Movie Review! "Spider-Man: Homecoming!"

Spider-Man: Homecoming!

They got it right this time!

As someone who has been growing up and living with superhero movies and has seen five, yes, FIVE other web-slinger movies come and go, this was the best one by far.

Yes, Spidey.  Yes, it was.

Now before I get into why I loved this movie, I want to admit something to you.  I don't read comic books.

"But Shane, how can you be taken seriously as a critic of the movie if-"

Look, voice-in-my-head-that-I-personify-on-my-blog-for-comedic-effect, I may not have the most comprehensive knowledge base on Spidey and his history and incarnations, but I grew up with "The Amazing Spider-Man" cartoon and watched FIVE other Spidey films peter out and vanish so listen, punk,

I will sic Tim Burton's Batman, Michael Keaton, on you!
(Wow, Batman & Vulture.  Nice resume, Dude.)

With that out of the way, to my review!  I instantly knew I would like this movie when a version of the classic Spider-Man theme was used over the Marvel Cinematic Universe Opener, so whoever made that decision: Kudos.  We start with scenes of the aftermath of "The Avengers" movie, with the Chitauri Leviathan corpse lying in a wrecked New York City building.  A 'clean-up' crew is salvaging all the materials left over from the battle when some government types show up to tell Adrian Toomes, the owner/boss/foreman, that he's out of a job and a lot of money, which he was planning to make back along with a profit for cleaning up the battlefield.  We then learn that Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, is behind the Department of Damage Control, the people who took Toomes' contract.  Then comes "A film by Peter Parker," the Smartphone movies of Peter's "Captain America: Civil War" involvement was cute and it helped us drop into Peter's world as the phone was noticed by Tony Stark, changing the perspective from the phone to Peter.  And before I move on, so glad to see Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan again.  Also, no Uncle Ben dying or pro-wrestling silliness.  So yay, no origin story!  We've seen it twice already...

Oh, I almost forgot.

It's only been out for a week so...

Life seems to have gone on for Peter, as we're told eight months have passed since Peter stole Cap's shield and fought in the Avengers' Civil War.  We see Peter impatiently waiting to ditch school so he can don his suit and swing around Queens to help old ladies and stop bike thieves, and then sneaking home before Aunt May finds out.  He ditches his school bag by sticking it to a dumpster beforehand, and when he returns after making a phone call to Happy Hogan (his Stark/Avengers point man) to retrieve it, it's gone.  This leads the wall-crawler to come across some thugs wearing Avengers costume masks robbing an ATM with some decidedly alien tech, which starts our main story arc: Spidey wants to find who's selling these weapons to protect his hometown of Queens.

The movie continues with Peter's life as a teenager burdened by crazy powers, a desire to do more, and Spanish quizzes.  And that is what makes this Spider-Man movie one of, if not the, best of them all.  The other movies tried to cast young men and shoehorn them into looking, acting, and living like high school seniors, then quickly pushed them into the adult realm.  Marvel's team, led by Kevin Feige, cast Tom Holland perfectly as Peter.  An actual teenager is much more believable as Peter Parker, who's wise cracks and adolescent charm is what makes Spidey a fan favorite.  So watching this version of the Webbed Wonder crack wise about each 'Avenger as he fights the masked thugs is perfect.

His fight with the masked men isn't all laughs though, as they pull out insanely powerful weapons seemingly made from the salvage Toomes managed to keep.  This ends up blowing a hole in the side of the bank housing the ATM, but also blows up a deli Parker frequents that happened to be across the street.  Parker races over to rescue the owner and his cat and leaves Parker wondering where their weapons came from.

Later, Parker starts to find out.  With Spider-Man being hailed a hero on the local news, (and because his best friend Ned found out it's Peter when he caught Peter sneaking back home that night), Ned blurts out that Peter knows Spider-Man when they overhear Liz has a crush on Spidey in an attempt to help his friend.  This prompts Flash, a schoolmate, and bully, to tease Peter about inviting Spider-Man to Liz's party.

