Friday, January 29, 2010

Arrival in Dijishy

We played our ongoing Kalamar game on January 22nd, 2010. It's been a couple of months since our last session and more than a year before our previous one.

The rest of the trip from the coast to Dijishy was uneventful. Walking through the arid but not quite desert conditions towards to city were acceptable, but as they approached the city, they realized that it was hospitable only by it's unique location between the Elos Desert to the east and the Elenon mountains to the west. Skirting between these two easily identifiable landmarks, reaching the city-state was not difficult.

Found on the edge of a cliff, with a man made ramp leading up to it from the ground below, it is easily defensible. Boasting an almost homogeneously human population of 6,000, with dwarves being a small minority.

The group enters the gates, which are guarded by two humans, who regard them with disinterest. They quickly find an inn, and waste no time trying to gather information on where the tomb might be located, but in a circumspect way. As they entered the inn, the only group that seemed different than the local populace was a high elven female wearing plate mail, with a sword at her hip and shield on her back, surrounded by three human males, one also wearing plate mail, one wearing plain white robes, and the last wearing leather armor.

After finding their own table and ordering food and ale, Chamele and Kasandra approach the four at the table, and strike up a small conversation. Chamele says they have been hired to find a more southern overland route to Brandobia that avoids Pel Brolenon and their slaver trade, and asks what the other group is doing in the city, at the edge of nowhere.

They said they were currently unemployed and looking for work, but the location suited them, what with Kalamar to the east and Pel Brolenon to the west, Dijishy was looking pretty good for an elf like her. But she did say that the Great Sanctuary might have some maps or other information about the local area and might be a good place to start their search.

So a short while later, the group approaches the library, where Vorian says to a librarian seated behind a large desk at the entrance that he would like to peruse their collection, and is told it is 10 gold for the day. He hands over 10 gold and is given a large, red metal disk with a hole in the center. He goes to hand it to Kasandra, when the librarian says, "Sir, entrance is not transferable. If she would like to enter, she must pay her own fee."

"What?" asks Vorian incredulously. "I said I would like to peruse your collection, not that I was. I was paying for her."

"Your statement, plus the exchange of coinage implies that..."

"You can infer all you want! In that case, I want a refund."

"There are no refunds."

" Then I want to speak to your superior."

"Very well. He won't have anything different to say to you, but...," and with that he nods to one of the many assistants behind him, who goes walking off.

After waiting about a minute, Vorian looses patience and says, "So where is he?"

"Patience, sir. Some things take time."

"And some things take less time, for example, me losing my patience," attempting to intimidate the librarian.

"Let me see what I can do," and he nods to another attendant, who walks away briskly. "Perhaps you should realize that all things happen for a reason and in their own time." As he is talking, several men come back through the entrance to the library. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"No, I'm staying right here until you give me my money back."

"Then we'll have to remove you bodily," says the librarian, as two of the men approach Vorian.

"Coward! Sending your thugs after me instead of doing it yourself," says Vorian, scowling as he walks out of the entrance alcove.

After Vorian leaves, Chamele walks forward and says, "Me and my acquaintance here seek admittance," motioning toward Kasandra and handing over two platinum coins."

"Very well. No weapons are permitted inside. You can leave them here and they will be returned to you when you leave."

Chamele and Casandra then begin their search for information on the lost tomb of Kruk-Ma-Kali, spending 5 days in the library. They returned each morning, given a disc of a different color, and left each evening. Towards the end of their search, they found a promising book, The Journal of Niemallion Laebrinoia. Chamele spends some time, and copies out to be what appears the most interesting parts of the journal. As she is copying the book, she sees out of the corner of her eye a librarian, who appears to be smiling slightly as he walks away.

During this time, Aldoran had been flying around the environs in eagle form, trying to get a feel for the land. On the 4th day, he begins to travel north as far as possible before returning. He make good progress, and notices a fortress ruin amongst the mountain passes. Before he can inspect further, he notices a manticore. He decides to fly back to the city, out distancing it before it could present a threat.

With that, the group feels well prepared to travel north to explore the ruins and than farther northward toward the Great Valley.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Finished Final Fantasy IX

I finished Final Fantasy IX last night.

I'm glad to have finished it. I might come back to it later to try to beat two optional bosses: Hades and Ozma.

Here's the ending movie:


Monday, January 11, 2010

Still no roleplaying...but having fun!

Well, it's been a while but I think there will be roleplaying this Friday. Last Friday we played Ticket to Ride at work. I had originally gotten 10 people together, but several people were sick and two people had to change their lunch time to do some work, so it got whittled down to five.

We played with the new 1910 USA expansion I got and it was quite fun. We played with the 1910 rules, which meant most of our tracks were short and disconnected, and most people got extra tickets which was a change from our normal style of play.

I got 4th place, because I was blocked on one route and we ran out of time on another.

In other things I've been doing lately: Almost done with Final Fantasy IX! It's been about 2 and half years that I've been working on it, with 90 hours of game time, most of which was the card game while rocking Mr. Bebop to sleep. I'll probably finish the last two bosses to watch the ending, then go back and get the two optional bosses Ozma and Hades.

I got Ace Combat 5 and Final Fantasy X for Christmas so I won't be wanting for video games for a while. Also got a gift of $20 for turbine points in DDO, and I won 500 points on twitter for their Festivalt giveaway. So now I have plenty of points and not much time to play the game currently.

We've watched several movies recently, including Evan Almighty, The Maiden Heist, Julie and Julia, Wall-E, Coraline, Duplicity, The Proposal, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and I think I've missed one or two.