May the Power Protect You: Jen Scotts (Timeforce Pink)

Jen Scotts is my favorite pink ranger. Hands down. MMPR pinks do more damage and HF pink is its own can of worms, but I like my frontman characters, and Jen just knocks it out of the park in that role. She speeds up energy generation and is a must-use in any soft-centric ranger team. Is she a better soft frontman than Marv? Honestly? I don't know. Nor do I particularly care. Marv has a different style and I think tier lists for characters in this game are an absolute trap. He doesn't do what Jen does and that is exactly how it should be.

Jen's ability is the definition of flash. You get to swap villain cards and decide what to comes out first. The benefits to this ability are obvious! No, her ability does not cancel out FAST and do not make the mistake my group made in the first few playthroughs of Jen! But not being able to cancel out FAST does not negate Jen's ability, at all. I usually found myself grabbing cards with GUARD and slapping them down at the front, so that way we could take them out faster, or to even cancel out another GUARD card. And while a hard approach to this ability means that you're picking what you're going to nuke first, a soft approach means you're picking the card you're going to start building your engine upon. Jen works pretty well for both approaches.

Overclock is one of the few cards I saw that made me jump up and down with excitement that I actually understood upon first looking at it. Grab a three shield card and discard that sucker and revel in the amount of energy you just gained! Right? Right?

Um, back that up a second.

No. This can be a trap. Whatever you discard eventually will need to go back into your deck, probably using the Recovery action. If you're going to do a full reset cost is obviously no object, but if you can't afford to get a full rest? You might hose yourself. Gaining one energy is already a lot, so I usually find myself playing conservatively with Overclock. Obviously, anyone can do whatever they like, but unless you have a really good reason to dump a three shield card? I really don't see a point.

Well, unless you have Warp Vector. Warp Vector's ability to grab a card, any card, from your discard pile and put it back on top of your deck makes it the ideal compliment to Overclock. It allows Jen to not dust as many card as she does with Overclock, and is a good hard and soft move, overall. The only issue with using Warp Vector with Overclock is how intensive it is on the momentum of your game.  You might kill an enemy card for your trouble? Maybe? The actual combo needs to be spaced out, as a clean-up for when all the heavy lifting has been done and you still have a few dead spaces left.

Covering Fire is the leading soft move for a Front Man. You essentially turn someone else's maneuver into a GUARD-proof attack, for an energy. Hopefully you've been overclocking, so you should have plenty of energy to deal with that, right? Yeah, that's an issue. So make sure you're watching those energy banks. Maybe the maneuver your buddy is playing is an energy gainer, and you come out with no additional energy, but maybe that maneuver costs energy as well. This could turn into a major play, depending upon the cost of said maneuver.

V5 Blaster is one of those cards that I just go gaga over... until I have to actually use it. A three energy attack and they're adding more dice based off of what the heck you've left in the energy pool? Man, you have to set this move up right. Fortunately, it doesn't take very much to make this attack be on par with the Power Bow, power-wise. Just be careful using Overlock and other high energy-generating cards. Make sure that building up to this one super-move actually does more than if you had been doing smaller, but still moderately powerful, moves. That's going to take some intense build-up to be worth it. But, on the other hand, if you manage to get a good three or four extra dice for this one move, you've helped yourself for the next few moves, now haven't you?

Jen's zord is one of the flashiest things in this whole game. Port someone over, for one attack! That's so freaking good! There's only one thing I really want to caution when using the zord, however: do not hose another combat to help yours. If someone has moved over and is helping another battle they may need the very card that you're trying to pull for your own battle. Me being the person I am, I would get really excited that I could use the zord, without stopping to make sure that I should have in the first place. The zord's ability is really powerful, but can set off a ripple effect acrost the board, creating unintended consequences.

Jen's kit is really powerful and deep. She can generate more energy than anyone we have to date. Jen more than holds her own, but put her with a team and her abilities open up the field for everyone else. She's kinda like dropping a a stone into a still pond: the ripples will go on, and on, and on. Her frontmanning abilities are a bit more subtle than folks like Jason, Tommy, and Marvin, but she opens up worlds of play that they can't.

