Event-based Encounters for The Village of Hommlet

It's been many years since I last used the classic AD&D module T1 The Village of Hommlet as more than a stopover location. The last time I ran the complete module, I wanted to make sure the village part came alive, and gave the player-characters things to do. Below are my notes for that.

The idea for the first encounter comes from the module itself, when it mentions some ways to have the PCs show up in Hommlet poor; I simply combined the examples.

I did wind up using the event only hinted at here, of having Jaroo give the PCs some task to prove themselves to him. As I recall, they had to go pick wildberries for him and identify the right kinds, and they had the option of finding some magical berries too. I believe I did write some notes about that once, but I did not store them in the same folder.

The last idea is struck out because I thought too antagonistic an attitude towards the PCs from the local authorities would drive them away. I still kind of wish I'd used it, though.

 

Reviewing the Beatles Solo Albums in Order - part 10

Oops, I skipped over The Best of Dark Horse: 1976-1989! This is a very unusual Best of album because it contains three "new" tracks, two previously unreleased songs and one from the soundtrack to Lethal Weapon 2 (which I didn't know about, as I've never watched that movie). "Poor Little Girl" sounds very familiar, as George clearly took it apart and reassembled it as "Fish on the Sand" on the Cloud Nine album. "Cockamamie Business" and "Cheer Down" don't impress me much; "CB" is George in his "old man yelling at kids in his yard" mode that we'll hear more of on his posthumous album Brainwashed, and "Cheer Down" is a lot of harsh electric guitar without much substance.

Now I have to try the same technique with George that I did with Paul and Ringo. What would my Best of George album sound like, if it was one song out of every eight? It is SO hard to leave out any of the best from All Things Must Pass, but it would be...

Let It Down
All Things Must Pass
Isn't It a Pity (version 2)
Give Me Love
Bye Bye Love (ha, I really like the joke of putting those back-to-back!)
Dark Horse
Tired of Midnight Blue (but only to fill the slot, it isn't otherwise good enough for this dream album)

Crackerbox Palace

Blow Away

All Those Years Ago

Hong Kong Blues

Cloud Nine

When We Was Fab

Got My Mind Set On You (interesting that there are three covers on this Best of album)

That's 14 songs -- far smaller than the two-disc album I compiled for Paul's Best of dream album. But it's a good collection!

Jumping back ahead in time....Travelling Wilburys Vol. 3 is a little sad to listen to for several reasons. There was never (officially) a vol. 2 and will never be a vol. 4. We have now, since Petty passed, lost a higher percentage of Wilburys than we've lost Beatles. And this album was not as good as the first one, and probably could never have been without Roy on it. As a tribute to the camaraderie they shared with Roy (it's dedicated to "Lefty," the Wilbury "character" Roy played), it is not bad at all. There is nothing close to as good as "End of the Line" here, but there is nothing as bad as "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" here either. "She's My Baby" is a hard rocker that seems to kick off the album strongly, though the lyrics don't hold up well to repeat listening. "Inside Out" is a much more solid song. "If You Belonged to Me" is above average. "Poor House" is a delightfully retro song that feels like a cover of an oldie, but isn't. "Wilbury Twist" is the strongest song on side B, but "You Took My Breath Away" is a solid second place and "New Blue Moon" is also above average.

The video for "Wilbury Twist" is one of those fun, star-studded affairs, with the highlight of this being one of the last acting roles of John Candy, plus fun performances by Cheech Marin and George's old buddy Eric Idle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vs1dmoKAEc

 Next up is Paul's Unplugged: the Official Bootleg. And I vaguely recall being aware this was going to be a special on MTV at the time, but I blew it off because I wasn't a big fan of Paul's solo work yet in 1991, just as I was turning 20. Now I know this is some fabulous stuff, combining a Best of compilation of his Beatles work and solo work with some covers of oldies he's never released anywhere else before.

A while back, I had exchanged comments with a Facebook friend about what a shame it was the Beatles never did a triple album just of covers, as they clearly knew enough good material to fill one. Of course, the early Beatles album material is half covers, so we do have that, but I'm wondering now what a triple album more like John's Rock n' Roll album would have sounded like. This is a dream compilation of covers from their solo careers, plus Live at the BBC and Beatles Anthology Vol. 1. Oh man, this would have sounded so sweet...

Side 1
Love Is Strange
Kansas City
Lucille
I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday
That's All Right (Mama)
Just Because

Side 2
Midnight Special
Bye-Bye Love
Got My Mind Set on You
Be-Bop-a-Lula
Ain't That a Shame
Peggy Sue

Side 3
Bony Maronie
Ya Ya
Angel Baby
To Know Her Is to Love Her
Hound Dog
Young Blood

Side 4
Some Other Guy
Soldier of Love
Crying, Waiting, Hoping
Long Tall Sally
Memphis, Tennessee
Nothin' Shakin'

Side 5
The Hippy Hippy Shake
Glad All Over
I Just Don't Understand
So How Come (No One Loves Me)
Matchbox
Slow Down

Side 6
Searchin'
Three Cool Cats
The Sheik of Araby
How Do You Do It
Leave My Kitten All Alone
Shout

 

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 22 & 23

Planting 15, 621 CY. Starday
The Village of Greenleaf

The hostel had room for everyone that night, but Vask had slept out in the barn to watch the mules. In the morning, when everyone emerged out of their rooms and rendezvoused at the neighboring tavern, Vask was there to greet them with two strangers he had met in the night.

One of them was Gendri, a man who hailed from far to the east, in the Great Kingdom. He was on a pilgrimage of sorts, having journeyed all this way to see the infamous Castle Greyhawk. While crossing the Nyr Dyv, his boat was attacked by a giant lake monster and was destroyed. Gendri was washed ashore, and found gear to reequip himself with in the wreckage that had also washed ashore. He was too hurt to travel, but hunters from Greenleaf found him and brought him back. After two weeks of convalescing, he was able to repay the village by starting his nightly patrols.

On one night, he met the other man who was now with Vask, who had an even stranger story -- and appearance! The man was pale, oddly dressed, and wore luxurious items like spectacles and a magic bracelet with a clockface on it and hands that moved as if a real clock. The man could speak no language anyone knew, but frequently had pointed to himself and said something that sounded like “Keeth Winton.” Since the locals thought Keeth bewitched, but liked Gendri, Gendri had appointed himself Keeth’s protector.

Gendri was very open about himself and the Company learned all this, and more, from him, including how , thanks to Vask, Gendri now knew the Company of the White Oak was heading to Castle Greyhawk and wanted to accompany them, with his own companion. No promises were made about Castle Greyhawk, but the members of the company saw no harm in at least letting these two travel back to the city with them.

So the Company set off once again, following the Western Road east. The weather turned strangely colder again and then cold sprinkles fell from dark clouds off and on through the rest of the day. Two more unnamed hamlets came and went, their armed occupants liking strangers no better than they did when last they came this way. The Gnarley Forest was always in the distance, at their right flank. They had only passed the second hamlet by a short ways when they realized there were no communities ahead they would reach that night, so they backtracked a little. An armed party of locals met them and were not initially receptive to the Company’s offer to pay them one gold for the use of their biggest barn for the night. After much arguing, the locals agreed to two gold, and the Company slept warm in the company of cows and pigs.

Planting 16, 621 CY. Sunday
Great Western Road

Part of the deal was that they got fresh bacon in the morning.