Peter begrudgingly goes (with Ned in tow) for the chance to be around Liz, planning to swoop in as Spider-Man to impress her and claim the two selves are friends, but just as he's about to do this, a strange blue explosion is seen and heard, and Spider-Man runs to investigate.  What follows is an amateur attempt to foil a weapons sale, but not without some heroics ("If you want to shoot someone, shoot me,") and some hijinks that result in several shots fired by the weapons merchants, Peter being dragged through the suburbs of Manhattan, and the friendly, neighborhood, Spider-Man crashing through several backyards.  This lands Peter a lead on the weapons when he finds a piece of their salvaged tech that some thugs come looking for.  And a montage later, we know they're somewhere in Maryland.

This leads to Peter going with his High School's Academic Decathlon team to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national tournament in order to track down Toomes' associates, only to miss the competition after his attempt ends him a night's stay in Stark's high-security Damage Control Bunker with some tech Toomes tried to steal with his flying Vulture suit.  (He manages to unlock some crazy extras from his suits code in the process).  He then has to save his friends when some of the tech Parker found while investigating the weapons goes off while they are atop the Washington Monument.  Spider-Man is considered a hero and Peter blends back into his high school life in preparation for the third act.

Switch gears briefly, I want to talk about Michael Keaton's performance and role in this movie.  He plays Adrian Toomes, and the film shows pieces of the life of Toomes, the blue collar salvage laborer turned hi-tech weapon seller to whoever has the cash.  We see and hear what Spider-Man's interference is doing to Toomes' low-profile, high-profit weapon business.  We are shown that he resents what Tony Stark did to his salvage business at the beginning of the movie, and justifies his actions in the last act of the movie by pointing out to Peter that Stark was a weapon monger once, as well, and is the only reason he has the wealth that he does.  But not before the best bombshell of the film.  Now I'm saving that for a moment to talk about Keaton's performance because it's part of (if not entirely) why the movie is so good.  We see a man provide for his family using the one thing he and his crew of salvage experts know how to do: turn broken stuff into profit.  And we understand his dilemma.  Unlike other Spider-Man movies which have given us villains that just seem to want to kill Peter for fun, Toomes only wants him to leave what he's doing alone so he can keep his family taken care of.  This conflicts with what Peter sees this business doing: giving anyone with cash incredibly dangerous weapons that threaten people in his hometown.  Toomes/Vulture is not just some random villain with some good tech.  He's a person with real motivations we can relate to, even if the means he uses are questionable.

In the third act, Peter loses the advanced Spidey-suit Tony Stark made him for Civil War after an attempt to catch Toomes' Vulture selling more weapons nearly turns the Staten Island Ferry into scrap, not to mention dozens of cars lost in the Hudson River and almost killing the Ferries passangers.  Iron Man had to come and save it, and Stark tells Parker to hand over the suit.  Peter's plea to keep it, claiming that he is "nothing without the suit," earns the rebuke, "If you're nothing without the suit then you shouldn't have it."  This is an interesting response for Stark.  In earlier Iron Man films, Tony's self worth becomes tied directly to what he can do in the suit.  It's not until the third film when Tony realizes he, not the suit, is what makes the difference.

 

Nice Video, MCUExchange!

Tony needs Peter to learn the same lesson he had to learn.  Bereft of the super suit, he goes back to being a teenager, no longer expecting to be swooped up to help the Avengers at a moment's notice.  Now free of the "great power" and the "great responsibility" of the hi-tech suit, Peter opens up to people he's neglected to engage with earlier in the film, like his crush Liz, and ends up asking her to the Homecoming Dance.  He asks his Aunt for help preparing, and then she drops him off at his date's house for the big night.  Knocking on the door with a corsage in hand, Peter is greeted by Adrian Toomes who has no idea who Peter is, but Peter knows.  He turns out to be Liz's father, and the anxiety and tension in the scenes that follow are intense.