Hallucinations: Session Seven

Karel: the human barbarian, played by David. He's got a map of the great northern mountain reaches, where more Ensivalen posts are mapped. His left arm has a nasty cut that's slowly starting to infect, and he has sustained multiple ghoul bites.

Zilya: the human assassin, played by Bryna. She's been taking care of a little girl they had been paid by the town of Yerwo to find. She started hearing a voice last session, but refused to take its advice. The voice promised she would hear from it again.

Natskin: a minotaur pit fighter, played by Will. He went down the well with Karel and Zilya because good money was involved, and now that they're staring at a bunch of supposedly mythical vinteralfen he can't help but wonder what he just got himself into. Natskin's ribs are broken and he's sustained a few ghoul bites.

Vinteralven: tall and thin humanoids, with blue skin and pointed ears. They're regarded as a myth.

The vinteralven stared at the four beaten and battered adventurers in bewilderment,  the teal light of the lichen lamps throwing them all into extreme shadow.  One vinteralf came forward and asked them how they got through that arch. Taking his last swig of mead, Natskin told them they were trying to rescue this little girl (shivering, she said "I feel down a well") and they were attacked by ghouls, and then a dragon came after them, and they got the dragon and the ghouls to attack each other. Karel drew a picture of the arch they went through and tried to describe the helter-skelter nature of turning it on. Zilya asked for help; the girl was freezing and had a broken arm, not to mention the rest of them were in bad shape. The girl winced from shivering in the icy room, as she had accidentally jarred her arm. The vinteralven showed a brief moment of pity, and then asked if the group had anything to offer the Winter King of Solonphang, their city. Looking at each other a moment, they nodded.

They were led out the small room into a vast cavern. Icy stalactites and stalagmites abounded. The soft teal glow of the lichen showed a variety of stone structures, made primarily from a died blue stone. Vinteralven stopped and stared at them, particularly Natskin. He winked at one of the viteralven women and told her his ex-wife was an elf. She screamed and ran. The vinteralfen who led them chuckled, but told Natskin not to do that again.

They got to the back of the cavern, to the largest structure in the place. Going up the steps, the doors were opened onto a huge room, filled with ice sculptures and a whispering court. On an enormous ice throne sat a vinteralf at least seven feet tall. He stood up to his full height and came walking down to Karel, Zilya, Natskin, and the little girl, who bowed. The Winter King asked them for their offering. Karel produced the last bit of shaved gold they ahd from the Ensivalen Meditation Cube. They knew it wasn't enough, but it was all they had. But the Winter King was staring intently at the gold: he knew it came from Novstrech! He mentioned the city by name!  They had been to the meditation cube beneath Novstrech, he declared. The Winter King immediately asked about The Map. It was in an armoire... a cabinet, that was the word! Yes! That was it! Did they have The Map? Karel nodded and the Winter King eagerly asked for it. The map had immense personal value to the king. Karel asked if he could make a copy first. The Winter King refused; "warmbloods" such as them had no need for that map.

Natskin puked on the floor, still sick from the ghoul bites.

Besides, the Winter King continued, he was willing to trade the map for whatever they needed, carte blanche! That included medical care for their young ward, not to mention a proper set of clothes for her. Ignoring Natskin's glare, Karel produced the map. The Winter King noticed Natskin's dislike for handing over the map.

The little girl was rushed away, to be given warm clothes and medical care for her arm. Zilya, Natskin, and Karel were shown to a stone longhouse. News of the "rapist minotaur" had spread, and no one went near them. That suited them just fine.

They sat for a little while. Karel munched the mushrooms he'd found in the well; his arm finally started feeling better. As he munched he realized just how much stronger his pain could make him, how much more aware of his surroundings. He would use that from then on.

The trio finally felt... normal? Natskin's ribs were taped (and he finally didn't feel nauseous anymore!!), and they all felt more relaxed than they had in awhile.  Well, not Zilya, she was still on edge. They were not amongst friends; the vinteralven could kill them at any moment, and the sooner they got away the better. Natskin scoffed. If the vinteralven had actually wanted to kill them they could have done so at any time, whatsoever. But Natskin was fine with that. He'd made peace with dying awhile back. His people cremated their dead and spread the ashes in the fields, where they returned to feed others. The minotaur people taught that there was a pasture somewhere, far away, where all souls went to live in peace. But Natskin wasn't sure if that was a real place. He'd seen so much, so many horrors, he wasn't sure about much anymore, only that he wasn't afraid to die.

