#409
Aug 2, 2026
Books
This week I read:
The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien
Many more differences to the films that I’d forgotten and, like Fellowship, some instances where pivotal moments are treated almost casually, resolved in very little text compared to everything around them. For instance, when Gandalf heals Theoden in the film we see that Saruman is magically controlling (or at least influencing) Theoden and there’s that cool line, “I draw you, Saruman, as poison is drawn from a wound.” In the book, we don’t see a direct involvement from Saruman, only the indirect involvement via Wormtongue, and the healing of Theoden is a much simpler and less magical matter.
The treatment of the Ents is, I think, better in the book. In the film the Ents decide not to go to war, but Merry and Pippin trick Treebeard into approaching Isengard and being so outraged by the devastation that he sees red and calls the Ents, who come marching out of the trees just a moment later as if they’d been waiting there all along. But in the book Treebeard wants war and the Ents decide in favour.
Two major differences, of course, are how Sam and Faramir are treated. There’s no trip to Osgiliath in the book, Faramir considers the matter and decides he wants no part in this Ring business, setting them free to go about their quest. And Gollum does not trick Frodo into banishing Sam, the two remain fast friends throughout.
Onto the Return of the King!
Roleplaying Games
Hot Springs Island
There’s a new Swordfish Islands book: Shipwrecked on the Swordfish Islands! I had a quick look through and it’s good, once I’ve read through it properly I’ll bring it into our campaign. I’m planning to put several of the missing nereids on other islands, and I’m also going to situate the Scenic Dunnsmouth somewhere with the Time Cube being a way to free Meltalia from the time-loop.
But enough about that, we also played today. Sadly we had to cut the session short, but in the time we played the players returned to the Lapis Observatory and started exploring it in earnest, as the translations of some brochures they’d taken last time were now done, promising sights such as the “Conservatory of Extraplanar Delights” and the “Observatory Museum”. There’s also a magic sword I put in that tower some sessions ago which I’m hoping they’ll find, as they don’t have any magic weapons yet.
They’re not sure yet what to do about Svarku, but the mood seems to be turning towards getting in contact with the Night Axe ogres, which will be fun. I hope they find Svarku’s missing gem, as that’ll really get things going.
It’s hard to predict how long this campaign will last as it could go on for quite some time, if the players are determined to explore things carefully and thoroughly, but there’s also several objects and individuals scattered around that, if disturbed, could radically alter the status quo. I expect the campaign to come to a sudden fiery end just when least expected.
Miscellaneous
I found myself in the unfortunate position this week of needing to buy a new USB C hub, as my current one sometimes disconnects randomly.
I’m not sure if it’s just me, but it seems weirdly difficult to get a good one. And by good I mean that it has several ports and also supports USB C Power Delivery (so you can also use it to charge a phone or something). Everything that supports Power Delivery has at most 4 ports (and usually fewer). Similar difficulties finding hubs that support USB C Video. I don’t need to transmit video over USB C, but it’s weird that there aren’t really any hubs that support that.
Is there something in the spec that makes a fully-featured USB C hub just difficult to produce?
I ended up buying a 7-port hub but it doesn’t support Video or Power Delivery. I can just keep plugging my phone into the wall I guess.
And if you try upgrading to the next generation, by getting a Thunderbolt hub, those seem limited by spec to only support 4 connections (one of which will be used to plug it into your PC). Again, it feels weird that these three things are simultaneously true: (1) almost every new device is USB C; (2) desktop motherboards commonly only have two or three USB C ports; (3) fully-featured USB C hubs have maybe four (if you’re lucky) additional ports.