We watch Peter, struck dumb and anxious as a rat in a trap, awkwardly disregard the girl he's been head over heels for the whole movie.  And the best part is that we know.  We know Peter knows.  And we both fear he will be discovered.  So what happens?  After Adrian innocently insists on driving his daughter and her date to the dance, Liz gives up that Peter 'knows' Spider-Man just as Adrian starts to realize Peter sounds like someone he's met.  (By the way, one of the few times I've seen a hero get recognized by his voice when he's normally masked.  Superman, those glasses fool no one but your comic-book neighbors.)  Arriving at the school, Adrian tells his daughter to head inside so he and Peter can have the 'daddy-date' talk, and as soon as she's inside, we see Adrian grab a handgun, and without even pointing it at Peter or revealing it to him, outs that he knows Peter's secret and offers him a chance to move on.  "Forget everything, or I'll kill you and everyone you love," is the gist of it.  Having no choice but to agree, Peter leaves the car and goes into the dance.

And immediately ditches his date after telling her she doesn't deserve this, grabs his old suit from under a WALL of lockers he uses as a stash (he just lifts the lockers off their foundation) and hijacks Flash's ride (his father's BMW)  With the help of Ned, Peter arrives to confront Toomes at an old warehouse, which the Vulture drops on Peter's head.  Trapped under the rubble that is crushing him, Peter digs deep, inspired by Tony Stark's message regarding his suit, and manages to intercept the Vulture just as he begins hijacking one of Stark's Avenger planes loaded with all kinds of tech Toomes intends to steal and sell (including at least one suit and several mini-ARC reactors).  Sabotaging the 'vacuum seal' the Vulture's wingsuit somehow formed over the place Toomes infiltrated the plane, Peter has to fight off the Vulture and try to keep the plane from crashing into Cooney Island (he BARELY made it to the beach) where a damaged Vulture beats Peter almost to death, only to be saved by the web-slinger when his wingsuit explodes.  Peter rounds up all the tech, and webs Toomes to a crate of loot, with a message saying, "Sorry about the plane."

The rest of the film is icing on the cake.  Stark invites Peter to join the Avengers (and offers him a SWEET Spidey-themed power armor suit) only to be turned down by the young man, who's figured out that he's not ready to be an Avenger.  We also see that Tony, despite playing off his invite as a test for the young hero, actually expected him to join, and Pepper Potts, played by the gorgeous Gweneth Paltrow, comes out wondering where he is!  With a room full of reports behind the door, Hogan gives Tony an engagement ring he's had in his pocket "since 2008."  (The first movie of the MCU was "Iron Man (2008)," suggesting Hogan has been expecting Tony to propose to Pepper the entire time).  Hogan leaves to drive Peter home as Potts and Stark walk into the news conference all smiles.  At home, Peter finds the Civil War suit on his bed, and as Peter relishes putting it back on, we see Aunt May behind him scream "What the f-" as credits roll to the Ramones.

Phew.  I didn't expect to write a whole plot overview, but it's what came out.  The movie was great, and it stayed focused on what it needed to: Peter's attempts to balance his high school/civilian life with having super-powers and a desire to be more, and Vulture's humanity clashing with his desire to take care of his family but also get back at Tony Stark.  And as the credit extra scene rolls, we see that Toomes, given the chance in prison by another inmate to out Parker and cause him endless trouble, says instead, "If I knew who Spider-Man was, he'd be dead."  Toomes' humanity survived, meaning he remains an interesting and worthwhile villain in a genre where villains are like the popcorn you eat at the theater.  You enjoy it for one movie and when it's gone, you don't think about it.  But Toomes remains memorable because we get to understand him as a person, not just as a cinematic punching bag for our webbed hero.

Thanks for reading my 'review' of Spider-Man homecoming.  If you enjoyed reading this, please subscribe to my blog or my Youtube Channel, and feel free to follow me on other social media platforms.  I'm glad I got to write this for you, and look forward to the next awesome movie I see and get inspired to review.

