[Part of the Cursed story line]

With the armies back in their respective camps, Tunon summons both Shelumu and Lucia to his court for a debriefing all while under the watchful eye of the executor, Bleden Mark, Archon of Shadows. When questioned why he sided with the rebels, Shelumu argues that peaceful subjugation is better than outright conquest - a concept Tunon agrees with, thus the Archon of Justice allows him to continue helping them, for now.

Tunon then tasks the pair with investigating both Graven Ashe and the Voices of Nerat for any broken laws they or their forces have committed before sending them on their way with Lucia travelling to Sentinel Stand to help the Disfavored reinforce their base there while Shelumu heads to Lethian's Crossing to secure supplies for the rebellion.

In the small town Shelumu encounters Sirin, the Archon of Song, who has defected and is hiding from the chorus. It is an easy task to convince her to join his party as they end up exploring the nearby Old Walls - ancient structures that normally are forbidden by law to enter, mainly because they house magical "spirits" known as the bane. While doing so, Shelumu manages to activate a second spire.

Any time you see a bubble, it means boss fight!

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With the artifact in hand, Lucia and Barik manage to pierce the endless storm and with a contingent of Disfavoured, attack the hated lord of Sentinel Stand. This is because said lord is directly tied to the Edict of Storms, where it proclaims "Let Our storm rage until the last blade be broken, or the line of Regent falls".

The artifact magically farts the storm away.

[Part of the Cursed story line]

A broken Barik, on a suicide mission against the Chorus, eventually found his way to Shelumu in the Stone Sea and thanks to Verse (who turns out to be his half sister) convinces the soldier to join the rebel team. There they also manage to convince a tribe of earth shakers to join their growing alliance by breaking the Edict of Stone and putting their leader to rest. As a side effect, this also ruined the already low crop supply of the main Chorus camp nearby.

Enraged, the Voices of Nerat unleashes the Chorus horde upon Shelumu, but thanks to Eb's studies of the ancient devices atop the spires, Shelumu manages to halt their advance by recasting the Edict of Stone! This kills over three quarters of the attacking force, causing the rest to flee. Admittedly, this does fix their low food issue thanks to the fewer mouths AND the return of fertile ground.

Elsewhere Lucia found herself back in the Burning Library, which was still ablaze with the Edict of Fire she herself had proclaimed years before. Kyros' intention was for the fires to continue until all the forbidden knowledge in the library was gone, but with the Chorus trying to save said knowledge to strengthen themselves in the war she had no option but to take a more hands on approach, eventually finding the last remaining item called the Silent Archive - a magic scroll that knew the answers to almost everything.

Well, that looks like a trap.

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With the war in full swing, Eb and Kills-in-Shadow return to Lethian's Crossing to aid their forces in repelling a massive Disfavored attack. Eb's tide casting is handy in putting out the fires while the beast woman tears into the enemy force... until she is killed by Lucia. This rallies the Disfavored forces to victory and forcing the rebels to surrender. To further teach them a lesson, Lucia executes Eb in front of them.

Lucia's celebration is short lived however, as Bleden Mark the Archon of Shadows catches her in the privy soon after and slits her throat for Kyros, taking with him the Silent Archive.  

Don't mess with the Archon of Shadows.

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The Voices of Nerat, Archon of Secrets, didn't expect Verse's will to be so strong. She overpowered his mind and took over his body. Loyal to Shelumu, the Voices of Verse then took all the remaining Scarlet Chorus for an all out assault on the Disfavored main base and Barik went with her to confront his ex-commander and Archon of War, Graven Ashe. Shelumu and Sirin wished them luck and instead headed to Tunon's court to angle for a different type of victory.

The battle is fierce and Ashe's ability is to protect his soldiers makes them a force to be reckoned as Chorus suffer terrible losses. Graven Ashe personally manages to trip Verse over and smash her head like a watermelon with his giant maul and then proceeds to smash Barik's armor off one swing at a time. Suddenly, Bleden Mark, Archon of Shadows appears and whisks Graven Ashe away... and right into Tunon's court where the Archon of Justice finds him guilty of sedition and war crimes thanks to evidence presented by Shelumu.

