Lark's Landing, Episode 33

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


8th-9th of Waxing Fall, 0AL

In the morning, the group once again head straight over to Gilligan to further explore Balasar's lost memories, still missing Dugg from their number. They enter the dark interior of the dragonborn's locked memories, and Stor requests that they continue on the memory path where he saw his adoptive parents. No one argues with the idea.

They go through the memory of Balsar asking after traitors in a roadside inn, then the one where Stor is witnessed parting from his parents at a crossroads, and Balasar follows the parents. Before they go on to the next memory, Balasar pulls Stor aside and reminds him that, whatever happens in there, whatever happened in the past, it wasn't him. Not really him. They brace themselves and go through.

They see Balasar continuing to follow Stor's parents, but unable to risk getting near to them because they stay in groups of people, and they seem to befriend another couple. In the evening, they enter an inn along with that couple. Balasar waits outside while evening falls. His patience pays off when he sees Stor's parents leaving the inn - but he quickly notices that these two individuals appear to be wearing disguises - they aren't his real targets, but he silently congratulates his quarry on their clever attempt to distract him. He waits for nightfall, going from room to room until he finds Stor's parents sleeping. He efficiently kills them as they sleep, then ransacks the room and mutilates the bodies to make it look less like a professional hit. The memory fades....

Balasar apologies, and the others try to offer condolences and emotional support to Stor, who has shut down as he processes not only the confirmation that his parents are dead, but that he just experienced killing his own parents from the perspective of their murderer.

After a brief break, he is ready to go on - even though Balasar has assured him that he doesn't have to continue on. Stor insists that he's ready, so they move forward. They head for the next memory they're pretty sure is open to them, first going through the memory of Balasar exiting a building with his compatriot, discussing their orders to wipe out an entire bloodline - one which they can hunt down with the aid of research done by a cult and an eyeball in a jar. Emerging from this memory that they've seen before, Extang is certain he recognizes the eye as the one he's missing.

They move on into the connected memory, where they witness Balasar speaking with a very old man about his son. The man is saying that his son always assumed his powers came from his mother, as she has some magical prowess, but that it actually comes from his side of the family. Balasar thanks him and leaves, rejoining a small entourage. He then gives the order to burn down the house. There is some argument that is started to be raised about who the man's wife is, but Balasar says it doesn't matter - their orders are to wipe out the bloodline, and until they hear otherwise, that's what they're going to do. The memory fades as the house goes up in flames.

Realization slowly dawns on T'Zaric that this was his childhood home that just burned, and the man inside - though significantly older than when he'd last seen him - was his father. The half-elf turns and storms off. The others chase after him, catching him just before he leaves Balasar's mind. He gives them enough information to indicate that Balasar had killed his father, but can't be convinced to stay. He returns to the real world, and the others follow - awakening just in time to see him turn invisible as he's storming off.

The others talk for a bit, but Balasar soon notices that Stor is still surly. He tells the others to stay behind, and takes Stor off into the jungle alone. Fiaeorri silently follows, while Extang heads home to unsuccessfully search Balasar's possessions for his missing eye.

Out in the jungle, Balasar tells Stor to punch him to get it out of the system - he knows that he deserves it, and wants his friend to feel better. Stor obliges, cracking him such a wallop that it sends him spinning to the ground - it's loud enough that it attracts the attention of T'Zaric, who was rage-picking random plants in the vague hopes that they were poisonous. Balasar gets up, spitting a tooth, and asks Stor if he's feeling better. The goblin replies that he still has a lot to process.

T'Zaric bursts from the bushes and storms up to Stor, demanding to know if that was really enough for him - if he wants more revenge. Stor says he's better than that, and T'Zaric vanishes back out into the woods.

Startled by T'Zarics sudden appearance, Balasar guesses that they still aren't alone. He calls out to Fiaeorri, guessing that their sneaky friend is somewhere nearby. After a moment she comes out of hiding with a cheeky grin. Balasar tells her it's time, and he heads off with her - leaving Stor to head home and work out his feelings.

Balasar and Fiaeorri head out to Balasar's shrine to Epesta and lay plans for Balasar to fake a suicide. The hardest part will be acquiring a body, but Fiaeorri assures him that she can acquire one. She heads off into the settlement, locates a male blue dragonborn, lures him out into the jungle, and kills him. She then takes the body to Balasar, who immediately notices that the corpse is extremely fresh and sees through Fiaeorri's lies that she just found the body. He freaks out a little, but regains control of himself - realizing that the man is already dead, there's nothing he can do about it, and that this will help with his goal to disappear. He still isn't happy about it, though.

The body is hidden in the jungle, and they continue with their preparation. However, they are slowed by their need of a boat, as all the boats are out fishing. They do finally manage to procure one, and are laying their final plans at the shrine when they're interrupted by Extang - who has become suspicious of Balasar's absence all day. He convinces Balasar that they need to continue the journey through his mind, and they head for Gilligan, planning on taking one last trip with just the two of them.

T'Zaric, who stealthily had followed Extang to the shrine, waits behind - having seen Fiaeorri vanish into the woods. He can't find her, however, so he throws an illusory image of three leaves - her goddess's symbol - into the air. She comes out and he talks to her about possibly changing Balasar's staged death into an actual one. Fiaeorri doesn't agree to help him, but says she won't stand in his way. However, she's uncertain of what choice she should make in this situation, so she follows after Balasar and Extang, thinking to get some insight from Extang's cards. T'Zaric stays far off in the jungle, but follows along.

Balasar and Extang arrive at Gilligan's construction site to be met by a puffy-eyed Stor, who is out looking for the companions who haven't been home all day. He also agrees to go into Balasar's head, but Gilligan says it's too late and tells them to come back tomorrow, after getting some rest. Balasar, unwilling to wait to leave, heads back to the hidden body and boat - asking Fiaeorri, who is just arriving, to meet him there. Stor and T'Zaric follow behind, both being so sneaky that they aren't even aware of each other.

Fiaeorri asks Extang if his cards can answer a question for her - but she doesn't want him to know the question, so she whispers it to the deck of cards, asking about if it's right to kill the dragonborn. The answer she gets is that, for her, it's all just business. Satisfied, she heads off to meet Balasar, but Extang is sticking to her side. She distracts him just long enough to sneak off into the jungle.

Extang, figuring that Balasar's shrine to Epesta is the only thing in the jungle in that direction, heads for that. He arrives to find Balasar's new sword leaning against the shrine, a faint blue glow coming from it. Panicking, believing that leaving the precious sword behind means Balasar is intending to kill himself. He takes the sword, and - guessing Balasar will want to be close to his goddess of the sea - ties it to his back as he runs down the path to the beach.

He arrives to see, further down the beach, two individuals pushing a boat out into the water. He figures that can't be Balasar, as he would be doing whatever he's doing alone, so he continues to scan the area - unaware that Stor and T'Zaric are also watching from the jungle.

Down the beach, Fiaeorri sees Balasar off in he boat, which he begins rowing out to sea, angling towards the settlement. As he goes, he strips his gear and puts it onto the dead dragonborn in the boat with him. He slips his fake suicide note into the bag of holding, trusting that his friends will find it. As he nears the settlement, still a hundred feet out from the shore, he magically amplifies his voice and begins singing a funereal song.

With that as the last clue he needs, Extang shouts "No!" and casts a spell on himself, allowing him to fly out to the boat. As he gets near, Balasar, not wanting the interruption, cancels out the spell, sending Extang plummeting into the water. Extang re-casts the spell on himself, but stays under the water, closely following the boat.

