KPop Demon Hunters

What a good excuse to get musical numbers in!

Demons have always been trying to invade the world but since the beginning of time there have always been a trio of battle bardic women who destroy them with magic weapons but also trap them in hell with their songs. The most modern trio is on the verge of locking them in for good, but hell sends through their last hope: a demon boy band!?

It is easy to see why this movie is so popular, and not just from the songs which are also quite enjoyable. The super powered starlet heroines are frequently shown in a comical and very humanizing light and despite the whole demons eating everyone's souls bit the tone is light enough for everyone to enjoy. Excellent and highly recommended! 

Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss

Cartoons in Hell!

Hazbin Hotel (Season 1)

This violent animated musical about Lucifer's daughter trying to setup a hotel to redeem souls in hell is full of swearing and adult themes but also has some good musical numbers. As Juris pointed out, the best part about each song is that they actually advance the story in some way and the animation, while definitely on the cartoony side, is quite decent. Definitely NOT for kids and you'll need to watch the pilot episode on youtube but it still gets a thumbs up from me. Looking forward to season two!

Helluva Boss (2 Seasons so far)

Set in the same universe/hell as Hazbin Hotel this show (fully available on youtube) focuses on a corporation of lowly imps who act as assassins for hire. At least, that's what the first season hook is and when they get into fights it is gloriously bloody with smooth animation.

It also has musical numbers but less plot advance-y as Hazbin, and the focus switches to the characters early on, sometimes to characters not even in the main group, which kinda fizzles the interest for me. While this and Hazbin both fly the pride flag with very few straight characters, it's more in your face here because apparently that is where the main story lies (and not in the murdering business. Sad face). Still ok, and Stolas is a scene stealer, but Hazbin is better with its more solid plot (currently).

Lastly, because the focus for Helluva Boss is on the personal relationships and not a "plot" per se I think its main problem is the pacing, as suddenly all the other episodes are basically "filler". Cut out the excess and it will make the whole thing better. Currently I suggest: Pilot / (S1E6) Truth Seekers / (S2E4) Western Energy / (S2E8) The Full Moon. (S2 hasn't finished yet as of this post but I think S2E9 is also filler).

Blades in the Heart: The Emperor

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

In trying to convince the Lord Governor to do something about the cruel Warden Pope, Juris accidentally blurts out (possibly due to his constipation) that they were going to kill him (the Lord Governor) in their previous encounter which naturally angers him. He tells Pope to deal with them as he sees fit and leaves while the demonic Warden grows in size and starts attacking the chains of the lift they are still standing on but its a short fight as Juris creates a domain of chaos with things randomly floating around with all the party riding chaos bears for some reason and in his madness the Warden falls into the hole to whatever lies beneath.

Our heroes then return back to base and rest up fully, but then are drawn outside as the city's barrier is eerily off for around five minutes before turning back on. A handful of the Emperor's Quicksilver guard start appearing (they move like the Flash) followed by the Emperor himself who steps out of a ghost door shrouded by a sphere of ghosts who announces he is there to eat them. DL and mom kill some of the guards with really good rolling but as more appear it's Juris that nullifies them with a lava domain, causing the speedsters caught within to die. And everyone is on fire bears immune to lava now. Lol. He does lightning bolt the flying Emperor (of course he can fly) which only shaves off a few of the ghosts and the Emperor laughs, saying his shield can never be broken as the ghosts in the ghost field hate it there. This unlocks Rose's final kamikaze ability Queen of Dreams, which we'll get back to shortly.

Juris opts to turn off his domain as DL does a massive kage-bunshin to really whack the Emperor's shield off (though all the 20+ clones die in the process) so the Emperor orders his Quicksilver guard to start killing everyone in the city so that he can rebuild his shield with their souls as he steps back through a ghost door. Mom jumps through trying to slap him with her Death Manifest but misses, followed by Rose and Juris who preemptively makes a domain of slippery ice (back on polar bears) in case any of the Quicksilvers arrive but it isn't necessary as DL stays outside with a new set of Kagebunshin clones to fight them AND the Lord Governor AND Lady Freya Orlais and her goons.

Rose then activates her Queen of Dreams ability: she becomes the ruler of the ghost field and can turn it into whatever heaven she decides, drawing all but the most determined of ghosts from the regular world to it. The cost is that she can never leave (and basically retires her character), but her very first command is to make the Emperor kneel - and then mom slaps him with her Death Manifest, killing him instantly (and almost killing herself). This frees the sun god imprisoned inside of the Emperor and Rose lets everyone go back to Duskwall where the sun god rises to the heavens to reignite the sun.

