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Army, Afghanistan
Age of Worms Adventure Path – Game Session 67
Game summary for January 8, 2008; present characters included Chuck Ahammer (shield dwarf master thrower/rogue/thunderthrower), Eolas Windmaster (moon elf duskblade), Grim Firestorm (shield dwarf barbarian/battlerager/frenzied berserker/warmain), Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/scout/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/ring sage/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Syvarius Strongbow (moon elf archer-ranger/peerless archer), and Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor/pious templar).
After nursing their wounds and raising their dead, the Mercenaries again set out into Kongen-Thulnir, at approximately 8:30 in the evening, 11 hours into the siege. They pass through some shattered gates and find the palace of the giants in ruins; however, the large citadel on the outcropping still stands.
The party moves unto the bridge and begins their journey to the citadel. After about fifty feet or so, a massive arrow or spear slams into Aridarye, hurling her over the edge and two hundred feet down to the rocks below. Grim immediately used his flying armor to plunge into the darkness to rescue her, or retrieve her carcass. The rest of the team advanced and found themselves under a hail of arrows. The group tried to remain non-hostile and use diplomacy to reason with the giants. The giants halted their fire but warned the team to fall back. Then, Lyrin blocked the view of one giant with a wall of fire, and other party members advanced up the stairs of the citadel. Right as the giants resumed their attack, a massive blue dragon surprised everyone by breathing electricity across the Mercenaries on the bridge.
A new battle was joined, with giants on one side and a dragon on the other. Chuck, Syvarius, Lyrin, and Morak worked over the fire giants. Taravin quaffed a potion of fly and went after the dragon, while Eolas dropped dispel magic repeatedly to get rid of the greater invisibility the dragon had warded itself with. Iapetus bravely attacked the invisible dragon but with little effect. Grim returned with Aridarye and flew out near the dragon. Eolas succeeded in making the dragon visible, which causes Aridarye and Iapetus to panic and run away. The dragon breathed again, and Grim died from the trauma of the electricity shooting through his system.
Two giants fell to half the party, while the rest threw everything they had at the dragon. Taravin pressed his advantage with some tactical aerial maneuvers that prevented the dragon from executing its desired attacks. Instead, it had to improvise and try to shred the flying paladin. Things seemed to be going well for the party. Then, Eolas landed a devastating polar ray, which froze the heart of the dragon, and its dead corpse plunged into the ground. The party quickly stripped the corpses of valuables and stand ready to enter the citadel. Will a handful of defenders await within, or the bulk of the giant forces?
Marine Corps, Iraq
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Recipe – Spanish Spaghetti
- 1 to 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
- 1 large potato
- 1 small onion
- 2 to 3 gloves of garlic
- 2 cups water
- 1 pkg spaghetti noodles
- 1 small can tomato paste
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 5 dashes Texas Pete hot sauce
- 1 dash red pepper
Meatballs
Roll the ground beef into balls; season to taste with salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Brown until done in a large cast iron skillet.
Sauce
Dice up the potato, onion, and garlic cloves and boil in 2 cups of water. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, hot sauce, and red pepper. Reduce heat and allow to simmer at least 30 minutes for the potato to cook. The sauce tends to bubble and splatter, so cover with a splatter screen. When the meatballs are done, add them to the sauce and simmer.
Spaghetti Noodles
Boil in water until tender, drain, and rinse.
Once noodles, sauce, and meatballs are done and meatballs have simmered in the sauce, serve sauce and meatballs over plate of noodles.
Recipe – Cornbread Dressing
- 1 1/2 cup self-rising white cornmeal
- 1/2 cup self-rising flour
- 2 tbsp Crisco
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
Mix ingredients and pour into a greased small cast iron skillet. Bake at 450 degrees until done, approximately 20 minutes.
Cool completely, then crumble cornbread in a large bowl. Add the following ingredients:
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp rubbed sage
- 2 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp poultry seasoning
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 can (14 oz) chicken broth*
Mix crumbled cornbread and ingredients. Press into a greased 6 x 10 x 1 1/2 inch metal bake pan. Mixture should be moist throughout but not soggy; if not completely moist, add some additional broth. Bake at 350 to 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool ten minutes before cutting for best results.
* If available, turkey broth is even better.
Recipe – Cornbread
- 1 1/2 cup self-rising white cornmeal
- 1/2 cup self-rising flour
- 2 tbsp Crisco
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
Mix ingredients and pour into a greased small cast iron skillet. Bake at 450 degrees until done, approximately 20 minutes.
