Old Eldon Thompson (JR.) fought in Gulf one back in the 91. He was career military until 2000. He got out when the gettin’ was good and when they did the call back he shore didn’t answer.

He’s one of the good old folks that comes down now and again and is amused by the Friday Nighters. Hell, he’ll even sit down for a card game now and then, he don’t pay no mind.

He’ll talk about fighting in some sandy, even when we weren’t supposed to be there. He was on the ground, paintin’ tagets for guided aircraft strikes in the no fly zones then. Ol’ Thompson’s got some stories. And some scars.

He fought in the first Baltimore gas riots. When the grocery stores closed down because the trucks stopped shipping. He’s got buddies on the docks and can get some good stuff from out of the country now and then.

He also has a wicked asthma and his inhaler is obviously laced with ‘miacin. Becase after a few hits of that and some still vodka he is flying kite level.

Still, Thompson is from the building and the Club takes him home when he seems smooth adrift. Liza over in building two would give the club an earful otherwise. She and Eldon got a ‘thing’ going on. But you better not go inter her garden and ask her about it.

I’ve been working some on my Halloween one shot Call of Cthulhu game. Here is the initial background.

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The year is 2027, inner Baltimore, the state subsidized housing projects.

98% of the population has been chipped; a form of RFID chip subdermally implanted in the outer left wrist. It also contains the full name, social security number, medical history, address (most recent registered) and important medical history of the person implanted. Most people also have an encoded credit or debit card as well for ease of shopping. Many places no longer even accept cash. Chips can be read at a distance of 100 yards with the proper equipment although rumors of longer distance or mass scanning equipment abounds.

The American and affiliated military forces are permanently on deployment in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Northern Lebanon. The military and its’ support services are the largest employer in the country. Because of this absence of military presence at home the government has hired several private security contracting companies as peace-keeping forces stateside. The largest of these is called Counterstrike and has thousands of hired ‘peacekeepers’. There is some dispute that the mandates of these companies are ‘unclear’ but it isn’t widely discussed.

There are thousands of vid channels available to the home consumer. Close inspection would show that most of these are run by four monolithic media empires and one smaller one that pick up the scraps and odds and ends. The internet is less tightly controlled but access providers routinely monitor the usage of their subscribers. Many of these providers are owned by the ‘big 4’ media companies. There are a few rogue sites and providers, just as there are pirate radio and television stations, these are usually quickly shut down.

Short range electrical cars are common. The key phrase being ‘short range’. Long distance travel is usually by rail as air travel has become prohibitively expensive. Passenger ship travel has come back as a means of getting from one continent to another as large nuke powered cargo/passenger ships have become the standard. A few large companies use helium blimps as a means of moving personnel but this is a rarity.

WW2 era style home gardens have become the norm. Even small apartments usually have a ‘hydroponics closet’ for growing limited amounts of fruit or vegetables. Getting produce from farms into large urban areas has become difficult due to the very high cost of fuel with only the largest of corporate owned farms able to transport long lasting types of produce to markets (onions, carrots, potatoes, etc.). More delicate fruits and vegetables are either grown in gardens or are just unavailable except canned or pickled. Meat is much the same with soy substitutes becoming increasingly common as time goes on. In rural areas it is more like it was in the past, with commonly available varieties of produce and foodstuffs.

Etromicin is the most prescribed drug in the country. Initially billed as a mild anti-depressant the drug has found itself in everything from birth control to flu medications. A lightweight version is available without prescription across the counter. Many, many people take it. Many more take it without knowing it.

STREET LEVEL KNOWLEDGE

It is common for people wanting to ‘get off the grid’ to remove their chips. Self removal usually leaves a scar. Not having a chip or proper identification papers is an arrest-worthy offense.

Etromicin has been rumored to cause severe hallucinations and psychotic behavior in some people. Especially returning soldiers from the mid-east..

‘Cleansing squads’ of mercenary security forces have been arresting, and ‘detaining’ people in government housing. The blocks are then destroyed and leveled.

———————–

The open for the game…

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The players have all be living in the same government funded housing block for the last six years. Things have gone from bad to worse around the place. Gangs, and the military style security force response has made things very dangerous at times. The power outages can last for hours. In the darkness even more bad things happen. Vacant apartments are starting to become the norm as opposed to the rarity they were 20 years ago.

Is the gov hauling these people off? Detainment camps for illegals and incoming terrorists is a common sight on the vids.

Your building is cookie cutter standard for the housing units several states with big metropolitan areas started puking forth 15 years ago. Mostly cinderblock, crap pipes and wiring, and despair as a carpet on the floor. Still you all made it a home and community along with your ‘partner building’ across the small ‘greenway’ between the two monoliths. As the years progressed the buildings became covered with solar sheeting, rainwater collectors and topped with wind turbines.

The greenway rapidly became a spot of a few gardens, some watched by angry eyed Latino women with shotguns. Briefly pirate radio stations and websites have popped up, soon gone; much like the gangs and security forces. The people living in the buildings try to remain separate and aloof to these events and groups, with varying success.

