Going crazy makes you stronger, but go too crazy and you die!

This miniature heavy box includes six missions that you can play against either Cthulhu or Hastur, who each add their own flavor to the tasks at hand - and in all cases it is too late to stop the ritual that is summoning them. Instead the goal of up to five cooperative (and already unhinged) investigators is to disrupt the proceedings so the big bads are summoned in a vulnerable state and then kill them.

It's a big box with lots of nice figurines.

When a burning building isn't burning enough!

A board game session is from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

The university building was already on fire when they arrived, just as the gypsy Fatima (Mom) predicted. Behind her was their leader, the pyromaniac Russian Rasputin (Juris), who had assembled this merry band with the sole purpose of preventing the ancient ones from emerging into this reality. The other recruits were a crazy knife wielding nun (me), Morgan the safari master (DL) and crack shot Lucky Liz (wifey).

A janitor fleeing for his life was quick to tell them about the alchemical rituals being performed by the robed nut jobs and the team knew time was of the essence to wreck their labs... because the fire wasn't wrecking them fast enough! In a mad rush upon entry, they split into two teams: the nun and the gypsy stabbing the cultist guards while the others easily destroyed two of their targets.

The main stairwell became the rally point for both the team and the cultists though, with a flaming fire vampire (slug) and hideous star spawn (mini Cthulhu)  joining the ranks of cultists to hold the line. With cover fire from Lucky Liz's revolver, Morgan advanced cracking his whip at the creatures while the gypsy and the nun continued their stabbing spree.

This gave Rasputin an opening to run past them, and they all gave chase right to another alchemic table guarded by a byakhee (man bat). Before they could do anything, Rasputin destroyed the table with his fire, the explosion killing most of his pursuers - and his pyromania killing everything else!

Morgan, Fatima and Lucky Liz used the opportunity to take the stairs up while the nun remained to hold off more cultists spawning from the gates. She was quickly overwhelmed and stabbed to death just as Liz fired an impossible shot to destroy the final lab which brought Cthulhu into the staircase next to her - but in a weakened, mortal form.

While Liz barely survived the creature's attacks, she did not expect Rasputin - burning brightly from the flames that engulfed him, to charge up the stairs and use flaming magical Krav Maga on the ancient one, causing the entire staircase to explode and ending Liz's lucky streak as she too burned to a crisp! Terrified, Cthulhu fled but was pursued by the crazed Russian who once more pummeled the creature into further retreat.

The cultists covered their god's escape by stabbing Rasputin to death, but didn't realize Morgan and Fatima had caught Cthulhu at the entryway. In the melee Cthulhu managed to grap hold of the gypsy and devour her in his tentacled maw and then turned to focus on Morgan, who excelled at tanking damage. The squid face was caught totally off guard when familiar threat had returned.

The map tiles are quite small compared to some figures...

Rasputin had come back to life (that character's special ability), and nearing the edge of insanity charged one final, flaming time at the elder being... and killed him (without going crazy). With Cthulhu and his monstrous allies banished to the void once more, Morgan and Rasputin quickly left the building and sealed the doors from the outside - trapping the remaining panicked cultists within to die: once from the smoke inhalation, twice from the fire, and a third time for good measure as the building collapsed on top of them.

MISSION SUCCESS (after two+ failures where we were still learning)!

Insight: Use the fire to go crazy faster. Also, "recurring trauma" is almost an instant lose card. Just be aware of that.

Reading books in the dark is bad for your eyes.

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

To make up for their lost members from the last outing, Rasputin (Juris) had sent Morgan (DL) to do some recruiting - collecting another gypsy named Safir (Mom) and two hired guns Miss Ives (wifey) and the narcoleptic Adam (me). Having tracked new cultists to some catacombs, they needed to loot the correct sigils from them to be able to collect two of the four tomes powering another summoning ritual.

Adam was quick to show off his skills, eliminating all the nearby guards with his rifle and promptly falling catatonic just as a confused Cthonian (giant alien type critter) arrived to investigate the noise (enemies don't attack catatonic people - LOL). Rasputin and Morgan beat this horror down and advanced with Safir deeper in the darkness while Miss Ives covered the entry way with her pistol.

