Pirates!

This seemed to be the theme for the weekend. Yesterday I DM'd our high level Realms characters against a threat most of them had encountered before--neogi! These "spider-snake" privateers once again went up against the Defenders of Cormyr and suffered defeat. The highlight for me had to be when the commander neogi led the PCs aboard the disabled craft to "get hidden treasure" to barter with for its life. Instead, the sneaky little devil activated the ship's magical self-destruct!!! Brad's monk PC throttled the beast but it was too late. Fortunately, everyone survived the detonations and they were able to return later and sift through the rubble for some great treasure. Hmm, another good part would have been when an umber hulk tried to charge through a steel door and got its ass handed to it. Okay, there were many good moments. :)

Today, after a farewell get-together for my sister and her kids, Scot and Zlaty and I went to see the latest in the Pirates of the Carribean movies. Was it any good? Eh, it wasn't terrible. The acting was good and the movie looked great. Hans Zimmer delivered a good score at the beginning for the film's Singapore opening but quickly fell back into original Pirates material for the climactic battle (at least it sounded that way in my opinion). And then there's the plot. I'm pleased that everything was wrapped up but there were too many new elements introduced in order to do so. I guess, though, when you have to clean up the wretched second film's mess, that's a tall order for any writer (much less the pair of writers given credit here). At the end, I was hoping they'd crank out another Pirates if only to see a good adventure involving the fountain of youth. To hope a movie spawns (yet another) sequel pretty much tells you that this one couldn't have been too bad at all.