Warrior Brothers 2 – The LightSword

Continued from the epic tale of The Warrior Brothers…

In the southern lands of Lititz, Pennsylvania, the sprogling named Gatorade played happily with his cousin. The pretense of Hero-names had been dropped since last weekend, as kids tend to do, but there was still great adventures in the backyard of my parents place, involving zombie squirrels and bat-men attacks.

When we were all hanging around, my father asked about the Crystal Dino Bone, and if the kid was still talking about it. I asked the sprogling, and was told that the kids were now after a LightSword shaped like a crystal bone. Fair enough, I figured….

Unbeknownst to me, my father took the the original Warrior Brother story to heart, and had located “an ancient bottle” buried in the yard while he was digging his garden, many many years ago. Inside this bottle was a rolled up scrap of parchment (click image for details) that appeared to be some sort of map!

The young cousins unrolled the map, and quickly realized it showed the very backyard they were playing in, with a great mysterious X near the creek at the corner of the property.

Collecting the grown ups (who, other than my father had no clue that this adventure was pre-planned) we traced out the steps of the map.

From the porch, around the small shed, then turning sharply to circle dangerously close to the water behind the large forsythia bushes. After navigating the treacherous muddy cliffs, we returned to the center of the yard, made a loop, and began our walk towards the little side fencerow garden. ZigZagging next to the maple tree, we then stepped sideways around a small lilac transplanted here from Everthorn Farms. Once this was done, we were mere paces away from the final destination marked on this aging scroll.

The ground around the X was overgrown with high weeds and dusty overflow-debris from the creek. At first, it appeared we might need a shovel, but the young adventurers bravely picked through the grasses until a glint of sunlight was spotted through the weeds.

The Crystal Dinosaur Bone LightSword had been found at last!

One of the boys, made the quote of the day in an almost breathless awe: “It really does exist!” after what was initially just an imaginary play-prop.

It was a fun adventure, and the finding of an actual “crystal bone” (Plexiglass) made this geek-dad smile. My father, or should I say “Pap Da Dad”, is so cool!

The rest of the day, my sprogling and his cousin carried that sword around, having quests too numerous to recount here. The LightSword gained powers in the sun, lost energy in the dirt, and had edges SO SHARP they could cut through anything that was not specially enchanted to be “lightsword proof”.

So far, I myself am not lightsword proof, so am unable to even touch the treasure. Only my wife, the sprogling, and my oldest nepphew are able to do so. And even then, they must recharge their lightsword proof ability every morning after breakfast, but the details of this process are a secret to those uninitiated.

And so, the Lightsword sits now, in a special location in the kid’s play area. The map has been discarded (I pulled it back out of the trash after the kid tossed it) now that the treasure was found. He got it out this morning before school, to defeat some creature in the bathroom where I took the picture posted above.

The adventure awaiting us on next trip to Lititz? Only time will tell….

The Warrior Brothers

This weekend, we visited some friends of ours (and did taxes, of course). A really fun little situation-game presented itself while myself, the kid, my friend, and his 3yr old son were out at the local park running off some energy before “nap time”.

The Sprogling’s been very into making up stories recently, and games where he has an alter-ego. In the past, he’s said he was some character, but still was himself, and merely seemed to change his name. Now, he is developing entire characters, with special abilities and actual limitations,as opposed to his prior make-up-new-power-for-every-obstacle play. Of course, me as proud GeekDad is tending to encourage this RPG appreciation. We even started playing with a big 20-sided die plus some regular 6-siders in various strategic wargames. It won’t be long now until he’s ready to tabletop some classic pen-and-paper games! MwaHaHahaHa

Lately though, he is developing a world of “Warrior Brothers”. In this world of pseudo-native-american meets high-fantasy, giant rocks become monsters, trees (known as Windgazers) are spirit allies, and us human males are all a tribe of Warrior Brothers, equipped with either spell-like powers, or fun tool/weapons to use in defeating the rock-monsters. Only boys are able to be Warrior Brothers, and girls (like mom) must either stay home and be safe, or sometimes are powerful ’sorcerer princesses’ that can defeat anything with their magic, though this changes on a minute-by-minute basis it seems.

