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D&D 4e: Barons of the Wild – Session 6 (Part 2)

What a waste!
Boccob’s Waste

Alisahn, the Priestess of Celestian, inspected the amulet found in the Tower of Boccob and a smile broke out across her face.   She explained to the adventurers that this was what she was hoping for.  Reaching for the book that Pujols brought from the Tower, the book opened to the last page and the book created a new page to mark her own access to it.  It sketched a woman with arms outreached, with a mountain exploding behind her, and starlight streaming down.  This seemed to please her, and she then looked over the entry for the adventurers.  That page also seemed to please her, perhaps even more so than her own.  Quickly turning hundreds of pages back, she found the first entry and showed it to the adventurers.  The image was of four men in robes and a stoneman, with a mountain exploding behind them, with tiny creatures pouring out, and ghostly figures lurking.   In the stoneman’s hand was the amulet that Ansis now held.

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D&D 4e: Barons of the Wild – Session 6 (Part 1)

It's so pretty when you're not dead
Wasteland of the Tower of Boccob

Pujols and Ansis woke from their concussed sleep to find Llamers tenderly nursing them back from the brink of death.  After seeing them come to, Llamers collapsed in exhaustion to rest from her vigil.  After some investigation of the statue strewn room, littered with rubble from the collapsing ceiling, the two men found that the platform that the stoneman had stepped off was the trigger for the door that had sealed the room.  Loading it up with pieces of the dead stoneman, the door raised a bit at a time with each piece until the stairway was accessible beyond the door. Continue reading “D&D 4e: Barons of the Wild – Session 6 (Part 1)”

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D&D 4e: Barons of the Wild – Session 1

Wilderness Awaits

Thunderspire Valley and the surrounding area has been recently shook by earthquake.  The worst of it seems to have hit the Valley itself, although even Lord Padraig in Winterhaven, more than 100 miles away has been struck by the shaking.  The vale is in dire straits, and Stonewall, the village near the Valley’s entrance has asked for help.

Lord Padraig has commissioned you to bring Thunderspire Valley under the crown’s control, and when there has been a stronghold established, and the area stabilized you will be given titles and control over the valley as Barons.

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Call of Cthulhu: The Sanatorium – Session 1 (Part 2)

When dirty heat is the only thing that will do.

Strange and Hollow

The guests jumped into action, and began plowing through doors upstairs in the bedroom section of the house, but found almost nothing but slips of papers with Elva and Dr. Willikars names and mysterious numbers on them.  They found what they believed to be Dr. Brewer’s bedroom, but no Dr. Brewer.  Finally, they found the living room, where a nurse was lying in a pool of blood, with a pair of scissors protruding from her left eye.  Doctor Brewer ascertained that she had been severely beaten before stabbed, and Agent Griffon determined that the struggled hadn’t lasted long, but had been terribly violent judging by the status of the room.

This heightened the sense of urgency, and the four of them continued searching the house for signs of the doctor.  They asked Blanche to help them in their search, and she did her best, but it became clear to them that she was in shock, and couldn’t recall facts with any amount of accuracy.  They led her to her room and sat her down to rest.  She did, however, give them a good idea of who was in the asylum on the main level. Continue reading “Call of Cthulhu: The Sanatorium – Session 1 (Part 2)”

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Call of Cthulhu: The Sanitorium – Session 1 (Part 1)

Don’t even think about trying to escape.

Dr. Aldous Brewer, experimental psychologist and chief resident psychiatrist at North Island Sanatorium has recently had an article published in the Journal of American Psychological Society.  Based on his research done with three unnamed patients based out of his isolated island sanatorium, he has stumbled across a fascinating possibility in Jungian psychology regarding the collective subconscious.  In the article he claims that  while conducting deep hypnosis on the patients he has tapped into ancient knowledge from the past and has resulted in incredible findings.  His article has sparked a small firestorm of excitement, criticism, and outright dismissal in the academic field.

Soon after publication of Dr. Brewer’s article, psychiatrist and medical doctor, Dr. George Willikars stumbled across it.  Interested about the situation he inquired with the state board about the institution where Dr. Brewer was conducting his research.  Getting nothing satisfactory to sate his curiosity regarding Brewer or his study, Dr. Willikars resolved to visit the sanatorium.  Feeling worried for the welfare of the patients involved he contacted the FBI to alert them to his concerns.  The FBI, having been interested in the institution themselves, but with no clear method to infiltrate assigned a young agent Helga Griffon to accompany him as a presumed patient of his.  Disliking the deception, but grateful for the security an agent brought him, Dr. Willikars agreed.  Writing Dr. Brewer, Willikars wrote a letter to request a tour, and Dr. Brewer eagerly consented to the visit.

