Johan D Sahr

I'm a retired professor of electrical engineering. My expertise is (*) Upper atmospheric physics, and (*) Radar and passive radar

how to find them ...

Here's a link to PassionFruitGames

passionfruitgames -- Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box

So, I have an acquaintance who helps develope games, and she has suggested that her company, Passionfruitgames is getting close to releasing

Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box

----

I'm willing to give it a try.

brave new world

I've become interested in World of Warcraft. It doesn't have the whimsy and plot of Talent, but it's hard to deny the visual impact, and the group playing bits are ... pretty interesting.

Epsiod 5 - Unexpected Company

Having saved the world, those valiant adventurers, Håkon, Maiyn, Åsker and Ludde the Bear, stood atop Mount Kailash, the navel of the world, watching a small dot on the horizon, which was a dragon carrying Markku the Finnish Wizard off into the north. Pity filled their minds.

“It’s a pity I didn’t pick his pocket before he left” thought Maiyn. “It’s a pity he’s got the map,” thought Håkon. “It’s a pity I couldn’t get a dragon scale,” thought Åsker. “It’s a pity the GM is stealing jokes from Bored of the Rings,” thought Ludde, now being played by John.

The party straggles down the mountain to the valley below to regain the shelter of their cart and the incredibly patient Ox. As is usual in mountain stories, the night became cold, snowy and dark. Håkon took the first watch. In the middle of the watch Ludde rose from the snow, shook himself off, and started up the north side of the valley. Stirred from his sleep, Åsker also rose, and muttering to himself went after his bear. Håkon did not appear to notice.

Åsker eventually caught up to Ludde using Ludde’s tracks, and persuades him to return to camp by telling him that there is a leg of beef waiting down below. Ludde thinks it over and rumbles back down the hill. In camp, knowing that there is no leg of beef and fearing Ludde’s wrath, Åsker makes himself scarce. However, Ludde looks in the wagon and discovers the frozen corpse of Oma Lama. Snapping off a leg, Ludde returns to his snowdrift upwind of camp and gnaws contentedly.

During Maiyn’s watch, however, Ludde, drawn by weak but persistent urges, again arises from his burrow. Thinking ahead, he snaps off Oma’s other leg for provisions for the journey and again ascends the north wall of the valley. The snap wakes Åsker. Maiyn wakes Håkon after picking his pocket for practice. Practice was all Maiyn got, since Håkon’s pocket was empty.

Between them Maiyn and Åsker remember seeing the shapes moving across the valley from the saddle on the mountain, and Håkon remembers them from his attempt to fly in the blizzard. The party sets out to follow Ludde.

Dawn comes, and the blizzard abates. Ludde reaches a place where snow-filled tracks cross the mountainside, from low to the right to high on the left. Ludde elects to turn left, which is a good choice as the tracks become less snow filled as he moves along. The party trails along well behind him.

Ludde goes over a ridge and disappears. The party hurries to the ridge crest. They see Ludde standing in the throat of a fairly steep gully looking up at the entrance to a cave. Two figures dressed in white emerge from the cave. Spotting Ludde, they begin to do a dance, sort of like a chicken dance done by a dancing bear.

Ludde is strangely drawn to the figures and the dance. He decides to move uphill and to the left, climbing the gully wall. His arms start to make the same motion as the dancing figures, who are encouraged.

Åsker recognizes the figures as yetis – they have the same type of fur as the skin Maiyn has acquired somewhere. Åsker plans to collect some yeti skins of his own. Undaunted by being out of bolts and so confined only to a dagger, Åsker plunges down Ludde’s tracks to the gully bottom and forges up behind him. Maiyn and Håkon follow at a more leisurely pace.

Ludde is attracted but cautious. He takes a position somewhat uphill from the dancing yetis at the cave mouth on the left side of the gully, dancing more enthusiastically every passing minute. It seems like something he already knows how to do. The party arrives at Ludde. Maiyn, seeing that the yetis are fixated on Ludde, quickly uses his elven snow running talent to circle above the cave and dash into the entrance behind the yetis.

