Crazy Gary

so here's a scan of a picture of a picture of Gary (crazy Gary from the liquor store) doing a handstand in 1975 on the yet unfinished 35th story of the Shell Centre, the first Highrise (possible bullshit) in Calgary.
He gets one point in the "less full of shit" column.

Antagonist

So far, the primary, and sometimes subtle, antagonizer of the House of Cards is a douche wizard named Lydian. but his character has been written so well that he's the sort of guy you love to hate.
there's a bio here if you want, but i'm just gonna do a recap of the encounters i remember:
(Alex, you're gonna help me flesh this out i hope; Ethuli'en didn't meet Lydian until the party had more than a couple of dealings i think.)

First saw him when he was in his tower (actually now that i think of it, when E. was crowbarred into the story, we were in Lydian's tower chamber right in the middle of something). He asked the party to go find his apprentice who was investigating a Kobold cult (the party had just fought a bunch of Kobolds so we figured it was related) and bring back any information they could find about the Kobold's reasons for attempting to summon the demon prince C'thai'ran. Also what happened to his apprentice, but that was secondary.

After some Kobolds and some Shad'ar Kai Witches who used Crispin's shadow to gain entry to the Kobold cave, we learned that Lydian might know a lot more about C'thai'ran than we thought...

So there was some betrayal involved, some artifact acquired, and a few other things that i can't recall, mainly because the ritual is most important.
Lydian was basically in tune with a bunch of devils from a Shadow Dimension and he was bringing a big 'un to our Plane. Sadly (awesomely) he succeeded.

So Lydian summoned C'thai'ran who set about laying waste to our dimension but was eventually defeated by Ethuli'en. (the DM had planned on a big fight with a reanimated stone statue of a king but he didn't plan on Ethuli'en rolling a natural 20)
So C'thai'ran was defeated and sucked us all into the Shadowfell along with Lydian.
this was the end of Part I of the campaign.

In Part II, we met Lydian again (after a bunch of other stuff that isn't related to him).
turns out he was a Vampire Wizard and is soul came back to the Shadowfell when he was plotting his return to our Plane. Lydian was murdered by Fenrak and Ethuli'en broke a piece off Lydian's own coffin and leaped through a wall of fire to drive it through his heart.
Lydian's Flesh turned to ash and his bones dissolved and all that was left was a crystal heart.
After escaping his crumbing tower, we heard a voice from the crystal.

To our delight, Lydian's soul is now trapped in a crystal heart that Ethuli'en keeps in his pants pocket. Currently he is suffering eternal torment.

We're looking forward to how he's involved with the rest of Part II.

Wozhunter: A History

So i totally forgot i wrote this and for what purpose, but i laughed a little when i read it so i figured i'd share it with the blogosphere. it's also fitting since my account runs out on saturday and i don't know when i'll be back.
and now, a brief history of Wozhunter:

Wozhunter grew up in southern Mulgore. by level 10, he had learned to live and love with the animals that inhabited the Golden Plains. He learned how to hunt and use a rifle, the whole while his pet Wolf by his side. While hunting Plainstriders in the Barrens, Wolf was killed in a horrible Dismiss Pet accident, and Wozhunter was crushed.

Grieving his loss near the Forgotten Pools, an unexpected thing happened: a turtle crawled out of the water and sat down next to Woz. Crunchbite, as he was named, became Wozhunter's lifelong friend, crunching and biting everything he saw.

Wozhunter and Crunchbite shared a lust for adventure and exploring which was further fuelled by the Kodo Woz learned to ride at level 40, and more importantly, by their friend Daymare. the three of them travelled Azeroth until they found the Dark Portal. Daymare had refused to travel to Outland with out Woz, and had even reached 61 before stepping through the Dark Portal. Their journey to 70 was interrupted many times to venture back to Azeroth; dicking around was their favourite past-time.

At 70, Woz and Day, along with Crunchbite, fought the Alliance on a regular basis; the defence of Alterac Valley was of utmost importance to the Horde. During one of their encounters, Woz and Day were trapped in one of the towers with the Alliance closing in. With no hope of escape, they fought until the end, racing down the stairs to meet the wave of attackers head on, their battlecry "EWAH" ringing in the air. And then a funny thing happened: they died.

Years passed.

And then...

Wozhunter opened his eyes. Standing before him was the Lich King himself, beconing him to do his bidding. Revenge fresh on his mind, Wozhunter stood up, and walked into the world again.

Resurrected as Death Knight, Wozhunter sought to redeem his actions and seek dickish revenge on the Alliance. Reunited with Daymare (you can't die if you're undead), the two mourned the passing of Crunchbite.

The two are currently exploring Northrend; the lust for adventure never quenched. Although, Eastern Kingdoms still hears "EWAH" echoing across the mountains from time to time...

