Story Hour - Age of Worms (Alternate) - Sasnak's Game

[sasnak]

Hi everyone

I'm new to story hour, so be gentle. I have been running the Age of Worms campaign and we have just completed the second chapter with the players preparing to leave the stink hole town at last, we have taken a break.

This was also the first time we ran a campaign journal, so having read some of the more interesting posts on here on the same subject, I thought you might like another take with some rather odd and wacky interpretations from my spin on certain rooms. Apologies in advance to the writers, especially with what I did with the enmity between the town and monastery and also with the way I perverted the rainbow lantern room...

I will use the following "---- continues ----" to end each set of posts, so please refrain commenting until after you see that bit - much appreciated. I'm typing as I go for this one in order to get myself started

Oh - one last bit - this will be very much from a DM's point of view drawn from player notes and personal charts and bits n bobs. Where I can remember I added anything significant, I will note it down along with my reasoning.

So here goes, sit back, relax, enjoy and steal any ideas of ours you like...

 

[sasnak]

Welcome to Diamond Lake, a small mining community situated in the heart of Greyhawk; rather like a furring of the aorta or the atrium.

What adventurers would tell you about the town would differ from adventurer to adventurer. Some would tell you of the debauchery and violence they found there, yet others would never bring the name up in polite company. Dwarves would tend to talk about mines and beer; but when do dwarves ever talk about anything other than mines and beer?

You will certainly never hear of any talk of adventure at Diamond Lake. Nothing ever happens in Diamond Lake, it is a place devoid of interest, other than what you could pay for at either the Emporium or the Midnight Salute.

Diamond Lake is a hive of seedy individuals. The local populace do see some human traffic pass through, merchants and adventurers usually, and they either pass on as quickly as they can, or as soon as their money has run out at the brothels about town. Those that stay here are soon ‘employed’ in the mines (as soon as they are of working age); something almost a kin to a life time’s hard labour in a prison of filth and despair. The mine killed anything of value here, it poisoned the lake and polluted the earth; the only thing left to the populace are the mines, and my players loathe the place from the start... nice.

For some bizarre reason there is an enclave of paladins within Diamond Lake, devoted to the deity of Heironeous. Many of the townsfolk have heard that being posted here is some form of punishment. The townsfolk are quite frankly just as happy worshipping Wee Jas as Heironeous.

Is that a reflection of the town, or the number of half-orc workers that openly exploit themselves to servitude here? Both perhaps; but having a large number of half-orcs resident not so far from the borders of warfare is rather unsettling, and an issue of general unrest upon both sides.

Moving on from the divine, let me now move to the debauched. Those of Diamond Lake gifted with a pretty face, rather than being on all fours in the shaft of a mine, are far more likely to find themselves "working for" a miner in one of Diamond Lake’s various ‘entertainment establishments.’ Of the two of these, the Emporium is perhaps the more deserving of the word ‘entertaining,’ featuring shows put on by travelling bards among other "activities".

A few do escape this torturous life in this decrepit town, or so they think. Nearby is the Twilight Monastery, where monks train in beating the life out of people. A while back the monks killed several of the locals in the town, and people are cautious of them. That's cautious spelt "kill on sight" of course!

Also free from the call of the mine are the only group of elves who seem to call this pit home. A group of elven rangers hold an out post at Diamond Lake, and from there enforce a ‘law’ around the local countryside. The outpost is only manned by pure-blooded elves though, and word is that anything less is looked down upon.

Then there are the druids of Bronzewood Lodge. Luckily for them they manage to wrangle out of servitude down in the dank depths of that god-forsaken collection of worm-holes by providing a buffer zone between the monastery and the town. Not a nice job, but someone has to do it to stop the embers of war being fanned to flame.

Enter the characters....

 

[sasnak]

Early in the morning Adela, one of the druids from the grove, and a friend of Tolarus (human dragon shaman), awoke him. He had been sent a letter, a summons by Allustan, one of the elders of Diamond Lake. The note asked for him to attend a meeting of others at an old abandoned farmhouse, just at the outskirts of town. It offered that, in doing so, and subject to acceptance of terms laid down, I could escape servitude to the town dirt holes.

Unsurprisingly, after that town introduction, he went.

