a little help required if anyone has anything that i can use.

my gaming group finished the haunted lighthouse a little quicker than i anticipated. what i basically had happen, was that when they destroyed the gem, the land around it, due to the high level of magic being used, collapsed in on itself and everything felll downwards (as they were legging it down the stairway of the lighthouse)....so now they find themselves 200 feet down in a large cavern full of rubble from the ruin.

so i need a small, simple cave system with a few encounters which will get them through 2 game sessions.

if no-one can help with anything home-brewish, then will just make something up 30 mins before the game (as i usually do)...

can anyone help? either PM or e-mail me.

many thanks, Al

Badmike wrote in Former Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:A 30 year old video game record has fallen: Arcade classic 'Missile Command' has a new high score for the first time in over 30 years | The Verge

Mike B.

WOW, nice record!!  Used to be one of my favorites back in the day!!

xraygord wrote in Former Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:When you make a sale on ebay, is there an invoice automatically sent to the buyer, or do you have to send an invoice before you get paid?

EBay sends an invoice, but I send one too, especially if it failed to properly combine shipping or communicate some other message.

Badmike wrote in Former Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:A 30 year old video game record has fallen: Arcade classic 'Missile Command' has a new high score for the first time in over 30 years | The Verge

Mike B.

Good link Mike!

mbassoc2003 wrote in Former Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Off-topic
I'm thinking of putting a little into gold and silver pieces for a rainy day.
It wouldn't surprise me to find a few people here who know a little about this, so if you do, I'd like a few pointers towards a good active forum where I can soak up info.

The stock market is historically superior, but only if you plan on keeping the money in there for at least three years which is what it sounds like.  Gold prices right now are pretty high so upside potential isn't that great right now in my opinion.  I am not a stock market expert.  

SimperingToad wrote in Former Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:You're looking at gold/silver the wrong way. It's not an investment, it's insurance. When paper fails (as it always does), you either have some coin at hand (or some tradable commodity), or fill up a wheelbarrow with worthless currency.

And a great part of the stock market illusion is the decline of a valueless paper currency. Manipulation is the catchphrase of the day.

Guns and Ammo, best form of currency for any type of apocalypse.

Again, I would not call myself an expert, but you are basically right that gold and silver are for monetary preservation.  Certificates of Deposit (CD's) work almost as well, especially if the inflation rate isn't too bad (which it isn't in the US right now).  Two things most people do not realize is that 1) inflation constantly eats away at your money's buying power, so investing in something is a must, especially in the long term which I define as longer than a couple of years.  The second thing most people don't realize is that 2) the stock market, historically, is of basically no risk if you are investing for three years or longer.  Sure, you could pick out a certain three year period from the past and not do so hot, but statistically, if you have at least three years to invest, you will do better than preserve your money.

I don't know if they have these in England, but the way to go in America is with no-load (no-fee) mutual funds.  You don't have to pick stocks, you don't have to deal with a broker, you don't always have to have a minimum, and when you want your money back, it usually takes about a week or two at the most.  There are aggressive mutual funds, conservative mutual funds, value funds, index funds, real estate funds, medical funds, growth funds and all these fancy and crazy titles and it can be daunting, but it's not as bad as it looks or sounds.  You really don't need to know a lot to do fine.  

The one thing you absolutely need is the ability to put your money in a stock fund and forget about it.  The market goes up and down according to lots of factors, but two of the biggest are fear and greed.  These two emotions get more investors in trouble than anything else.  They make people pour money into the market when it's high and take money out when it is low, which is the opposite of what you need to do.  Put the money in there and forget it come good times and bad.  Again, over a three year period, you'll do just fine.  

I've read that you should have about 10% of your assets invested in a hard currency such as gold or silver as a hedge against market crashes, etc.  From a US perspective, the dollar has lost over 90% of it's purchasing power since 1900 due to inflation, where as gold has pretty much maintained it's purchasing power since 1900.  One ounce of gold will still buy as much now as it did back then.

With Europe's economy tottering due to the unstable economies of some of the members, and with the US debt rising at an unsustainable rate with no attempts to curb it, the Piper must eventually be paid.  I think what recently happened in Cyprus is a perfect example of how willing governments have now become in confiscating the wealth of the thrifty.  They use class warfare to justify their legal plunder and negate the people's right to property (people's own earnings).

Because of these factors, I've read that speculators are predicting gold to go above $2000 per oz. - but again, that's speculation.  I'm sure it will happen eventually, it's just a matter of time.  How much time remains to be seen.

benjoshua wrote in Former Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Over the past year and a half, my investments have grown about 25%.  Even if the market crashes(goes down 20%), I've made more money than I would have if I had played it safe with CD's.

Actually, in this scenario, you have just broke even (earned nothing) compared to actually earning a little with CD's

$100 earning 25% yields $125

$125 now losing 20% yields $100.