This day the road moved away from the Gnarley Forest, finally leaving it behind them, and the company traveled through largely flat, open fields. More small hamlets came and went. Outside one, they encountered a group of ten peddlers with their carts, talking to the shepherds from that hamlet. The peddlers were pushing mundane fare, like shoe repair and tailor work on the locals, in addition to selling some sundry goods like wax candles and hemp rope. Upon seeing the wealthy-looking Company of the White Oak, the peddlers rushed them! The members of the company, wanting to leave happy people behind them, bought soap and rope from the peddlers until they were all satisfied (and let them pick rocks from their mules’ hooves too!).

After the Company left, they heard screams of fear coming from the group they'd left behind them! In the distance behind them, something was floating towards the crowd. It was the size of a medium shield, but spherical in shape, and instead of any heraldry it looked from here like it had a big eye painted on it. Many of the people and their animals tried to flee, but some then stopped in their tracks, and others that still fled fell to the ground.

Those with missile weapons in the company held a line and waited to launch an attack if the thing came their way, but instead the people who had just stopped fleeing in fear herded their animals back into the hamlet and took the spherical thing with them. Only once the coast was clear did the company return to the scene to see what had happened. Most of the people left were just asleep, but one man had been turned into a stone statue! The locals who had been asleep, after being awoken, wanted to go back into the hamlet and free who they could from that monster, but when they went in, they did not come back. The remaining peddlers were more than happy to leave with the Company, and in fact offered to pay them for protection!

The Company had to consider where to go to alert the authorities. Surely not as far as Greyhawk City. Thinking back, they remembered that they had missed needing to cross the Selintan River at Ford Keep because Zagyg’s Bridge had proven to be safer to cross than they had been led to believe. If they pushed hard enough, they might reach Ford Keep by nightfall…and they did. Or at least they reached the Selintan River by nightfall. Then they had to wave torches in the air to summon a ferry.

There were only two sentries on duty at the gate to Ford Keep. The story of what the company saw sent them running inside to their superior, but the corporal of the watch yelled at them from an upper window in the gatehouse and told them to go away and stop scaring his men with fairy stories. The company gave up; they had told enough people that they felt they had done their due diligence. Plus they were tired. Luckily there was the hamlet of Wainford around the keep. Unluckily the local hostel, the Sign of the Drover’s Repose, was locked up for the night already. The hostelkeeper did not respond to pounding on the door, so Reed used his magic boots to leap up to an open upstairs window and he pulled himself in. A tradesman was sleeping in the room, locked in. Reed picked the lock, went down to the front door and let everyone in. Then the hostelkeeper showed up, bothered by their intrusion. The company was paying in gold, though, so they got to use the common room for the night.

Planting 17, 621 CY. Moonday
River Road

Now on the River Road, the Company took the last leg of the trip back to Greyhawk City, reaching it by late afternoon. For everyone who came from Greyhawk, it was time to squirrel away all the loot they had carried home from Verbobonc. For some of the Company, it was time to rest.

For Percy, it was time to head back to the orphanage and see if they needed any help. Clifton Grey, the manager, did need some help. Maxim Mannering was a baronet, but a 16-year old baronet not ready to inherit from his dead parents yet. Richard and Adela Wood were cousins, five times removed, but wanted to be Maxim’s guardians until he came of age. Percy was asked to talk to the Woods and convince them to give Maxim to the orphanage. Reed came along to help. The Woods promised to consider it.

Reed was not done; he took Herv to his thieves guild friends to see if he could help them. A burglar named Humbert was his contact with them. Humbert appreciated how good Reed and Herv were at beating up women, so he gave them a new job. That night they went with two other thieves to a store that had two hired guards; the guards were easily overpowered and tossed out in the street, sending just the message the guild wanted.

Planting 18, 621 CY. Godsday
Menhir Road

The way to Castle Greyhawk was familiar to everyone but the new blood, Ulrich and Gendri. They saw the wilderness beyond the village of Hawfair Green. The lonely side trail off Menir Road. The lonely castle in the middle of nowhere. The abandoned gatehouses in front of the drawbridge. The ruined barbican. The bones and debris in the courtyard.

Now that they were here…what to do? The dungeon? The keep? The ogres had been a persistent problem in the past. Maybe it was time to go through the towers along the curtain wall and flush them all out.

The east side of the barbican housed two ogres. The Company lured the first one out, circled him and peppered him with missile weapons, then finished him off in melee, with Herv delivering the killing blow. The second ogre met the same fate, decapitated by Herv after the seriously hurt ogre fell prone before him. Neither had lasted more than a minute. But before coming out, the second ogre had sounded a horn. A third ogre was sighted, watching them from further away in the courtyard. John tried to bait him into charging the Company, but the ogre wasn’t biting. But that ogre died, three more ogres died, four last ogres were cornered in a tower and killed one at a time until two ogresses remained on the middle floor of the tower. When they died, the company found what they were guarding was the treasure chamber of the ogre tribe. There were hundreds of gold pieces and a jeweled gorget worth thousands. But the company would not know that until returning to the city, where they had it evaluated…

Session 23
Flocktime 18, 621 CY. Godsday
Castle Greyhawk

Haruspex Niv, Langdon, Percy, Vask, Rom, and Gendri returned to Castle Greyhawk. John Grond was busy, Reed Underbough was feeling under the weather, and Brother Ulrich had dropped out of sight in the past two weeks after spending a lot of time in the Old City. With them were some of their hirelings, Langdon’s Saraband, Rom’s new companion Orin the Dwarf, and Vask’s trained attack bear.

Vask had sunk a lot of money into buying that bear, and then storing that bear during their long side trek to Verbobonc. Last night, when the Company of the White Oak had spent the night at the hostel in the Village of Hawfair Green, Vask had to spend 10 gold paying the local farmers to clear out a barn for him and the bear. But he was confident he was going to get a good return on his investment today.

The drawbridge was down and the Company moved unmolested through the courtyard. They took their cart and mules up to the stables and “parked” them there for the day before returning to the trapdoor that led down into the dungeon. They had not, until arriving at the castle, made any kind of plan for what they were going to accomplish here today. Langdon recalled there was a dwarf in Grossetgrottell who was paying for maps of the dungeons, so they could complete the level 1 map and then sell it. They had two large sections of the level mapped already; not maps they had made themselves, but ones they had found in the dungeon in the past. The maps looked complete, however, there were some blank areas that seemed suspicious to Langdon, like there might be secret rooms in those spots.

But first, it was agreed that they had to check on the women of ill repute, Madam Muriel’s girls, and see if they needed rescuing. They did not have John’s more complete maps of the southern part of the level, but from what they did have it was pretty easy to plan their route to the brothel rooms. Before they got there, though, they found two piles of dead bodies, mostly kobolds, had been left in corridors, one at the bottom of the stairs down into the dungeon and a larger pile just south of the “trapped chest” room. This second pile was the home of five giant centipedes, all over a foot long, that skittered out and came at Vask and his bear! Vask made short work of the centipedes in front of him, while one skittered past, crawled into Gendri’s boot, and bit his ankle! Rom pulled the boot off and the remaining centipede was squashed, but Gendri was limping badly after his bite.

Vask and Haruspex moved to inspect the pile of bodies – and were surprised by four more centipedes! One of them crawled up Vask’s hand and bit his exposed wrist. The four were soon killed, including one that was killed by Vask’s bear. Vask’s wound, though, unlike Gendri’s, was swelling up and changing color right away. Vask tried to downplay it, but Rom knew a thing or two about giant centipedes from his military training and knew that Vask could be dead within 30 hours. Luckily Langdon had one of the magic potions of neutralizing poison that had been found in the very “trapped chest” room to the north some months back.