Inside the cave Maiyn discovered a circle of 10 yetis sitting around a fire chanting. (Chanting by yeti sounding much like bears roaring in tune.) He also discovers two inside guards who are not distracted, spot him and start to charge at him. Maiyn promptly hides in the shadows. Pandemonium breaks out among the yetis, who leap to their feet and start to search the cave for the intruder. Maiyn bears it for as long as he can and then, as a smaller, somewhat elderly yeti dodders by, can take it no longer and plunges his dagger into the yeti’s back in a very satisfying way. The elder shrieks and Maiyn finds himself visible and in close proximity to a dozen enraged yetis. Well, eleven enraged yetis and one wounded one.

The fight in the cave is short, and for Maiyn not especially pleasant. His clever attempt to plunge the cave into darkness is nullified by his misfortune in interrupting a circle of powerful yeti shamans. One contemptuously snaps on the flood lights and when the crowd breaks up all that is left of Maiyn are his possessions and a red stain on the cave floor.

Outside the cave, the roaring over Maiyn’s discovery causes the dancing yetis to break off their dance, whirl and stare into the cave. Loyal to their mate, Åsker and Håkon rush down the slope and attack the guards. Åsker stabs one in the leg and Håkon clonks the same one over the head with an axe. Horrified, but slow to act, Ludde resolves to interpose his bulk between his old friends from the party and his new ones from the dance. However, he gets carried away on the approach, caroming into Åsker, knocking him off his feet and into Håkon. The three of them go tumbling down the gully leaving two enraged yetis above.

The people in the gully try to stop, only to find the yetis from the cave charging down on them. Ludde hip checks a yeti, who tumbles down the gully like a white furry bowling ball. Håkon evades the yetis, but the rolling one caroms into Åsker, who continues his uncontrolled descent of the gully. Suddenly Åsker discovers that the gully ends just below him. His desperate attempt to stop fails, and Åsker is swept over the edge. Aaaaaaaaaaaaa a a a a a a a a a! Fwump!

Åsker lands head-down in deep soft snow. As he tries to dig his way out, a yeti lands on top of him, thump! Then another yeti lands on top of the first yeti, thump-bump, crushing poor Åsker. Somewhat the worse for wear, the two yetis remain capable of setting about Åsker with tooth and claw.

Up above, two more yetis (the internal guards) emerge from the cave and rush down the gully to engage with Håkon. One goes so far as to interpose between Håkon and Ludde, while the other ends up sliding over the edge. Ludde does his best to break up the fight, but Håkon and the remaining yeti exchange blows until Ludde pushes everyone into another tumble down the gully. Håkon can’t stop and goes over, landing in the snow near Åsker’s ragged remnants. The three yetis already below amble over and dispatch their second helpless victim.

In the gully above, the last yeti digs in his claws and screeches to a stop at the lip of the gully, bracing himself to prevent Ludde from going over. Ludde, however, regains control and stops just above the yeti. After a tense moment, the yeti relaxes and Ludde turns uphill and starts the arm motions from the yeti dance.

Far above at the cave, the yeti shamans emerge one by one from the cave, dancing with joy, howling their greeting and forming a line on either side of the cave to welcome their long lost Crown Prince to a ceremonial tea.

Ludde is at first surprised by how quickly he learns the yeti tongue, and then not surprised as he learns his history over the next several days. It seems that there is a yeti King Muntok, who dwells in the House of the Golden Roof. Muntok’s evil vizier Shazbag long ago had Muntok’s only son Guntok kidnapped and sold abroad, so that Shazbag would be able to take over the kingdom when King Muntok died. The King is now at death’s door. Only if his son comes to him to perform the yeti ceremony of Opening the Door can King Muntok die and pass on the magic power of the yeti kingdom.

A circle of powerful Shamans, distrustful of what the evil Vizier Shazbag would do to the magical research budget if he assumed the throne, has spend the past year or so chanting a powerful summoning spell that has reached across the world and brought their Crown Prince Guntok (Ludde) back to them!

