Into the City We Go!

What better way to spend my birthday than battling hordes of undead with my kids? We started Cursed City this afternoon and played through the first mission. Our initial party consists of (from left to right) the mage Octren (a shared character, since four are needed for a full party), Nathaniel's dwarf Dagnai, my swordfighter Glaurio, and Matthew's sneaky sniper Jelsen.

Ready Or Not, Ulfenkarn, Here We Come!

With a couple of days off coming up, now's the time for us to jump into Cursed City. Sadly, I'm not well prepared; I've painted four of the eight playable heroes -- just barely enough to field a full party -- and I've only skimmed the rulebook. The game mechanics are similar enough to Blackstone Fortress that I think the boys and I should pick it up quickly, but there are a number of small differences that may well cause confusion. Even so, I'm excited to get started after carting this game all the way back to Nevada from Millennium Games. Expect to see regular updates on our progress as we attempt to eradicate the scourge of the undead from the shadowy streets of Ulfenkarn!

Season 6 Is Underway!

The Thistles' Alf Smith beat Bulldogs goaltender Paddy Moran on the very first shot of the first game of the season. It's been non-stop action ever since! Below are some interesting developments from the first quarter of the season.

• The Bulldogs (3-1-0) and Victorias (2-0-2) sit atop the league standings after both missed the playoffs last season. The Dogs have allowed as many goals as they've scored, so they owe a bit of their success to Lady Luck; the Vics, on the other hand, sport a league-best +6 goal differential. 
• The Thistles may be in the cellar (1-3-0), but their top line of Dan Bain (2 G, 6 A), Alf Smith (3 G, 4 A), and Tommy Phillips (2 G, 5 A) has been the hottest in the league. 
• This year's freshman class has taken the league by storm. We might well have two rookies -- the Comets' Dick Irvin and the Vics' Newsy Lalonde -- finish in the league's top ten in scoring. For context, no rookie has ever finished among the top ten point producers.
• The Millionaires (1-2-1), the reigning Creighton Cup champions, are scuffling a bit despite fan-favorite winger Jimmy Gardner's league-leading five goals and last year's Forward MVP, Barney Stanley, creditably defending his trophy. No doubt the Millies would be higher up in the standings if not for the goonery of winger Billy Gilmour, whom the team acquired prior to the start of the season. In both of the Millies' losses to date, Gilmour has taken a boneheaded penalty late in the third period, and in both cases it resulted in a power play goal for the other team. Gilmour has quickly become the team's resident goat, and he'll undoubtedly be left unprotected in the expansion draft coming up after the season ends.

One Giant Headache

The boys and I switched back to D&D after completing Blackstone Fortress, looking to move our Shattered Realm campaign forward prior to taking another hiatus when we begin Cursed City later this month.

When last we left our intrepid Shattered Realm heroes, they had just liberated that eponymous realm from the grip of hostile invaders from the Empire of Letavia. The heroes then worked with the disparate communities of the realm to forge a new, unified country -- hey, it's no longer a shattered realm! -- and Nathaniel's sagacious druid Vabaran was elected as one of the fledgling nation's leaders.

We picked up the storyline a year later (in game time) with the arrival of a Letavian ambassador requesting that the heroes come to their capital city and meet face-to-face with their new queen, the eight-year-old daughter of the king whom the heroes had defeated and captured the previous year. Although suspicious, the heroes journeyed to distant Letavia and negotiated a non-aggression treaty with young Queen Aveta, but they remained steadfast in their refusal to return her imprisoned father because of their concerns about the empire's warlike culture and bloody history. Among other things, they had learned that much of Letavia's wealth came from a civilization of giants whom the Letavians had annhilated centuries earlier. 

Despite lingering doubts about the long-term prospects for peace with imperialistic Letavia, Nathaniel was pleased that he had led these efforts to broker a pact between the two nations. Of course, since I'm the DM and I love a good plot twist, it can't be that easy. 

During a brief coda to the aforementioned adventure, the heroes visited a cloud giant to whom Matthew's rogue Sisen owed a debt for inadvertently damaging her cloudtop palace (it's a long story, and, yes, magic beans were involved). While paying off the debt, the heroes happened to mention that Letavia was now in a weakened state and ruled by a child. This cloud giant, old enough to remember the harm inflicted upon her people by Letavia ages ago, immediately vowed to rally her fellow giants and embark upon a war of revenge against Letavia.

What now? Will the heroes help their former (and possibly future) enemies, even if it means risking the wrath of the giants and putting their own young nation at risk?