniors will also take damage" therefore the current system shall be abolished and be given to the AP-funds instead (therefore pushing up the pensions of todays senior). That's nice and dandy isn't? Except that calculations show that future seniors (like me, that is in 40, oh excuse I mean 50 years since we are expected to work 10 more years than the current seniors) will have toward 16 % pensions with the proposed changes. Thanks.

Do you know why this pisses me of? Because the current system was put into place due to the older system failing in the long run with to high costs. Guess who got a free ticket to ride on both system? That's right, the current seniors. Oh, it does get better. The system is also a warning sign for politicians that if you don't  get the job market to work with people paying taxes, the seniors will have your head on a platter. Although if we take away the break, guess what will happen? One generation will probably suck it dry since no politician dare to cut the pensions when it goes up or down. This system has taken the cowardice and populistic option out of the hand of them and displays it for all to see, but if they so want to wreck it for the future go a head, make my day.  Then we have the messengers, one of them being PRO. An organization closely tied to the Social Democrats (even though they call themselves politically independent), the same party that created the system that failed, yeah much confidence there (to be fair, S also was responsible for the current system together with the centre-right parties, so kudos for realizing the mistake of pushing a system that was voted on in a referendum and didn't gain 50 % of the voters). Although that's probably a low shot and don't shot the messenger and all that stuff.

To summarize, not only do I have to work 10 or more years than the current seniors, they want me to get less in pension... I'm not OK with this. Really, it feels like they backstabs me. I can FEEL the anger growing inside of me. If they go through with this make no mistake, there will be BLOOD (well, probably not since I abhor violence if its real, but hyperbole is supposed to do wonders for agitation). This proposal is breaking one of the foundations on which the welfare state is standing on. "From the Cradle to the Grave", apparently when the seniors that got it all (child benefits, higher education without high student loans, apartments, subsidized loans and an inflation that reduced the debts as well as living through period of unseen wealth and job creating in the history of mankind) are ready to give it up they SCREW the following generations over. How nice of them.

And then we have the discussion of the the tax gap between seniors and workers. So, these seniors have during most of their life voted for a party (or parties) that wanted higher taxes, they got it, 102 % enough for you? So they got it and now they finally begins to leave the workforce and the political centrum and a new era begins when we diminish taxes on hard working people so that they will spend more, creating a stable internal market since the export market is pretty much stale due to all financial crisis in the world. And they DARE complain? Did we heighten the taxes? No, we LOWERED them, 4 times now? Are they happy with that? NO, now they want MORE. They created this society and laid the foundation of the woes that I faces together with 20 % other youths today with the unemployment, the lowered school. results that are hitting us year after year... and they DARE ask for lowered taxes now and lowered pensions for the rest of us? WHAT'S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE? This greed... it's INSATIABLE!

ALL OF THIS, is a direct ATTACK upon the social contract between citizens and government or society. They are ready to make us pay for THEIR mistakes as if they didn't have anything to do with this. The government paid for their apartments in the 60's and 70's, their jobs in the 70's and 80's and their loans in the 80's and 90's. And they put it on the tab for ME and EVERYONE ELSE to pay for all OUR lives. HOW F***ING GENEROUS. This is a generation war, and I say, bring it on and the government will burn (in a figurative way since it more deals with a reshaping of the social contract to a more liberal view where the taxes are cut and the people get to care for their own savings in the pensions and the like so that we don't have to have these sort of discussions again)!