On arrival, he was greeted by an attractive young woman (Minavirra, "listed as human rogue" but with unusual abilities - more later on) who told him to wait inside. At first, he wondered if she might be an assistant of Allustan’s, but it soon became apparent that she was a fellow summonee.

Two others were inside awaiting. One looked like a monk ( human monk! ) from the nearby monastery; a surprise given the overt dislike and distrust of them present in the town.

The other was a strange fellow that was often seen about town. Dwarven sized, rather like a tall halfling, his face was covered with patches of fur; feral, as if feline. Hopefully I will learn more of him over the course of our job. (A Rogue Tibbet - from Dragon Compendium 1, I believe)

The monk seemed to be sitting in the head chair as the others filed in and took their seats opposite him. No sooner had they confirmed that he was not called Allustan than the real Allustan came through the door (don't you just love having DM timing?) , its broken slant righting for him and fitting adequately back in its frame.

Allustan entered, greeting them, and after the dopey monk moved from his seat, he sat with them and began to relate why he had called them there.

Initial Party as follows (two others joining via a different route - he he)

Tolarus - Dragon Shaman - Human
Quick fang - Rogue - Tibbet
Minavirra - Rogue (Lady of the Emporium!) - Human
Calamon - Monk - Human

 

[sasnak]

"Near the town there is an old cairn, known locally as ‘the Whispering Cairn.’ There are many tales about this dark hole; some of them are pure myth, but some of us who are older know all to well that some are not. A few years ago, some of the older children convinced one of the younger girl’s to spend the night in the hole. That wasn’t unusual, it was common as a test of bravery; but the girl, who was only then six herself, disappeared. I still remember the shrieking from her mother when she found out, and from what I learned in the years later her father soaked himself into a drink habit, which he never recovered from.

Those who led her down there were never charged with anything, just cautioned, as most of the adults had done the same when they were kids. A couple left town shortly after, quite probably to escape the town and what had happened there. Yet another committed suicide. The cairn is a scary place, and for a time after no one dared venture down there; but in time the dares returned. Each of you here have taken that test and survived in your past."

The players soon gathered they were to enter further than ever before into this forbidding place. The also found out some rather interesting information about Allustan himself, in particular that he had been in consort with the head of the Twilight Monastery. Surprising, given the shared distrust between both the town and the monastery, but did explain the presence of the fistly monk.

Apparently, as part of their seemingly regular conversations, Allustan had received a warning. The head of a Monastary said that, whilst in her daily meditation, she had received a vision. This vision seemed to paint that there was some great trauma down in the Whispering Cairn, and advised that it should be investigated.

These stalwards had apparently stood out amongst the town’s youth as those fit for more than shovelling soil for the rest of our unnaturally shortened lives, and so Allustan had gathered them together to be the ones to go down there.

It would be a dangerous task, at least if the ‘visions,’ which were all rather conveniently not described, were indeed true; not to mention the events of childhoods passed. They never brought the little girls body back that day, and the pc's rightly feared was that whilst down there they may well find out what happened to that little girl.

Before he left them, Allustan ensured that we were all equipped for our journey; it’s a sure sign that there is something worthy enough to need to be equipped for. It could just be the wisdom of the elders though, a lesson in being prepared for what could be; enter a situation blind, and you could end up becoming death also. Before Allustan left he asked for someone to take on the responsibility to lead the party. Tolarus readily agreed. We were then given the deeds for the property we had met in, and these tolarus promptly claimed "for safekeeping". The building is dilapidated and in need of a lot of repairs, but was still serviceable in part.

As Allustan made his exit, the attractive woman, Minavirra, mentioned that she had some prior appointments already made that needed to be kept. Allustan granted her leave for this. With that, Allustan left us, and so too the door from its frame. (Minavirra was not available for a couple of sessions, and so had a minor leave of absence)

The group remainder pressed onwards to the cairn (yup, they didnt know what they were letting themselves in for and soon decided to get some extra hands.... but I digress)

At the mouth of the Whispering Cairn they looked into the darkness that lay before them, eventually they entered.

It took a few moments to convince the feral one, ironically named Quickfang, to walk through ahead of them. Which considering he had the lantern was not exactly the most unreasonable of ideas to contemplate. But players are as players are and town and the cairn had them all on edge (DM notes to self, perhaps a tad too dark, but very effective, maybe next time I'll run it in Ravenloft - muwah ha haaa).

