Tehanu

When last we saw Tenar, she had been spirited away from the Tombs of Atuan (1970) by Ged.  When Ged returned in The Furthest Shore (1972), Tenar did not.  It turns out that Tenar had gone to Ged's home island of Gont and lived with Ged's old mentor, Ogion.  However, the path of magic was not for her.  She married a farmer and raised two children.  She is a widow who lives alone on her farm, her children having grown up and moved away.  Into her life enters a girl, Therru, who has been horribly burned by vagrants.  She adopts the girl as her own and takes her along when she visits the ailing Ogion.  While at Ogion's house, Ged arrives.  He is no longer a wizard, his magic lost during The Furthest Shore.  Now just a man, he kindles feelings for Tenar, feelings which she long held toward him.

The story is slow-paced and often little more than Tenar's thoughts and doubts, fears and hopes.  The story is told almost entirely from her viewpoint.  There are frequent hints that Therru is more than she seems.  Ordinary folk fear her, Ogion insists that Tenar teach her everything, and witches are wary of her power.  What is the deal with this girl?

Considering that it took nearly 20 years for this follow up book, it is exceedingly boring.  I am baffled that it won awards.  There is Eastern philosophy in action, but mostly the characters are just a bunch of victims who survive their trials.  When there is action, it is mostly glossed over in an instant.

I enjoyed the original trilogy, but this was more like a Hallmark Special set in Earthsea.  Will Tenar find love as a widow?  Will Ged find meaning in his life without magic?  Can Therru find a place in society despite her horrible burns?

Disappointing.

LARPers at a Crime Scene

This has to be one of the best LARP routines ever.  Classic!

Love the use of glitter!

The Swords of Lankhmar

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are aboard a grain ship bound for the port city of Kleg Nar. Currently, the Mingols have besieged the eight cities of the north who need support from Lankhmar lest the Mingols turn their attention there. A previous grain shipment vanished and, as such, the Overlord of Lankhmar employed the daring pair to make sure this shipment arrived. Soon, the pair discovered that rats had destroyed the last shipment and were set to pluck off each of the grain ships in this convoy but for the intervention of a strange German zoologist from a future earth who rode a two-headed rat-eating sea serpent. How predictable. While Fafhrd opted to remain in Kleg Nar, Mouser returned with the convoy to Lankhmar where he expected accolades. Instead, he found the primary plotters of rat attack had spun the story in their favor and now worked against Mouser. The grain convoy had been but a small part of a larger plan to usurp the Overlord and take control of Lankhmar!

Sadly, the Overlord is a dullard, a cowardly twit who is easily manipulated. After such brilliant and cunning villains seen in The Lord of Quarmall, this oafish buffoon is a real disappointment. Mouser’s infatuation with a girl who clearly has no interest in him and repeatedly plots his death is also silly. Fafhrd is sidelined for most of the novel, having to travel through a warzone on his way back to Lankhmar and only arriving at the climax of the plot. On the way, he fights a band of Mingols, falls for a woman who is invisible except for her bones, battles Ilthmart land pirates, consults with Ningauble the Wizard, rides through the sinking land, and catches a ride on Sheelba’s walking hut in the Great Salt Marsh to the gates of Lankhmar. It is all very exciting but has little to nothing to do with the main plot.

Whereas all previous adventures have been short stories, this is a novel with some well-developed support characters, a deep dive into the setting, and more detail of some of the beliefs of Nehwon. Most entertaining. Recommended.

One Hit Die - The Devouring Dungeon

Our heroes are once again questing, this time into the Devouring Dungeon in search of the Fountain of Experience.  Yes, when they find it, they will level up.  Typical player motivation.  One-eyed Cassandra (Mikaela Cochrane) the Paladin has brought a bard along to raise morale.  Torvold (Andrew David Long) finds this mostly distracting, especially since he is trying to disable a trap.  Sasha (Julie Orton) finds Cassandra to be exasperating.  Azurus (Phil Burke) needs to pee.  To make matters worse, rooms shift at regular intervals, thus changing the dungeon layout.

Though the party has been in a dungeon in a previous adventure, this one constitutes the whole of the adventure.  Each room has some sort of trap, puzzle, or monster to overcome.  Oddly, one room only has a mirror.  Odder still, their reflections are not reversed.  With a shrug, the party moves on to the next room.  Then their reflected selves emerge from the mirror!  A mirror of opposition!  Very cool and well done.  As is inevitable when there are dopplegangers of everyone, the party must split up and then reconnect with the wrong people.  Good fun.  Once again, Azurus finds himself in an animation storyline, thanks to eating mushrooms while drunk.