I am actually in the process of writing these ideas down in a complete LARP-style handbook, since the setting is becoming quite involved, and remains coherent across over two full weeks of playing this game when we go outside. Sticks are either wands, clubs, or ‘power staffs’ [sic]. Pinecones are bombs of various powers, depending on size. Snow and ice are harmful environmental effects that either trap you or drain your power. Patches of grass or composting piles of leaves become lava (which can heal some types of Warrior Brother), or random landscapes (ie: one particular bare spot in the yard is a pool of poison). Of particular note, oniongrass, or ‘yard chives’ are useful as healing snacks or poison attacks depending on the target. When our mint starts to sprout in the garden, he already knows that can be brewed into a strong tea to put enemies to sleep, or “to help WindGazers grow after they are cut down”.

All details provided below are as described by my kid. We each named ourselves in a whim, and he crafted full character biographies and the list of powers and limitations each person had. He acted as DM and leader of this rag-tag band of adventurers, while we offered suggestions to how we reacted against our enemies.

(It was actually kinda neat seeing how empowering him to compromise on certain situations we refused to be railroaded into, could be used to develop social skills in the real world. Good mental note to help him work through some school-play issues.. Hmm…)

My kid is ‘Gatorade’, who never gets thirsty, and uses a stick like a magic wand to heal, or to shoot fire. He can also use a longer walking staff as a weapon to crack open the ground and make lava explode on impact.

I am ‘IvyLeague’, a scientist Warrior Brother with the power to control poison ivy and other plants. I can shoot vines from my hands to wrap up enemies, and use poison thorn-attacks from my own [raspberry-branch] wand. Otherwise, I’m kinda weak and rely on Gatorade for those times when big-guns are needed. (He’s so cute!)

Our friend Nate, down in PA, is known now as ‘Cheerio’, (yes, like the cereal), who can make lightning strikes, and is able to walk on snow without getting trapped. No known weaknesses, other than being afraid of bombs, and doesn’t like Chives or mint (see above).

The 3yr old son of Cheerio, apparently keeps changing his name. It’s either Ted-Fu, or Teddi-Go-Cha, or lately, Tedichi (ted-EE-chee). He is invincible, but can’t attack anyone because he’s too small.

Our latest adventure, in the large fitness park, was to defeat a series of 4 giant rock monsters (those landscaping rocks that have little flower-gardens and mulch encircling them in a field). The first was a bomb monster, so our pinecones healed it. Eventually, it was defeated by the pine-tree windgazer nearby dropping ‘a tillion’ needles on the monster, which pinned it to the ground so it could be smacked with Gatorade’s Staff.

Next was a poison monster surrounded by lava, so I could not use my own powers against it. This was defeated by throwing a snowball at the lava to freeze it, and once again, got smacked by Gatorade’s Staff.

Thirdly, was an ice-monster who was immune to Gatorade’s Staff, and needed to be struck by Lightning and Poison thorns at the exact same time, or it would regenerate instantly. This one took quite a few tries to defeat.

Lastly, was a giagantic dragon rock (mostly submerged, so all we saw was the fin on his back sticking up from the ground). He was immune or otherwise unaffected by all our attacks, but eventually defeated when we used a handful of crab-grass and a pidgeon feather to tickle it. This weakened it enough that Gatorade was able to find a small 2lb rock nearby that was charged with SunGazer energy (small friendly river-rocks are SunGazers). We put the small rock on top of the giant rock back, which drained all his power and turned it to inert stone. Whew, just in time too, since then it was time to leave and return home, so the Warrior Brothers could get hot cocoa.

We took the feather home, and Tedichi gotto keep it in his treasure box. All in all, a really fun adventure, and one that I hope my friend completely enjoyed.

-fin-

PS: This coming weekend, The Warrior Brothers are traveling to the far-away land of Lititz, where I grew up, in search of a fabled Crystal Dinosaur Bone. Not sure how into this my nephews will be, butif such an adventure takes place, I’ll be sure to blog about it here…. I can’t wait!

This weekend, our original plans were to drive south and visit the family in PA.

Here are a few pictures and two short movies taken when the weather “got better” and enabled an actual camera-snap that did not just look “white”.

Enjoy!

Videos of the  Front Yard, and the  Back yard here…

Both videos and pictures were taken within 5 minutes of each other, and the snow keeps going from “not much”  to “a lot”  every few seconds.   The main concern is it’s still coming down and it’s windy, so teh roads her in town are miserable.  I’m sure the main highways are much better, but why risk it on such a long trip…

wishlists – christmas 2008

***UPDATED with wife/kid ideas below…

Get stuff for my kid, add my name to the card, and I’d be more than satisfied!

