Diaspora, Ambassador to the Elves

Having returned to LOTRO, I set myself the challenge of getting Reputation to Kindred, the max level for the three Elven factions, Malledrim, Galadhrim and the Elves of Rivendell.

After 5 long days of grinding, I finally hit all three and now not only have a new title, but a shiny new mount, the Elf-ambassador's steed, one of the faster mounts in the game.

Diaspora, Ambassador to the Elves

Having returned to LOTRO, I set myself the challenge of getting Reputation to Kindred, the max level for the three Elven factions, Malledrim, Galadhrim and the Elves of Rivendell.

After 5 long days of grinding, I finally hit all three and now not only have a new title, but a shiny new mount, the Elf-ambassador's steed, one of the faster mounts in the game.

London Macabre by Steven Savile - Free this weekend!

The excellent London Macabre by Steven Savile is currently FREE for Kindle from Amazon and for the whole weekend.


"It begins innocently enough, with the death of a prostitute in Bedford Square, London. She isn’t the first ’flower girl’ to die and she won’t be the last, not now the killer had a taste for it.

The man, Nathaniel Seth, is one of the Brethren, a shadow society of occult dabblers and black magickers who hide away in the darkest parts of the city, in corners where they could not be seen by polite society. Little did Seth know that his own life was only hours from ending, his flesh to be taken as host for a daemonic entity clawed all the way out of hell’s pit in the centre of the hollow earth because Seth himself breached the Catamine Stair. Now things are afoot. Strange things. The lions of Trafalgar have fulfilled their prophecy, climbing down from the plinths around Lord Nelson’s column to defend the city. The daemon is out, stalking tender prey through the gaslit streets, meat markets, fish stalls and slaughter houses of Whitehall. He has a taste for women, though not ordinary women. These women are different. Special. They may look like whores but they have the blood of angels flowing in their veins. If he can kill enough of them, bathing in their innocent blood, then the daemonic Seth believes he can open the ancient Ald Gate--one of the seven great gates of London--the last gate to Eden, and go home, even if it means tearing London herself apart.

A group of steadfast men stand in the daemon’s way, led by Fabian Stark, a man himself doomed to die before even the first die is cast, and each of them cursed in their own way: Dorian Carruthers, Haddon McCreedy, Eugene Napier, Anthony Millington, and Brannigan Locke. The Grayfriar’s Gentleman’s Club."


This is definitely one to grab while you can, links below...

UK AMAZON

US AMAZON

Back to LOTRO!

After an extended hiatus, which very nearly became permanent. I have returned to LOTRO. I even went to the point of unsubbing for the first time since I started playing but within 24 hours of the subscription lapsing, I re subbed.

Once I'd dropped down to the F2P model ( or what they call Premium for previous subscribers) the hassle of figuring out what I needed to buy to get the same experience was just too much work, so I re upped, and ventured back.

Rather than go back to my level cap warden, I decided to get my Captain, Diaspora to level cap and to try and stave off the overwhelming feeling trying to level 9 alts at once is, I have opted to only play to progress this character. So far, I'm loving it. I last left her in Rohan at level 77, a zone I have been through more than once, but now it feels fresh again. Fights that I breezed through previously, are challenging to my underpowered (and probably under geared) and the final battle to protect Faldham, one of the towns in Rohan felt epic, as I struggled to stay on my mount and was knocked off before killing the last Uruk commander with less than 100 morale to spare.

I've also been missing the community and have a hankering for group play, something I rarely get in GW2 (at least with people I know) so I joined some of the new Kinmates and old friends for a run through the Grand Stair in Moria, which was great fun.

Diaspora is 79 now and I'm looking forward to getting through Rohan at a steady pace and moving on to Gondor, which I've only played through on my main, so should remain fairly fresh. Looks like, for now at least, I'm here to stay.

Her Story - Most original Indie game this decade

Thanks to the fine folks at The MMO Show, I discovered a great new Indie Game called Her Story.

I grabbed it for my Ipad, as I don't have much in the way of mobile games, though it is available for PC too on Steam for £4.99.

The game, from Sam Barlow, mind behind Silent Hill:Shattered Memories, is basically a detective game using real video, a series of police interviews with a woman who's husband has disappeared. Using keywords, the player has to go through snippets of video and piece together what has happened.

Without spoiling the story, this is so much more than a murder mystery and the most original game I have seen in years. I highly recommend it!

Edit: Having now pretty much finished the game, I can recommend even more highly. The acting talent of the interviewee and her nuanced body language adds another layer to a startlingly well written game and expect to be thinking about this game long after you finish it.

End of June and back garden is producing at last!

 Now summer is well under way, everything is growing well in the garden. Tomato plants have started flowering although of the 11 plants that have survived, I am unsure of the varieties, after planting three different types, so it'll be a nice surprise when they start fruiting.

Within a couple of week, the poor, sickly looking cucumbers are now flourishing. Three plants in the back garden this year, and using a technique I discovered last year, forming a cage around the plants and weaving the growing head in and out til it reaches the top. The method worked very well last year so looking forward to a good crop. I have a few plants at the allotment too, but they are not thriving as well, most likely as they don't get watered as often.

Having cleared a lot of weeds, the beans are now flourishing again. A mixture of yard long beans and Borlotti beans.

There's also a few beans in hanging baskets. I've not tried this method before, having stole the idea from my Dad. In theory they should start to over hang and grow downwards.
I also dug out the only potatoes growing at home, a decent crop from a couple of plants.

After an hour long Jostaberry picking session yesterday, I now have well over a kilo as well as some lovely redcurrants.

As well as a few crumbles, I've made some Jostaberry and Redcurrant Jam which I can confirm is delicious!

T-Shirts now available of Spectral's beautiful book covers

Those splendid fellows at Spectral Press have teamed up with the awesome purveyors of quality T-Shirts, Great British Horror to bring some of their outstanding book covers to the fans as Tees.

Currently they have Albion Fay by Mark Morris, The Hammer of Dr Valentine by John Llewellyn Probert, The Bureau of Them by Cate Gardner as well as Stephen Volk's Whiststable and Leytonstone.

Priced at £20 in the UK, £25 in the EU, and $50 for the US and rest of the world, these are not to be missed.

Get yourself over to the Spectral site and grab one of these beautiful shirts.