Hello. Today I'm blogging about a new iOS game.
Pokemon Go was recently released in the U.S. and a few other countries on smartphones. It's already the most popular app on the App Store and top grossing app on the App Store. I did a blog a while back in anticipation for Pokemon Go, and now that I actually have it, I'm writing a review. I love this game. In Pokemon Go the game tracks your location by giving you an a avatar on a GPS type map. If your phone buzzes while you have the app open, you know that a Pokemon has spawned right near you. The game contains the first 133 Pokemon, the first generation of Pokemon that Nintendo released. Each Pokemon corresponds to an elemental type, of which there are 18, such as water, fire, or grass. The type, CP, and rarity of the Pokemon determine how often and where it's going to spawn the most often. For instance, water Pokemon are most often going to spawn around lakes and rivers, whereas a small town would have a lot of bug and normal Pokemon. When a Pokemon spawns on your map you can tap it to try and capture it. Doing so utilizes your camera, showing you a 3D image of the Pokemon displayed onto real world surroundings, as if it was actually there. You can use pokeballs to try and capture it, and your success rate depends on whether or not you hit the Pokemon, it's rarity, and your timing. You can also turn off the camera which does make it a little easier to aim, but makes it less fun. If you ever see grass rustle on your map, you should make an effort to go to that place because that means there's a Pokemon in that area.
You can also tell what kinds of Pokemon are in your area using the lower right tab. The tab shows the shape of Pokemon near you. If you've seen it before it will be colored in and you know what it is, if you haven't, it's greyed out. Under the shape will be 3 or less footsteps. 3 footsteps means that it is 150 meters or less away. 2 footsteps means less than 100 meters, and 1 footstep means it's 50 meters or less from you. If it doesn't have any, it will probably appear on your map any second. Across the map are small blue towers. These towers indicate a pokestop. A pokestop is a public place such as a gym, church, fire station, restaurant, or monument, that you can stop at to get items. Items include pokeballs, incense to lure Pokemon to you, lures that lure Pokemon to a specific pokestop, and eggs. You can put an egg into an item called an incubator and once you've walked a certain distance the egg will hatch. Every five minutes or so you can use the same pokestop again.
There are also larger towers called gyms. Once you've reached level five you pick one of three teams, Instinct (yellow), mystic (blue), or valor (red). If a gym is the color of your team it means your team has captured that gym and you can fight your Pokemon against the other team of Pokemon controlling the gym, in order to train and level up. If the gym was the color of an opposing team, if you beat all six of the controlling Pokemon, you've claimed that gym for your team until a different team takes it again.
Pokemon Go is an amazing game. It's ridiculously fun, constantly updating, social game with more features and Pokemon on the way. It's also addictive in a way that's actually healthy because the game requires you to get up and walk and some players have walked miles in one day just to play the game and have fun and meet new people. I highly recommend downloading Pokemon Go.
- By Ashton
The Grey Jack Frost
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Dark Souls 3
Hello. Today I'm blogging about one of my new favorite games.
I've gotten a LOT of new games this summer. I got The Witcher 3, Dying Light, and Rocket League by using some Best Buy cards my grandparents got me. I'm getting No Man's Sky in August, and I've gotten Dark Souls 3 in celebration of my first job. There was a period of about two weeks before I got the game where I was researching things about it, like gameplay, tips for beginners, and lore. I found the lore and the basic story structure of the games the most interesting.
The creation myth of the world of Dark Souls is very interesting. In the beginning, there was no heat, no cold, no life, no death, no light, and no dark. No opposites existed. Above the ground all was grey, and immense dragons lived outside of the cycle of life and death. Underneath the ground, unthinking humanoid creatures roamed with no purpose, will, or soul. Everything changed when the First Flame appeared. The Fire sprang up underground and four humanoids claimed four powerful Lord Souls from the fire. The Witch of Izalith claimed the Soul of Life, Nido The First of the Dead claimed the Soul of Death, and Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, claimed the Soul of Light. After these powerful Gods left the flame a fourth humanoid appeared, The Furtive Pygmy. He claimed a unique soul, the Dark Soul. He split the Dark Soul into thousands of pieces, and each one inhabited a humanoid, creating mankind.