What, you want actual Maebius-related ideas?   well, alright….

I’m a purveyor of all things tea-related, as many know.   Any sort of tea is good.  I have a plethora of strainers and such so loose-tea is always welcome, and less packaging than pre-bagged ones.  The differenter the better!
For those alcohol-friendly folks, I  am championing the cause of single-malt Scotch in the world.  Nay, I daresay I become unto a true connoisseur of Scotch.  I’ve tried the old Spayside-region standbys  like The Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, and kin, but have heard rather interesting things about Islay Isle scotches, particularly Laphroaig ,or the somewhat rarer Lowlands.  A gift of Scotch is one to be shared, as well, which adds a special treat to any such gifts I receive. /wink

Also, anything Dr Horrible inspired would net you Muse-points from this blog. As a fellow Nathan, and occasional Corporate Tool, a t-shirt would be wondrous, though the DVD is also a happy-making thing.

World of Warcraft game-cards are always welcome. I plan on having an account there until the servers die, or the internet is taken from me. Plus, gift-cards can be re-gifted to folks I know in-game affected negatively by the economy, yet derive more than just “entertainment value” from the community on-line.

Of course, any sort of random strange and unique stuff would find a place in my home (or as pants), as some of you folks know. I like surprises, and if it comes from someone I know (even virtually), or Local to the area, so much the better!

Heck, this year, a hand-painted card with watercolours or crayons on a scrap of junk-mail envelope would make me happy.  I don’t need “stuff”  as much as I enjoy surprises.

This year, I have also felt a rather huge pull to be more charitable, perhaps as some esoteric spiritual buffering of the consumer-driven economy lately. As such, I think (hopefully without ‘selfish selflessness‘) that I would love to support these types of things in leu of proper gifts. I personally know some folks who have recently gotten put out on the street or otherwise very much in need of outside support, and it’s hard knowing that while we help as we can, it is not feasible to take them into our own home or finance their grocery/medical bills. Knowing this, I am drawn to help official charities be supported so those established organizations can do what they do better than our small household could ourselves.

http://www.foundationhoc.org/CF/HTML/TheaBowmanHouse.html
http://www.stevens-swan.org/
http:/www.childsplaycharity.org/index.php
http://www.kidsoneida.org/kids-oneida-home.cfm

Blessed Holidays to you all!

UPDATE: Ok,  here’s a random wishlist for the rest of the family…. I’ve included two or three things that are already sent by Santa (and others) just so you can see what sorts of things were in mind by these two…

Sprogling: (as mentioned by him)

• small sand-timer like comes in board games. (30 Seconds = for brushing teeth the appropriate time)

• stuffed boxer dog (santa already has)

• Boom Blox (Wii game)

• Topple board game.  (or Jenga, anything tactile like that)

http://www.etoys.com/genProduct.html/PID/3373679/ctid/17?ci_sku=197853&ci_src=14110944

• Drumsticks (already gotten)

• 100 trees (to plant in the backyard and build a fort in)

• Any kind of Craft things.  (he loves paints, and pipe-cleaners)

• Paintable figures or stuff. (we have the dragons below, but he wants “a hundred million hundred thousand hundred of them because they are so cool and can defeat anything!”)

http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/Toys-games/Paint-Your-Own-Bowls/e/31412642007/?cds2Pid=17921
http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/Toys-games/Dragons-Paint-and-Play-Set/e/9780641760648/?cds2Pid=17921

Mrs Maebius

• UGGs style boots (sheepskin lined boots, size womans 9, short, not knee length)

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2792101/0~2376780~6009391~6012477~6012480~6012745?origin=category&pbo=2792101

• Tales of Beedle the Bard (harry potter book)

• Heavy thick comfy socks. (be creative)

• Set of drill bits (different sizes, since we only have 2 bits right now for our drill.  “Thick”  or “pilot hole”)

• This ring-holder necklace. http://www.whatonearthcatalog.com/whatonearth/Item_Heart-Shaped-Hinged-Ring-Pendant_CB0672_ps_srm.html

• Fleecy warm blanket (amish blanket, that gamer-sleeved blanket, etc)

• White-noise generator for sound sleeping (without running the dryer or a fan.)

• The grabber tool to get canning jars out of a water bath without burning yourself.

Pumpkins and boats

Warning,  this may be a large post with many pictures so I’m splitting it with a page-break to prevent browser damage.

