Christ's Bride

I'll start this post off with some housekeeping, It's been nine months since I last posted on this blog. If I'm being honest, there's only one reason that I stopped posting.

Pride.

It bums me out when I look at the number of views on a post I wrote and see that only 2 people read the post. I've had some difficulty finding the niche for this blog. My previous blog, The Revolutionary Nazarene, was geared exclusively toward pastoral posts. I wanted pastoral and theological discourse, so I wrote it myself. I quit writing it because people weren't reading it.

I started another blog while Holly was expecting our son Xavier. I stopped writing it because it became simply updates. I couldn't seem to write thoughtful posts enough because my emotions were pretty standard and they weren't really changing as much as her body and his body were changing. "I'm still terrified and nervous. She's at so many weeks. He's the size of a whatever." Those posts got old quickly for me.

So, I started this blog to be more of a catch-all for my various interests. I tried reviewing Friends Seasons and having fun re-watching my favorite show of all time. People liked the first post, but nobody cared after that. I tried playing Madden and making light of the results, and nobody cared about those posts.

All that to say, I can't figure out what people want to read on my blog. If you don't mind, leave me a comment with the types of posts that you'd be most inclined to read. I completely understand with my brain that blogging is more interesting if you have readers, but you only get readers by blogging.

Now, the reason for my post today.

Some of you may know how I feel about a certain Ville of Cedars and their university. While I was at MVNU, they were our big rivals. Games against Cedarville were always a total blast to be a part of, especially from my seat on the sidelines.

I generally disdain all Cedarville thoughts, references and so forth.

Today I went to their chapel service.

It was amazing.

First off, the chapel is designed in a way that allows for the worshiper to actually hear the voices around him. I could hear everyone else singing. This is one of those things that we are losing in the church for a number of reasons, but this college chapel service absolutely landed the experience of worshiping together. Of course, I could've just been in the best seat for that acoustical experience. But, either way, it absolutely enhanced my experience today.

Second, I had a sort of theological epiphany. We sang the song You're Beautiful by Phil Wickham. It was a new one for me, but the song mentions the way the bride sees her groom.

I had a few thoughts as we sang this, thinking about how I felt when I saw my bride for the first time on our wedding day, and thought about the way Christ sees his Bride, the Church.

I struggle with the Church sometimes, as most millennials do. I have trouble with her flaws, her imperfections, her troubles. Because she's not perfect. She's still in progress and she gives me a lot of trouble.

But Christ died for her. And that's enough for me.

I'm in.

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So... next week we should bring a backup character?

It's Pathfinder Friday! Last week our weekly game was canceled because of the horrid ice and snow conditions that trampled through Central Ohio. This week, we were back on and ready to pickup where we left off in the Dungeon of the Fire Opal.

I'm not sure I have mentioned this before, but Dungeon of the Fire Opal is an adventure by Jonathan Tweet which was published in Dungeon magazine issue 83. Naturally, I've heavily altered the dungeon, first I updated it to Pathfinder, I switched some of the monsters out for other monsters and I altered it to make it fit in my custom-Golarion.

Our adventurers were just about to enter a long hallway with three offshoots. This week, they made it through all three of them.

The first contained one of the most fun encounters I've run with this group. It was the second encounter of the night. First, they found a Giant Whiptail Centipede hiding in a closed room. They very quickly closed the door back up and left the giant bug in its hiding chamber. They used a spike to jam the door shut, ensuring that the centipede wouldn't come out and attempt to kill them. Truthfully, the centipede just wanted to be left alone, although it will almost surely die of starvation at this point, thanks to those horrible, inhumane adventurers!

After leaving the centipede, the group made their way further down the hall where they heard the faint sound of incoherent babbling (what they thought was incoherent babbling, anyway). The shadow they found was actually a deceased monk whose undead consciousness was locked in a logical paradox. Darius, who is a budding linguist, speaks an ancient language and was able to converse, albeit barely, with the shadow. The monk continued pondering his paradoxical question, "What directs us to obey Law?" He somewhat befriended Darius who tricked the monk by walking to the entrance of the dungeon and going upstairs, the shadow was unwilling to follow him, so he went back to his resting place and continued pontificating on the directive to follow Law. I gave Darius and Doc each a Hero Point for their spectacular roleplaying.

