Course... approaching... end! So much still to do :/

So - the last handin is due tomorrow, then its FREEDOM! - at least until the exam diet starts in May. So much to do in that time!

The latter half of this semester has been so dominated by assignments I have not attended many lectures at all, and have a LOT of studying to do before the exams. In addition to this, after last Friday's Hack day, and chattering with Christian Heilmann ( @codepo8 on Twitter) and Rowan Murray from Yahoo uk - I have been in the process of trying to arrange flights to the Bucharest open hack - which should NOT be so complicated...

My choices are British Airways - which involves getting to London somehow then paying over £400 round trip to Bucharest and back to London, then get back home to Dundee again. The alternative is fly from Edinburgh airport with KLM for about £300 - but have a stopoff in Paris on the way there, and Amsterdam on the way back - and the whole trip totals in excess of 26 hours when its 3 hours either way... thats 20 hours sat in airports for a weekend away... MADNESS!

I am also in the process of trying to set myself up as a business for contracting and web-design purposes. This is quite a lot of work and is pretty time consuming. Liability is the scariest part of it all. I feel competent, but will someone that is paying for services that run into an issue going to be accepting or monsters? Oh well! As an aside to the business - I have been tinkering around with Google Ad-sense as I would aim to have one or two placed on the websites I design - but as far as I have seen - its relatively pointless as they are rarely ever clicked on. I do notice I have got a habit of reading them on other peoples websites and viewing anything that  interests me!

Oh, I am also twiddling my thumbs waiting for news of an Internship I had an interview for yesterday. Hopefully I am taken on as it is a pretty sweet deal, with the added bonus that because of my computing background, the degree I will be qualified for when I start as well as my electronics degree, and 9 years employed as Electronics Engineer and RMSS engineer they are looking to extend (hopefully to the full 12 weeks so I qualify to have the summer placement be graded) the placement and have me do various other items of work for them.

Hmm... much to do, back to this report I go!

-V

D&D Campaign: The Seal of Akatiel Part 6.

The party, having collected what they can from the basement decide to head up to the 1st floor to see if they can find the scepter for the mayor. Cassie follows, staying close to Tsavong.

In single file they climb the dark spiral staircase back to the ground floor, and move along to the spiral staircase leading to the first floor. Karnezer takes point and marches up the staircase, the rest of the party in toe, and heads east down the corridor - Joe scanning the floor for traps. Spotting an arrow trap and a trip wire connected to a large Axe dangling from the ceiling - Joe and Ceinwen spot all the traps laid out before them.

The first room they reach is a games room. There is some rather ornate items in the room. An obsidian and marble chess board, some sort of wooden floor with a wooden ball and some objects stacked at the bottom, some fancy throwing darts and some marble balls that Joe decides are a juggling set.

Moving down the corridor some more they enter another storage room with some Gnolls in. The party charge blindly into the room - not spotting a couple of Kobolds hiding in the dark who get some nasty shots in with their crossbows before they are cut down like the Gnolls soon are. 

The remaining room in this area is bare, but a keen eye spots a small pouch of gold wedged in a crack in the floor.

The party then heads round to the balcony that overlooks the dining room on the West side of the keep. Joe steps into a pit trap, but manages to not fall in. The next one is spotted and the party avoids it. The floor is becoming increasingly carpeted in vermin... rats, spiders, cockroaches – they litter this corridor, their skittering and screeches disturbing and sickening. They appear to be  coming from within the room ahead. Karn kicks open the door to the room with one swift whallop of his boot heel. It is the master bedroom - a large four poster bed covered in red bedsheets, surrounded with white drapes sits in the center, some wardrobes and dressers line the room. A body can be seen just to the side of the bed, clad in black leather, covered in cockroaches and spiders - holding an ornate silver object.

The party step into the room and Ceinwen accidentally triggers a booby trap in the doorway. The trap triggers a set of crossbows attached to the bed, one arrow impacts into Dreinell's chest, and another flies towards Ceinwen who gracefully evades the shot for it to be dodged and caught by Tsavong Lah just as it was about to connect with Cassies forehead. 