Karel said he didn't really feel any sense of gloom, or that he had thought about death at all. They were in the mountains, that much was obvious, and that was home to Karel. Karel hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time. He couldn't quite get his peoples' story about mountains out of his head. The mountains were formed because the god of ice and the god of snow couldn't agree on anything. So they had a war. So fiercely did they fight that the mountains were born in the ensuing wind blasts and struggle. And that was where his people lived: in the footprints of the gods.

That's all they were doing end. Living in the footprints of those that had shaped the world.

Karel, Natskin, and Zilya sat awhile, silent. The world outside continued.

With Six Wings: Session Two

Hikaru Genji: a human champion of the high race of men, played by Brian. He's out to kill the evil and wretched Warlord Bai on behalf of his lord, Warlord Monkhbat. He keep around paper and quill to give out autographs. He runs through these pretty regularly.

Thakraw: a human shapechanging animist, played by Ethan. THAKRAW CAN CHANGE INTO A POSTOSUCHUS DINOSAUR AND THAT'S AWESOME AND WHY DIDN'T I- Oh right, I'm writing a blog post. Sorry. Thakraw's tribe had been killed by Warlord Bai's serpa soldiers. But Thakraw knows it wasn't Warlord Bai who gave the order. He wants to know who did.

Genji and Thakraw decided to take the Kooramch Pass to get to the Mogoin Forest. Itw as a stretch of flat land directly between the Baytarlag Hills, known for their ghosts and barrow-wights, and the Yadargay Swamp, which held undead horrors in its seemingly infinite pools of swamp water. It also avoided the road, which was patrolled by soldiers. They had a chance of running into denizens of both the hills and the swamp, but it was certainly less of a chance than running into soldiers on the road.

A melanorosaurus

As they made their way with their cart and hired servant, Tomoya, they happened upon a baby melanorosaurus; it had a deep bite in its side. Thakraw jumped out of the cart and ran over to the injured infant dinosaur. Within a few minutes he had transferred healing energy into its bloodied side. It wasn't healed all the way back, but at least the poor thing was no longer on The Deaths' door. Mamma melanorosaurs rounded the corner and lowed at Thakraw, who backed up, next to Genji, who asked if this was one of "his people". Chuckling darkly, Thakraw "reminded" Genji that all of his people were dead, no thanks to Bai and whomever had given the order to slaughter them. Patting Thakraw on the shoulder, Genji told him that he trusted he had this well in tow, regardless. Rolling his eyes at Genji, Thakraw gently approached the mama dino and stroked her. She resisted at first, but relaxed into his touch. Stepping back, Thakraw, Genji, and Tomoya left the mother and child together.

A few nights later Genji found himself on a mountain so tall that he could see the clouds far below him. The sky above Genji was a navy blue; the winds below him howled, but Genji had never known a more peaceful place than where he was, right then. Way up above him, in the darkness, shone a blue flame. Slowly but surely it descended. The flame did not flicker, sputter, was in no danger of going out. As it got closer Genji saw a six-winged serpent at the center of the corona of blue. It declared to Genji that Bai could not die. The seraphim had claimed the serpa as their own, and it all began with Bai. To kill him would be the beginning of the end for the whole planet.

Genji was very quiet the next day, after he woke up. Thakraw was grateful for the break from conversation. A few days later they crossed the Kheigdhal River, approaching the Mogoin Forest from the south. It kept them off the road, but they would have to thread their way between the outpost forts that guarded the southern edge of the forest. Thakraw went ahead of the cart, scouting for the group. He saw a lot of roving companies of drakhon going between the outpost forts. The soldiers were unruly, undisciplined, and only interested in just the bare minimum of security measures. Thakraw could hear the drakhon soldiers complain about how badly treated they had been ever since Warlord Bai had moved in with his serpa soldiers, and they were really only in it for the food, room, and money. So avoiding them was quite easy. And Thakraw made sure they did.