*Waring: This text above shall not be taken to seriously. I quite understand that many are having a hard time, the problem being that too few pays into the system and many seniors having financial difficulties. Is the system to blame for all this? No, it works as it was supposed to, it's failing being politicians that created the financial meltdown together with the financial institutes. Looking at it that way, we don't solve anything, we hide the problems until the next crisis which will be as I mentioned when the politicians once again don't dare to diminish the pensions after an all time high, they never do if it not happens in a state of crisis mentality in the populace... and then it's often to late to avoid it and people will feel the consequences. A better solution is to continue scaling back the taxes with the workers first since they, at the moment, are the wheels of the economy (the other positive side effect that it might keep people staying in the workforce a bit longer balancing the pensions in the end). The most important though is making it easier to create more jobs and lowering the cost to hiring new personal. Here we are still lacking, unfortunately my economic studies don't give me the answer to that question, but it at least shows a more healthy and long-term solution or awareness if you like. So excuse the more harsh and hyperbolic wording, I just wanted to get it out of my system and it feels good sometimes to act like a more left-leaning emotional type. Have fun everyone. And yes, the title is referring to Breaking the Law. It suits very well my feelings toward the social democrats in general.*

Heading For Disaster

Maybe it's time to do something I haven't done for a long time, talk about politics. Yeah, hard to think that I actually have a degree in political science when all I'm writing about is DnD and entertainment. So where do we stand in the political landscape? Well, it looks bad for the Alliance. Two of the parties, the Centre party and Christian Democrats, are walking on the edge of the 4 % while the liberals are at the (somewhat) healthier numbers of 6 %. Doesn't help that C was in a media storm couple of weeks backs when they released their idea program that was ridiculed and quickly thrown out of the window. Most people was upset about the "extreme" liberal ideas that had been the foundation for that paper. If I recall correctly it was the ideas for making it possible too have more than one partner in a "marriage", taking away the law that requires all the children to inherit from their parents (you read that right, what's left from the parents are divided to the children according to some set standard and the rest above those standards can be divided as the parents see fit, meaning no one can be disinherited in Sweden, making british murder mysteries plots absent in the swedish detective novels) and finally free immigration. All three criticized for different reasons. They could actually have worked if they taken their time explaining how they were supposed to get them to work and stand by them, they didn't and now they pay the price. Do I have any thought on those subjects? No, they are more or less poisonous to touch if you don't have a plan with you. A fact that I try to bring to the work with the Green Liberals in Värmland. Always explain how you are supposed to reach those goal and ideas you have.

So with this imminent crisis behind us, what will happen in 2014? We don't know. Looking at the statistics shows that polls only get accurate around a year before the election. So it's still time to fix this, but I'm not optimistic. At the moment it looks like the Sweden Democrats will take on the third largest party title from the Greens, there will be no clear majority and still peddling is the question who will be the largest party, M or S. There is still a possibility that M and my party the liberals will have the governmental power if we can get the Greens to join us or we (the liberals that is) could make a deal with the red-greens to work with them for a majority in the parliament. Really, everything looks bad and it is such a huge uncertainty that no one knows what's going on. The best guess we can do is which parties are still in the parliament after the election. The easy one is the Left, S, the Greens, the Liberals, M and SD. The last two, what will happen too them? They might make it, C is known for making good spurts at the end of the race so to speak and CD probably have a secondary support from M making it in the final round (especially now when M has began stirring its members abandoning the defence). If I have to say one that will fail, I would guess C. They try to be more liberal than us, but when the storm is brewing they abandon ship and their more old-fashioned voters have already left due to the "liberal" attachment they seem as nothing for them. CD have better potential to siphon M for votes and are probably seen as more loyal toward the Alliance or the centre-right parties overall compared to C who has supported S as late as the 90's. 

Of course, since I'm a member of the liberal party there wouldn't be a surprise that I would prefer them getting the boot (mostly due to their nuclear power policies). It could also be a perfect opportunity for us to launch the declaration of the Green Liberals to take over their green profile so that we can jump toward 10 % with their voters (as well as more liberal inclined Green party voters) and then following up with a much more profiled pro-defence side so we can stave of SD as well as siphon a percent or two from M (integration questions already lies on our table and we really need to push that to take the fight with SD if we want to win a majority for the Alliance next election). How? Well, wait till we finished the policy program that are set for debate this autumn, preparing us for the grand election year of 2014. 

