Lathany

- Sunday 30th I met Liz at Kew, seeing her in person for the first time in two years.
- Errant ran yesterday and it now occurs to me that we should really check back in with the dig site.
- I've been playing a lot of Phoenix Point but, wuss that I am, on a nice safe difficulty level.
- I'm now on Spotify and was delighted to find the Secret World soundtrack on it.

Today's window was a carriage.

Dom ran a one-off game today where we were five members of the jury in a breaking and entering trial. The man accused of doing so had previously owned the house until his death. And this was set in the real world. It was weird and interesting and we did give a relevant verdict.

A number of things took place this month that I never got around to writing about. So here are some summaries here.

Paladin and Laura - Dom's friend Paladin and his girlfriend Laura were over from France/Switzerland and came for dinner and board games one evening. This meant vegetarian curry and a couple of card games. Sadly, I don't remember names of the games. However, the one about different properties (ranked from 1 to 30) and money was rather good. (A quick google search has not helped me.)

Knights Errant - Dom's game continues to go well, although with rather dark themes. The British Isles are cut off from the rest of the world and invaded by demonic forces (there have been various jokes about calling it Extreme Brexit). We've gone in and tried to get to the bottom of what's going on. It's confusing. to say the least. There appear to be six powers (all Dukes), each controlling some Barons and fighting for the Kingship. So far we've caused damage to the Duke of Gloucester and are now bumbling around trying to learn more about magic.

My game - This really requires a name. I've thought of a few - all spoilery. Anyhow, the party is coming together and has been off on its first mission identifying where some willo-wisps come from. Also, learning a bit about their new magical powers.

Macbeth - Ryan's school put on a performance of Macbeth. In 70 minutes. It was watchable and I recognised the story underneath. Ryan was excellent as lead witch, the guy playing Macbeth was good and the rest were rather variable.

Anniversary - Dom and I celebrated our (24th) wedding anniversary at the start of the month. This was in the form of a home-cooked family meal (steak).

Pride - Bea attended Pride in London. It seemed to go OK, although I think she found it a bit overwhelming.

Last week I finished Too Like the Lightning: Book One of Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer. It was the author's debut novel so, needless to say I hadn't come across her before. It had received a Hugo nomination and various good reviews so I was expecting to enjoy it. Instead I was disappointed as I felt it had a number of flaws. Firstly - it introduced too many characters too quickly. I was barely keeping track of who was who, let alone finding the time to care about them. Which brings me to point two - I didn't really care about any of them by the end. Granted, the protagonist is supposed to be a git (as they tell you, themselves, repeatedly) but I felt I should have cared about someone, somewhere in it. Third up - the book turns out to be about the twenty - or maybe fifty - most important people in the world. However, it explains that they are important by constantly telling you this rather than showing them as important. And onto the fourth (mild spoilers, but I'll try not to be too specific) - the whole brothel scene. This felt very much something the author was desperate to include, but left me feeling that it ruined the careful construction of politics up to that point (although, perhaps that was intended). Finally(!) the book doesn't conclude, it stops. Yes, I know it's the first of a series, but I feel it should have been somewhat self-contained and answered at least one of the threads it began in its first couple of chapters.

Having piled on the criticism, it did have some good points. There are some nice ideas in there and one or two characters that might have promise if they weren't struggling for stage space against forty-eight or so others. I remember someone once telling me that the rule of thumb with authors is that once they've written a million words, they'll be ready to write their best work. I feel this author is still making her way through her million words and maybe I should come back in a few books' time.

Last weekend, Alistair started the rerun of The Magnificent Sven which he originally ran last year in Derbyshire. The players this time are me, Dom, Martin and Leon. I haven't seen Leon for ages - possibly twenty years - and it was really good to meet him again. I've been asked not to say anything about the game until we're done (another two sessions, probably) - but it's going well so far (and it's Warhammer, although not 40K).

This week, I'm on leave. So this means glitter tattoos. I've done two: moon and stars.



And also a dreamcatcher.



Leave also means a fair amount of FFXIV, a bit of housework, a certain amount of washing, an outing planned with Bea tomorrow and some new cooking. Or, to put it another way, I made gnocchi for the first time yesterday. I can't say that they had any artistic merit (I really couldn't get them to look like anything other than blobs, let alone like their picture), but they did taste nice - so I may try again.