The three lords ruled over these humans, and before long they rose up to war with the dragons above. Seathe, a scaleless dragon, betrayed his kind to Gwyn and told them that the dragon's stone scales were the secret of their immortality. With this knowledge, Gwyn and his knights struck down the dragons with bolts of lightning, and the Age of Fire began, and opposites took form. Powerful kingdoms rose up ruled by Gwyn and The Witch, and humanity and these Gods were at peace. This peace would not last, for as all things must begin, so must all things end. And so the First Flame began to die out. With the First Flame dying, the power of the God's souls would too, and they would die with the Fire. Humanity, each possessing a part of the Dark Soul, would come to rule the Earth in the upcoming Age of Dark. The Witch of Izalith sought to solve this problem by creating a new First Flame, but her experiments in pyromancy were ultimately a failure. Instead she created the Flames of Chaos, and demons were born. Gwyn traveled downwards with his knights to the Kiln of the First Flame, and there he linked his soul to the Fire, kindling it once more, and burning him and his knights into oblivion in the process.
With the Age of Fire extended and Nature's course broken, a horrible curse settled over mankind. Whenever the Flame would begin to die again, the Curse of Undead would arise. Humans would begin to be born with the Darksign. Humans with the mark had the Curse of Undead could never die, and would only reform at Bonfires that had sprouted over the world after the Linking of the First Flame. The sign was a curse because one could never die, and after dying so many times they would turn into Hollows. Hollows had no memories of their past lives, and roamed the Earth with no thought or purpose, only to kill those that had not yet became as they were. Each time this occurred mankind would spiral into Chaos and a knew champion would rise and Link the Flame, averting the Undead Curse for a few more centuries. This was a twisted cycle, and humanity would never know the true Age of Dark that they were meant to inherit.
I LOVE this lore of the dark souls series. In the games, you are the champion called upon to Link the Flame and end the curse, and always there is a decision to make and a struggle to break free from this twisted cycle. Dark Souls 3 is rumored to be the last in the series, and I'm extremely excited for the end of this game. I highly recommend purchasing this game if you like RPGs, fantasy, and a challenge. Bye.
I've gotten a LOT of new games this summer. I got The Witcher 3, Dying Light, and Rocket League by using some Best Buy cards my grandparents got me. I'm getting No Man's Sky in August, and I've gotten Dark Souls 3 in celebration of my first job. There was a period of about two weeks before I got the game where I was researching things about it, like gameplay, tips for beginners, and lore. I found the lore and the basic story structure of the games the most interesting.
The creation myth of the world of Dark Souls is very interesting. In the beginning, there was no heat, no cold, no life, no death, no light, and no dark. No opposites existed. Above the ground all was grey, and immense dragons lived outside of the cycle of life and death. Underneath the ground, unthinking humanoid creatures roamed with no purpose, will, or soul. Everything changed when the First Flame appeared. The Fire sprang up underground and four humanoids claimed four powerful Lord Souls from the fire. The Witch of Izalith claimed the Soul of Life, Nido The First of the Dead claimed the Soul of Death, and Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight, claimed the Soul of Light. After these powerful Gods left the flame a fourth humanoid appeared, The Furtive Pygmy. He claimed a unique soul, the Dark Soul. He split the Dark Soul into thousands of pieces, and each one inhabited a humanoid, creating mankind.