Ludde reflects that this explains his wanderlust, a feeling so strong it has caused him to change masters and influence Åsker to cross half the world to meet his doom at this spot. The yeti shamans see his concern, and reassure him. All the party can be reincarnated at the nearest stupa, simply by praying. Their possessions have been preserved intact, and the shamans even will refill quivers, as the evil Vizier Shazbag has surrounded the approach to the Hall of the Golden Roof with many and various ingenious protections. There is only one catch. Maiyn has stabbed a revered shaman in the back from hiding. This is considered a karmically negative act, at least by the yetis, and it is up to Crown Prince Guntok to exercise Royal Justice and impose a karmic penalty on his recall.

Installment the Fourth

Chokpa Rinpoche turns into a narrow defile west of Mount Kailash, the Navel of the World, riding with five minions, the end of the world, perhaps, in the kegs of lutefisk they carry.

The party, loyal Ox towing the cart, turns up-valley in slow pursuit, tumbling Oma’s arrow-studded corpse to the ground to await an informal sky burial. As dusk falls, so does the snow, coming on to a massive blizzard. Urged forward by a maniacal Maiyn (what has gotten in to that elf?) Håkon, Åsker, Ludde and Maiyn forge ahead at high speed while Markku stays with Ox (and Osbald, the blue guy tied up in the bed). Markku soon loses sight of his companions in the blizzard, and contents himself with prayers to Perkunas.

Realizing that they are not gaining on Chokpa, Maiyn talks a trusting Håkon into using the flying drum to scout forward. Håkon will use his infravision to see in the dark. It’s a good theory but goes awry when Håkon, successfully airborne, discovers that the blizzard has created a white out and all his infravision can see is white. Nothing daunted, Håkon speeds forward until he smashes into the valley side. Persistent, if unwise, Håkon caroms from valley side to valley side.

Running out of mana, Håkon crashes to the ground and starts to make his way back to where he thinks Maiyn and Åsker might be. Resting, Håkon hears stealthy steps in the snow, and spots a couple of vaguely human figures dressed all in white crossing the slopes above him. Håkon trails the figures until they turn up slope and disappear into the blowing snow.

Meanwhile, Maiyn, Åsker and Ludde heard muffled hoofbeats. Åsker knew from the hoofbeats that it was an enraged yak. The beast materializes out of the blinding snow running at full yak speed and butts Maiyn 10 feet through the air onto his backside. Ludde is the first to land a blow on the white-colored yak, and gouges long furrows in the ice frozen into the yak’s hairy hide. The party realizes the grim truth – it is an ice yak, armored with thick ice formed by repeated wetting and freezing.

The yak makes multiple passes at the party, randomly attacking party members. Åsker makes a remarkable shot with his crossbow, putting his last bolt in one of the yak’s eyes. It only seems to make him mad. Or madder.

On the valley side wall, Håkon has faintly heard the thumps of yak-beats and the sounds of battle. He whips his war hammer high and charges towards the noise. As a dark shape looms out of the blowing snow, Håkon swings a mighty stroke! Startled, Åsker ducks out of the way and Håkon realizes he has fortunately missed pulping the head of his fellow adventurer.

Ludde succeeds in his second attempt to jump on the back of the yak, clawing and tearing from his post. Håkon makes amends for his mistake with Åsker by landing a tremendous blow on the flank of the yak, sending cracks in the icy armor from the face of his hammer.

Ludde gets greedy and tries to throw the yak by leaning out to one side. This allows his claws to slip and Ludde falls off. The yak decides to stay and trample the poor bear. Ludde claws at the yak’s ice-encased legs while the others beat on its sides. At the end, even Markku, who has been flinging light spells into the sky, arrives for the kill.

Markku’s arrival is also somewhat exciting, as he has botched a light spell and arrives in the midst of a total blackout. Fortunately, he too is unsuccessful in his attempt to slaughter Håkon.

Exhausted, the party elects to camp at the kill site, over Maiyn’s objections. Disgruntled, Maiyn skins the yak and rolls in the hide to sleep. He chooses the hairy side, which is also the icy side, but is so tired he is soon out.

Markku checks the yak carcass for magic, discovering something faint in the skull. It ends up in the wagon.

