Thieves' World - Kadakithis, HellHounds and Assassins

If you are just picking this up, I suggest reading the previous posts first!
Prelude : Characters : Act I : Act II : Act III : Act IV : Prince and Steel : Festival

Kadakithis, HellHounds and Assassins
17th of Eseris
Rumors are fast and furious around town; Prince Kadakithis is finally coming to town, on a ship, sometime today or tomorrow. Modig is on the hunt for more information about the Prince. His contacts get him an invitation to the Vulgar Unicorn for a drink with Rabben the Lighthanded, one of the most well-known thieves in the Maze. His protégé, Shadowspawn, is almost as equally well-known. The Group decides they will go after dark with Modig to the Vulgar Unicorn.
Seeking fame and fortune, or just a new place, Brennus arrives into town on the same ship as the new Prince Governor. The Prince and all of the Ranken Elite Guard are let off first, and then the rest of the passengers. Malkar, Nikolas and Jack are at the wharf watching the proceedings, so they see that there is little fanfare with the arrival on this Prince. The new Prince and his entourage travel north, straight to the Palace, followed immediately by many crates and wagons full of what the Group supposes are his belongings.
The ship hires a labor crew from the commoners hanging around the docks to unload the rest of the ship’s goods. Jack is recognized from previous work done, and is hired as a foreman for one team of workers.
While Jack works for pitiful pay, Malkar goes to the Happy Beaver to see if there is any new information that Gastov might have for him. Gastov talks of someone asking about him and his friends, and to watch out.
Later, the Group goes to the Vulgar Unicorn with Modig for his meeting with Rabben. Still a little put off in the Maze, the Group arrives early in the evening, and they get a few drinks while waiting for Rabben. Rabben shows up with Shadowspawn accompanying him. Modig and Rabben find a separate area for themselves, and they get a friendly round of drinks. Rabben informs Modig that there has been someone asking around for him and his gang. He says to keep an eye out for trouble. The guys doing the asking were unsavory types like them, but definitely Ranken, recently in from Ranke. Modig pays Rabben for his efforts and returns to his cohorts. The Group discusses this information and believes it’s a threat from Arion Swan. The Group stays a while longer in the Unicorn, and eventually leaves for home.
On the way out of the Maze, a gang attacks the Group. The gang is made up of some low life youths from the Maze who call themselves the Black Hands, but tonight they are teamed up with two well-trained leaders, who seem to be professional assassins. Someone yells for guards, but it’s not likely they will venture into the Maze. The fight produces two new corpses of young boys, and the remaining single gang member escapes with the two assassins. One gang member is left behind for dead, but the Group revives him for questioning. Much to their surprise, a contingent of guards show up, five local Watchmen being led by a Ranken soldier with markings the group is immediately unfamiliar with. The guards show up as the Group is searching the bodies of the dead. The Ranken Guard ceases all looting, and informs the Watch to take care of the bodies. Meanwhile, the Group and the captive gang member are escorted back to the Palace, post haste. Upon arriving at the Palace, the Group notices a lot of new guards in the new uniform. Kalima recognizes the new soldiers as real Ranken Elite soldiers. The Group is led to the leader of the Ranken Elite, an impressive man by the name of Zalbar. The story is related to Zalbar, and the captive gang member is immediately found guilty of assault, and swift punishment is administered by Zalbar. The young gang member screams as his hand is branded right then and there.

