DShomshak

I thought the proper expression was, "I can't in good conscience do X," but the guy substituted a similar but incorrect word. Sort of like how many people speak of "flaunting the law" when they mean "flouting." As for Republican state legislatures sending pro-Trump electors despite the popular vote in their state, I actually don't think it's that likely. Much as gthey might want to keep Trump in office, Republicans seem to be good at playing the long game -- and with their state house victories, they can gerrymander additional states in the upcoming redistricting, which gives a good chance of taking the House in 2022. Then in 2024 they run Trump again, or someone like Mike Pompeo who's studied the playbook but has more discipline. As long as they have at least one house of Congress, they can hamstring Biden, but can also blame every problem on him. The dire thought in my mind is how much damage Republicans will deliberately inflict in order to create problems they can blame on Biden. Block any coronavirus relief or economic help, so more Americans die suffer from poverty? I would not like to think anyone would choose such a monstrous path... but I cannot bring myself to rule it out. Dean Shomshak EDIT: Oh, right, there's also "I can't countenance this." Apparently the Fox guy got the two expressions mixed up.

Oh, and isn't it strange that althought the Deep State Conspiracy can apparently manufacture as many fraudulent ballots as it needs to help Biden, it couldn't or wouldn't do that for all the down-ballot Dems who just lost races? Dean Shomshak

Speaking of which, political science professor John Mark Hansen made these points in his Nov. 5 opinion piece for the New York Times: nion | Republicans Claim Voter Fraud. How Would That Work ... www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/opinion/trump-voter... tl;dr: What would one actually need to do to manufacture tens of thousands of fraudulent ballots and so swing an election? Hansen concludes it requires it's... well, unrealistic. You'd need thousands of people, none of whom slip up or squeal, who are willing to risk jail. Because there are actual safeguards against just such shenanigans, almost as if, you know, election officials had thought about this. Last night's "60 Minutes" segment about vote-counting had Philadelphia's top election official -- a Republican -- pointing out that they are live-streaming the vote count, so anyone with an internet connection can watch. The outraged Trumpists don't seem to know any of this. But I think I can see the emotional pseudo-logic. They don't know the procedures to assure ballot integrity. They don't personally know the people who count the ballots. Therefore, anything is possible. It's like the "God of the Gaps" argument used by some apologists for Christianity: "Science can't explain [fill in the blank], therefore God did it, which proves God exists." It's bad science, bad theology and worse logic, but it fills an emnotional need. Conspiracy theories like Trump's claims of election fraud seem to rely on "gap demons": You don't know something, therefore devils are doing it. EDIT: Oops, UncleVlad just made the same point, better. Dean Shomshak

This is excellent, and an example of why one should do real-world research in building Fantasy worlds. You'll find stuff that's more wondrous and fantastical than anything you could imagine. (Or at least than I could imagine.) A wind furnace driven by the monsoon? Oh yes, I could work with that. Searching my memory further, I think I heard the "hammer off the steel bits" story on an episode of Connections, or maybe Day the Universe Changed. The subject was watch springs, and James Burke said the development of spring-driven chronometers was impeded by Europe's difficulty in making good steel. Dean Shomshak

Heard on the radio yesterday that Washington State Sec'y of State Kim Wyman is investigating possible instances of vote fraud in our all-by-mail system. Three ballots, out of more than 4 million. She's a Republican, btw. In the same statement, Sec'y Wyman sugtgested it's high time the rest of the country adopted some uniform absentee/mail-in ballot system. Dean Shomshak