A long time ago, when I was about three months pregnant, work sent me to Vancouver. My chosen reading material for the plane were the two Bridget Jones books. Now, quite a long time later, I finally read Mad About the Boy (a birthday present). I enjoyed it, I've always liked Bridget, particularly her ability to bounce back from things and I identify with the way she feels constantly out-of-step with fashions and people. I enjoyed the story, the progression of the other characters (although I was rather sorry that both Tom and Jude had lost their other halves) and some of the story elements such as the nits. I felt that the ending was a bit too much like the ending to the previous book, but I felt better that than many other options.

A not very long time ago in a room quite close, the Star Wars campaign ended. We defeated the Emperor and his forces and had a Happy Ever After of a sort. I preferred the previous campaign, I think, but it was still good. I haven't got myself together for a new campaign yet, but I might manage it soon as all my campaigns are now over.

Krys's birthday event was in London because she was. We (Krys, Chris V, Andie, Martin, Frances and me) went to see The Play That Goes Wrong. I'm always a little apprehensive about comedy - but it turned out to be very good. It helped that the humour was conveyed through actions, script, out-of-character and scenery and in varying forms from the obvious to the more subtle. I enjoyed it and would go to other productions by the same company.

Then last weekend we (Gemma, Toby, Martin, Dom, Bea and I) started Charterstone which is a legacy board game I got for my birthday. This means it's a game where you spend the first sessions (twelve in this case) establishing things for future games (plus there seems to be some plot) - so you name characters and write on the board and everything. It turned out to be fun and we have ten more sessions to go.

I'm enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend by not doing very much - recommended.

I've read three new books over the last few weeks, so time for some reviews.

Both The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers were part of a three book set (the other one being Eagle of the Ninth). They are both set in Roman Britain and feature descendants of the hero of the Eagle of the Ninth. However, they are rather different.

The Silver Branch is set in the middle of the Roman occupation. It is when Carausius claims to be Emperor of Britain and the two protagonists are caught within the differing power struggles that occur on his death. It is an interesting story of conflict and, to some extent, betrayal of which the highlight is probably the siege towards the end. It also ties in quite closely with Eagle of the Ninth as the two characters you follow are both descendants of the hero of that earlier book. It is also similar in other ways as it is about following two close friends.

The Lantern Bearers comes at the end of the occupation and is chiefly concerned by what happens when the Romans leave and the Saxons take over. It is in a different style to the previous two as the main character is - or, perhaps, becomes - much more of a loner. It focused more on themes of loyalty and belonging and seems a much sadder book overall, for all that it has a decent ending for the hero (again a descendant of the hero of Eagle of the Ninth). Having read about it afterwards, I gather it is also supposed to be the first of the King Arthur books, but I wasn't particularly aware of that as I read it.

Overall, I enjoyed all three Sutcliff books in rather different ways.

The last new book that I read recently was The New Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko; namely the fifth in the Night Watch series. I enjoyed it, I found it very readable and thought it was a decent addition to the series.

I have also been in one roleplaying game since the start of the year. Martin ran a Dwarf Fortress game for Chris V's 40th birthday. It was an enjoyable game of dwarven politics, exploration and fighting. It also involved a very interesting use of a map. I'm hoping that there will be more.

Dom's 100 Secrets campaign ended last night, with champagne brought by Andie. It started on Saturday 17th August 2013, so has been going for slightly more than four years. There were three seasons in total and five players - although not always the same people at the same time. The first season was myself, Andie, Sarah and Jon. The second swapped Sarah for Krys. The first half of the third included all five players and then Jon retired and we were back to four for the last half-season. It was a very good fantasy game which was set after Monde and before the original Swordsmaster game in the same universe. Turns out that my character was a teacher of Arilzean the Cold, which is rather cool. In terms of our actual party; Rose became queen, Loy was acknowledged and now heads both family and the Guild of Cartographers, Carlos and Aeryn both now run cities on the eastern continent. The characters all did pretty well for themselves. It's also the first campaign that Dom has run to its original planned length for over a decade - so that's pretty good too.

I've watched the first tv season of American Gods and that prompted me to read the book. I think I prefer the book overall (not least because it ends and includes the follow-up novella Monarch of the Glen). It's a lovely piece of work with decent characters and a nice scattering of gods. Also, Shadow makes a sympathetic protagonist, for all that he starts off in prison for a crime he did commit.

Finally, last week was my second first week of my new job. I'm going to cautiously say it's going OK, but I'm finding these early days very tiring.

A fortnight ago, 100 Secrets ran. We had just finished playing with the time travel so were effectively back at the start of the previous session. We travelled back to the capital to collect Rat and then had another go at figuring out the temples and what to do with them.