A small fiery bead arcs out of the jungle towards the boat, detonating into a massive fireball when it arrives, charring Balasar and even doing a bit of damage to the submerged Extang. The commotion is starting to draw people to the beach, and Balasar decides its time to take his leave. He calls forth a blast of lightning as he jumps out of the boat, but he isn't expecting Extang to grab him as soon as he hits the water. The blast splinters the sides of the boat and knock him unconscious. Injured and concerned for his friend, but more concerned about the fireball from the jungle, Extang takes Balasar in tow and dives under the water, swimming further out to sea.

Stor, seeing the blasts that hit the boat and his friend, begins blowing his whistle and takes off into the air, flying at remarkable speed all the way to what remains of the boat. There he sees a very charred dragonborn corpse wearing Balasar's gear. He lifts his friend and begins carrying him back to the shore, but then he sees T'Zaric rush out of the jungle and onto the beach, sending another fireball arcing into the ocean. Stor follows with his eyes and sees two dragonborn figures who have just surfaced. He watches as Extang revives Balasar with a healing potion just before this new fireball detonates on them. They both fall limp in the water.

Outraged at this betrayal, Stor drops the body he's carrying into the ocean and flies straight at T'Zaric, pulling on the elemental energies around him to whip out at him with water, hoping to trip him up. T'Zaric nimbly dodges the brunt of the hit and runs off into the crowds on the beach, turning invisible. Stor shouts "Murderer!" after him, but he's no one can see him.

Concerned for his friends out at sea, Stor reverses direction and flies out to them. Both look like they're on death's doorstep. He makes the decision to save Extang, and manages to bring him into a stable condition - however, in that moment, the last breath escapes from Balasar's lips.

The shredded clouds of Balasar's brief thunderhead drift away from the crescent moon, allowing a beam of light to fall upon Balasar's body. The light appears more yellow and sunlighty than moonlight normally does. Stor believes he sees something that looks like the essence of his dead friend rise up into the light.

Balasar alone hears a voice telling him that his torment is at an end - and that, while much of his life he went hand-in-hand with great suffering, he was not the cause; his soul is innocent.

Stor watches as the incoherent shape he believes to be his friend's soul reshapes into the long, sleek, blue-grey form of a dolphin and shoots off into the ocean. The clouds continue to drift and the beam of light fades.

Stor gathers up unconscious Extaing and Balasar's body and drags them back to shore, where he informs the curious onlookers that Balasar was murdered by someone with a personal grudge - when he admits it was T'Zaric, Hargrom says he will arrange for the militia to try to track him down. Stor takes Extang home so he can recover, then returns to help some sailors bury Balasar's body at his shrine.

Meanwhile, Fiaeorri, who watched everything occur, swims out to where Stor dropped the other body and retrieves it. She gathers all of Balasar's belongings - taking the money and a few choice items for herself - and quietly buries the body in the jungle before returning home with everything. Once Stor has returned and Extang woken up, they read Balasar's farewell note that he hadn't intended to be as permanent as it seems. They decide that anything else can wait until the morning and they go to sleep.

The next day, as they begin their discussions, Stor surprises the other two by saying that he needs a break. He's the sole remaining member of the original 3rd Watch; everyone keeps on leaving. And now he knows his parents are dead as well - killed by one of his closest friends. He needs a long time to figure some things out.

He's just preparing to leave when a knock comes at the door, accompanied by someone shouting his name. Surprised and curious, he opens the door to find a militia member supporting Sira - a half-elven sorcerer friend of Extang's who was running a game at the last festival. Only, he looks much different now. He's ragged and scuffed, with a badly broken arm, and his features are subtly different. In fact, from a certain angle, he looks like Varis, Stor's adoptive father!

"Stor!" he says, "Your mother's in trouble and needs your help!"

Overwhelmed and nearly delirious, Stor rushes out the door, only to have his father ask if he's bringing the rest of the 3rd Watch along to help - as Varis is in no condition to go along to help. Stor returns to his friends to ask if they'll accompany him.


And that's where this game session comes to an end. Find out what happens in six weeks (the game is taking a short break) with Episode 34.

Long Day, Short Blog

Sometimes blogs are rather long,

Sometimes they’re short and sweet.

Some of them are quite profound,

While others have no meat.

The topics range from this to that,

Some neat, some strange, some dull,

But if you come here every week,

There’s something from my skull.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 32

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


6st - 8th of Waxing Fall, 0AL

Having emerged from exploring Balasar's memories, the four who had stayed agree that they need to talk about what they saw - but Balasar insists on waiting until tomorrow, after he's had a chance to rest. Not only is he exhausted and feeling weakened from the experience, but he now also has vein-like patterns on his blue scales, crawling up his arms and the sides of his neck - black on one side and silver on the other. The others accept this.

In the middle of the night T'Zaric sneaks in, accidentally waking everyone before they all settle back to sleep. In the morning, they have their chat - minus Dugg, who hasn't been seen since leaving Balasar's mind early. Balasar is very concerned about who he was in the past, and talks about changing his name to something like Salabar.

The group fill T'Zaric in on some of the memories he missed, focusing on the one where he had been selling information to the Somvidian Empire. He doesn't deny it, and he produces a wanted poster he had featuring one of Balasar's alternately-coloured personalities, saying that he hadn't realised it was Balasar until seeing his memories of having different coloured scales. Now, however, he has no intention of cashing in on the reward any time soon - if only because there's no one to collect it from.

Balasar talks a bit about possibly sending magical messages to someone he interacted with in the memories, but Fiaeorri and Stor are push for getting right back to the memories. And so, the five of them return to Gilligan and enter the meditative dream-state that takes them to the dark, undulating interior of Balasar's mind, where they resume their journey, focusing on new memories.

They experience Balasar giving a man a description of a necklace, and the man saying he will form a team to retrieve it. They then enter the memory they fled from on the previous day - fighting their way through some hideous, shadowy internal demons before getting to view it - another collection of memories, this one of war. Sometimes Balasar was fighting for the Somvidian Empire, other times he was against them - until he gave a signal and he and many others turned on the side they were fighting for. Coming out of the memories, Balasar notices that he had been using his clerical powers in the battles, but his holy symbol was odd - in different battles it took the shape of the symbols of different gods, but before going into battle he would always clutch it in his hand and it would turn into an ivory mask - the symbol, Stor helpfully tells him, of Pettix, the got of poison, thievery, and betrayal. They also all recognise that, in one of the memories, the army Balasar betrayed had been led by Takyev, a human noble they know from their settlement's council.

They head back out to the main chamber, finding they have explored all but one of the memories that lead off it. Unfortunately, that one is still blocked by several tentacles and Balasar is afraid they'll have to go through the painful process of cutting their way through until Stor reminds him that some of the other memories had other paths that might now be open. So they dive back in, re-experiencing memories and sometimes finding the way blocked, but finding open pathways as well.

Beyond the memory of trying to recruit werewolves is one of leaping off the back of Deathbringer the wyvern into the middle of a battle to deliver the final blow to a vampire - thus sealing a deal with the werewolves. Beyond the memory of asking after traitors in a tavern, there's a memory of Balasar setting eyes on his targets at a crossroads. It is too crowded for him to attack, but the half-elf man and human woman crouch down to talk to the goblin with them, then they send the goblin one way and head the other. Balasar follows them, knowing that the goblin is a less important target and will be easier to find later. When the memory fades, everyone has recognised the goblin as Stor - and Stor has recognised the two targets as his adoptive parents, and has a sinking feeling about why they weren't on the ship.