Another factor is cost, though this is another factor where your world may differ significantly from real history. The Bronze Age, I am told, was an age of aristocratic warriors fighting other aristocratic warriors (as depicted in Homer's Iliad) because bronze was really expensive: Copper and tin were both fairly rare metals, and you needed a supply of both. Iron ore was much more common, in larger quantities: Thus, Homer speaks of "democratic iron." So once people learn to smelt iron, they have a cheaper material that's harder than bronze, and the whole shape of warfare changes. But steel is another matter. IIRC (and I might not, eyeroll) steel could only be made by prolonged heating of iron with charcoal. A layer of steel formed on the iron, which was hammered off. Then the blacksmith had to try forging the bits of steel together. The result was that while a well-made steel weapon was superior to an iron weapon, it took a long time to make and cost a great deal more. At least that was the case at some places and times. I think there was an episode of NOVA, "Secret of the Viking Sword," which said the Medieval Norse obtained ingots of steel from the Middle East, where technology was considerably more advanced. For gaming purposes, this could mean that steel has higher DEF (and maybe BODY) for a given weight, but it might cost even more than bronze. Its production might be considered a magical secret known only to master smiths, or something that has to be brought from far away and the locals don't know how it's made. Maybe you can only get it from the dwarfs. Leaving out the middle stage of iron, though, seems... odd, unless somebody, somehow, has invented the Bessemer converter or some other way of making steel directly. I'd suggest rigging the DEF and BODY ranges of materials to suit the kind of story you want to tell, and the kind of world you want to create stories in. But rigging the availability of steel, bronze and iron can matter just as much. Incidentally, is there meteoric iron in this setting? Because if you want a fantastically rare and precious magical metal for your setting, meteoric iron could work well. Dean Shomshak

NOVA recently showed a two-parter on the history of writing: part one on the origin of writing in general and the alphabet in particular, and part two on the history of writing methods, leading to movable type. Good stuff for people who like world-building in depth. Like, how the available writing materials affect general literacy: Ancient Rome had libraries because papyrus from Egypt was cheap and easy to write upon quickly; but Medieval Europe was limited to parchment, which is far more resource-intensive to produce and can't be written on as quickly, so a book could take a year to copy and cost as much as a house. On such apparently little things can the whole shape of a society depend. Dean Shomshak

You are quite right: US presidential elections are not democratic, and this was a conscious choice in the writing of the Constitution. There's an old saw about legislation and sausage-making, and it applies even to the Constitution. Back in high school civics class I learned that the Electoral College was to protect the small states from collusion by the big states. On last weekend's episode of On the Media (IIRC -- the radio programs tend to blur into each other) a historian gave the sordid backstory: For "small states" read "Southern slave states" and for "big states" read "Northern industrial/commercial states." Even in 1789, these blocs were well established. The Southerners demanded various concessions as their price for staying in the new union, and got most of what they wanted. Even then, they were less urban, and therefore less populous. They played chicken with the very existence of the new United States of America, and it worked. We still live with the consequences because once again, a minority bloc sees it as necessary for its political power. ("I know not if the truth it be; I tell the tale 'twas told to me.") Dean Shomshak

Aw shucks, I'm blushin'... This is the first I've heard of National Novel Writing Month. For "Lost Tomb of the Galactic Pharaoh," I just dipped into my 40-year backlog of adventures played and planned. (I still have smeary pencil mss. of dungeons I designed in high school for AD&D. Throw nothing away, there may be an idea you can use later.) But thank you. Though vide your hope when you entered the Draft. this time you can truly say that no entry got more votes than yours! Dean Shomshak

Well, it's come down to a squeaker in a few states, just like 2016. No sign yet of a blue wave that flips the Senate and increases Dems in the House. I find this unfortunate because even if Trump ultimately loses, Trumpism has not. My guess is that Republican strategists will conclude that culture-war, white-grievance nationalism (with tax cuts as bribes for the middle class, deregulation as bribes for corporations, and voter sup[pression and friendly judges to prune the electorate) is still the right strategy; they just need someone more disciplined than Trump as the figurehead, and hope another pandemic doesn't strike in an election year. So I still fear for our future. Dean Shomshak

Could someone please summarize for those of us who can't watch videos due to slow connections? Dean Shomshak