The three lords ruled over these humans, and before long they rose up to war with the dragons above. Seathe, a scaleless dragon, betrayed his kind to Gwyn and told them that the dragon's stone scales were the secret of their immortality. With this knowledge, Gwyn and his knights struck down the dragons with bolts of lightning, and the Age of Fire began, and opposites took form. Powerful kingdoms rose up ruled by Gwyn and The Witch, and humanity and these Gods were at peace. This peace would not last, for as all things must begin, so must all things end. And so the First Flame began to die out. With the First Flame dying, the power of the God's souls would too, and they would die with the Fire. Humanity, each possessing a part of the Dark Soul, would come to rule the Earth in the upcoming Age of Dark. The Witch of Izalith sought to solve this problem by creating a new First Flame, but her experiments in pyromancy were ultimately a failure. Instead she created the Flames of Chaos, and demons were born. Gwyn traveled downwards with his knights to the Kiln of the First Flame, and there he linked his soul to the Fire, kindling it once more, and burning him and his knights into oblivion in the process.
With the Age of Fire extended and Nature's course broken, a horrible curse settled over mankind. Whenever the Flame would begin to die again, the Curse of Undead would arise. Humans would begin to be born with the Darksign. Humans with the mark had the Curse of Undead could never die, and would only reform at Bonfires that had sprouted over the world after the Linking of the First Flame. The sign was a curse because one could never die, and after dying so many times they would turn into Hollows. Hollows had no memories of their past lives, and roamed the Earth with no thought or purpose, only to kill those that had not yet became as they were. Each time this occurred mankind would spiral into Chaos and a knew champion would rise and Link the Flame, averting the Undead Curse for a few more centuries. This was a twisted cycle, and humanity would never know the true Age of Dark that they were meant to inherit.
I LOVE this lore of the dark souls series. In the games, you are the champion called upon to Link the Flame and end the curse, and always there is a decision to make and a struggle to break free from this twisted cycle. Dark Souls 3 is rumored to be the last in the series, and I'm extremely excited for the end of this game. I highly recommend purchasing this game if you like RPGs, fantasy, and a challenge. Bye.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Ocean City New Jersey
Hello. Today I'm writing about our recent family vacation.
Every summer my family consisting of my mom and dad, me, and my siblings Alex and Katie, have a week long vacation in Ocean City New Jersey. We've been having this vacation for as long as I can remember, even though I've been assured that I haven't been there every summer of my life. While I'm there I see my Grandma, Aunt Robin and Uncle Dave, and my two cousins, Andrew and Isaac. It's also a family reunion on my dad's side. Going to Ocean City for vacation has been a long standing annual vacation on my dad's side of the family, so as you can imagine there are many many traditions to uphold yearly. For the most part we always rent out the same beach house. Our current one we've been using for at least three years, and I remember changing from our previous one because it was getting a little small for the growing families. The trip to Ocean City is filled with nostalgia and I find those kinds of car trips very fun when you know you're going someplace fun. We get up a little early and pack up the car with our clothes, beach chairs, and bikes. Among each of our backpacks there are small things to keep us entertained during the quiet moments at the beach house or while sitting on the beach. There are normally many books, but I think I won most books packed this year at seven. We normally stop at a toy store called It's a Toy Store on the way there. It's a house that's been converted into a toy store and almost every inch of the walls and ceilings have been covered in toys or posters or statues, and there are many toy racks in the rooms. It's a very dorky place, and me, Alex, and dad enjoy it the most. Normally we'd eat lunch at a place right next to the toy store, but they were closed so we ate at a large diner a little ways down the road called May's Landing Diner which was very good. There's a bridge that takes you over to Ocean City, which is a peninsula off of New Jersey. I saw the first seagull of the year there, and you could see all of us getting very excited.
We all had a huge amount of fun at vacation this year. We upheld a couple traditions but also did new things that were tons of fun. We went to Atlantic City north of us and went in the Apple Store, where my dad got a keyboard for his iPad. We went to a Red Robin and ate large burgers before going to see Finding Dory, which was very good. I rode rides with my Mom, Alex, and Katie, and they were as exhilarating as they are every year. More than those other things I just enjoyed being there. On the boardwalk. On the beach. In the ocean. At the beach house. But above all of those other things I enjoyed being with my family, especially the ones I only get to see a few times a year.
That was this year's Ocean City vacation. Bye.