Tunon is ready to play GTFO.

[Part of the Cursed story line]

With the trial of Graven Ashe complete, Tunon the Archon of Justice then put Shelumu on trial for betraying Kyros and found him guilty! To enact this death sentence both Tunon and the executor and Archon of Shadows, Bleden Mark, attacked Shelumu and Sirin. Thanks to Sirin's increased power, the Archons of Justice and Shadow fell in combat leaving the victors free to return to their home spire.

"I guess that makes me the last archon!" laughed Sirin giddily. "Indeed," replied Shelumu in a measured tone. "About that..."

Only a fool would keep a potential traitor alive.

Fails to be zen.

With really cool visuals, a nice sound track and decent controls the First Tree is quick to grab your attention as you play a fox looking for her pups in an almost sand box environment with no enemies and a nice visual goal of a huge, distant tree.

Awesome opening.

Two giant monsters. Three action movies.

Kong: Skull Island

Set in 1973, an expedition is formed to explore the mysterious and titular Skull Island (which I assume is mostly made of monkey poop) with the semi-secret not so secret task of locating a gigantic monkey the size of a mountain. For some reason, an expert tracker (played by bored Tom Hiddleston) is hired for this because ... the directors wanted it to happen? :P

Even Tom himself wonders what he is doing in this film in every shot he is in as the plot often borders on lunacy. That said, there are some really cool beasties on Skull Island as everything grows big there - not just the monkeys. Luckily they, and Samuel L. Jackson's character are pretty fun to watch. Just remember to turn your brain off to get the most out of this. I give it two random attacks out of five. Would I watch it again? Probably, but I won't go looking for it.

Godzilla: King of Monsters

A sequel to Godzilla (2014), man has discovered around seventeen more "titans" like him in hibernation and naturally, this means militarist eco-terrorists go about waking them all up to destroy the pollution that is humanity. Totally logical.

Despite the eco baddies, the plot lines involving the humans is actually ok, or at least, better than the previous film and this time around there is plenty of Godzilla some of the other beasties too, but strangely not as good as the critters on Skull Island. Not great, but a solid "its alright". I give it two Millie Bobby Browns out of five. Would I watch it again? Sure. Maybe after a few years...

Godzilla vs Kong

Five years after Godzilla was "crowned" the King of Monsters, he's back causing havoc on us puny humans - mainly because a clandestine and super wealthy corporation that cuts corners in their security department is hunting some unobtanium type power source by releasing King Kong from his now enclosed Skull Island.

Their fights are pretty epic.

Since the latest update of GTFO: Rebirth is giving us connection / drop issues for all the level B maps, we voted to move on to this game until GTFO can get its act together. Our starting setup is as follows: DL as the hunter, Jim as the ex-cultist and myself as the scrapper. A perfectly balanced team... or is it? :P

This story is ongoing! Please come back for updates!

[Part of our Remnant from the Ashes story]

Evil plant like beings nicknamed the "root" are taking over the multiverse and it is up to us at the small outpost of Ward 13 to stop them. Given the task of finding "the founder" we set out into the city which is infested with the plant men who are supported by black cloaked archers. These things are annoying as their arrows apply a bleed effect that needs a bandage to cure if they hit and a cloud of rot that needs a potion to cure if they miss. Furthermore, like most other non-heavy root units they can teleport (or burrow whatever) at will.

While traversing the sewers to fight roundish goblins a boss type of these archers shows up: Shroud, who is not just stronger HP wise but has an added ability of "orbital bombardment" which doesn't even need line of sight! There is an audible cue when this happens though, and that's the signal to RUN (specifically not into where a team mate was standing before). Only after upgrading our gear (and both DL and I getting the heal mod as well on the long guns) do we fight it off... only to run into again in its boss chamber!

