Whistling in the Dark

LJ-Cut for those who don't care, and spoilers. And rage. So much rage.

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I Fought the Claw - No real progress this week mostly due to chores and children sucking away my evening writing time.

Foxen Worldbuilding. - Debating whether to do a write up what Foxen Service exactly means (it's not entirely military, though it is compulsory, unless you're a Noble in which case it's mostly social obligation. It also results in a smaller than average professional force backed up by a planet full of civilians with military training in various shades of rustiness.)

Also, marriage and gender roles, care and feeding thereof.


365 Days of Drabbles - Despite a hiccup now and again, I'm keeping up with this, amazingly enough

Other Stuff - I've got two script bits wiggling in my brain. One's a fix fic for Iron Man 2 that re-write most of the scene towards the end of act two when Tony tries to talk to Pepper in her office. The other is a script re-write of the opening to For Your Safety where we see what happened before the chase began and what all those morphs were doing in town.

• Wed, 16:26: @pvponline I know you are, but I'm telling you I HAVE found it. I've tried your way. This way's better. For me.
• Wed, 16:34: @pvponline Never doubt that I do what makes me happy, Grasshopper.
• Wed, 22:35: #AKOTAS update: never tweeted yesterday's, it looks like. http://t.co/Z2HBDx1f7y #webcomics #kingarthur
• Wed, 22:36: #AKOTAS update: now today's. http://t.co/bAPmngtqDs #webcomics #kingarthur
• Thu, 07:41: Laptop wouldn't take power at all this morning, like last year. No other working computers at home, no funds for repairs, cuz we're MOVING
• Thu, 07:44: I hate moving for the disruption of routine, but also because we're bad at it.
• Thu, 08:55: RT @jaythenerdkid: Very relevant, given today's events. #quoteoftheday #jefferson #religion #faith #freedom #wisdom #truth http://t.co/PU6O…
• Thu, 09:35: RT @joeymanley: Amazon Worlds doesn't mean you "get to" play in these worlds -- you can already do that. It means they "get to" capitalize …
• Thu, 09:44: paying for fanfiction http://t.co/Wxk74nopUD
• Thu, 10:30: Law was created to serve justice and human right, but we mustn't forget that it's not the same thing and can be suborned from that service.

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Him, Grimlock, kinda bricky in dino mode.

• Thu, 17:15: RT @DuvalMagic: SHiFT code for a Borderlands 2 Golden Key on the way. First come, first served - should last several hours. Good luck, and …
• Thu, 17:16: RT @DuvalMagic: PS3: CTKTJ-WRX3T-FRCKJ-ZB5J3-HRJC3. WinPC/Mac: CJW3B-ZCZTC-JZXT3-3JBJ3-XTRWF. X360: KTWT3-5Z6BH-WWSB6-KR33B-CF5WX

• Thu, 03:01: 365 Days of Drabbles, Day One Hundred Forty-Three http://t.co/nBz3GoZwN6
• Thu, 03:01: Friday Pointless Poll: Don't tell me he doesn't deserve it Edition http://t.co/pNzFSVvsqx
• Thu, 08:36: Rice would be safer, but nuts more likely (nuts = trees = forest = comfy reminder of species origins). Local peanut… http://t.co/NMuwurWbhY

• @pvponline Well. I draw a cartoon a day and they're read all over the world, which is all I ever wanted.
• @AlexanderDSoSo I do sometimes wonder what it'd be like to write characters whose fates aren't available in multiple wikis.
• @pvponline Don't put words in my mouth. I've said nothing of ownership. But since you bring it up, I believe fanfiction is fair use.
• @pvponline Seems you think I think fanfiction is something it isn't, because it isn't what you want. I know what it is. I want what it is.
• @pvponline @ArcadianMaggie I've been at this forty years, print and web. I know what it is.
• @pvponline @ArcadianMaggie You don't get to decide that for someone else. We do. You get to decide for you.
• @cartoonmoney Pretty sure @pvponline didn't imply you can get there [staff writer for Star Trek] by wishing, but that fanfiction has no worth but as a stepping stone.
• @cartoonmoney Which, however, is something @pvponline gets to decide for himself but for no one else.
• @pvponline You don't get to tell me what its spiritual worth to me is. @cartoonmoney
• @pvponline Or to my readers. @cartoonmoney

[Kurtz replied, "Paul, God bless you. I’m not trying to tell you what should be spiritual to you. I’m trying to help you find MORE spirit."]