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NerdCon: Nerfighteria! Recapping and Musing

Good Morning Nerdfighters!

A Recap of my Weekend in Boston at NerdCon: Nerdfighteria!

 The Convention Schedule Cover

Not long ago on February 25th & 26th, at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, was NerdCon.  Only the second convention I have ever been to (the first was ConnectiCon last July) and it was AWESOME!

I became a Nerdfighter sometime between 2013 and 2014.  It's hazy because I didn't realize what I had stumbled into until at least 2014, but I know I was watching Vlogbrothers for at least a year before that.  And to be honest, saying I only became a Nerdfighter then is a lie, because those of us who relate to the Nerdfighter community have always been Nerdfighters.  We just didn't know it, yet.  I knew I found something I liked when I first saw a video of John discussing literature in one of my Education classes when I was studying to become a teacher after I had already graduated from Rutgers University.  I made a point to remember the channel and well, the rest, as they say, is history.

I'm very glad I went to NerdCon.  I wasn't sure what to expect and the fact that there was so much going on that I couldn't choose which panel or activity to go to was both awesome and frustrating because I wanted to do ALL THE THINGS!  That said, what I went to I enjoyed, even the somewhat awkward moment when I realized I was in the wrong room (which I had entered a half an hour earlier) and the right room was full.  It freed me up to do something else I wanted to do.  

I got to attend a few panels I enjoyed.  The first was a Q&A with Laci Green & Dr. Lindsey Doe (moderated by Matthew Gaydos) about their sexual education channels.  The audience had many questions to ask in the 45 minutes we had with Laci and Lindsey, ranging from how to reduce stigma about getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases/infections (STDs/STIs) to what healthy sexual discrimination looks like (how a person chooses a partner) to how they deal with negative people online.  They put time into each response, even when that response was to refer to a lengthy video either of them had already done.  At first, I felt bad for the one asking to receive an answer that meant they had to look elsewhere, but since the two have covered so many topics (and let's face it, we all had YouTube pocket edition with us) it was the best way to answer some questions.  Afterward, they spent a few minutes talking to anyone who stayed at the end of the panel.

Having a Job While YouTubing Panel

Another panel I attended was about Having a Job While YouTubing, featuring Craig "Wheezy Waiter" Benzine as moderator with Dr. Aaron Carroll, Ahsante Bean, Kristina Horner, Emma Mills, and Nathan Zed.  Here we had an interesting range of experiences balancing careers and YouTube.  Dr. Carroll has the privilege of having a career in medical research where what he does for his career relates directly to his work on Healthcare Triage, meaning he has almost no conflict.  Others on the panel work for corporations like Microsoft and PBS Digital Studios, and only got started in their careers after creating a portfolio on YouTube.  Their chief bit of advice was to make time.  Even if just a little, and to avoid thinking you need to produce an entire video in one go.  They suggested taking some time to edit, to write scripts, research, and record on different days when short on time.

My Prompts for NERDOWRITO!

One of the events I went to was NERDOWRITO, an idea created by Kristina Horner.  A writer herself and a participant of NaNoWriMo, she wanted to have a super condensed writing session with all willing attendees of the convention, so I made sure to be there.  The exercise was to write as much of a story as possible in 45 minutes.  To get us started, we were given three cards with the parts of a prompt on it: a character; an adjective; and something to be said in dialogue.  Mine are pictured above.  Those in attendance then had the rest of the session (about 45 minutes) to write.  I will be sharing my polished short story on the blog in the future.  I had a good time writing my story.

The other event I attended was a show featuring John and Hank Green, the two vloggers who started Nerdfighteria and Vlogbrothers.  It was a recording for their Podcast "Dear Hank and John."  We were all handed name tags with "Ryan" written on them, the best name in the world (accord to John and Hank).  It was a humorous hour of dubious advice, news from Mars, and plenty of inside jokes.