With Jack’s busy day yesterday of unloading the ship, he had forgotten all about a date he’d made with one of Marta’s finest – Mary. Jack attempts to make up with Mary by promising to take her to the Bazaar later in the day.
On the hunt for information about the people asking questions about them, the Group decides to track down the Black Hands in the Maze, wanting to get information about the guys who they were working for. After finding the Black Hands, and getting them in one of the few empty buildings in the Maze, Brennus summons a Hell Hound. The Black Hands give in to the Group and tell them that they were hired to initiate the attack, and then just run away. They don’t know anything except that they were paid with Ranken coin. They don’t know where the guys can be found, or whom they might be working for.
The Group discusses a plan to set up a trap for the assassins by using a lone, wandering Jack as bait. Nicolas, Malkar and Modig shadow Jack waiting for opportunity to catch the assassins in the act of attacking. The Group runs these rituals for two days. First, Jack works at the docks, and the others watch from hidden places for the assassins. After his work is done, Jack wanders around the various places around the Westside; nothing happens. No attacks, no leads, no assassins. On the third day, they finally spot someone following Jack from the rooftops of the buildings. The three sneaky Group members watching Jack’s back react quickly, springing into action and prepare an attack. Climbing to the rooftop, the assassin sees them and flees by jumping down to the ground and running down the nearest alleyway. Malkar uses this exposure as the start of a hunt, using his skills he’s had from tracking animals in the swamp to his newly developed city tracking. He tracks the man to a small residential building in the Maze, and up a set of stairs. In the upstairs hallway, there are six doors to choose from. The six Group members place themselves outside one door each, and in unison, each one attempts to kick in the door in front of them. Four doors are smashed in and the residents inside each door are quite shocked. One of the rooms contains the two assassins, and Jack finds himself facing them.
‘Jackpot!’ yells Jack, as another door in the hall falls to a second kick.
The rest of the Group rushes to Jack’s door to face the assassins. The assassins fire crossbows, and hastily jump out the window. The Group gives chase out the window. A few of the Group make some nice jumps and smooth landings, and others end up falling roughly to the ground, with loud grunts or yells. Jack loses it and goes into a battle rage. Malkar is the only member who stays behind in the room, and starts providing arrow fire from the second story window. The six-on-two fight ends quickly, with one assassin quite certainly dead, and the other one heavily wounded. The Group takes the bodies back into the apartment before there is any outside intervention. A very thorough search of the bodies and the room, and the Group finds all of their possessions. They decide to take the wounded one to a place more appropriate for ‘questioning’.
When the Group exits the Maze, a watchman stops them and questions them, and they are convinced to go to the palace and the Ranken Imperial Guard. Grumbling, the Group hauls the unconscious assassin to Zalbar, who questions them and threatens to charge them with vigilantism. With some tough negotiations, the Group is let off with a strong warning, and they are forced to leave the body and the captive assassin. The Group manages to not say anything about the possessions of the assassins, and get away with that loot. One of the items is a scroll case with all of their pictures (crudely drawn) and a contract for their deaths. There is no evidence of who has hired their assassination, but the Group single-mindedly agrees that it was probably Arion Swan.

Thieves' World - Festival

If you are just picking this up, I suggest reading the previous posts first!
Prelude : Characters : Act I : Act II : Act III : Act IV : Prince and Steel

5th of Eseris, Festival
It's many weeks later, and we find the Group anticipating the Spring Festival that is coming up in Sanctuary. The city is always full of new people and there are numerous activities, games, and contests with plenty of drinking and betting. Pickpockets abound, so watch your coin purse!
The Group finds themselves drawn to various activities. A vendor named Crazy Ernie convinces Jack to ‘wrassle’ some bears. Bets are laid out, and Ernie leads out the biggest one for Jack to try his skills on. Much to the delight of the onlookers, Jack manages to pin the bear! A lot of folks are impressed, including Crazy Ernie and three young women. Jack uses that as an excuse to get to know the young women better, and sees the Festival with them.
Malkar enters an archery contest. After several rounds, he wins quite comfortably. He gets the contest purse of 500$h.
All is not fun and games as Elorin crosses a childhood adversary, Borrin. Heated insults are exchanged and the confrontation comes to a conclusion in a duel, right then and there. Elorin uses his anger and rushes in quickly, promptly dispatching his opponent in a single thrust. Borrin’s date leaves with Elorin, who is obviously superior, in her eyes.
That night at Marta’s, many games are being played and Jack arm-wrestles 3 opponents for 3 victories, winning some drinks and the eye of all serving girls there. Modig and Nikolas take advantage of the Festival and set up to gamble as a team; together they manage to end up with Nikolas as the table winner. The Group is on a mighty high from all their victories in the day.