This time around we found a new temple, complete with guard mole with a rune tablet in its head. We gained Faradine Coldass as a companion, the first of the previous party. We also located and conversed with the nomads, finally speaking with the Master of Guides on the mountain. This encounter was interrupted by a Ryne assassin who we killed. We discovered that the temples were stores to fight a powerful being from another world which was some distance away trapped in a mind maze. If it ever escaped again, the temples would be needed.

Finally, we were helped by the nomads to visit the inside of the mountain and speak with the gods. We eventually succeeded, although not until after we had explored, seen the staircase and the gods' puppet-workings. We made contact by prayer. The gods agreed to give us the power to shut down the temples so they could not be used for a power-grab.

The last Lockwood & Co book, Lockwood & Co: The Empty Grave has finally come out. It's the fifth of the series and marks the end. I liked it and felt it wrapped up several plot lines, but there are still unanswered questions. Also, I didn't like it quite as much as the previous books.

I also ran some Lockwood & Co. The players' agency - Dalton and Clay - took on two cases, the ghost of a recent murder victim and then a dark spectre (formerly a newsreader). The background works well on a case by case basis.

Last Saturday, in 100 Secrets we waged war on the Half Lords. We teamed up with the Count of Narthal and his consort Tabitha after discovering we had a common enemy. We divided into three teams - the Count and consort (Team A), the usual duo of Lady Rose (Andie) and Loy (Sarah) (Team B), plus the Tiger God (Krys) and the non-combatants - Neddra (myself) and Carlos (Jon) (Team C). We headed up the staircase and began. We managed to take out five Half Lords:

• Team A think they killed one. Probably. We think there was fire magic involved.
• One was assassinated by Team B through a combination of displacement and stabbiness.
• Team C took one out, despite its Shadow Knight entourage, through wind magic, rearranging the walls and general clawing.
• Team C took another one out despite the pitch darkness and the knight through more clawing.
• The last, the leader, was taken out mainly by Rose with a bit of consort and Tiger God assistance.

We celebrated. We also learned what we could from their library of portals about the Midnight Roads (and hopefully, in future, of runes).

Afterwards we went back to Sarenland and discovered that the Half Lord allies had fled other than Owlsroost. He was ill and, despite an attempt to save him, he died. Whether he might have become another Cloam, we do not know. Aeryn took a message to Ein in Aeros to inform her. Also, we discovered the portal to a lonely hut and captured the Half-Knight there. It seems to be the end of the Half Lords plot.

On the trains, I read Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper. This is a tale of the European colonisation of Massachusetts from the Indians' point of view. Unfortunately, whilst well-written, there isn't really anything else going on. I feel I want to repeat my comments about Bujold's book of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen - the author could have written a story using the colonisation as a background. She didn't and I'm disappointed.

Dom and I watched Phoenix on Friday night, our latest Lovefilms offering. It's a German film set at the end of World War II about a cabaret singer who has survived the concentration camps, but her face has been ruined and she requires reconstruction surgery. She stands to inherit the family's wealth as all the others were killed. It is fairly short (about an hour and a half), but tells the simple - but very watchable - story in that time. Gently recommended.

Monday at the Con was outing day. Various options were mooted, but in the end seven of us headed for Poole's Cavern. We paid (technically, Alistair paid and we will pay him back) and then headed in.

This first shot is one of my better ones giving a view of the open spaces inside.



And this gives a closer view of a rock... and a cuddly bunny. It being the Easter holiday, there was a bunny spotting game for the kids - and for us. ao_lai correctly counted 15 in total.



We then had some lunch (mine was a Derbyshire oatcake) before returning to the site to wander through the Grinlow Woods (yes, really called that) to Solomon's Temple.



Afterwards we visited Arbor Low Stone Circle and Gib Hill Barrow on the way home.



We went out to dinner that evening in Cromford. We picked a pub and it turned out to be rather good. I had mushroom risotto and vanilla parfait.

Tuesday I ran Otters Court. This was not a game about a court of otters, but instead the name of a house as my working title, Floating Minds, would have given away some of the plot. It started with a very English family row in a large estate and ended in spook central with a human mind in the internet. The party (shadowjon, chrisvenus and Alistair) were excellent at tackling the difficult family moments, sorting out the body-swapped servants and then coordinating with the spooks. I enjoyed it a lot, although it turned out to be more sequel-hooky than expected.

Tuesday evening was bateleur's tortillas and cake. I think it was also one of the nights when I got to try out the Widow's Walk expansion to Betrayal at the House on the Hill. We played it twice - the first time, Traitor Ox Bellows wanted to be Pope, but we stopped him. The second time my little girl aged the party to death. She was not loved.