The insect swarms lunge and skitter towards the group, overwhelming some of the members biting, scratching, nibbling, and making everyone feel nauseous, but they are despatched in quick succession, the only person really njured is Joe when he decides to go bounce on the bed – and attracts the attention of a nearby spider swarm who inject a fair amount of poison into his blood stream sapping his strength.

The party loots the room, finding a pouch of gems under a pillow in the bed, and the sceptre, which is laying on the corpse of the rogue that must have previously sealed himself into this room, and booby trapped the entrance.

Whilst the party is planning what to do next, Cassie seems to space out. Her face drains of blood and staring off into the distance, she pulls out a pouch of small bones from her pocket, and empties its contents onto the floor... She looks up at the party 

“You are all in great danger... especially you” she says pointing, at Ceinwen and collapsing on the floor unconscious.

Whilst the party stand about contemplating their actions, an huge explosion in the distance rocks their eardrums and gets their attention... out the windows, over by Myrengrad there is a large fireball erupting from the slum area of Myrengrad... 

-V

D&D Campaign: The Seal of Akatiel Part 5(2).

As the party enters the first corridor, a bunch of Kobolds jump out of the room and unload crossbows into the party. Kernezer reacts by charging right at them... and falling down a spiked pit-trap in the center of the corridor. 


Tsavong Lah leaps past into the fray, along with Joe, whilst the ranged pummel the kobolds with spell and arrow. The lead kobold retreats into the previous room - a dining room. Karnezer takes a few seconds to get to grips with the side of the pit-trap but manages to jump high enough to get a grip and pull himself out. As the rest of the kobolds fall, the party chase him into the room - but cant see him. They stalk around the room which consists of a few storage units, a large dining table - set for dinner with some dusty crockery and sconces a couple of dumb waiters on the northern wall, and a balcony running along the eastern wall above the entrance... Whilst searching the room an arrow is unleashed from the dumb waiter before it disappears into the bowels of the keep... The party decide it would be wise not to jump down in single file after him, and peruse the room... both Kernezer and Joe eye up the candlesticks and assuming they are worthless (both rolled natural 1 with appraisal rolls) Joe decides to pocket one for his own devices... He lobs it at the back of Karnezers head when he isn't looking and hides, giggling. 


The rest of the ground floor of the keep is cleared out in short order - servant quarters and a storage room are checked but are uninhabited - so the party heads towards the basement.


Tsavong takes points going down the stairwell, flanked by Joe, trying to stay out of the light of his torch. Once down the stairs, a corridor leads to the right, into a kitchen area that is lit by a couple of torches and a lit cooking pot.


Spotting something dart into the shadows, Tsavong extinguishes the torch and Joe attempts to sneak ahead to get a better look and position for an ambush, but instead triggers a trap - the roof drops down, crushing him to near death. Silly rogue.


Joe is helped out from under the section of roofing, and quickly quaffs a healing potion as Tsavong and Karn move on ahead into the darkness beyond the kitchen - an earthen floored unlit storage area lies ahead. With a fizzle of light, some magic missiles hit Karn from a figure at the back of the room, and he charges in, grappling the caster - before he notices that there is more than one target here. A kobold Cleric, Mage, a couple of skirmishers and some giant spiders lay in waiting. 


The party charge in, hurling spells and fists into the waiting foes, quickly sending them back to whence they came.


Searching the room, they find Cassie laying eviscerated, but still breathing in the corner. Liana and Ceinwen rush over to assist, and heal the majority of her wounds. The rest of the group search the basement - finding a door to a room with some tombs in, a tunnel dug up into the South Eastern corner of the basement, light faintly emanating from deeper within, and Ceinwen spots a secret door on the South West wall.


Entering the room they find an armoury, with a large chest as its centerpiece. Disarming the archaic arrow trap protecting it, Joe opens it to reveal the treasures within: an entire chest filled with Mithril goods. Mainly elven armour, but also a few weapons and a headband are found within.


The party checks the new armour and then don it - finding it as light, as the armour they were wearing, but offering so much more protection, and it is very lightweight, fitting comfortably under their normal clothes for the most part.


