100 Secrets, Star Wars and several books

After a very mild end of 2015 and a fairly mild January, things have changed. It's too cold for Reeve; and for me as well. Reeve gets around this by staying in, I wish I could.

Work has become quieter as we submitted on schedule (mid-February) and we are now waiting for the Government to respond/publish. I have some visits lined up for the Spring that include Sandhurst.

I've read several new books... well, new to me.

• Insurgent (Divergent 2) by Veronica Roth - A direct follow-on from the first book continuing with one narrator (Tris). Again, this was interesting and I think more varied than the first one. It was a little too secret-heavy, but eventually got past that.
• Allegiant (Divergent 3) by Veronica Roth - It's difficult to say much about the third book in a trilogy without having massive spoilers but... I thought it was the best of the three and answered some rather nice "world" questions. Also, this book has a second narrator in it, which mostly works.
• Magyk by Angie Sage - This often gets compared to Harry Potter, but I think the main thing they have in common is fantasy and children. I believe it's aimed at a slightly younger age group as well. I liked it, found it readable and quite fun and will be looking out for the others. It's the first of a series of seven.
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - This is one of Bea's exam texts. I always planned to read it, but never got around to it before. I knew the story of course, but liked the original a lot.

The campaigns I am playing in have advanced:

• Star Wars - We [Peacekeepers] tried to stabilise our factory environment (aka how to take over the planet a bit at a time). This meant an attack on White Bolt before they attacked us. We stormed a former luxury hotel (with a penthouse swimming pool) and nearly got half the party killed when a certain NPC mistook a thermal detonator for a grenade. Fortunately, it was Ray's Session of Glory and some excellent precognition and shooting saved us from death by stupidity. We all survived, discovered that Bacta (the medicine) works really well on thermal detonator damage and continued with Zoop! (our warzone identifier).
• 100 Secrets - We continued north to God's Passage, which is the name of a bridge over the Mezzochaine. There Aryn was convinced there was a settlement and spent a long time looking for it. Eventually we camped there and she went off in the night with a creature to see it. It seemed to be a different country with plants and animals and stones breaking, but no people any longer. She was unable to describe how to reach it - sort of like a dream we couldn't have. We then went on to Pharenis. This had once been a large, but modern, city but had been broken in a huge wave of water coming in that had been described as "The Tide with Three Mouths". It seemed that this had been summoned by the Priests (women with braided, often green, hair) to clear out some sort of corruption (maybe the supplicants/worms?). The Knights of Pharenis were still in existence, but not obviously in the remains of the city (although their symbol was). We left Pharenis (promising to help with trade and rebuilding) and then travelled to the abandoned NE area and met a Knight. He told us that the Gods had given the most powerful priest in each of three kingdoms (Pharenis, the area to the NE and, I think, the South) three collars. We thought that the Knights' symbol (three rings) related to these three collars. These collars were too powerful and causing problems (and all lost). In the NE (which had been attacked and abandoned amid wild rumours) we discovered animals that changed through forms including human. They rested during the day (some in disused farm barns) and then hunted us at night. Fortunately we escaped them and their ambush (at the exit of their former kingdom). Finally, we established trade between home and Pharenis to help with rebuilding. Whilst there, we were summoned to the capital. Carlos was told by the queen to report directly to her on the worm people and their powers.

Finally, I just heard lots of angry meowing. Looking out down the hall I saw Reeve trying to attack a ginger and white shape (aka The Invisible Thing) through the wavy glass in the front door. Eventually The Invisible Thing fled from the outside doorstep and Reeve was triumphant.