Hunter: The Vigil

Hunter: The Vigil...

Quote:

As long as monsters have prowled the darkness, brave and desperate mortals have walked out of the protective ring of firelight to pursue those shadows. Some die. Many go mad. But someone else always picks up the candle and steps into the dark...

No street date yet. Now subpage yet. But it's coming...

Party!

In my neck of the woods, there's a big street party called Grand Old Days (celebrated along Grand Ave, here in St Paul) every spring. Good times, lot's of live music, drinking, and so on. Now, typically, I don't do much for Grand Old, as for the last few years it's gotten a bit, well stupid rowdy. Friends have nearly been forced into fights with drunks, the crowds have gotten really dumb, etc. This year, I had no real plans. That all changed a few night's ago.

It was about midnight or so when there's a knock on the door to my apartment. Now, we're not sure what's going on, as while we were being a bit loud, nothing too bad. Turns out it is a neighbor, but he's not there to complain. He actually wondered over because he heard the noise and wanted to ask my roommate and I for a favor. You see, he wants to throw a big party fro Grand Old (hence my background on that from above). However, he wants to provide a bit more space for the party. So, he asked if we'd like to contribute some space to the endeavor. He's already ordering food to the tune of a $1000 (and is something of a gourmet chef), and then booze on top of that. I guess he's a doctor from time to time...

So, all we need to do is make sure the apartment is spic and span, and we get free food, booze, and attractive women to come over for a day of partying. Yeah, I think we'd be happy to help out... I love my neighbors.

Something of an oldie...

I stumbled across a link to this interview with Neal Stephenson on Slashdot from Dumpshock, a Shadowrun forum. Now, it is a few years old, but since I hadn't seen it yet, I wanted to pass it along. I found it to be amusing. If you're reading this BLOG, you must have some similar opinions. Thus, here it is. Enjoy!



4) Who would win? (Score:5, Funny) - by Call Me Black Cloud

In a fight between you and William Gibson, who would win?

Neal:

You don't have to settle for mere idle speculation. Let me tell you how it came out on the three occasions when we did fight.

The first time was a year or two after SNOW CRASH came out. I was doing a reading/signing at White Dwarf Books in Vancouver. Gibson stopped by to say hello and extended his hand as if to shake. But I remembered something Bruce Sterling had told me. For, at the time, Sterling and I had formed a pact to fight Gibson. Gibson had been regrown in a vat from scraps of DNA after Sterling had crashed an LNG tanker into Gibson's Stealth pleasure barge in the Straits of Juan de Fuca. During the regeneration process, telescoping Carbonite stilettos had been incorporated into Gibson's arms. Remembering this in the nick of time, I grabbed the signing table and flipped it up between us. Of course the Carbonite stilettos pierced it as if it were cork board, but this spoiled his aim long enough for me to whip my wakizashi out from between my shoulder blades and swing at his head. He deflected the blow with a force blast that sprained my wrist. The falling table knocked over a space heater and set fire to the store. Everyone else fled. Gibson and I dueled among blazing stacks of books for a while. Slowly I gained the upper hand, for, on defense, his Praying Mantis style was no match for my Flying Cloud technique. But I lost him behind a cloud of smoke. Then I had to get out of the place. The streets were crowded with his black-suited minions and I had to turn into a swarm of locusts and fly back to Seattle.

The second time was a few years later when Gibson came through Seattle on his IDORU tour. Between doing some drive-by signings at local bookstores, he came and devastated my quarter of the city. I had been in a trance for seven days and seven nights and was unaware of these goings-on, but he came to me in a vision and taunted me, and left a message on my cellphone. That evening he was doing a reading at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. Swathed in black, I climbed to the top of the hall, mesmerized his snipers, sliced a hole in the roof using a plasma cutter, let myself into the catwalks above the stage, and then leapt down upon him from forty feet above. But I had forgotten that he had once studied in the same monastery as I, and knew all of my techniques. He rolled away at the last moment. I struck only the lectern, smashing it to kindling. Snatching up one jagged shard of oak I adopted the Mountain Tiger position just as you would expect. He pulled off his wireless mike and began to whirl it around his head. From there, the fight proceeded along predictable lines. As a stalemate developed we began to resort more and more to the use of pure energy, modulated by Red Lotus incantations of the third Sung group, which eventually to the collapse of the building's roof and the loss of eight hundred lives. But as they were only peasants, we did not care.