The rest of the Con I spent in the expo hall looking at different vendors that were there, including DFTBA Records, and few different causes who came to spread awareness such as NaNoWriMo, This Star Won't Go Out, To Write Love On Her Arms, and Partners In Health.  There was also The Giant Pizza to Decrease World Suck.  If you donated to any of the charities present at the convention, you would get a 'topping' to put onto the Pizza.  On the same display, were several places where con-goers could write and draw things related to Nerdfighteria, DFTBA, bridges, and why the day was awesome.

While I don't expect this convention to happen again, due to it being an anniversary celebration, I had a great time.  I hope anyone who went had a great time as well.  I'll leave you with a video I made from a humorous portion of the convention.  As they say, Don't Forget To Be Awesome!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Last Saturday I saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in theaters and loved it.  Possibly one of the best movies in the series.  Everyone who's seen A New Hope knows how this story ends but this movie is very much about the journey and not the destination, which is literally moments before the beginning of Episode 4.  Here is a quick list of things I liked about the movie.  Oh, and...

Just in case

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• The cast of characters!  For a movie that would work as the prologue of a George R.R. Martin novel but where you never see most of these characters again, the cast is great.  
• Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe is great as a supporting character and was probably my favorite of the bunch.  
• .Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso is a wonderful, strong character and I was rooting for her to win at several stages of the journey.  
• Alan Tudyk of Firefly fame was perfect as K2SO, the sarcastic reprogrammed Imperial Intelligence Droid, and many of the movies best beats of humor came from him.  
• Jiang Wen redeemed his Star Wars Celebration gaff by being a lovable jerk most of the movie as Baze Malbus, Imwe's 'guardian' with a big blaster repeater cannon (I love men with big guns).  
• Diego Luna plays the anti-hero Cassian Andor, who comes across cold at first and makes a Solo style turn to true good guy (and gets the girl... for like five minutes).  
• Ben Mendelsohn plays a great villain as Director Orsen Krennic, the man behind the Death Star's completion.  You learn how much of a bad apple he is right away.
• Mads Mikkelsen plays a likable character for once as Jyn's dad, Galen Erso, the brains behind the Death Star and the reason Star Wars fans can finally stop arguing about why the Death Star was designed with such a huge and obvious flaw!  REVENGE!
• Darth Vader.  He's in the movie for all of five minutes and almost steals the show.  Also, One Sith Lord vs any number of rebel soldiers is not a fair fight, just saying.  It's good to see Papa Skywalker actually being the badass we know he is for once.
• Set course for Nostalgia, Warp Factor 10 (I know, wrong sci-fi universe.  Moving on)  So many little gems!  R2-D2 and C-3PO make cameos at Yavin Base.  There are several Clone Wars nods including Saw Gerrera (played by Forrest Whitaker).  Carrie Fisher (May the Force be with her and her mother) even gets an appearance as Young Leia.  So good.  I don't care if they're cheap ways to win over fans, I love nostalgia.
• This was a War Movie.  Saving Private Ryan and Star Wars: A New Hope had a baby named Rogue One.  And there are no Jedi to save the day, no Force Users making lucky shots when time expires, and no cocky freighter captains to shot down pursuing TIE fighters.  Just normal soldiers fighting and dying.
• The Death Star is a nuke.  Yes, it can blow up planets at full power, but dialed down to 1 and it's a tactical nuclear weapon, to be brief.  Need a city wasted, not a whole planet?  Boom!  We saw in Return of the Jedi that it can be dialed back to take out capital ships, but seeing that unleashed on a planet?  Damn.

And some things I wasn't sold on.