The following day is the day of the public arena fights; entrants pay a fee, and are pitted against each other in single combat for glory. Of course, there is a lot of money to be made by betting in the stands. Nikolas fights in the arena; his opponent is a Hawkmask. Several rounds go by with Nikolas being victorious.
Gagino takes part in a musical contest, and takes both purses of 250 $h for Best Single Song and Best Overall Performer.
Elorin befriends some strangers in town. He’s not certain who seems more strange, Wess or Aerie. Aerie is unconventionally tall for a woman, taller than most people Elorin’s ever met and she wears a very heavy cloak on her back. Wess, the man Aerie travels with, is easily a head taller than she is. They are both very slender of build, and are traveling very light. Elorin tells them where to meet up with the Group later, when the light starts to fade for the day.
When the two travelers enter Marta’s, they attract more attention than usual. Strangers are common in Sanctuary, especially during Festival, but these two have an aura that seems to cause unwanted attention focus on them. They are not only strange in dress and but are even stranger in mannerisms. The strangers seek out the Group and join them at their table. There are introductions all around, and the din of the tavern recedes as the two strangers entrust the Group to their purpose in Sanctuary.
They are here because they’ve followed a path of clues to this Festival. They are looking for a friend of theirs who was kidnapped a few weeks ago from their homeland, far to the north. They completely believe their friend is in significant danger and are willing to do anything to rescue him. They think his enslaver is bringing his circus to the Festival. They don’t know much of who has their friend, but they think it will be easy to find him. The Group ponders their situation and agrees to aid in any way that they can.

The Group arrives at Marta’s and the strangers are there already. The rumor on the street is that there is a traveling show coming to town for the Festival. The newcomers have a feeling that this traveling circus will provide more clues to their friend.
A man in town for the Festival enters Marta’s and looks around. He spots what he seems to be looking for and approaches Kalima. He’s carrying a quarterstaff and since she is also carrying a quarterstaff, he challenges her to a friendly bout in the arena, using only their quarterstaffs. The stranger puts up a 100 $h wager, and Kalima agrees. They walk over to the arena, requisition a slot for fighting, and go in. After a short wait and watching a few fights, Kalima and the man enter their ring, and the fight begins! The battle goes evenly, but Kalima ekes out a win with a lucky blow. The Group watches a few more bouts at the arena, and then is drawn to some new activity from the north; the traveling circus is arriving.
The circus wagon train comes through town, starting at the north gate, through the caravan square (leaving some of the wagons there) and across the Wideway to the Processional, and then north to the Palace grounds. After some setup, an announcer starts revealing the contents of the wagons. There are creatures in cages from the far reaches of the continent. Finally, the last, biggest wagon of them all is revealed and it contains a tall, red, winged humanoid. The announcer calls the humanoid ‘Satan’. The wagons head back to Caravan Square, and the group meets up with the strange travelers in Marta’s. Satan is their missing friend, and they have sworn to free him, and are bound and determined to do so tonight. Elorin cools them down by convincing them to wait one night so they can scout the situation first. The Group is going to the performance tonight to figure out the activity, and then on the second night they will attempt to free him.
In the tent of the circus, several acts are performed, with Satan as the finale. He’s brought out on a stage, and is ordered to provide a show for the crowd. No one in Sanctuary has ever seen nor heard of such a creature, and the Northerners are disgusted with the cruelty with which their friend is treated. Whips and shouts of threats are used to get Satan to show his wings fully spread out, and eventually for him to fly around the tent.
The scouting proves very worthwhile, and the Group waits until the second night for the end of Satan’s flight, then they will spring into action. Outside, Aerie emits a high-pitched keen to alert Satan to her presence, and she removes her heavy cloak. She has wings, too! Aerie takes to the air, while the rest of the plan take shape. Kalima casts some darkness spells at the folks on the stage while the Group outside starts cutting support ropes to the big tent. As the tent collapses, Aerie cuts a hole in the top, allowing her and Satan to fly free. Chaos ensues as the public starts running for the exits while the tent collapses. Wess takes initiative and starts to open the rest of the animal cages, setting all of the captured creatures free.
Outside of town, the Group meets up with Wess. Wess reveals that the group was wrong about something. Wess is commonly mistaken for a man outside of her native land, so she sets the story straight, and bids the Group farewell. The Group wishes her a good journey. She’s going to meet her friends far to the north in a day or so. After watching her in action, the Group does not doubt her ability to survive on her own. Goodbyes are said, and the Group and Wess take opposite paths.

