Honey....why does my X360 say I'm playing Fifa 12 when I don't even own it?

This was a statement I blurted out sunday night when I realized my Xbox was hacked into and my account was hijacked. But let me build up to that moment with what transpired that evening.

It was around 520pm when I was playing Half-Life 2:Episode 2 on my X360 when I got a message saying I disconnected from Xbox Live. Well no big deal I thought as sometimes our router tends to freeze up or after long periods of not playing 'online' games it seems to disconnect here and there.

So around 530pm I saved my progress so I could go grocery shopping and for some unknown reason I wanted to sign back into Live to check my achievements and shoot a message to play Gears later to some of my friends. Instead I got a message saying that my account was invalid and to contact customer support. This resulted in a stream of profanity from me and my wife logged into Xbox website and began chatting with a customer support person through a chat window. After some general questions and me having to change my password cause I forgot it from 2006 when I first got my X360 I logged on through their website. When the tech person (who was very helpful) was checking in what happened I decided to check my achievement progress through the site and saw it saying that I was currently playing Fifa12 when my tv screen was saying my account was invalid. I don't own Fifa 12. I don't have sports games. So then I exclaimed the title of this post. And told this to the rep in the chat window. "Uh-oh. Check your purchase history please." was the reply and when I did apparently someone got into my account, spent 1800 MS points (or banana bucks as they are known as) I had on account for all sorts of purchases. Motherfuckers wiped out my game points for DLC or arcade games or whatever. You know fun stuff I could get that I didn't have to spend more $$$ on since I'm out of a job now.

And that asshat locked out my account from me accessing it. The rep flagged my account and provided me with a phone number to call immediately to report the theft and spoofing of my account. Apparently when it comes to Xbox security Microsoft is all over it. Now I had to speak with another very polite and helpful rep who locked my billing of my account, walked me through reclaiming my gamertag without losing my score or achievements, took down my info, told me I'll get my points back after the investigation (up to 25 business days), and notified their 'reclaimation department' who I can only assume are the Nazgul from Lord of the Rings who are going after that asshole who ripped me off.

And the fucked up thing is they can't figure out how the person accessed my account. I don't give my personal info out on Xbox Live, I don't give my gamertag or info out on websites offering to boost my score or some other bullshit. I don't know and they're not sure either. But I've got my case number and they will be getting in contact with me soon.

At least I was able to play again. Granted I can't purchase any extra content through their servers since that part of my account is locked until this is finished. No problems though. I can still play.

I do have to give a hearty 'Thank you!' to the support staff at Xbox Live on a sunday. They were great, helpful, polite, fast and genuinely gave a damn. And since I pay for the Gold membership....they better care. They showed they know the value of helping a long term customer and I appriciate it.

I also wish their Nazgul happy hunting.

And for those who forget what the Nazgul are....

Nazgul.....sic balls.

Carrion Crown or The peanut butter is where?!?

On Saturday the Scooby Gang returned to continue their adventure deep into the Ustalav countryside with a trek up to Schloss Caromarc. How did it pan out? Read on!

The Players
Matt - Thredorik Trapspringer (male dwarven rogue 6 / uncouth / belly-flopped onto a troll)
Jess  -  Nisha  (female tiefling fighter(weapon master kit) 6 / combat monster....literally / gruff /DFA'ed a troll successfully)
Charles - Zuri (male aasimar wizard 6 / varisian wanderer/ harrow reader / arcane electricity savant)
Charles - Dragos ( Zuri's raven familiar / smart ass / almost became an ex-raven)
Me - Julian Du Marc ( male human cleric of Pharasma 6 / NPC/PC / stoic / diplomatic / was playing Captain Band-Aid this session as required)
Me again - DM (DM / rules dude / story mover-along-er / still bribed by pie or hot cocoa/ still no bribes of pie or hot cocoa presented)
The session started off with with show and tell of Charles's swag from NYC Comic Con recently. I will have to go next year. It looked and sounded like a lot of fun. Eventually we pried ourselves away from swag to roll some dice.

We continued on just after releasing The Beast to his freedom after successfully arguing his innocence at that wretched trial we became embroiled in. We returned to town and the rabble was assembling a mob to deliver some tea party justice. Fortunately it takes awhile for a large scale mob to get going and we had approximately a full day to prepare for it. We also had to meet with Justice Daramid to claim our reward for working for her on the side to ensure The Beast got a fair trial. 100 platinum pieces later (our reward) and we were encouraged by Justice Daramid to head to the home of The Beast's creator ( and disposed former ruler of the area) and speak with Alpon Caromarc about how to keep the creature under better control. Basically to see if The Beast can be watched so this won't happen in the future.