There was a blood trail that led south, the very direction they wanted to go, but they lost the trail on the way to the brothel rooms. At the brothel rooms, they knocked on the entrance door and were admitted after identifying themselves. Muriel had a sword and shield now for defense, but she was still there with five girls, two more than the Company knew about. Surprising everyone, they were happy where they were. True, there had been some months of pure chaos in the dungeon after the Master was slain, his lieutenant Herg was slain, and his other lieutenant, Gregory, went missing. Muriel feared for their lives, until the demi-humans took over. The elves (who the Company already knew about) have been joined by four dwarves and a gnome and have been protecting the brothel rooms. The Companions, to a man, rejected the offer of services here (particularly if they’d been servicing non-humans in the past…).

Gregory’s annotations on their dungeon maps showed an area to the east that was inhabited by skeletons. Langdon wanted someone to give them directions to that room, or guide them there, since the map showed no direct route to that room. One of the girls, Bethany, offered to guide them for two gold, but not long after leaving their rooms she got turned around and claimed she could get them there better from the north side of the dungeon. Luckily, this played into Langdon’s plans to go back and check some of the “blank spots” on the map to the north, so they all backtracked that way and did some searching first.

The first “blank spot” was by the “spear trap” room. None of the four walls around that section yielded up any secret doors. The Company had run afoul of that spear trap months ago and figured there was a good chance the trap had been reset by now. Luckily there was a way to foil it – have the near-superhumanly strong Vask bash the door down onto the spear-throwing device. It worked! Four of the Company moved into the small room to search it for secret doors – only to fall victim to the room’s second trap – a pit trap that dumped all four of them 15’ to a hard floor below. No one was killed, but Rom was seriously hurt.

After finding no secret exits from the bottom of the pit, and after fishing everyone out with rope, the clerics decided it was time to share their healing spells with their companions, including bequeathing one to Gendri, who had put up with his foot injury in stoic silence all this time.

Moving on, the Company next checked a room, not far from the entrance, they had never bothered with before, that Gregory had written “I think Rowan was hiding here” on, on the map. The Company never did learn who Rowan was, and learned no clues now, as the room seemed abandoned. The map looked like there might be a secret room to the south of it, but what it had were two concealed doorways in the south wall, behind curtains, that led into a narrow corridor that only connected the two doorways. It seemed to serve as nothing but a past hiding place, and there was nothing to be found back there now, so the Company moved on.

Bethany was back on the scent now and said the way to the skeleton room involved moving through the muralled hall. The hall had the chamber of the berserkers connected to it in the northeast corner and Niv was curious to see if they were still there. Many months ago, Niv had run for his life from those berserkers; now he was powerful enough to deliver some long-delayed payback on them. But, upon forcing the double doors, they found no one home. Two lion statues magically roared, but did not move. There was a “blank spot” on the map in the southwest corner and Langdon wanted that checked. This time, Rom did find a secret door. It led into a small, 10’ x 10’ cloakroom. Langdon stepped inside to examine it – and vanished.

The rest of the Company was flabbergasted. Had Langdon been instantly destroyed by magic, or magically transported away? Hoping it was the latter, Rom moved into the cloakroom and also disappeared (leaving everyone else in the dark, since Rom had been holding the only torch). But then (after Niv had lit his lantern) Saraband tried to follow his master, and nothing happened to him when he went into the cloakroom.

There was no sign of the two missing companions anywhere in the chamber. They searched the dais for clues. They had a theory that they could activate the room to return them, somehow, by manipulating the roaring lion statues. The statues had no moving parts, including the four statues of primitive warriors in the chamber, and they did nothing when touched, or when the bear tried to chew on one. The roar was definitely emanating from the open mouths of the two lion statues. No one wanted to reach into the statues’ open mouths, but Gendri inserted Vask’s spear into the mouth of a statue, and that did nothing. Frustrated, Vask ran into the cloakroom – and this time he too vanished.

Meanwhile, from Langdon’s perspective, everyone outside the cloakroom had vanished. Only, the entire chamber had disappeared with them, replaced with a small room with two 5’-wide corridors leading out of it. Rom soon joined him, and they decided to wait awhile to see if everyone else did too. Eventually Vask joined them, but Vask explained that the others were too busy looking for another way to find them and would likely not come through. They seemed to have no choice but to find their way back to the chamber where the others were, or the room with the skeletons, since that was where they had originally been heading.

The way ahead was ominous; both 5’-wide corridors led past side passages that were actually sepulchers lined with coffins. But no undead occupants emerged. Langdon even cracked open a coffin and found a skeleton inside in rotting clothes, but no sign of jewelry to steal on its person, so he left it in peace. After moving past the second sepulcher, they saw torchlight from up ahead…

Meanwhile, the rest of the Company decided they had best move on and find wherever the trapped cloakroom had sent the others (still preferring this explanation to the bleaker alternative). Where had the berserkers gone? Bethany and some of the other girls had been here before (the berserkers liked to do more than fight in here…), but she had never seen the secret room. She told them she had heard rumor that many of the men of the dungeon, including the berserkers, had been recruited by those on the second dungeon level to come join them down there, but they had no evidence that was where the cloakroom had sent them. They wanted Bethany to keep leading them to the skeleton room. She led them east through the muralled hall to a 5’-wide passage they had never taken before. It led to another large chamber with a giant central pillar in the middle of it, and Gregory’s notes told them they were near a giant spider lair. They avoided that door, only to discover the spiders weren’t home – three large spiders with 2’-long legs were crawling towards them. A fast fight ensued, and the Company won it without injury.

Meanwhile, the three displaced companions approached the torchlight and noticed the torchlight was approaching them. At a crooked four-way intersection they met seven lightly armored men, some with bows, who trained their weapons on them. Langdon explained they only wanted to find the skeleton room and offered to pay for directions. The men agreed to guide them there for 10 gold, to which Langdon agreed. The way took them back the way the men had come from, zigzagging around until they came to the door of a room filled with oversized chairs.

Meanwhile, Bethany had directed them to another single file, 5’-wide corridor heading back west (man, did these girls really know their way around small passages!). They passed a door that read, in Gregory’s notes, “bandits + storeroom” on their map. Curious, they went inside and found a single dwarf! Grunnar was about to talk a nap in one of the room’s chairs, which is how safe from bandits he felt until just now. The Company identified themselves and Grunnar showed recognition; he had heard of them! They wanted to be shown to the skeleton room? Sure…normally he gave that room a wide berth, but he was willing to help get them there…

Just then, the south door opened, from the oversized chairs room, and bandits filed into the room, along with Langdon, Vask, and Rom. Grunnar told them not to trust the bandits, but they had done what they had been paid to do so far, and Langdon gave them their 10 gold here as they parted ways.

The map led them straight to an archway that should lead into a room, with neighboring rooms to either side, all three of which might have skeletons in them (Gregory’s annotations were unclear on this point). The room behind the archway contained four standing skeletons, with weapons and shields. Langdon and Percy, ready for this long before they got there, presented their crosses and called on holy names until the skeletons were blasted into ash by their combined power. Their weapons and shields clattered to the floor, but also a single sheet of paper floated down from where it had been rolled up and stuck in one of their ribcages.

The paper was examined next and it turned out to be a magic scroll. There was also a large pile of ash, containing bits of burnt furniture, further back in the room, and this pile yielded 10 gold pieces when Langdon sifted through it.