Our third fight occurred at the Peace Arch on the U.S./Canadian border between Seattle and Vancouver. Gibson wished to retire from that sort of lifestyle that required ceaseless training in the martial arts and sleeping outdoors under the rain. He only wished to sit in his garden brushing out novels on rice paper. But honor dictated that he must fight me for a third time first. Of course the Peace Arch did not remain standing for long. Before long my sword arm hung useless at my side. One of my psi blasts kicked up a large divot of earth and rubble, uncovering a silver metallic object, hitherto buried, that seemed to have been crafted by an industrial designer. It was a nitro-veridian device that had been buried there by Sterling. We were able to fly clear before it detonated. The blast caused a seismic rupture that split off a sizable part of Canada and created what we now know as Vancouver Island. This was the last fight between me and Gibson. For both of us, by studying certain ancient prophecies, had independently arrived at the same conclusion, namely that Sterling's professed interest in industrial design was a mere cover for work in superweapons. Gibson and I formed a pact to fight Sterling. So far we have made little headway in seeking out his lair of brushed steel and white LEDs, because I had a dentist appointment and Gibson had to attend a writers' conference, but keep an eye on Slashdot for any further developments.

CPR was never so awesome...

d20 Modern: The Incursion

While I'm still resolute in my desire to not run anything for my Sunday night group (*grumble, grumble* rules lawyering *grumble, grumble*), the friend running Scion on Wednesday night is getting a lot of burnout from life in general, and might have to call a break sooner then expected. Luckily for all involved at that merry table, inspiration has struck me for a campaign to run. Now, I don't really feel a strait sword and sorcery at the moment. While I'd like to do an Urban Fantasy game, I don't really want to run Shadowrun right now. I've also wanted to run the Incursion Scenario from Dragon 309, and Dungeon 100 for a bit. Hence, I'm going to squish the two together and see what happens.

Here's the basic rule ideas for it. I'm going to include Urban Arcana. I'm not going to make it a double whammy of weird new race and magic. I'm also going to move the PL a little bit forward on a few types of tech. Mecha and Cybernetics will be at PL 6, but not readily available. Those are the armed force's newest toys, thankyouverymuch. They're there for parts of mid game and late game. Magic is out there, and I have to decide how well it's going to mix with tech. Not sure which way I'm going to go with that one yet.

Campaign scenario would be, roughly, as follows:
Start players at level 3 (cause level one for modern, in my most humble of opinions, blows).
Low Level (about 3-9): Weird Tidings. Over arching story elements will include the new race on the block (the Githyanki). Recruitment of locals to aid them/ally with them. Reports of odd happenings world wide, thefts of old art, and raids on archaeological dig sites. More weird in general. Spikes in violence and border scuffles are becoming more intense, fueled by terrorists and political dissidents. This part of campaign ends in the realization, that the world is at war with a Power from Beyond the Shadows.

Mid Level (10-14 or so): The Shadow War. The Githyanki have begun a serious campaign of aggression world wide. Several smaller nations have more or less folded in the Middle East and South America, now occupied by the Githyanki and their allies/minions. A marked increase in terrorist activities world wide, and border scuffles are now employee mecha on a regular basis. All of this can be, and will eventually, be traced back to Githyanki agents. Elite troops of the Githyanki encountered, as well as Githyanki mecha. More and more normal people are seeing Shadow all the time. This part ends with Githyanki air ships arriving over several major cities, and the real war begining and all the worlds sages and prophets having one last vision, and either going comatose, dying, or going mad.

High Level (15+) Ascent of the Lich Queen. Open war is on. From their strong holds all over the world, the Githyanki send forth their armies. Dragons fly the skies. Githyanki spell-mecha and bio-magic augmented warriors do battle against the nest the armies of the world have to offer. The world governments are having a hard time pulling it all together after the careful work of Vlaakith's minions in dissolving the shaky trust they might have once had in each other. More weird stuff is happening, and those seer's not struck dead by their vision, babble things madly in their sleep, or weep quietly in the corners of their padded cells, the horror of a new Dark God on the rise burning in their minds, and they can see nothing else beyond that potentially apocalyptic point. Secret peace accords try desperately to bring unite into one solid defense, even as the general public has to deal with the realization that humans have not been alone on earth for some time. A major assault on one of the Fortress States of the Incursion results in something like a Mournland (from Eberron) forming. Eventually, the elite agents of the Lich Queen must be stopped, before they bring their Queen what she needs to ascend to divinity.



Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? Any avenues of abuse I should look out for. I have some time to plan, so I want to start ASAP.