This time Shroud summons endless waves of root (who technically are our ammo resupply but are annoying nonetheless) and has plenty of space to run. DL quickly works out that Shroud is weak to melee so I focus on chasing down the archer to apply the "hammer to the face" technique while he and Jim focus on crowd control (and obviously shooting Shroud in the head when time permits). As the melee focused guy, I can confidently say there is a semi-safe spot to attack Shroud at: point blank. If it doesn't have any summons nearby its only two valid counters are to teleport away or to do orbital bombardment as the other bow attacks start out too far / I clipped through its bow. To move faster, practice the slide (which is sprint + duck).

Ultimately its the orbital bombardment evasion that is key. Once we started calling out "run" over chat, and learning when NOT to try revive each other with Dragon Hearts, we finally laid low this evil archer.

[Part of our Remnant from the Ashes story]

After another set of tunnels with root sleeping on the ceiling and annoying teleporting screamers (that summon more root, target them first), its not long before we find a woman "the Root Mother" waiting for us at a church. She wants to help us locate the founder but first must detatch herself from the root tendrils attached to her. The monsters react poorly to this, beginning a two minute defense mission where all we really have to do is draw aggro and dodge roll. Once she is free she kills everything and tells us to find "the labyrinth" as well as upgrades our dragon hearts to have four uses (up from three) each. In the church basement, DL also gets his hands on a sniper rifle (everyone does actually since all loot goes to each player).

The Root Mother gets a merchant stall back in Ward 13.

[Part of our Remnant from the Ashes story]

Our city exploration leads us to a main road guarded by the root dragon, Singe, whose glowing weak spot is right in the chest. This dragon likes throwing fireballs, using flamethrower breath and if you get too close, Dragon-no-Jutsu. It also summons pyromaniac root that love immolating themselves and the numerous oil spills on fire. Again these are annoying, but they are also actually our ammo supply. That said, we did need to use packed ammo crates and a few other consumables (adrenaline) for this fight so prepare accordingly.

Going up close was no good, so we opted to do the opposite of Shroud's tactic. Since the dragon is strong up close, we stayed back and shot it while moving from cover to cover. That's a necessity since the dragon actually destroys cover (to make up for its poor aim at range)! It is a long fight in which Jim and DL do most of the dragon slaying, while I stick to mob control and harvest duty (shotgun and hammer not great at a distance). I also serve as reviver since not hurting the dragon means it doesn't look at me as much. Just a reminder you can only pick up allies by using one of your own dragon hearts on them!

Anyway it is a LONG but safer battle, and Jim crafts a flamethrower pistol from the piece we carve from its corpse. Just beyond is a massive, translucent tower which turns out to be the labyrinth we are searching for. Teleporting inside we are greeted by the Keeper of the Labyrinth who allows us passage through the doors... which lead everywhere! Except most are locked so really there's only one way to go... to the world of Rhom.

Saving the world with armed robbery.

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

Apparently Hastur's yellow sign was much harder for Rasputin to recover from than the "usual death", so it was up to the Kid (mom) and John (DL) to head to Chicago to stop cultists performing a summoning inside a bank vault (props for creativity)!

Knowing they'd need help they also recruited an African amazon Adilah (wifey), timid little axe murderer Borden (me), and a well connected a priest (Juris) who manages to hire two mob bosses to assist in the job.  

Since John has psychotic tendencies he soloes the shorter path to the vault, taking on cultists and an elder thing en route while the others go the long way, fighting through tcho-tchos and a star spawn that Borden lures away while Adilah's special focus ability (which she chose Borden to pair) means when one rests so does the other (even out of turn) is great to counteract the multiple marked tokens the pair are receiving.

"Did you miss me?"

With the priest's gangsters, it is John breaks through the vault doors to interrupt the ritual summoning an angry Cthulhu upon himself and manages to fend off the attack which kills all the extra allied gangsters while the kid provides fire support from the next room before being swarmed by tcho-tchos.

