Home sweet home!

We headed back to Hendenburgh in a spirit of celebration, now the imminent danger had been removed. Even the woodlands seemed cheerier now the hounds had been banished. Krisanna took great delight in retelling the story, embellishing the account and acting out the good bits by jumping on tables.

We returned to the castle for the first time in ages, with the journey being largely uneventful but there was word of something that Leadbelly needed to discuss with us. The repairs were proceeding to plan although there was still a lot of work to do, with the castle being a hive of activity. After yet another banquet we retired to our newly refurbished rooms - Orla looked anxiously to see if there was an en-suite bathroom in her room and was angry to find that there wasn't.

Leadbelly told us that while clearing the overgrown courtyard the workers had discovered a doorway with a broken stone seal on it. When they heard noises from beyond the door, they all downed tools and refused to do any more work until it was investigated. If only there was a group of slightly hung over adventurers to hand!

The door was cracked but Bastonn soon shifted the broken pieces to reveal a steeply sloping chalk passageway leading down into the ground. Krisanna scampered ahead whilst Bastonn held a torch. We discovered a large room with three partions each bounded by an alcove. There seemed to be a pattern in the inscriptions in the alcoves, possibly related to the elements. Water removed one and earth the next. The final one had an inscription of a sun which responded to an ember from the torch.

A passage to the south led into an even larger chamber with a large carved humanoid face on the western wall, The pillars seemed to be carved into leaf patterns. The face "This presence here is most untrue, speak of nature's order or pay for this miscue." It took a but of head scratching before we solved it's riddling rhyme and heard three clicks as the doors unlocked.

We followed the passageway to the north east and discovered a statue of a knight holding a large silvery sword with golden discs set into its eye sockets. Krisanna swapped the golden discs for a couple of copper pennies just in case removing the eyes woke the statue. Bastonn investigated the sword and realised that it could be removed with a little effort and claimed it. It proved to be very heavy, weighted with lead and more than likely an executioners sword. Yikes.

Heading back a locked door to the south proved to be no obstacle to Krisanna's lock picking fingers and revealed a large pool of warm water - could this be Orla's ensuite? The only thing that spoilt it was a bloody hobbit corpse floating in the pool and six weird, plant like creatures washing blood off themselves. Bastonn immediately slashed at two of them with a furious attack, whilst Orla and Krisanna managed to dodge incoming attacks, then Krisanna deftly dispatched one with a dagger and Orla fired twin arrows killing one, and a further arrow to finish the other, then Bastonn finished the last.

The corpse proved to be a young male hobbit who had probably been climbing down into the room before falling to his doom. Something silvery in the water tempted Krisanna into diving in but it was deeper than it first appeared and she swallowed a mouthful of water. Orla fished her out, and Krisanna reappeared clutching a large silver salver. The water also appeared to have healing properties, just a bit late for the unfortunate hobbit thief.

We headed east and Krisanna narrowly avoided two large spinning blades before finding a door and opened a door that opened on to a dead end. Ha ha, very amusing. Heading south led to another statue and a mirror that reflected the viewer as if they were a skeleton. Creepy. We unscrewed the statue and found a strange jar sealed with not sinister at all black wax. It proved to contain dozens of tiny copper coins.

The next room contained a weird crystalline structure with a figure trapped inside. There was a weird humming noise and as Orla approached the crystals started pulsing with light. Despite several attempts to break the crystals we abandoned it as being too dangerous unless someone had high willpower to resist any encrystallisation.

A bit more investigation of the knight room found an odd gutter seam around the room and some odd recesses at the corners of the statue. A bit of manipulation revealed four rods that we could push back up into the recesses and with a bit of fiddling revealed two more secret doors, the north one leading to another face room, this one with a bronze face with an odd wheel on the nose. Turning this revealed a secret passage leading to hidden exit outside the castle - could be handy,

The door to the south revealed more statues with copperwood blades and silvery amulets. Needless to say removing the amulet triggered a battle. Oops. Onto another mirror room with a corpse with slashed wrists and sinister reflections. Finally we reached a large chamber with a sarcophagus, blue mist and a large figure holding a crystal sword. One more battle and the crystal sword was ours! Holding the sword proved risky but wearing a handy gauntlet that was hidden in the casket. prevented any crystal growths

All hail the contributions to the roof fund and the new socialist republic.