Past the memory where Balasar had brought reinforcements to an army containing Kordak and Hargrom is a memory of a very annoyed Balasar with many of those same reinforcements, guarding a caravan of refugees fleeing the war zone. He's giving some of the civilians a hard time to vent his feelings while waiting impatiently for something. Through the memory of tracking someone, Balasar has spotted the person he has been sent to retrieve - a yellow-skinned tiefling with a broken horn. However, she is speaking to someone - an odd, humanoid fox-like creature. The two shake hands, then the fox-like creature steps through a magical door and vanishes. Balasar goes to move in, but a voice right beside him draws his attention. He spins to see who it is and what they want, but the fox-like creature just grins and says she's protecting an investment before vanishing through another magical door. Balasar turns back to see his target has gone. Emerging from the memory, most of them recognise the two figures as having been Akta and the Negotiator.

They head into the memory where Balasar was being experimented on over time and presented to a group of tiefling in Somvidian officer uniforms, from which there are two open paths. One takes them to a series of memories of a blank-minded Balasar locked in a dark cell that he came to know very well over time, and the other featured more memories of being on the experimentation table - this time for being "fixed" of various problems, such as his scales rippling through several different colours.

This time when they return to the main room, the last door in there is open. They enter a memory in Krorheart, the city the Noble's Lark sailed from, where Balasar is following Extang down the street, intending to kill him. Then he spots a more important target, whom the group later recognises as Triena, the priestess of the Four who gave birth to Chance, the settlement's first child. Balasar immediately turns to follow this runaway, pregnant wife of the Emperor, but before he gets to the tavern door he is set upon by three hooded figures with blank golden masks. He is confused, because he recognises them as allies, and his hesitation costs him his consciousness - but not before he sees Deathbringer swoop out of the sky and get killed.

Emerging from the memory, they see a shadowy wyvern and rider emerge out of the ceiling. The enemies charge in and there is a desperate fight, ending with Balasar killing the rider and Stor jumping onto the wyvern's back and driving his spear through its skull, triumphantly riding its form to the ground as it dissipates into the floor. A second route out from this memory leads them to the memory awakes with the hooded and masked figure standing over him, ending with him in pain.

Balasar is just about ready to call it a day, but Fiaeorri offers to forgo her pay for the day if he lets them cut their way into a specific memory. Balasar very reluctantly agrees and, when they get to it - the one following a memory of him rallying several villages to attack a child-stealing cult - he hesitates again, seeing that there's only one tentacle blocking the way. However, with Fiaeorri urging him on, he cuts through it - suffering a fearsome headache as three flaming horses emerge from the writhing ends of the tentacles.

A desperate fight follows. Though Extang grows Fiaeorri to a larger size, she is soon knocked unconscious, dying from her wounds. Just as she is revived with a healing potion, Balasar is taken down by another one of the horses. The entire environment shakes, and a giant, screaming Balasar head emerges from the ceiling as the unconscious dragonborn watches from above through a nightmarish haze. Fiaeorri is knocked unconscious again shortly before the flaming horses are finished off. Balasar is revived with a healing potion, and he in turn uses his magic to bring Fiaeorri back to consciousness.

Not to be deterred, they limp into the freshly opened memory, where they witness Balasar in the aftermath of a battle heavily featuring villagers armed with improvised weapons. He is talking to a human who has frequently been his companion before, saying that they did a good job, but there were survivors. However, it doesn't really matter, because they know how to find them.

Fiaeorri isn't entirely satisfied with the answers she found here, but there are no other memories leading off of this one. Besides, they are all feeling weakened, so they hurry out, awakening in their bodies back at the settlement. They are surprised to find that the healing potions they used in Balasar's mind are now empty - though they were never opened.

Fiaeorri pulls the group together and tells them that she needs their help with something. She pulls out the necklace they heard described in one of the memories and tells them that it is connected to her people - people, as it turns out, that Balasar helped to wipe out. However, there are apparently survivors, and there's some way to find them. She asks them if they'll help her, and they agree. She also gets them to promise to never tell Dugg about the necklace, though she won't give a reason why. They all hesitantly agree, recognising that they all have secrets that they will only talk about when they're ready.

Balasar lingers behind everyone else to talk to Gilligan alone. He tells Gilligan about some of the memories - focusing on the vampire one, as he believes it relates to Gilligan's history - and how he's done horrible things in his past. As a result, he wants Gilligan's help in case he needs to fake his death so he can disappear in the future. Gilligan doesn't believe any of his talents will help with this, though, as he doesn't have any illusory skills. He agrees to think on it, even as Balasar rushes off to talk to the people he think might be more suited for this task - Fiaeorri and T'Zaric. He discusses faking his death with them, and they agree to help him - though he gets the feeling Fiaeorri is undecided as to weather or not she'll actually try to kill him when the time comes; T'Zaric, on the other hand, seems completely genuine when he says that he won't try to kill him.

The group eventually all filter home, going to bed and wondering what their next foray into Balasar's memories will bring.


And that's where this game session ends. Find out what happens next in Episode 33.

Interpreting Reflections

            Art holds a mirror up to the world. It takes what the artist sees in the world, changes around a bit, then shows the artist’s interpretation of the world to those who view, read, hear, and even taste or smell it. Sometimes it’s merely a reflection for the sake of entertainment, and other times it has deeper meanings – bordering on educational. It’s one of the great things about art, as combining entertainment with education is the most effective way to teach – and, being open to interpretation, art allows people to come to their own conclusions. Yet, sometimes I wonder if we artists reflect too much.

            When artists set out to create deep, meaningful interpretations of the world that allow them to share their ideas and revelations with others, they take the elements of the world they want to showcase and make them very prominent in their work. The idea is often to say, “Hey, look at this! Does it remind you of anything?” and then proceed to show the observer why it is good, bad, or sometimes just to get them thinking about it. It is a marvelous form of education, but sometimes we have to stop to consider... What exactly are we teaching?

            Back in highschool, an English class assignment was to examine the lyrics of a song and interpret the meaning of it. One of my classmates chose a song that I was amazed the teacher even allowed to have the lyrics shown for his presentation. However, as he went through the song, he was representing it as a satire – a commentary on a particular type of lifestyle rather than, as it appeared to me, bragging and lauding said lifestyle. Until then, it never would have occurred to me that the song was satirical – and that’s where we hit a major flaw.

            What happens when something is intended to be satire, and people interpret it as real? What happens when commentary is interpreted as praise? What happens when metaphor is taken to be literal? What happens when an artist is just making art and people are convinced it’s full of deep meanings?

            What ends up being learned isn’t always what was intended – and learning wasn’t even necessarily intended in the first place. However, learning is what humans do constantly – we take in our surroundings and interpret and learn from them. We don’t even know we’re doing it half the time. We just keep absorbing and absorbing....

            So, when an artist presents to us the world as it is, highlighting the flaws, some people will see what the artist is saying and learn from it – maybe even help the world to change and grow. Others may see it and simply disagree, while others will miss the point entirely. Often what will happen is that people will see it as just a straight up statement of “This is how it is!” which they will take to mean it’s normal, which is the most dangerous view of all.

            By showing the world as it is, artists can inadvertently reinforce the very flaws they seek to highlight. The art reflects the world, and the world – upon seeing its reflection – says, “This is how it should be,” or perhaps, “This is how it is, and there’s nothing to be done about it.” Then the art is no longer teaching us about the flaws in the world; it is teaching us to make all the same mistakes of the past.

            It makes me wonder what the difference would be if there was a dramatic shift in art – from reflecting the world as it is, to reflecting the world as it could be. What changes might be wrought in our society if, rather than displaying and normalising how everything is, art showed us how the world could be? I suppose it’s possible that it could do nothing. On the other hand, it might make all the difference in the world.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 31

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


1st - 6th of Waxing Fall, 0AL

Having slayed the mighty demon to thunderous applause from the festival attendees, the 3rd Watch - particularly the newer members - absorb the attention happily while Extang finishes his ringleader spiel. After reviving Fiaeorri, they talk about how the demon escaped - eventually having Fiaeorri admit that she'd set it free intentionally, as she was bored of waiting for someone to release it by accident.

