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Tonic

Gin and Tonic Cocktail Recipe

I can’t believe it’s been two months or so since I last updated this blog. A lot has happened, or to be precise a lot has happened to many many people but very little has happened to me. Under the lockdown resultant from the pandemic I’ve been working from home since the end of March and apart from a week of feeling dreadful early on with all the classic symptoms of Covid-19, I and my family have all been fine. Did I have the dreaded ailment? In the absence of testing there is no way of knowing and of course there is no guarantee that having had it provides further immunity in any case. It would be an odd exception to the normal coronavirus properties if immunity was achieved after an infection.

No, my health is fine at the moment, and the worst I can complain about is the disruption to routine and the sameness of each passing day. I applaud the efforts and sacrifices of emergency workers who risk their lives to minister to those who are ill, often in the face of appalling and unnecessary obstacles imposed on them by previously uncaring officialdom for whom greed and political interests have driven their gutting of our health services.

I’ve continued my various roleplaying campaigns – they were all online in any case so there has been no real disruption to those. I’ve also been incredibly flattered that one of my RP settings, the details for which I posted online some time ago – has been picked up by another person and they have begun a campaign in the land of Chaha Ris for their own game. They have changed up some of the details, of which I heartily approve, but in some odd way it makes the work I did seem more real in that it now exists beyond my own immediate sphere of influence.

In my current campaigns:

Alarang the Uroxi is leading a small team of valiant explorers in Glorantha against a rising cult of Chaos in the north of Dragon Pass. At the end of the last session they’d arrived in a hamlet in the hill-lands of Oakland Back a scant hour before the oncoming arrival of a Broo war-band and they need to organise a defence.

Grey “8.73” Stevens, netrunner and part time amnesiac activist is trapped in the bowels of an abandoned factory ship in the South Atlantic with a bullet in his thigh, a decimated action team, a maniac doctor with apocalyptic tendencies and a neurotoxin lab and very few resources.

Nalith of Steelhaven is a guest in the palace of the Tyrant of Gathkun trying to negotiate rights to pass through Gathkun’s waters to hunt down the notorious pirate Olwe The Vulture. The Tyrant’s rivals are trying to recruit her to help them overthrow him. She’s not sure they’re competent enough to pull off a coup… yet. Tanys the pre-teen assassin is stalking the palace unobserved hoping to kill the Tyrant’s murderous trained hawk (with venom coated iron spurs) on general principles.

Adriel of Genlith has become count of Genlith following the sudden death of his father. He and his companions are now facing civil war with those loyal to his elder brother, a larger war against forces from Malmor and their allies, and the supernatural corruption of the King in Yellow who is trying to corrupt Aedan of Greyrise after providing her with some dreadful poetry and commanding her to spread it abroad.

As a player, Alric Helm of the Red Band is carrying urgent dispatches to human troops in the Arenvale with coordination against the goblin hordes as the goal – hopefully before they complete whatever ritual they are up to.

I’ve also discovered a YouTube channel showing exorcisms being carried out against people possessed by Jinn. What’s fascinating beyond all other details in this is the backstories the Jinn provide to the exorcist. They talk of their own families, of being persecuted by more powerful Jinn, and of wanting to be freed so they can travel the world like they used to before Magicians forced them into service. Incredible stories, regardless of the objective reality of the entities.

Finn’s first novel A Step Beyond Context is available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com and a few others as well. It’s a punchy genre-busting mystery with a heroine who is a Regency lady, a high tech mercenary and much more.

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