After a few days of avoiding patrols they entered the Mogoin Forest, known for its myriad snakes. They got close enough to investigate Bai's Fortress, which was still under construction. It was a wooden keep with a wall, with a bailey and moat still under construction; the amount of human slaves working the site was overwhelming to the both of them. The serpa soldiers were well-fed, well-disciplined, and well-motivated to serve their warlord.

As Genji and Thakraw watched the proceedings one human slave stuck out to them. He always seemed to have a sense of humor about being worked to death (almost). So when the guards weren't focused on him Genji and Thakraw snuck over to talk to him. They asked him what his name was: Snort, on account of the sound he made to most serpa demands. He'd forgotten his own name shortly after his wife was beaten to death in front of him; his children had been sold to another serpa shortly thereafter. But life was great! Can't complain, right?? Genji asked if Snort could could get him and Thakraw into the keep. Snort asked why one earth Genji and Thakraw wanted to go into such a hellish place. Genji told Snort he was a hero of the people, it was his job! To right wrongs! To defend the weak! Snort laughed and asked if Thakraw was a hero of the people too. Thakraw replied that he would eat Snort if he talked to him again. Snort laughed again and said he had a way to get them right under the serpa's slit noses.

At dusk they made their move. Snort let them into the slave compound, but Genji's metallic breast plate was seen in the dusky light. Snort let the guards capture him so Genji and Thakraw could go on, waving a jaunty salute as they closed in. Another human male came out of the darkness and said Snort had selected him as the backup. They were hurried away.

Snort was never seen again.

They man brought them to a tunnel that the slaves had dug to hide extra food. They defended the secret with their lives. If Genji and Thakraw could kill Bai then they might actually get some change around here. The tunnels went under the courtyard, which was currently empty; the serpa soldiers had been mostly sent out on patrol. There was still a few feet of earth above them. Genji asked Thakraw if he could change into postosuchus and dig. Thakraw said he didn't have that much control over his dino form. All he knew was that when he came back to being human was usually pretty full. So they dug together.

The keep was quiet, but there was a light in the uppermost tower, so that's where they went. At the top of the stair were three guards. Genji took out his autograph paper and quill and wrote something down. He rolled it up and handed it to Thakraw, who nodded in understanding. Walking up to the guards Genji proclaimed that Thakraw was a representative of the great Tomoya and that they needed to speak with Lord Bai, immediately.

The guards saw right through that nonsense.  Two of them thrust their tridents at Genji, but coudln't get through his shield. Genji was barking out orders to Thakraw, helping him avoid a few stabs here and there. The last guard  stabbed Thakraw deeply in the thigh. The postosuchus appeared, roaring in pain. The three guards declared they'd never get to Lord Bai, not after everything he had gone through!  They began stabbing at Thakraw, while Genji swung his sword at one of the guards, getting a light cut in through his armor. Thakraw swung his tail at the middle guard and he fell in a heap; the guard furthest from the door bolted. Genji's next swing bounced off the remaining guard's armor. The guard lunged at Genji, drawing blood.

The postosuchus tore the guard's guts out in one swing.

He collapsed against the door, breathing heavily, trident still out, glaring at his enemies with all the fervor of the righteous.

Genji cut him the rest of the way open with one flick of his sword.

 The postosuchus began to dine.

Genji knocked the door to the tower in on itself. In the child-sized bed Genji saw a child-sized lump. Under the covers was a child serpa.  Looking up, the postosuchus saw the child and lumbered up to him.

Thakraw reappeared a moment later.

Genji asked the child if anyone else was in the room. The child shook his head. The only window led to a thirty foot drop. On the child-sized desk was a stack of papers and a signet ring. The child said his name was Bai. That had been his father's name too. He'd died two years before. Bai's uncle, Chen, took care of him now. Well, when he wasn't shouting at him to get his work done. Signing documents all day was lonely.

Considering their options, Genji asked Thakraw if he wanted the child Bai dead. Thakraw said he only wanted to know who'd told adult Bai to kill his people; he didn't even want the adult Bai dead. Genji said that all he needed to do was report to Monkhbat that a Bai was dead. There was no need to kill the child. Genji said he had no idea why Chen was using Bai like this, but using the child as a proxy was unacceptable. Thakraw asked if Bai would come with them, to someplace better. Certainly less lonely.

Bai nodded.