Apple Venus volume 1 by XTC

XTC were always one of the more interesting bands of the late 70s and early 80s, with a distinctive sound bringing elements of English folk music alongside new wave beats. However, frontman Andy Partridge suffered from crippling stage fright so they gave up touring and became a studio band, with releases becoming infrequent.

This album appeared in 1999 after a seven year break and led to long time guitarist Dave Gregory leaving the band for personal reasons during a protracted recording process. Andy Partridge is clearly aiming for a sound somewhere between the Beatles and the Beachboys with harmonies and orchestral arrangements recorded at Abbey Road, but it ends up more like one of Paul McCartney’s more disappointing solo efforts from the 90s.

I’m not sure that even Macca would have tried getting away with lyrics like “as high as a very high thing” or singing about brown nipples. The song Your Dictionary also comes across as a rather petty and bitter response to Partidge’s recent divorce.

In words of the Chernobyl plant manager, this album is not great, but not terrible.

3.6 Roentgens-tastic!

Peony, Moon

Paya base this is
Free Trader Peony Moon
Looking for cargo

Roots by Sepultura

Of all the possible genres available, I was pleasantly surprised to find Brazilian metal on the list today. I’m not normally a fan of the guttural screaming singing style - I get a sort of misophonic reaction similar to hearing someone retching. However, in the case of vocalist and lead guitarist Max Cavalera, it’s not too bad and I can actually make out most of what he’s singing without using a lyrics guide.

Aside from the vocals, the music is great, incorporating traditional Brazilian and tribal sounds with the usual doom laden guitars and bass lines. I particularly enjoyed the tracks featuring Xavente chants recorded on location in the Brazilian interior. This is definitely a case of cultural celebration rather than appropriation giving this album a unique atmosphere.

Great stuff!

Doctor Sleep

Stephen King famously wasn't that impressed with Stanley Kubrick's iconic adaptation of The Shining, to the extent that he wrote and produced a so-so TV series version in 1997 that would be closer to his original vision. The original book is one of King's keystone works, tying into the Dark Tower series and being referenced multiple times in various places, so it was kind of inevitable that he would pick up the story to answer the question "Whatever happened to Danny Torrence?"

The answer is simple - he became an alcoholic drifter, using booze to suppress his psychic powers, until winding up in a small New Hampshire town and getting a job as a hospice orderly, where he finds that his shine  can comfort dying patients in their final hours earning him the nickname of Doctor Sleep. Meanwhile we are introduced to a gang of psychic vampires who prey on children with the shine, kidnapping them and brutally murdering them to feed off their pain. Lovely. 

Danny is telepathically contacted by a young black girl who has sensed one of the murders and knows where the body of the unfortunate victim has been buried, and together they resolve to fight the vampires, who go by the name of the True Knot, travelling around in caravans and RVs like a bunch of psychopathic van lifers. Inevitably, the final showdown leads to the ruins of the Overlook hotel which is still haunted by the ghosts of Danny's past, however much he has tried to keep them boxed up in his mind.

Director Mike Flanagan's script and direction plays off both King's book and Kubrick's film, recreating several iconic scenes and locations quite effectively, although the overall effect feels a little bit like a cross between a tribute and fan-fic. This makes for a middle ranking adaptation of a middle ranking Stephen King story, which still puts it above most things. A fun Saturday night watch, but a touch overlong so we ended up watching it in two instalments.

Snapshot

Shooting from the hip
Sacrificing aim for speed
DM minus two

Aha Shake Heartbreak by Kings of Leon

Six hundred and twenty two albums down, and I was genuinely struggling to remember if I’d heard Kings of Leon before. Turns out that I’ve already listened to two of them and this is the third. I wasn’t overly impressed before, but would this be three times a charm?

Sadly, no. It’s almost aggressively bland, middle of the road early 2000’s indie rock, with a couple of jarring c-bombs dropped into the lyrics as if to say “Hey, look at us - we’re *edgy*!”. Sorry guys, it’s not working. It might impress someone DJing on Six Music in the coveted Tuesday 2am slot but it doesn’t do it for me.

I checked my 2011 edition of the 1001 Albums and at least the editor Robert Dimery has relegated all three of the Kings of Leon albums from the book, showing that their earlier inclusion was probably a bit optimistic as to their long term staying power.

Oh dear, how sad, never mind-tastic!