Tsavong returns the candlestick to Joe via aerial assault, and then joins everyone in heading upstairs in search for the scepter. 

D&D Campaign: The Seal of Akatiel Part 5.

It has been a while since my last installment on this campaign:
The party commences its trip back to the surface. They back track along the flooded tunnel, and make their way back into the entrance ante-chamber, only to find that there is water now flowing into the room from outside. A distant flicker of light can be seen coming down the entrance-tunnel, followed by a loud rumble of thunder, and although it is sheltered, everyone decides that they would rather be up near the surface than deep underground and at risk of being caught in a flood.

In single file, they make their way back up the long passage, the rocks slick with the rainwater trickling down. a few more lightning discharges and they are nearing the surface. From a recess in the wall near the entrance, Cassie steps out behind the party, and greets them, asking if they found her Dolly. Tsavong holds forth body of her sister, and the Dolly. Cassie snatches the Dolly from his grasp and cheers, and hugs him thanking him for returning it, completely ignoring the body.


The group step out of the entrance to the tunnel and are faced with a dark, windy and rainy night, the rain beats hard down upon their armour and the party start making their way back to town - Cassie on tow.


As they walk accross an open area, some movement can be seen in some bushes to the left - and it doesnt appear to be rain.


A moment later, half a dozen goblins break cover, several of them charging at the party and the others sitting back and firing their crossbows into the group. After a brief scuffle, which involves Karnezer destroying the keg of ale he has been carrying from the dungeon whilst crushing a Goblin beneath it, the party make haste and double time it to the town gates.


There is no resistance to their entrance, the guard simply greet the party from their watch posts, and let them through. A long central road runs East through the town from the gates right over to the Town hall - on either side there is a blacksmith, a general store, an tavern, a stables and a magic shop. A few smaller paths lead north and south off of this to the more residential areas. 


Cassie leads the Tsavong straight to her fathers hut in the southern, poorer part of the village. (It should be pointed out that Tsavong has a character trait where he tends to shift alignment every day at random - and today he is Lawful Good...) Whilst the rest of the party head to the tavern, Tsavong knocks on the door of a dank and sodden straw thatched hut that he is lead to, and a frail and elderly man answers the door. 


"Ucle Bailen!" Cassie yells and jumps forward to hug him.


Tsavong hands over the corpse of the other girl, and the uncle sits down in despair. He mentiones the death of his wife the previous winter, and that girls have had to endure much, but he is thankful that the body could be returned. As he goes to rummage for a reward for the party, Tsavong halts him and hands over a pouch of coins containing 400 Gold Pieces, and tells Bailen to make a better life for Cassie. Bailen is pleased at this show of generosity, and Tsavong bows and returns to the rest of the party at the inn.


After drying off by the fire and a nice mug of ale each, the party head back into the rain, to search through the shops to see what equipment they can buy. Oddly they are all open - likely due to the oppertunity to get new customers, this is a small fishing village after all - the oppertunity to sell adventurer gear and magical equipment does not come often.


A large blacksmith sits opposite the inn, and some of the more melee oriented party members go take a look and buy some upgrades off of Asadas the gnome. Some others head over to a round white hit, that has a picket fence around its garden and a couple of blooming Willow tree's in front of it. Willows magic emporium. 


Entering the shop, there are clothes racks around the floor, shelves with potions and strange items on and behind a desk filled with ornate Jewellery there stands a white haired elf who looks by human standards to be in her mid twenties. She is flanked by a couple of large metallic statues wielding maces. The party assume these to be Golems and decide it would be in their interests to behave whilst in here.


Several items are bought, and a few are ordered for Willow to craft through the night. The party then heads over to the Town Hall where a receptionist directs them through a door at the rear of the lobby where they find the Mayor, Delrick, a rotund man with a fuzzy half-beard, who is sitting at a table having a feast, shovelling handfulls of food into his mouth. He nonchalantly acknowledges the group whilst devouring a plump greasy chicken leg.