• Watching the trailers again after seeing the movie, and it's clear someone made a different movie somewhere between April and December.  Several moments that seemed important or exciting from trailers were either cut or changed.  I'd love to see the original final cut of this movie before someone decided to reshoot most of it.  It was probably darker and grittier, and if it involved more Vader, I want it more.  Maybe the Blu-Ray special features?
• The beginning is choppy and jumpy.  They're trying to set up who Jyn is and get her to the Rebels, but it was not smooth.  Movie gets better past the 15 minute mark.
• One and Done.  All the main cast are not coming back.  Why?  Well, firstly SPOILERS!
  
  SPOILERS!
  
  SPOILERS!
  
  Okay, you've been warned.  They all die.  Yup.  No Rogue Two.  No popping up in other Anthology movies.  They died heroes.  The Force is with them, and they are with the Force.  So bummer, but hey, it was fun.

If you haven't seen it yet and got this far, well, sorry to spoil it for you, but go see it anyway!  It was very good and I loved watching it.  Definitely worthy of the Star Wars sage.  A- in my book.

The Mystery of the Snakes and the Upside-Down Ziggurat: Part 1

Or, The Case of the Walking Corpse

A Short Story from my D&D Bachelor Party, in Parts

Daggers and Stew Tavern

It was a normal day at Daggers and Stew, a quirky tavern on the outskirts of Feyguard.  As a cold wind blew down from the north, the customers within were kept warm while enjoying food and drink.  A gold-scaled Dragonborn sat at one table eating the lion share of a steaming meat pie, flanked by two halfling lasses, one a cleric dressed in a sailor's coat, the other a wizard in a cozy green robe.  Elsewhere a tiefling bearing the habit of an Oghman lore-hunter sat enjoying a warm cup of tea, her tail gently leafing through the pages of a new book.  Across the room, a dwarven battle mistress sat alongside a shady fellow, leaning back in his chair while gently relieving a neighboring patron of a few coppers.  Meanwhile, a half-elf ascetic begged for coin outside the door dressed in a robe and loincloth.  It was a normal day until Cheldic walked in.

The Ascetic saw him first, wandering down the path toward the tavern with a large sack on his back, though he thought little of Cheldic.  Rolen was more concerned with his ritual begging, despite being quite capable of paying for the bowl of rice he was longing for.  After all, self-deprivation was the path to enlightenment.  He simply watched Cheldic waddle past, struggling under his load.

The door of Daggers and Stew opened with a creak, drawing the attention of everyone within.  Shiff the Dragonborn Avenger, Daisy the Green (Wizard), Anagik the Storm Herald, Temerity the teifling lore-hunter, Vara the Strong, and Jondar the Swift all turned to see the human take a deep breath, stand up straight, reveal the numerous wounds and blood stains, open his mouth, and fall flat on his face, spilling the contents of his sack across the the tavern's floor.

Like buzzards descending upon a discarded carcass, everyone in the tavern rushed to scattered items on the floor.  The Dragonborn dragged the body to the side, taking with it a shabby looking sword.  The hobbit-wizard grabbed a bizarre pair of goggles and a scroll.  The teifling made off with a wand and another sword.

Everyone grabbed something before the Daggers, the barkeep, sent for a guard.  "That's enough," Daggers said, pulling people off the pile (as well as a handful of coins).  "Back to your seats until the guards arrive!"  He turned to return to the bar, when he looked and stooped down, coming up with a book.  "Hmm, what's this.  A book?"  He started flipping through it, before shrugging and holding it up.  "Any of you adventurers interested?  Otherwise, I'm giving it to the guards."

Temerity spoke up.  "A book?  I'll take a look."  Her tail swooshing behind her, the teifling dove into the book with zeal.

"What's it say?" Daisy said, tugging gently on Temerity's robe.  "Any spells?"

Outside, the monk Rolen was listening to the commotion happening inside, while Shiff was gingerly holding the sword he found, wondering who travels the world with a weapon so flimsy and uncomfortable to wield.