- By Ashton
Every summer my family consisting of my mom and dad, me, and my siblings Alex and Katie, have a week long vacation in Ocean City New Jersey. We've been having this vacation for as long as I can remember, even though I've been assured that I haven't been there every summer of my life. While I'm there I see my Grandma, Aunt Robin and Uncle Dave, and my two cousins, Andrew and Isaac. It's also a family reunion on my dad's side. Going to Ocean City for vacation has been a long standing annual vacation on my dad's side of the family, so as you can imagine there are many many traditions to uphold yearly. For the most part we always rent out the same beach house. Our current one we've been using for at least three years, and I remember changing from our previous one because it was getting a little small for the growing families. The trip to Ocean City is filled with nostalgia and I find those kinds of car trips very fun when you know you're going someplace fun. We get up a little early and pack up the car with our clothes, beach chairs, and bikes. Among each of our backpacks there are small things to keep us entertained during the quiet moments at the beach house or while sitting on the beach. There are normally many books, but I think I won most books packed this year at seven. We normally stop at a toy store called It's a Toy Store on the way there. It's a house that's been converted into a toy store and almost every inch of the walls and ceilings have been covered in toys or posters or statues, and there are many toy racks in the rooms. It's a very dorky place, and me, Alex, and dad enjoy it the most. Normally we'd eat lunch at a place right next to the toy store, but they were closed so we ate at a large diner a little ways down the road called May's Landing Diner which was very good. There's a bridge that takes you over to Ocean City, which is a peninsula off of New Jersey. I saw the first seagull of the year there, and you could see all of us getting very excited.
We all had a huge amount of fun at vacation this year. We upheld a couple traditions but also did new things that were tons of fun. We went to Atlantic City north of us and went in the Apple Store, where my dad got a keyboard for his iPad. We went to a Red Robin and ate large burgers before going to see Finding Dory, which was very good. I rode rides with my Mom, Alex, and Katie, and they were as exhilarating as they are every year. More than those other things I just enjoyed being there. On the boardwalk. On the beach. In the ocean. At the beach house. But above all of those other things I enjoyed being with my family, especially the ones I only get to see a few times a year.
That was this year's Ocean City vacation. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Waffle House
Hello. Today I'm writing about my new job.
I've been looking for a part time job since last fall. At first I was very hesitant to work in fast food, I wanted to work in some sort of retail store. I applied to a LOT of different places, Food Lion, Target, Walmart, Big Lots, Walgreens, CVS, everywhere. Most places did not even call me back or contact me in any way after I filled out the online application. A month or two ago I had finally stooped down to applying to McDonalds, and it was looking like that was a possibility. I still need a lot of hours driving in order to get my driver's license, so I was out one day driving with my mom when we stopped at Waffle House. We ate their for lunch and it was pretty good, and mom pointed out a Now Hiring brochure on the table. At the time McDonald's was looking like I was going to be hired, but I had to try applying there too just in case. I applied online and within a day, someone had called me asking to schedule an interview there. It was the fastest I'd ever been contacted by any place I had applied to, and of course I accepted the interview. I went to the interview and it was mostly just a couple questions you would expect, mostly just clarifying things I had on the online application. The interview went very well, and they scheduled a second interview. The second interview was mostly about what I would be doing there at Waffle House. The manager said that he would like to make me a Door Corp, which is someone that comes in on the weekends and greets people, seats them, and cleans tables after they leave. Eventually he said he would make me a Grill Op, which is a cook. I thought that sounded great, and he wanted to quickly get me to start my classes so I could get started working. The only problem was that the classes were only on Thursdays and Fridays, during school hours. Unfortunately I had to wait until school was out to take those classes so I could start work. The Thursday after school was out I showed up to the Waffle House in Inwood for my interview in my black pants, black shoes, and white dress shirt. The classes were very boring and we sat in a very small, cold, back room filling out huge Waffle House books and watching cheesy information videos. I was very glad when it was over on Friday. Last Monday was when I was first working on the floor at the Waffle House I had applied to. I was getting paid of course but I wasn't getting any tips because I was shadowing another server in her section, so I took my own orders, but it was all in her section and she taught me a lot about how the restaurant worked. Tuesday was also a day where I was shadowing, and I quickly became sufficient at taking orders and calling them out to the cooks, which is the hardest parts about being a server. Last Thursday I had to go to the Inwood Waffle House one last time in order to get my Red Star Certification, which is what you need to be an official server at Waffle House. I got my certification easily enough, and showed up for my first real day working that Saturday at 6:30. It was pretty busy compared to the other two days I had been working there, but according to my coworkers it was slow for a weekend. I served twenty tables over the course of seven hours, and I did side work in between like filling up the ice containers, working the dishpit, and cleaning off tables. At the end of my first work day I was very tired and a little stressed from all the busyness, but I had come out of it with $59 worth of tips, and that was awesome.