Thieves' World - The Prince and the Steel

If you are just picking this up, I suggest reading the previous posts first!
Prelude : Characters : Act I : Act II : Act III : Act IV

The Prince and the Steel
19th of Morothus - Annensday

The next day, at breakfast, Jack makes a date for shopping with a barmaid (Mary). She gets done after lunch, so Jack, Nickolas, and Malkar hang around Marta’s until her shift is done. Jack plays with some dice and attracts the attention someone who wants to gamble. Jack turns him down and the man grumbles and heads to the bar. He orders and sends three beers to the table. Malkar takes a drink, and Jack drinks deeply, suddenly coughing and thrashing and cannot seem to find his feet. He also feels severely weakened. Nickolas identifies that the drinks are poisoned, and they search for the man from the bar. They’ve lost him, but Jack needs immediate help. The three head immediately for the Avenue of Magistrates where a ritual Regeneration is cast on Jack for a full recovery from the poison.

Eventually, the Group pries Jack from out of the care of the priestesses in the Temple and the Group starts getting ready for the ball; after all, they only have three days. Jack, Malkar and Nickolas need to acquire some suitable clothing for the ball. The Group goes out in the company of Mary and she helps them get some good clothes for a high price. Jack repays her with a gift of a nice new dress, and invites her to the Ball as his date.

In the darkness of night, while returning from their shopping, some thugs jump out from a dark alley to mug them. The muggers quickly find themselves in a losing battle, with two of the mugger’s weapons breaking during the fight, and they run away. Information gathering in the bars reveals that a rash of street robberies are taking place. Also, there is a merchant in the Maze who is selling weapons very cheaply. Mostly street trash and wanna-be thugs are buying them up in huge numbers. They are good for show, but not for use. The Group discusses the impact of these new weapons in these people’s hands, and they decide it can’t be a good thing.

The next day, more people and more weapons are on the street. This time everyone is buying them for protection from the thugs. There have been more confrontations and more violence. Each incident generally plays out as before, with a lot of broken weapons. Modig is gathering information while in Marta’s, and his ears lead him to the Bazaar, where there is a crowd collecting around Dubro’s tent. The crowd gets rowdy and loud; Dubro comes out and quiets the crowd down. Someone has found out that Dubro’s antique sword is made of the ancient Enlibar steel. The crowd is demanding that something has to be done about the cheap weapons that are fast becoming the scourge of the city in the hands of thugs and gangs. Dubro eventually convinces the crowd that the secret of Enlibar steel has been lost for centuries. The crowd eventually disperses and things go back to normal.

That night, Dubro is seeking out Gagino and his friends. He has a job for them and trusts only them. When the Group assembles, Dubro relates this story to them. It was after dark last night and Dubro was visited by a cloaked figure. He said his name is Enas Yorl, and that he has an interest in the antique Enlibar sword also. He asks to see it, and Dubro allows him to hold it. The figure holds it with a hand that isn’t human; the skin is striped black and white and is like the hide of an animal. The figure casts some spells and asks Dubro if he’s interested in the true secret of Enlibar. Dubro assures him that he would be interested in creating master items like the antique sword, and to have the knowledge to forge Enlibar steel. The figure tells him to assemble some trustworthy friends for a short but dangerous quest, a quest that will take them to the secret of the Enlibar people.

Modig informs Dubro that he saw the robed figure leave his tent last night and had been waiting to see if Dubro needed help, and had already gathered the Group for assembly in the morning.