Temerity and Daisy sat quietly for several minutes, Daisy looking like she cast enlarge on her eyes from wearing the strange goggles she looted.  "I can see everything!" she announced, goofily looking at the book and trying to turn pages before Temerity was done reading them.  "Oh, sorry!" she'd say, then impatiently wait.  Daisy eventually took the goggles off, rubbing her temples.  "Wow, those give me a headache."

"Me too," Temerity said, but then she smiled at Daisy, and the two continued studying the tome.

"Anything interesting?" Anagik came over to ask, stepping around two patrons wrestling over a gold ring, each winking in and out of sight as they tried to put it on.

"It's a journal of a-," Temerity squinted at the book, then showed it to Daisy who held up one lens of the goggles shouted, "Cheldric!"  "Yes, Cheldric.  Seems he heard of some town overflowing with treasure and went to investigate.  I think he was waiting for someone when he decided to go alone."

"Overflowing with treasure, you say?"  The human Jondar was all ears.

"He doesn't go into it much further," Temerity said, "but instead starts talking about the town itself.  It seems to be the home of some sort of apocalypse cult."

This caught the Dragonborn's interest.  His life as a sworn warrior of Tempus made him wary of groups devoted to potential destruction, and he would bring divine wrath to any endangering the innocent.  "What is this cult up to?"

"Well, the apocalypse," Temerity repeated, tail twitching in Shiff's direction.  "But there isn't much more about what they do, though he does say something about people just showing up there.  This man seemed more interested in treasure.  Though seeing how he's dead-"  Temerity left the rest unsaid.

Outside, the monk Rolen began gathering up his few things.

"Looks like poison!" Anagik said, stooping beside the body, poking at the corpse's wounds.  "Arrows, most likely, and one dagger wound."

"Well, that settles it!"  Shiff said, thrusting the loose blade of the shabby sword into the floor with a mild yelp.  Composing himself, and looking at the small cut now on his hand, he continued.  "Regardless of this man's motivation, he must be avenged.  Poison is the weapon of cowards and cutthroats."

"You want to go there?" Daisy looked up at her large, draconian companion.

"Do we even know where it is?"  The dwarven lass Vara stepped forward.

Temerity and Daisy glanced at each other.  With a sigh, the little wizard put the goggles over her eyes and joined the teifling in examing the book once again to glean their destination from whatever clues the journal contained.

By now the rest of the bar's patrons had returned to their pre-looting activities, albeit slightly richer.

"Not far!" blurted Daisy, turning her bug-eyed visage from the journal.

"Seems to be about a days travel north," Temerity clarified.

"Interesting," Shiff said, nodding.  "We should leave at once and camp once within a few hours of this place.  Would prevent us from attracting too much attention before we have had a chance to rest."

"Good plan," Vara said.  "Would also allow us a chance to scout the area."

"Treasure!  Adventure!  Excitement!"  Jondar clapped Vara on the shoulder, joining the group gathering around the table.  "Where do I sign?"

Rolen also approached, much to everyone's amazement.  As Jondar gave the nearly naked man a concerned look, the monk spoke.  "I feel as if I must go with you.  These occurrences intrigue me."

"You coming, sis?" Daisy asked Anagik.  She still had the goggles on, and started staring at her sister's prayer wheel.  "Oh.... pretty..."

"Sure, why not?" she said, smiling.  "The Storm never lingers in one place too long anyway, and this tavern has gotten boring."

Temerity snapped the book closed, snapping Daisy out of her daze.  "Better get going then.  Can't miss a chance to make a record on the rituals of a cult."

With that, the group paid their tabs and prepared to go, but first, they had to deal with what waited for them outside the tavern.

The Northern Wilds of Elifor

Tune in next time for the continuation of this story that I haven't had enough time to write as one post!

*     *     *

So it's been two weeks since our friends hosted a bachelor/bachelorette party for my then fiance and I, and in the meantime we've gotten married!  Meant to get this out with a week of the party but alas, such was not to be.  So here is part one!  The action will start next time!  Looking forward to writing it!  Hope you enjoy reading it!