…more fake anime
Here’s the final entry for Tiny Folk Week. Next theme: The Undead.
The Doclopedia #218
Tiny Folk: Badiban Storyteller
Nobody knows exactly how old Badiban Storyteller is, but most agree that he is at least 300 years old. That is pretty amazing, since the average Tiny Folk person only lives to about 75. Still, folks have been hearing Badiban tell his tales since shortly after the Tiny Folk came to America and that was just over 300 years ago.
Badiban looks about 40. He has long blond hair, blue eyes and tanned skin. He dresses in suede leather and has a backpack in which he carries all his earthly belongings…including at least one volume of his “Book of Tales”. When he arrives at a Clan’s home, the people feed him and give him lodging in exchange for hearing his stories. He never stays for more than a few days, then he is off on his never ending journey.
Or is he? In fact, my children, Badiban is not one person, but anywhere from 18 to 32 members of Clan Badiban. The home location of the clan is somewhere in the Colorado Rockies and no other clan even suspects its existence. The clan was founded 300 years ago to chronicle the history of Tiny Folk in America. The various Badiban Storytellers all look quite similar and generally spend about 20 years on the road before retiring. There are thousands of volumes in the Tales and new Storytellers are always in training.
After The Change Came
A Day For Dinosaurs
As we all know, the Council of Wizards did a whole lot of stuff back in the weeks right after The Change. They set up the Towns & Cities, they created the Lunar Portals, they helped everyone adjust, etc, etc. All great works, certainly.
But in my opinion, their best act was to bring back the dinosaurs.
Not ALL of the dinosaurs, of course, but large and stable populations that live in areas well protected from incursion by humans and other pests/potential protein sources. Those dinosaur habitats often have upwards of 50 species living in a single area that measures 30 or so miles on a side. Webcams allow us all to see these sanctuaries any time we like, sometimes from a dino point of view, but it’s not like seeing the real thing up close.
Once in a while, the Wizards will gather up a few dinosaurs and put them on display for we puny humans to gawk at. Such a display is going on here in San Francisco today. The are 18 species of dinosaur here, including a Carnotaurus and a humongous Seismosaurus. Man, that is one bigass hunk of plant eater. As is often the case in these displays, the triceratops is getting a whole lot of attention. Of course, if there were any sort of velociraptors here, they’d be the stars, but there aren’t any.
Anyway we had a great time looking at them and we even got to pet and pose for pictures with the above mentioned triceratops.
Fun Fact: A triceratops who is calm and not feeling threatened is about as gentle as the average cow.
And going back to my mention of the Lunar Portals, I will soon be posting the emails I sent to my nephew Zach (who is a Life Support Specialist up on the Narnia L5 colony) back when The Change was all new and shiny.
We will be leaving San Francisco in about 2 hours, heading out for Yosemite, where we’ll spend the night. We’ll all get back to Casa Cross about 6 pm tomorrow, where we’ll spend a day resting up before going to SacCon.
A Night For Apologizing Drunkenly
Yes, yes, I’ve been away from here for a few days. The trip from San Francisco to Yosemite took a strange turn when, upon our arrival at Yosemite Village, I was whisked away by the hotel management and asked to mediate a disagreement between the Giants (who live in the high Sierras, including Yosemite) and a group of Mountain Trolls from the Coast Range who have crossed the Central Valley and set up shop near Yosemite Village.
Quick note: Unlike most regular trolls, Mountain Trolls are huge, stupid and violent.
Long story short: I talked to both sides for several hours until a Mountain Troll decided to knock me about 30 feet into a pond. At that point the Giants, knowing that my sister Rosie and brother in law Mike are Giants, stopped playing nice and beat most of the Trolls half to death.
I then spent the next day drinking glass after glass of truly nasty tasting healing draught that Grace made from plants and who knows what else. Bear shit and toadstools, for all I know. It did work, however, and I’m all healed up. I doubt the Mountain Trolls can say the same, but fuck them anyway.
Anyway, we arrived back here at the farm Thursday afternoon and all proceeded to rest up for SacCon, which actually started today, but really starts with parties on Friday night.
So far, the con has been great. My friends Peter and Brian co-GMed a Pulp era adventure with me. Peter ran the beginning third, Brian the middle and then I ran the trilling climax. It was pretty sweet. I mean, dude, ZEPPELINS versus NAZI ROCKET MEN!
Right now, I am in the Rockin’ Rocket bar on top of the convention center hotel. There are about 250 gamers in here dancing and singing and generally having a ball. Daniel, boyfriend to the lovely and talented Avis, is joining me in trying various tequilas. We are about to take shot #8, I think. This might take awhile because he is Mage (with a Mage’s high resistance to alcohol) and I, as part of the whole mutant diplomat package, have a high resistance to all poisons. But for science, we’ll keep drinking. We are both lightly buzzed. Or maybe drunk. Whatever.
At the same time, Daniel, Avis, Mary, Spike, Lori and several others are helping me plot out a world & quests for QuestWorld. The non drinkers (all three of them) are taking notes for me. Should make good reading when we all sober up someday.
Anyway, back to creating quests and partying. More blog-o-rama later.
A Day For Saying “Yeah, That’s MY Wife!”
My hangover was much less than I expected this morning. Still, I’m moving a bit slower today, so as not to cause my head to fall off.
High point of the con so far? My Sweet Angel, Grace, riding in on Skooskorix, the Official Dragon of SacCon. Skoos is a big girl, even among dragons. 310 feet from nose to tip of tail. And half again that in wingspan. Thankfully, she’s about as sweet tempered and friendly as anyone you’ll ever meet.
So, I’m of to be part of the always popular “Gaming Before The Change” seminar, followed by a good old fashioned dungeon crawl being GMed by Peter. After that, there may be purchases made in the Dealer’s Room.
The Dociverse Blog 