Something darker is roaming though. Everyone knows it, the ganger spray paint has odd symbols. People don’t trade jarred goods the way the used to. Things just aren’t right. The Friday Night Drinking Club has decided to look into it.

Who is the Friday Night Drinking Club?

You all.

You are some of the various tenants of (X) building one of Government Unit 22b. You get together, drink some almost make you blind moonshine and play dominoes or cards in the apartments of one or another. Sometimes there is food. The Uniting Principles of the Friday Night Drinking Club (which is happening on more nights then Friday as things go to hell) are: A) you are single dudes, B) You are unhappy about how things are and C)You try, at least occasionally, to make things better around the place. Oh, and all of you are pretty decent at dominoes and various card games.

Where we start

Friday night. (x) has some fresh hooch off the potato still and a card game is happening. There is some discussion as to why there has been screams from Tony Sanchez’s in building 2 (he lives in the basement, with barred windows at ground level). Some discussion of why Stonewall security forces have set up checkpoints a few blocks away. And a hilarious talk about Radio Poe and the drunken poetry challenge.

—

Just as an aside…I am very, very clever. I see how this all works out.

I’m going to live blog episode 2 of season two of heroes. Feel free to hop on the thread and heckle with me.

[  Mood: Happy ]
Well Saturday has come and gone and so has another Game Night. Our host Craig spent a chunk of Friday night making islands and getting ready so we had no choice but to play at least one round of Wizkid’s Pirates!. Avast! With 3d terrain and our nifty game board the game just looked good from the set up:

After some review of the rules on the part of a few of us we were ready to set sail on the high (blue painted) seas.

Corey had an edge with his ‘booty finder’ *snicker*

A large part of the early game in the standard scenario is just racing to the nearest islands and snagging as much stuff as you can. Corey had an effective combination of crew and ships that let him really move across the board. Craig, on the other peg leg, had a group of really rich islands within easy reach and a four ship fleet that he used pretty effectively.

Still, conflict wasn’t far off, with me and Corey scrapping on one corner of the map and a three way struggle between Mitch, Craig and Jason in the center of the map.

War spread quickly across the seas and ships (Jason and mine) were sunk. Lesson here, big slow ships, even if they have a ton of guns and sails, aren’t that great.

(Note stylin’ Team Cthulhu bowling shirts)

Mitch’s Titan Crab caused havok all over the place until it was blasted to pieces by Craig.

Craig went on to score an absolutely overwhelming win with almost twice the loot of the next nearest player. Congrats!

Next up, Corey had purchased Flying Frog’s Last Night On Earth. Another zombie survival game ala Zombies!!! and Zombietown. The production values on the game were top notch and it looked amazing. The creators decided to go with photographs of real people as opposed to illustrations and it really gave the game a unique feel.

(Note bowl of delicious chili in upper right hand corner made by me)

The game had promise but was completely and heavilly scewed towards the zombies. This made the game frustrating for the human players, but we rallied and made a serious dent in the horde. Unfortunately the zombies managed to kill two humans thus winning the game for them.

We decided it could be a fun game but would need a lot of house rules to make it playable. Again though, it is a gorgeous game to look at.

After that we decided on some tried and true Munchkin. We started with Space Munchkin which none of us had played. It was a fun variation and Mitch went on to win the round. We then threw down on some Munchkin Impossible.

Which I went on to win by the hair of my chinny chin chin (triple agent rocks). After that we moved on to the goth and angst of Munchkin Bites.

In all honesty I forget who won this one, any members of Team Cthulhu reading this could you remind me? This marked the end of Game Night and the participants all went back to their various safe houses and ogre caves. We have one more regular game night and then…

dum dum dum!!!!

Call of Cthulhu game night on Oct. 27th. Stay Tuned!

(Or check in over at: http:\\www.teamcthulhu.org )

Editorial Note: It was Corey that won Munchkin Bites. We’re really going to need to set up a Munchkin leaderboard over on the website.

The group proceeded to share their information and the pieces all fell into place. It looked as if the jewelry was in the possession of a noble house of Waterdeep, House Thann known for their winemaking. This happened late in the day though and the group was forced to spend a nervous night again in the old shop. Aside from an out of place icy breeze though the evening passed uneventfully much to everyone’s joy. Though and the next morning saw the group mobilized for action heading for the Castle Ward compound of House Thann.

The odd combination of the bard and the rat catcher approached the nobles and, oddly enough, decided to play it straight up. They eventually got an audience with the lady Cassandra Thann who was wearing the very item they were looking for. After listening to their story she sent a group of her guards to secure the building and agreed to go back with the group that evening to see this ghost for herself. The group spent the rest of the day in comfortable imprisonment in the waiting rooms of the manor.

That evening, the gang was summoned to the courtyard where Lady Thann, a young man wearing mage type gear and a lady in waiting were boarding a coach. 6 more guards waited to accompany the group. After little fan fare the motley parade headed out cross town at dusk, peasants scattering out of their way. A few of the groups took the rare opportunity to lord it up a bit over the commoners which is hard to do when you are riding on the back of large dog.