The door to the south was opened, and this opened up on to a near-identical room, where three skeletons were rising up off the floor. Behind them, more skeletons opened the door to the far north. Percy and Langdon divided their turning ability, but it still was enough to dissolve all the skeletons in both locations, giving a grand total of 10. There was no treasure in either of the other rooms.

A door from one of the rooms led west into what Gregory’s notes called the “pillored vaults.” Haruspex suggested this might mean treasure vaults, and everyone was eager to see some treasure, since they had already spent more than they’d found down here this trip. The rooms were so called, apparently, because of their vaulted ceilings, and how a central pillar came down from the apex of the ceiling in each room. A face was carved in each of the pillars, facing west. The first room’s face had no eyes. Langdon tried to talk to it, but it did not answer. The second room’s face had no ears. The third room’s face had no mouth. Langdon got the connection between them, but could not solve how to activate them, assuming they did anything in conjunction.

It would be a riddle for another day. The Company decided to end this expedition, in the hope that the spell scroll they obtained was valuable enough. On the way back, though, they got as far as the muralled hall when they were ambushed by goblins, some of whom had bows. Percy and Orin were hit – and Orin was dealt a critical hit! Saraband’s sleep spell put the kibosh on all ten goblins, but the best treasure that could be looted off of them were two short bows in good condition.

As the Company was heading out, Grunnar promised to take Bethany back to Muriel. They found their mules still comfortably waiting in the stables, undisturbed. Nothing further was encountered on their way out of the castle, or heading back to the Menhir Road.

Back on the Menhir Road, the Company returned to Hawfair Green, where they now traditionally stopped and celebrated their success at the Leaping Trout Tavern. A crowd of 15 villagers came to see the Company of the White Oak return, hoping to hear tales of Castle Greyhawk (their destination after these visits long since no longer a secret). As the Company settled in (minus Vask, who stayed outside with his unwelcome bear), they recognized a gnome dressed all in black. This was Mather, one of the gnomes Haruspex and some others had long ago freed from the Castle Greyhawk dungeons before the Company of the White Oak got its name. Mather, the gnome whose family they had stayed with before exploring the Forbidden Caves north of Grossetgrottell.

Mather clearly recalled Haruspex and came over to clasp hands with him. Mather had a short, sad tale to tell of why he was dressed in mourning. “As you know, the Forbidden Caves were well-guarded after you discovered goblins and gnolls had taken up residence there. Two months ago, my nephew, Horach, was on patrol duty at the entrance to the Forbidden Caves. The patrol was not meant to go in, but they must have heard something and gone in to investigate. They were all…found dead. The monsters that did this had not returned to the Forbidden Caves to invade Grossetgrottell, as we always feared. Instead…do you recall a stone cube in one of the caves? You touched it and one side glowed bright while the opposite side turned dark? It must have been a magic puzzle box of sorts, but whoever did this knew how to open it. They opened the box, took whatever was inside, and left with no other clue than leaving the lid open…”

Reviewing the Beatles Solo Albums in Order - part 9

I was maybe the only 17 year old in 1988 who was agog when Travelling Wilburys Vol. 1 came out. I didn't know who Jeff Lynn was and I wasn't a Tom Petty fan yet, but I George Harrison was hot off of Cloud Nine's success. I didn't know Bob Dylan had been making lackluster records all this time; I thought he had gone into retirement after 1969 and was just re-emerging now. And while my parents never owned Roy Orbison albums, I knew his work and loved it from the oldies radio station (104.3 FM, back in the days when it was still good; it plays garbage today). To me, this band was like the gods of Olympus coming down to revisit humanity. 

With that preamble, you might be surprised to find how much of the album I considered filler, even then. "Rattled" and "Not Alone Anymore" are good, but more like Roy songs with the rest just backing him. "Last Night" and "Heading for the Light" are pretty good. "Handle Me with Care" is a good group song. "Congratulations," "Margarita," "Dirty World," and "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" are junk, each worse than the one before them. But making up for those last four in spades is "End of the Line," a simply fantastic song and easily one of my all-time favorite songs that would wind up on a top 10 list if I had a "top 10 favorite songs ever" list. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMVjToYOjbM

Next up is Starr Struck: Best of Ringo Starr vol. 2, the first album in this project that I can't find anyone has re-compiled on Youtube. I've listened to the songs in the correct order and find this review of his 1976-1983 material enjoyable enough, but now I want to know what a Best of Ringo album would be like if I compiled it the way I just compiled a Best of Paul album in part 8. Is one song in every eight of Ringo's a winner? Let's see...nope, I can't do it. I'd have to include at least one song from Ringo the 4th and I cannot, in good conscience, put any of those on a best of album.

Right! Moving on to Paul's Flower in the Dirt album. This was off my Radar when I was 18...well, mostly off my Radar. I remember hearing that Paul was coming out with a new album he made with Elvis Costello, but I ignored it because I thought Elvis Costello was a silly name. Hey, I was 18! Though, I must have heard "My Brave Face" around that time. I really love it now! "This One" is a great song too -- and I mean, these two are really groundbreaking stuff, "My Brave Face" (despite its sometimes silly, self-effacing lyrics) for its structural complexity and "This One" for its unexpected characteristics (not stopping after the first verse repeats and its Hindu influences). Paul wasn't just a star going through the motions; he was an artist still determined to find new things to do. After those two, the album quickly descends. "Put It There" is a pretty good song. "Motor of Love" is a terrible name for a song, but is somehow more satisfying than it should be. "That Day Is Done" is one of those songs that seems so close to being good, but didn't quite get there. Everything else is filler. I'm going to deliberately avoid sharing any videos for this album as they all seem unusually culturally insensitive by today's standards, ranging from the villainous Japanese man in "My Brave Face" to the cultural appropriation of "This One" to a particularly bad video for "Où est le Soleil?" (and how did this song ever warrant a single?), where Paul and his friends seem to be mocking traditional African folk dancing.

Ringo retreated to safer territory with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band, performing early Beatles songs of his and only a few solo songs. This 1990 album was a concert album. Not having it, I opted for watching a concert video of the All-Starr Band performing. I'm not sure of the year, but what I saw came from sometime during the early years. It was fun seeing Ringo interacting with Levon Helm or Clarence Clemons. I would love to have seen one of these concerts, but just listening to it, it seems a disjointed best of album mixed from all different performers and styles. The concert I watched is here -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrkeMIz3mq4

Reviewing the Solo Beatles Albums in Order - part 8

Live in New York City is a live album of John and Yoko performing, thankfully concentrating on John and leaving out some Yoko songs from the concert, including that "Prison" song which I unfortunately heard because I watched the video rather than limiting myself to the record tracks (ugh, I had that stuck in my head like an "ear worm" after listening to it again, though!). It's essentially a best of album, but there is one new cover -- "Hound Dog" -- that makes you wish the Beatles had not been so respectful of the "king" and recorded more Elvis covers. But then Yoko starts screeching over it and -- sigh, even if she had made dog noises it would have made more sense than her screeching. 