As there are still loads of Quicksilver scum running about so Juris uses his kamikaze ability too and turns into a giant winged bear to smash what's left of the bad guys, some extras like Lord Elon, and nom of the almost dead Lord Governor Kotar. He then lands near Matt Demon who is looking after his dog(s) and explodes into a forest once his clock runs out (character retired). While DL did gain his ultimate kamikaze move to turn into music that spreads world peace to all but the most evil, crazy or deaf he choses not to use it and instead bring peace with the edge of his blades. Cabrita (mom) on the other hand never unlocked her ultimate skill, but given she was the one that slew the emperor and reignited the sun the odds of her becoming the next ruler of the city and/or the nation (her goal) are at least much improved now, but still not guaranteed.

And that is the end of Blades! If I run another TTRPG it will be one of my own making but I'll definitely be borrowing a lot of ideas from this system. Thanks for reading!

Blades in the Heart: A Powerful Alliance

[Part of the Party Time journal]  

Before returning to base, the team visits a haunted hospital where they find documented proof that the Lord Governor signed off on creating a disease to target specific heritages but it got out of control leading him to choose to abandon the district and those left in it.

After resting, they confront him about it at the town hall where (vampire) Lady Freya Orlais has just won the election for High Seat which was once Lady Drake's throne of power. Rose minorly alters reality to have scheduled a meeting with the Lord Governor and they do so in a back room where Juris tries to blackmail him with the evidence, however he reveals that when he did try to stop it the Emperor himself maimed him, and so pushed forward with his lead scientist Elon.

They then try convince him to help them stand against the Emperor to which he makes them prove themselves first, transforming into a demonic form that catches Cabrita's (mom's) rifle bullet, throwing it back at her and easily dispatching DL's three clones - a skill he just recently learned (and a direct copy of Naruto's kage-bunshin). Juris manages to weaken the Lord Governor by putting him into a domain of sunless snow, and for some reason all the party is riding polar bears, and Rose capitalizes on this by forcing him to kneel (power word), which is tough for a cripple - demon or not.

Defeated, Lord Governor Kotar agrees to assist them should the time come and warns them that the Emperor will come for them should he learn of their godling powers as he has an appetite for eating gods (which is how he got so powerful). Happy with this result the team then head to the last ritual site that Lord Elon had mentioned to them previously in the farmlands of Barrowcleft, but it turns out the missing farm hands were being fed to monstrous plants by an unscrupulous gardener who bought strange seeds from a prison guard. After feeding the crook to her own plants they decide to visit the best information agent in town, Matt Demon.

Blades in the Heart: Beyond the Barrier

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

A mess of derailed trains ends the track for mom, Rose and DL who follow tracks in the sand up a hill to find all the draftees dead and arranged in a ritual circle with a lone cultist in the middle, guarded by a ghost train. As Rose is flying and holding  her companions, the idiot cultist doesn't notice as DL drops down from right above him, cleaving him in two. DL then deftly dodges the ghost train while shoving a batch of TNT up its choo-choo destroying it in the explosion (as the anchor was on board) - gaining "I am the night" ability which lets him just appear in any scene he wants to (at a cost of stress).

They then take their train backwards to a Snake like cave opening and encounter in a large cavern below, a great Snake demon who had been feasting on cultists that previously sought to take its treasure. It wants to be entertained and play a game but mom says "No, we don't have time for that" which leads to battle. Dodging its acid spit, Rose manages to fly up and hit it with trance powder - making it fall from the stalactites it is hanging from to the floor. Mom then touches it with her Death Manifest power (ticking her clock) and it immediately dies. Closer investigation nets them a voice activated bomb that was actually inside the snake, with the activation word "Ungala-boonga".

They then return to town to pick up Juris and the Pink Fart which they sail to the next ritual site, a cultist ship! Rather than mess around Juris uses all of his ghost powered torpedo TNTs to punch holes in that vessel but its not enough to sink it. Instead Rose uses her new "Ultimate Lie" abilitiy (which can bend reality at the cost of stress) to further open the holes and sink the vessel! Afterwards they dock at the Lost District where Juris asks a swarm of mimic mice (they try complete the shape of things that they're eating) for directions and reach the Old Lord Governor's palace.

Here, DL, Mom and Rose deal with exploding spike ghosts while Juris enters a pitch black force field to face his mistress Quellyn in her own domain. He almost breaks again with traumatic memories such as "remember all those after class times we enjoyed with one another" and "we experimented on our child together!" but is ultimately victorious in electrocuting Quellyn to death, shattering her domain and learning how to make his own (yes, totally stolen from Jujutsu Kaisen :P).

Blades in the Heart: Gluttony and Pestilence

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The following session the team is split up early - mom accepts a challenge from the assassin Steiner who has kidnapped Mother Narya (and put a bomb around her), DL is tricked by Father Yoren (who is actually possessed with his murderous ex Mercy) to go have a drink at the tavern where Grace (his current girlfriend) works, Rose is convinced by her friend Klyra to give herself over to the Ironhook guards as an exchange to get Klyra's brother Harker out, and Juris pursues Roslyn Dimmer (who was once Nyryx's vessel) through a ghost door as she dog-naps Nyryx the second.