Having a job is really great and although it's going to be tiring and sometimes stressful, it feels good to be doing it. Bye.
- By Ashton
I've been looking for a part time job since last fall. At first I was very hesitant to work in fast food, I wanted to work in some sort of retail store. I applied to a LOT of different places, Food Lion, Target, Walmart, Big Lots, Walgreens, CVS, everywhere. Most places did not even call me back or contact me in any way after I filled out the online application. A month or two ago I had finally stooped down to applying to McDonalds, and it was looking like that was a possibility. I still need a lot of hours driving in order to get my driver's license, so I was out one day driving with my mom when we stopped at Waffle House. We ate their for lunch and it was pretty good, and mom pointed out a Now Hiring brochure on the table. At the time McDonald's was looking like I was going to be hired, but I had to try applying there too just in case. I applied online and within a day, someone had called me asking to schedule an interview there. It was the fastest I'd ever been contacted by any place I had applied to, and of course I accepted the interview. I went to the interview and it was mostly just a couple questions you would expect, mostly just clarifying things I had on the online application. The interview went very well, and they scheduled a second interview. The second interview was mostly about what I would be doing there at Waffle House. The manager said that he would like to make me a Door Corp, which is someone that comes in on the weekends and greets people, seats them, and cleans tables after they leave. Eventually he said he would make me a Grill Op, which is a cook. I thought that sounded great, and he wanted to quickly get me to start my classes so I could get started working. The only problem was that the classes were only on Thursdays and Fridays, during school hours. Unfortunately I had to wait until school was out to take those classes so I could start work. The Thursday after school was out I showed up to the Waffle House in Inwood for my interview in my black pants, black shoes, and white dress shirt. The classes were very boring and we sat in a very small, cold, back room filling out huge Waffle House books and watching cheesy information videos. I was very glad when it was over on Friday. Last Monday was when I was first working on the floor at the Waffle House I had applied to. I was getting paid of course but I wasn't getting any tips because I was shadowing another server in her section, so I took my own orders, but it was all in her section and she taught me a lot about how the restaurant worked. Tuesday was also a day where I was shadowing, and I quickly became sufficient at taking orders and calling them out to the cooks, which is the hardest parts about being a server. Last Thursday I had to go to the Inwood Waffle House one last time in order to get my Red Star Certification, which is what you need to be an official server at Waffle House. I got my certification easily enough, and showed up for my first real day working that Saturday at 6:30. It was pretty busy compared to the other two days I had been working there, but according to my coworkers it was slow for a weekend. I served twenty tables over the course of seven hours, and I did side work in between like filling up the ice containers, working the dishpit, and cleaning off tables. At the end of my first work day I was very tired and a little stressed from all the busyness, but I had come out of it with $59 worth of tips, and that was awesome.
Having a job is really great and although it's going to be tiring and sometimes stressful, it feels good to be doing it. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Leap Day
Hello. Today I'm reviewing another mobile game.