Oo De Lally

Well, yesterdays DnD session didn't happen since the host got sick for some reason. Maybe he also watched melodifestivalen. If we gonna discuss that, all I can say is the entries didn't do it for me. The first song was pretty much the same song the artist used last year, and must admit last year was much better. And he won one of the places for the final. Another artist that made it to the second chance (funny enough taking place in Karlstad) had a song, that to me sounded very much like last years winner at certain places. Although when I listen to it now it sounded a bit more like the first artist song from last year. Doesn't matter, wasn't good anyway. And then the last one that caught my attention was this one. Not because it was good or remarkable, but all I could think of was that I really wanted to listen to Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street. I don't know why though (waring! Sarcasm overload).

Ah, real music. Anyway, the best music was the introduction songs for the artist since... well, it is good songs. And then we have the middle acts. I didn't care for the "problems" of the host of the show, because as the show taught me a couple of years ago, "it's all in their minds". Let us all listen to some ukuleles instead... from HELL!

So, what did we do instead of looting "abandoned" crypts? We watched Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. Not a bad movie per se, just a bad Robin Hood movie. Many elements you expected wasn't there and the only thing that made it a Robin Hood movie was the names of the characters. We actually concluded it very well could have been about the swedish uprising against danes under Engelbrekt. Probably more historical accurate anyway. Of course we goofed of a lot, the best joke probably being after the ambush in the beginning, they only had two days to retirement... since it pretty much was true. And then the ending battle, how did most of the people that got there actually get there? How did Marion, Friar Tuck and "the lost boys of Sherwood" get to the cliffs of Dover? It was also impossible not to mention that it looked like freaking D-Day when the French invaded. Probably not a movie I would see that often, actually find Prince of Thieves and Disney's Robin Hood more entertaining. And since when was Robin Hood a philosopher that laid the foundation for the Age of Enlightenment?

Catching A Murderer

Friday has gone and another session spent finding out about a murderer and antidote against a damn poison. Funny enough I found a trait I can take that make me immune against poison. Feels like something to look in to. What ever happened then after this person burning himself to death (now that I think back, did we just leave him there on the floor in pain? I think we did. Oops!). We began searching this room and the other room. I spent some time with notes on the wall but... failed my rolls as usual. I gathered the notes, checked the other room and found nothing, then headed back to the archive, checking on the blue moon festival, which I actually succeeded in. When there our assassin returned and came to me for checking up what we have done and our next goal. He headed out for the arbitrator whom's whereabouts I easily deduced... for once since I couldn't connect the dots between the murders on my notes, the notes stolen from the man in the mansion our the date of the blue moon festival, all of them hanging on my wall.

So the assassin heads of to the place, sneaks in and find the arbitrator torturing Sunny for information so he take his rifle.. line up the shot and blows his leg of. The others show up after some torturing and they debate what to ask him until they need me. So the assassin runs over and get me and the cleric who stayed with me to search for information so I close and lock the door. I return and what is the shocking revelation? The arbitrator is no other than the wanderer Kkarl. He had murdered all the people after being persuaded by some prophet-like person (implying more or less some cult at work or at least a charismatic or psychic cult leader). The number 88 was mentioned and he had killed 87, the last murder was supposed to be our rabbit psychic. After the confession the cleric more or less gave him his final rite, aka shooting him. And so begin the endgame of this quest as we restock and finally get some detox medicine, all payed for by our cleric... since she obviously has the most money out of us three poisoned.

After all that we head over to our pick-up zone and fly into space. Me and the psychic more or less sick since the detox had a couple of side effects on us (translation: we failed our rolls). Compare that to the cleric, the good for nothing... ahem. As a side note I will mention that after the session I actually remembered that I didn't leave the key to my study at the archives so... oops! The last thing that happened was more or less that our tech-priest got some promotion from someone in red garbs, don't remember who it was. I was sick alright? So we are finally of the planet, ready to traverse the stars (probably in a hunt for this cult leader). That's that anyway, so now I can relax until tomorrows D&D session and.. what is this on the TV? Those light? That sound? No, it can't... NOOOO IT'S IMPOSSIBLE?