The arrived to see the shop surrounded by Thann troops holding torches; so much for keeping a low profile. After the property was inspected and okayed by the mage the group filtered in to wait for the spirit to make his appearance. It would prove to be an awkward period for the group of rogues and royalty.

Midnight struck and right on time, after some spooky pyrotechnics, the ghost of al Hamid appeared. The jewelry on Lady Thann’s wrist gave him pause though and he then showed her the same domestic scene the party on the first night. Without a word the Lady rose, removed the contested piece and gave it up to the troubled spirit. With an ectoplasmic explosion the ghost and his prize vanished leaving everyone present with a serene feeling of accomplishment.

House Thann quickly gathered up with the mage Thann leaving a continual flame burning in the sconce next to the shop’s front door. After a few brief words they were gone and the group were now in complete ownership of a base of operations.

In addition to some awesome shirts Team Cthulhu now has a website:

www.teamcthulhu.org

Hopefully there will be some additional functionality like a calender and forum in the days to come. Still, it is nice to have SOME sort of webpresence for the crew.

Our power went out here for about an hour. About two city blocks were without electricity. It made me think ( as I was reading by candlelight.) about other places that don’t have electricity or do, at best sporadically.

Such a minor thing to us, but, when gone, such a major inconvieniance. I live in an apartment block, and we all went out with flash lights and so forth at 10 pm to try and figure out what was up. The cell phone owners (including me) called the energy company and all got automated responses.

I had a computer up on UPS and emailed them as well. Still, they don’t have that option in Bagdad. We stood out in the breezeway and talked about it. Eventually, someone brought out food and I hauled a 12 pack out and it became a very social hang out.

It confirmed my idea that you find the best of people in the weirdest times. I am all about some altruisim, no god involved, people just tend to be good and want to fix things. We were already talking about, what we would do about tomorrow, and how we could could cover one another. (it is going to be like 90 here and my neighbors know I essentially work from home).

The power came back on (obviously), but we went back to our homes with a bit more then a smiling nod for one another.

Our heroes set themselves up around the main common room near a soaked in blood stain awaiting the ghost. At midnight, complete with spooky fanfare the ghost of Jazid al Hamid appeared, the merchant who had built the building and ran a business there until his family and eventually he himself were slain by the Shadow Thieves 100 years ago.

Ed the vermin catcher wisely decided to parley with the ghost (which could have easilly killed the entire group) and they discovered it was tethered to the place by a unique bit of jewelry that belonged to his wife. A combination ring/bracelet device that signified marriage in Calimshan. It was obvious that he wanted this jewelry back.

The ghost then departed, leaving the group to obsessivly search the building room by room. They found no wedding gear but did find some minor loot and discovered that their well went far, far deeper then they realized. After some discussion in the morning the group split up and went researching. Half went to the Temple of Lathander for a divination and Craig went to the hall of records to dig up what he could (mostly alarming information about Trask and Hammerfall).

The temple crew was more successful, gaining some clues to the wedding bands’ current location. The group met up at the building ready to make some forward progress. During the day more stuff had arrived and the place was teetering on the edge of being livable. Frank’s wife had delivered breakfast (unseen) to the group as well and Frank the smith himself as well as Royce the priest of Lathander were amazed the group had lived through the night.

(to be continued)

We kicked off the ‘Thieves of Waterdeep’ D&D campaign last night and I think I can safely say a good time was had by all. I almost hit my goal of having a combat free D&D game. A brief tussle with some drunken mercenaries on a main street was the only stumbling block, and that combat only lasted two rounds. In defiance of the whole ‘the group meets at a tavern’ standard sort of D&D start I had the group be an already established gang of thieves in the Forgotten Realms city of Waterdeep.

They had just come off of a successful robbery and were loaded with goods and cash so money was kind of a non-issue. That in mind they decided they needed a base of operations. (In an urban game a base of ops is a necessity, much like a space ship in a sci fi game)Fortunately Ed, playing a gnome and life long Waterdeep resident (and professional vermin hunter), knew of a potential place. The only problem is that it was haunted and no one had been able to stay longer than a night in the building for over 100 years.

Undaunted our party decided to look into it, soon discovering that the deed for the place was in the hands of the weirdly menacing moneylenders Trask & Hammerfall. Trask, a tall and cadeverously thin human and Hammerfall, an almost spherical dwarf, proved to be shrewd negotiators and reluctantly parted with the building for a mere 1000 gold. The building, a stucco affair of Calimshani design (think Sante Fe meets the middle east) proved to be pleasant enough during the day, if a bit run down. More importantly it was perfect for the uses of our team.

The gang made nice with the neighbors in the form of Frank, the smith and his son (and apparently invisible wife) next door, and the mini-vermin hunter brought a priest of Lathander (god of the dawn) around to bless the place and generally spread good mojo. Sherman the bard went out on a shopping expidition and bought all the various sundries the house would need. He returned with two hirelings loaded with stuff and half filled the store room, with more goods to come the next day.

The team went on to generally clean the place up and search around, finding a few hidden spots here and there and discovering their well was indeed a source of decent fresh water (and was being used clandestinely by their neighbors). Night was falling and soon the group would find out if their new home was really haunted or not.

(more to come)