Markku, after some divine inspiration, builds a Finnish snow cave in which he and the rest of the party snooze in comfortable silence.

The next morning dawns bright and clear. Four or five feet of snow covers the valley. Up ahead, Chokpa and his minions struggle up a steep ridge crest towards the summit of Mount Kailash. The party hastens forward, Maiyn running on top of the snow, as befits an elf, while Ludde breaks trail and Håkon plows through the snow. Åsker, Markku and the Ox bring up the rear. Impatient with the slow pace, Markku seizes the flying drum and starts to ascend – only to realize that the drum does not climb very well. Fortunately Markku realizes this before he gets too high or uses too much mana.

Two odd things happen as the party climbs towards what is now clearly a saddle between two high peaks of the mighty mountain. First, two distant figures appear on the far side of the valley, well away from the where Ox and wagon have been abandoned. Second, clouds start to form on the distant horizon. The weather changes quickly in the mountains, but perhaps not so quickly as when a magic user has spotted his pursuers. Soon the party, separated into two groups, is climbing in a white out.

Maiyn and Ludde are the first to reach the saddle. Warned by some sixth sense, Maiyn is able to spring the ambush prematurely. Three swordsmen with shields burst out of snowdrifts to attack Maiyn and Ludde. Maiyn immediately casts Dark, to take advantage of his blind-fighting skills, and succeeds. Ludde, in the act of charging a swordsman, is disconcerted when the light goes out and charges right across the tiny saddle and over the edge on the far side, rolling down the slope in the deep new snow roaring and flailing.

Maiyn survives the blackout, and also his failure on the next blackout, and is eventually joined by the entire party. The swordsmen acquit themselves valiantly (despite accusations of cheating, their rolls were both fortunate and honest) and beat Ludde and Markku to the ground. Healed, they spring up and resume the fight. No such succor awaits the swordsmen, who perish one by one, valiantly defending their master.

The party races up the final pitch, following Chokpa’s steps to the summit. Maiyn is the first to emerge from the clouds – finding a bare summit. Where is Chokpa! He is over on the other summit, holding a keg of lutefisk in front of a large, quizzical, winged dragon! Maiyn in his haste has been duped by a false trail! Chokpa appears to be performing some sort of ceremony. Maiyn quickly persuades a gullible Håkon to fly over using the flying drum and smash the keg of lutefisk.

Håkon’s flight catches the dragon’s attention. Markku casts blur, creating multiple Håkons. The dragon bats at all of them with its mighty wing, causing the imitations to pop out of existence and Håkon to tumble off his line. The dragon casts a careful, suspicious look at Markku across the sea of clouds separating the two peaks, then turns its attention back to the lutefisk. It now looks hungry but cautious.

Maiyn suddenly raises his hands and a towering cylinder of roaring flame leaps into existence around Chokpa and his lutefisk keg. The cylinder reaches from the peak to the sky. Chokpa is trapped within.

Markku chooses this moment to hurl the Instant Sauna spell at the dragon. Unharmed, but annoyed, the dragon launches into the air and with slow, powerful sweeps of his wings, flies over to the party’s peak and snatches Markku away while the rest of the party looks on dumbfounded by this unintended plot departure. Markku and the dragon flap away into the distance.

Led by an indefatigable Maiyn, the party descends to the saddle, to find a full Ludde happily cradling the second keg of lutefisk – now an empty keg of lutefisk – that he has dug out of one of the snowdrifts in the saddle.

Ascending to the true summit, the party finds Chokpa sitting in his circle of fire meditating on the lutefisk keg set before him. The charred bones of his two acolytes mark the places where they attempted to pass through the fire.

Stealthily drawing his short sword, Maiyn walks fearlessly into the circle, which promply vanishes. Before Chokpa can react, Maiyn has driven his sword deep into the old man’s unprotected back, killing him. In his last words, Chokpa claims that as long as the lutefisk exists, the Bön will find it and bring the world to an end.