The Group meets at Gagino’s and then they make their way over to Dubro’s tent. Dubro agrees to make whatever they go through worth their while. As if summoned, a messenger from Enas Yorl appears at the tent entrance. The messenger tells them to be ready by mid-afternoon today, and to go to the Yorl residence on Pyrtanis Street.

The Group leaves Dubro to finish shopping for ball clothes. After a few hours they have finally picked up the items they need. There is a commotion from the east. It seems there is a procession of guards and a carriage coming in from the East Gate.

The Group moves towards the main streets and they see the procession making its way down the Wide Way towards the docks. Asking some questions, they hear that it seems that this is the new Prince Governor. They get to the docks and the procession is just arriving there.Twenty fully armed men on horses are escorting the carriage. The carriage stops and a head is seen poking out of the carriage’s window to look at the ship, BlackGuard, at the dock. Suddenly, a crossbow bolt is fired from the crowd, hitting the wood of the door to the carriage, and the head ducks back in. The carriage guards react immediately, and snatch the offender from the street, causing a lot of chaos. The crowd starts to riot, pockets are picked, and small fights start in the street. The Group decides scram before too much happens to them. The carriage moves quickly up the Processional to the gates of the Palace, with the guards not-so-kindly clearing the way of interlopers.

Several hours later the characters find their way down Pyrtanis street and in front of Enas Yorl’s house. As they walk up to the front of the house, a scroll case is tossed out from inside the house, from an upstairs window. The scroll is a map that leads them to a nearby sewer entrance. The map leads them back around and directly underneath the residence. There is a shimmering portal and a brown leather bag waiting for them. In the bag is a rod made of what seems to be pure gold and a lens of glass. The Group is startled by a voice in the air, which proceeds to gives them their instructions.

“Pick up the bag, use the rod to come home, and use the lens to see. Step through the portal, and do your best, as this can only be done once.”

They step through the portal to an underground room, musty and dank smelling. The walls are built from stone, and all indications make the Group think that this is an empty tomb. The Group ponders where they are, and even, when. The powers of Enas Yorl are mysterious, who knows what the old wizard is capable of.

The Group acclimates to the darkness, and gets ready to move on. The doorway opens to a second room and then leads to a corridor. An unknown language is carefully written on the walls here. No one can read the language; when Nickolas looks at the text through the lens Enas gave them, the words are clear to anyone using the lens. The text relates the history of the steel and the people, ending with a part about the secret being protected.

“Protected by what?” mutters Nikolas; the Group wonders with him.

More time passes; as the Group investigates the corridor, one of the walls slide open, and some creatures start plodding towards them. Walking on two feet, their bodies wrapped entirely in strips of cloth, the Protectors confront the Group.

“Mummies!” shouts Kalima.

The Group takes a defensive position and holds its own, fighting as hard as it can with the mummies. During the battle, Kalima drops with too many wounds; Jack goes into a wild battle rage, accidentally hitting Malkar once, just before Jack comes out of his rage. One of the rooms that opened up has a puzzle on the floor using runic pictures. The Group works it out, and another door opens to a long, dark corridor.

The Group congregates at the door at the end of the corridor when darts suddenly start shooting out from the walls and ceiling. Apparently, the door has a trap on it. The darts are poisoned, too, which was too much for the already injured Kalima and Jack, as they are knocked unconscious from them. Modig and Nikolas work on the trap, and finally succeed at opening the door safely.

Inside the door is one more room with a large pedestal, on which is displayed an old book. The book is from ancient Enlibar, and it contains the secret to Enlibar steel. The Group activates the rod, and is transported back to Sanctuary, directly into Gagino’s tent. Gagino closes shop immediately, and starts tending to his wounded daughter, Kalima. Modig runs out and fetches Dubro, who then sends for Alten Stulwig. Jack and Kalima are once again taken to the temple of Sabeillia for watched bedrest.

Dubro wastes no time and begins investigating the secrets of the ancient tome.In payment for their deed, Dubro will make each of the Group one weapon of their choice using the Enlibar steel secret. Enas gifts the group with a magical Handy Haversack.