• @pvponline I know you are, but I'm telling you I HAVE found it. I've tried your way. This way's better. For me.
• @pvponline Never doubt that I do what makes me happy, Grasshopper.
• Laptop wouldn't take power at all this morning, like last year. No other working computers at home, no funds for repairs, cuz we're MOVING
• I hate moving for the disruption of routine, but also because we're bad at it.
• RT @jaythenerdkid Very relevant, given today's events. #quoteoftheday #jefferson #religion #faith #freedom #wisdom #truth http://instagram.com/p/ZqBNexkmJl/
• paying for fanfiction http://tmblr.co/ZO40OulemrQK
• Law was created to serve justice and human right, but we mustn't forget that it's not the same thing and can be suborned from that service.

oh man I got an actual cease-and-desist email from Comcast for torrenting last week's Game of Thrones

...so I'm just gonna switch to DDL, which doesn't have much of a history with that. It'll take a lot longer, but it's hard to make a vid when you're missing the last two tumultuous episodes.

(The twist here is that we actually have HBO now. I've been downloading the new episodes for 1) vidding and 2) um, watching an hour or so before it starts here, because my dad likes to use the TV for a long time after dinner so I wouldn't be able to look at tumblr until god knows. I realize that this is basically the most impatient thing ever, but. Well, the vidding reason is valid, anyway.)

Christopher Lee to release SECOND full-length heavy metal album about Charlemagne.

• I think it may be time to get a new fedora. My current one is beginning to show its age.



• I ought to get a new Moleskine to keep on-the-fly notes in. Maybe I can do that at lunch. Done!



• I am worried that my new comic may not get off the ground; I have plenty written for it, but I'm not sure I have the long-term obsession that would compel me to draw 2+ hours every day any more... and I'm not sure the return would be worth the time invested. If this whole "full time at home" idea laurie_robey and I have been working on becomes a reality, I might be able to make one day a week "comic day." In the meantime, I really have to examine whether my limited creative time might not be better spent on other things.



• Speaking of laurie_robey, last night she gave me a rather wicked little idea to help me finish off this Michael Macbeth story I've been working on. Now I've got to buckle down and actually write it, 'cos the deadline is Saturday! Edit: Oops, apparently there's another whole week in May still. Stupid calendars being full of numbers!



• This bullet has no meaningful text!

I think there was more originally, but I got distracted by work. So, this is what you get!

-The Gneech

There were spiders dropping down from the ceiling and into my wife’s cleavage.  The wall behind her was a huge, stretched expanse of hairy green flesh, breathing slowly in and out.  Phantom janitors stole in and out at the edges of my vision, sweeping in places they could not possibly stand and then vanishing when I tried to talk to them.

And my response was, “Oh.  That’s interesting, what my brain is doing.”

These ridiculous hallucinations happened during my extremely traumatic 52-hour post-surgery recovery phase, when I was in tremendous pain and could not sleep.  And yet, I think about the only other time I hallucinated, having dropped acid on a very hot summer’s night… and I found it disappointing.  Yes, my vision was flexing and distorting, and I witnessed all sorts of curious artifacts as my brain’s visual processing center went into overload – but I quietly dissected each illusion, breaking it down into its interesting components, and in such a way I reduced what could have been a wild trip down into a series of interesting quirks.

I don’t really hallucinate, I don’t think.  I know what my brain is up to.  And today, I realized why:

It’s because I’m a depressive.  I don’t trust my brain.

My brain has been a chronic liar for years, telling me how everyone hates me (when they don’t), how I’ve never accomplished anything of any note (I have), and how the world would be better off if I just killed myself (unproven, but I use the other two false conclusions to keep that one in the “bad idea” zone).  I live a very strict life of having to double-check every input my brain gives me, for it routinely distorts a mundane “Oh!” into an encoded “You suck, Steinmetz, everything you ever liked was a fraud.”  If I don’t, well, I ruin my life.