The game is called Leap Day, and I'm reviewing it for iOS. The game is titled Leap Day because every day there's a new jumping puzzle level consisting of 15 parts. It's a very innovate game in that it literally produces more content for you play every day. Theoretically you could keep playing it and every day it would be new. You play as a small yellow creature with a green nose and the ability to jump once or twice in midair. The levels are scrolling platformers. There are walls on either side of the screen that limit your horizontal movement, but the level progresses by traveling upwards. Your character walks from left to right on the screen, turning back around when he comes into contact with a wall, or dying if he hits a hazard or monster. You tap the screen to make him jump, the character can double jump off of the ground. If it falls off of a platform, it can make two jumps because it didn't use a jump to leave the platform. It can also jump onto and off of walls, and off of monsters it jumps onto. Each level is comprised of 15 parts. In each part there are obstacles, hazards, and monsters that make it hard to finish that section. If you pass over the red banners at the top of the section, then you can unlock a checkpoint in case you die in the next section. To unlock a checkpoint you jump into a room through a door that opens up off the right side of the level. In the room there are two chests, if you jump into one chest you can buy the checkpoint with 20 fruit. There are fruit located throughout the entire level that can be dangerous to acquire, they function to keep track of your score. If you don't have twenty fruit, you can bump into the second chest which will unlock the checkpoint if you watch an add. If you jump into another room next to that one, you can bump into a chest to buy the premium version of the game for only a few dollars. The premium version is the same except when you jump into a checkpoint room there is only one large chest that will unlock the checkpoint for free. The checkpoints are numbered 1-15, starting at 15. The screen that shows all the levels is a calendar, with a level every day going all the way back to when the game was released. If you pass checkpoint 10, you earn a bronze trophy for that level on the calendar. If you pass checkpoint 5, you get s silver trophy. If you finish the level, you get a gold trophy, and if you finish the level and collect every fruit you get a crown with an apple. After completing checkpoint 1, you jump above a banner platform with black and white finish line colors. You jump up onto a late red button on an enormous trophy to complete the level. The trophy will total the percent of fruit you found, and if you found them all a crown and an apple will sprout from the trophy. Each level has a different back ground behind the obstacles, like a forest, or a castle, or even space. Every level is filled with countless hazards like spikes, sawblades, or fire. The number of monsters in each level is staggering, with things like purple crawlers that spit at you or large electric octopi.
I highly recommend getting Leap Day free on the App Store if you're ready for a daily dose of fun. Bye.
- By Ashton
The game is called Leap Day, and I'm reviewing it for iOS. The game is titled Leap Day because every day there's a new jumping puzzle level consisting of 15 parts. It's a very innovate game in that it literally produces more content for you play every day. Theoretically you could keep playing it and every day it would be new. You play as a small yellow creature with a green nose and the ability to jump once or twice in midair. The levels are scrolling platformers. There are walls on either side of the screen that limit your horizontal movement, but the level progresses by traveling upwards. Your character walks from left to right on the screen, turning back around when he comes into contact with a wall, or dying if he hits a hazard or monster. You tap the screen to make him jump, the character can double jump off of the ground. If it falls off of a platform, it can make two jumps because it didn't use a jump to leave the platform. It can also jump onto and off of walls, and off of monsters it jumps onto. Each level is comprised of 15 parts. In each part there are obstacles, hazards, and monsters that make it hard to finish that section. If you pass over the red banners at the top of the section, then you can unlock a checkpoint in case you die in the next section. To unlock a checkpoint you jump into a room through a door that opens up off the right side of the level. In the room there are two chests, if you jump into one chest you can buy the checkpoint with 20 fruit. There are fruit located throughout the entire level that can be dangerous to acquire, they function to keep track of your score. If you don't have twenty fruit, you can bump into the second chest which will unlock the checkpoint if you watch an add. If you jump into another room next to that one, you can bump into a chest to buy the premium version of the game for only a few dollars. The premium version is the same except when you jump into a checkpoint room there is only one large chest that will unlock the checkpoint for free. The checkpoints are numbered 1-15, starting at 15. The screen that shows all the levels is a calendar, with a level every day going all the way back to when the game was released. If you pass checkpoint 10, you earn a bronze trophy for that level on the calendar. If you pass checkpoint 5, you get s silver trophy. If you finish the level, you get a gold trophy, and if you finish the level and collect every fruit you get a crown with an apple. After completing checkpoint 1, you jump above a banner platform with black and white finish line colors. You jump up onto a late red button on an enormous trophy to complete the level. The trophy will total the percent of fruit you found, and if you found them all a crown and an apple will sprout from the trophy. Each level has a different back ground behind the obstacles, like a forest, or a castle, or even space. Every level is filled with countless hazards like spikes, sawblades, or fire. The number of monsters in each level is staggering, with things like purple crawlers that spit at you or large electric octopi.