The Group readies themselves for the Ball that evening, most of them completely out of their element with fancy clothes, food and even dancing. Elorin’s parents have set him up with a local Noble’s pleasant daughter for the evening. Jack is having a hard time on figuring out which of Marta’s wenches will make a good date. The Group has managed to hold one more ticket than they need to get in, and Modig decides to sell the extra ticket to Gastov.

The evening nears, and everyone makes their way to the Palace, at which point, everyone is searched lightly for weapons. The more common you are, the search seems to be a little more complete. A Ranken elite guard is performing the searches with the strictest set of rules.

The ball begins with a reception, including introductions, mingling and some drinks being passed around. The Group partakes liberally of the free drinks; Jack starts a little trouble, dancing a little too much. After too much time passes (as far as our Heroes are concerned), dinner is announced in an adjoining room. Everyone files in and is directed as to where to sit.

In the large diningroom, the Group is ushered to a table furthest away from the Prince’s table. All through dinner, the Group keeps noticing an oddness that seems to be surrounding the Prince. Doing some investigation and questioning, they determine that the Prince is an imposter. Even the Elite Guards are imposters. This is quite a plot to be pulled off.

In the crowd, Kalima recognizes the assassin from the street earlier, the one who shot at the Prince. Jack chums up to him, and learns his name is Tum. The Group recognizes him and they try to pass this information of their observations to the Palace Guards and nobles at the ball, but none of them seem to be concerned. The Magistrate is not accessible during the proceedings; after all they’ve done for him, he would probably believe them.

After dinner a long set of speeches are made by the retiring Ranken governor, the Magistrate, and the new Prince. During the speeches, Modig notices Gastov and several of his men at the tables near him. They are dressed to blend into the crowd. It’s obvious that the ticket they sold him was forged many times to get this many people into the event. Modig wonders what they are up to and keeps an eye out for their deeds.

Finally, the speeches end, and everyone is invited back into the reception room for dancing. This is where Jack really tries to impress his date. Elorin is occupied with his date, and the rest are free to continue to try to get someone to believe that the Prince is not who he says he is. Meanwhile, Modig sees Gastov’s men proceed, one by one, to disappear into the Palace proper; they’ll probably get some really good loot tonight. After a few hours, the Group finally gives up on convincing anyone of anything, and they decide to leave. All except for Elorin, who is obligated to stay with the companion his parents have forced upon him.

After they leave the ball, Malkar sets up to follow Tum. Malkor is lead to what seems to be Tum's residence on the East side, and then to a boat in the docks. After some time in the boat, Tum heads back to his East side residence, with Malkor still shadowing him. Malkor returns to the ship and looks around. What he sees is simply a cargo ship that is being loaded for a shipment out.This is odd, because most ships bring goods into Sanctuary, not the other way around.

The next day, the Group stakes out the ship and sees Tum leading a set of workers that are emptying out a warehouse near the docks, loading the ship with the goods. Jack gets himself hired on as a worker to see what he can find out.

All the boxes are goods from Ranke, which were probably brought in on the BlackGuard. It looks like in all the confusion, Tum has gotten an overlooked warehouse of goods that he is shipping out for his own profit.

Meanwhile, Kalima and Modig are still attempting to get in to see the Magistrate to see what is going on with this fake Prince. The Palace Guards continually send them away, and none of the Guards are the ones the Group is familiar with; it looks like the Palace Guard has rotated shifts and personnel. This makes it tough to see the Magistrate, as the Guards who used to let them in during their investigation of the Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn are no where to be seen. Eventually, the Group gives up on seeing the Magistrate, and focus on the warehouse that is being emptied.

Jack has enough information that he finally walks away and to the local Town Watch shack nearby. With the other members of the Group corroborating his story, the Watch and the Guards get involved.

After a while, a few Palace Guards show up to get the story straight from the Group. One of them is an old familiar Guard. He informs the Group that it has been discovered that the Prince and the Elite Guards are false, and the Palace Guards are setting up a trap to capture them all easily. The Group is encouraged to aid them by continuing to keep the work going, but to slow it down a bit.