Wozhunter "decends" a mountain in the Howling Fjord

Ding!

The party hit level 12 last week, so this week was the first time we got to use the lvl12 abilities. nothing special, i didn't even use mine.

Summary:
The House of Cards is on a sympathetic side quest to save slaves from ...being slaves, since they are, themselves, slaves to the owner of a magic shoppe in the dimension they got sucked into after part 1 of the campaign (i really should get a summary of part 1 up sometime).
slaves were freed at the end of the night after like 3 weeks of trying. 'bout time.

Highlights:

• Ethuli'en managed to successfully hit an invisible wizard while rolling with a -5. we were all very impressed.
• Actually, Ethuli'en was the primary source of aggravation for that little wizard, which was funny cos apparently there was some backstory between Jack and this guy. There was some pretty funny RP going back and forth to say the least.
• The visual image of Fenrak slam-dunking a halfling AirJordan style. many roffles.
• A Giant Deuregur charged Crispin but burned to death at his feet before he could get there. good ol' Crispin.
• There was actually a lot of drinking on mine and Alex's end. Good old booze.
  

Four Year Achievement

This is a post about Warcraft.
If you hate that shit or don't give one (a shit) just wait until my next update.

About four years ago when i started playing Warcraft, there were no expansions, no patched raids, nothing special. The level cap was 60 and the game was brand new to me. The one goal I had in that game was to get my guy (Onions, the warrior) to a high enough level to fight Ragnaros the Fire Lord. Big dude. Lives in a cave. And back then, it took 40 well organized people to kill him.

A brief history of Onions:
On my first server, Shattered Hand, Onions was a warrior. I had no idea how to play the game and I just tried to hit things really hard. He has been long since deleted, only reaching level 41. He had a buddy, Chives, played by Alex. Chives was left on Kil'Jaeden, mourning the loss of his friend.
Onions made a brief appearance on the Kil'Jaeden server as a level 14 hunter.
Currently, Onions is a level 66 Hunter on the Vashj server. Chives transfered.

After four long years... well, take a look:


Chives is the big guy next to Rag. We were both ecstatic.
It seems silly, but it actually meant a lot to us.

I'm looking forward to many more adventures.

Dungeons and Dragons and Drinking

Every Tuesday that we can, a few of us gather 'round a nice, cozy internets and play Dungeons and Dragons.
And drink heavily.
Iain is our DM (Dungeon Master as opposed to District Manager), and he has come up with a magnificent campaign for our characters to explore and destroy.
(Side note: Explore and Destroy is the best Warcraft guild name ever)
I want to sum up the story of the campaign so far, but it's been months since act 1 finished and my character was crowbarred into the story half way through. I shall email my good friend Alex and see if he can't blog it.
But at any rate, here's a summary of characters:

Fenrak Fjörgynn (Alex)
Dwarf Fighter.
Son of an accountant, equipped with his reading glasses and massive shield, Fenrak is a proven unstoppable force. Fenrak is the most level headed one of the group. Many wild and crazy ideas come from our collective madness, but Fen always knows what's really the best course of action. and it usually has something to do with his hammer and faces.

Ethuli'en Smith (Thom)
Half-Elf Paladin.
I'm gonna do a separate post about Ethuli'en since he's my character. Also, he's way too awesome for a summary. Although that's really true for all of the characters. Except Jack.

Crispin Grant (Michael)
Human Wizard
Alcoholism and magic are seldom a good idea to practice together, but Crispin deftly pulls it off every time most of the time. Recently exchanged his Magic Missile spell for something else due to the fact it hit party members instead of the intended target without fail. With a murdered wife and a plethora of emotional baggage, Crispin is definitely the most complex character.

Orbrinus (Derek)
Drow (Dark Elf) Rogue
Blade monster. We've seen him do 76 damage in a single (sort of) attack. Which is ridiculous because a hefty hit from Fenrak the Tank or Ethuli'en the Glass Cannon does an impressive 30-40 damage. Mostly quiet except for his punchlines. No one knows timing like Orb.

Larien (Courtney)
Elf Priest
The only female member of the party. Also our healer. Pulled our sorry wounded asses out of more than a few scrapes. Sarcasm is her primary offensive method.

Jack Nickles (Jacob)
Ex-Human, Shadar Hunter
Likes coffee and douchbaggery. Constantly undermines the group for the sole sake of attention. "Chaotic Neutral" apparently means he can do whatever the fuck he wants and it's considered funny. It's not.

I'm going to try and do a summary blog every Tuesday after the game. we'll see how long that lasts. Although i suppose i have to post the story summaries first to get the readers (yeah right) up to speed.

Zombie Apocalypse

I think it was the annual Zombie Walk in Calgary today.
this picture i took on the bus confirmed my suspicions.
also scared the shit outta me.