And so the lantern was lit and the exploration began...

---- continues ----

 

[sasnak]

Okay, we continue then - this next bit extracted straight from a player journal that was just so good, I couldn't bring myself to para-phrase any of it

---- From the campaign Journal of Tolarus - Entering the cairn for the first time ----

Personally I hate this place; it’s like the introductory course to that caliginous catacomb of passages they call the mine.

As we descended into the dark depths we quickly came upon the slab the brave amongst us used as a bed when staying here. Still here was the cracked petrified bedroll the girl had used here whilst on her stay, along with some of her scattered belongings. Out of respect, we left them where they were.

Graffiti covered the walls from the entrance to this spot. All names of previous people who had taken up the dare and spent a night within the cairn’s chilly mouth. Somewhere in here was my own name, though I made no effort to look for that remnant of the past. Quite possibly the names of my current companions were here; and so too would also be that girl’s.

We continued on, past walls covered with tubular recesses, which we discovered were responsible for creating the eerie whisper that the cairn is so well known for. Eventually the foot marks in the dust and the name tagging petered out, and we found ourselves the deepest that anyone had been in the cairn in living memory, or written as judged by the walls.

Just as the signs of other explorer’s left us, we found ourselves between two alcoves in the corridor. One way was possibly a corridor, but had previously suffered a cave-in, solidly blocking any way through. In the other direction lay a strange and rather large artefact.

At first I thought that it must be the remains of a large mirror, but further investigation by the others revealed that it was in fact a broken teleportation gate to the plane of air, or so they said with an air of confidence.

The markings on the outside were some sort of glyphs, but we had no comprehension of what they meant; the monk, Calumm Qi Tun, crudely took some examples on a staff he was carrying so we could take it back to show Allustan. Not only did we find this, but the fragments of the mirror, made of a material we were unable to identify, the shards of which were razor sharp.

The monk, whilst trying to draw the glyphs, cut through both his sack and his staff very easily with the material. I took a sample of it for my own curiosity into what the substance might be, whether I take it to Allustan or seek some other authority somehow I have yet to decide.

As for the gate, I have my fears. Whatever could have come through the gate may have come through the gate. We had no idea when the gate was broken, as the material was unknown to us; all we knew is that in its broken state it was inactive. Our initial assumption was that it was sometime ago, but that assumption was based on the dust over the floor.

Potentially, beings from the plane of air would have some control of the environment, sweeping away or leaving no trace of their passing could be easy to them. Not only that, they could in actuality survive further down in the cairn since coming through, not actually needing to venture out as far as the mouth. For example, where does the breeze that creates the whispering noise come from? My assumption was always that it was air rushing into the cairn, but what if it was in fact air from those creatures somehow rushing out?

What is certain to me is that we must remain vigilant down here, lest we also disappear. So, from there, we continued further down into the cairn’s haunting depths...

---- DM break ----

At this point we cut scene to introduce the last two members of the party, a half-orc working for the local militia called Thokk and his charge, a priestess following the goddess of party an frivolity, currently encarcerated (not for the first time) for drunken and disorderly behaviour....

 

[sasnak]

Back in Diamond Lake, Thokk, a youth member in the Diamond Lake Militia, was startled awake. He bolted upright in his armchair in the barracks common room, the place where he had stopped to rest a moment after his night shift. Apparently he had rested his eyes for longer than he had planned and, bleary now, they fixed on the face of Connor, stood back from him.

“Mornin’ Thokk. Boss wants to see you in his office asap, somet’ about a meeting he said.”

Thokk brought his hands up to his face, rubbing his sleepy eyes awake.

“Come on, come on. We haven’t got all day trooper,” Connor laughed to him as he passed round Thokk’s chair, “could be the next war, this.”

Thokk tossed him a glance from over the back of his chair just as Connor filled a cup with water.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” Connor smiled back taking a sip. He continued facetiously, “get out of the wrong side of the chair this morning did we?”

“Enjoy peeling potatoes, Spudder?” Thokk passed back, getting up out of his seat. “How many this time?”

“Five. What could I do though? They were resisting arrest,” Connor shrugged jovially.

“But you were at a bar drinking,” Thokk interjected.

“Yeah, but I was on duty,” Connor shrugged again. After a moment the two burst into laughter.