This causes Cthulhu to flee right into the priest who badly wounds the elder one with his holy relics before a freshly summoned star spawn eliminates the man of god. John then charges the room and wounds Cthulhu enough to make him flee again.

This time, all alone on the dimly lit street, Cthulhu is ambushed by improvised explosives Borden had brought and is summarily chopped into pieces by the axe murderer - who gains so many extra free hits when there is only a single opponent sharing the space.

MISSION SUCCESS (first try though it was looking dire there for a bit. Recruiting gangsters at the start was quite annoying)!

Insight: Most mobsters demand payment before you can hire them, and if you can't you often get the "marked" condition which really sucks - think of it as random life draining so keeping your HP up is mandatory!

We don't need no water...

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

John (DL) led the newly formed team of policeman Mario (me), hunter Arielle (wifey), new priest Luke (Juris) and the recovered Kid (mom) into the Missouri woods for some cultist hunting with the team deciding that the fastest way to victory was simply to set each of the four cult campsites on fire.

It's the only way to be sure.

For those who have ever been curious about Cryptocurrency and wanted to dip their toes into the market there is currently a massive correction taking place meaning all the prices are down, making it the perfect time to buy in! Just don't go nuts and remember to only put in what you can afford to lose.

If you don't know how then it's simplest to use some sort of broker. As I'm based in Australia I use Coinspot which is deals soley in crypto while Juris prefers EToro since it also handles regular share market stuff. There will be a slightly annoying process to sign up regardless of which you choose because it's basically like a bank, so security measures need to be tight.

As for the what to buy I would possibly put forward Bitcoin (BTC - just buy fractions of it), Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE) or Shiba Inu (SHIB). While those are in order of risk (I'm still experimenting with DOGE and SHIB), remember this is a long game and you will need to wait months, or more likely years, before seeing any profit. If you never sell, you (almost) never lose. But if you never sell, you'll never win either so... set a target at least. x2 or x3 of what you put in is a decent marker. Also remember your broker will also take a tiny cut and any earnings are taxable!

Lastly the more you know about who you use / what you are buying the better off you will be so a research (whatever the amount) will always help. Good luck!

Disclaimer:This public service announcement is not financial advice. Also this is unlikely to make you rich quick and yes, it is basically GAMBLING (with gleaned information depending on the thoroughness and regularity of your research, which provides some predictability).

Some priests are psycho.

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die. 

Victorious from the forest, the investigators John (DL), the Kid (mom), Mario (me) and Arielle (wifey) headed to the nearby cathedral of Father Luke (Juris) to rest up. Alas, this was not to be as one of the other priests had been murdered and the sanctum was now overrun by cultists, ghouls and star vampires!

To break the ritual this time they needed to find the murderer in a possible pool of five NPCs by questioning each one. Focused on that, the team splits up as the Kid uses her magic to clear the initial star vampires before passing out from exertion (catatonic).

Arielle and Mario use the opening to begin questioning suspects while Luke and John deal with a new star vampire and star spawn that emerge from the underground crypts. While it takes awhile to get the information required (since proofs keep flipping back down when the elder one advances) through a process of elimination all signs point to the deacon, whom John executes.

This is correct and interupts the ritual (being wrong is pretty much instant game over), which summons a weakened Cthulhu into battle. After the elder one is bashed down he attempts to flee but takes severe damage from Arielle and the Kid's ranged attacks (who was one step to dying from insanity at the end). Luke attempts to finish off the big bad but rolls a critical fail and only by the love of Jesus manages to survive the counter attack leaving him with one hit point.