Mom wins her duel and disables the bomb, DL one punches to KO and disables the suicide vest of Father Yoren's Mercy, but s/he gets a shot off that injures Grace, Rose simply lets the transfer happen then closes her eyes (turns invisible) and flies away (LOL I forgot she could do that), and Juris gets his corgi back but is left by Roslyn in the ghost realm with some zombie hollows and the demon Master Slane. Alas, zombie hollows can be controlled by his Lord of Nature ability and Slane fights so poorly that the demon is quickly overwhelmed by them and Juris' lightning. Juris then helps the zombies devour him before escaping out of the ghost field and taking Mercy out of Father Yoren, anchoring her to a bottle which he returns to DL (a bottle of Mercy). He also then tinkers with the TNT explosives DL and Mom recovered.

While the others then regroup to take down more ritual sites (as that is the driving tension I'm using with the timer ticking down), Juris decides to go off on his own and gets Matt Demon's help in tracking down Roslyn (who seems capable of ghost field hopping) for some payback. They eventually corner her in the basement of the now defunct Cathedral of the Ecstasy of the Flesh and using a single stick of TNT collapse the structure on her. She almost dies, so Juris bottles her spirit and devours her body.

Meanwhile at the Gaddoc Rail Station, DL, Mom, Rose and Mara go to find all the station staff dead including the passengers on the now parked train from Tycheros. The victims include mom's contact, Veleris, whose journal details a deadly plague spreading in that Northern nation. Following his journal, the heroes (immune because tier VII armor) collect and burn the corpses while Mara informs the authorities. As this is the first train available to them (the previous ones were all ferrying drafted soldiers to the war in the South), they then commandeer this one with DL driving to reach the next ritual sites further out from the barrier.

Blades in the Heart: The Lord of Nature

[Part of the Party Time journal]

While the others are clearing the docks, Juris decides to head to Lord Strangford's house at Charhollow to follow up on his cult connections and runs into Matt taking care of the butcher's death dogs. Since this is the first time he's encountering Matt I can finally reveal the Matt is a demon. Yep, "Matt Demon". The cringe almost kills Juris IRL but he rolls a 6 to not die. LOL.

Anyway, Matt says the dog's owners - Coran and the other butchers have been drafted into the army, while Adda and the Inkrakes (journalists) were arrested and taken to Ironhook for siding with Strangford. For some coin Matt reveals he's a demon that eats "trade", so he has no quarrel with anyone. He also tells Juris where to find the door his ancient key will open - in the tunnels far beneath the Shield of Dawn district!

Juris thanks him for the into and continues to Strangford manor where he neutralizes and recruits a hull and dodges a trap before finding correspondence that the cult has a fall back plan to nuke the city via luring a leviathan from the ocean with "targeting" rituals. Along with a handy map of where these sites are (some are outside the barrier), he recognizes the handwriting and signature to be Quellyn's - his teacher whom he hasn't seen in years.

As one of the ritual spots is nearby, Juris pays it a visit and sees that its on a barge in the middle of the canal which he boards and encounters cultists led by priestess Aranna. Thanks to good dicing, Aranna spills the beans that the clan hopes to revive the Burned King to defeat the Immortal Emperor and reveals Quellyn is their leader and is in one of the exterior sites. Thanks to Quellyn's desire to recruit Juris, Aranna lets him go and once he is safely back on shore he lightning bolts the barge until it sinks, killing all but Aranna who gets away.

Afterwards he meets up with the others back at base and tells them of his findings and they agree that taking out all the ritual sites is of high priority. While they others head out to do just that (with NPCs Eisele the last gondolier and her new student Jennifer taking care of the one in the bank at the docks), Juris follows Matt's instructions and heads down beneath the district to open an ancient door beyond which he battles a hungry Glazerbu looking like demon and wins (at the cost of a hull bodyguard). Beyond it he finds an ancient box with a broken stag horn within, and following the voice in his head, jams the horn into his own skull.

This is all because it ticks off things on his "dream" sheet, and his visions - guided by what looks like a gigantic Norweigan forest cat - rewards him with some special abilities. He can now eat freshly killed sentient beings to reduce stress (in fact, he has to as he is now addicted to it or suffers stress penalties) and also gains the "Lord of Nature" skill in which he can command low intelligence fauna and flora to do his bidding!

Gloomhaven: Voice of the Mountain

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

After wiping out a Gloom cult gathering (complete with zombies and demons) at their ritual chamber with only DL getting KOed, we visit the Shrine of Strength to try get stronger by standing on pressure plates while being attacked by monsters... an interesting training method for sure! I'm the one that drops in that mission while Juris gets through all the doors to get the final chest. We then go up a mountain to investigate rumors of a dragon and instead get ambushed by Inox and elementals which knock Juris out, but are in turn wiped out by the three brothers. Jim's pretty good with his heals, disintegrating ray and spider bots!