Recipe – Yeast Rolls
- 2 cups very hot water
- 1 pkg dry yeast*
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup Crisco
- 4 cups self-rising flour (such as White Lily)
In a large bowl, place dry yeast and Crisco. Add the hot water and mix. Add egg and sugar, then stir in flour. Store covered in refrigerator at least 1 hour for best results (batter can be kept up to three days). Spoon into greased muffin pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.
* 1/4 oz Fleischmann’s active dry yeast – NOT rapid rise
Recipe – Pudding Mousse
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 pkgs instant pudding mix (same flavor)
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 stick margarine
- 1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
- 1 1/2 cup whipped cream
- 2 1/2 cup milk
Mix flour, sugar, margarine and pecans and mash into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven and let cool before adding layers.
- Layer One – Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 cup of whipped cream. Spread over cooled crust.
- Layer Two – Mix instant pudding and milk. Whisk until thick liquid. Pour and spread over layer one.
- Layer Three – Cover surface of layer two entirely with whipped cream.
Chill in refrigerator until pudding sets. Keep chilled for storage.
Any flavor pudding can be used. Both pistachio and chocolate flavors have proven popular.
Recipe – Baked Tenderloin
- 4 thin sliced pork tenderloins
- 2 cans (11 to 15 oz) pork & beans
- 3 slices bacon
- ketchup
Bake tenderloin in a casserole dish for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Add cans of pork & beans. Top with bacon slices and ketchup (in lines or streaks over the top, not a solid layer). Bake another 30 minutes.
Age of Worms Adventure Path – Game Session 66
Game summary for January 3, 2008; present characters included Chuck Ahammer (shield dwarf master thrower/rogue/thunderthrower), Eolas Windmaster (moon elf duskblade), Grim Firestorm (shield dwarf barbarian/battlerager/frenzied berserker/warmain), Iapetus Hasur (hu-charad giant rogue/scout/vigilante), Lady Aridarye Phylund Brokengulf (human aristocrat/harbinger/ranger cohort), Lyrin Sinbal (simian incantatrix/ring sage/warmage), Morak Beardfist (shield dwarf fighter/rage cleric), Syvarius Strongbow (moon elf archer-ranger/peerless archer), and Taravin Truesilver (human gray guard/paladin of honor/pious templar).
The party’s sudden, invisible, appearance on the ledge was instantly noted by an equally invisible fang dragon of immense proportions. It moved toward the party and blasted everyone with chain lightning. Thinking quickly, Lyrin blocked its progress with a prismatic wall. The dragon surprised the group, however, by using teleport to end up pinning them between the wall and itself. Lyrin dismissed the wall.
Aridarye attempted to bolster her allies with a good hope, but she was too close to the dragon, and it landed a critical bite. In addition, its bite appeared to drain her life force away, leaving a tattered, discarded carcass on the ground. Eolas used dispel magic to drop the invisible cloak the dragon had thrown over its form. Iapetus, Grim, and Taravin bravely surrounded the dragon and worked to batter at it, but its defenses of mirror image and displacement, as well as its tremendously strong scales, proved too much for them to regularly overcome. Syvarius laboriously plinked away with arrows, landing one or two here or there. Eolas began a serious regiment of dispelling attempts, slowly whittling down the dragon’s wards. Meanwhile, Lyrin and Morak cast spell after spell; although, they proceeded cautiously after seeing Eolas’ polar ray turned back on him. The dwarven rogue, Chuck, steadily bashed away with his throwing hammers. Although he did not deal much damage per hit, he consistently harmed the dragon.
The three melee fighters found themselves in a difficult situation. The dragon sundered Grim’s axe, and he had no backup weapon. He spent the remainder of the fight in a frenzy trying to punch the beast. All three were repeatedly caught by the dragon’s claws and tail and hurled violently to the ground. Eventually, they managed to flank the dragon, which allowed the rogues to land a couple of serious shots. The spellcasters remained frustrated due to all the dragon’s wards and its ability to evade area of effects. They still hammered at the creature, but the process was slow.
The party thought for a moment they had driven the dragon off when they recognized it was casting a teleport. Much to their surprise, it used the spell to position itself in the midst of the casters. They scattered and fell back, and Lyrin found himself isolated from the group. The dragon quickly took advantage and charged the warmage. A critical hit from the wyrm’s bite killed Lyrin instantly. Now some distance from the group, the party prepared for the dragon to pivot around and charge back toward them. Curses erupted from the team when the dragon instead snatched up Lyrin and fled via magic, taking the simian’s magical horde for its own.
Battered, bloodied, and down several allies, the Mercenaries retreated into the cover of a giant dwelling and walled themselves in. They now seek to rest and gain the prayers needed to bring their fallen back from the dead. What will transpire in Kongen-Thulnir during their 8-hour “time out”?
Charles Plemons' Blog@posts@charles-plemons.blog.wku.eduJust another weblog
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