After scheduling the visit with Willikars, Dr. Brewer reached out to his niece, Elva Brewer.  As a student of psychology at the local university, she has been looking for a place of internship.  Knowing that, Aldous wrote to his niece to invite her to join the hosted tour that Willikars would be enjoying.  Elva, young and devoted to her uncle, immediately agreed.

Meanwhile, Mickey O’Malley, the down-trodden, semi-handicapped alcoholic giant had been offered the first job since his firing from the city trolley company he had worked at for seven years.  Dr. Brewer has extended the job offer to replace the ferry boat pilot and island handyman Ebeneezer Waite that has been working on the island since before it became a sanatorium. Continue reading “Call of Cthulhu: The Sanitorium – Session 1 (Part 1)”

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MySql Backups

Dolphins love data managers! It is known.
Dolphins love data managers! It is known.

MySQL is a fantastic open source database management system that manages data for a huge number of incredibly popular websites.  Twitter, Google, Facebook and YouTube all use MySQL to store and recall data, and thanks to the amazing movement of open source so can we!

Personally, I use MySQL for storage of a number of things; several time-clock programs, this WordPress blog, and my Cthulhu Character Creator to name a few.  However, the problem I’ve come up against was that all this data was stored in one location.  If the storage hardware or the operating system of the device storing it failed in some manner, I could lose it forever.

Unacceptable! Continue reading “MySql Backups”

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Call of Cthulhu: The Haunting – Session Two (The Finale)

This is where he lives. He tries to keep in shape.

The Basement

Jane called down after Vincent, but there was no response.  The fall obviously had taken its toll on him, but Jane couldn’t only barely make out his figure in the inky black of the windowless basement.  Slipping back along the wall, she heard Rachel and St. John hammering and blasting their way into the house through the front door, and through the mud room.

Still calling out to Vincent and getting no answer, the group decided that Rachel would run for help while St. John and Jane attempted to recover Vincent from the basement.  The lawyer and the dilettante, remembering that Vittario had suffered his first of a long series of injuries on the staircase to the basement, attempted to pick their way down the stairs, but both fell, with Jane suffering the worst of the injuries from the tumble.  Dusting themselves off, and opening up the door at the landing at the bottom of the stairs, they found a workshop, filled with an assortment of broken tools and cast off projects.  Still listening for Vincent, yet hearing nothing, they realize that the boards on the opposite wall are hiding a much larger room behind it, and they begin frantically tearing at them to get to their friend.

Meanwhile, Rachel, while attempting to find help runs across Dr. Ostergaard, who had patched her up a few days prior, running toward the house.  He explained that he heard shots, and was hoping to be of some assistance.  Rachel, relieved to find someone so quickly, led him back to the house and into the front door.  But as soon as they stepped onto the premise, the doctor grabbed her from behind in a crushing bear hug.  Rachel screamed, hoping her friends could hear her, but as intent as they were on reaching Vincent, they couldn’t hear her.  Dr. Ostergaard, irritated by the resistance, brought a long serpentine dagger to her throat, growling, “Do that again, and I will kill you.”

Continue reading “Call of Cthulhu: The Haunting – Session Two (The Finale)”

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Call of Cthulhu: The Haunting – Session One (Pt. 3)

Wherein the investigators encounter the inexplicable, and meet their fate in the dark…

The Bedroom

Perilous Windows need a good washing

Upon reaching the top floor, the thumping became banging.  Listening to each door down the hall, they determined it was coming from the last room on the left, at the end of the hall, and St. John smashed the door down with his foot.  However, the room appeared empty aside from some furniture.  Adams, being impulsive and irritable, stormed into the room determined it was someone hiding.  Losing his temper he stomped on the floor boards in the center of the room, demanding that the lurker come out.  The thumping stopped, and from where his foot had crashed into the floor, a slow wet circle began to expand.  Looking closer, Rachel saw that it was blood, and Adams quickly backed out of the room.  The wet spot slowly receded as he left.

Although the thumping had stopped, a scratching began at the window.  St. John, inquisitive, moved to the window, but the scratching sound moved to the side of the house, just outside of view.  Unable to open on his own, as the window had been painted closed, St. John’s friends moved into the room to help him.  First Jane attempted to help, but still not strong enough, Rachel joined them in, and with a final shove all three finally were able to push the window open.  Adams stayed in the hallways, loath to return to the bloodied room.

Continue reading “Call of Cthulhu: The Haunting – Session One (Pt. 3)”