They decide to go and have a chat with Feryon about his demon summoning - Extang stays behind to control the fire on the tent and keep it from spreading. Everyone else heads up to the bamboo tower which is precariously swaying in the wind. They knock on the door and hear something break inside, but there is no answer. Checking through a window, they see a vase smashed on the floor, but no sign of the wizard. They attempt to catch his attention by throwing some pebbles through the window, but they hit some magical barrier. The door is also solidly shut and Dugg's badger fails to burrow in under the floor.

While they are doing this, Extang - having taken care of the fire, and being the only one who saw Feryon run off, heads for the temple. There he finds the cowering wizard. He informs him that the demon is dead, and explains how he played off the incident as being a show. He then tries to negotiate for some free magic lessons, but Feryon seems resistant to the idea. The wizard eventually agrees to fourteen such lessons, with the stipulation that he can deny lessons on days when he's too busy. He then returns to the tower, where he is accosted by the others and is forced to promise never to summon demons, or any other fiends, ever again. Before everyone departs, Balasar also gets him to explain the enchanting process to him.

Everyone goes home for the night, except Stor - who joins the council members on the dunk-tank scaffold for the remainder of the festival, and stays up to enjoy the magical fireworks.

Over the next four days, Balasar works with the blacksmith, Gorbosh, to reforge his warhammer into a magical greatsword. Dugg spends his days out with foraging parties, gathering herbs. Stor begins a batch of beer brewing, and then works on training his perceptiveness with Ardona. T'Zaric experiments with starting a gambling hall, but doesn't get much interest. Extang takes some magic lessons, and then sees about trying to get a glassblower's furnace made - unfortunately, Angro seems to be the only mason in the entire settlement and he's busy working on a mill. Fiaeorri builds a shrine to Pagslas out on the the beach.

At the end of the four days, Balasar calls everyone together and shows him his new sword, explaining that he doesn't know who he was in his past, do he is using it to define his present and his future. He then asks them to come and help him explore the inside of his own mind, explaining that his friend Gilligan found a way for him to access his locked up memories - though it is potentially dangerous. The two newest members are a bit hesitant until Balasar offers to pay them, negotiating it to 8 gold per day.

So, the next day they make their way over to where Gilligan is building a fancy house for Triena and tell him they are going to go look at Balasar's memories. Gilligan agrees, but says he won't be joining them - he's going to keep the doorway open, because they almost lost it the last time they went in. He settles everyone down into a meditative circle, lights some incense... and uses his psionic powers to bring them into the inside of Balasar's head.

In their partially ethereal states, they begin to explore their dark, undulating surroundings. There are fourteen openings, most of them blocked by writhing tentacle-like things, as well as a tear in the wall - also blocked. They decide to go for the opening on the left, but cutting their way through the two tentacles that block their path causes monsters to emerge, as well as a great deal of pain for Balasar. However, after dealing with the nightmarish creatures, they do find the way open, so they head in - and get sucked down a tube-like thing and emerge experiencing a memory of Balasar's. He's a silver dragonborn, having a supposedly friendly chat with a dwarf with mutton-chops and no beard, who is happily bragging about his people and their defences. Balasar leaves the table with a sense of satisfaction, and the memory fades, leaving them in a bubble-like room with clips of the images flitting around the edges - and a sense of dread from the three of them who knew Shend best and recognised him in the memory.

T'Zaric, who had been enthusiastic at first, is starting to become uncomfortable - and they're all experiencing a slowly-growing pain in their heads. However, they head back to the main chamber and track notice two of the openings have only thin membranes that can easily be cut through without bringing monsters to attack them. They go through one, experiencing a memory of a black-scaled Balasar in a tavern, asking for assistance in tracking down some traitors - he gets pointed in the right direction by an elf who, upon emerging from the memory, Balasar and Stor recognise as Kalon - a druid friend they'd had aboard the Noble's Lark. The other pathway showed Balasar flying on a wyvern named Deathbringer that lands. He finds some tracks, and is satisfied that his quarry is near, then the memory fades.

They exit to the main chamber, thinking it may be time to leave, but are surprised to find some tentacles missing, opening two more paths - one of them the tear. They decide to go through that one, but Dugg elects to stay behind - T'Zaric is ready to leave as well, but Stor offers him a barrel of alcohol, so he comes along. This memory was the first one Gilligan and Balasar caught a glimpse of - - Balasar on a table with a hooded and blank gold masked individual telling him that everything is going to be okay and that he's been unwell. Two short, similarly masked and hooded individuals enter the room and the three cast a spell and suddenly Balasar's head is full of pain as the memory fades.

Now it has really been too much for T'Zaric. Even with the barrel on offer, he leaves - followed by Dugg. However, the others still want to know more, so they continue on exploring memories as new ones become available. Balasar brings a squad of soldiers as reinforcements for an army led by Hargrom and containing Kordak. Balasar recruiting werewolves that won't join while they're having problems with a particular vampire. Balasar emerging from some rough buildings, talking with an associate about orders to exterminate a particular bloodline, conveniently researched by a cult - and accompanied by a jar containing an eye that will somehow help with finding targets.

Then there is a major one, which is a compilation of memories about the three masked and hooded individuals experimenting on him, then presenting him to to several tieflings in Somvidian officers' uniforms as an ultimate, though experimental, weapon. Stor recognises one from his recently returned memories as his former master, and he and Balasar recognise another from a picture Akta once showed them - her father.

After this memory, Balasar is feeling pretty rough and is ready to leave, but six more pathways are available and a curious Fiaeorri urges them to continue on. Balasar heals himself and the others who need it and they press on into more memories: a gold-scaled Balasar organising villages to attack a child-stealing cult; compilations of Balasar's memories where he's sacking villages (in one of which he viciously kills Naldor's wife and daughter in front of him); Balasar kidnapping and retrieving wives of the Emporor who ran away (often pregnant); and Balasar gathering information and carrying out assassinations (one of his informants having been T'Zaric).

(Outside, in the real world, Dugg goes off to the woods, and T'Zaric goes home for something and returns to the unconscious others and compares Balasar with a bounty poster he has. He nods in satisfaction and heads home, muttering "soon"...)

The "just one more" urging takes them into just one more memory, but they don't get to see it as their way is blocked by monsters they aren't feeling prepared to fight. They flee back to the portal and exit Balasar's mind, awaking in the real world with Balasar feeling considerably weakened - not to mention shaken by his uncovered memories.


And that's where this session comes to an end. Check back in another week to find out what what new secrets are revealed in Episode 32.

Assassin's Creed in Review

            The Assassin’s Creed series is one of my all-time favorite videogame series, so, now that I’m caught up on them, I’ve decided to give an overall review of them – broken down by each game, highlighting the pros and cons.

            The overarching plot of the series is about a secret war that has been raging in our world between two organisations for all of recorded time. The Templars are a group of people who believe that humanity, if left to their own devices, will constantly be warring and self-destructive, and so they strive to gain total dominion over the human race so that they can force them to live idealised lives, free of free will, and thus bring about world peace. Assassins, on the other hand, believe that all people deserve to be free to make their own decisions, regardless of good or bad, trusting that humanity will eventually sort itself out – and so, they fight against the Templars and other powerful leaders seeking to subvert free will.

            It’s a fascinating, intriguing, political and philosophical plotline that is woven through a device that allows people to explore the memories of their ancestors, stored within their DNA – thus allowing the games to take place both in modern times and historical. Built around conspiracy theories, the stories have enough merit that you can almost believe the events in the games are real.