Already done, thanks to my state's excellent all-mail balloting. My mother also voted. So did my brother, for the first time: He was automatically registered the last time he renewed his driver's license, but didn't bother filling out and returning a ballot until this year. Dean Shomshak

Here's something for our resident progressives who may feel discouraged that centrist Biden won the nomination instead of one of their heroes such as Sanders or Warren. It's a bit of American political history from The Universal Standard Encyclopedia, 1955 edition (an abridgement of the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia) which, though out of date, is my first reference source 'cause I inherited it from my father and so it's right at hand. I have made only two changes to the text: I broke a long paragraph into three to make it easier to read, and bolded a phrase that is reminiscent of current objections to progressive policy proposals. ------------------- POPULISM, in United States history, an agrarian and labor movement of the 19th century, developed chiefly among Middle Western farmers and workers. The growth of populism began during the economic depression of the 1870's, which resulted in a sharp decline in the income of farmers at a time when their living and operating costs were rising. The farmers began to organize early in the 1870's, and during the ensuing two decades flocked in ever-increasing numbers into such bodies as the National Grange and the Farmers' Alliances (qq.v.; see also GRANGER MOVEMENT). Entering the political arena, they also formed the Greenback Party (q.v.) and, when the need for an alliance with the growing class of workingmen became apparent, the Greenback-Labor Party (q.v.). American workers, faced with low incomes and high living costs, had begun to form trade unions (q.v.) as the instruments for the advancement of their interests; chief among these unions were the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor (qq.v.). By 1891 the expanding farmer-labor movement had attained sufficient proportions to warrant the proclamation of a national political program; the launching of this program was signalized by the formation of the People's Party (q.v.), whose members were known as populists (Lat. populus, "people"). The principal objectives to which the populists addressed themselves were the free coinage of silver and the issuance of large amounts of paper currency; such inflationary measures tended to raise farm prices and enable the farmers to pay off their debts, most of which had been contracted during the period of inflation following the Civil War. They also sought to lower their transportation costs by effecting the nationalization of the railroads; to achieve a more equitable distribution of the costs of government through the establishment of a graduated income tax; to broaden the electoral system by instituting direct popular elections of U.S. Senators; and to improve the status of labor through the inauguration of the eight-hour workday. The results of the first election in which the populists took part, that of 1892, were promising; the populist Presidential candidate, James Baird Weaver, received approximately 1,000,000 votes. The peak of populist influence was attained in the campaign of 1896, when they were responsible for the nomination of a populist candidate, William Jennings Bryan, by the Democratic Party, and lost the election to the Republicans by a narrow margin. Thereafter the populist movement declined steadily, until it disappeared about 1908. Despite the brevity of its existence, however, the populist movement exercised a profound influence on subsequent American political life; almost all of the original populist demands, which at one time were widely viewed as revolutionary, destructive of free enterprise and American democracy, and impossible of practical fulfillment, have long since been enacted into law. ----------------- The article on the Progressive Party also has a laundry list of policy proposals that became law even through the Progressives didn't win any major elections. Dean Shomshak

I think the Fungus Caves look quite nice. Thank you for sharing! Me big tech dummy, so I usually just sketch locations with erasable pen on my friend's big plastic hex sheet... or in pencil on a sheet of notebook paper. I expend a bit more efforts on regional maps: I have an antique graphics program called PhotoFinish that has a library of texture effects, so I can suggest mountainous regions, use sand texture for deserts, etc. But still quite primitive. I also map out buildings floor by floor on graph paper or hex paper. As well as tactical placement (if it matters for a fight), I like to know exactly what is where. They tend to be rather dull layouts because I try to stay plausible about things like heavy stone walls having support underneath them. I sometimes redo these maps with PhotoFinish to share them with players if it's something they ought to know, such as, "Here is the exact layout of the house you rented in town." For instance, here's the house and shop of the jeweler Plautus Taruntius, part of a block of connected buildings. I expected the scenario would become a hostage situation, so players needed to work out potential angles of fire and things like that. This was D&D, so each square is 5 feet. Dean Shomshak