But first......shopping! We had cash to spend and it was burning a hole in our coin purses. Julian purchased a Handy Haversack and gave it to Thredorik. Well he didn't want Nodwick to get really bogged down after all. For thanks Thredorik gave Julian his masterwork backpack so he can haul some more healing stuffs. Which is always helpful....and tonight it was needed. But I'm getting ahead of my self here.

Also the teasing of Nisha continued and she kept threatening the dwarf for selling peeks of her exercising in her briefs to the townsfolk of Ravengrow. The words 'five gold' were uttered repeatedly over the course of the session.

And while I'm thinking about this I know a peanut butter joke was cracked at the table (hence the title of the post) and it was then used by the PC's for a chunk of the night but I can't remember for the life of me the context and what was said there after. Damn. It was funny though. We laughed alot that night.

So a couple of other shopping goodies purchased (rings of protection, cloak of resistance and a few other odds and ends) and we rested for the evening before racing out ahead of the mob on our horses. The mob was on foot but Schloss Caromarc (the home of Alpon Caromarc) was about 24 miles away. We got there in the late afternoon, well ahead of the mob, and were greeted by Alpon himself who gave us pie and cocoa and thanked us for warning him. He also gave us all the XP and we won.

And I'm lying.

We were actually greeted by trolls and their trollhounds at the gatehouse. Yes you read that right. Trollhounds. If a troll got busy with a dog this is what you get. Its a four legged, angry, nasty, regenerating menace. And there were two of them.

Plus there was a larger troll up on the peak of the gate house taking pot shots at us with a heavy crossbow. And he sent his two troll buddies out to help the hounds beat us up for encroaching into their raid. Remember I mentioned Julian being Captain Band-Aid......here's where it starts.

There was spells being thrown, trolls being hacked up, healing applied and this was all before we got inside. Also the trolls had three goblin captives who switched sides and helped us out when Thredorik offered to pay them, you guessed it, five gold to switch sides. Now this was before we got into the gate house too. The goblins told us about some kind of construct dog guarding the bridge past the gatehouse and keeping the trolls out. Then the fled.

Then we when into the gatehouse and Thredorik and Nisha went upstairs to the roof to dispatch the crossbow troll. This left Zuri and Julian alone downstairs where another troll burst in from the far door and charged. The wizard and cleric held their ground admirably and our luck changed as Nisha and Thredorik beat the one on the roof. Now Death From Above began. Starting with Nisha who dropped off the roof, greataxe first, into the troll. She landed on her butt after the strike.

Thredorik now tried to do the same thing. He belly flopped onto the troll and rolled to his feet. And the spell casters started talking about its raining dwarves and how that would be an awful song. In the middle of combat.
Moving ahead, they secured their horses in the gate house, challenged and beat a flesh golem hound guarding the way into the next building (and more healing needed). Thredorik disabled the trap on the door and they entered the next building in the Schloss. I want to point out that Caromarc's home is actually many buildings built along side a cliff over looking many waterfalls. In the new building, they were immediately set upon by some strange animated metal and flesh creature/guardian. Smackies were given out. Searching the building began (and the building looked like it has not been used in a few days. Searching thoroughly we don't find the Count but access into the next building. By this time its dark out and we take up the bedrooms upstairs to sleep. Nisha and Zuri share a room while Julian keeps one to himself. Thredorik takes the one that had blueprints detailing the repairs of the next building.

The next day we were awoken by a thunderstorm and heavy rains. And now into the next building. It was apparent it was a lab of some kind but due to a massive explosion is in ruins. As was the building and northern wall. And the bridge to the next building that was now replaced by a rickety wooden bridge. But first we were attacked by three rust monsters hiding in the rubble of the lab. Two were slain and the third ran away after sustaining injuries. Now onto the wooden suspension bridge. The bridge at the end of Temple of Doom was more stable than this bridge. Thredorik was checking out the bridge and missed an arcane trap set there (oopsie) and a Erinyes devil (former fallen angel) was summoned in the air above us and started on unload on us with her flaming longbow.

Can you say 'OWIE OWIE OWIE'? We did. And it kept getting worse. We hustled back into the ruined lab to brace for a fight and the devil engulfed us in an Unholy Blight that did the following.

1) ALOT of damage cause we all failed our saving throws. It almost killed Dragos outright.
2) It nauseated us for a round.
3) Knocked our guard down long enough for the devil to fly down into the building and engage us in melee with its longsword.