Press to Play was a Paul album that had completely escaped my notice all this time. It's not going to become one of my favorites; there are no real winners on this album, but there are certainly good ones here. I really like the bluesy rock of "Stranglehold," even if I'm normally not a fan of horns on rock n' roll songs (this is extra rare because I'm so often not impressed with the first songs on Beatles solo albums). I love it while I'm listening to it, but unfortunately it's not a catchy tune; 10 minutes later, I can't remember the tune anymore, and I've listened to it several times now. I know it's been awhile since Paul's done a medley and maybe thought he was due, but...is "Good Time Coming/Feel the Sun" really a medley, or just talking leading into the next song? Speaking of talking, I really like the chorus on "Talk More Talk," but the rest of it is pretty weak and longer than it deserves to be -- I also don't like all the actual talking in it, even though I get that is the point of the song.   "Footprints" is easy listening, maybe too easy. I like the instruments on it, but the effect of the song is calming as Muzak. "Only Love Remains" starts similar, but kicks it up a notch mid-song, becoming catchier, and has a simple but more obvious message.  "Press" has an '80s dance song vibe similar to "Say Say Say," but full of playful references to physical contact. I do not get why Oklahoma gets two mentions in the song, unless Paul was just lazily filling beats. Not my favorite song on the album, but the music video was nice. The same lazy beat-filling happens on "Pretty Little Head," where there's really no lyrical reason for the "Ursa Major, Ursa Minor" refrain; the song isn't even about constellations -- though it sounds like it would be a better song if it was. "Angry" starts out promising -- ooo, we haven't had a real rocker from Paul in awhile! But then it doesn't really go anywhere...sort of like being angry doesn't really get you anywhere...could that have been intentional?

"Spies Like Us" isn't actually on that album, but it sometimes gets lumped in with it. I haven't heard it in a long time. I remembered liking it, and the movie, way back then, but it doesn't hold up now, sounding like it's trying too hard to be "Live and Let Die." So I'm going to share "Stranglehold" with you, in the hopes that maybe this time I'll remember the tune 10 minutes later!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxH6Kgul-Ss&list=PLNZ4pVtD8MsGjXbimbkOcDViYu_YP5PBK&index=1

Menlove Avenue is a real treat I didn't know existed; a sort of 'John Lennon Anthology' with all previously unreleased material. By an interesting coincidence, just the day before I had heard "Rock and Roll People" on the Sirius XM Beatles Channel and wondered, where did this come from? Right here. "Here We Go Again" and "Rock and Roll People" are both good rockers, but the covers of "Angel Baby" and "To Know Her Is to Love Her" are just amazing (and the version of the latter is even better on Beatles Anthology vol. 1; it's a shame it was not on an album for so long!) -- and make me wish his earlier album, Rock n' Roll, had been a double album to include more of this magic. Side B is not as magical; it's all variants of tunes from the Walls and Bridges album. All good stuff, but somehow John's own music just isn't as satisfying as when he's belting out classics; it seems to be done with more love for songs he grew up with than for his own material. Here's my favorite version of "To Know Her Is to Love Her" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzUKcn5auuU

And now, this is where I came in. I grew up with the Beatles music from before I was born, not the solo albums they were putting out at the time -- until George's Cloud Nine. It was the creative music video for "Got My Mind Set on You" that sucked me in; I still remember the pizza place in Batavia I was at with my dad and sister when I saw this on the television there, and suddenly I couldn't ignore the solo Beatles anymore. I asked for a copy of the cassette tape version for Christmas. I now understand that Jeff Lynne was instrumental in helping George get his groove back, his love for the music. "Cloud Nine" is a good song like we hadn't had from him in awhile. "When We Was Fab" is a great song. The rest of the songs are filler -- but all good filler. And here's that video that so wowed me when I was 16 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_71w4UA2Oxo. Still such a rocker. Ooo, I didn't know this was a cover song until writing this!

Next up is All the Best, yet another "best of" album from Paul. But a lazily made one, as it mostly duplicates the previous "best of" Wings compilation. A side game in this project has been rethinking the "best of" albums. Could I have done better? By this time, there were about 170 post-Beatles Paul songs, not counting variations on the same ones. To pare it down to 20 - no, let's make it 24 songs -- that's 1 song for every 8. What would that album look like? Arranged in chronological order, one song from every eight in a row, they would be:

"Every Night"
"Maybe I'm Amazed"
"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey"
"The Back Seat of My Car"
"Tomorrow"
"My Love"
"Jet"
"Let Me Roll It"
"Magneto and Titanium Man"
"Call Me Back Again"
"Silly Love Songs"
"Warm and Beautiful"
"With a Little Luck"
"Mull of Kintyre"
"Arrow through Me"
"Daytime Nighttime Suffering"
"Waterfalls"
"Goodnight Tonight"
"Ballroom Dancing"
"Pipes of Peace"
"We All Stand Together"
"Simple As That"
"No More Lonely Nights"
"Press"

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 20 & 21

Coldeven 28, 621 CY
The Town of Hommlet

The Company of the White Oak had just returned to Hommlet yesterday, having spent most of their downtime in the City of Verbobonc, up north. They had arrived early yesterday and did not have to leave right away this morning, affording them their longest look yet at the young town. The Velunese Temples, the Temple of the Heavenly Virtues and the Temple of the Journey, were both well- represented here, with chapels to both located on the same street on the north side of town. Percy already had connections with the Temple of the Heavenly Virtues, thanks to his orphanage work in Verbobonc, which afforded him and Brother Langdon a much-needed look at prayerbooks. Langdon, now a Battle Vicar, was able to prepare his first spell of the second order of miracles by studying their prayerbooks, despite Boccob’s lack of affiliation with their church. Meanwhile, John Grond left a small donation with the Temple of the Journey, so they would bless their trip.

The road east led them into the Gnarley Forest, the first time they had actually stepped foot into the forest after all this time of traveling around it. The road was clear this time, with no highwaymen blocking the way, so they reached Nulb that afternoon. They knew of Nulb’s bad reputation and, fearing they would be spotted by spies of the temple if they spent too long here, they sent Reed Underbough to scout around, looking for a trail that led suspiciously away from the village. In the meanwhile, there was no harm in them standing around looking like mercenaries in such an area like this. Soon, though, Reed returned with news that he had found such a path, heading south, deeper into the forest. They followed it and soon came to a site of ruin.

That the Temple of Elemental Evil was once grand was evident from the pieces of the black basalt cathedral that still remained intact. No piece of plaster seemed to have gone unshaped, nor block of stone without engraving. But these were not beautiful adornments -- every piece of plaster was molded into a hideous face, each block of stone engraved with glyphs or runes of ill omen. Much of the cathedral now was smashed to rubble. Thorny brambles grew up thick around the ruins, and in the ruins, and ravens were everywhere, perched on any high stones, and staring unnaturally at the company as they approached. They moved into the rubble and found, from the smashed pillars, that they were standing in what had once been the nave of the temple. From here, they could tell that the east wing was surprisingly still intact and accessible through the rubble. But first, they carefully circled around outside, wanting a peek through the smashed windows. Reed, on Herv’s shoulders, announced that it was empty -- and there was a door they had missed going into the room he saw.

Returning inside, they climbed through the rubble and found the intact door. It was bashed open by Vask, and led into a long-since looted room, that only had stairs going down in it…

They had come this far. Forming up into mostly familiar ranks, they headed down the stairs. The hirelings Harvard and Herv, having proven themselves to their bosses, were moving up in the ranks, while the new guy Rom was left in the rear to hold the mule reins. At once, they noticed similarities with the Castle Greyhawk dungeons -- the same unnaturally drab greyness of the stone used, and even similarly stale, foul-smelling air. One difference was that corridor ceilings peaked here, rather than flat across. They soon reached a four-way intersection, so they paused and asked Reed to search for tracks.