The last room in the first hallway was a dead end with some more awesome bas-reliefs.

The second hallway contained a large number of cells. Inside the cells were more bas-relief and some more phrases in Infernal, saying things like, "Obey Your Master" and "Praise to Asmodeus." Generally, all-round nasty things. Two skeletal champions were hiding in the cells, but were dispatched with ease. The party then found a scroll and a potion at the end of the hall.

Finally, the third hallway, where things get really interesting. The first two rooms off the hallway were completely empty save for most bas-relief. In the first room was a picture of monks fighting a knight and a barbarian. The second room was a large relief of two monks flanking a Hound Archon (On a side note, I learned that this is pronounced Ar-Kon). This further demonstrated the pure evil that this order of monks represented. The small hallway opened into a large room, which the party didn't explore. Instead, they went directly into a room on the right. This room had infernal glyphs painted on the wall, as well as the chewed up bones of a pig. Using their skills, the group decided that an imp had eaten the pig and left the bones. The next room contained a large pile of boxes, each containing copper coinage. There were 40 of these boxes, which the party realized were almsboxes where people would leave donations to a temple or a deity.

The next room was a workshop of sorts. When they opened the door to the room they saw the other door (leading out) close quietly and lock from the outside. They unlocked and opened the door and found two spots on the floor where it appeared as if the dust had been unsettled by a sudden gust of air. They decided that there were actually a pair of imps who were invisible and flying away.

The group set out trying to find materials to make a "glitter bomb" of sorts that they could throw on the imp which would provide an outline of the creature, even if it attempted to go invisible.

While three of the party members did this, Gormgen stood watch at the door. He resisted the Suggestion from an imp and then briefly saw the devil as it lost its invisibility for a moment. The imp taunted Gormgen before turning itself invisible again.

Finally, after creating a "glitter bomb," the group set out to find the dastardly trickster! They made their way back into the large room they had bypassed, completely missing the occupant who was hiding in the room.

Once each of the group was in the room, they heard a rather deep voice (most assuredly not an Imp's) say, "Well, isn't this a nice surprise."

All four of them turned, and Darius found himself face-to-face with a young green dragon, who had been hiding, waiting on the floor. The dragon stood on his hind legs and stretched his wings.

Roll Initiative? Nope, we'll see you next week. That's all for tonight!

So, we're on a one week break, we'll find out what the dragon does to our "heroes" next Thursday! Before they left, they asked, "So... next week should we bring a backup character?" I laughed, and laughed... then said, "yes."

See ya next week for more Tales from Thornkeep!!

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"That skeleton hits HARD!!"

When we last left our brave party of adventurers, they were preparing to leave the basement of the monastery in order to rest and recover from their wounds. They decided, however, to make one last turn before heading out and head down a path they hadn't traveled down yet.

At the bottom of a small flight of stairs was a small room. On the wall of the room was a large bas-relief carved into the stone wall. The sculpture was of a large bone creature. Darius correctly determined that the creature was actually a bone devil. He then noticed some writing carved into the wall underneath the creature. He couldn't figure out the language, but quickly remembered that he had a scroll of comprehend languages. He used the scroll and determined what the saying was. He wrote it down, but after sensing divination magic was very careful not to repeat the phrase in any language.

After determining that the room held no more secrets, the adventurers made their way to the dungeon's exit. On the way, they all heard the slow, steady steps of a creature blocking their path. They turned the corner to find a fully-armored skeleton wielding a greatsword. The battle to get past the skeleton was intense. The group was already tired and hurting from their earlier encounters that day and merely wanted to get out of the dungeon with their lives. The skeleton was keen on stopping the intruders.

The skeleton, with his glowing blue "eyes" lashed out with his greatsword. He sliced a brutal cut into Darius that almost knocked the sage unconscious. As Darius got out of the way, the skeleton turned its attention on the party's ranger, Avelin. Avelin was hit so hard with the skeleton's sword that she was knocked unconscious.