Thokk left Connor in the common room and, leaving the building, walked across the yard towards the captain's office. Cutting across the yard, he briefly watched some of the troops practicing drill manoeuvres. By the looks of things they could have been practicing for a public showing, but it was so hard to tell. The officers liked to add a bit of variation into drill manoeuvres to stop the troops from getting bored or complacent; he had heard nothing about any planned public demonstration of force though.

For a moment he pondered whether the meeting he had been called to might be to inform him of just such plans, but he quickly shook the thought from his mind; as far as he was aware he was the only one in attendance, it was far more likely to do with the arrests he had made the previous night. Avoiding the morning’s drill, the young fighter entered the building again, and traversed the stairs to the top floor. Approaching the captain’s door he gave it a firm couple of rapps before being called in.

“Ah, Thokk, come in,” came Captain Tolliver Trask’s typically firm greeting. Thokk entered, closing the door behind him and approached Trask’s desk.

Behind Trask, sat on the sill of the window overlooking the yard, was an older man. He was smartly dressed, his staff propped up in the corner of the room by the captain’s personal drinks cabinet.

“This here is Allustan, one of the elders of Diamond Lake. I have told him a lot about you, and it seems he has a job he could use your help with.” Tolliver turned to Allustan, “now if you will excuse me, I will let you discuss the matter in private. Good day, Allustan.”

“You also Tolliver; and thank you.”

With that, Tolliver left the room.

“So, Thokk, I believe you shall be coming of age soon. Soon you shall have to choose between a life here in the local militia,” Allustan swept both hand and gaze across the room, obviously signifying what Thokk had already seen of the place throughout his training. “Or,” he continued, bringing his gaze back to Thokk, “a life down in the mines.” Allustan gave a slight shrug; Thokk just gazed back, rather nervous about where this, seemingly rather one-sided conversation, was headed.

“I understand you are responsible for several arrests last night. Tolliver tells me you show a lot of promise.” Thokk said nothing, remaining at attention, wondering what it was all this had to do with him. “I am here because I can offer you a third choice. If you wish I can give you the opportunity to become an adventurer. All you need to do is a job for me.”

Thokk merely replied with a cautious nod, wondering what this might be leading him into. Allustan then explained that the job was to assist a band of adventurers hunting evil in the Whispering Cairn.

“There is a woman in the cells that you arrested last night,” Allustan continued. From there he pulled out some papers from a bag at his side and tossed them so that they landed over on the desk in front of him. “Those are her release papers, she is in your charge now. Take her with you, she will help you by acting as a healer.”

After that Allustan bade the young Thokk good luck, and Thokk made his way down to the cells. He showed his papers to the guard on duty, and got the key for the relevant cell. He passed down the corridor, found the cell, and called inside to the woman lying slumped in the corner.

“What is it? Don’t shout so loud,” came the reply, as she righted herself slowly and used the arm that had been dangling loosely over her head to rub her face.

“You gotta come with me,” Thokk answered, the key clicking in the latch as the cell was unlocked, a screech coming from the door as it opened.

“Ahhhhhh!” The young woman placed her hands over her ears, her eyes like slits. “Do you mind not making so much noise! That hurts!” She slowly lowered her hands before properly looking at Thokk. “Wait, I think I remember you. Last night. You were the one who put me in here. Finally come to you senses I see. Right, which way to the nearest...”

“You’re not free,” Thokk interrupted, “says here. You’re in my charge now; you have to help with the mission first before you’re free.”

“Wha...?” The young woman stopped, her mouth a gasp a moment. “Give me that,” she continued, snatching the papers from Thokks grasp before he had a chance to pull them away. She read through them intently, until her head rose from them again. “Fine,” she replied defiantly, “but you owe me a drink, and the party afterwards had better be a good one.” She paused a moment, handing the papers back to Thokk. “Well? Lead the way!”

----------

As they travel to the cairn, we return to the events unfolding within...

 

[sasnak]

---- The continuing events of the cairn, from the Journals of Tolarus ----

The others suggested we head further into the depths of the cairn, so we walked deeper in. Ahead of us I noticed a green flickering light even further in the cairn, though the other two seemed to have already spotted it. We were then about to make our way closer towards this erratically strobing light source, but before we could, Qi Tun told me to look behind us.