Genji took out paper and quill, and gave Bai an autograph. Y'know, to remember this day by.

They took the seal and papers on their way out. Tomoya was waiting outside the fortress, ready to go.

God Died

The Crucifixion, by myself. March 2020

Acrylic and gold leaf on a handcross

God died. Every time I think about that fact something catches in my throat. And I find myself sitting, wondering about that.

I should think about it more often.

One of the things that has always stuck out at me about the world is how brutal and uncaring a place it is. I'm typing this on a computer manufactured in China, a place known for its oppression and evil. This computer runs because someone who is a slave for all intents and purposes helped put it together. Running the servers required to be able to type my post hurts the environment that I live in. I live in the USA, which is essentially policing the world because we've created such an awful network of global economic ties that we can't afford not to, not without risking our own economy. Our country routinely butchers its young because we can't control ourselves and the best most of us seem to have as an excuse is to deny the personhood of said little individuals, using the flimsiest of cowardly arguments to try and not face such a horrific thing.

And yes, if you are pro-choice and reading this blog, I am talking about you.

Yes, you.

Suck it up. I know you're a coward. At best. At worst you're advocating genocide, actively. I find that monstrous. And disgusting. Yeah, go cry. Or be angry. You're alive and capable of doing it, which I can't say for the hundreds of thousands of children you're OK with butchering by dismemberment and burns. At least give them a frickin' burial, as opposed to throwing them into trashcans.  At least blacks got to claim to be 3/5s of a person legally! Even if that is a moral evil that is so horrifying I can barely comprehend it!

Yes, you are morally worse than the 3/5's rule. By a very long shot.

In case it is still not clear, yes you, a thousand times you.

OK, that's out of the way.

Let's see if anyone else is still reading this Great and Holy Friday post.

For the rest of you who are either disgusted but reading on anyway or nodding your head in assent or whatever, it doesn't get much better in the U.S. The simple fact of the matter is that the Republican party ain't Christian, not by a long shot. The Old Testament may have its faults in the modern liberal's eyes, but they shouldn't take issue with the laws about taking care of the poor and the alien, the folks who don't fit in whatever system a society has. Care for the poor is not a private affair, period. So claiming that supporting the Republican or the libertarian party is supporting life or is Christian is a laughingstock, because it is our civic and political duty to support those not as well off as us, regardless of how deserving you think they are. In fact, to care for the undeserving is at the height of Christian charity! So all those deaths, spiritual and physical? Yeah, that's on the Republicans and those who vote for them. It's longer, slower, and not quite as graphic as the liberal genocide (what era of liberalism, classical or modern, hasn't had large scale genocide?? Really?), but it is just as deadly.

Yes, I am talking to you. That person who voted for Trump simply because he stated he was pro-life.

Yes, you.

My indignation is not as strong, but it should be. That's on me. But you backing those charlatans? Yeah, look in the mirror to see who's responsible for that.

And don't get me started on the military, which focuses on ruining souls so that they may become killing machines. I've never been part of a system that so wrecks a human soul so quickly, so efficiently. It is possible to train people to kill without wrecking their soul. But we ain't doing it.

Our system is built upon oppression and death, worldwide. As a race we are a miserable, unfeeling, unloving pile of filth.  To deny it is to engage in sheer fantasy, of the variety that is unhealthy to indulge in, and yet far too easy. We look the other way so that we can get ours. I look the other way so I can get mine.

And what was the Christian God's response to this dog eat dog world that we willingly set up? He let it crush Him. After three years of doing nothing but good, so much that the Gospel of John says that all the books in the world could not contain His acts of goodness, He let the inevitable happen to Him. Let it. He let us kill Him.

He walked into a deathtrap and suffocated to death in a manner I would not wish upon my worst enemy.

So the next time you start talking about systemic change for the benefit of mankind remember what God's solution to this mess was: to be crushed by the existing system. And to keep on loving, at all times. To keep seeing the good in the oppressor, to refuse to let that define your view of them, to acknowledge that goodness and love transcend this broken and awful world, to refuse to be corrupted by your pain, because Love will win. It is as inevitable as the creation of the Grand Canyon. But the water in the Grand Canyon did not care to become a rock, to dig forcibly against said rock it encountered. Rocks chip away. They fall apart. The water knew better. It stayed water. And won.