Incidentally, Tuesday's episode of the NYTimes radio show/podcast, The Daily, was a history refresher about Bush v Gore in 2000. As the reporter summed up, the lesson Democrats took from that dumpster-fire was theat they needed to pump up turnout to win clear victories. But the lesson Republicans drew was to prune the electorate, take control of the ballot-ounting, and have friendly partisan judges in place, all justified by claims of voter fraud. A tactic on which Trump has doubled, tripled, and hundreded down. Oh, and a news article in my morning paper says that John Roberts, Bret Kavanaugh and now Amy Coney Barrett were all members of the Bush legal team in Bush v Gore. So it rather looks like the fix is in for any election cases that go to the Supreme Court. Dean Shomshak

<snark> Now *that's* a show of loyalty to the Great Man! The ones who went to the hospital will brag about it for the rest of their lives. </snark> Dean Shomshak

Dunno about Jotunheim, but my atlas shows it's about 300 km from the northernmost point of Denmark to the southern edge of the Jotun Fjeld in Norway. Yes, the Mountains of the Giants, right there on the map. Trollheim is about 100 km north of that. Dean Shomshak

Mythic Monster/Guardian: Osorkon The android Osorkon demands that the characters prostrate themselves in worship and pledge their fealty to him, or he will kill them. If they obey, he will try to kill them anyway, while he can get in a free shot or two. His android body is superhumanly strong and extremely resistant to damage (at least compared to whatever weapons the PCs managed to get through the tech-destroying traps in the tomb or pick up along the way, such as the swords and nets from the Binding of Apep). His crown can fire laser beams, because why not. He also has the shabti Dr. Mbenge and about 20 robot guards, variously armed, that troop out from a side chamber to assist him. Their weapons are dangerous to living people but not to androids, such as hypervelocity poison needles or nerve stunners. OTOH the PCs have a formidable weapon at hand, if they think to use it and can buy time for one of their number to activate it. The star-yacht isn't locked, and it has powerful lasers and plasma engine exhaust. But it does take some time to figure out the centuries-old controls and power it up. If the PCs can destroy Osorkon, Dr. Mbenge sadly says, "Well, that was a waste of three centuries' work. Though it was good to prove my theory." Then the android explodes. So do the computers in the tomb chamber. No one shall learn the secrets of Dr. Mbenge. Searching through the side chambers and the hangar, victorious characters not only find the rest of Osorkon's art collection, they find find other treasures: * Several nuggets of strange matter and other products of hyphernuclear engineering, used in star drives, long-lasting nuclear batteries and other advanced technologies. Maybe even a magnetic monopole. * The Treasury of Worlds: Scale models of Rigisamos, the other major planets in its system, and the planets that paid tribute to Osorkon, executed in enameled platinum and gems. They contiain voice-controlled computers and holographic projectors to provide GoogleMaps-style views of any location on each planet (as of 3 centuries ago). Just the thing for a megalomaniac conqueror to gloat over. * A rack of cryochambers holding Osorkon's top techs, frozen so they could be revived to serve their risen master once more. However, the chamber for the real Dr. Mbenge is empty. Forensic examination shows Dr. Mbenge was automatically revived some weeks ago. But they won't find her in the tomb complex now... * Plus there's the star-yacht, the Bennu, still working and a top-quality starship despite its centuries of storage. How did Osorkon get the starship into the tomb? He built the tomb around it. How did he plan to get out? That's a little more complucated. It is possible the characters flee from the risen Osorkon. He lets them. As they leave the tomb, however, they find the asteroid abuzz with activity. Remember all those little radar-distorting tunnels that riddle the asteroid? They're occupied. During the centuries in deep space, robots were slowly mining through the asteroid for raw materials to build more robots. When the characters entered the tomb, the android Dr. Mbenge initiated their next program: building weapons and transport. By the time the asteroid reached the inner planetary system, Osorkon was going to have a robot army, on an asteroid reconstructed into a battle station, complete with launch bay for the Bennu. As the characters emerge, the robots are already rebuilding the ion drives into powerful ion cannons. If they don't leave soon, they won't be able to. The Galactic Pharaoh intends to reclaim his empire! Or at least Rigisamos. But that would be a different story arc: Return of the Galactic Pharaoh. There. I'm done. Dean Shomshak

