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I have recently been given a Bag of Dungeon to look at, so I have decided to give it a go single player. 

Bag of Dungeon is a dungeon crawling tile-based game harking back to the good old deadly days of exploring dungeons, slaying monsters and stealing treasure. It’s a simple-to-play tabletop game where 1-4 players send a party of adventurers into the ever-changing catacombs in a quest to find the Ring of Creation before escaping with their lives and their loot.

But can you trust your fellow adventurers? To begin with, you are all loyal to the quest and each other. But once the Ring is discovered it will cast a shadow of doubt and deceit over those who seek to steal it. You may decide that being a lone wolf is a far smarter choice than loyalty, even if it means the death of your former companions.

You will meet monsters, find treasure and use items to stay alive and escape with the Ring before the dungeon seals itself shut, imprisoning for all eternity anyone who remains.

The game has a simple but clever mechanic; great for young and/or new gamers to learn fast and take part while still giving more experienced gamers a satisfying time at the table. The game takes 20-60 minutes and changes every time you play.

—description from the publisher

I gave it a quick run-through, during which the Goddess of Luck was playing with me. I played with two characters, the Dwarf and the Elf. The Dwarf had an attack of 2d6+3 and on his first move found a chest which contained a +3battleaxe, and an attack bear, giving him a 3d6+6 (The end dragon only had a 4d6 attack). And since you can use an Action Point to pull your companion into the battle giving you a 1d6 extra, but me at 4d6+6 which decimated the Dragon.

So for this test I am going to play as just a single character.

I again picked Duric the Dwarf, who I have decided is wandering the Dungeon looking for shiny things. 

II set the bag up, and took my first move.

Round 1: The dungeon turned to the right and I encountered my first monster, which was a Goblin (1d6+1). The battle lasted one attack before I killed the monster and looted his body. I found a health potion which will come in very handy. I then advanced forward.

Round 2:   I advanced and ran into a Mummy (1d6+4) I have been lucky so far with only finding low level monsters. This battle was harder and I took 3 points of damage before I won. Looting the body I found a Loyal Bear (+1d6) which I have decided was chained up by the mummy and not in one of its pockets. Do mummy’s even have pockets?. Looking forward I could see a healing pool, which I used to heal my damage..

Round 3: The dungeon just twisted left and right as I made my way deeper and deeper into the dungeon.

Round 4: I came upon another Goblin (1d6+1) and the battle was a massacre. He rolled a 5+1 giving him 6. I rolled 2 6’s which was a critical hit giving me 24+3 and my bear rolled a 3. so 30 points of damage to his 5 health. I did get a nice teleport crystal which I believe may save my life at some point. I then continued along the tunnel and ran instantly into another Goblin (1d6+1) who again did not last more than 1 combat turn, I did get a nice set of steel armour from him.

Round 5:  The tunnel turned to the right and right again sending me back in the direction I had came from where I ran into my first tear 2 monster, a Skeleton (2d6+1). Defeating him gave me 2 items of loot, I got a Magic Shield and a bomb. My Dwarf is now inanly giggling while petting his holy hand grenade of baBoom! 

Round 6: I continued along the tunnel meeting another Mud Monster (2d6+2) who thanks to my bear stood no chance. Looting him I found a small chest which contained a +2 Magic Sword, and an Elven bow. Alas I now have too much equipment to carry, so I need to leave some items behind. I think I will leave the Bow because good Dwarves do not use flimsy Eleven weapons! and I will also leave behind the teleport crystal so that I can have a sword and shield.

Round 7: Moving on I arrived at a crossroads, and set of a trap of flying daggers. (2d6 damage) I rolled really bad and got 12 points of damage to my 11 health, or instant death! BUT! the Goddess of Luck was with me, my Armour and Magic Shield prevented 3 points of damage so I only lost 9 health, and the health potion I looted at the start of the dungeon healed me for 10 point. So I am back at full health after a very lucky save. 

Round 8: I used 3 of my actions to look in the 3 other directions of the crossroads, and I can see monsters in each direction. So with my last point I picked one at random and moved in to attack a Zombie (1d6+2) who my dwarf killed by chopping off its head with his magic sword. Looting gave me a Morning star, which my dwarf has decided is more dwarfy than a poncy magic sword, and so is swapping his weapon.

Round 9: Still exploring the monsters around the crossroads I encountered a Mirror Monster (Same Base as me 2d6+3) so Mirror-Dwarf V Dwarf+Bear+Morning star. I won without taking any damage thanks to my magic shield and armour. Looting set off a spear trap which gave me 1 point of damage even with my armour, I also got another set of armour which the bear refused to wear, so I left it there.

Round 10: let me take out the last crossroads monster, a Zombie (1d6+2), and I looted from him a lovely pair of magic books of +1movement. I also came across another crossroads.