These cultists were certainly better armed, bringing tommy guns and unstable grenades but it was relatively easy for the squad to find what they needed - even while fighting past ghouls that shambled ever closer. As Safira picked up the second tome a weakened Hastur was summoned into existence! While the King in Yellow managed to snap Rasputin's neck, he was no match for the firepower brought against him (including a grenade thrown by Safira and Adam's powerful rifle - when he was awake anyway). 

Hastur seems to have more tentacles than Cthulhu...

Keep up with the quick beat of this killer song!

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

Morgan (DL), Safir (Mom), Miss Ives (wifey), Adam (me) and Rasputin (Juris) were dressed nicer than usual as they entered the mansion where the party was already in full swing with dancers, cultists and exotic animals already all over the place. To stop this ritual, they would need to find the four sorcerers hiding among the dancers and get them all to the waterfront to be eaten by deep ones. Rasputin has some whacked out plans.

With no time to waste the team split up, Rasputin taking on a hunting horror while Miss Ives and Safir investigating the main ballroom leaving Adam and Morgan to handle the dancers upstairs. Finding the sorcerers is time consuming and just as all are found the ritual nears completion and a FULLY POWERED and IMMORTAL Cthulhu appears, right on top of Rasputin! "PAY BACK TIME, BITCH!" it yells, but not in a tounge anyone can understand.

It lands a mighty murderous blow but Rasputin is unfazed, as the (one shot) magic armor he had found and was wearing absorbed all the damage! The others are quick to usher the last sorcerer to the waterfront, fighting off stray deep ones in the process which reduces Cthulhu to his weakened, mortal state just as Rasputin leads him into range of Miss Ives' new hand cannon. The ancient one is sent reeling and retreats upstairs where his forces amass at the blue gate.

With no choice (since the doom track is almost finished), Morgan, Rasputin and Safira all charge the monstrous horde forcing Cthulhu to abandon his allies and flee to the entry way. Alas all three, along with Safira's gorilla bodyguard and flamboyant peacock are slain in the melee. This leaves Miss Ives and Adam to blast away at the ancient one... leaving him with one hit point just as the doom track is about to finish (and end the game in defeat - luckily the next card DOES NOT advance it)!

With his victory in sight, Cthulhu is laid low by a moment of de ja vu: Rasputin who has revived (only one death this game) flies down the stairs and punches the ancient one in the face - defeating it!

Epic victory after a first round loss!

Even monsters can visit, just don't touch the displays!

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

It was the middle of the night when Rasputin (Juris), Adam (me), Miss Ives (wifey) broke into the museum with new members "the Kid" (mom) who has latent magical abilities and Jack (DL with same character, but afflicted with psychotic tendencies). It is handy that the artifacts needed to disrupt the gates here are just lying around - they just needed to be collected and placed by two of the three portals simultaneously.

The first hurdle is the massive shoggoth blocking the way which survived the opening salvo from the ranged team members so Jack took it upon himself to lure the creature and other cultists to the South hall to stay away from the team. Sure enough, his psychosis triggers multiple times and what initially looks like a Jack suicide turns out to be the annihilation of everything chasing him!

Meanwhile both Rasputin and the Kid are arrested by the night watchmen, still on patrol and somehow oblivious to the gates, monsters and cultists around. It doesn't take the pair long to get free  and by this time the others are already in position with the artifacts and disrupt the ritual, summoning a weakened Hastur into the museum right next to Jack!

An epic brawl erupts between them as a pistol wielding Rasputin and a random golden retriever he found joins the fray severely weakening the King in Yellow. Miss Ives and Adam wearing an ancient queen's tiara provide ranged support blasting holes in the abomination but this enrages him, and quickly impales both to death using his tentacled throne (at least we hope its a throne) in one hit. Hastur just diced amazingly well - even through rerolls, everything was a hit. Twice! >_<

The kid arrives immediately after this, wielding a shotgun in one hand and Excalibur in the other - laughing manically as she puts down what's left of this incarnation of Hastur in what amounts to be an epic curb-stomp finisher.

Side note: There is actually an "XCaliber" Shotgun.