Joe waltzes up to the table and starts gnawing upon another chicken leg, smiling at Delrick, who rolls his eyes and signals for the party to sit down and help themselves, which they happily do. 


After some inquisition about an old keep that they can see in the lower hills behind the town, they find out that it is abandoned, and has been for a hundred years, and is called Mithrall keep. The mayor upon finding the party is interested in checking it out offers them some coin in exchange for an ornate sceptre that should be found somewhere in the keep.


Everyone returns to the inn for some rest, having decided they want to go inspect Mithrall keep in the morning.


During the night some commotion can be heard momentarily outside... Peeking through the window outside Dreinell and Ceinwen spot some movement down near the allotments in the poorer part of town... Goblins. More can be seen skulking over by the blacksmiths.


Everyone grabs their gear and run outside, and start attacking the Goblins. A couple of them can be seen making off with a small humanoid to the south, and Bainlen comes bursting out of his hut swinging a mace at one. The party help rescue him and he begs for them to return his daughter. A few remaining Goblins can be seen fighting with members of the town watch, but are no match.


Tsavong tracks the girls footprints through the town to the school that lies beside the Town Hall. Entering the building they see the tracks lead to a back wall where they seem to disappear. Joe manages to open a secret passageway that leads under the school and out of the town. The party follow the tracks out of the town bounds, and north, losing them momentarily at a stream but picking them back up on the other side... They clearly lead to the keep. "Two birds with one stone" the party think, and head to a pathway that cuts its way into the rocky hillside.

As the party traverse the path, Joe and Ceinwen take the higher ground to the left, staying atop the rock face whilst the rest of the party march along the path below. As they near the keep they can see that it is a bit delapidated with a few decaying sections of castellation. A large gong is placed next to the main entranceway into the keep. Ceinwen and Joe climb down the rock face and rejoin the party at the entranceway, which just happens to be open a crack.


Peeking through the gap in the open door Joe can make out several bipedal hyena like creatures crouched around a fire. Gnolls. He signals to the party who burst through the doorway and charge into the room, easily dispatching them with a combination of spells and swords.


The reception room has three doors - the left one that leads to the library, the right one that leads to a cloakroom and the one opposite the entranceway that leads to the rest of the keep. The party open this door and inspect the corridor ahead... 

Intel AppUp centre. (AKA... Free angrybirds downloader!)

I am taking a look at the Intel AppUp centre - an application for downloading applications to your PC as I understand it.

Why am I interested? Well... curious about what the program does, yes... but... FREE ANGRYBIRDS... There is no contest.

Oh dear gawd, I just heard the missus start it up across the room...

-V

Edit: Took a look at the app-store, its much the same as the Apple App-store or the Android app-store - you sign in, you can then search for and buy little programs/plugins and games. Some funky stuff Im sure, but not really my scene.

Chrome Scribe, a Chrome translator extension using Google Translator

So we have another subject finished for the semester - HCI (Human Computer Interactions) - we decided for our project to create a GOOD plugin for Google Chrome to allow sections of text to be translated to/from pretty much any language. What we came up with was "Chrome Scribe" - I have a feeling the name is already in use somewhere, but as we are not trying to sell this or anything I dont see a problem in providing a link for anyone that happens to read this blog to try it out!

Link to Chrome Scribe.

Simply download the file, unzip it to wherever you want it stored and use Chrome's extension option to load an unpacked extension and Voila! you should have a little icon at the end of the address bar that will let you change the language choice.

To use:
It couldn't be simpler: highlight a section of text you want translated and it gives a little translation box under the selected text. Changing the language setting then saving will allow you to change the language that the highlighted section is translated to.

This file is open source courtesy to my HCI group at Dundee University, Scotland. Feel free to edit the file as you see fit and reuse for non-profit functionality.

Hackday project: Threadbot

So our Yahoo Hack Day project finished quite well. We didn't win any of the prizes on the go - but we did get an evening of heavy drinking covered by the lads that came on over :) the "hack" is now hosted - so to access it, go >Here<.