Gormgen, the group's dwarven fighter used a pair of concoctions which enlarged him and increased his strength, at the cost of his already dim intelligence and dispatched the undead protector of the monastery with ease. The group, now badly injured and in desperate need of rest and healing fled the dungeon and made camp for the night just outside the stairs to the basement. Each member of the party had substantial wounds to heal from and was grateful for the time to recover.

Once the night passed, the group made their way back into the basement where they went down a passageway they had skipped on their first time through the dungeon. (At this point, they decided to check out the first half of the dungeon, hoping to get some XP before finishing the second half. It wasn't a bad idea, the CR4 skeletal champion really gave them a run for their money)

The discovered a room that held a small cluster of pale vines which were emitting yellow vapors. The vines were sentient and attacked the group. It sprayed its pollen at Doc Kells, the party alchemist, and entranced her. Due to the entrancement, she moved into the vine's attack range and was attacked physically by the yellow-musk creeper. Fortunately, the rest of the party was able to stop her from being killed by the vines and rising as a zombie.

After the vines were destroyed, a pair of ghouls emerged from their hiding place behind the vines and attacked the party. They were dispatched quickly with only one ghoul managing to hit one of the party members with a single claw attack. Darius found the ghouls' secret hiding place and discovered a small cache of loot, including a large sack of gold and three magical scrolls.

There was another door across the hall, which the group went into and discovered a large pantry full of rotten wooden shelves and broken pottery. While searching the room, Doc Kells discovered bones from humans that had been sawed with a butcher's saw. After collecting the bones, she used her expertise in healing and the human body to determine that the bones were actually from a number of different humans, although she couldn't ascertain why this had happened.

The group now turns their attention down another hallway where surely more terrors and monsters await them... Tune in next week for more tales from the Cloister of the Opal Fist.

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Looking Back: Friends Season Three

I raved about season two of Friends. Most of the times I've started the series over, I've skipped season one and gone straight into the second season. As good as season two is when compared to the first season, season three is even better!

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The Crown of Command - My thoughts on Talisman

A month ago, I made the trek to The Guardtower, my favorite store in the world, and used our Christmas money to buy a new board game. Holly and I love to play board games. Our favorites are Agricola, Lords of Waterdeep and Dominion, but we also own Powergrid, Settlers of Catan, 7 Wonders and Carcassonne.

My friend Nate is my board game sensei and my primary source of information. He had mentioned that he got a couple of the expansions for Talisman for Christmas from his wife, and that made me want to get the game to play it. He reviews TONS of board games and write a fantastic blog. You can either click his name here in this paragraph, or click on his name on the right to check his blog out. If you do, tell him Large Marge sent you, he'll know what it means.

So, I bought Talisman and we played it on New Years Day with Holly's parents.

It was the longest game of all time.

Seriously, you may think Monopoly takes a while, Monopoly is a quick jog through the park compared to how long this first game of Talisman took us. Okay, it wasn't that long, but it felt like it took forever. Also, you shouldn't play Monopoly, it's not a very good game (I'm being a board game snob now).

After our day-long adventure dodging the Grim Reaper, each other and miscellaneous bad guys while attempting to procure The Crown of Command, each of us decided that the game was awesome and we'd love to play it again.

The mechanics are simple, you power yourself up through a few different ways (fighting bad guys, each other and lucky card draws) in order to be the first player to get to The Crown of Command. Once you get there, you essentially get to kill the other players as they try to reach you in order to stop you from killing them.

It's awesome!

Holly and I played again the next day, and the game was considerably shorter, using a couple of variant rules Nate suggested. It also didn't hurt that we had half as many players.

We're looking forward to getting some more of the expansions for Talisman and playing with some of our other gaming friends! It's definitely being added to our favorites list.

What about you, what are some of your favorite games to play?

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The Liberators of Thornkeep - Session Recap

First off, a little background. I moonlight as a freelance game designer. I’ve had five supplements published by Raging Swan Press. Creighton, the publisher over at RSP wrote an advice column for freelance writers and suggested that those who write should keep a blog. Well, that’s good news for me because I already keep a blog! He offered some suggestions that should be on the blog. In light of that, I’ll be adding session recaps from my Thursday night game.