The side of Christ gushed water. And blood. My soul is very much so a rocky, hard, unfeeling, ugly, unloving thing. I wish I could say that I will be won over to Him in a day, a week, a month, two months, decades, but the Grand Canyon took thousands, millions possibly, of years to form! And it wasn't actively resisting the process, unlike myself.  And make no mistake, I do. By the second. Hatred feels strong. Isolation feels so empowering, even if it leaves me a miserable wreck of a specimen. So who knows if I will be able to soften my heart at all? Certainly not I, but I hope so, as best I can. The best I can do is to keep letting the Blood and the Water wash over me. To weep from the agony of having to let go of the pain and the horrors perpetrated by and to me and the world, to see the face of the One Who is with me all the way down this elevator to Hell. To scream at the One Who is very patiently and lovingly holding me as the poison is drawn out of my body and soul.

And then to gasp in relief as I see the beaming face of my wife. And my children. And my friends. And my family. And to realize that I am not alone in this fight for my soul, for our soul. I may be a miserable wreck of a human being, but Christ has given me people to sit beside me as I am held, kicking and screaming and cursing at the One Who is drawing out the poison, because of the immensity of the pain. They are there to help me realize that the One Who does this is not a torturer, but a healer. And that sometimes the difference between the two is merely intent, if nothing else. I cannot focus on the Face of the One Who sacrificed Himself for me because of the sheer pain and rage, and so therefore I have been my given my family and friends to try and help me focus.

Because this only ends one way.

Only one.

There's only one way out of this mess. 

And I need to focus so that way I can greet it with open arms.

It may be a week. A month. Two decades. Two seconds. But it is coming. There are some days I look at that with a joy that I cannot begin to express. To see the flaming wreckage collapse! To see it rot and fall away! Oh what a day! To see my part in this hellish facade melt away, what a blessing that will be. Death is not the problem, not anymore, but the solution. I only hope that, when that day comes and I finally get to go Home, to finally be in a place where this cycle of misery is no longer a thing, that I truly rejoice that I have left the insanity behind. That I will wipe my neighbor's eyes, not continue to hit them because I'm scared about what will happen when we stop. That I will comfort and heal without fear of reprisal. Because I'm a coward for even thinking that as a possibility. I hope to transcend that fear.

I hope we all do.

Christ did not stop the clock. The definition of compassion is to suffer evil in the other. Christ did this. Willingly.

I hope I have half His courage.

Y'know, before it's too late.

Because some day it will be.

The Undertow: Session Sixteen

Mikansia: the main character, a female elf played by Lena. Mikansia had gone to investigate an eldritch egg, which was in a secluded cave in the Etranger Mountains, only to find that the egg had been calling to and corrupting desperate men already. She's also missing the sword her friend, Jabez, had given her awhile ago, before he had died.

Krakeru: Mikansia's evil father. She had killed him to avenge the death of her friend, Jabez. Krakeru is evil incarnate.

The eldtritch egg opened, sucking in the poor human stuck in it back in. Out stepped Krakeru. He saw Mikansia and smile "Mikki!" Mikansia froze; Krakeru charged, sword out. It somehow managed to glance off her leather armor. Krakeru immediately shifted into a more guarded stance, but Mikansia knew she couldn't beat him at swordplay. The glance off of her armor was a one in a million occurrence and Mikansia knew it would never happen again.

So she tackled Krakeru, completely taking him by surprise. Krakeru tried to throw Mikansia off of him, to get the advantage, but Mikansia put him a choke hold, applying so much pressure that Krakeru was immediately immobilized. Ensio and Dale came around the corner. Growling through gritted teeth, Mikansia asked for some help. Ensio asked if this was supposed to be someone who should have been dead. Mikansia yelled that she'd killed Krakeru previously and he desperately needed to stay dead, thank you very much! With a flick of Ensio's sword Krakeru's throat gushed gore. He continued to struggle, locking eyes with Mikansia. Those eyes were full of hatred, of rage, of a thousand promises unspoken. Mikansia knew Krakeru was dying, but wouldn't let go. Seeing that Mikansia wasn't relaxing, Ensio cut open Krakeru's stomach. One explosion of guts later and Krakeru was still.