Sadly, it would appear that this concludes the adventures of the party.  It has been 6 years since this final adventure.  Fun while it lasted.  The whole series is recommended.  

One Hit Die - Legend of the Lich Lord

Nerrena the Necromancer (Victoria Souter) has brought the Lich Lord to this realm.  Only one thing prevents the Lich Lord from unleashing hordes of undead across the land: his orb.  He dispatches Nerrenea with his 3 Shade Knights to recover his orb from the Druids of Alden Green.  Mwhahahahahahaaa!

Meanwhile, our heroes are once again questing, but something is different.  The Chosen One - Gwen the Healer - has been replaced by Cassandra the Paladin (Mikaela Cochrane).  The party has only just conquered a dungeon and recovered an amulet of resurrection.  They have hardly left the dungeon when they encounter Willard the Druid.  He is a Sapling from Alden Green and seeks aid against a necromancer and zombies.  The party gladly kills the zombified druids, much to Willard's horror, but then must flee when Nerrena and the Shade Knights arrive.

Though the plot is fairly straight forward, there are twists and turns to provide entertainment.  This was probably the first time I had seen the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity portrayed.  Despite a warning, Torvald (Andrew David Long) tried it on and became a female version of himself (Joanna Gaskell).  That was funny enough, but it got even funnier when Azarus (Phil Burke) started hitting on female Torvald.  And it gets crazier from there.  Nicely done.  Other gags weren't quite as good.  The hat of invisibility was taken almost directly from Erik the Viking (1989).  Sasha (Julie Orton) acquires a magic weapon for use against the undead: a shovel.  Huh, that's really kind of appropriate.  The fancy runes sold it.

The production values are surprisingly good.  The special effects may not be top notch but still pretty good.  The use of animation while Azurus was under the effects of a hallucination potion was inspired.  I'm sure that saved a lot on special effects and worked just as well for the task at hand.

All in all, the Legend of the Lich Lord is great popcorn fun.  Highly recommended for gamers.

One Hit Die - Crushmas

Torvold (Andrew David Long) is haunted by a goblin he killed, just as Morley haunted Scrooge.  Before the goblin ghost can detail the 3 visitations that will purge the greed from Torvold, Gwen (Larissa Thompson) arrives.  The healer's presence destroys the ghost and the peril was no more.  Gwen offers Torvold a Christmas present: a face carved in wood.  He is indifferent.  Sasha (Julie Orton) arrives and tells how she used her carved face for kindling.  Neither Sasha nor Torvold got anything for Gwen.  It is then that Sasha describes the holiday of her people: Crushmas.  The goal is to travel into the woods and slay the white spirit of the forest and loot it.  Sasha, Torvold, and a reluctant Gwen trek into the snowy woods to find the spirit and kill it.  Azarus (Phil Burke) does not accompany them as he is combatting a gelatinous boob.  Through happenstance, the party encounters a snow troll, which Sasha gladly accepts as the spirit of the forest to be slain.  Comedy follows as the troll heals faster than they can injure it.

A 2-episode Christmas special, it is brief yet entertaining.  Recommended.

One Hit Die - Prologue

Gwen (Larissa Thompson) is a healer who is leading a party to recover the Orb of Maldova, an artifact that will allow them to defeat the Obsidian Sorcerer.  Her party consists of Sasha the Fighter (Julie Orton), Torvold the Rogue (Andrew David Long), and Azurus the Wizard (Phil Burke).  While trekking toward the Goblin Mines, Sasha slays something that looked evil.  That started an argument.  Torvold is angry that, yet again, Sasha has proven to be an experience hog.  Gwen is upset that she didn't get to talk to the creature; maybe it knew something about the Orb of Maldova.  Azurus is annoyed because he is suffering from a hangover.  No sooner have they resumed their trek than a goblin appears.

"Hello," the goblin says.

Sasha hacks the goblin, who does not die.  Torvold finishes it off with a stone from his sling.  "We share experience for that one!" he declares triumphantly.  Gwen is again upset that they didn't talk to the goblin.  Azurus is again annoyed when Torvold wants him to use magic to identify a clearly worthless dagger.

Titled Prologue, this 4-episode adventure introduces a mostly incompetent set of heroes on a failed mission.  They are not yet high enough level to tackle the quest and must return to the Rat Forest to slay rats and gain experience before they again venture back toward the Goblin Mines.  There were several times where the series clearly identified itself as a gaming session.  When Torvold ran the numbers on four standard goblins vs. his party and decided it would take the goblins 28 attacks to finish them while it would take 35 to take out the goblins.  Yes!  The complaints about experience point hogs and the constant reference to leveling up.  Good gamer fun.

Will the party return for further adventures or was this a pilot that didn't spawn a series?