Assassin’s Creed

            The first game in the series, and the one that became so popular that all the others were possible, was a cutting-edge game when it was released. Along with the captivating story of an imprisoned former Assassin being forced to seek a powerful artefact in his Crusader-times ancestor’s memories, the game brought forth a new play style that was exactly what a lot of people wanted. Based in stealth and parkour, the game involved running around, climbing buildings, being sneaky and killing enemies as stealthily as possible. Of course, if you weren’t stealthy enough, you could end up being chased by a huge mob of guards for a very long time.

            That was the most frustrating part of the game, and probably its biggest flaw. There was an excellent system for running away and finding a place to hide so you could escape guards, but the further you ran, the more guards joined in the chase – making it harder to break their line of sight long enough to hide. This no doubt led to a great deal of rage-quitting – especially since one of these chases could be triggered by accidentally bumping into a guard.

            The other big challenge of the game was that it was secretly a bit of a puzzle game. The intent of the game was that you had specific targets you had to kill, and if you didn’t do it stealthily you ended up having to fight your way through a mob of enemies. This made a lot of logical sense, but most of the missions were set up in a way that it was almost impossible to figure out a sneaky way to approach your targets on your first play-through – to the point where it often seemed like it was impossible to get a stealth kill. A challenge is all well and good, but the game needed a little more guidance.

            The final problem in this game was that, while it was a game built around stealth, the end-game required a large amount of melee combat with large groups of enemies – a very frustrating circumstance, particularly because the game’s combat system – while good – was built strongly around pushing the right buttons at precisely the right time.

            In spite of these issues, the game was immensely fun and popular – especially for those who enjoyed a challenge. And for those that made it through, they were met with wonderful plot revelations that left them with more questions than they answered, making them desperate for the next game to find out what would happen next.

Assassin’s Creed II

            The second game learned from the problems of the first, and fixed them, making the game play far better. The modern-day hero escaped his Templar captors to work with the Assassins, giving a great view of both sides of the conflict. In the past, the player was now exploring renaissance Italy, giving a look at how the Templar-Assassin conflict grew over time.

            This game took all the raw potential of the first game and made an amazing experience, bringing in new abilities and systems that would make this the best game in the series for a while. For fans of the first game, it was a dream come true.

            It also added a strong educational component to the game – with a database that was updated as the game was played, filled with write-ups on historical landmarks, figures, and events.

            As with the previous game, this one ended with wonderful cliff-hangers for many of its plotlines.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood

            This was essentially a clone of Assassin’s Creed II, with some added abilities and some updated game functionality. This one, however, had the historical part of the game set it renaissance Rome. It had a lot of great story and history, as well as some fun new functions, but by the end of the game it was getting just a bit stale.

            However, another wonderful cliff-hanger ending kept fans on the edges of their seats, hungry for more...

Assassin’s Creed Revelations

            Assassin’s Creed Revelations was the first big mistake in the series. Don’t get me wrong – it was an excellent game in its own right, but... as I said, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood was getting stale by the end, and this game was just more of the same, though set in Constantinople now. Yes, there were some neat new features, but it was just a lot more of the same.

            As for plot, the main plot was a whole lot of “more of the same” that felt like it was there just to allow filling in blanks for various characters’ personal back stories – which was the actual interesting part of the game.

            As for the name “Revelations”... well, after the previous game, there was really only one thing the players wanted revealed. And it wasn’t revealed. At least, not in the main game. There was an optional mini-game downloadable content (that you had to purchase separately) that eventually answered the questions we actually wanted answered. As someone who doesn’t buy DLCs, I didn’t even know about this until its contents were referenced in the following game, and I had to extrapolate from context. Don’t put main plot in DLC. Just... don’t.

            The ending of this game failed to live up to the cliff-hanger expectations, though it did point us in the direction of the next game.

Assassin’s Creed III

            This game revitalised the series, bringing in a new combat system and a whole lot of new abilities. It also finally brought us out of the same historical character into the renaissance and into the time of the American Revolution. The game now brought in wilderness mechanics, allowing for hunting and climbing trees, which was a very fun new aspect, as well as an ability to sneak through and hide in foliage.

            The best part, however – at least in my opinion – was almost a mini-game, involving seafaring missions. The ship game play was so well done that I immediately wished that they would make a pirate game.

            The historical nature of the game was really brought to the fore, as there is so much documentation about the time period. They also did a remarkable job of representing the aboriginal populace within the game, as the main character was half Mohawk.

            In spite of all the good things about this game, the stoic main character lacked the appeal of the one we had through the renaissance, which made the game a bit less enjoyable. The plotline also became a bit disjointed; hopping from one historical checkpoint to another.

            The game did manage to end with a cliff-hanger – not quite as good as the earlier games, but it was designed more for shock impact, and it did its job of making the player wonder what would come next.

Assassin’s Creed Liberation

            This wasn’t one of the main games in the series (originally made for a handheld system), and it showed. The plot was almost a side-story in the series – it was interesting, but it had no impact in the grand scheme of things. This was very disappointing to me, as the game held a great deal of potential and could have been so much more.

            Set in New Orleans, Liberation had the first female main character in the series – and with her came a unique system of multiple personas, which changed her abilities and how the people in the world reacted to her: she could dress as a member of upper-class society, a slave, or as an assassin. The possibilities with the game play were amazing, but they were stinted by it not being made as a main feature.

            Overall, the plot felt like a time-loop plotline, where nothing that was done seemed to have an impact on the big picture.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

            Black Flag was an instant hit, and in my opinion is still the best Assassin’s Creed game to date. It took that mini-game from Assassin’s Creed III and made a full game out of it – Assassins as pirates in the tropics. You would think that the game would focus entirely on the seafaring aspect, but on land they had all the great stuff in the previous game and more.

            The one downside to this game was that it continued with the disjointed plot points of the previous, only slightly worse. In spite of that, the overall plot lines were glorious, giving everything desired from an Assassin’s Creed game.

            Not only did the game end with a satisfying cliff-hanger, but it expanded upon the illusion that the in-game events were really happening in our world in a thoroughly enjoyable way. If you only ever play one game in this series, this should be the one.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue

            This game was once described to me as a “consolation prize” for people who hadn’t upgraded to the most recent generation of gaming systems, which had Assassin’s Creed Unity being released on them at the same time. After playing both games, I strongly disagree.

            Taking place in the northern seas, Rogue is very much a clone of Black Flag for game play, but it has an important twist: for the first time, we are playing as on the Templar side of the game, giving us a deeper insight into what has always been presented as the “enemy” side of the story. Apart from having an excellent plot on its own, it also fills in some plot gaps that were chronologically in between Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed III.

            While it didn’t have the greatest ending of the games in the series, it wasn’t disappointing either.

Assassin’s Creed Unity

            The makers of this game made a very bold leap with this game, and they clearly had very good intentions, but it didn’t work out quite the way they hoped. Taking place during the French Revolution, this game had great historical insight to the times, but the main plot could have been a bit better. It was, unfortunately, sidetracked by the desire to make the game a multiplayer experience. It was a really cool idea – having teams of assassins working together on missions – but it was brought out on a system which required payment for multiplayer, which limited the pool of people who were playing. Having had other multiplayer modes in earlier games, I think bringing multiplayer into the story mode of the game was something players wanted – it just didn’t play out as well as everyone hoped.

            In spite of that, this game doesn’t deserve the bad reputation is has. It wasn’t great, but neither was it horrible. It also brought in some awesome puzzle-based side quests – solving riddles and murder mysteries – which I found were a very enjoyable addition to the gameplay.

            Like Liberation, however, the overall plot seemed to have little to no impact on the overall plot of the series. Rogue, to me, was certainly the better of these simultaneously released games.

