Minutes from the Meeting of the Society of Torch, Pole and Rope

The last week has been filled with busy and also unforeseen events. As such, postings will be lacking this week. Last Wednesday, I had the misfortune of being in a car wreck. While both I and the other driver walked away with superficial injuries, my car has achieved a sort of undead state: it isn’t totaled, but the damage it suffered was bad enough that I can’t justify spending the money to make it roadworthy again (it’s a twelve-year-old Chevy), especially with my finances as tight as they are right now. This additional burden has put a damper on my creative energies, so new and fanciful posts are unlikely until I obtain some resolution to this matter.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that I’ve started laying out the Stonehell compilation. I now have all the assorted elements and most of the final edits, so the final push towards publication has begun. I won’t set a release date, but Blue Öyster Cult is playing in town on Halloween and my attendance relies on the book’s completion. If I go, it means the book is ready.

After my Lord of the Rings marathon a few weeks ago, I finally picked up The Silmarillion again. My first and only other attempt at reading the book was sometime during middle school, and I was turned off by what I perceived as its incredibly dry text. My tastes have certainly matured since then, because this time around I’m savoring the book. I’m finding the book such a pleasure that I look forward to each night’s reading before bed. But many of you are no doubt already aware of what a grand book it is…

My gradual efforts to reacquaint myself with the writing process were successful enough that I did manage to put together a brief article for the next issue of Fight On! Look for the background and game details of last week’s interesting landmarks to be revealed in it.

What’s my latest Bat Country magical item? That’d be the Deck of Many Things. Do you dare turn over one of these ivory plaques and risk the soul-blasting power of Swamp Thing?! Or how about Ben Grimm or a Volkswagen Thing? Maybe the Addams Family Thing or the Thing from "The Thing"?!!! (Either this magic item or myself needs work.)

I’ll be back with more material from the back of my mental record collection once the dust dies down a bit. Until then, happy gaming!