While up there we hear a strange, beckoning voice and follow it into a cave system crawling with enemies, but as the mission this time is simply to open all the doors I use my rat-ninja skills to sneak through them all while the others basically hold the first room. Once all the doors are open the voice booms and disintegrates the remaining enemies, then asks us to free it. Suuuure, before doing that we return to the city to rest up and try learn more about it. Hail suggests the knowledge we seek is in the Shrine of the Depths, so we go there next and retrieve a chest from giant crab monsters and laser shooting eye stalk tentacles. At this point we're all pretty tough now, each having maxed out  at level 9 through the course of these adventures.

Eurovision 2024: The Code (of War)

It was an interesting Eurovision this year with Sweden acting as the host. Ukraine had a better song this time around and Germany set the stage on fire, or was it one of the more eye-candy type acts? There was also a twisted fairy tale, a demon summoning, and a guy with no pants which I classify under the same theme of "horror" (though purely based on some vocals/songs more entrants could fit into this category). There was also a disqualification, and it ultimately came down to Croatia's Baby Lasagna and Switzerland's Nemo. For a change I managed to pick the winner correctly from the semi-final stage! Congratulations Nemo, not only for winning but for one of the best performances in Eurovision ever. Highly recommended you watch it. :)

Here's Raiven, fully clothed.

Since this seems to be a post about nations competing against each other let's check in on Russia's special 2 day operation to take Ukraine which is now on day... 817? It's been a long time since I posted anything about this (ironically, it was my previous Eurovision post) and in that time Ukraine was actually losing ground due to dwindling reserves of people and supply (due to other countries *cough USA cough* delaying support) and Russia's seemingly endless supply of people to take hits and further tire and disarm their opponent.

That battle continues as does the one of Israel (who actually had a Eurovision contestant this year) vs Hamas, a militant and designated "terrorist" arm of Palestine supported by Iran, who recently lost their president in a helicopter crash. President Bill Clinton tried sorting that out in 2000 but unfortunately was unsuccessful.

Blades in the Dark: Not Good Enough

[Part of the Party Time journal]

While Rose and Juris have their ghost door adventure, mom and DL get some free time after Warden Pope leaves to headover to Charterhall to deliver Helleren's "ghost recording" to the authorities to help clear Coran (and his dogs) then return to the Dimmer Sisters house to pick up more hull shells as DL wants to create more dragon armor. They find the home inhabited by the Gray Cloaks, a group of ex-cops wanted for burning evidence in an imporant case against Lord Strangford. In fact they are very much against Strangford and after passing negotiation checks believe the visitors aren't hitmen and simply hand over the remaining hulls and a suitcase of junk from the previous owners. This "junk" happens to include seven toenails of Kotar, which when ingested are basically a full heal for stress and trauma.

The following day mom and Rose and summoned to the courthouse to give testimony against the cabbies who are fighting their charge, while Juris and DL follow Earnest to Barrowcleft bridge where he claims he lost his ghost brother Bertrand, in a dice gambling game with Spogg. Juris is distracted by howls from the death dogs in his care up at Fogcrest though so he goes to check on them while DL continues to the bridge alone. Mom and Rose are split up too when mom is summoned to an upstairs office where she is ambushed by the bounty hunter Casta (who had just murdered mom's cop friend Celene) and her four melee goons!

Downstairs in the waiting room, Rose is also ambushed by knife wielders but these ones are all deaf (to negate her voice power) and wearing masks (to negate her trance powder). On the bridge 10 snipers ambush DL from both ends as he reaches the middle, killing Earnest, Bertrand and Spogg and Juris finds the demon Grist at the top of the hill with some dogs strapped to him as hurting animals really is Juris' weakness. I thought I was super clever splitting them up and pitting them against their weaknesses, but well - mom and rose cleared their battles in two turns with good rolling, Juris used his "tamed and trained" ghosts to free the dogs then the hand of Kotar to bisect Grist (banishing only a 3rd of him), eating a toenail to negate trauma - and DL systematically murdered every sniper with feats of acrobatics and blood thirst.

The next day they decide to follow Adda's request of checking in on Coalridge, the industrial sector, where Skovlans are trying to unionize against their brutal foremen. They find the lead foreman, Slane, whipping the union leader and since he's a demon Juris wastes no time in "handing" him to the next dimension while eating another toenail. It's hilarious since Slane didn't actually get to say anything - they just walked in and blew him away.

Afterwards they attend a meeting with Lord Strangford who confirms he is planning to start a civil war, explaining that due to the shortage of demon blood the Lord Governor is planning to turn off the barrier to half the city (including the districts our protagonists reside in). He hopes to get their support in overthrowing the Lord Governor to prevent this, specifically by convincing Lord Elon Dalmore either join the revolt or simply do nothing with his troops.