So when my brain starts providing false visual information, I do the same thing: I question it.  I compare it to reality.  And if it doesn’t make sense, I ignore it.

This makes me a little sad.  I mean, it did protect me from a full-fledged freakout when I was in the hospital… but it means that while others experience an exultant joy with acid and peyote and other crazy drugs, seeing the face of God, I’ll never be able to flow with that illusion.  They can trust what their brains give them, accepting most inputs safely and without harm, and so when some external source causes the brain to deliver crazy input, they can just run amuck with it like a kid whirling on a playground.

I’m off to the side.  Analyzing.  Breaking it down.  Questioning relentlessly.  Because that’s my survival.  That’s what I do.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/304609.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OutOfAmbit/~3/F2v0gABVOwA/

http://dianeduane.com/outofambit/2013/05/23/recent-tweets-10/

• Oh great. @p_morwood 's computer's monitor just blew up. 20:48:17
• classictrek: Some of comic book icon John Byrne’s best work of the last few years ... http://t.co/AhtOTpMi2f #startrek 23:35:27

The post Recent tweets… appeared first on Out of Ambit.

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-23

Phil advises me that in the next two weeks alone we will have TEN containers of games on the water. And none of that includes Ogre. (Darn it.)

Castellan alone will take up four containers. Those won't make it to the US until after Origins, but we're getting 36 of each color to sell in Columbus. When they're gone, they're gone.

The other containers will be full of Munchkin Dragons, the Munchkin Zombies Decay d6, and Munchkin Level Playing Field. (Clarification: And a LOT of Munchkin, Zombie Dice, and Trophy Buck. -Phil)

I can still remember when I thought that a containerload of games was a big deal. Actually, it still is . . . we've just got ten big deals going at once right now. Wooooooo.

– Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Every Hero Needs A Costume! *

And every Munchkin game needs a T-shirt.

This high-quality four-color shirt depicts the highly collectible and completely non-existent "Origin Issue" of Super Munchkin.

It gives a special in-game benefit . . . the wearer can avoid Traps!

Get the Momentous Unmasking t-shirt today and be ready to unmask yourself at a moments notice.

In lieu of this week's IFtC entry (mostly because it's not finished) I preset a brief poll about our current story.

Poll #1914970 Possibly all at once.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

What should happen to Marty by the end of the story?

For rix_scaedu: “Here comes the bride”

* * *

“You’re being intolerably smug about this,” Melanie said, tapping her stylus against a fang as she looked over the marriage contract.

“What? Groom prices are traditional,” Rolas said, not even trying to suppress his smile.

“Well, up until about four weeks ago I was richer than your family.”

“That was before Mum was granted the countess-ship.”

“I know. I’d say that was most unfair, but you all damned well deserved it.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“I still think it’s a barbaric practice, selling one’s son off.”

“You’re not buying?

She caught his wrist in her paw. “I’m buying. And keeping.”

Well Benedict Cumberbund was pretty good.  Not so stellar that they couldn't have used someone actually Indian to play Khan, but just moving past that pretty good.  And the action stuff was good.  Sure the capabilities of Trek magic tech varied wildly at the need of the plot.  And I kind of wondered in the 3rd act where the fuck the rest of Star FLEET was hanging out.  But the shout-outs to older Trek were cute.  And the background crew who got lines are interesting.  Say a strong C+ or even a B- if you ignore the whole white boy Khan thing...

I wasn't at home much, so while I did get the funeral home stuff notarized & faxed to them (and a copy made for myself), and while I did get the check and originals into the mailbox... I did not have any time at home that wasn't on the County Courthouse's lunch hour. *headdesk*

Tomorrow, I call them and see if I can get the ball rolling on heirship.