Less work

Well, they canceled the OT earlier this week. We're caught up enough on the project to not worry need the OT. So, I didn't stay late Yesterday, nor am I coming in over the weekend. I'm kinda relieved. OK, not kinda, more very. Ugg, I need a day off.

Touched by the FSM

My car has now officially been touched by the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Pictures will follow...

My weekday job has offered us as much OT as we'd care to take until this subproject is done. I clocked some extra hours Friday, yesterday morning after work, and I'm planning to do the same this morning. I'm going to try and pull off 12 hour days on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Also, a few extra hours on Wednesday and Friday as well. Probably more next weekend too. This is of course in addtion to the part time job. So, next week, when all is said and done, I'm looking at clocking no less then 70 hours, probably like 74 if I can pull it off. And the same thing next week maybe. And, ah, the week after if I can. I've already asked for May 3rd and 4th off already, and I won't be clocking any OT that weekend either. I don't know how long we're gonna have this availible, so I'm going to make the best of it. I'm just going to be fucking burned out. I've got bills to pay though.

"And miles to go before I sleep. And miles to go before I sleep."

From today's Penny Arcade

This is from todays Penny Arcade. The rant to go with the comic. I've found it to be highly amusing!

I can remember when it started, truly started. Chits were no longer sufficient to really encompass the hitpoints of his most powerful Pokémon cards, so he began using a d10 for the first digit.
After that, it was only a matter of time.
Perhaps the dice themselves evoke something, that their shape refracts the structures of life into their numerical girders. At two o'clock in the morning, he began to argue (with much heat and light) about the possible interpretations of a particular card and its grave implications. I saw the rules lawyer well up in him, a hunger for the bright, certain shapes of clean systems and the dark shadows they cast.
Eventually, even these wide realms will no longer contain him. He'll want to do something those iconic mechanisms could never describe. When that happens, I will unfold my DM's screen, clasp my cloak, and tell him that he can feel the wind from the northeast.
The parallels between this particular CCG and traditional roleplaying games are pretty strong, leveraging (as so many have) workhorse, fundamentally gygaxian systems and terminology. If you haven't spent time with the more sophisticated card games - perhaps because you fear their terrible, ineluctable gravity - it may be that they look like an extremely expensive version of Slapjack. The distinctions melt away pretty quickly when you start looking at a constructed deck, which has all the careful feat and skill choices you'd see in any other pen and paper context. Even dice rolls are modelled by the card ratios and deck sizes. If you're playing a raid deck, there's even loot for fuck's sake. That's why I said (after playing it the first time) that there is a game here for people who typically gather around the table for another purpose.
Wizards was afraid (and rightly so) to meld their primary expertise with their newly acquired Dungeons and Dragons, as so many feared they would. In doing so, I think they may have ceded a generation. Paizo's GameMastery products seem to argue for a measured, hybrid approach. There's a profound opportunity here, I simply wonder who will grasp it first.
The contest entries are piled so deep that it's going to take the better part of the weekend to sort them - our thanks to everyone who offered one up. Hopefully we'll be prepared for an unprecedented triple coronation on Monday.

(CW)TB out.

Quotable

This was in my daily quotes on my Google homepage, and I thought I'd share it. I love this line.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
- Thomas Jefferson

Weekend Last...

Strangly, I felt I had a pretty good weekend. Nothing really stood out. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I hung out with folk on Saturday. Which was nice. I also got my invite for my 10 year reunion. Which I'm basically looking forward to. Should be fun to catch up/maybe piss off some of the former class mates. Muwhahaha. Ran out to Ceder Cliff Colectables (look game shop) on Sunday and bought some singles for the new SW mini set. Basically got the commons and uncommons I really wanted for the set. Work was quite both nights too. I've also put in my time off requests through about July (first weekend of May for sanity, first weekend of June for reunion, July 4th weekend for CON).

And, yeah. 10 year class reunion. Crazy...

Most interesting one so far this week

Okay, this was just a few minutes ago. Blog op from work.

Smoker on phone: "Why do I want to smoke even though I know it's going to kill me?"
Me: "I'm sorry sir, I really can't answear that one. You're going to need to speak to your doctor on that one."
SoP: "I have lukimia, and if I smoke, I'm going to die. So why do I want to smoke?"
Me: "Sir, I'm very sorry, I don't have any way to answear you."
SoP: "Ok, thanks, I'll try my doctor."

zug-zug...

Small Favor

Squee!!!! The next Dresden book comes out today! I am less then two hours from being able to read it! I'm so very pumped for this!

Random Hate...