Our hack is basically an amalgamated forum search engine. 5 programming forums are currently coded in with their Xpath queries etc in place - so when you perform a search - it searches all of these forums and tries to extract the most relevant results. It works pretty well and I see it as something I will definitely use when I wish to browse for technical or programming requests on these forums.

-V

Castling up with a lack of Firefly advancement.

So for those of you following the Help Nathan buy Firefly Facebook group, or following him on twitter @NathanFillion - Whedon has basically said "Nay!" to the resurrection of Firefly. I am somewhat disappointed, but not surprised. The cancellation of his "dream show" and the hassle that followed means it probably took quite some time to bury things - I think this is evident with the release of Serenity.

This is not breaking news at this point, but I decided that I should get my Fillion on and finally got round to getting a shot at seeing Castle. I must say, I watched most of the first two seasons in the space of 3 days. It is awesome.

I think I have officially got the wife hooked as well, and it makes for some good chillaxe-time viewing :-)

I may haz a man-crush o.O

Yahoo! Hack day

Run into some problems last week with our hack-day project that mean that it we decided to postpone completion of it until AFTER the hack day - and work on another idea, which, as it turns out - is waay easier, and also a much better project in the end we think!

New blog for it: www.yahoohack2.blogspot.com

Hystericlees and Dragons Part 2

Took me a few days to get round to it, but lets finish this thing!

Round 5:

Evictus: Evictus starts advancing towards the Drow Ranger at the rear

Drow Sorceror: Attempts to FeebleMind Edgar but Edgar passes his Will save.

Drow Ranger: Stepping back, fires a volley of arrows at Evictus, dealing a chunk of damage before the inevitable charge.

Dreinell: Attempts to bestow curse on the Sorceror but fails to slay him.

Edgar: Take a moment to pop another potion to get some health back.

Umberhulk: In a surprise move, the ground beneath Dreinell gives way as two hulking big claws rip through the earth and pull him in.

Round 6:

Evictus: Charges the drow ranger about ripping him in twain on the charge.

Drow Sorceror: Re-attempts to Feeblemind 

Drow Ranger: Stepping back, casts Darkness around him and Evictus

Dreinell: Passes a concentration check to cast his last Phantasmal Killer the Umberhulk, but fails to drop him

Edgar: Floats over to the hole in the ground where Edgar was attacked by the Umberhulk: and hovers into it, out of sight from the Drow Sorceror, and uses his final Phantasmal Killer on the Umberhulk, but fails to kill it - but does deal a chunk of damage from it failing its will save.

Umberhulk: The umberhulk proceeds to bite another chunk out of the Lich/Dread Necromancer

Round 7:

Evictus: Sniffs the air intently, and stepping forward through the darkened shroud, raises up his sword and brings it down, lopping the torso of the Ranger in Two, and mutters "Sheen!"

Drow Sorceror: With no currently visible target, he steps out of the line of sight of evictus behind a building.

Dreinell: Passes a concentration check and decides to try out a relatively new spell in his arsenal: Finger of Death - pokes the Umberhulk in the eye and instantly kills it

Edgar: Focuses intently, grasps Dreinells hand and Teleports them over to the Sorceror - but misjudges the landing spot and appears a few feet further back than intended.

Round 8:

Evictus: Picking up the dead Drow's Composite longbow and a fire arrow, he steps out of the darkness, lines up a shot and fires onto the Sorceror who he can see sticking out from behind the building... But he misses... The arrow hits the wall... bursts through the wall, then bursts through the wall behind and impacts the sorceror in the shoulder, about dropping him (double critical confirmed - 6d8 +1d6 +18 damage... (double crit effect under my rules.)

Drow Sorceror: Flanked by the dread necromancer and the Hybris werewolf warrior, he decides to move to a better spot, and teleports himself onto the roof of the Palace.

Dreinell: Spotting the mage teleport onto the roof draws his bow and launches a volley of magic missiles into the Sorceror, but doesnt do much damage.

Edgar: Points floats up for a better line of sight and aims his finger at the Sorceror, and with a mutter of "Kerpow!" launcher a volley of magic missiles that send him hurtling from the rooftop into a flowerbed below. He blows on his finger tip and turns around to smile at Dreinell.