They go talk to Elon next who refuses to do nothing as he is bound to help the city government but does suggest there might be a way to "reverse the polarity" and make it when the switch is flipped that the barrier go down in the other half of the city only. None of the above options are good enough for our heroes as they are determined to find a way to save everyone. Juris donates a toenail of Kotar to Elon to try help his "heart" project, but other than a temporary increase in performance it has no effect.

Blades in the Dark: He's a Demon

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The Shield of Dawn rebuilds Tangletown and lets Ulf and his Skovlander buddies move in to keep the peace. Juris then experiments with a new drug: Lure 2.0 called Bait, and this time he finds himself waking up in the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh and meets Elder Rowan (who is a disguised demon) so he quickly gets himself out of there to accompany DL to recon on Maestro Helleren (alleged murderer of Kenny V) only to discover he too is a disguised demon, so the both back off and instead go to talk to the Sallies squad (fire fighters) about their "fire insurance" policy. One of their members, Grace, has the hots for DL and confirms that it is an extortion racket wherein they set fires to holdings for people who don't pay.

They take the issue up to Lord Elon Dalmore, head of the Ministry of Preservation who is the over all boss of the umbrella that covers the Sallies and with Grace's cooperation immediately fires all of them. Elon then tries to buy the hand of Kotar from Juris after showing him and DL a highly guarded research center that contains the Heart of Kotar, explaining that he's trying to solve a potential power shortage issue as metrics suggest the Leviathan Hunters are bringing in less and less demon blood to fuel the lightning barriers around the city. Juris refuses.

Meanwhile Rose and Mom go to the docks where Rose participates in Grist's boxing challenge, ringing out her first foe, getting the second one disqualified and then having a decent match against the third but she gets ringed out this time - one match away from championship. While she does this mom follows some drug dealers back to their den but doesn't engage them at all. The next day all four go to confront Helleren who is convinced to speak of his crime to a "recording ghost" Juris pulls out. A fight ensues in which DL has to cut through a flying piano but ultimately Helleren is decapitated and killed.

Returning to their home district they find Warden Pope (he's a demon) and the Ironhook prison guards searching for escaped convicts believed to be with Ulf and the Skovlander community. While mom and DL buy time from the guards, Juris and Rose convince Ulf that they can help get the three away through a ghost door, and they do especially as Rose has ghostspeak now and basically commands them to leave them alone. By luck they also pick up Eisele, the last gondolier who has been trapped here ever since Juris' first encounter with Scurlock and they all make it out to the docks.

Here Rose brings them to the the only Skovlander she knows, Grist - who also turns out to be a demon. The escapees are quite happy to go with Grist despite Juris' warnings so he takes a devil's bargain and floods the warehouse (inside) to push them away from the demon before they finally get the message. The bargain: by saving these three, (2D6) dock workers died in the flood / crushed by containers. I rolled double 6. Running off they deliver the three to the Fog Hound, a small smuggling ship and head back home to find that Warden Pope and his team have moved on to search elsewhere.

Blades in the Dark: Knowledge Eater

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Accused of being responsible for the death of first clarinetist, Kenny V, the butcher Coran arrives and asks that the team hide and look after his pack of death dogs implicated in the brutally violent crime. Juris immediately accepts, hiding them out at Fogcrest at Silkshore while spending a lot of time recovering from his trauma of using the hand of Kotar. Also murdered was DL's medic friend, Ferny Sawbones, so he heads to Charhollow to find out more and meets Matt the information trader, paying some coin to learn that Kenny V was dispatched by conductor Maestro Helleren who "isn't what he seems" and Ferny was done in by bounty hunters who are based in Nightmarket, which is where mom and Rose are headed!

The girls finally reach Nightmarket (no carriages anymore) and encounter a shear wielding female ghost whom they dispatch before reaching the club where the orphans are meant to be, meeting the upper class lords and ladies there but are told they can only see the kids in the morning and accept the offer to stay the night. DL arrives later, fighting past the same ghost again and then getting locked out of the club tower as the bounty hunting "Wraiths" arrive to get him. Jokes on them though, as mom snipes them from the tower before they can do anything!

DL is welcomed in and they are all hidden from the Spirit Wardens that come to investigate. Meanwhile Juris, still at Silkshore, goes to the Silver Stag casino to look into rumors of a demon of greed. It turns out to just be a gambler and ghost pair of Earnest and Bertrand cheating at cards. He outs them to the manager, Helene, and is disappointed he didn't find another demon cat before heading back to base.

The next morning they ALL awake at base with DL, Rose and mom unaware of how they got there. Also, they apparently brought a painting of a huge dragon back and hung it up in the orphanage's main hall!? Concerned, they all go back to the club and Juris with his new skill of being able to identify any supernatural entity quickly discovers one of the patrons, Lord Mora, is a knowledge eating demon and that the orphans have been eaten too. Rose manages to command the rest of the club into a trance like state while the team battles Lord Mora who is immune to Juris' ghosts and takes the hits from Juris' lightning, mom's rifle, and DL's special dragon sword which he finished building.