It's like this scene from Hellsing Ultimate. Just pretend Alucard is Cthulhu. :P

[Part of our Remnant from the Ashes story]

Thanks to someone called the Undying King, the world of Rhom somehow fought off the invasion of the Root so we set out to get to his uber awesome high tech tower situated in the middle or a sandy waste where a previous civilization was clearly decimated by fire. Our path through is very violent as the zone is now occupied by his worshipers: cannibal tribesmen with exploding spears and hungry dogs. We manage to tame one dog (each) though, and also get a really cool necklace from a vendor in the zone which lets our dragon heart usage also affect our in range teammates for full heals. The dogs are also particularly useful for a two minute summon, as they do decent damage and can tank a little bit.

"Who's a good boy?"

Opening the blast doors of that rocket ship triggers a defense task (boss fight with no boss, just swarms of baddies) and the best hold spot we found was up the stairs on the right then right again to get to the corner room. With healing pools and the dragon heart necklace upgrades we hold quite comfortably in there - even when tribals carrying rocket launchers arrive. Beyond the blast doors is an awesome beam rifle which both Jim and I quickly switch to and teleport back to Ward 13 to upgrade it - especially as we have the next tier of iron component now available.

While there I explore the reactor a bit more and accidentally find the master key behind a large fan (which I switched off by accident when trying to steal a fuse). The key lets us through the locked door on level two and into a room with a submachine gun. Again, Jim and I get this, though Jim still keeps his flame thrower pistol handy as well. As expected DL remains on the Sniper Rifle and standard pistol because he's a Sniper Elite. :P

[Part of our Remnant from the Ashes story]

Our trail of destruction across Rhom continues as we push forward to the tower of the Undying King and our first major hurdle is some dude with a radioactive beehive on his head. Aptly named "The Hive", he is a bullet sponge that gets slightly faster the more hurt he is. He also has a hell of a SLAP so if you see him raise his hand, dodge away. Like everything else in the game, melee swings go through walls so be careful. 

Apart from launching bees he also calls radioactive explosive adds who we countered by summoning dogs. Radiation is a big thing on Rhom since I guess they got nuked? Really doesn't explain the giant floating skulls though. Anyway, best strategy for the Hive is lead him down one wing, cross the central chamber and lead him down the other wing. Fighting in the center is a poor choice strategy wise as you obviously will get surrounded.

It took us a few goes until finally DL won after Jim and I were KO-ed. In co-op mode, if you can't use a heart on a downed ally in time the only way to get them back is resting at a campfire. That is a fair mechanic and one exploited by the next boss - a giant root thing that summons Goa'uld on a floating platform. This bastard - "Claviger" - was VERY tough and managed to knock Jim off the platform early on our successful run, meaning DL and I couldn't revive him during the fight. Basically it is just a big wizard who likes hiding in a force field. To turn off the shield, destroy the orbs on either side and then you can shoot him - but only if you can counter his attacks of which there are three.

Bring ammo packs and heavy water.

Shovels and rifles, a good combination.

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

Arielle (wifey), Mario (me), Father Luke (Juris), the Kid (mom), and John (DL) arrived at the excavation site where cultists had already begun their ritual. This time, the team needed to uncover an evil artifact and destroy it and quickly set about their work - removing cultists in the way and digging from midway on the map back to the start.

Even their monstrous Bokrug ally is laid low by Luke and his pick axe as the artifact is revealed. The squad then whacks it into pieces, breaking the ritual and summoning a weakened Hastur who quickly is sent fleeing behind his minions.

 

Featuring the fickle Lady Luck.

A board game session from Cthulhu: Death May Die.

A Las Vegas casino sets the stage for the next ritual, and to break it Father Luke (Juris), the Kid (mom), John (DL), Arielle (wifey), and Mario (me) must win SIX times at the casino, requiring to pay an item per attempt and only able to gamble if the casino has no enemies.

This proves to be tremendously difficult as cultists and hounds of Tindalos regularly appear on the casino floor thanks to the poor odds at the table and while the team gets half the required wins they are out of time as a full powered and immortal Cthulhu appears, nearly killing Luke (who is saved by catatonia). 

The hounds would fit nicely in a Warhammer 40k Tyranid army.