And he did find some, booted feet coming from the same way they had come, but turning right. Following, they found themselves in a very long corridor, though it jogged over to the right a few times. Ahead, the the passage forked. Reed bent down to check the dust, but sneezed and blew away the evidence. Choosing the side passage, they found a hexagonal, ruined throne room. It seemed deserted, but because they were cautious they noticed bats in the rafters and their guano on the floor. This had not been their home for long, given the uneven quantity of guano on the floor. They found nothing of value, so they returned to the main corridor and continued on.

After awhile, the corridor turned and seemed to double back on itself, but this led to a perpendicular corridor with a promising-looking door in it -- and dim light seen under the door! Reed listened to it and heard two bored men talking about if they were hungry. Bursting in, the Company quickly overpowered the two sentries in the tiny room, all while mocking them about being hungry. They left one alive for interrogation and learned that they were part of a force of bandits who controlled a suite of at least five connected rooms down here. No reinforcements had come from the neighboring room to back them up because they had to constantly patrol around the suite to keep giant spiders away. Their leader, Commander Wilhelm, was in one of those rooms. He led a company of 20-30 men, but was looking to recruit more for launching raids on the Town of Hommlet.

Tying them up, the Company moved on to the next room, and the room after that, finding progressively nicer barracks, but ones emptied of their active patrols. The room after that housed Commander Wilhelm, his lieutenant, and two other men, all standing around a map on a table. The two lesser brigands fell quickly, but Wilhelm and his second-in-command went back to back in the center of the room and put up a ferocious battle, wounding several in the party and seriously wounding Herv. Wilhelm was paralyzed by the thin ray fired by Niv’s headband-wand, but even then the lieutenant fought on alone for two more minutes before finally giving up and surrendering. The map on the table showed the Town of Hommlet and its environs. The leaders sported some decent treasure that was claimed. The next and last of the five connected rooms was a storage room with some nice furniture and little more portable treasure. It also had a concealed door that led into more corridor.

This hidden corridor was twice the width of the previous ones and seemed to double back towards the entrance to the five-room suite. But rather than continue exploring in this direction, the Company decided to go back and deal with getting their prisoners out of the dungeon. The sentry, so helpful in squealing on his bosses, was going to be released into the wild, but the leaders would be taken back to Hommlet to see if there were unclaimed bounties on them.

When they finished funneling back through the suite of rooms, they met one of the patrols -- eight brigands who had been missing earlier. Niv made short work of them with a sleep spell. They also learned that there was an area controlled by goblins to the south. John briefly pushed for trying to find a new route back around the goblin area, but it was decided to backtrack the long but known route that had got them here.

Finally returning to daylight, the Company emerged out of the ruins -- and smack into an encounter with over a dozen giant ravens! Another sleep spell dropped more than half of them out of the sky, and the rest were chased off with missile fire. The way was clear to return to Hommlet!

Session 21

Planting 6, 621 CY. Earthday

The City of Verbobonc

 

The weather turned cloudier, and it rained that afternoon. How fortunate that they were back in the city by then, spending most of the day indoors. The wizard Scottenkainen was a charitable host, allowing them to stay a few hours at his tower while his servants gathered the treasure from under lock and key they had stashed in his care. Scottenkainen had a lot of small talk about the weather to share, but what everyone wanted to hear about from him was about the vampires.

"The curious thing of your story of these vampires is that they spoke to each other as equals," Scottenkainen related. "Vampires prefer to be solitary hunters, or surround themselves with a pack of vampire spawn they can control. It may show the strength of this 'Adversary' they work for who forces them to work together...or it could be familial bonds manifesting in their afterlife. 

"Verbobonc and Veluna have not been entirely free of vampires over the past 100 years, but they were thought eradicated here by now. Also, there are no legends of two vampires working in tandem here. I did, however, remember this..."

Scottenkainen produced a book, a popular work called The Travels of Lord Robilar. "Have you read it?" he asked everyone. "It is thought to contain many fanciful tales, but I suspect that Lord Robilar really did many of the things this book records. It includes a chapter about the crypts under Castle Greyhawk and..." he turns to a bookmarked page and reads: "a band of four full-strength vampires controlled this level. I slew one, and then another, but those other two found no more courage than life in their blood after that and avoided me at all costs....I wonder,” Scottenkainen mused as he closed the book, "if those vampires were ever caught and killed; the book doesn't say."

“Interesting! Very interesting indeed,” John Grond said. 

Vask nodded; he thinks he got all that. “What about this?”

“Your battle axe…?” Scottenkainen asks. 

“It’s magical. What can it do?”

Scottenkainen had a servant take the axe. “I can examine it overnight. I should be able to identify its properties. Is there anything else?” he asked, noticing the look on Vask’s face.

“Yes…if you were to get anymore information about Prospero, or the vampires…”

“Yes, I will send you a message by avian messenger if I learn anything important.”

Soon, the Company found available lodging enough for everyone at the Red Dona Inn, in the Business Quarter. It would be their last night in Verbobonc, but no one felt like celebrating; everyone was eager to get back to Greyhawk.

Planting 7, 621 CY. Freeday

The City of Verbobonc

Vask learned there were no extra enchantments on his axe [Battle Axe +1] and said his good-byes to Scottenkainen. Those who had accompanied him joined the others in the Foreign Quarter, spread out on either side of the Velverdyva River, searching for Captain Sigurd. They wanted to hire The Dragon’s Bane to transport them back to the Town of Maraven. But there was a hitch -

As they found out from some reputable-seeming businessmen that afternoon, Sigurd and his longship and crew had left just that morning to take other passengers downstream. Not interested in spending a lot more time looking for a replacement, John called out to a Rhenee bargeman by the docks. “Who has the best and fastest barge on the river?”

The man pointed to the man next to him. “That would be my barge,” said the second man. The second man was Captain Rodar. The transaction was brief; for 40 gold, half now and half later, they would take the entire Company down to Maraven on the lake. 

There was someone else there on the docks that day looking to get to the City of Greyhawk, Brother Ulrich the Maimed. He wanted a ride and he needed his transportation cheap. John heard this and suggested Ulrich ride with them, so long as he chipped in seven gold. 

It was half of all the money Ulrich had left in the world, but he needed to spend it. His vision had told him he was needed at Castle Greyhawk, and he had to find out why.

“When do you wish to leave?” Rodar, asked.

“Tomorrow morning.” 

Planting 8, 621 CY. Starday

Velverdyva River

To ensure their loyalty, John showed up with grog for the rowers before they disembarked. 

The Velverdyva River left Verbobonc, flowing downhill to the northeast, away from the Kron Hills and into the broad valleys west of the Gnarley Forest. They sailed past the Village of Eglath at midday. 

As they traveled, each member of the Company reflected on what had brought them to this point. 

John Grond had been a hired grunt, willing to sell out anyone for a gold piece. Now he was a leader of men -- no longer a hireling, but employing his own hirelings! -- loyal to the company that either had never noticed his Ogrish descent, or simply didn’t care.

Langdon had been told by those fools in Hommlet that this was a time of testing, arranged by the gods, but Langdon knew this was Boccob’s mysterious plan and all would be revealed to him in time. He had been made a vicar from a lowly acolyte in mere months and would return to Greyhawk a senior cleric of his church.

None of this was Percy’s concerns. Percy’s priorities were orphanages, like the one he grew up in, before the church took him in and made him one of their own. That, and looking good while doing it, of course.

Vask did not think of himself as a smart man, so he was loyal to men who were, like the Wizard Prospero, and would remain so until the day Prospero finally released him from his service. But now he had divided loyalties, to a Company so generous they had entrusted all their magic weapons to him.