The beginning of the legend...

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

Jack (DL), "the Kid" (mom), Rasputin (Juris) and new hired guns Benchley (me) and Beth (wifey) arrived at the docks of the little port village where Rasputin detected the next cultist disturbance - this one involving human sacrifice! The task is simple: save three elders from house Allen and three from house Marsh by getting them back to the boat.

Benchley, who is actually the psychopath this round, decides to charge right through the cultists, deep ones and monstrous cthonian - clearing the path for his allies to rescue the elders in the vicinity, as well as other Marsh and Allen family members who even in these circumstances can't stop arguing with each other. With them in place, Benchley activates the lighthouse so the ship can go. This summons Cthulhu beside him along with all the other horrors that gave chase!

The Cthonian arguably looks scarier than the elder ones...

Dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight...

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

Beth (wifey), Benchley (me), "the Kid" (mom), Rasputin (Juris) and new protector John (DL) could scarcely believe their eyes when they arrived at the observatory where the phases of the moon were changing every few minutes! "We need to get the lunar mirrors to the telescope room," muttered Rasputin. "Only that can thwart this evil science sorcery!"

You can tell you are insane if you see smiley faces on any of these.

Where Pilot is a bad ass.

A tale focusing on the life and death (mostly the death) of Jesus (played by Diogo Morgado), this decently budgeted film is actually the condensation of a mini-series which explains all the cool old testamentsegments right at the start.

Spoiler: Jesus saves.

Has a cool story if you can solve the puzzles.

As the AI of an ARID combat suit, your job is to keep your unconscious human pilot alive after a catastrophic fall. While set in a 2D environment there is actually very little platforming, and more simple find the spot puzzle solving combined with easy to grasp combat (obviously you have to fall into a hostile environment).

Your flash light has to be on to "see" things.

What makes it standout though is the story. It is very good and is the main hook that keeps you pushing forward yet is not too long to overstay its welcome. Highly recommended for everyone. I give it three crosses out of five.

Insight: If you are stuck, examine things that are "up". Also, there are some bits where an examinable spot doesn't appear until you discover the clue in game to look there so expect to do a little back tracking. I usually hate back tracking but I'll let it slide here as the areas are relatively small.

French vampires.

The basic premise of this one season show is that mistreated peasants rise up against the powerful nobility while a strange plague infects people into becoming near immortal cannibals.

Such a good opening... wasted.

For various reasons...

Creature in the Well

You are a robot who sets out to explore a mysterious and sand swept region and while the art style is really good, don't expect to get any answers unless you are good at PINBALL. What? Yep. They entire game revolves around variations of pinball, with some sections requiring perfect angles and timing. Not the way I expected the game to go, and not one I enjoy.

Pinball... really?

Avoiding enemies is key.

I wonder what the llamas kill to level...

Baron Zemo steals the show.

Another strong superhero show from Marvel, this one focusing on two of the now inactive Captain America's closest friends: Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who are both trying to get back to living post-Thanos.

I think Marvel is onto a winner making these short series. Helps avoid filler!

Erm, I mean "The Soul Keeper".

Carrying on from the last episode, this elves decided to open a gate to an even SMALLER adventure area with mad redcaps (mad caps) and oni who both raise the ancient dead and corrupt a few of the living. Each week, prepare to grind out around ten repeating tasks which you can only carry two at a time for the most part and are mostly variations of each other (per alt), to eventually encounter a semi-cheating mini boss who can hide and damage you for decent periods of time.

The zone and inner instance dungeon bits look great once again and sure the displacer beasts are nice, but there's almost nothing to do here. Story wise I don't think this would even count as filler. So many poor decisions, such lazy devs. Or maybe not lazy, simply reassigned to Magic: Legends.

The biggest problem is you only unlock the weekly (25 currency reward) towards the end of this campaign. I might have been less negative if it was one of the first ones like in the previous chapter. Anyway, if you ever wanted to experience a beautifully polished turd of a release, this would probably be pretty close. Can't believe we lost the old Sharandar for this garbage.

Insight: Ugh, this is so stagnant and repetitive you may as well do what I did and try out Black Desert Online (or literally any other game) instead.