At the end of round 8 - another Drow is seen rounding the corner into the gardens...

Round 9:

Evictus: Aims his bow at the new target, and unleashes a volley of arrows at him, hitting and lightly wounding him.

Drow Ranger: Steps forward and uses his multishot ability to hit Edgar with a couple of fire arrows, nearly dropping him. The Rangers Spider gallops forth to attack the two casters next round.

Dreinell: Spots the approaching spider, points his finger and kills it instantly with another insta-kill spell.

Edgar: Fires off a volley of magic missiles at the new target, finishing it off.

Drow Assassin: Makes a surprise attack against Evictus and attempts to knock hi out with his Death Attack - but misses (by 1!) 

Round 10:

Drow Assassin: Having the bead on his victim, perforates him with several sneak attacks from his Frost Rapier.

Evictus: Spins to counter attack the assassin landing a blow or two but only doing a little damage.

Dreinell: Once more he points his finger out and casts an instant-killy spell, dropping the Assassin.

Combat ends.

The party proceed to pile the bodies up in a heap in the yard for burning, and gather what treasures they can find. Upon exploring the two holes left by the drow, they also find a hidden chamber under the gardens containing numerous items of artwork - from tankards to silver swords, and several Wondrous Items...

Hystericlees and Dragons

Very entertaining combat-only session last night with a section of the D&D Group: We had present:


Werewolf Warrior (10(14))
Human Sorceror (11)
Human Dread  Necromancer/Lich (10/1)


They came up against an attacking force of Drow in the middle of the night just outside the Palace they Annexed in the town of Dyonnesia that they Have been working in for the latter half of their game.(picture shall be edited into the bottom of this page)


The attacking force consisted (initially) of:
12 Drow Sorceror
12 Drow Cleric
12 Drow Ranger (Huge Monstrous Spider companion)
Mutated Umberhulk (basically half way stats wise between an Umberhulk and the Gargantuan version - on the Umberhulks template)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

During the night you are awoken by the clash of a gong from outside... You hear some funny sounds coming from outside the windows...

Looking out you can see some large hulking figure crashing about in the gardens, and several militia men attempting to subdue it with nets and spears, but the spears simply shatter against its thick hide and the militia are crushed by its huge fists. A flash comes from the trees at the edge of the garden and several volleys of fire trace from them at high speed impacting with another guard Impacting in rapid succession leaving him a smouldering corpse on the ground.

Another figure is seen flitting past the Dread Necromancers window... agile, black figure, but with almost radiant white hair. Clearly skilled in acrobatics since this is not the ground floor... (Que "Ahh, Fuck!" from the werewolf OOC)

Surprise Round: 

After looking out the window, Evictus reaches to his equipment and picks it up, strapping it on he dives out the window, drawing his sword and charging towards the Umberhulk, only to find himself getting trapped on a sheet of spider webbing laid out in the grass not 15 feet from his target.

Dreinell Jumps out his window and Bestows Curse on the Umberhulk, reducing its Strength by 6.

Edgar crashes through his bedroom window with flight on, and surveying the battlefield follows the entrapped Evictus's instructions and lands a Fireball beside the Monstrous spider lurking behind the Umberhulk - lighting up the scene for all to see. The Clerics spell resistance counters the Fireball and the Ranger evades all damage entirely, ducking behind the trunk of the tree beside him.

Round 1:

Evictus: Struggles with the webs to move but fails, so opts to unload his Double Barreled Cannon into the Umberhulks chest inflicting a good deal of damage, blowing a hole in its armoured chest.

Drow Sorceror: From the safety of the back ranks, sends forth an Ethereal Mage Hand and removes the Umberhulks curse, and casts a Quickened Scorching Ray at Dreinell, whose damage reduction reduces it to all but a smouldering tickle.

Drow Cleric: Steps forth, and placing a hand on the wounded Umberhulk "Heals" it back to full health.

Drow Ranger & Spider: The ranger Shouts in drow "Get the damned mage!" then releases a rapid-fire volley of Fire arrows into him, inflicting a hefty amount of damage, the spider then charges in, sinking in its fangs and draining the wizard down to 7 strength.