Maiyn smashes in the end of the keg and begins to each the vile glabrous stuff with both hands. One would not think an elf of his stature could hold as much lutefisk as fits in a fair-sized keg, even assuming an elf would demean himself to be within a mile of the stuff, but Maiyn’s gluttony is an all-devouring flame, until the last bit is licked from the inside of the keg. Then Maiyn collapses into the snow with a baffled look on his face.

It takes Håkon and Åsker some time to realize that Maiyn is somewhat more confused than even someone who just polished off a whole keg of lutefisk should be. A strange tale emerges in fits and starts. Killed in the fight at the pass with the fort, Maiyn woke up reincarnated in the Bön Dzong cell with his mind possessed by the Norse God Loki, the trickster. Loki, the Trickster, the Fire God, and winner of numerous eating contests, has been sent by the Æsir to prevent the end of the world. The circle of flame was Loki’s, not Maiyn’s, and the urgency Maiyn has displayed was divine impatience. With the lutefisk destroyed, the end of the world is not longer nigh, and Loki has returned to Valhalla, where a hot Valkyrie or two await him.

The party has triumphed! The world is safe! --- Or is it?

The Third Installment

Or two weeks. Then the action furiously resumes.

Åsker heals Markku, who pops up only to be spitted again by a spearman. Håkon, battling valiantly, is overwhelmed by four opponents and goes down, but not without leaving marks on the opposition. Maiyn, visible in the pitiless sunlight flooding the pass, is spitted by an onrushing spearman, skewered by arrows and thumped by rocks, and goes down.

Åsker, with Ludde close behind, exercises the better part of valor and decamp unpursued.

The next day, Åsker returns to the pass. A single guardsman stands desultory watch on the corner of the Dzong. Åsker dispatches the guard with one swift bolt. Scouting his way carefully into the pass, Åsker discovers that the fort is (now) unmanned, but the door is tightly closed. On the other side of the pass Åsker sees a broad valley with a large castle on a peak across the way. Many saffron-robed monks travel the roads leading to and from the castle.

Åsker forms a cunning plan, which is to walk along the road until he meets a monk, have Ludde sit on the monk and steal his robes and hat. This works until he meets a second monk, who addresses Åsker in Tibetan, which language Åsker does not, alas speak. After disposing of the corpus, Åsker takes to the brush and makes his way slowly up to the castle.

Meanwhile, our other heroes awaken in a dungeon cell. It is whitewashed rock with a long, narrow windows high in the wall, from whence comes enough light to see a wizened blue personage sitting in a corner of the cell. This person turns out to be Osbald, from an island far to the northwest. Osbald explains the situation. The Bön seek to end the world, so it can be recreated with the Bön on top. They believe that they can do this by feeding the dragon in the Navel of the World a food the dragon will not eat. Something about a logic fault reset. Anyway, to qualify as food, it must be something that people eat. So the Bön collect rare and disgusting foods, and see if people will eat them. They do this by locking people in cells until they are very very hungry and then providing “dinner.” Osbald recites a long list of disgusting foods he has eaten recently.

Nauseated by the gustatory desecration, Markku decides it is time to leave. Reasoning that heat will make the iron softer, and thus easier for Håkon to smash open, he casts his Sauna spell, causing the iron door to heat to the perfect temperature for making steam from dripping water. As this is considerably less than the melting point of iron, it serves mainly to attract the attention of the jailers. Indeed, a “yeouch!” and muffled cursing in Tibetan tell Markku that he has inconvenienced a guard.

Much thumping and jangling from the corridor and the cell door is unlocked and pulled open to reveal an impressive array of spearpoints. Powerful magic is wrought in the corridor. Markku discovers that he has no mana.

Enter an impressive array of heavily armed guards followed by a stately important personage. The personage introduces himself as Chokpa Rinpoche. Acolytes hustle in an open barrel of a glabrous cloudy white substance that sets Osbald cowering in a corner. Chokpa asks if anyone will eat the stuff. Markku steps forward and does his best to pretend that he actually enjoys the prospect. As an acolyte offers a mercifully small plate to Markku, Maiyn leaps across the cell to smash the plate into the dirt – whereupon his fish-belly white body is impaled by six different spearmen and he peacefully takes his place on the floor and offers no further objections to the proceedings.

