Space war: north korea puts sattelite in space

Well done on north korea for having used a missile for launching stuff to orbit.
Lets see North Korea build an O'Neil cylinder and lift their own space colony with thirty two billion cubic feet of hydrogen to the edge of space where rocket motors will push it to orbit.

Random NPC: Peyton of Ux

Peyton of Ux: a gods worshiping alcoholic who keeps his family in poverty while he spends the meagre profits of farming on Beer for himself.
stats: normal human; neutral; 5hp; S12, I9, W7, D10, C11, Ch9; Poor clothing, shoes, hat, belt, pouch, 34cp; Personality: selfish asshole.

Superbowl Fifty: Peyton Manning Shills god and bud

Even in Australia daytime T.V. was sold out for the Superbowl 50.
Some guy named Peyton Manning thanks God and Budweiser for his superbowl win.
Bud responds with this twitter: 'Congrats to Peyton and whole @broncos team. Where would one ship 50 cases of Budweiser? Just curious.'

Then I caught sight of this response: '...I'm a recovering alcoholic. I've been sober 24-years.
Maybe its because I have not eaten today.
Maybe its because Budweiser was the first beer I ever drank at the ripe old age of 14, on the way to my first blackout of many to come.
But goddamn, this image of 50 cases of Budweiser made me have a major craving, like a sledgehammer out of nowhere...
Fuck you Peyton Manning.'
-thegentildouche

...kinda says it all.

Swords Drawn: challenge accepted

Monsters & manuals has declared that imagination is a creative muscle that must be exercised.

Beginner Exercises:

1. Create a new monster (with stats); 

2. Create an NPC wizard (with treasure and two assistants);

3. Create the top level of a dungeon;

4. Take four rules book monsters and give them replacement abilities.

5. Create a new magic item.

6. Create a new spell.

Advanced Exercises:

1. Pick four monsters and create a shared society.

2. Create a hexmap of six hexes.

3. Create a random encounter table for a specific terrain type.

4. Create a d30 (d20 for d&d fans) table of Random events.

5. Create a new PC race or class.

I created Creature Catalogue II: yellowdingo's edition which occupies space on Vaults of pandius so I figure a few more manuals wouldnt go amiss...but how to combine them all?
They will all go in B2-Mountains of Ash.

Now Reading: Old Tales Retold

'Old Tales Retold' by Lu Hsun is a collection of very old Chinese (and earlier) stories 'rewritten' for the 'modern' audience (published 1961).

While they are in their majority early tales of China, 'Mending Heaven' is an amalgamation of the emergence of the first humans and a smattering of civilization.
The goddess Nu-wa (a protoindoeuropean two-phonetic name meaning: [now-to bend (knees) apart]; a childbirth or rape reference), aparently bored as can be...

"I've never been so bored!"

 '...scooped up a handful of soft mud.' She kneads this into a 'small creature much like herself'. Not content with this she breaths life into it.

"Nga! Nga!" The little creatures were calling out.

*I previously suggested that ng- is a phonetic associated with a particular group of 'humans' (the oldest being neanderthals: ul phonetic, the other being the very small folk who use the dj phonetic).

Nu-wa, having gone off to amuse her self leaves 'man' to his own devices.
During her time there is a great crash and 'heaven split asunder'.
Now she stumbles across creatures living in 'gullies' on some mountains.
A shaman reference here:
'Vomited on the ground beside these creatures was something resembling gold dust and powdered jade with chewed pine needles and meat.'
Nu-wa recognizes them with their white beards as that which she created.
They plead with her to save them. They are in a quest of immortality. She doesnt understand but transplants their mountains to the backs of sea turtles. All but one man who is left on a beach slapping his face...

Map of the week: location 11- a hidden keep and a nest

B2 Mountains of Ash continues to develop...

Eastern Action: B2 - Monastery of the Dragon

Why bother with caves of chaos when you could be fighting your way through the Monastery of the Dragon?

Tiers of the Dragon
Level 1

• Round one: 32 x 1 HD fighters
• Round two: 39 x 2 HD fighters

Level 2

• Round three: 35 x 1 HD Mystics*

*Monks for other versions of d&d.

Level 3

• Round four: 29 x 1 HD Mystics, 3 HD Mystic, 4 HD Mystic

Level 4

• Round five: 1 HD Mystic, 21 Children (3 x 1 HD Mystics)

Level 5

• Round six: 11 x 1 HD Mystics, 5HD Mystic

Level 6

• Round seven: 15 x 2 HD Mystics, 3 HD Mystic

Level 7

• Round eight: 8 x 3 HD Mystics, 4 HD Mystic, 5 HD Mystic

Level 8

• Round nine: 6 HD Mystic

Map of the Monastery