I am the GM for a group of friends, we’re using the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, specifically, the Thornkeep setting that was released as a part of a Kickstarter that I backed for the upcoming Pathfinder Online MMO that is currently in development.

I got the PDF and thought I’d throw a campaign together using that as the setting. It’s worked pretty well, I think. The characters in the campaign are:

Darius the Sage

Mike is playing a Rogue/Wizard named Darius. Darius is the unofficial leader of the group. He’s been working with the local Thieves Guild while attempting to set up a Salon (think French Revolution) where knowledge can be brokered throughout the hold of Thornkeep.

Avelin the Archer

Holly is playing a Ranger/Rogue named Avelin. Avelin is a former bandit attempting to reform and make her way in the world. She is working on maximizing her sneak attack and damage with a bow. Her brother is still in the bandit world.

Doc Kells the Surgeon

Amy is playing an Alchemist healer. She took an archetype of the alchemist that allows her to heal. She uses her bombs liberally, taking out multiple opponents at a time. She also has ties to the Thieves Guild, serving as a healer.

Gormgen the Warrior

The only non-human in the party, Gormgen the Dwarf Fighter/Cleric is being played by Jason. Gormgen is from the Five Kings Mountains, and has made his way to Thornkeep avoiding Dwarf drama from his homeland. He has a large beard, a large appetite and a larger axe.

Where we’ve been

We spent time clearing out The Accursed Halls that have tempted adventurers in the region for as long as anyone can remember. Goblins had infiltrated the ancient halls in search of a long forgotten Goblin treasure. They found the treasure and let the goblins have it. The goblin chief, Graalsk, then tasked the party with helping another group of his goblins in finding another ancient treasure. They made their way to a dilapidated monastery. The last game session ended after the group entered the monastery’s basement. They had fought a pair of cave spiders and the spiders’ prey, a ghoul completely encased in webbing.

January 23, 2013 – Zombies, Skeletons and Ghouls!

Rule #1 of being a GM is that if your party can go the wrong way, they almost inevitably will.

There was a secret door that led to the second half of the dungeon. They weren’t meant to find the door until after they had exhausted their search of the first half of the dungeon. They went through two rooms of the first half of the dungeon then enacted Rule #1.

Into the second half of the dungeon!

The first thing waiting for them in that half of the dungeon was a party of four Ghouls. Ghouls are particularly nasty to third level characters. If you are bitten by one, you take serious damage to abilities and the saves are two consecutive days worth of saves. They also paralyze their targets.

They almost killed the dwarf, but the valiant warriors prevailed over the ghouls. They continued through the funeral chambers of the ancient monks and fought a group of skeletons then a group of zombies.

They’re slowly working out the secrets of the ancient monastery, figuring out what these monks did and how they operated.

The highlight of the night was Darius attempting to avoid a trap that would almost surely have killed him. He wanted to retrieve an item, but was fairly certain the item was trapped. He barely missed being smashed by an extremely heavy rock (Thank heavens for that Rogue reflex save), but the gem he was attempting to reach was crushed into powder in the process.

The truth is, the trap was supposed to be different, but I read the module wrong and it messed up through my interpretation of the trap. I’m a little frustrated, but if I’m being honest, I didn’t expect the group to make it down that wing, so I hadn’t done enough reading of the module.

I’m eager to finish up this dungeon (afraid the bosses are going to be too hard, make have to scale them down a little) and get into the content that I’m creating from scratch. The two modules I’ve used have given me a great jumping off point for the campaign, though.

Thanks for reading, see you next Friday (weather permitting).

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Booger-Eaters, Soap Operas, Beards and YES!! chants

"This is literally just a male version of a soap opera," my wife astutely noted the other day as I was watching WWE. She's right, of course, WWE isn't really about the wrestling, anymore. In fact, they don't even consider themselves to be a wrestling company. They famously changed their name a few years ago from World Wrestling Entertainment to WWE. The men and women who compete in the ring aren't known as wrestlers, they're known as WWE Superstars and Divas.

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