The fight is long but Mora can't land many hits especially after she tells him that he can't move (only works on his feet). Eventually the demon is slain and after retrieving a tongue artifact (the tongue of Kotar, lets you speak to anything) they hastily return to their own district where a horrible spirit aura now emanates from the orphanage. The dragon in the painting is gone but they destroy the frame and base anyway. Four Spirit Wardens then arrive to help them deal with the threat which has moved underground to eat the ghosts there (and thereby make itself stronger). It manages to damage two Spirit Wardens, who as they guessed are hulls themselves, but is otherwise easily captured and destroyed by the high tier visitors. For this heroic action the district is well and truly behind the vigilantes now.

Blades in the Dark: Duels of Fire and Iron

[Part of the Party Time journal]

During their downtime, Mom and Rose take the spirit bottles found at the Crow's Tower to Celene, mom's Bluecoat friend who assures them this will force justice into action, DL gets an invitation from Mercy his ex, a member of the Red Sashes, to talk to their master at Tangletown, and Juris decides to take a new drug called "Lure" and finds himself waking up at Silkshore where he talks to the Gondoliers amassing there about the demon cat problem and volunteers to help. Luckily the cat is a demon that feeds of feelings of pleasure, so the plan is for Juris to distract it long enough for the Gondoliers to conduct their ritual.

Juris does his work perfectly and the demon cat is chain lightning-ed to death! The squad continue up to the top of Fogcrest to ensure the ritual is stopped and this time it is they who are caught unaware by the ancient vampire Scurlock who makes half of their number vanish with his staff (the end of which is a hand) and slays the remainder with his claws and incredible strength and speed. Juris successfully begs for his life, and agrees to fetch more demon blood for the vampire who "marks" him with a burning hand and sends him on his way.

Meanwhile DL, Rose and mom are spotted scoping out Tangletown but Rose manages to set a truce between them and the Old Crows of leaving each other alone. The Old Crows also mention there are no Red Sashes there tonight (it had been a trap to make the two factions fight), instead seven Red Sash swordsmen ambush the trio on their way home and while they manage to cut DL a bit - all of them are violently slain as the dice dictated that they didn't run.

The next day DL receives a written letter and accepts to duel the Red Sash master at their dojo, with mom shadowing from sniping positions and Rose talking her way in. Master Shido turns out to not be a swordsman at all, but a whisper who uses ghosts to make swords fly on their own. DL takes minor damage before killing him, and since his remaining students attack they too are mostly wiped out. Only Mercy manages to escape with a bullet wound and a throwing knife stuck in her (both thanks to Rose, as mom missed her snipe here and DL had no more load for a ranged weapon). No doubt Mercy fled to the Iruvian consulate where her parent works.

Juris on the other hand manages to create another batch of powdered fire and returns to Scurlock's house in Fogcrest when the vampire is away (he can reverse "the polarity" to detect him using the hand mark and his whisper skills) and sets up a trap. Then he manages to (critical) summon Scurlock (as vampires are just spirits in corpses) to his location. The next bit doesn't go so smoothly as the ancient vamp breaks one of Juris' arms, but ultimately the vampire is tricked into the powdered fire trap and is incinerated to death (critical again, and since he's "bonded" to the body his spirit is destroyed too. Weaker vamps can just ghost outta their skins but strong ones like Scurlock get this mortally dangerous trait, which I thought was pretty cool balance trade off). Only his staff, which ends with a someone's decaying hand, remains - untouched by the fire. Juris takes it and while recovering learns it is the Hand of Kotar... whoever that is.

Blades in the Dark: Cats and Clowns

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Juris studies and weaponizes the powdered fire, and is also visited by his ghost friend (and Rose's frenemy) Nyryx who is possessing the body of a teenage girl named Jennifer (who looks like Jennifer Connely in Labyrinth). Juris had only intended to save Jennifer who stumbled into the Weeping Lady charity after she had been brutalized by the gang war (by putting Nyryx into her to aid her weakened spirit) but doesn't really condone Nyryx now using that body for prostitution. Regardless, she brings news from the nearby Silkshore district where bodies have been turning up in canals and a bunch of clowns are gearing up to attack the Crows - one of the local gangs - over a love triangle situation. She also tries to poison Rose unsuccessfully before laughing it off and leaving.

Rose and Juris decide to warn the Crows about this at the orphanage they run (to train and recruit more gang members) and are invited to prove their worth by joining the ambush they're going to set for the clowns at the bridge. Juris and DL decide to first go to Silkshore to investigate the dead bodies though and learn from a local Gondoliers that the bodies were "hollowed" out (spirit removed) before death, and that all of these look like they fell from a great height.

