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.