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

            Now, this was an exciting game. Taking place in London, England, during the Industrial Revolution, this game brought so many new aspects to the game: trains, carriages, and a few slightly more technological tools than were previously available. In addition, there were two main characters to play in the game – twin brother and sister – which you could switch between, though each also had their own private missions. This gave the game two parallel plotlines in the historical times, as well as bonus sections occurring during the world wars.

            The game play was wonderful (keeping, though to a lesser extent, the riddles and murder mysteries of Unity), but the plot – while excellent – took on an almost comedic tone at some points, breaking the willing suspension of disbelief that the series is so good at achieving. The ending was also very good, but it didn’t have quite the “I have to know what happens next!” of many of the previous games.

Assassin’s Creed Origins

            This game was striving to remake the series, which it did need to keep the game play from growing stale. It did a good job of it, too – not perfect, but it shows great promise for the future of the series.

            Taking us into ancient Egypt this time, this game took place during the time of Cleopatra. It also completely remade the combat system, and brought the players into a completely open world experience. It was an excellent game, but it felt a bit like a game that was exploring new territory and wasn’t sure what to do with it yet.

            The plot was descent – captivating enough to keep me interested, but it felt a bit like the game makers didn’t entirely know how to handle a game world as big as this one, making it seem stretched and spread thin. Still, in the scheme of the series, it gave a lot of good information. The ending, however, was a bit lacking – to the point where I wasn’t even completely certain the game had ended. I was convinced there had to be a “second ending”, but there wasn’t.

            There was, however, a great new addition to the game. Gone were the historical entries on everything during the game, but replacing it was a virtual tour mode of the game, where you got to explore the game without the combat aspects and could take guided tours that taught what the teams learned during their research. It was a very fun and interactive way to explore the history of Egypt.

            And that brings us up to date on the latest game. In spite of the disappointing ending of the last one, I’m still excited to see what will come next. The new direction brought by Origins suggests great potential for the future games. Will the series live up to that potential? I like to think so – the game makers aren’t perfect, but they have shown a remarkable ability to adapt and adjust what they create when their games don’t perform as well as they hoped.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 30

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


35th of Waning Summer - 1st of Waxing Fall, 0AL

Having parted from their friends, Kordak and Akta - whisked away on some mission by the fox-like Negotiator - the rest of the adventurers of the 3rd Watch continue escorting the would-be-adventurers of the 4th Watch home. Upon arriving, Stor and Balasar - the last remaining members of the original team - invite T'Zaric and Balasar to come join them, living in the 3rd Watch headquarters at least for the time being. The group also decides that they need to recruit some new members if they're planning to continue their adventuring.

So, the next day, T'Zaric and Extang put up a magical help-wanted sign while Stor (exhausted from a sleepless night fraught with the childhood memories Akta returned to him) prepares an area for testing their candidates. While they're doing this, Balasar sets out on a mission - he wants to explore his lost memories with Gilligan, but he's also afraid of what he might find. He wants to be certain he knows who he is now so he doesn't lose sight of that. To do this, he wants to reforge his warhammer. He woke up with this weapon, and learned his own name because it was engraved on it, and so by transforming it into something else he believes he can define who he is without worrying about his past. He visits Gorbosh, the blacksmith, who agrees to do the reforging, but Balasar also wants the weapon enchanted, so he tries to find someone to do this for him. Unfortunately, the two people he knows of who might help are too busy to help - but he does learn he could do it himself, in less time than he expected, though he will need a lot of magical materials.

He returns to the others, finding that a large crowd of hopefuls have gathered to join the 3rd Watch. After dismissing the children and the 4th Watch, they work their way through the candidates, testing them, eventually landing on two they like: a human warrior named Fiaeorri who says she was trained to fight all her life, and Doug, a young gnome ranger who has a giant badger companion. The two are disappointed that there isn't an immediate adventure that the group is planning on going on - as they just got back from one and there's a festival coming up in a few days that everyone wants to attend.

Over the few days leading up to the festival, Fiaeorri gets herself hired, working on some scaffold-like thing along the beach that has something to do with the festival. Doug goes out with the foraging parties, searching for some magical herbs. Balasar goes down to the beach and calls down lightning, making a lot of fulgurite, which he spends the days digging up. Extang and T'Zaric try to buy the herb farm from the small Fonofo and Nofofno creatures, but learn they have no interest in selling, T'Zaric also trades his valuable platinum bracelet to Naldor for five healing potions, which he shares with his friends along with an apology for nearly getting them killed in the ruins. Stor gathers Balasar, T'Zaric, and Extang one night, sharing with them his recovered memories - that his adopted parents weren't actually mercenaries, as he had been brought up believing, but an assassin ant torturer for the Somvidian Empire. They had turned against their master after branding Stor, a young goblin slave, and had fled to start a new life - casting a spell to erase Stor's traumatic childhood, and raising him as their own. Stor expresses his despair at having lost his real parents, his adoptive parents (who should have been on the ship), and now so many friends from the 3rd watch were gone. The others sympathise with him.

On the festival day, they go out to join the party. Stor, Balasar, and Extang pay to enter a tent set up by Feryon, who claims there is a mighty, ferocious beast inside. He also warns them, and everyone else who enters, not to scuff the marks in the sand. They go in to find there is, indeed, a large beast inside, covered in spikes and with four arms - two of which end in great pincers. Thay argue a bit with Feryon that he can't be bringing a creature like this into the settlement, but the wizard insists there won't be a problem as long as no one scuffs the marks in the sand.

Doug and Stor proceed to the archery competition, where they win first and second place, earning Doug a pair of bracers that seem to have a magical quality. Everyone participates in an egg-balancing race, which Extang wins some magical boots from. T'Zaric goes gambling, successfully winning some money at cards, while a few of the others have varying success at a shell-game. Most of them try their hand at a dice-based riddle challenge being run by Sira, a half-elven friend of Extang, but no one solves the puzzle. Extang sets up his own little tree stump and makes some money telling fortunes.

The scaffolding Fiaeorri helped build turns out to be a dunk-tank-like setup, featuring most of the council members. A few of them have fun along with other members of the community who are taking the time to express their political opinions. Naldor appears to be a popular target - Balasar manages to dunk him before going off to spend some time alone at his shrine.

Heading into the afternoon, T'Zaric decides to go see Feryon's monster. He is most impressed by it. While he is observing the creature beating against the invisible walls of its prison, Fiaeorri sneaks under the back wall of the tent, and Doug has his badger dig him a path under the tent's side wall so he could get in without paying.

Suddenly, the creature that Feryon called a glabrezu pauses in beating against the barrier. It works its way around to the back to the tent, where it seems to have found a crack in its prison, and begins to tear its way out through it with a triumphant roar.

The three leap into action - T'Zaric casting his spells, Fiaeorri pulling out her two longswords to hack at it, and Doug sends his badger in to attack while shooting arrows at it. The glabrezu doesn't seem to mind much - it pummels the badger with its fists while scooping up Fiaeorri in the crushing grip of one of its claws. It then charges out of its tent, aiming headed for its captor, Feryon; the wizard is already running and screaming, along with many of the nearby festival attendees. Stor, having heard the cry, is rushing in, and Extang - telling fortunes nearby - looks up to see the commotion and casts a spell on Fiaeorri, causing her to double in size and break free of the monster's grip.

Stor knocks the Glabrezu down with his water whip, Fiaeorri hits the prone creature a couple times and steps back, then T'Zaric hits it with a fireball that also manages to set the tent on fire - so he steps out of it. Doug and his badger use their tunnel to escape the tent, and he sends another arrow at the fiend while the badger rushes to catch up.

The glabrezu, irritated by the fireball, turns its attention from Feryon to T'Zaric. It spares a swipe at Fiaeorri before charging at the sorcerer - who deflects one blow with a shield spell, but gets scooped up in one of the claws.