I highly recommend getting Leap Day free on the App Store if you're ready for a daily dose of fun. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Chapter 17
Chapter 17
Julia took an indeterminate amount of time to rest. She did not know if she slept or not. It may have been 5 minutes, it may have been 5 hours, she'll never know. The unending darkness outside the window and the absence of any working clocks inside the building gave her no help. She proceeded with her plan.
Julia walked at an average pace, but took care to be more quiet than normal. The first ghast, as she had taken to calling the creatures, since the cafeteria was hunched over in an office space. She opened the door connecting to the hall to see if it was a survivor, and the sound made it lunge. Their bodies seemed to be fragile, even if they continued to live after suffering grievous wounds. This one was so resilient there wasn't anything left of its head except black goo on the wall before it finally died.
Julia was numb to the horror by now, killing the ghasts seemed like nothing more than a dangerous chore. It wasn't human bodies she was killing, in her head they were just animals. Julia passed by and killed 3 more ghasts. She was happened by her fourth, curled up in the corner of another office. She held it against the wall with her hand on its shoulder and raised her dripping right fist. Then... It cried out in pain?
"Please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't." Julia let go and stumbled back, surprised. For what seemed a long while, the man curled up in a tighter ball in the corner. Julia issued her first real words since she had... become this.
"Are you okay?" The voice sounded scratchy, like hers, but filtered and changed through the suit's exterior speakers.
"I-I.. Uh yeah I'm... Alright."
"What's your name?"
"Carson."
"Well Carson, you're the first one I've found in this hell."
"Oh."
"Care to leave?"
- By Ashton
Julia took an indeterminate amount of time to rest. She did not know if she slept or not. It may have been 5 minutes, it may have been 5 hours, she'll never know. The unending darkness outside the window and the absence of any working clocks inside the building gave her no help. She proceeded with her plan.
Julia walked at an average pace, but took care to be more quiet than normal. The first ghast, as she had taken to calling the creatures, since the cafeteria was hunched over in an office space. She opened the door connecting to the hall to see if it was a survivor, and the sound made it lunge. Their bodies seemed to be fragile, even if they continued to live after suffering grievous wounds. This one was so resilient there wasn't anything left of its head except black goo on the wall before it finally died.
Julia was numb to the horror by now, killing the ghasts seemed like nothing more than a dangerous chore. It wasn't human bodies she was killing, in her head they were just animals. Julia passed by and killed 3 more ghasts. She was happened by her fourth, curled up in the corner of another office. She held it against the wall with her hand on its shoulder and raised her dripping right fist. Then... It cried out in pain?
"Please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't." Julia let go and stumbled back, surprised. For what seemed a long while, the man curled up in a tighter ball in the corner. Julia issued her first real words since she had... become this.
"Are you okay?" The voice sounded scratchy, like hers, but filtered and changed through the suit's exterior speakers.
"I-I.. Uh yeah I'm... Alright."
"What's your name?"
"Carson."
"Well Carson, you're the first one I've found in this hell."
"Oh."
"Care to leave?"
- By Ashton
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Dungeons and Dragons
Hello. Today I’m writing about Dungeons and Dragons.