This has been a strange month in that while I got a lot done, it's not really news worthy... oh, other than my initial attempt at cryptocurrency which ironically was suggested to me by my Uber driver a few years ago. Made an ok profit (+266%) with XRP (Ripple - which is trying to get adopted by banks), and should they win their pending court case (updates on Apr 30 hearing, May 14 SEC report and June 4 Ripple Formal reply with the discovery phase ending Aug 16) I'm expecting that price to go up for what I have left in there.

Meanwhile as an experiment, I've put some of the earnings into VRA (Verasity - an esports gaming crypto), VET (VeChain Thor - crypto supply chain of VTHO), and DOGE (Dogecoin - a super volatile joke currency that seems to go up everytime Elon Musk tweets or talks about it). While the others are pretty much a wait for years sort of deal, I really need to keep checking on DOGE. With Elon hosting Saturday Night Live on May 8, most are expecting that to go up again. He did say he'll take it to the moon (could be an April fool's joke), so we shall see.

Sometimes that's all it takes!

Raising the dead because they can.

The discovery of a composite corpse (one made of many people) at an ill opportune time for the scientific community prompts an secret investigation by John Marlott (Sean Bean) to track down where this thing came from and more to the point: who made it.

Decent cast, questionable plot.

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With Kyros' power extending across the continent, Shelumu took it upon himself to learn how the overlord's magical "Edicts" worked by gaining employment under Tunon, the Archon of Justice, as a Fatebinder - those chosen to read out these powerful words.

After years of service, he now stood in the commanders tent in Vendrien's Well as he finished reading out the second of Kyros' edicts he ever proclaimed.

"...Unless Our representative holds the Hall of Ascension on Our Day of Swords, all in the valley of Vendrien's Well shall perish."

These words shook those present to the core and forced the Graven Ashe, the Archon of War and his rival the Voices of Nerat, Archon of Secrets to stop squabbling among themselves and to prepare their forces to attack one of the last remaining rebel strongholds.

Graven Ashe and the Voices of Nerat.

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Before departing the camp, each Fatebinder was assigned a body guard. Barik, an elite Disfavored soldier who had become fused with his armor when he was hit by the Edict of Storms (previously proclaimed by Shelumu) understandably chose to go with Lucia.

Verse, a murderous fury of the Scarlet Chorus, volunteered to be Shelumu's escort and took him to their side of the camp. While Graven Ashe's Disfavored elites were few, well equipped and orderly this place was teeming with warriors, and with filth, chaos and barbarism - much like their leader, the Voices of Nerat.  

While there Shelumu went out of his way to rescue the sage Lantry, from execution as well since the old man had ties to the rebellion. In trying to avert the loss of life, Shelumu slowly helped the rebels by letting them escape the advancing armies and treating them with dignity.

I also like that you can sneak past enemies instead of having to fight everyone.

The first map of Rundown 5 brings us to a zone of large hallways and rooms where we must end the shutdown by finding a particular terminal and entering the code "OVERRIDE_LOCKDOWN". Our loadout this time was as follows: DL with the new Double-tap Hanaway, Sniper and mines, Jim testing the Heavy SMG, Machinegun and sniper sentry and I brought the Raptus, HEL Gun and c-foam.

As the "tutorial" level, it is quite light on sleepers and is a great place to joust them. Also introduced are the annoying invincible ceiling sacs which is a new mechanic for this rundown. If you clear a room of sleepers with the sacs and move far enough away when you come back they will all be back too - so try to maximize your searching per zone.

Searching for what? Artifacts! Another new thing that counts for the whole team when someone finds a piece. You can equip up to three assembled ones that give you a one off boost for one mission which is a nice bonus I guess? You'll still mainly want the big three though: ammo, tools and health so use terminal pings for that.

Back to the mission, EAST is the correct direction to go and when in doubt always pick the door that leads to the highest letter value printed on the door. This will lead to a non-alarm team scan and eventually to a huge room with an unpowered security door whose generator is in the deep pit in the center of the room. Find the nearby cell and behold the first Class II cluster alarm of the mission.