We carved pumpkins and went Trick-or-Treating this weekend.  Unfortunately, the sprogling has been feeling a bit ill an keeps waking up in the middle of the night with either being sick, or bad dreams, or otherwise “uncomfortable” since last wednesday.  You’ll see some serious dark circles under his eyes in one of the movies.  Poor guy!

Also, this weekend, since the weather was sunny and relatively warm, the kid was determined to have “Boat races at 10:00 in the morning”.  No bad weather, or sleeplessness, or parental diversions were going to prevent boat races.  They HAD to happen, COME ON MOM?!!  So the latter pictures will be slightly unseasonal, but still fun.

Click after the break for full details.

First, the obligatory pre-carved picture. The giant pumpkin was grown by my father-in-law and weighed in about 70 pounds.  This particular item will turn into the Cyclops!

Next up, we have a rather large movie of the “initial tracing out beforehand” technique for pumpkin carving.  We gave the kid full range to make anything he wanted, from a mass of scribbled lines to a veritable Mona Lisa.   As foreshadowed above, it became one gigantic eye with a tiny slit for a mouth above the eye.  A Cyclops!

(warning, the movie is too large to imbed, at 22MB, so you’ll have to click the link to download it. (it’s too big to upload via FTP. GRR)  If anyone knows some decent movie-editing software I could use to trim these down and make them web-worthy, please let me know!!)

Next image, is of the kid playing with the devil horns that Wren of the Zenporch send us.  The picture is kinda blurry, because taking photos of devilkids at close range is dangerous, so this is at full zoom from the bottom of the stairs…

After we got the pumpkin mostly gutted, I made another dramatic movie of the guts.   Here it is in raw unedited format. 

Initially, the kid did not want to go Trick-or-Treating on Friday evening.  Two days of feeling sick, and not sleeping was taking it’s toll, but we wanted to at least stop by his teacher’s house which was said to be totally decorated and fun.   I don’t have any better pictures because our camera is starting to act up and all the pictures from that night are “invalid file format”.

The camera itself won’t even read them to save/rename/delete.  He went as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and this is the only one that was readable…
I slapped together a cheesy “Tooth Fae” costume at the last minute, but still had fun.

On Sunday, we decided to make boats for the “Boat Race at 10 in the morning!” which wound up happening around 3pm.      We went to the nearby lumberyard and raided the scrap bin which is always full of little bits of wood, a few inches in size, but sometimes has usable scraps or plywood in oddly cut shapes.

Below is the series of boats.    The green things attached are the bio-degradable starch packing “peanuts” which are tons of fun to lick and stick together.

First the setting for our race.   Boat Lake, (with our house in the background for the curious) spring fed and approx 6ft deep in the middle.  Home to a few ducks and plenty of little fish, snails, and frogs each summer.

The boats themselves now.   Mine has purple sails and a rubber-band paddle which almost worked until it twisted sideways and smacked against the sides.  Still, it was simple, and had a renewable wind-powered backup system for the paddle. 

Next, the simple “triangle of wood with straw stapled on it” that my wife put together.  Worked well until a rogue gust of wind tipped it over and waterlogged the sails.

Next up, the post-modern stylings of “block of wood with green thing” by the sprogling.  Manned by “Rupert” at the helm, this one quickly floundered in the water, and dissolved it’s captain within minutes.  Rather disappointing, but luckily the kid did not mind too much.

Almost last, was “Brandon’s Boat”, held together with state-of-the-art vulcanized latex (rubber bands).

This one was pretty stable, and sailed well due to having a slightly higher profile and catching the slight breeze, and avoiding the “waterlogged sails” that plagued the parental boats.  Plus, if you look closely you can see the racing stripes on the bottom bit of wood.

Finally, the best vehicle in my opinion, was the Sprogling Motor Boat!   Created from 4 wedges of pine, stapled together into a massive hydrodynamic awesomeness. The sides of this watercraft house three yellow ‘paddles’.  If you look closely, the back sports two screw-based “rocket boosters”, and the captains cabin is occupied by a crew of four (mom-navigator, dad-coach,  Kid-captain, and puppy on kid’s lap as mascot).  The captain and mascot are perched atop a functional steel screw-chair, so they can see all around the boat to watch for danger.   I love kid’s imaginations!

After this fun-filled weekend, my stress is greatly reduced (for now) and a fun time was had by all!

Happy Halloween!

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