Havva Quote
     It was very poor construction, I thought. Yes, enduring, but the mismatched steps would have had the workers responsible flayed. What dignity was there to a sacrifice who tripped? Worse, would the gods smile upon a priest who sprawled upon the temple stairs? Would they honor one who fell and broke his neck upon them? And the potential to place oil on an already uncertain stair... The Shunned could easily assassinate priests or even a Bride, as a simple "accident."
     But at least there was the grabbing-pole, and I kept a hand on it as I descended, with Dar behind me.
--Crucible, by me

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Tillamook Oregon
Originally uploaded by Bobshots

MallWart calls cops for "kidnapping" because children are with a parent "of the wrong colour".

LJ-Cut for those who don't care, and spoilers!

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Funny thing about my Lotro playing lately; I've actually spent more time in the Moors than playing the actual game. Never really been a big pvp person. The whole "there's somebody controlling the enemy" aspect leaves me a little lost. As in, they run around a lot, run away, work in tandem against you with intelligence behind their actions and I have a hard time hitting a moving target. I also seem to be pretty bad at being a moving target myself, so I die alot. A lot.

But, as another aspect of the game, once you start getting a feel for what's what and how it works, it can be rather fun. Like everything, you need to gear up for it, and that takes some grinding (cause let's face it, content for turbine is all about grinding :P), but once you have the gear, the craziness that is a raid on raid battle can be a little exhilarating.

As a champion, I do have one thing going for me. If I can hit, I hit hard. Big emphasis on that if I can hit part :P So, while I've only played out there maybe 4-5 times, I've gotten 27 killing blows. People who've played a bit more than me aren't that far ahead of me. Since I struggle to hit moving targets and definitely struggle to be on the right target, it's a testament of how hard I do hit that I have as many KBs as I do. I was involved in some fights today, for maybe an hour, 2-5 little skirmishes, and came away with 3 new KB's for my effort. I can't even tell most of the time if I'm hitting anyone let alone killing them.

I've avoided this part of the game for years because I knew I wouldn't be that good at it, but with the main game getting a little old (my being a completionist quester and raider), it's good do to something a little different sometimes. I've never been afraid to die a lot, so that's not a problem. There are lots of people who know this aspect well to run with, so there's plenty of folks to play with. What I need is to learn how to do it better, which may or may not happen. I'm good at these kinds of games, but even I have limits. ;)

There's a few more stories growing in that universe.

And other reasons John is no longer allowed in the kitchen unsupervised.

So! Since I have a massive pile of veggies to get through, I decided to try glenn_3's suggestion of "Chard, with bacon" to use up my Chard.

Short version: REALLY DAMN GOOD. Would be better if Chard didn't kind of taste like dirt, but it made the Chard awesome regardless, and other people who like earthy greens more than me are waxing rhapsodic over it. So: A great recipe, and will be used again on more chard or spinach or something if those show up.

( Reproducing recipe here to add notes and prevent linkrot:Collapse )

This is..... pretty much as delicious as chard (a spinach-like leaf vegetable with an earthier, more beet-like taste) is likely to get. Although I'll certainly try one of the other chard recipes if they give me more, the THIRD chard bunch is totally going to be this one again.

In today's strip, John makes an asinine comment about how much money Elly raised and is punished by being revealed to be so stupid, he bought his own old black and white television.

(Strip Number 4432, Original Publication Date, 25 May 1984)

Panel 1: As our story continues, we find Elly and Monique counting up the take. As they do so, John makes an asinine comment about how now that the madness is over, they can now count up the pennies.

Panel 2: Elly asks John what he means by 'counting her pennies' because she and Monique have made over $800.

Panel 3: Why, they even managed to get some total moron to pay twenty-five smackers for John and Elly's crappy old black and white TV.

Panel 4: When we next see John, he's in his workshop looking at the TV and thinking it looked familiar when he bought it.

Summary: The Lynnsight is going to be all about how Lynn doesn't really know how much Ruth and Tom raised. What it should be about is an asshole who thinks that since a man ain't involved, the little wifeys could maybe raise about five or six bucks on a good day.

http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2013/05/22/mail-connectivity-issues-affecting-homiemail-sub4-and-homiemail-sub5/

http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/?p=14856

We are currently investigating stability issues on the machines that handle mail service on two of our mail clusters. This accounts for the connection errors which customers on sub4/sub5 are experiencing at the moment. This is also causing webmail to load slowly. You can confirm whether you are affected by visiting our Web Panel https://panel.dreamhost.com and clicking the ” Account Status ” tab. Scroll to the bottom and you will see a field labeled ” Your Email Cluster “.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Our team is diligently working towards restoring service and we will continue to post updates as information becomes available.

