Torn Branches: A Science Fiction Review

After our heroes welcome at Elkridge, the group are content to move on back to Arabel with the Neldrath stone. Now I would like to take the time to put to bed some rumours that our foray into the mountains and encounter with Bejark was a "disaster", " a horrible war crime", or any other negative adjective. Its true that Bejark escaped, and yes it's true that an ancient city of priceless archaeological value was destroyed, and nobody is denying that, yes, a verdant jungle biome thriving with life and supporting countless communities was snuffed out. But what people don't understand is that at the end of the day what is important is that we got our stone and that's all the wizard-man/quest-giver in Arabal wanted us to do. Now some people might object to this by pointing out that we had only known this wizard-man/quest-giver in Arabal for like, what, 30 minutes. And on his word we defaced and destroyed an ancient ecological system. What these people don'

So... I might not have mentioned that on top of this arctic tundra mountain top was a thriving and verdant jungle biome? And that the city of Ustraternes was a massive partly floating ruin? Super weird. Anyhow. After beating the snot out of that snake woman, the group doubled back and caught up with Darge. We then headed deep into the jungle on a mission to reach Ustraternes. With a bit of luck, we would find the magic relic we are looking for and could be back down the mountain by dinnertime. On our way, we came across a burned-down village full of wailing lizardfolk. The lizardfolk told us that a bunch of them had been made captive and taken to Ustraternes for god knows what evil purpose. We managed to persuade the lizardfolk that they should come with us (cannon fodder!). We eventually came to Ustraternes and were faced with a choice - do we kick in the front door or find an alternative route? No choice really, especially when you're group is lead by Anders the brave.

After a short rest, which involved contemplation of the universe and its infinite greatness, our heroes carried on up the Stormhorn mountains. At midday of the 2nd day of the journey, the group notices that they are being followed. After a quick and polite internal discussion, the heroes decide to confront this unseen follower. It turns out that they are a group of dragonborn and that they are more than a little pissed at Darge, our dragonborn bard. The reason behind their anger isn't really revealed, something about a nation betrayed, the end of the world, and a shiny egg. Blah blah blah, who cares. These dragonborn assholes had beef with Darge and wanted us to just give him up. Now, the whole thing might have been a great big misunderstanding, but there is no way on Ilmaters green earth that we were going to give up a mate to some lunatics who waylaid us on a lonely mountain path. Besides. They threw the first punch. The dickhead dragonborn druid who was leading the g

After leaving Arabel, the crew heads towards the village of Elkridge, which is at the base of the Stormhorn mountains housing the temple of Ustaternes. The journey was uneventful until the team came across two drakes a short distance from Elkridge. After dispatching the poor beasts, the heroes entered Elkridge to much praise. A halfling, in particular, was very fond of Anders. Of course, Anders being chaste of mind, did not pursue her interest. There have been some rumors circulating that state otherwise. Anders was quite upset at the whole ordeal and insisted he had nothing to hide - he pegs his life on it.  In Elkridge, Saul gets a mysterious note from his guild. He never explained what it was all about, but we know he declined the offer - whatever it was. Probably nothing. After leaving Elkridge we came across a most peculiar sight, and one Anders will never forget for the rest of his life. A group of Kobolds was torturing a foal in a secluded part of the forest. We bea

Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time    is finally being made into a TV series, something which I have serious doubts about. It's a series I first started reading about 20 years ago and I have a lot of affection for. I've recently convinced two old mates (both Wheel of Time fanboys) to play dungeons and dragons 5e, and they asked if I could set the world in "Randland". Fitting the D&D 5e mechanics into the Wheel of Time setting isn't particularly difficult, but it does require some extra roleplaying. *****SPOILERS ALERT***** I suggest new readers start with New Spring I have set the story in a completely different turning of the wheel. In this turning, Padan Fain dies before he reaches Emonds field and so does not alert the dark one to the presence of Rand, Mat, and Perrin in the Two Rivers. Without the distraction of capturing the boys and the wasted resources this entailed, the Shadow actually has more early success. The boys are essentia

