Sweeping Maul in Archet

Daily Ramble 224: Sweeping Maul in Archet

With Star Wars day upon us…May the Force be with You…I figured it’d be good to take another step in following the Star Wars canonical timeline in comics (and in television once I get there) so I decided to start my reading of Darth Maul’s story. So far it’s really good. Along with my reading I continued moving my Warden through the tutorial in Lord of the Rings Online and at these low levels I haven’t had to worry about any of the special abilities of the class. Finally I had the pleasure of watching my Angels pick up a sweep of the Orioles and firmly remove the home field curse they’d suffered so far this season.

First Look at Star Wars: Darth Maul #1

Book 1, Part 1 by Cullen Bunn, Luke Ross, and Nolan Woodard. Published by Marvel Comics, 2017.
Darth Maul and Darth Sideous are the Sith. Apprentice and Master are plotting to take on the evil Jedi but Maul is a bit more ready to engage than Sideous.

The dark side of the Force is filled with fear, anger, and hate and Darth Maul has all of these in spades. For fun, he hires a bunch of hunters to travel to Twon Ketee to round up some Rathtars. Little do they know that once they find the dangerous creatures, Maul is gonna slaughter not only the beasts, but also the hunters. But facing off against some of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy does not sate his bloodlust, he’s gotta pit himself against the hated Jedi.

Back on Coruscant, Darth Maul stalks his Jedi prey, but fortunate for him, he doesn’t attack. If he had, Darth Sideous probably would have flayed him. Even so, Sideous threatens him pretty severely and demands that he leave the Jedi alone until his plans are in place. Instead, the Master has an assignement that should please Maul – go to the Kellux system and help their Trade Federation allies fight off some pirates.

Just as in The Phantom Menace, the Trade Federation are sniveling weaklings and Darth Maul easily wipes out the pirates. But he’s not done…to bad the pirates had killed all the Trade Federation representatives before he got there…wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Before he kills everyone though, he learns about a young Jedi Padawan that the Xrexus Cartel are gonna be auctioning off. Perhaps by being the ‘highest bidder’ he can lure some full blown Jedi into fighting him.

For a Star Wars comic I’m really happy to learn more about the Sith and Darth Maul in particular. I always though he was one of the best parts of The Phantom Menace but instead of keeping him around for a few movies they killed him off and kept Jar Jar instead. Now I get to see some of his background and experience some of his interactions with his master.

With that said, I love the concept of this title and enjoyed the first issue. We get to see Maul kicking butt and that’s exactly what I wanted outta this book. The art’s pretty and the colors fit with the mood and I hope the Star Wars canon is more of this.

I rate this issue an A- and am looking to see what becomes of the young Padawan Darth Maul is looking to obtain.

Safe in Archet?

Having escaped the Blackwolds with the help of Strider and Amdir yesterday, today Catathein and I start to figure out just how safe we might be in Archet and things aren’t looking so good.

In the battle with the Nazgul, Amdir was cut with a dreaded morgul-blade and he’s barely hanging on to life. On top of that, Captain Brackenbrook doesn’t trust Strider enough to believe the Blackwolds are planning an attack on Archet. Cat and I try to convince the Captain and some of the townsfolk of the impending danger but they don’t believe us either…we’re gonna have to be more convincing. So we head out to convince Calder Cob, one of the top soldiers of Archet, but it turns out he’s working with the Blackwolds.

The traitor actually sets up an ambush with the Blackwold Wolf Master that Cat and I barely survive. Fortunately we spent some time with the Warden trainer before we left the town and Cat was able to remember some of the gambits we were taught. With the Wolf Master dispatched we head back to tell Strider the bad news and he sends us out to get some critical medicine to help Amdir.

Once we gather the herbs, we head out to see if we can find evidence of Blackwold treachery near Springley’s farm and when we get down there, Cal Springley warns us that we need to try to get help from the nearby town of Combe. Well, that’s not gonna happen since the villains have blockaded the road to Combe.

Perhaps a letter from Cal will be enough to convince Captain Brackenbrook that things are bad since we’re not gonna get much else.

As far as playing a Warden, so far, things are kinda the same as the other classes I’ve played. I haven’t really done much in the way of gambits but then the bad guys Cat and I have been facing haven’t required fancy maneuvers yet.

2999 and Counting

Well, not only did Albert get his 2999th hit but the Angels swept Baltimore. It was a good game all around – Barria threw 5 innings of no hit ball and looked really good doing it. Sure, his 6th inning had some problems but he was well ahead in the game so it really didn’t matter. 5 Angels collected multiple hits and a few broke out of some serious batting slumps. So on the whole, the game was a resounding success.

Too bad Albert didn’t knock number 3000 at home. But at 2999, he still gets my Player of the Game.

Oh and the Angels jump back into first place in the American League West.