At this point in time, some of the people who were fleeing pause and start to watch. Catching on to this, Extang teleports onto Fiaeorri's shoulder and uses his magic to amplify his voice, giving a ringmaster's speech and playing this battle off as a show. Fiaeorri charges in to fight, but gets knocked unconscious by the glabrezu. Balasar, having heard the roar from his shrine, finally comes within sight of the battle and calls down lightning on the fiend. Stor activates the mysterious coin he received on his birthday, making his spear magical until the next full moon, and charges in - jumping his way up the glabrezu until he can jab his spear in its eye. With an agonised howl, the fiend fades away into smoke.


And that's where this game session ends. Check back next week to find out what happens in Episode 31.

Earn the Right to Complain

            This week, as I cast my vote for my provincial elections at an early polling station, I was asked if this was my first time voting. Amused, I replied that it wasn’t, and assured the questioner that I’m somewhat older than I look. But, then I reflected on it and realized that, while I’ve voted in the last few federal elections, this may actually be my first time voting in a provincial one.

            Looking back, I distinctly remember not caring at all when I was first old enough to vote. I didn’t see what good it would do – I was only one person, after all, and, quite frankly, I didn’t care what the government did. I didn’t feel that who was elected to government had any direct impact on my life. So, I didn’t vote.

            I think it’s a major failing in our education system that we don’t teach people the importance of voting – at least, not in a way that sticks or that they care about. I did have a mandatory Civics course that lasted half a semester where we were taught how to vote and given the basics on the structure of the government, but I don’t recall being taught the why of any of it. Admittedly it may have been because I lacked interest and none of what I was taught stuck, but young people not voting seems far too common a thing for it to have been just me.

            So, it falls to parents to educate their children on voting, which is a catastrophe on its own. Some people don’t vote because they don’t care and don’t think it matters, while others vote for the same party every time because that’s what’s “done”, and others believe people should choose for themselves and avoid talking about it at all. It’s made all the more difficult because talking about politics is considered a taboo subject.

            It’s fair to say that I picked up my parents’ political leanings, even though it wasn’t a major topic in my house. Even so, it was because I agreed with their views, not because I was blindly following. When I chose not to vote in that first election I was eligible to vote in, they respected my decision – though they reiterated the one idea that had been present all my life: If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain about the government.

            It’s a very simple idea, yet powerful. It taught me the idea that you have to earn your right to complain about the government by voting, because if you didn’t vote, you obviously didn’t care enough, so it’s your own fault. You may not feel like one vote in a pool of thousands, or millions, counts for much, but if you didn’t cast your vote into that pool, you didn’t partake in the system and, thus, have no right to complain.

            Still, I didn’t vote. Not until a government came into power that started doing things I disagreed with – a government whose every decision seemed to fly in the face of what it meant to be Canadian and that was dragging the international name of Canada through the mud. But, as I saw this, I realized that I couldn’t complain about it. I hadn’t voted, and so I had no right to complain. But the very next federal election, I did vote. The same government ended up in power, but at least this time I felt I had done what I could to fight against it. I had earned my right to complain about what they did.

            So, today’s lesson is: vote. It doesn’t matter if you think who you vote for will win or not, the important part is to make your voice heard, however small it may be. Be it in this election, or any other election to come, anywhere in the world, vote. Vote, or be prepared to remain silent and live with the decisions made by others.

            Earn your right to complain.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Lark's Landing, Episode 29

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


29th-35th of Waning Summer, 0AL

Extang, having fallen down the hill merely from stepping off the path, wisely returns to the path and climbs back up the hill to rejoin his friends. Meanwhile, Stor begins blowing his magical whistle, flying straight up into the shaft that appears to be their way out. Nearing the top, a giant spider bursts out from where it was concealed behind some webs and attacks him. He fights back, quickly dispatching it, then flies the rest of the way to the top and used his crowbar to open the top, revealing a room beyond.

He goes up, only taking the time to tie a rope around the stone well he just emerged from, then dropping back down to mime (so he can keep blowing the whistle to fly) the need for another rope as the other one was too short - Akta eventually understands and hands him one. He flies back up, ties the ropes together, and drops it down. Everyone else climbs the rope, emerging in the room above, which has two fountains - one dry, and one with some dark water and a large crayfish. On the far end of the room are some stairs heading up to a door, with dusty shelves on either side of the door.

Stor heads straight for the door, checking it for traps, while T'Zaric shows a great deal of interest in the dusty shelves - though he only finds dust, and his interest attracts others over. Extang examines the fountain, finding nothing of interest in the empty one, and discovering that the crayfish shape in the other is just an ancient husk of a crayfish. Being cautious, he pokes at the water with his ten-foot pole - and a creature made of water rises out of it, retaliating. It isn't very strong, and it is dispatched fairly easily. Extang then finds a platinum key in the water, hidden beneath the former crayfish.

With nothing else of interest around, they go up the stairs and into a room that has a mummified centaur between them and the door on the far side, its spear pointed at the far door. There is copper jewellery scattered everywhere - most of it being trampled beneath the hooves of the centaur - and two urns filled with river stones. Distrustful of the centaur, the group edges around the edge of the room - Stor ready to attack anything that jumps out at them, and Balasar waiting to call upon Epesta to turn away and destroy undead. T'Zaric very carefully puts his hands in his pockets, exerting all his willpower to not take any of the treasure. They reach the far door, surprised to find they haven't been attacked.

Stor examines the door and, finding no traps, opens it. That's when the mummified centaur begins to move. Seeing the movement, Balasar quickly calls a prayer to Epesta, asking her to clear away undead. The goddess comes through and the creature becomes frightened, fleeing into a corner. The group then corner it - except for T'Zaric, who take the opportunity to grab some treasure - and strike all at once, taking down the powerful creature before it can recover from the fear. T'Zaric and Extang then look around the room - ignoring the nearly worthless copper jewellery - and dig to the bottom of the urns of river stones, finding some valuable trinkets down there.

Stor takes the centaur's fancy spear, and is disappointed to find it isn't magical. Kordak and Balasar head for the door, finding that there is a big slab of jade on the other side. They give it a forceful shove and are surprised to find that it is weighted to fall outwards very easily. It thuds to the ground, and they are very happy that they were'n trying to get through this door from the other side.

The group presses forwards, into a narrow hall. They follow it around a corner and come across a small room with a corrugated floor, a metal hatch in the middle of the ceiling, and rusty, broken ladders climbing up in each of the corners. After a brief look, they follow the passage that continues out the other side. It winds around a little before bringing them to another small room - with stairs up in the opposite corner to the one they enter near. On the wall near them is a lever facing downwards above a crank wheel. They avoid it and head straight for the stairs, only to find that they lead to a blank wall. Some investigation reveals that the thick, heavy wall can be moved in some way - and their thoughts turn with dread to the lever and the crank.

Kordak decides to stay on the stairs, near the wall, while everyone else crowds at the base of the stairs - far from the lever and the crank. Akta steps forward and flips the lever up. Nothing happens. She pulls it down, and nothing continues to happen. She flips it several more times, just to be sure, then leaves it in the up position and backs away. T'Zaric then calls forth his mage hand and turns the crank. A pit opens up beneath the crank, but the wall blocking the stairs also rises up. Unfortunately, a portcullis also drops at the base of the stairs, blocking the way forward.

Kordak, separated from the rest of the group, steps up to the portcullis and lifts it up, allowing everyone else through. T'Zaric keeps his focus on holding the crank in place until everyone is past where the wall used to be, then releases it = and the wall comes crashing down.