The past couple years or so I’ve had a growing interest in D&D. I had seen a couple YouTube videos, listened to some podcasts, and browsed a few websites online that had me very interested. It was a game like nothing I had ever really seen before and a storytelling medium that I hadn’t ever seen before either. However, it never really came up in conversation with my nerd friends and I never ended up voicing interest in it. Playing it would require a couple expensive books, at least three people, and a large amount of time, which were all things that initially dissuaded me. Recently, I’ve been very lucky to find a group of people willing to play with me. It came up among conversation with one of my oldest guy friends and before too long I had a group of people including: that friend I talked to, one of his friends, my girlfriend, her Dad, and one of my newest guy friends and possibly his Dad. From what I’ve seen and heard it’s always the most fun to play D&D with good friends or people you’ve known for a long time. Don’t be dumb like me, don’t hesitate to ask your friends, your girlfriend or boyfriend, and your family if they’re interested in playing because you may be surprised. Another thing to mention that may be helpful is that the expensive couple books you need to play are probably available online. I downloaded the Player’s Handbook for fifth edition D&D to my phone as a PDF for free, and I don’t doubt that the other books are available that way as well.
Here’s a small summary of D&D for those of you that don’t know what it is. D&D is a game where a group of at least three and up to twelve or so friends can sit around a table with some paper and a pencil and weave together epic tales in a high fantasy setting. D&D has no pieces or game boards (although you could easily use a map to represent where the characters are at any moment) instead you play with just some paper containing the details about your character, a pencil, and access to a couple rulebooks. D&D is a roleplaying game, but it doesn’t require a ton of imagination as you may think. The backstory for a character might be as short as saying your race, class, where they come from, and their motivation for adventuring, or it could be as long or detailed as you like, with many different influences from their past affecting the character’s choices in the game. Each player has their own personalized character, with their own race, class and backstory, and no two characters are exactly alike. One player instead of having a character will be the Dungeonmaster. The DM describes in detail the different places characters may go and what happens to them, they’re the general orchestrater of the storyline, however players can greatly affect the story as well by making drastic or unexpected decisions that could greatly alter your small band of adventurers, or the entire world you’re inhabiting. As the adventure goes on your character gains experience points and starts to level up; doing so can cause their ability statistics to go up, and their access to more powerful skills. It’s this way that not only does the story constantly progress, but so does the power of your character and their personality development.
It is possible for your character to die in a tragic fall off a cliff, or in battle with a group of demons, but it isn’t the end for the player. In a high fantasy world like D&D it’s entirely possible to have your character magically resurrected, but a player could easily just join the same group of remaining companions as a new character, in the same storyline. I’ve created two characters so far that I’m interested in playing at some point. Eogis is a Blueveined Tempest Knight. Being a blueveine means that you’re human, but you have a noticeably large or glowing blue vein that flows with magical blood. You gain magical powers from it, but the vein spreads as you age and will kill you long before you reach sixty. As a Tempest Knight, Eogis is proficient with weapons like swords and battleaxes, but also fights with the powers of lightning and thunder. He’s haunted by a great monster that killed his family and the order of knights he was trained in, so he’s started adventuring to maybe find this beast and kill it, but he’s a protector to all the races against monsters, and ultimately a force for good. My second character is Ignatius, a Phoelarch Untouchable Blade. A Phoelarch is a humanoid that’s descended from the phoenix, giving him bright orange skin, feathers for hair, and the ability to burst into light and fire. If he dies, he leaves a small black egg which will eventually hatch into a Phoera, a bird similar to a phoenix wit all his memories and his personality. As an Untouchable Blade, he is very skilled with using one handed slashing weapons, and has learned skills like parrying an attack, and counterattacking, making him a very quick and useful force on the battlefield. He’s come from the Plane of Fire, hoping to find adventure and something to fight for.
As you can see, the possibilities for your character are endless. D&D is very unique that way, it put’s unique characters in a unique setting and let’s them do whatever they want, creating an epic fantasy tale that could last for a day, or months. If you’re at all interested in playing, I recommend reading the Player’s Handbook online and of course, don’t be afraid to ask those around you if they’re interested. Bye.
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