With only one door in, this is a simple hold (even if the horde introduces a giant striker or two). Foam the door once (10 shots) and one mine is more than enough to clear the circles. After clearing the wave proceed through into Zone 63 where the objective terminal is which for us is guarded by a scout! DL sniped this one since we bopped the room already, but even if you goof this up just hold your nerve and JOUST as it won't be summoning more things than you've already beaten to this point.

Type in the code at the terminal and nothing bad happens. YAY! Now you just need to get to the forward extraction point all the way to the WEST of the map. Remember those ceiling sacs? Yep. You will probably run into things you've already killed. Just kill them again. It's the simplest solution. The security door that would have blocked your path (because we actually went West first LOL) will already by open so just calmly proceed through.

Only one more security scan is in your way and this one if a class III cluster that has three doors in. We cfoam grenaded two and I foamed the third while DL mined all (pointing the laser light into the door is preferable). Also we rightly guessed that the horde arrives from the smaller door downstairs, so Jim's turret is placed in the hallway and I'm on door duty (continuous cfoam of the door) while the other two scramble for circles.

Once done we held the top of the stairs to kill... one little sleeper? GTFO. DL's mine and Jim's turret got everything else. The forward extraction spot is just beyond the door, and despite setting up for a final zerg rush nothing came once we stepped in so it was a really easy end to a pretty easy mission, won on the first go. We've improved a lot! Note this also already unlocks the B level for this rundown.

Retrieving Hi-Sec cargo is the goal this time around and our loadout is almost the same: DL with the Double-tap Hanaway, Sniper and mines, I still have the Raptus, HEL Gun and c-foam while Jim brings Burst Rifle (which he disliked), a Hel Sniper and sniper sentry.

This isn't such a big map so just push forward to find the bulkhead key and controls then unlock the "main mission" one and face a class II cluster alarm. I don't think we even bothered setting up for this one and just fought well. Through the door is a most important central chamber... with those yucky sac things on the roof. There's also a scout in here so we bop a few sleepers quietly before DL snipes the thing, and we use the long straight firing position back through the bulkhead door to hold the rest.

With the objective behind a key-locked door, we make use of the terminal to pick the correct blood door to open next. DL puts double mines pointing into the door and I open it, and we all fall back to the previous firing position to handle the wave which includes a pair of barrage hybrids.

Now, because we're not keen on getting a scout respawn in the central chamber I opt to stay inside to see the respawn mechanics while DL and Jim proceed through the blood door to find the key - luring things back to my line of sight if things go loud. DL swaps out with me when he runs low on ammo, and nothing respawns.

Key in hand its time to open up the locked door for a regular non-alarm scan into a big dark room. Can't have someone hang back in the central chamber here since there's a class III cluster alarm door to unlock so we all go in, clear, and prep the single bridge with the sniper sentry facing inwards, followed by all my cfoam, followed by rows of mines. In addition, Jim and DL use their sniper rifles from numerous vantage points here which actually results in an easy hold.

Once done, DL waits back in the central chamber where nothing has respawned while Jim and I continue to the objective room that holds a lot of gear. We hand that out before Jim picks up the cargo because as expected - this triggers an endless, but slow and light sleeper spawn. Thanks to DL camping the central chamber NOTHING RESPAWNS FROM THE SACS. So it is a pretty easy escort the cargo back to the entry site, hold and GTFO. Another first attempt win - huzzah!

[Part of the Cursed story line]

In a drastic move - Eb, one of the leaders of the rebellion, secretly met with Shelumu and asked him to join their cause. Having heard the edict, the rebels believe that by swearing fealty to Shelumu and letting him take their base of Ascension Hall will cancel it out. Shelumu agrees to this, though it does mean now requiring to defend the hall against both Graven Ashe's Disfavoured and Nerat's Scarlet Chorus.

Fortunately, their chances are greatly increased as the two archons declare war on each other the night before he attack which results in both sides fighting each other during the siege! Outside the walls Lucia and Barik join the Disfavored to face down Nerat's song bird, Sirin, the 15 year old Archon of Song whose ability is to control the minds of others. Despite this, they soundly defeat her and force her to retreat in humiliation.

Without that dampener Sirin is probably the strongest Archon.