Getting up and cleaning herself off, Mikansia asked what the hell that was all about?? Ensio explained that eldritch eggs could warp reality around them, recreating someone's worst fear. Ensio hadn't told Mikansia and Dale because the level of fear they brought to an eldricth egg determined how strong the thing they feared was when it came back. Looking down at Krakeru's corpse, Mikansia asked if that was actually Krakeru; Ensio confirmed that it was, actually and really, Krakeru. The eldritch egg had actually brought him back to life. In a few minutes the egg would focus on another person and replicate their fear. Mikansia and Dale asked why the couldn't just destroy the egg before then, and Ensio replied that doing so would take a lot of time, and so they would be interrupted too many times. Better to just wait the fear out.

The egg opened and released a large dragon with six legs, black and chitinous. Dale blanched. Mikansia began the low and threatening hum of the Song of the Sword; her sword began to glow with the sorrow of the elven people. The dragon lashed out, but only managed a gash on Mikansia, Ensio, and Dale as they leapt away. Mikansia and Ensio rushed foward and stabbed deep into the underbelly of the dragon, immobilizing it. Pushing forward, they cut the dragon open, amidst a shower of blood and guts. They jumped out of the way as the monstrosity collapsed in a sea of blood, further covering them. Dale walked up to to the dragon and plunged his sword deeply into its eye. It moved no more.

A minute later and the eldritch egg opened again. Out into the pool of blood walked a succubus. Ensio took a deep breath. "Hello again, Ensio! Found another eldritch egg?"

There was a slash; a rainbow appeared through the succubus. She split open. Appearing behind her was the scaly feathered creature from Dream, holding a rainbow-infused blade.

It was Jabez's sword. Mikansia recognized the hilt.

Hallucinations: Session Six

Last time... Zilya, Natskin, and Karel went down a well after a missing girl. They found her, but ran afoul of the security statues of the dungeon they had inadvertently found. Natskin's ribs and lantern were broken, Karel's napsack, with all his extra torches, were destroyed, the facility was put on lockdown, and they're now staring at five hungry ghouls, scared little girl in tow. What a time to be alive!

Yes, there were five ghouls staring at them. Karel did want to live. But he was very curious about the room. It was very similar to one of the rooms in the cube: a golden room, with glass tubes lining the walls. There could very well be a secret door on this floor, and Karel wanted to find out if there was one  before they were all eaten. He handed his torch to Natskin and made a break for it, hoping to get to the other side of the room to try and find something, anything! One of the ghouls lunged out and bit Karel as he ran; he almost threw up from the immediate nausea. Karel threw the ghoul off and got away. He was going to live, damnit! At the other end of the room he found the door he was looking for; it opened with a whoosh.

Natskin strode forward and dropped into a boxing stance. He was a beefy minotaur; it didn't take much to distract the ghouls from everything else. He lunged out and punched at them, daring them to take him on. They took him at his word.

Zilya grabbed the little girl, who could barely move from the terror, and dragged her away, hiding behind one of the glass tubes, trying to work out a plan of engagement. A small whisper, stately but sad, sighed over her shoulder: "You can use the tubes against them". The girl didn't react to the whisper. Karel yelled that he'd found another door.  They all made a break for it, torch guttering wildly. The stately but sad whisper voice told Zilya they'd meet again. No one else heard it but her. There was only one button in the elevator.

The doors closed on the charging ghouls just in time. But only just. They opened again on a rotting room: furniture barely held together against time, dampness, and a cracked ceiling, which let in just enough light.

Oh, and a sleeping black dragon. He's important too!

Everyone froze. Except Natskin. He wanted to fight the dragon, maybe even tame it and make it a pet! He tried to stride forward, but was restrained forcibly.

The dragon stirred.

It sat up.

They could see a door behind the dragon.  They were jamming the button to the elevator like mad. The doors whooshed shut, just in time.

They opened upon the snarling ghouls. Putting herself between the girl and the undead monsters, Zilya yelled at Natskin to get the ghouls in the elevator. Natskin yelled at the ghouls. They remembered him from before, so it didn't take too much work to get them into the elevator to feast on his enormous frame. But Natskin couldn't get out. Karel got himself next to the elevator door. Zilya tried to duck under a ghoul's reach, so she and the little girl could get out.