5th Location: The True Tomb The 12th door opens on a gigantic chamber, at least 100 meters wide and high. There's air and gravity. A wide section of the metal floor slowly irises open. Up rises a hugwe bird made of flame, on a platform that turns so the bird faces the door. The holographic flames fade to reveal a gilded star-yacht. Beneath the nose of the star-yacht stands a middle-aged Black woman in a lab coat. The woman nods politely and says, "Welcome. I am the simulation of Dr. Julia Mbenge, chief science advisor to His Majesty Osorkon II, and architect of this tomb complex. You must be very intelligent or very persistent to have made it this far. And while I do want to know why you have come, I must also ask you -- beg you -- to leave. You may take whatever treasures you want from this tomb. Just go." Side-chambers of the tomb hold enough jewels, bullion, and art treasures to make every tomb raider a billionaire, if only it coult be transported out. Doctor Mbenge suggests a few extraordinary and portable treasures, such as the Precursor artifacts. If the characters ask why she wants them to go, or what she's doing there in the first place, Dr. Mbenge assumes a lecturer's pose and tone. She recounts how the ancient Egyptians regarded their tombs as, in a sense, machines for turning a dead king into an immortal god. Modern science has duplicated and surpassed many feats of myth and legend. When her master knew he must die, he asked Dr. Mbenge to realize this ancient myth as well. To cheat death and make him an immortal god. And this she has done. "This is not a tomb. This is not a monument to vanity or superstition. It is a laboratory for a great experiment, the ultimate dream of cybernetics: To copy a human brain, a human mind, onto a computer." This was thought impossible. True intelligence is too fluid for any scanning system to map. The brain and mind change constantly. And even with the ost precise and advance neural mapping, it would take centuries to map every connection of every neuron. But a frozen brain does not change; and the long orbit of the asteroid gave Osorkon the necessary centuries. The simulation is now complete. The final checks began six years ago. Testing was accelerated once the tomb was disturbed, but seems robust. More time would be appreciated, but if the intruders will not take their bribe and go, Osorkon can live again... now. A panel slides aside to reveal a side-chamber shielded by armored glass. A close-fitting Dewar coffin holds Osorkon's body in liquid helium. A ceramic cap covers his head, with cables connecting it to consoles about the room. A powerful, red-skinned android body -- image of the god Osiris --sits on a throne, more cables plugging into its head. The cables detach; a robot arm places a nuclear battery in the figure's chest, which closes and seals; and the golden, plumed crown of a god descends onto the figure's head. The figure blinks, stirs, stands. There's more, but it's late. I hope I may be allowed to finish this tomorrow morning. In brief, though: Who's In Charge: The shabti of Dr. Mbenge. Mythic Monster/Guardian: Osorkon. And he's pretty damn tough. Dean Shomshak