With that information they investigate Fogcrest, the tallest point in the district which uses tight staircases to double as roads through its bohemian colony of eternally drugged artists and theologists. When the row houses begin to empty as they reach the higher parts, they encounter a talking cat whom Juris immediately plays with and identifies as a demon. The cat admits to having its servant at the top of the hill performing a ritual for it, and then (the cat) disposing of the bodies by throwing them. As they notice a mass of people heading for the bridge they bid farewell to the friendly demon cat and rush to get to the ambush - but arrive late!

Meanwhile mom, Rose and the other Crow sharpshooters get the drop on the militant clowns and despite being outnumbered do quite well in pinning the advancing group while only losing half their own number. When the boys finally arrive in a flanking position Juris uses powdered fire to set a good number of clowns on (powdered) fire while DL closes the distance and cuts down the remainder with his blade. They then run off before the bronze masked Spirit Wardens show up to deal with the dead, but by using the powdered fire here, Bazso has worked out who betrayed him. They find Remira's burnt corpse strung up in front of the charity the following day (and Juris confirms by talking to her ghost that it was the Lampblacks).

Doom Eternal

Doomguy exalted.

This FPS follows on from all the previous Doom titles and like those continues the trend of you fighting horrible demons in violent encounters while exploring a map for secret passages and power ups. As you are able to climb and swing off things there is an added jumping puzzle element here but that's very minor. The biggest difference is in the combat, as based on what you do to your enemies you might be generating ammo (chainsaw), health (melee gory kill), or armor (set them on fire then hurt them) or all the above.

As most major combats take place in arenas now you need to get really good at doing all the above (which by default means you can't be too far away) while under pressure. Enemies have their own weak spots too: the shoulder launchers for revenants, arm cannons of mancubi, tail for pinkies etc - just to keep you on your toes as you fight a more and more mixed bag of enemies with your ridiculously large arsenal of weapons, most of which have two modes of fire which you can switch mid battle as well as upgrade! All up a very solid entry to the Doom franchise.

Baldur's Gate 3: The Transformers

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Deeper in the hive the remaining party members witness an elder brain be controlled by three individuals: Thorm, Gortash (whom Karlach hates), and Orin who is rocking a murderous sexy vibe. While Orin, Gortash and the brain warp elsewhere Thorm stays to fight, transforming into an avatar of Myrkul - Lord of the Dead, best symbolized by a giant skeleton (High Lord Wolnir is that you?).

Halsin gets the KOed Nightsong back into the fight which ultimately kills her while Catharina transforms into the six limbed slayer demon as a child of Bhaal (she remembered how!) for an epic showdown, the end of which sees Karlach pulling Thorm's netherstone out of him - killing him for good. It sounds as dirty and painful as it is.

With no time to waste the team hurry on to Baldur's Gate before the brain turns everyone there into mindflayers but first, some time wasting as Gith monks ambush the team at camp. Who knew unarmed opponents in D&D could be so troublesome!? Afterwards the D20 speaks to us, calling itself "The Emperor", suggesting we let the parasites evolve to make us stronger for the upcoming fight. Catharina talks Gale and Karlach into doing just that, making them pseudo-flayers with black eyes and purpling skin in exchange for some power. Catharina doesn't need it herself since she can already transform into a monster at will.

Gloomhaven: Treasure and the Trials of the Terrible Turd Tunnels

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

With the path now clear to find the poison in the lower levels Juris makes the call to... sail away from Gloomhaven and search for treasure! Haha, well adventuring needs funds you know? As a bonus there are also no "road encounters" for ocean centered missions! Thus we take a ship to some nearby islands to the East, first landing on a small vermling infested one which immediately proves too scary as they have pet bears so we run and sail a little further south where a treasure map DL purchased leads us to a reefed vessel which is now home to ugly crab things and lumbering frost demons.

Said crabs and demons are actually easy foes to handle, to the point where I'm almost a room ahead of the others and opening doors to let more monsters get involved with the fray. Of course, I almost overextend TOO much and finish the adventure exactly just before I exhaust out but not before we enact Jim's plan of leaving the last enemy alive to loot as much as we could which lets us leave with a fair bit of coin. Yep, any gold or treasure you don't pick up mid-combat / before the mission is over is just abandoned! It's one of the odd systems in Gloomhaven I'm not too happy with since obviously you should be able to loot after clearing out a spot but whatever. We return to the city richer and wonder why everyone is getting even more sick. Oh right! The poison...

We paddle through the muck into the ancient cistern and find while Juris slays many night demons in the depths, DL has terrible luck with his attacks. The source of the poison, four contaminated water pipes, each spawn an extra imp per round and DL is the first to fall while I scurry and shut off the rear two valves before following suit. Juris shuts another down before he too drops leaving Jim to cleanse the final one - which he does! But then... all the imps get their turn and knock him back forcing us to retreat. Despite completing the objective, I guess the win condition is only checked at the end of a round. Mission fail!