Markku recovers the white stuff from the floor. Chokpa offers Markku his magic flask. Markku pours out a dram for Chokpa and one for himself. They each toss back the liqueur, and then Markku places a small amount of the white foodstuff in his mouth. Every eye is on him as he pauses for dramatic effect and then swallows. The crowd winces in sympathy.

Chokpa announces that he cares nothing for treasure, and that the party will be released into what’s left of the world in two days, hah hah hah. The keg is recapped and hurried out of the cell. The door slams, the lock turns, and the crowd noise recedes down the corridor. From the window come the sounds of many people and horses leaving. Then things quiet down.

Markku insists that the cellmates stand watch. As dawn sends its rosy fingers through the cell window, the party awakes. Håkon rushes the door while Markku casts a spell in support. Håkon’s bulging thews smash the bars and locks holding the door closed and slam the door all the way open to crash against the wall. Håkon himself stumbles across the corridor into a wall on the other side. Maiyn takes a quick look around the hallway. To one side, more doors, including one at the end of the hall. To the other side, three very surprised spearmen trying to get organized.

Maiyn slips into the shadows. Håkon seized one of the broken bars from the cell door. Markku Peens two of the guards while Håkon and Maiyn combine to do in the third.

The guardroom yields three spears, two daggers and a ring of keys. A “Detect Magic” spell reveals a dusty, but intact magic hand drum. The party dresses in monk’s robes, or at least Håkon and Maiyn do. Markku will play the role of prisoner. The interior cells are too dark to see into. Markku overdoes a light spell, and intense light streams from around the edges of the cell door and through the peephole, too bright to look into. The party gives up checking cells. The door at the far end of the hallway opens on a stair that leads down to a huge courtyard in the center of the castle. In the middle of the courtyard is a familiar looking Ox, patiently standing attached to an ox cart, in which sits Oma, meditating. Inside the cart are the party’s goods, arms and armor. Chokpa indeed sees little use for these material things. Oma identifies the drum as a flying drum, just add mana.

Distracted by the recovery of valued possessions, the party does not notice as Osbald slips out through the gates standing open in the courtyard. But Osbald runs slap into a monk with a bear, and is dragged kicking and screaming back into the courtyard. For an instant, the group of monks around the cart look suspiciously at the monk, bear and blue man at the gate, but then Markku recognizes Ludde and a touching reunion scene ensues. Osbald again seeks to leave and Maiyn seizes, binds and gags him and slings him into the cart.

The party now sets out to chase down Chokpa Rinpoche, whose path is up the broad river valley below to the Naval of the World. Chokpa is a cloud of dust in the distance. Pushing up the road the party meets a number of Tibetans celebrating the imminent end of the world. That night Åsker and Ludde celebrate too, and end up sleeping in the cart for most of the next day. Towards evening, as the Naval of the World – a tall snow covered mountain – starts to loom on the north side of the valley, Markku dispatches Åsker, still somewhat hung over, to spy on Chokpa using the flying drum. Åsker is successful at drawing fire and triggering a cavalry attack. Six heavily armed and armored riders attack the party, having turned off from Chokpa’s group close ahead.

As the riders charge forward they unlimber bows and send a shower of arrows at the party. Maiyn jumps behind Oma for cover and draws his bow. An arrow means for Maiyn catches Oma four-square and he topples into the cart in mid-chant.

After this small success, however, the battle does not go well for the bad guys. Although they score a few times with arrows while charging in, their big shot magic user spazzes on a couple of powerful spells. Enraged by his loss of face, he axes Markku to the ground. Markku is healed, and smashed again, his usual fate in battle, but does enough damage so that Håkon can finish off the leader.

Håkon meanwhile has engaged an axeman and given and taken mighty blows, emerging bloody but victorious in time to engage the leader as has been related.

Maiyn too has killed his man, and Ludde kills two before the last one flees. Åsker’s contribution is valiant, no doubt, and vital to group success, just less noted.

And there the party sits, some distance behind Chokpa Rinpoche as he seeks to end the world with a keg of Lutefisk.