The city of Arabel is the first real taste of civilization for our weary adventurers, and one that they would take to with glee. The group had pockets full of gold and finally a place they could spend it all. That was, until they meet the first of many a-holes in Arabel and realized that they are going to be paupers again. Turns out our ol'mate Saul had a bit of a debt problem with his pals at the thieves guild. 1000gp in the hole to be exact. According to Saul (who disappeared down a rat hole for a few hours), he had two choices - pay up or take a permanent bath in the sea. Well, you might be thinking that we are the sort of people to cut Saul adrift to his own problems. And, its true that we might be mean-spirited, petty, violent, foul-mouthed, and harbor questionable sexual kinks that are illegal in some states. And yes, we are probably the sort of people who might accidentally murder an entire village of innocents just to fulfill a simple fetch mission. But, i'll

A real bad egg... So, you know how I have that magical spear that can detect demons? It glows blue in what must be a rip off of the Hobbit. Well, in this session ... it glows blue. After leaving Tilverton under questionable circumstances, our reckless heroes take the old road south. After a long walk all morning the group decide to stop for a bite to eat when all of a sudden, completely out of the blue, a man plummets to his death from a nearby cliff face. Nathan, probably.  Standing nearby (how the hell did the ranger not notice him?), was a regular if not handsome human man with a smug smirk on his stupid face. The group head over to the man are all like wtf did you just see that? Nathan, for that was his name, then seems to notice us for the first time and mentions that the man lived in the nearby village of Woodsedge. Before we can talk more I notice that my spear is pulsing with a blue hue (I highly suggest you say those last two words aloud, very satisfying). Nath

Last week we left our self-glorifying hero in a dungeon in the vicinity of Waterhaven, having lead his band of miscreants on a successful mission to close a dark portal to a land of undead. Except that wasn't his mission at all and he didn't really lead the group, merely joined in eagerly. Nevertheless, the portals closure had effectively saved the village. This is despite the beliefs of the ignorant villages who clung to the superstition that their precious idol was saving them from the undead. But that is all you can expect from salt of the earth types who cling to outdated systems of thinking. Not like Anders though, because his god is real. Anyway, we are heading south to the town of Tilverton and from there on to the city of Arabel, where we hope to collect the missing idol. I am skipping through a lot of stuff here and am hoping to catch up to the current session in a few months. Here are a few important details: so we rescued Darge from some psychos torture dunge

I haven't written anything in a long time. That's somewhat because my Eclipse Phase group stopped meeting and has been overtaken by a game of D&D 5E. I've decided to update a log of events to help me keep track of happenings, and if others find this interesting then awesomeness. As always, the story I write is from my character's unreliable perspective. I should also say that session zero was more than a year ago, so my memory is a little hazy on events. Where I am unsure of events, I have just made it up in the full confidence that it's just a game and doesn't matter anyway. The story is set in Faerun and starts in the sleepy village of Winterhaven. A bounty by the local mayor has attracted the attention of our group of travelers. The group is led by the intelligent, dashing and deeply religious halfling monk Anders. His companions include Saul, a sucker punching ranged rogue,  Tasmin the mysterious warlock Tiefling, Tannis the foul mouthed and gase

It has been a long time since I have had the energy to update my Eclipse Phase players log. There has been a lot of water under the bridge since my last update, and our greasy pimple faced friend has undergone a few changes. When we last met, Duncan had shed the metallic snake skin of his former Slitheriod morph and donned the non-descript body of a Flat.  After running a few missions for Firewall, Duncan decided that he wanted to upgrade to a neotenic morph. The change in morph was mostly for aesthetic reasons. Duncan has a bit of a Peter Pan complex. He wanted to be the boy that never grows up. The morph change had both positive and negative impacts on his mission capability. Duncan’s core attributes have always been in the social skills – deception, persuasion, and intimidation (read torture). In combat he prefers to sit back and use his sniper rifle, often rigging his surroundings with explosives to provide a nasty surprise to any sneaky sneakers. The neotenic m