Green Snake and New Gods: Nezha Reborn

A pair of animated Chinese films made by Light Chaser Animation.

Green Snake

After she gets banished to a sort of violent modern day purgatory by a powerful monk, Verta the green snake demon must find a way to escape without her powers, beat said monk and free her sister Blanca the white snake demon who was trapped by the same monk. Yeah, I kinda like that the monk is just insanely powerful. It also means Verta can look like a good looking human female for the entire film. Smooth animation that seems to be filled with non-stop action makes this a really awesome movie, but the story dips heavily into Chinese mythology so if you aren't so familiar with reincarnation and the like it might feel a bit jarring at places but otherwise its pretty cool. There is a lot of fighting and a decent amount of death!

Side note, the other name for this movie is "White Snake 2" because there is a White Snake film that happens first which I wasn't aware of before watching this. Do you need to watch that first? Maybe, because the opening here really felt like it was dropping you right into it - but after the first 10 minutes the entire setting changes anyway. Didn't bother me. Not as much as not being able to find White Snake with English subs or dubs anyway. Well, I'm getting side tracked. As far as Green Snake goes, I can definitely recommend it.

New Gods: Nezha Reborn

Set in a future being affected by a massive drought the protagonist is a motorcycle racer / courier / smuggler who can't help but mess with the most powerful clan that controls all the water in the region. When blows are eventually exchanged it turns out the clan big shots are actually supernatural beings, as is the protagonist who is a reincarnation of a very violent (but also powerful) child. Fantastic animation once again with the odd "ancient beings in a modern setting" vibe going and a decent if predictable story though with slightly less action bits and more talky bits. Does that make it better? Not really, which is surprising. Note that it is quite violent and probably not really suited for younger audiences, like the scene where a helpless cat is killed. That happens twice. All up I preferred Green Snake.

Decluttering Day 8: A no longer non-stick frying pan, and a second smaller one that was my wife's very first frying pan.

Gloomhaven: Jekserah's Corruption

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

After we learn that donating to the temple not only grants us temporary blessings but also increases Gloomhaven's prosperity it has become a common practice for each of us to drop 10 coins in there (the maximum after each mission) and are informed by the clergy about a wise seer in the mountains who can divine the locations of anyone or anything so we pay him a visit, only for him to test us against his guardian golems, spirits, drakes and bears!

Luckily Juris' new insta-kill (non-elite) is on hand to deal with the harder hitters while I backstab majority of the ranged foes by getting into their room and hiding in there while the rest clog up the singular bottleneck doorway. Victorious, we ask the seer the location of Jekserah and pay her a visit in the mausoleum she's hiding in. She's definitely leveled up her necromancy as almost every single round she summons new zombies but carefully thrown daggers from Juris ends her and her minions for good!

The local guard congratulate us on this feat by means of offering more work. Mentioning dragon sign to the North and a horrible corruption from below the city. We opt to try the sewers first as there are no "travel encounters" for such a short trip. Inside are snakes, vermlings and self-replicating (but also suicidal, because replicating hurts themselves) oozes. DL gets hammered in the second room here but it is Juris who goes down first. Not to worry though as Jim and his spiderbot make it through unscathed while testing out his new disintegration beam. :O

Almost every time you open a door there's an army waiting on the other side...

Alas, in the end these just turned out to be regular sewer denizens as the source of the corruption seems to be coming from further below.

Gloomhaven: Hail to the Void

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

To seal the void gate we discovered last time, we meet with the ghost-like aesther magician Hail who resides in an abandoned tavern in the city. The price to secure their aid is a frost orb high in the mountains guarded by hungry wolves, angry spirits, and very chill frost demons but the worst part of that mission is the long winding path that tires out Juris and Jim soon after opening the final door. I too, would have been exhausted but my final card combo defeated the last enemy and winning the mission!

Apparently sealing the portal is a multi-mission mini campaign though, as next Hail needs a magic censer located in a nearby tomb which, to no ones surprise, has Gloom cultists doing their thing in. The only difference here is that Hail is with us, is not particularly sturdy, and has only one move of taking two steps forward, UNLESS AN ENEMY IS IN A DOORWAY. Which is like, every single doorway? Sigh. Ambush spawns from the rear mean Jim and DL have to hang back to guard the fool while Juris and I push forward. Jim's new spiderbot is pretty helpful in doing that.

Finally with the censer in hand it is time to close the rift (in a 3rd separate mission) where we simply have to guard Hail for 10 rounds in a single, medium sized room. DL makes good use of the Cragheart's stone summoning to wall off some of the spawning demons but those flying AOE tossing Sun demons are really dangerous! Jim keeps Hail alive through healing while the rest of us basically buy time with stuns, mind control and murder until eventually the aesther mage seals the portal and insta-killing the remaining demons with it! With this victory Gloomhaven's prosperity has increased to the next tier which offers new gear in the shops.