Reed Underbough was usually overlooked by everyone -- literally, given his small size. It served his purposes to remain so, but he liked how the Company valued his skills. How would they all react if they knew of the side jobs he did…the bad things he did to get in good with the thieves’ guild? But then he looked up at Herv, his hulking bodyguard, and felt a little safer.

Rom Riverbluff was appropriately named, he had in fact grown up on a bluff along the Velverdyva River and knew the river like the back of his hand. Not that the Company had asked him to serve as a guide, or tried to hire a guide. Sometimes Rom had the sneaking suspicion he was the smartest person in the room…but he was also on the bottom rung of the ladder in this Company. Maybe he should keep more observations to himself until he had climbed it higher.

  

In the afternoon the river passed the port town of Oakham, a medium-sized town with impressive fortifications facing the forest. There was a bit of river traffic congestion here that they had to wait through. Captain Rodar had “caravaned” here with a second barge that needed to be dropped off. From here, everyone continued on the larger, longer barge. 

Soon they were making good time again, reaching the Village of Thaymouth that evening before twilight. Thaymouth was a small village of maybe 100 people, most of them not even living on the river, but centered around Tays’ Run, a short distance upriver. They had a waystation situated closer to the river, intentionally well clear of the village, and here the Company and the Rhenee planned to enjoy the grog they’d been holding back from all day. 

One of the Rhenee noticed something. “The village…there are no people. No animals. No lights….”

It was true. The Company volunteered to go explore and find out what was happening, or had happened, and Brother Ulrich came along (minus Haruspex Niv, who was feeling under the weather, and his charmed hireling Gregory, who stayed with him). They lit torches and a lantern to help see, though it was not completely dark out yet either. Their first clue was at the first house they came to. It was a small mottle and daub hovel. Its windows had curtains instead of glass. But it was conspicuously missing a window. The wall there had been bashed in by something heavy, maybe multiple blows from a mace. Inside, they found a dead dog, killed by a blow to the head. 

There were tracks all around, some barefoot, some in shoes, from people of all ages and sizes. They moved deeper into the village, looking for people and only finding tracks. People had been herded from east to west across the village, gathering in the middle. Other buildings were damaged and, at each broken wall or door, there were bare footprints. 

Twenty minutes since leaving the barge, while still trying to figure out where the figures herded across the village headed next, someone spotted a silhouetted figure standing between them and the barge. It was an emaciated, naked figure -- but not actually in silhouette, it was a pitch black figure. Vicar Langdon sensed it was something supernatural, held forth his cross and called on Boccob to turn it away, but the figure did nothing. Percy, eager to show the strength of his church, stepped up to try the same, and this time the figure took a step towards them instead. 

Saraband sighted another one, a little further away to the southwest. 

John, Harvard, Reed, and Vask tried missile weapons, including Vask’s enchanted javelin, but their weapons just glanced off of them. 

The bargemen could see something was going on, but not what. The Company could see the bargemen arming themselves in the distance, but they were not heading out to help. Even though the Company had the creatures outnumbered ten to two, they were beginning to feel outnumbered and called for a retreat to the barges.    

Langdon, Percy, Rom, and Ulrich all made it back to the barge, but the rest were cut off by the black figures and tried to fight it out. That made three who made it back to the barge rally and come back (Ulrich stayed behind to keep the bargemen from fleeing the scene with their transportation), only to join a full retreat. Vask’s battle axe had taken off one of their hands, but it was the only harm anyone had done to them; they were immune to non-magical weapons. Herv had been knocked down and seriously injured, but managed to crawl away to join the others, and John fled with a light wound from being throttled. From the barge, Percy threw flaming oil that illuminated one of them, but the black figures had not been even moderately damaged the whole time.

There was another hamlet two hours’ journey downstream, but that would not be fast movement; the Company had to gather at the fore of the barge and light the way with their torches and lanterns, to make sure they did not crash into the shore or something in the river. Finally, they spotted the lonely pier at the next village. There was no dock warden, which worried Ulrich, but there were lights in the village and it seemed they had not suffered a similar attack (Ulrich wanted to warn them about it, but the homes in the village were sealed up tight for the night). The Company kept watches while camping on the shore, while the bargemen kept their watches on the barge.

During the night, on second watch, Langdon and Saraband noticed the bargemen were all awake and having a suspicious meeting. Nothing came of it, but Langdon alerted the following shift. 

Planting 9, 621 CY. Sunday

Velverdyva River 

Following the river north, they reached the Port Town of Stalmaer, home to about 3,000 people, at the confluence of the Att and Velverdyva Rivers. “Only the nearness of the Gnarley Forest, just a few miles away now, keeps this town from growing larger. And if not for the Greenjerkin Rangers, there probably wouldn’t be this many people willing to live here,” Rom said, volunteering more information than he had the whole trip.  

The Rhenee wanted to sail past, but the Company insisted on stopping. There had been a new complication late last night when the clerics tried to heal John and Herv; the spells didn’t work. Perhaps someone in Stalmaer could help them.  

Stalmaer, still being on this side of the Velunese border, had a chapel dedicated to the Temple of the Heavenly Virtues, of which Brother Ulrich was an acolyte, plus Percy’s Common Church of Greyhawk shared deities with their church, so they felt they had good standing when they went inside and asked to see a priest. 

Brother Henricus agreed to meet with them at once, based on their frightening story of what had happened in Thaymouth. He shared Langdon’s and Percy’s belief that what they had encountered was some form of undead, but it was beyond his training and he left them in the chapel while he went to the nearby home of a superior. 

In less than an hour he returned with Anencletus Laevinus, canon of the church. Anencletus recognized the description -- these were mummies! And John and Herv could not be healed because they were cursed now with mummy rot. A spell could undo this and, by the grace of his gods, Anencletus had been prepared by them and given the ability to perform this miracle twice today! It would just require 300 gold, for each miracle. Ulrich begged for charity, but Anencletus quoted chapter and verse from the holy texts, that “no man may receive healing or curing without sacrifice, either by coin or use of arms in the church’s service, and charity is in this case to disrespect the gods who grant thee thy holy powers.”*

(*”By use of arms” is commonly interpreted as allowing lone clerics to administer healing or curing to any comrades-in-arms they have.)

And so the Company pooled their resources so both John and Herv could be alleviated of this mummy rot (which was looking particularly bad on Herv already). It took, and both men could be healed again, as Langdon and Percy soon proved. 

Anencletus asked if the Company would be willing to go back and try to find out what had happened to the villagers, or if any were left alive, but …nope, not going back there!

Poorer for this side trek, the Company wearily returned to the barges, but found the bargemen in much better spirits -- and with spirits! They wanted to repay their passengers for the grog John had provided and had gone out and bought some of their own. John and Harvard drank up, but everyone else recalled Langdon’s warning of their strange behavior in the night and refused the offer. 

Leaving Stalmaer, they floated downriver into the Gnarley Forest. The bargemen were observed looking increasingly nervously at each other before only John and Harvard both fell asleep, drugged. There was no choice for them now, they were going to have to fight the rest of the Company.

Or at least they thought they would. Saraband dropped a sleep spell on the barge that was so potent that it rendered almost everyone present asleep, except for three members of the Company vs. one remaining bargeman. And that fight took almost no time to wrap up. Rodar and half the crew were tied up and left that way, while the other half was released and told they would be forced to deliver themselves to the next town for justice. 

