Justin Howe's Blog, page 6

Orlando Furioso, Canto XXXVI

Guess what? 

We only have ten cantos left!

Ariosto is in full on tie loose ends together mode. Or sort of. Narrative conclusion is not something he’s worried about. A few characters have simply walked out of the story because he might have been sick of writing them. 

Honestly, I feel like they’re the true winners here.

But on to our canto…

Ariosto starts with more of that D’Este hagiography. Except it’s not really fun stuff. It’s a pretty grisly retelling of how his patron’...

Orlando Furioso, Canto XXXV

“Who will ascend for me into the skies

And bring me back the wits which I

have lost?”

Ariosto starts us on the moon with an allegory about fame and glory. Astolfo sees an old man collecting name cards and dumping them into the river Lethe. There birds tear the cards apart. Except for a very few which get saved by swans and taken to some temple full of nymphs where the names can shine forth and impress the world. The whole thing gives Ariosto a chance to further kiss the butt...

The Next Mysthead

So I’m putting together another zine. This one is going to be inspired by my current D&D* game: a swashbuckling, island hopping sword & sorcery game. But it’s also going to be a toolkit for running similar type games with generators for vessels, islands, cargoes, and travel rules like the above hexflower encounter matrix. My goal’s to finish it by the end of the year, but I’m on schedule to finish it sometime before that. When it’s done I’ll post it over on my itch.io page.

If you’d li...

Orlando Furioso, XXXIV

This canto has something for everyone. Polemic, Romance, Interstellar Adventure. 

We start with Astolfo pursuing the harpies down to Hell. 

(Actually, we start with Ariosto wailing and gnashing his teeth over the suffering Italy has faced over the years; there’s actually been a lot of commentary on the contemporary politics of his era that I’ve mostly glossed over in my posts. That said…)

We start with Astolfo pursuing the harpies down to Hell. The place is basically a pit belching ...

Orlando Furioso, Canto XXXIII

This canto has three bits. The Bradmante bit, the Rinaldo bit, and the Astolfo bit. The first bit’s the most blah, but they get better as they go on. 

We pick up where we left off: after dinner in Tristan’s castle when all the guests are strolling around the hall looking at the paintings. These were all painted by Merlin and show events in the history of Italy yet to come. Ariosto uses the moment to give several cantos worth of history lessons. This is actually a neat trick, since the boo...

Orlando Furioso, Canto XXXII

This book has broken my brain. At last! You would think it would have happened sooner. But it’s happened. 

Earlier this week, I dreamed I was reading Orlando Furioso and Gradasso was doing something. It had a rhyme-scheme and everything. Exciting! 

Let’s get to it. 

Ariosto doesn’t pick up where he ended last canto with Rinaldo and Gradasso facing off. Instead, he goes back to Bradamante, pining away for Ruggiero back in her castle at Montelbano. Ariosto then turns to King Agramante reg...

Orlando Furioso, Canto XXXI

This canto is all about the fights.

It has about half the surviving cast in it and there all getting in each other’s faces. But first we get a bit about Bradamante feeling sad and jealous. Oh no! Ruggiero saw another woman! Oh no! He is obviously now in love with her. Ariosto foreshadows it’s only going to get worse. But that doesn’t stop him from leaving her and following after Rinaldo.

Rinaldo and the Gang are off to Paris to help King Charles kill Saracens. Ricciardetto’s there, Viv...

Invasion of the Spider Things

I made a little pamphlet of six generators for your tabletop role-playing games. It outlines an invasion of alien spider things from another world. How they came here? What they want? Where they lair? And what makes their webs so strange.

Use it in all your paranoid little games.

Find it here: https://myxomycetes.itch.io/invasion-of-the-spider-things

Orlando Furioso, Canto XXX

I guess we’re nearing the end of the book. Less than twenty cantos to go. Ariosto’s started to tie up the loose ends and the deaths are starting to show up fast!

We start with Orlando raging around wreaking havoc with a dead horse around his shoulders and the intestines of his victims staining his lips. He’s killing everyone he comes across, one-punching his fists through their skulls, screaming, and all around carrying on in a bad way. 

He lays waste to here. He lays waste to there...

Orlando Furioso, XXIX

Buckle up sweeties because someone’s about to die!

That’s right.  One of the nine hundred named characters in this story is about to exit this story. Now there’s only nine hundred minus one named characters left in this story. Can you guess who it is?

When last we saw Rodomonte he was accosting the poor monk riding alongside Isabella (and Zerbino’s coffin). Rodomonte quickly has enough of the old man, grabs him by the beard, spins around three time ,and hurls him like a discus into the sea...