4th Location: Hall of the Negative Confession If the explorers figured out how to link someone's mind to a ba-bird in the 10th cave and used it to obtain transport through the Sea of Nun, they've reached the entrance to the 11th cave: the Hall of the Negative Confession. This long gallery has air and gravity. After the initial 3-meter vestibule, the floor is tiled in alternating, 2-meter bands of black and white tile -- 42 in all. The walls and ceiling of each section hold a dozen muzzles of plasma guns. An inscription on the floor before the first band warns that the confessor may pass, but anyone who tamper with judgment will be destroyed. The warning is no lie. Every plasma emitter is set to go off and fill the entire hall with white-hot plasma if any one of them is tampered with. The gallery ends in a metal door with a glass circle in the center. Statues flank the far door: The god Thoth, holding a scales with a feather in one pan and a stylized human heart in the other; and the monster Ammet, part hippopotamus and part crocodile, that waits to eat the heart of anyone who fails Thoth's judgment. When someone steps into each band, they have one turn in which to recite the appropriate Negative Confession, listing all the 42 sins they have not committed. IE, "I have not stolen. I have not murdered. I have not cheated on my taxes." And so on. Since the Rigisaman version of the Negative Confession was in one of the murals earlier in the tomb, this should be no problem. Failure to recite the appropriate Negative Confession results in the incineration of everyone in that 2-meter section of hallway. Anyone who thinks they can just sprint forward finds themselves running into wall after wall of plasma -- the computers controlling the emitters react in milliseconds. Successful confessors reach the final 3-meter section, with the statues and the large double-doors. These doors are starship hull metal, impregnable to anything less than industrial particle beams that cannot possibly be carried in through the passages of the tomb. Trying to damage the meter-wide disk of armored glass results in plasma filling the entire hall, cooking everyone. An inscription warns that the wise and pious can pass to the Gates of Dawn, but the blasphemer shall die. The disk of translucent glass is divided into three concentric rings and 36 sectors, each bearing a different symbol or hieroglyph: This is a lock. Pressing the correct symbol makes that plate glow. the three concentric circles of glyphs spin, then the glowing plate sinks down and the doors open to reveal... an identical set of metal doors, only with one glyph-plate lit. There are 12 doors in all. To open them, one must press the glyphs that represent the 12 caves of Duat. With each correct symbol chosen, the circles spin again and the chosen glyphs sink to become part of the next disk, until the final door opens. Some doors have symbols that didn't appear in earlier doors. The 12 symbols are: 1st cave: A baboon; 2nd cave: Reclining figure; 3rd cave: Flames; 4th cave: Osiris hieroglyph; 5th cave: Papyrus reed; 6th cave: A reclining jackal; 7th cave: A hawk-headed mummy; 8th cave: Falcon hieroglyph; 9th cave: Sword hieroglyph; 10th cave: Ba-bird; 11th cave: The feather of Maat; 12th cave: Scarab beetle (Ra as Khepri, who rolls the sun into the sky). Narually, pressing the wrong symbol activates the plasma projectors, The tomb raiders aren't directly in the superheated plasma, but the final section gets very hot, very fast. Even if the characters then find the correct symbol, each door takes 6 segments to open., and the door won't recognize the next attempt to press a symbol until 6 segments after pressing the previous one. Thus, jabbing at symbols quickly doesn't work. The "Map Room" music from Raiders of the Lost Ark would be appropriate at this point, though the "Chamber of Secrets" track from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets could be an adequate substitute. Dean Shomshak

