Don't Die At Sea

When I turned 17, we ordered a cake at the grocery store for my party, as we’d done many times before. If you wanted something written on the cake you’d write it into a section of the order form. We requested, very simply, “Happy Birthday Courtney”. When we went to pick it up the day of the party, this is what we got.

The bakery employees had absolutely no explanation for this. The order form, attached to the box, very clearly did not contain any of those extra names. Whomever had done the writing was no longer in, so there was no one to ask how this had happened. The fact that the name ‘Juan’ is misspelled bewilders me to this day. (I’ve never seen ‘Miley’ without the E, either, but it’s believable that someone might spell it that way.) Did this cake slip in from an alternate universe where I’m one quarter of a set of Hispanic quadruplets? Dyslexic Hispanic quadruplets, maybe?

This cake became the focal point of my party. At least two of my friends regularly called me ‘Courtney Mily Jaun Pablo’ for years to come. My siblings and I still reference it sometimes, eleven years later. It is probably the funniest thing ever to occur at any birthday celebration of my life, and may well remain so for the rest of my days.

No One Like You

now, it took us a while to realise it meant "(there is) no one like you". at first, we all parsed it as a botched "no one like(s) you"

1970s Velvet Underground & Nico handmade knit sweater.

Wrapping up the WG-series this week, beginning with WG10: Child’s Play (1989).

Now, truly the nadir of the series, and perhaps all of Greyhawk generally, is WG9: Gargoyle. So if there is one positive thing about Child’s Play, it’s that it didn’t drag the line into deeper disrepute. But that’s about it.

Just look at the thrilling text from the back of the book, which tells you absolutely nothing about the scenario. As if it were embarrassed to mention that there is section involving yeth hounds titled “Yeth or No.” Or that Yeenoghu shows up to hunt rabbits. Or that there’s a gold dragon who speaks in a litany of Valley Girl “likes.”

This action-packed adventure module is especially designed to give beginning Dungeon Masters and players help in learning the AD&D game system. But don't be fooled by the title! The adventure is far from easy — in fact, it has challenges that can bring the careless character's adventuring career to an abrupt halt! Filled with surprises and excitement, the adventure is still easy to referee — and during the game, players and the DM alike will pick up tips and information that will prove useful for many games to come.

So, yea, it’s an introductory scenario rated for characters level 13 to 15. It has a froghemoth in it. And a demon lord. And a vampire named Luigi.

Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena), family Hyaenidae, Iran