And Captain Band-Aid began to use his positive energy burst to heal us (and with selective channeling feat I made certain the devil didn't get healed either). Nisha and the erinyes were going toe to toe with Julian keeping Nisha alive. Zuri kept throwing magic, some was successful and others just fizzled out due to the devil's resistance to magic. Thredorik was trying to flank and assist Nisha. And it was all very painful.

When the combat was going on I noticed in the erinyes stat block that the Unholy Blight was an at will ability and she was caster level 12. That power does 1d8 per every two caster levels up to a max of 5d8. Well....she's at caster level 12 and unless my math was wrong she was throwing 5d8. I think that was a bit overpowered as an 'at will' power so as DM I chose to do it once as another casting would have likely causes a TPK and killed our fun. And contrary to some belief I'm not trying to kill the party (that's in the Runelords game only).

After we made it through that beating we called it for the night and will continue into the next building next time. All in all it was alot of fun for everyone. And we're looking forward to the next game coming up in just a few weeks. There is a possibility that we will finish this chapter in the Carrion Crown AP then. And what comes after Pathfinder's take on Frankenstein? Werewolves of course! I can't wait.

Power Outages, Puss in Boots and Pathfinder. Oy!

Well the past few days since the last post have been full of large quantities of bullshit. What bullshit you say?
How about an early nor'easter that dumped about 4-6 inches of VERY heavy and wet snow on the area that caused all sorts of power outages through out the north eastern United States for starters.

And my wife and I were right in the middle of it all. This storm started in the early afternoon and by 4pm we lost power. So it was a night by candlelight, drinking Red Stag and Coca-Cola, and talking. Only talking. I will go on record saying that I was not in trouble or being punished. The 'talk only' policy came about due to...well....you can figure it out.

By sunday it was warming up to about 50F and we could smell that our food in the fridge was going. And we threw out everything. Not fun. Sunday afternoon we paid a visit to my folks to shower and sunday night we stayed in a local hotel. I was surprised that this new Holiday Inn Express had a gym, spa, indoor pool and the rooms were really damn big! And it was reasonably priced plus we got our AAA discount. As Jess said it was a camping trip.

Monday we took clothes to the laundromat and stopped by the folks to use their internet to catch up on some stuff. And fortunately by 1pm we got a call saying the power was restored at our home. Elation ensued. Groceries purchased. And trick or treaters were given candy. All nine of them that showed up.

While we got lucky on the power front a large chunk of our friends are still without power and we wish them the best and will do what we can to help out.

Skipping back a bit I mentioned Pathfinder in the header too. We were supposed to assemble the Carrion Crown crew for the final leg of the second book; a journey into the Schloss Caromarc to visit the creator of The Beast. Snow fucked that up on saturday. No power or heat fucked that plan sunday. So we are aiming for this coming saturday to get this going. And I swear I will hunt down any errant weather deities and smite them if they throw any more bad weather at NEPA. Weather....you're on notice.

In other Pathfinder related news a book I ordered back in september arrived today and I'm happy.

Now I will start working on that Dark Souls homebrew conversion I mentioned in an earlier post. I've had some quality time with this 799 page beast and I'm happy with the purchase. I can see this getting alot of mileage at my table when I'm not running an adventure path. Hell I may just throw in a random encounter out of here just to keep them on their toes.

Lastly to keep our dwindling sanity this weekend (and to find something to do when we were out of power) the wifey and I went and saw a movie. And our friends Matt and Brian joined us as well.

Funny. Very funny movie. It made me almost totally forget about the Shrek franchise. And I'd like to (to be honest). It was full of really good action, it looked great in 2D (again.....no need for 3D unless the movie is designed and filmed only for that format), voice acting was superb with Banderas and Galafanakis as the standouts. From the opening monologue from Puss talking about all the names he is known by (Chewbacca-cabra is my favorite) to the one liner that his cat nip is for glaucoma I had no problem laughing through out. The only weak link for me was Salma Hayek as Kitty Softpaws. She wasn't a strong enough character to the uber-charismatic Puss and at times it felt that they could have cast anyone in that role instead of Salma. And its a shame as she and Banderas have worked together so often and have good chemistry. Its a small nitpick to an otherwise excellent time at the theater.

And it really helped. I feel that if we didn't go to the movies and have some fun there would have been stress induced fighting all the way up until power was restored. Essentially Puss in Boots may have saved my life. Cause it was only a matter of time that I would say/do/think something stupid and my wife would have obliterated me. And then I wouldn't be here to share this with you. And you would be sad.

All two of you who actually read this.



Hi mom.