Update May 22nd 1:50 PM PDT: We are no longer seeing any intermittent connectivity issues. At this time you should be able to connect to your email clients and webmail without any issues. Our network engineering team is monitoring all mail machines to ensure this issue doesn’t pop up again and is investigating options to improve overall mail stability. We apologize for the disruption of service as we understand how important mail is.

Update May 22nd 1:25 PM PDT: We are no longer seeing any intermittent connectivity issues. At this time you should be able to connect to your email clients and webmail without any issues. Our network engineering team is monitoring all mail machines to ensure this issue doesn’t pop up again. We will continue to look into tntil everything is fully resolved.

Update May 22nd 1:05 PM PDT: Our network engineering team continues to investigate the cause of this issue. These mail connectivity issues are causing timeouts in both webmail and email clients. We will continue to update this post as we receive more information. We appreciate your patience!

Update May 22nd 12:45 PM PDT: Our network engineering team is working in the process of tracking down the cause of this issue. At this time we are noticing several mail machines with extremely high loads. We will continue to update this post as we receive more information. Thank you for your patience!

“So I have this shaving cream…” said Greg.

“Promising start to a conversation,” replied Brigid.

“Hush, let me finish my sentence,” said Greg. “So I have this shaving cream, marketed specifically and in bold letters ‘For Men!’ which, for some inexplicable reason, is this day-glo neon blue color.”

“What, like gel toothpaste blue?” said Brigid.

“Yeah, pretty much like that,” replied Greg. “And I can’t help but wonder, what are the thought processes that led to this? I mean, did they have a focus group, where a bunch of guys came together and said, ‘Yeah, I really like this shaving cream, but I wish it was more comic-book-radiation-leak colored!’ or what?”

Brigid smirked. “Well obviously, day-glo neon blue is a very masculine color. Shaving cream for women is all pastel pink. All of it. No exceptions.”

“And it’s not like the color is even indicated on the packaging!” said Greg, warming to the topic. “So how can it be a marketing element? You don’t discover that it’s the color of something you’d never want on your face until after you’ve bought and opened it. Therefore, it has to be intended to get guys to buy that same shaving cream again. ‘I remember that shaving cream, it was neon blue! I’m getting that one!’”

“Maybe they’re depending on the fact that guys are, overall, a bunch of idiots.”

“Or the marketing team are all a bunch of idiots themselves.”

“They’re probably guys, aren’t they?” said Brigid.

“You’ve got me there,” said Greg.

-The Gneech

<-- previous B&G

Originally published at gneech.com. You can comment here or there.

• RT @GOPFIB 8 months of manufactured #Benghazi outrage, and all the #GOP found is that the #GOP doctored e-mails and lied. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdKesoUQAi0&feature=youtu.be
• RT @TrekMovie In fact sociologist @JTenuto has empirical data showing Trekkies are very social and actually more likely to be married than gen population
• RT @fozmeadows Oh wow. Nicholas Brendon is now the same age that Anthony Head was during the first season of Buffy. #buffyrewatch
• @AlphaRaposa @dantheshive Oh, so Steam comes in a cloud.
• RT @ToolPackinMama Once the rich have suceeded in killing the poor they will be stuck having to do all their own work. #p2 #tcot Then they will die.
• @pvponline I perceive a disconnect between this attitude and that of the raves you've been tweeting about the new Star Trek film.
• @pvponline Five hundred years ago all people wanted was new stories about familiar heroes. Originality is a fashion.
• @pvponline I have tried my own original stories. Fanfiction is more rewarding to me.

[Kurtz tweeted back, "@AKOTAS because its so safe. Your hiding. It hard to put yourself out there. What if people hate it. But everyone loves Batman."]