So what other of the Twelve Caves should be described? The holographic paradise (with traps) of the Field of Reeds? The dark House of Seker (with traps)? The cave of the Binding of Apep? Pfft. Take it as read, they all have various traps and challenges. Let's just skip to the end, or ends. So the intrepid tomb-looters have fought their way passed the robot guardians and survived all the traps. Everything from the classic spiked pit trap (with artificial gravity to pull victims down... or up... or sideways) to curtains of taut monofilament that can slice through armor, or drones that try to plant worm programs in their computer systems. Plasma blasts. Lasers. Metal cables that try to snag people and pull them into "iron maiden" sarcophagi with whirling drill bits. Acid, Caches or poisoned air tanks and field rations. So many traps. But they have passed the Lake of Nun, so they must be near the end. The long gallery is labeled the passage to the Dawn. On one side, the murals show the Sun-Boat escorted by gods holding stars, and Ra has assumed the form of the scarab-god Khepri. The other side is illustrated with scenes and boasts of Osorkon's greatness: "I, Osorkon, King of Kings, conquered the nations of New Geneva." "I, Osorkon, favored of Amun-Ra, built the great canal from Lake Amida to New Thebes." Behold how Osorkon, Pharoah of the Galaxy, received tribute from a dozen worlds." And so on. The doors at the far end are inscribed, "Bow your head in prayer and disturb not the rest of Osorkon, Pharoah of the Stars, who now reigns as Osiris, Pharaoh of the Gods." The metal door is welded shut and must be cut or blasted open. Behind it is another door that merely had a metal plate welded over its mechanical lock's keyhole. The electric trap triggered by sticking a probe in the lock is almost perfunctory. The third and last door merely has an electronic lock with a keypad. And then one enters the tomb. The most notable feature is the 10-meter long model of the Sun-Boat, apparently wrought of solid gold. A rack on the boat holds regalia (pshent, nemyss and battle crown, crook and flail, pectoral, shoulder holster, etc.) all executed in enameled gold, platinum and gems. Cabinets along the walls display other treasures. Light comes from statues in the corners, of men with human, ape, jackal and falcon heads; they hold torches with brilliant plasma flames. Metal doors lead to long, narrow chambers whose shelves bear a small museum's worth of art treasures -- everything from a lost landscape painted by Tsang Hai to the Golden Turd of Grrm. The Sun-Boat carries a closed golden shrine. The doors aren't locked, but opening them triggers nerve disruptors in the statues, filling the chamber and killing everyone who isn't electromagnetically shielded. (The shrine interior is protected.) It only fires once. Inside is a gold-plated concrete sarcophagus flanked by refrigeration equipment and a nuclear battery. Inside that is a golden coffin, and inside that a Dewar-flask coffin (as in the earlier false tomb). The liquid nitrogen surrounds the body of an old man, visibly ravaged by disease. They have found Osorkon. Lying atop the inmost coffin is a scroll with a plea to revive him when a cure has been found for his particular type of cancer, and also a cure for old age. The Sun-Boat really is mostly solid gold, with some steel supports. It's easily worth hundreds of millions of credits just for the metal. The art treasures are harder to judge, but the total value could easily top a billion credits. Except... Explorers who've paid attention should be suspicious. They haven't seen the Hall of the Negative Confession, one of the most important scenes of the Underworld, in which the dead person lists the sins he never committed. The "Hall of Boasting" is not an orthodox replacement. An autopsy of the body reveals the truth. It's another of Osorkon's body doubles. It's a very good body double: Osorkon's cancer was transplanted into him before he was killed. But this tomb is nevertheless another fake. A billion-credit fake. Osorkon was a megalomaniac, and in some ways a religious fanatic. But he wasn't stupid crazy. What could be in his real tomb that's worth a billion credits to hide? Dean Shomshak

Possibly of interest. Center-right columnist David Brooks concludes that the American war of ideas over the role of government is over, and liberal Democrats have won. He cites polling statistics to prove it. Opinion | How Democrats Won the War of Ideas - The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/opinion/democrats... The era of big government is here. By David Brooks Opinion Columnist Over the last 100 years, Americans have engaged in a long debate about the role of markets and the welfare state. Republicans ... Dean Shomshak

They could have cited "spectral evidence," a la the old with trials. Have any children dreamed about the laptop and emails? Do epileptics have seizures when the topic is raised? Given Trump's fondness for claiming "Witch Hunt" every time someone exposes evidence of his wrongdoing, it is worth noting that anonymous accusers and witnesses were a mainstay of the actual witch hunts. Also paid witnesses, testimony from convicted perjurers and other criminals, and similar abuses that were not allowed in conventional criminal trials of the time. Dean Shomshak