Round 11: Time to explore the 3 other junctions of this crossroads. In two directions the dungeon continues on, but in the 3rd is the exit. As I look at the exit a dragon wakes and looks at me, at the same time sealing the exit so only the magic ring can open it and allow exit from the dungeon. I rolled for where the ring popped up, and thanks to Goddess Luck the ring spawned at the exit. So all i need to do to win is kill a dragon.  The question is, do I explore more for better items before fighting the Dragon, or do I attack.

Round 12:  I was going to look for better items, and monsters to kill but while I was deciding which direction to head, my Dwarf shouted For Gladhammer and threw his Holy Hand Grenade of BaBoom at the dragon and attacked!. The Bomb does 9 points of damage taking the dragon down to 11 health as the dwarf jumps into battle. So its now a battle between the Dragon (4d6) at 11 health v Dwarf and Bear at (3d6+5) with a -3Damage and 10 health.

First attack and I lost 2 health (8).
Second attack I lost but my armour took the hit
Third attack and I struck a lucky blow with my morning star dealing 7 points of damage (4)
Fourth attack  I struck and did 5 points of damage killing the Dragon. The bear’s hit was 5 so he got the kill, ripping out the throat of the dragon.

I unlocked the exit with the ring, and saw freedom.

Today is the day we all get to vote on who will govern the country for the next 4 years. Well the UK anyway, Wales is fixed so Labour always win, and votes of no confidence and petitions from the public are equally ignored. But we should all do our civic duty and vote.

So this morning I popped along to vote.

I should point out that if I leave my house and turn left, I can drive for a couple of hundred yards and reach a pub that acts as a polling station. In fact it is only about a 5 minute walk from my house. But I do not get to vote there! No I have to turn right, travel an equal distance to a junction, turn again, a couple of hundred yards and turn again onto a narrow mountain road, travel a few miles up that to a small hall in the middle of nowhere and vote there. I guess that makes sense, because while I live 5 miles outside the largest city in North Wales, the powers that be decided that the MP for that city is not the best to cover me, so they moved my area to a MP based in mid Wales, and has the largest area now in Wales. It does mean none of the candidates have campaigned in my area because they do not know it, and its a few hours drive to get here. Also all their policies are for their town so no good to me.

So I get to the mountain hut, and there is just enough space to safely park 2 cars outside it, but alas both spaces are taken which amazed me because in all the years I have been voting there I have only ever seen 1 car there when I accidently went at a busy period. It turned out that the two people who have been running the polling station for the last century are no longer there, and 4 younger people have taken over. Probably for efficiency or some such thing. Also while the previous people would walk or get a lift there to leave parking for the people coming to vote, these had driven and used all the spaces making it unsafe for voters to park.

So I wandered up and gave my name and address, which is all the old people needed to work with, but 4 younger people could not work out the lists or find my name (and all 4 tried at the same time). Eventually they found my name, and I could vote.

Our voting system will probably shock the rest of the developed world. 

Firstly it is not anonymous even thought lots believe it is. When they hand you the voting form, they copy the number from the form and write it next to your name so it can be noted who you voted for.

Secondly it is not secure, we are given a pencil to make an X on the form, so our votes can be changed with a simple pencil with an eraser on the end.

But I voted, now to go home, open a bottle of whiskey and wait for the world to start burning!

Fornit some Fornus 

I was very lucky to have my latest book “The Rise of Freemasonry in the Province of North Wales” be listed as the Amazon number 1 Hot New Release in the category of Freemasonry.

I am humbled to receive this honour, especially as profits from this book are going to Charity.

I am even more astonished by this, since Amazon classed my previous book as the number 2 hot new release. 

Four score and seven years ago, or at least a long time ago (I forget the exact dates, since it was so long ago but I am thinking 2018), Blood Bikes Wales (NE) moved home to the Maesgwyn Hall Masonic Hall. We had a container setup as storage for our bikes and miscellaneous items.

It has been a great home for Blood Bikes, we even held our monthly meetings there before Covid changed the world. But all good things must come to an end, and the container has gone.

We bought a bigger container for us to use, and set it up at a new location. We have moved all our stuff, and the old container has been moved and re-purposed. We have no more links with the Maesgwyn, and a new era has begun.

It looks empty now.

Blood Bikes Wales

Blood Bikes Wales is a charity that transports blood, plasma, platelets, samples, vaccines, donor breast-milk & any other urgently required medical items to hospitals at night, weekends and bank holidays. This service is provided completely free of charge, allowing the NHS to divert funds where they are needed most.

Our riders are a hardy bunch that operate in all but the very worst weather.

It is Friday afternoon, and the weekend is almost close enough to touch.  If we are honest, and if we can not be honest on the Internet where can we be honest?

This weekend is turning up in style!

I just had a delivery, that I was not expecting. Upon opening the box I found 8 cans of random beer from around the world, 2 snacks, and a magazine. 

I hope everyone else’s weekend is kicking off as good as mine is!