Daruna - Session Teaser

This the is the session teaser I just sent out to my players as a lead in for our upcoming weekend game extravaganza.

Waxing Summer, the 19th day of the Moon of Heaven's Call

It's hot out. Damn hot. In the fields, irrigation work is in full swing, farmers levering skins of water from the Tana and its network of canals onto fields of wheat and barley, plots of beans, and clusters of fig and fruit trees. The temples are beginning their preparation for the midsummer sacrifices, a minor matter for most, but important to the scholars that track the movements of sun, moon and stars.

Tiddlywiki - Nifty Trick

I'm a fan of Tiddlywiki for GM notes, something I've mentioned of before. I'm currently doing some work for my next Daruna game, and in the process of creating a couple stat blocks for some standard fighter types, discovered this little trick.

An Author You Should Read

I just finished reading Michael Van Rooy's two novels, An Ordinary Decent Criminal and Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal. If you like books of the action / crime genre, you owe it to yourself to read these two. I picked up the second book at the library on a whim, started reading, and finished it in a day. Then I went back for the other volume and did the same thing with that. Sadly there aren't any further novels forthcoming, since the author died suddenly in 2011.

Diablo III Beta

I've been playing around in the beta for about a week now. Here are some thoughts in chronological order, oldest first. I culled these reactions from email messages I sent to friends as I was playing. To anyone that's been following other sources, there are probably not many surprises here. Just the viewpoint of a grumpy old video game player.

Split Pea Soup

A quick recipe I threw together this weekend that turned out really well. Split pea soup is usually a love it or hate it kind of thing. I happen to love it. Here you go:
Ingredients

• 4 strips bacon - diced
• 2 andouille sausage links - diced
• 1 medium onion - diced
• 2 large carrots - diced
• 1 sweet pepper - diced
• 2 1/2 - 3 quarts stock
• 1 lb. dried split peas - cleaned according to package instructions
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Process

1. Cook bacon and andouille sausage in a large stock pot over medium high heat, stirring frequently, for about 6-8 minutes.
2. Add onion and continue cooking and stirring until they become translucent. Bacon should be cooked but not crispy, andouille should be nicely browned.
3. Add carrots and sweet pepper and cook about one minute.
4. Add stock and split peas, bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to maintain.
5. Simmer 30-40 minutes until peas are cooked. That's it!

Notes

• Total time: about 1 hour.
• Tastes great with a good sharp cheese and fresh bread.
• Makes about 8 good-sized servings. 

I used half ham stock and half vegetable stock when I made this. My Mom gave me a couple quarts of ham stock she made using the bone from our traditional Christmas country style ham. This is effectively delicious salty liquid bacon, so I used a quart of it with a quart of vegetable stock. I added no salt, but about 3/4 tsp. black pepper.