Taking morning star to hand, I turned to see two silhouettes approaching from the outside. One was large, the other smaller, and more slender, but against the backdrop of light I could not tell any definite features. Suddenly a beam of light shot from one of them, aiming at my chest.

DM : Allustan had provided a one use locate object item trained to some items being carried by Tolarus.

Fortunately for me this was not harmful in any way. Then a deep voice came from the figures, calling out my name!

Though it was a distinct possibility that the figures had been sent by Allustan, or indeed Minavirra, this was enough for me and I told them to halt where they were. The figures did this immediately, and the larger of the two, the bearer of the deep voice, explained that they had indeed been sent by Allustan to aid us in our job.

As a side to this, I have to admit that I had my initial concerns at this news. Though I had held it as a possibility that Allustan might recruit an extra body or two, I had hoped that it was not going to happen. I assume, by there now being more of us, that in turn this will affect any rewards we gain from our service to the elder; a six way split instead of four. This applies also to our newly acquired... ‘building,’ for the want that ‘ruin’ might appear too harsh a word.

The issue is more complicated than it may first appear, however, so let me first tie up one fear before continuing with another. Also a fear of mine is the undermining of my leadership. The decision of the group was that I should lead our group down into the depths of the cairn, and this was a decision that was confirmed by Allustan. The introduction of new faces, hired seemingly independently of us, brings with it a lack of appreciation for my authority and, rightly so, this leads me to worry about the undermining of my leadership as a result. Finally, I have to question Allustan’s motives at this point; why is it that he chose to introduce these two to us at a point such as this, without so much as any forewarning that this might be the case? Paranoid as it may be, I do have to ponder as to whether there may be more to Allustan’s agenda.

DM: [In-game] Simply put, Allustan thought that a healer may be needed, and arranged for one to be provided, the only available one unfortunately being somewhat frivolous and flighty - and so he got her drunk the previous night and arrested. Crafty so-n-so. Which meant he gained a bonus bit of muscle to send as well to keep her in-line. [Out of game] Late arrivals to the table

As for the building, I can see this as being an independently complicated issue. Firstly, though it could be seen as an advantage splitting ownership of the building between more of us, it does also mean that we each have a smaller slice of the house to call our home. Furthermore, the most apparent advantage of splitting the ownership is the further splitting of cost for reparation to the structure, but as already mentioned, we are already splitting rewards. Not only this, any decisions about the repair or upgrading of the building, or indeed what rules govern the house and the activities we get up to within it, are also subject to this splitting.

At least I do have one bargaining chit in all this; I have the deeds to the building. This fact does afford me some leverage to ensure that the things that need to be are done, and allows me to assert my authority a bit better. All being well, there should be no issue and I need never point out that I have this lever, but I cannot tell until I get to know my compatriots more.

The main advantage of all this is that it does grant me some more flexibility, especially as Minavirra is currently absent from our little trope. Provided I can get us to work as a team, we could be quite powerful against whatever evil is supposed to be here, but if not, we could well be our own worst enemy.

The two figures, our standoff at a close, approached closer until they were out of the light’s glare and we could properly have a look at them. The large one appeared to be a rough looking half-orc member of the local militia; a huge greatsword strapped across his back. The other was a young woman dressed in armour, and like Minnavirra, appeared to be reasonably attractive given the lighting. I had to admit that, at first glance, my major reservations lay at the feet of the burly half-orc; to my shame, this would later prove to be wrong.

The half-orc explained that Allustan had visited his barracks earlier in the day to ask him to aid us on our current job and that he had arrested the woman the previous night. Apparently Allustan had managed to release the young woman into his charge with his agreement to take on this job. At first I was surprised that this woman, apparently sent here to act as our healer, was the one who had been arrested; I was soon to discover why .

She kept complaining that someone kept whistling, hands over ears, unaware that the whistling was due to the cairn we were in. Not only that, despite our ‘quest to stop evil lurking in an old tomb,’ she proceeded to ask ‘when the party was’ as if Allustan had organised us some family picnic or some-such nonsense.

Before I had a chance to introduce everyone formally, however, there was a clanging from deeper down in the cairn’s main corridor, and our lantern flickered out....

---- continues ----

 

[sasnak]

The ensuing attack started with a cat (DM: the tibbet in cat form) bolting out of the darkness, three wolves in hot pursuit. The cat darted past the party as they moved forward to meet the three wolves. They noticed the pack was formed of two normal size wolves and one larger one, the alpha male.