It has been discovered that Tum and the fake Prince are in this plot together, and the imposter and the Elite Guards are planning an ‘inspection’ of the BlackGuard. It is suspected that at that time, all of the parties involved will try to sail off in the ship with all the stolen goods.

The Group starts a bit of unrest in the workers, and most of them end up leaving, as they think that they aren’t getting paid, even after working for a full day. Tum gets suspicious of what is going on, is arrested, and taken out of the way. The workers are sent home with half pay, with the provision they stay out of the area. The Palace Guards arrest the ship’s crew, and put them up out of the area also. The entire crew has been replaced with incognito Guards. The false Prince makes his way to the ship where the disguised Guards are waiting to arrest him and his fake Elite Guards. The imposter walks up the gangplank, and when his entire group is on the ship, the trap is revealed. A short burst of resistance is met with expedient and deadly force. The assembly of fakes all lay down arms and surrender. They are summarily arrested and taken away. The Group gets only a small reward, as the Palace Guards claim they knew all along, and were annoyed by the Group’s persistence, almost blowing the whole operation. The Group’s good graces with the Palace Guards seem to have come to an end.

Agricola Animeeples

Agricola! It's fun game. And those who pre-ordered it got little wooden farm animals (known as Animeeples - Meeples are to designate people, animeeples, animals. Geek gamer lexicon.), the rest of us got cubes to represent sheep, boars, and cattle. And now, you can buy them separately. I went and made some out of Sculpey III clay, and went farther than just the animals; I did ALL of the resources in Agricola:
Sheep, Boars, Cattle, Food, Wood, Clay, Stone, Reed, Grain and Vegetable.

We're still thinking about doing farmers...
Here are the pictures:

All the different ones. I kept the quantity the same as what I got in the game, 25 Sheep, 20 Boars, 15 Cattle.

Sheep! I did mostly white, but 5 black made it in the down. Yes, a Down of sheep is a proper collective term. It can also be Flock, Drove, Fold, and / or Hurtle. Checkit! (Yes, you get to learn reading my blogs... sometimes)

The cubes and animeeples boars are black in the game. Who heard of black pigs? Well, they're Boars, but these are much mo betta. IMNSHO. The entire herd is pink.

Cattle! Well, these came out okay, we're not as impressed with the cattle as we are with the pigs and sheep, but they're still loved. Mostly.

Food and Stone. Meran did the plates with the turkey legs and peas. I did the rocks.

Wood and Clay. The wood has some dual tonality to them to simulate wood grain. I give it a 7 out of 10. The clay are cool with the 'stamp mark' fresh from the brickmaker!

Vegetables and Grain. We did two kinds of vegetable, pumpkin and carrot. Because we wanted to. and Grain in sheaves, wrapped and bundled.

Reed and Wood. We already talked about the wood. The reed is used for roofing, so we made it flat and bundled. Kinda odd, but definitely unique!

The whole tile when we baked on the protective coating.

That's it for fun with clay. I know you are on the edge of your seat and can't wait to see them in person. So, let's play Agricola!

DTXMania and Youtube

I've been you-tubed.
I didn't do this video, but all the exercises shown in the video I programmed up. He played them all on 'auto' which means the computer is playing the notes, but you can hear what it is supposed to sound like. And he played them all on the FASTEST setting, for time concerns, I am sure. The shuffles don't sound so good at 160 BPM.. Maybe I should take that speed out.. lol.

The program is called DTXMania, and I decided that with the RockBand / Guitar Hero fad going on, there is an opportunity to use this technology for learning, too. So, I started writing basic exercises and rudiments, and put them out there on some drum forums to see what the response would be like. So far, it's pretty limited, but Billkwondo seems to really like them a lot! So, that's something.

I plan to add more stuff as I go along, but here's some links for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMvYceCLjzo - The YouTube video showing snippets of the exercises.
https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/43816/DTXFiles.zip - The DTXMania files of the rudiments shown in the video

http://www.donburi.to/~from/dtxmania/download.html - Download DTXMania


I think this might be the shortest post by me so far...