So, I was surfing through CNN, reading some random articles, when I stumbled across one that mentions the parent groups who blame their childrens autism on vacines. Sure, it spins off into a rport about the complex genetic triggers for autism (No shit? Really? A complex brain chemistry disorder has a complex set of genetic trigger? Who'd have thunk it...). What this does do, however, is bring forth from within the very pit of my gut such white-hot, all consuming RAGE, that I'm not quite sure what to do with it. Oh yeah, BLOG! So, here I am. And I am about to unleash the hate, just for me and you, dear readers.

What sort of fucking moron could possibly allow themselves to believe, and put forth, that vacines are bad. I'll tell you the sort, the sort that shouldn't be allowed to have children is the sort. How short sighted and utterly imbicilic do you have to be to decide that making sure your child is protected against those things that have been a PLAGUE on humanity for nearly all of our histroy? Huh, how? How much? What is the percentage of completly unused brain mass is that?? Why, oh why, in the name of ANYTHING YOU CHOOSE would you not want to protect your child from small pox? Oh, because no one has it anymore, so it must be gone? Well, that's just adorable, let me just give you some insight into how wrong you are, professor nail bat will be helping. Super!! I just want to scream some days. Then, go forth amoung the masses, and begin the, long overdue, great cleansing.

Everyone, trust me, it'll be worth it when I'm done! Really!!!

*gasp* *pant*

Okay, I'm done now. /rant.



~EDIT~
Since I mirror this/it's a mirror of my LJ, I get replies from other fronts as well. My friend Sableandthorny posted the following reply on there. Since it's very apt, and pokes many a whole in my bit of spewed hate, I've decided to mirror it here. *sigh* Next thing ya know, I'm gonna have to start doing research and educating myself before I spew hate. Damn it!!


Here it is, from the mouth of Sableandthrony, to the rest of us...
Hate to take the wind out of your sails, but I think you're missing out on some important information and you're oversimplifying a more complicated issue.

First off, you're hitting on two very very different groups. One group is the parents who do not want their child vaccinated because of the risks associated with the vaccine. The second group is the group that doesn't feel it's necessary because they don't believe their child will be exposed. I think it's important to differentiate, because those are two totally different mind sets.

Secondly, you can't even get your child vaccinated against smallpox. I doubt you and I are even vaccinated against it. After the disease was certified as eradicated by the WHO in 1979, there was a "post eradication vaccine" available. However, there was such a high incidence of severe side effects, that it is not considered safe. In 2007, a new vaccine was approved by the FDA for use by those at high risk of exposure. The side effects are so severe and so frequent, it is only available to the DOD in the Strategic National Stockpile.

Here are the vaccines offered to infants and generally required by day cares and schools:
Diptheria, Tetanus, Acellular Pertussis (whooping cough),Influenza, Rotavirus, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae b (childhood meningitis), Human papillovirus (offered to girls at age 13 or so to prevent cervical cancer), Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Meningitis, Pneumonia, Varicella (Chicken Pox), Polio

I think the only one that really fits your criteria of plague is polio. There is no vaccine against HIV, Ebola, Bubonic Plague, etc.
Even with vaccination, it is expected that kids will get Rotavirus. The vaccine simply helps it be less severe. Influenza is similar, it's a mixed bag vaccine made differently each year. It might help, it might not.

Why wouldn't somebody want to have something done to their child that society and/or government supports and promotes? Possibly because they've read about DDT or asbestos. The US ban against asbestos was not made until 1989. Serious concerns regarding the health risks related to exposure to asbestos surfaced in 1898. That's ninety years. We're quick to use something and slow to come up with a solution when it doesn't work. And how about this one, RSV is a virus that all kids get at some point. They haven't been able to come up with a vaccine. However, there is a "preventative" (they don't call it a vaccine) given to babies that are high risk. Treatment is a shot once monthly for five months. The cost is about $25,000. It's considered "moderately" effective. How frustrating to put your child through the shots, spend a huge chunk of change, and not even get the benefit? The routine vaccinations are different, but still!

Why should anyone, without question, accept something being done to their child? I personally think that anyone who walks in and accepts the vaccinations without knowing what they're really for and what the risks are is much worse than the person who chooses not to because of the risks involved. We asked our doctor about the vaccines and whether or not they contained thiomersal as a preservative. They don't, because of the FDA order to remove it from vaccine. So David got his vaccines. Does everyone know exactly what to ask about related to that concern? No. Does it make them bad parents? No. I understand what you mean, and I whole heartedly support vaccinations, but I think you've got to look a little deeper into the issues before loosening your well intentioned rage.