Since Death Tribble posted "Waterworld" on Sunday, I'll assume the "weekends off" rule is void. Good thing, because there's no way I finish this tonight and Monday. Anyway: The "Twelve Caves of Duat" plan means there's no pure exploration in this dungeon. The Lost Tomb of the Galactic Pharaoh is grinder an essentially linear dungeon of one threat after another, with no way to skip ahead to the end, as your resources for staying alive are whittled down. There may be a time limit, too, since most of the dungeon is in vacuum and the PCs might no longer have a ship where they can rest and recuperate. For an example, the Third Cave of Duat is the center of a small set of rooms. After the Second Cave (the abode of the Weary Ones), there's a small, bare chamber that seems to exist for no purpose but to punctuate a change in direction of the stairs leading further into the asteroid. Actually there are some secret closets holding white robes. The stairs lead down to a wider hallway. The walls are painted with murals of white-robed priests escorting the Sun-Boat, with panegyrics about how Osorkon has joined the crew of Ra on his journey through the Afterlife. The walls hold a microwave motion-detection sensor system. The microwaves are emitted in very brief pulses, so it takes a Systems Operation roll even to detect them -- and at -3 if you aren't deliberately searching. The system lets people go forward, but anyone going back faster than a dignified pace triggers an electromagnetic pulse that can burn out electronics (Penetrating 1d6 RKA, Area of Effect). The hallway ends in a large room. Eight sarcophagi are spaced around the other three sides of the room. The center holds a large pool of yellowish plasma "fire." Around the raised lip is a hieroglyphic inscription that helpfully labels it as the Lake of Fire Where Sinners Are Thrown. And sure enough, as soon as anyone enters who isn't wearing one of the white robes, the sarcophagi open and out shamble eight robot mummies -- actual mummified corpses rendered animate by simple exoskeletons -- looking a bit like this: The mummies try to grab intruders and throw them into the plasma pool, which starts burning much hotter. Meanwhile, the mummies start broadcasting on whatever radio communication channel the characters use, groaning they they are enemies of mighty Osorkon, defeated and forced to serve him even beyond death. with biographical details. They don't shut up until they are destroyed or everyone is dead or fled. A locked door leads to another hallway, with more murals and panegyrics, ending in a doorway sealed with concrete. This concrete, however, is a trap. Below the surface half-centimeter, it;s impregnated with vesicles of hydrofluoric acid. Drilling or blasting through releases a spray of the ultra-corrosive acid to destroy machines, spacesuits, and unwary PC. (And no, it doesn't help if you drill around the plub to enter from the side: There's a layer of the acid-spraying concrete all around the tomb, including top and bottom.) Beyond that, however, is Osorkon's tomb! Well, not really. It's one of the decoys. The body inside the three coffins (marble, gilded steel and what's essentially a fancy Dewar flask for liquid nitrogen, keeping the body frozen) is of one of Osorkon's living body doubles, and the treasures aren't nearly as valuable as they seem. There's also a secret door out of the room, leading to a narrower hallway. This leads to another chamber with another doorway guarded by two statues of Set and Horus, the Guardians of Night and Day, which shoot lasers from their ankhs. Get pas them and you can go down the stairs to another chamber... and trip the piston-driven concrete block that seals off the stairway. The terminal chamber holds a cabinet with doses of a lethally potent, fast acting sedative labeled "Osorkon's Mercy." No, to reach the Fourth Cave you have to find the more secret door. There's also a hieroglyphic prayer wriiten inside the plasma pool's rim, partially obscured by the ersatz flames. Along with various other gods and spirits it includes the name of the gatekeeper of the Third Cave -- the clue that the pool is the real exit. While the pool is at its normal mild temperature (i.e., the mummies aren't active, either because everyone wore white robes or they were all destroyed), someone has to get into the pool (which is about 3 meters deep) and find the plasma emitter engraved with the password to get past the gatekeeper. Turn this, and part of the pool's floor opens, revealing another shaft. Twist an emitter marked with other nonsense words, and the pool gets hot again. So you'd better have brought your database of Egyptian/Rigisaman religion. Dean Shomshak

The latest episode of NOVA is "Touching the Asteroid," about the OSIRIS-REx mission to collect a sample of the asteroid Bennu. Which it apparently has done. Woohoo! (Though we still have to wait three years for the sample to be returned to Earth. Bummer!) Dean Shomshak