Justice that would take until…

Planting 11, 621 CY. Godsday

The Town of Caltaran

By now, the Company and their captured barge had spent a two nights at lonely riverside hostels and inns inside the forest, but had now emerged and once more found themselves in the Domain of Dyvers. Having already passed Westguard Fortress (itself attached to no neighboring community, as Eastguard Fortress was), their next destination was Caltaran, a small town of about 1,700 people. The Company alerted the dock wardens to the situation with their prisoners and the wardens summoned the town guard. The town guard were pretty racist and had no love for the Rhenee, so they were more than happy to take the Company at their word and arrest the bargemen. They confiscated the barge and its cargo (the Company had already looked into the cargo and found it was mostly valuable-looking furs. There were probably not smuggling furs, as openly as they were transporting the barrels the furs were stored in, but it could have been stolen merchandise. Not wanting to get too tangled up in the legalities there, John, Vask, and Reed had removed about 40 gold pieces’ worth of furs to sell for the Company’s benefit.)

To compensate the Company, the town guard arranged transport on a cog heading to Dyvers that was leaving that same day. Now the Company was traveling in style -- on a boat with a below deck!

Planting 13, 621 CY. Earthday

The Town of Maraven

Once again skipping over the City of Dyvers, the Company disembarked from their cog in the town on the eastern end of Dyvers’ Domain. Before leaving town, they ran into Peter, Haruspex Niv’s original hireling! Peter was apologetic for having fled like a coward, even when faced with the overwhelming might of a troll. He asked to be taken back into Niv’s service…provided he would not be asked to fight anything as menacing as a troll again.

Planting 14, 621 CY. Freeday

The Western Road

Having forded the Silver Stream and passed the side road that led south to Gawkes Mere, the Company continued to follow the easternmost edge of the Gnarley Forest, coming around to the area where they once had a strange, near-encounter with unseen strangers at a nearby campfire. It was noon when they passed that spot this time -- and they were ambushed by unseen slingers! Several members of the Company were lightly injured. The attack was coming from the north side of the road, from behind low cover. Nothing that could block a sleep spell! While Saraband cast, most of the rest of the Company charged off the road and found two strange new creatures standing over six sleeping ones. The creatures looked like brown bears [I had mistakenly called them small bears at the time, but that was not true], but with small gourd-like heads. As they prepared for battle their heads grew larger, with big toothy mouths and big facial features and lots of fur. The two tried to defend themselves with hand axes, but they did not last long as outnumbered as they were. As they died, their heads assumed their original forms. The last of them, who took three hits before going down, his head still looked like a gourd, but one that animated into a crude face and spoke: “You are powerful, but more are coming.” 

Searching the area afterwards, the Company found a trail leading south…

TO BE CONTINUED  

    

Reviewing the Beatles Solo Albums in Order - part 7

Gone Troppo must have seemed like George's swan song in 1982, to people unaware of how his musical career would rebound at the end of the '80s. It's not terrible; it's not Extra Texture. There are no great songs here, but "That's the Way It Goes" is pleasantly memorable, "I Really Love You" feels like an unearthed classic from the 1950s (it's not, but it's close -- I read later this is a cover of a 1961 song), "Gone Troppo" is far catchier than it has any business being, and "Dream Away" and "Circles" are both pretty good -- the latter apparently being yet another one of those tunes he had pitched to the Beatles that John and Paul shot down -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPLer5cehdM&list=PLYq_mcte9NvC5JKi3U-lI8H-iTAJw5oAm&index=10.

I was really into comic books and this "new" thing called Dungeons & Dragons when Ringo's Old Wave album came out -- not that I would likely have encountered the album if 12-year old me was looking for it, as Ringo was apparently having some crazy trouble finding a record company that didn't think he was washed up at the time and Old Wave had terrible distribution. I like it; "In My Car" is a very Paul-like song, "Hopeless" has the negativity of an early John song, "Alibi" sounds like country but in a good way. "She's about a Mover" is a cover that starts out really strong, but gets lost in its Dixieland middle. "Picture Show Life" feels like something Tom Petty would later put on Full Moon Fever. "As Far As We Can Go" is strangely drums-less, in both versions -- I read later that the version on the album had its backing track entirely redone by The Eagles' Joe Walsh, and I think it was a mistake; I much prefer it with strings -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlDcg2sSPK8&list=PLZCDbeZmzy0PZ_3ksv1PGeb1CxbAE--2p&index=11

I'm more familiar with Paul's next album, Pipes of Peace, than any of the other albums I've sampled lately, but even this one I've never heard all the way through. "Pipes of Peace" is a good song. I do not like "Say Say Say" because of Michael Jackson. These songs I already knew. "The Other Me" was a surprise, sounding very much like the sort of reflective songs Paul has done on his most recent albums. "Keep Under Cover" is not a bad song, but is more of a movie soundtrack-type song, foreshadowing the upcoming "Spies Like Us." I honestly can't decide if I like "The Man" -- there are things I like and dislike about it. "Sweetest Little Show" is one of those almost-good songs that maybe just needed a little more work on it. "Average Person" is an eccentric, more-upbeat sequel to "Eleanor Rigby" thematically, while sounding more like "Rock Show." Two bonus songs not found on the original album need mention here -- one is "We All Stand Together," the song written for the animated Rupert short that I saw aired on Nickelodeon way back then, and "Simple As That," which is a great song with a unique sound and could have been my favorite song on this album, but was released on a charity album instead -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klPJzmflOrc&list=PLi_eUMd6th2K4IEcV6EOomA6sjOzNq3EH&index=15. Nice of Paul to give the best away to charity! 

Bonus link: the Rupert cartoon! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ZLpqhdm2w

Anyone who's been following these posts knows what I think of Yoko Ono, but I'll say this for her -- she probably would have made more money releasing Milk and Honey right after John's death, but she waited a respectful four years before releasing this posthumous album (although it's possible she simply thought it would have more nostalgia value later). Like Double Fantasy, it is marred with Yoko songs as every other piece on the album, almost all of which is garbage, though "Let Me Count the Ways" is the most normal among them. This album's best track is, of course, "Nobody Told Me" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1bV8gOvJAo&list=PLA2-nXsHvm3LeXmsIIBPpZoAXr09Om8I2&index=6 -- though "I'm Stepping Out" is a pretty good dance song too. 

Give My Regards to Broad Street was a difficult thing to review. Do I treat it as a movie and rewatch the movie? Is only the soundtrack important? What about incidental music on the soundtrack, or do I just focus on the songs? And then, do I focus on just the three new songs, or treat this as a best of album? Because it's kind of all of the above. "No More Lonely Nights" is definitely the highlight here, being the best new song, and there's really no surprise there. The Beatles covers are tricky. On one hand, it's always fun listening to variants on the old standards, but a true fan is always going to say the original Beatles songs are better, and someone who's not a true fan may feel that the orchestral arrangements try to give the songs a gravitas they don't warrant. Me, I'm a sucker for strings and I really like the string arrangement on "For No One" -- and I love the original. It may also be worth noting that the starting words to "Here There and Everywhere" are different, perhaps changing the meaning of the song. The extended version of "Eleanor Rigby," combined with "Eleanor's Dream," is nice, though "Dream," at nine minutes, might need to be that long for the movie, but feels long for the soundtrack. "Good Night Princess," an instrumental, feels like it came straight from a 1930s film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Xn9A4Negk&list=PLNZ4pVtD8MsH3RYU5EP2SE37gb4EhLA5S&index=16