A14.
This is part of the #Dungeon23 challenge in which you make one room to a dungeon every day for a year. In an effort to link my memories to the creation, I am also writing a personal journal entry with each room that may or may not be related.
You don’t have to read that part.
A14.
Looking through the west facing window from the outside of this room makes it appear to be a well-lit, well-kept library. That is only an illusion.
Both doors to this room are unlocked.
The interior of this room looks like a makeshift kitchen and dining room. In the northwest corner there is a shelf with a variety of pantry items. Herbs, spices, flour, etc. They are not organized in any meaningful way, and the workstation itself is a mess of spilled flour and dust.
In the north east corner is a makeshift brick oven, made from stones and broken bricks from the castle. The bottom of it is filled with some form of tinder.
If one looks through the ashes, they’ll find a nice gold ring and a couple of human sized finger bones.
A rectangular table sits in the center of the room. It is covered in dirty plates and half eaten fish remains. It stinks in here.
There are three chairs. One at each end of the table, and another placed in the middle.
Sitting in the middle chair is the leathery preserved body of a trogdar.
It’s chest cavity is artistically splayed open like a blooming flower. Fruits and nuts fill the cavity.
The dead trogdar, also doubles as an undead servant, and will come to life if Belgot or The Necromancer (I don’t have a name yet) say the magic words. It will come after you, spilling its contents on the floor.
Have a banana.
1/14/23
Date Night
Last night I picked out our double feature and went with Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Dead End Drive In (1986) as the “A feature” and the astounding mess that is Surf II as the “B feature.”
Surf II is kind of incredible. It’s certainly the kind of film you would have seen on late night cable. An edited version would’ve been perfect for USA’s Up All Night, though apparently they never showed it. I suppose they felt (incorrectly) that Surf Nazi’s Must Die! (George, 1987) adequately covered the late night surf-sploitation ground.
It has an insane cast of people, some of them you’ve seen in more popular affairs like a young Eddie Deezen, Eric Stoltz, Cleavon Little, and Ruth Buzzi. But it also has several other actors from B films, like Terry Kiser (Tammy and the T-Rex), Tom Villard (Popcorn), Corine Bohrer, Ralph Seymore, and more that you’ll probably recognize.
I like movies where it feels like everyone is having fun and no one cares about the outcome. No one is self-conscious, they’re just goofing around, and seeing that makes me happy.
It’s obviously not for everyone, and absolutely falls flat in the most nonsensical way, but I don’t watch movies like this for shit like “sense”.
Dead End Drive In is an absolute classic, and more folks should have that on their “to watch list.”
Imagine the early stages of the dystopian Mad Max world.
Now imagine trying to be a teen/early twenty something, still trying to have a normal life in that hellscape. Dead End Drive In is about a couple who try that by going to a Drive In, but the Drive In is a trap, where they take the unfavorables of society (you know, the kind that would go to a Drive In) and imprison them.
The Prison keeps the population under control with drugs and movies, but my favorite part is when they introduce Asians into the population to give the rabble someone they can oppress. They create an “other” with a lower status, so the oppressed will pick on them as opposed to focusing their attention on the real problem. If you allow a nail to be a hammer on someone else, it won’t stick out so much.
It’s nuts, and has one solid fight scene, a great car jump, and an incredibly large explosion, and pretty accurately (though not subtly) depicts manipulative power dynamics.
Check it out.
See you tomorrow.
-Jae
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