They make their way to the top of the stairs and come to a stone door. After ensuring it's safe, they push it open - and are rewarded, at last, with a breath of fresh air. The door doesn't open all the way, but it is enough for them to squeeze out into what looks like a ruin located in a bowl-like depression in the jungle, illuminated by the light of a gibbous moon. They emerge from behind the wing of a carved giant bat creature on one wall of the ruin. In front of it is an alter carved to look like a mass of swarming rats, weasels, and worms, with a bat face on the front and metal bat wings extending to each side.

Akta, not entirely certain that this isn't some sort of elaborate illusion, sends Fluffy up into the air to see if they really have finally escaped that horrible ruin. Her psudodragon familiar reports back that they do seem to be outside. Wanting to find the young would-be adventurers they were sent out to find and get this over with so they can go home, Akta sends fluffy out to find the camp they believe to be nearby.

While Fluffy is away, T'Zaric takes a closer look at the alter, noticing a trapdoor on the ground around it, and also that it has handles on the front that would allow for it to be tipped up. However, he decides to leave it alone.

It takes Fluffy some time, but he returns with the location of the camp. They make their way over, briefly discussing the possibility of sneaking in, but deciding against it. Nevertheless, they do set off quite the alarm when they are spotted, until they are recognised as the 3rd Watch - a name the group chose for themselves because whenever something happened to them in the night, it always seemed to happen during the third watch.

The two groups meet, with most of the younger ones excited to meet their idols. Siha, their leader whose mother had sent the group out to retrieve her, does most of the talking, while in the background a 16-year-old tiefling named Yasi, enthusiastically tells the others who each of the adventurers is - omitting T'Zaric as someone she has no idea who he is, and expressing that she learned to fight by watching Stor train (at which Stor recognises her as the youngest daughter of the group's tiefling neighbours). Hearing that they have no idea who he is, T'Zaric goes and introduces himself to the chatting ones, and is delighted to find he is recognised by the human brothers, Breu and Wessu, even though they only remember him because he was sick for the entire journey on the Noble's Lark.

The excitement dies away as the younger group realises that the adventurers are here to take them home. They insist that with the economy coming back, they needed a way to help make money - plus they are trying to help the 3rd Watch, and they pull out one of Akta's missing person posters that she drew of Shend. Siha tells them that they've named their troupe the 4th Watch.

Eventually they agree to go home, if a bit sullenly, but their hopes are brought up again when Akta suggests the possibility of sometimes taking some of them out on adventures to train them. They set up watches and everyone gets to sleep for the rest of the night.

In the morning, as they're preparing to leave, they hear a thudding sound and feel a rumbling in the ground. Trees to one side of the clearing shake, then, with a roar, a t-rex - likely the one the adventurers have come across before - bursts out of the trees. It has a rope through its mouth and standing on its head, holding the ends of the rope, is the familiar dwarven figure of their friend Shend.

The t-rex crashes into a tree, dislodging the dwarf, who tumbles to the ground, rolling to his feet, ready to fight. Cries of joy at seeing Shend are mingled with cries of joys at the sight of this huge, fearsome foe. The adventurers quickly rush to their friend's rescue. Stor tries to bring it to the ground with a water whip, but the t-rex avoids most of the damage, only to have a fireball explode around its head from T'Zaric, as well as fire bolts from him and Extang while Extang circles towards Shend, casting a spell on himself to allow him to breathe fire.

Enraged by the fireball, the t-rex spins, smashing Shend with its tail as it charges over to bite T'Zaric - who quickly casts a shield spell that diverts the t-rex's jaws just enough to make it miss him. Akta begins casting her eldritch blasts at it, while Balasar calls upon the might of Epesta to bring forth storm clouds and summons a lightning strike right upon the oversized lizard. Kordak runs up and uses the power of the magical bracelet they found in the ruins to cast a spell, restraining the t-rex and starting it turning to stone. Siha, and Yasi charge in to attack. The others of their group back away - Breu, the group's cleric, hiding inside a large, hollow, fallen tree, and Tiaree, the halfling rogue, skulks off behind a tree. Wessu pulls out an instrument and plays a song, outlining the beast in magical fire that makes it a much easier target, and Gerfo the gnome casts a spell hurtling a rock at it.

Shend begins firing arrow after arrow into the t-rex. Seeing Yasi fighting with her fists, Stor leaves off his elemental attacks to join her and show her how its done. With magic blasting, and weapons flying, the battle doesn't seem to be going too badly, until the t-rex scoops up Siha in its jaws. The girl falls limp, unconscious, barely escaping death by a stroke of luck. Balasar quickly revives her with a spell, but she's still weak, injured, and trapped in the beast's mouth.

Seeing their friend almost killed, Gerfo and Wessu flee, the magical flames highlighting the t-rex vanishing as Wessu loses concentration. The battle begins in earnest, with spells needing to be directed more carefully to avoid hitting Siha. Eventually the half-orc girl manages to pull her way out of the beast's mouth and tumbles to the ground, barely alive. The t-rex continues fighting. It roars its rage at the sky, and Shend sees his opportunity. His arrow goes flying into the t-rex's mouth, up through its soft palette and into its brain.

The creature sways for a moment before toppling over - Akta gets out of the way in time, but it lands on top of Kordak and T'Zaric. Luckily they both survive with only minor injuries and they crawl their way out. A ragged cheer goes up, and the fled members of the 4th Watch return. Balasar and Breu see to everyone's wounds as best they can. Shend and Stor both take some hide from the t-rex, and everyone takes teeth as trophies. They even take a bit of t-rex meat.

Shend says it was good to see everyone, but he's not ready to go back to the settlement yet, so he says proper goodbyes this time and heads back into the jungle. Everyone else resumes the seven day journey home. About a day out from home, they come across something that wasn't there on their way out - a large metal fortress in the middle of the jungle. Leaning against the front of it is the humanoid-fox figure of the Negotiator. She complains that it took them long enough, and invites Akta inside for a chat.

Akta follows her through the doors into the fortress, having to move out of the way as two red frog-like beings exit to stand outside the door. The walls inside are a fleshy colour, with eyeballs on stalks sticking out and looking around. They pass between two desks manned by imps - one with a rack of sending stones like the one Akta uses to communicate with the Negotiator, and the other with a rack of glass spheres. They go through a door, into the Negotiator's office.

The Negotiator explains that she has come to collect the favour Akta owes her, but she's willing to give Akta a choice. This mission could either be very quick, or very long, taking her into other planes of existence like the Shadowfell and the Feywild. If it takes a very long time, however, the Negotiator says that it may pay off Akta's debt, as well as earn another favour from the Negotiator - a favour that might be used to help reunite her with her mother.

Akta accepts and asks if she can bring anyone along. The Negotiator says that she can bring one, and only one, of her friends along. She also advises that, if she wants to survive, she may want to bring her strongest friend.

They go back out and Akta tells the others that she needs to leave for a while, but before she goes she casts spells on Stor and Balasar to remove curses, hoping to help them recover their memories. Stor gets hit with a flood of childhood memories that had been magically changed, but Balasar feels no different.

Akta then asks Kordak to come with her. Kordak agrees, but negotiates with the Negotiator to have the magic that has changed his personality removed from him. The Negotiator agrees, saying that where their going his current mentality could get him killed, and pulls out a scroll and casts it. She then turns to the metal fortress and speaks some words that cause it to shrink into a small cube, which she stashes in a pocket.

Kordak and Akta say their goodbyes, leaving behind the bag of holding and a couple other items. The Negotiator then pulls out another scroll, and with the two in tow, reads the spell off of it. The three slowly fade from existence as Extang calls out, asking if the Negotiator will at least let the group know if they perish during their mission. The last thing he sees before the three vanish is the Negotiator giving him her fox-like grin.


And that's where this session comes to an end. What will happen next week in Episode 30?