The doors closed before she could.

The torch went out. The girl screamed over the snarling of the ghouls.

Somehow nobody got bit before doors opened again. The four friends heard it: a deep breath, from something large. They hit the deck. A pillar of acid flew over them. The ghouls screamed in agony. And then they charged the dragon, falling apart as they did. They engaged the beast, biting and and clawing at it, as they disintegrated.

The crack in the ceiling looked too small for Natskin, so the group tried the door at the far end of the rotting room. It was locked. Pressing any next next to it resulted in a voice saying "Lockdown initiated. Access denied". They all charged the steel door, even the little girl, with Natskin in the lead.

KRUNCH

There was a hallway, ending in a room. In the room was a stone archway. They could hear the sounds of the fighting dying down, as the ghouls fell apart. Zilya tried running through the archway. Nothing happened. There was a control panel on an adjacent wall. They all pounded on the buttons. A voice, mechanical and cold, spoke: "Lockdown measures in effect. Only emergency destinations are authorized."

The archway sprang to life, a light crackling between the posts. They dove through. Natskin was the last to go through. He so desperately wanted a pet dragon...

It turned and saw him. And it took a deep breath.

The room Natskin entered was bitterly cold, even for him. Standing before the group were three blue humanoids, with pointy ears: the vinteralfen.

"How did you get an Ensivalen Arch to work...?" one of them asked after a second.

They looked startled. Not to mention confused.

It's Still on My Shelf: Tenra Bansho Zero

I backed this at about the same time as Torchbearer, about seven years  ago.

Seven years???

No.

I refuse to-

Just no.

I just backed this. A year ago. I promise. Yeah, that's it.

Point is, I still haven't played it. I've always wanted to; the whole game is just so freaking cool, with varying levels of accessibility that scream "I WAS MEANT TO BE PLAYED NOT LOOKED AT". I wish I could say that I have, but I really haven't. Yes, I'm going to blame the Army for this one again, but the truth is that I've been a bit intimidated by the game.

Why is that, you ask?

Well, let's break this down. Tenra Bansho Zero (TBZ) is a Japanese RPG, the first to be translated into English. It's designed to be a four to six hour single session campaign. All the character development that one could possibly have in a campaign gets pushed into that single session. It's hyper intense, hyper focused, just freaking hyper. Everyone has what are called Fates, which are hooks that the players can use to perform so the other players award them Aiki. Aiki is a resource you either use to get a few extra dice for your actions, or you can use it to generate Kiai. Kiai is extremely powerful, but spending it accrues Karma (yes, you have to track it yourself). Get 108 Karma? your character becomes an Asura, a demon enslaved to his desires, and taken over by the GM. You can get rid of Karma by getting rid of or lowering your Fates. You get rid of or lower your desires, you let go, so that way you do not become corrupted.

And then after that incredibly intense session you do a completely different story, in its own session. With different characters.

And you do it again.

And again.

And again.

Each of these stories are supposed to be completely self-contained, jumping from point to point in the really well-detailed setting that the game provides.

In fact, I would argue that the setting is the gold standard for how to make an RPG setting: make a place that needs saving, for whom there is no way out other than the players. Make the players essential. You want people to be heroes? Make everyone else not. Want the players to be a light? Make a variety of darkness they cannot help but feel on their skin. The TBZ setting is so well done that that its quality alone has made me keep the game, just to reference from time to time, to make sure that I'm designing my own settings correctly.

Yes, that was a paragraph-long aside.  The point is that you have to jump around a lot. And, given my own background for preferring long-running campaigns, I found that intimidating. How on earth could I come up with that many campaign ideas, that quickly? That's a lot of campaign work. But ultimately what's won me over on trying this out as a series of one shots is that there are plenty of pregenned characters, all of which are more defined by their Fates (which are player and GM generated) than by their skills, which means that player work is relatively low. And there's nothing stopping you from following the translator's advice and just keep spinning one-shots from the previous session's ending. I mean, all problems were formerly a solution, so that part makes sense.

There's a lot going for TBZ. I really can't wait to finally give it a shot as well. Well, y'know, one day. We'll get there.