Moe Lane's Blog, page 57

Tweet of the Day, La France Est Tombée edition.

…Mon Dieu.

#BREAKING France to ban smoking outdoors in most places: minister pic.twitter.com/8Kpy9KCxZN

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 29, 2025

Via @Strangeland_Elf.

05/29/2025 Snippet, TOM VARGAS AND THE CASE OF THE MEDDLING PRIEST.

Got less done today than I’d like. Must do more tomorrow.

…

Of course they went down into the sewers. I knew they were going into the sewers, even without Mike sniffing out their trail. If he hadn’t been there to track, I’d have gone down there anyway. Shadowy cults are one of the reasons we have sewers in Cin City.

Okay, that’s not true. We have them to keep the crap under control. They’re big enough to wander around in because… well, our illustrious ancestors figured that it made sense to have places that were out of sight of prying eyes, or scrying spells. The Universal Dominion can do a lot, but even their Archmages can’t keep track of what’s going on underground. That’s gotten important, the last few centuries. Still, everybody who needs to get a good skulk in likes having the sewers around, so go go city planning.

It was me, Mike, and the Lieutenant. Lacy wanted to bring more cops, maybe even get a couple of Flatfoots, but he didn’t really have the manpower to spare. Besides, the ones he did have weren’t the sneaking type, not that a Shamus, a former Guardsman, and an orcish priest were gonna be much better.

I still wish we had the extra manpower. Every little bit helps.

Patreon!

Savage Fest in a week! I am far from the bits that go boom!

I will not be near anything exploding this time. I checked. Savage Fest is June 7th; I’ll have my books, and my new TTRPG The Fermi Resolution Worldbook! Come on by!

‘Drake’s Drum.’

Drake’s Drum, The Revels

#commissionearned

Tweet of the Day, Chess In Russia Is Not For The Timid edition.

Don’t drink anything you didn’t open yourself at one of their tournaments, apparently. Also… ‘suspended.’

Is this a pissy move? Need a ruling pic.twitter.com/a24iA9mlyY

— KScores (@KScores) May 29, 2025

The possible THE BUNKER trailer.

THE BUNKER might appeal to Eldest Son. Am checking now. I dunno if I want to go see it, but he doesn’t actually need me to go to R-rated movies now.

10/28/2025 Snippet, TOM VARGAS AND THE MEDDLING PRIEST.

No, I don’t think I like this title.

Mike needed to go look at the crime scene, so I went with him. It was just as bad as you’d think it was, and you don’t need more of a description in your head than that. I don’t want it in my head. My line of work doesn’t deal with the sick stuff often.

Unfortunately for Mike, his line of work does. “Yes, this was a ritual murder,” he told Lacy as soon as the door was opened. “Done by demonologists. It needs to be purified immediately, before it attracts more spiritual corruption. The other residents have to be checked, too. I can do both, if you don’t have anyone to do that.”

“We might have somebody on staff who could handle it.” Lacy looked at him. “She’s not a specialist, though.”

The priest shook his head. “It’s not that bad,” he told us, to my relief. “I’m going to bless this room before I leave it, but anybody who knows what to look for should be able to make sure that any bystanders are clean. —Although you should all go to Church next Sunday, just to be on the safe side.”

I repressed a snort at that. I didn’t know how much of the Lore Mike knew, but he had definitely heard of Always Be Closing.

“I’ll remind our Christians to keep up with their stuff,” Lacy said while scribbling notes. “Now, you said, demonologists, right? Did the murder have any oomph behind it?”

“No,” Mike said after another look at the scene. “They wanted it to, but the rituals were poorly executed. I’m sorry to tell you this, but these people aren’t competent demonologists.” Lacy gulped, and I was only a half-step behind him. Demonologists are bad. Demonologists who don’t know what they’re doing are worse.

Patreon!

Negative is always nice.

Well, that’s a relief.

In a weird sort of way. I had about thirty seconds of intense worry for as long as it took me to set up an account to see the results, but nothing before or after. I was reasonably sure nothing was wrong, but when you’re waiting for the screen to change…

Long afternoon, long night.

Things ended up all right, but I’m worn out. More than I expected. See you tomorrow…

Eldest graduates high school today!

Gonna be kind of busy around here today. Cleaning, prepping, coordinating, that sort of thing. Not absolutely absent, but this takes priority.