Dreinell: Upon seeing the Cleric and Sorceror undo all the offensive work from the party's initial assault, he Bestows Curse on the Cleric, stripping her Wisdom (and will save) by 6.

Umberhulk: Steps forward becoming trapped in the webbing itself, but being within reaching distance of Evictus, it starts trying to pummel him with its fists, inflicting some light damage.

Edgar: Following up on Dreinells Will save strip on the cleric, flys 5ft Up out of the spiders reach and launches a Phantasmal Killer towards the cleric... Bypassing its spell resistance, the cleric then Fails the lowered will save and Just fails his Constitution save. Bam, with a piercing screech her hands cover her face and she crumples onto the ground a lifeless heap.

Round 2:

Evictus: Unable to unroot his feet from the webbing, he proceeds to reload his cannon (Should have provoked an AOO but I forgot.)

Drow Sorceror: Launches a Fireball into the midst of the party, just missing the nearly-dead Edgar, but catching Dreinell, Evictus and the Umberhulk. The Umberhulk and Dreinell succeed in their reflex saves, taking half damage: another tickle to Dreinell.

Drow Ranger & Spider: The ranger opens fire on Dreinell, missing all but one shot which is mostly absorbed by his Lich powers. The Spider moves onto Evictus, but in the charge, Evictus draws his greatsword to defend himself and bringing it down, slices the spider cleanly in two. The words "charlie sheen" and "Winning" erupt from his lips as he then proceeds to cut the webbing from around his feet (in his next round).

Dreinell: Attempts to Phantasmal Killer the sorceror but fails to beat his spell resistance.

Umberhulk: Continues to pummel into evictus, inflicting a critical hit with its bite, and doing a significant amount of damage to him.

Edgar: Also attempts to Phantasmal Killed the drow sorceror - but the Sorceror succeedes on his will save and disbelieves - and then moves up behind Evictus to break line of sight with the Ranger.

Round 3:

Evictus: Cuts himself free from the webbing, 5 foot steps and finishes his turn with the remainder of his attacks on the Umberhulk (possibly an illegal move, but its a full round attack with a 5ft step in my book which I allow.)

Drow Sorceror: Launches another Fireball into the group, this time catching Edgar aswell. Edgar and Evictus make their reflex saves, and Edgar survives. Dreinell and the Umberhulk fail taking full damage, but the Fireball is underpowered and doesnt do too much damage

Drow Ranger: Launches another volley at Dreinell, inflicting a bit more damage this time, but still leaving him relatively intact, if pincushioned.

Dreinell: Casts CloudKill at the Sorceror - dropping his constitution by 2, reducing his health and Fort save

Edgar: Downs a potion of healing and moves out of the kill-zone of those fireballs.

Round 4:

Evictus: Hacks away at the umberhulk, but fails to land half his attacks and fails to kill it.

Drow Sorceror: Steps out of the Cloudkill and launches a volley of Scorching ray at Dreinell, peeling away a little more of his health.

Drow Ranger: Stepping back, fires another volley of arrows at edgar, but doesnt inflict much damage.

Dreinell: Phantasmal Killers the Umberhulk, dropping it there and then.

Edgar: Attempts to Phantasmal Killer the Sorceror again, once more failing to break though his defences.

Wall of text for the win - Ill make a follow up post with the remainder! 

Dundee & Yahoo! Hack Day

So today me and my groupmate from Uni created the blog for our Yahoo Hack Day project... Dont know how much info will be put into it as we go, but it may be interesting to some.

The Hack Day is an event that Yahoo travel the world doing - and at the end of this month they are coming to our University. The theme of these days is for groups to put together a "hack" - a solution to a real-world problem, or functionality that they would like to see in action.

We are given a couple of weeks to come up with an idea, develop that idea and produce a prototype for demonstrating on the day. We think we have quite a good idea, but the work involved in it may be quite extensive!

If interested, the blog can be found at: http://gojammit.blogspot.com/

Have fun!
-V