The first wolf came to bear against the new found fighter and, in an impressive show of force, he cleaved the wolf in two, blood covering his sword and spraying all over the floor. Tolarus issued orders to form a line and took place beside the fighter, Qi Tun following suit on the other side.

The second wolf then charged us. As it did so, Tolarus tried to smack it with his morning star, but missed. As combat ensued, Tolarus was to act again, frantic now that the wolves were yet to be bested, he tried again. Disaster, he mishandled his weapon and with a clatter it fell to the floor. The wolf, sensing weakness now, arched around me and bit his leg, tearing at the muscle and flesh, forcing him to cry out in pain. Then the third wolf charged us, taking the half-orc head on.

Tolarus tried picking his weapon up and taking another swipe at wolf, but for his trouble the contemptible canine took hold of his arm and chewed.

The cleric, who had disobeyed orders in forming the line and would thus have prevented the hound circling around decided to help out, though it was the fighter who again struck the killing blow.

Tolarus, thankful for the aura he had activated that shielded him from at least a little of the damage he took from the foul beast relaised that perhaps he should have battered the animal with his shield rather than trying to reach for his weapon. He noted to get a spare at the next available opportunity.

The party proceeded to team up on the final and largest of the wolves, until it ran from them.

It was at this juncture that it was noticed that the feline had in fact been their tibbet companion as he darted back off into the darkness on the heels of the wolf.

From Fang’s observations, he reported back that the wolf whimpered off into a corridor as it fled toward the eerie green flicker, then suddenly stopped with a crunch, blood trickling from the web infested hole. DM: Out of game: It had taken a sever beating and in trying to flee, haemorraghed the fatal wounds it had received and collapsed within the web strewn corridor ahead with a crash.

After Quickfang had given his report and retrieved his fallen lamp, everyone took a moment to get acquainted with the newest members of the group. The half-orc fighter was called Thokk, whereas the cleric was known as Shola.

Tolarus's private journal entry regarding Quickfang: "I could not help but think that I barely knew the people I was with, however, as I had already witnessed Quickfang turn into a cat. This automatically lead me to think he might be a druid, but he was not from the Lodge; my only assumption was that he must be some sort of spellcaster, but now was not the time to ask."

---- continues ----

 

[sasnak]

Tolarus, injured and bleeding, sought the cleric to do her job and heal. At this point, the cleric just brushed his wounds off as mere scratches (DM: he only had 2 hp left ). With some small discussion, she did relent and healed his wounds.

She healed him completely, confirming why both of them had been asked to aid the party, but immediately after Tolarus felt rather giddy, as if drunk. He questioned her about this, but the cleric kept quiet about this matter.

---- DM Note ----

In my campaign world, certain spell and god combinations often have interesting side effects - remember that Shola's god is the god pf partying So for this partuicular combination, when you are healed and roll a maximum on any dice involved in the healing or receive a maximised effect (e.g. heal) then you get units of inebriation affect you .

---- let us continue ----

Tolarus then tried to assist the cleric due to her previous whinings that the whistling she was complaining of was an effect of the cave. The monk then informed the party that he suspected the sound was coming from the holes in the walls and may be an effect of the air current within the tomb.

At this point the cleric asked to see the pipes, as well as the artefact we had found, and so we showed her.

She then set about dancing around the pipes like a little child, covering the pipes to change the sounds that came out of them. To her credit, initially it did not sound bad, but that was not what caught Tolarus's attention.

As she played about, the gate started to emit lights on the parts still affixed to the floor. (Dm: My addition, harmless but spooked up the party nicely )

“Wait, do that again,” Tolarus asked Shola, “your prodding and probing is causing the device to flash.”. Shola tried to repeat her random pattern and try as she might she could not seem to make up the same sequence.

Tolarus paranoia kicked in as he made a few connections “Actually, stop playing with it, you are turning it on... It might explode in it's dmaged state or suck us all to who knows where.”

With a much sobered party who now realised this was not going to be an ordinary exploration moved on deeper into the tunnels, and it was not long before they found something new.

---- Continues ----

(Apologies if the last two posts have been a bit sort, but Im doing this in my lunchbreaks and havent had much time last few days to get much posted - hopefully you are enjoying what's here so far...)