When the wizard’s time was up, Death knew that he’d have to get creative.
Magic users had all kinds of cunning little ways to avoid their fated ends. Some used prophecy to avoid injury. Others pulled their lifeforces out and tucked them into safe places. Others made spectral weapons to fight him. He got them all, eventually.
Death opted for the direct approach, appearing in the wizard’s scrying glass while he was in the middle of a delicate alchemical procedure. He dropped the glass in surprise, immolating himself.
It was messier than Death liked, but a win was a win.
The family went camping at Mount Moose that summer. They couldn’t actually camp on the protected site itself, but they found a campground overlooking the famous natural feature.
While Papa and the older kids set up the tents, Mama walked the youngest over to the viewing area.
“Mommy, that moose is huge!” said Clara, age eight.
“Don’t be silly, darling. It’s just a funny shaped mountain. Those are just trees and rocks. But it does look like a moose if you use your imagination.”
Mama couldn’t see it, but the forest guardian, The Great Moose, winked one giant, bouldery eye.
The beach house had long been abandoned. It stood over the water on rotting pilings, and it groaned with each surge of the tide. The sandbar it stood on wasn’t even accessible on foot anymore. She’d rowed out, which had taken longer than expected.
Standing on that remote stretch of sand, and staring at the decaying house, she could almost believe she was the last person on Earth, although that wasn’t quite true.
It wouldn’t do for shelter, but if her research was right, there would still be plenty of supplies inside. She got to work finding a way in.
Inbento
Published by 7Level
Developed by Afterburn Studios
Played on Nintendo Switch
The Skinny: An adorable puzzle game with a fiendish difficulty curve.
Originally released for IOS and android devices, Inbento is a simple but clever puzzle game with a cute story. Players are presented with the image of a completed bento box and arranging the ingredients to match the picture. This starts out simple, but quickly introduces mechanics such as transforming blocks and cut and paste tiles that ramp up the difficulty and require keen instincts and careful planning.
There are fourteen levels of nine puzzles each, and completing each one awards the player with a new part of the game’s story, spread out in static images. The story is a textless, picture-book style story about a mother cat learning to cook to feed her kitten, who eventually grows up and becomes a chef with a kitten of their own. It’s very charming, and a nice respite for the sometimes frustrating challenge of some of the later puzzles. The presentation is barebones, with navigation selected from a flat menu styled like a cookbook. The game allows for both touchscreen and button controls, and both are well-suited to the gameplay. The music and sound design. is simple but relaxing and satisfying.
Inbento is a clever and relaxing little puzzle game that will pull on your heartstrings as much as your braincells. And at $4.99 US in the Nintendo eshop and $2.99 in the Apple iTunes and Android Play stores, it’s a bargain. Give this one a shot.
The Bandit King knocked the young knight from his horse, and scoffed as he lay crumpled in the dust.
The knight fought to get air back into his lungs, certain that he was about to die uselessly far from home.
He thought of his mentor, the princess who trained him and sent him out to do Justice. He thought of something she’d told him once.
A knight isn’t a warrior who can’t be defeated. They’re someone who stands back up every time they’re knocked down.
He rose to his knees and struggled to his feet. He had work to do.
He enlisted in the Navy to pay for culinary school. He spent years training in a pitching galley, feeding the crew on a destroyer.
He served his time, got his degree, and started working in a professional kitchen. Eventually, he was even able to open his own gourmet restaurant.
But he felt depressed. He missed his early days in the Navy. He was never happier than when he was cooking on a boat. He closed the restaurant, and took a job on a cruise ship.
The sea was for Cookie, and that would have to be good enough for him.
Warning: YMMV, this was not the copy we used for recording
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by https://www.skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
The Senior Ambassador gave us our instructions before the reception with the alien dignitaries. “Whatever you do, don’t call them ‘Catgirls.’ They’re a superior technological force, and we’re representing the whole Terran League,” she said. I forgot it by my second glass of champagne.
“You know,” I said to one of the representatives, “There’s an ancient Earth culture that worshipped cats. And everybody always jokes that their monuments were built by aliens!”
“Nonsense,” he replied. The Egyptians used slave labor.” His ears went suddenly flat. “Er, or so I’ve heard.”
The subsequent negotiations took a sudden turn in Earth’s favor.
“Don’t think you’ve won,” the sorcerer cackled. “You haven’t seen my final form!” And before the heroes eyes, he began a startling transformation.
“Is that it?” The hero asked when he was done. “I though you would be bigger.”
“Conservation of mass,” the sorcerer said. “A smaller form is actually more powerful.”
“What is it, some kind of squirrel? You’re almost cute.”
“Yes, well, the thing about that is,” The sorcerer said, and then opened his mouth to expel a deadly breath weapon. The hero was instantly vaporized.
It may not have been intimidating, but it got the job done.
The skald overturned his bench with a shout, scattering his work. Upon his throne, Odin raised one eyebrow.
“I have shared with you the mead of poetry, which makes all people poetical. Why are you struggling?”
Odin gestured, and the scattered sheaves of paper assembled themselves in his hand.
“I see your problem,” he said after a time. “Kvasir’s mead enflames the passions and unlocks the soul. You require a different tonic now.” A valkyrie entered bearing a steaming cup of dark liquid and presented it to the bard.
“Coffee?” he asked.
“Write drunk, edit sober,” the old god said.
Hugh J. O'Donnell 
Podcast: CCRC66 – Dungeons & Dragons S1E13
May 12, 2020
hughjodonnell CCR, CCR Commentary, Podcast, Uncategorized Chrononaut Cinema Reviews, Commentary Track, hugh, Jurd, Opopinax, Podcast, Rich The T T, Transatlantic Accents Leave a comment
Tonight your hosts, Hugh, Rich the Time Traveler, Opop, and Jurd, get a lesson in SPELLING. Because it’s D&D. And there are spells
Click HERE to listen to the commentary track!
Warning: YMMV, this was not the copy we used for recording
Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by https://www.skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.