• @pvponline Not at all. It's because the work is so inspired by the characters it cannot be separated from them.
• @pvponline Salinger said, "The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it."
• @pvponline It has to do with passion. http://scarfman.livejournal.com/210090.html
• @pvponline I was having stories printed in trekzines before you were in school. I know my heart and mind on this subject.

Once again, we come to a rushed day where I cannot churn out a full blog entry.  And yet I feel like interacting!  And so I return to the gift that keeps on giving:

Ask me one question, on any topic. I shall answer truthfully.

(Please. No woodchuck questions. Someone always asks, and it’s never gotten a good response.)

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/304147.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

Happy birthday, billroper.

For those of you who keep track of this sort of thing, the interesting thing is that Lynn's latest press release is not about the Rejected Strips section. Instead, we get this odd little thing about the Farley Foundation bike race.

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For rix_scaedu: “More comets and meteorites”

* * *

“Okay, the bad news we have three previously unknown asteroids between the sizes of one hundred to five hundred meters, and two Tunguska sized comets all on course to land in Russia in the next four to ten days.”

“And the good news?”

“There isn’t any. Any one of them even near-misses the Aral Sea and…”

“Wait, they’re not just all going to hit Russia, they’re going to hit the same lake?”

“Sea, sir.”

“Whatever. What about the StarGuard?”

“It got scrapped after the Soviet Union broke up. I think the bunker is owned by a Mafiya don.”

“We’re screwed.”

The Man and his laws are looking to come down hard on Scruffy the Druid.  Charges of grave-robbing and assault.  With even his allies only able to offer a defense that he's just a poor simple-minded savage.  A former slave, unable to understand the ways of civilization.  Well fuck them.  And fuck the (hu)Man!  Unbowed and unbroken Scruffy defies them!  Defies the (hu)Man's
laws and tyrannies!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OutOfAmbit/~3/hjega4t_UgM/

http://dianeduane.com/outofambit/2013/05/22/recent-tweets-9/

• "Teacher suspended for allegedly touching girl with a banana" http://t.co/q3tMU7don7 21:10:44
• Wut. (EYEROLL) RT @owillis: Drudge's pal Alex Jones thinks a "weather weapon" may have been used in Oklahoma http://t.co/X0aqBIz7NO 21:25:43
• "Drunken moon blamed for car rollover" http://t.co/SsmYzI7IIT 21:32:04
• Woman tweet-brags about hitting cyclist with her car. Discovers that police also use Twitter: http://t.co/AtaYVY5mCs 22:10:36
• Oh CRIPES. "Quarrel with girlfriend caused man to cut off his penis and flush it down toilet" http://t.co/xVfNFfc9OG 22:22:37
• Yay! "Russian space lizards return to earth" http://t.co/kVHOJzyueZ 23:34:38

The post Recent tweets… appeared first on Out of Ambit.

So the 6th finger trait is dominant. She wanted it lopped off since Annie cheated

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-22

We've got some awesome new releases for your favorite games coming out in August! Don't just take my word for it. See for yourselves:

Munchkin Dragons

Here There Be Dragons!

Dragons are fearsome! Dragons are cool! Dragons have LOTS of treasure for munchkins to loot! Munchkin Dragons has 15 new cards. The treasures are wondrous indeed . . . but first, you've got some dragons to slay. Good luck.

This is an expansion for Munchkin. It is not a stand-alone game. This is NOT a collectible or randomized set. Every Munchkin Dragons pack is the same as every other.
 

Zombie Dice Brain Case

Upgrade your game with the Zombie Dice Brain Case . . . a stylish, noisy dice cup with a screw-on lid ringed with 13 braaaaaaaiiiins. Brraaaiiiinnnnsssss!!!

It comes with one Zombie Dice Score Pad for easy brain counting.

This is not a stand-alone game. This is an accessory for Zombie Dice.
 

– Ben Williams

 

Warehouse 23 News: Horrendous Fiends Plague The Countryside...

Terrorizing helpless peasants and destroying vital crops. The people cry out for great heroes to confront this evil.

Do you have the courage to enter the deadly Vault of the Fiends?

Combine this set with other Dungeoneer sets for more dungeon-delving fun!