What I found within the Jay Cooke Plaza Tunnel Park

I love the shadows shaped by the fence and the park benches.

What is posted on King Manor’s fourth floor bulletin board for September 30, 2023.

North Pointe Resource Center and community events for October are already posted on this bulletin board.

The rain falls on the just and the unjust

Most of all, the rain falls on 2023 Minnesota Viking fans!  The Vikings are 0 wins and 3 defeats so far.  Few NLF teams have ever reached the playoffs with such a bad start to their season opening games.

What I found behind the 230 East Superior Street Intrepid Building!

On East Michigan Street, I found a cool painting of a vintage car.

Blocked East Michigan Street sidewalk

Someone I know nicknamed me the “Sidewalk King”.  As the Sidewalk King, I must describe this blocked sidewalk behind Blacklist Brewing.  I have no idea why the brewers can’t store their brewing things inside their building, a fire hazard perhaps?  This is on East Michigan Street, in the shadow of Gichi-Ode' Akiing (Lake Place Park).

I discovered another new way to make tomato soup

I made my breakfast with a can of tomato soup, mixed into a can of stewed tomatoes.  This gives my tomato soup extra texture I can’t get from tomato soup and a can of water.

I saw Expend4bles

The Expend4bles series keeps on getting better and better!

I found the original brick platforms are being rebuilt at the Duluth Minnesota Union depot.

I see that the construction crews are reusing the old bricks.  Some of these bricks are more than 100 years old.

Today, to celebrate my newest Streets.MN article, I bought myself a KFC meal.

I ate a KFC sandwich and drank a Sweet Lightning® drink.  For my tongue’s taste buds, this KFC meal is very good food!

Love yourself graffiti

This simple graffiti is on the west side of North Second Avenue East, between East Superior Street and East First Street.

Making extra money for Dungeons & Dragons parties, sixth revision

First, if your campaign lacks national postal services, delivering letters and small packages, across a city or across a nation, is a way to bring the PCs party extra income.  By planning to travel to the unnamed keep (in my campaign the keep is named Ernest Gary Gygax Keep); my party has earned extra income bringing mail to and from the keep.  In fact, they bought two mules and an enclosed cart to bring the mail and their personal items along with them on adventures.

Second, buying a prospecting permit to legally be prospecting in the nearby rivers and streams, with nothing more advanced than a prospecting gravity trap gold pan and prospecting skill is a good idea to add extra income to the party’s collective income.  In my PC party, a female dwarf fighter who has a gold pan, a hand shovel, six small shatter resistant glass bottles, and a prospecting skill has found eight veins of gold.  So far, my PCs have dug out between two and seven (1d6 +1) thousand gold coins worth of gold from each vein.  Sometimes, they must split fifty percent of the profits with the people who own the land that the gold is found within.

Third, my PCs once found in a long abandoned, underground temple for Marianne, an altar of white marble with gold veins.  (In real life, you can buy countertops made of white marble with gold veins.)  They contacted the nearby Marianne monastery.  My PCs were paid well to remove all usable artifacts, to officially decommission the temple, and then close off all the known entrances to keep the underground temple secure, in case it should ever be needed again.

My third and last image of the “Kill Bill” graffiti on North Second Avenue East

Why would anyone paint Kill Bill graffiti on a Downtown Duluth sidewalk, where few passersby will ever see it?

Marked crosswalks on West Superior Street Duluth, Minnesota

I will attempt to get better images of these marked crosswalks on a sunny day.

I wonder how many of these marked crosswalks have been built in Duluth.

I attended “The Biggest Little Train” the end, for 2023!

I wonder if any Minnesota building has a World War One dazzle camouflage paint scheme.  This is also known in the United States as razzle dazzle camouflage.  That was a family of ship camouflage that was used extensively in World War I.

I found one more “This is not New York” sticker near King Manor

I found “This is not New York” sticker on West Third Street, beside a closed, outdoor staircase at the Washington Studios Artists Cooperative.  That is an apartment building for Duluth artists.  Just how many of these “This is not New York” stickers did this delinquent hooligan stick onto surfaces of Duluth?

Incorrect, as using standard punctuation is important when writing:  “this is not new york”

Correct:  “This is not New York”

I created a better image of the “Kill Bill” graffiti on North Second Avenue East

This time, I took the time to frame the entire sidewalk graffiti.  This graffiti is next to the now permanently closed, The Encounter Youth Center.  The graffiti is on the west side of North Second Avenue East, between East First Street and East Second Street.

I attended “The Biggest Little Train” part 7

This is a creative and inspired way to use a Burlington Northern Railroad boxcar as a donation box.

I attended “The Biggest Little Train” part 6

My favorite railroad car on this layout is the Hamms beer reefer.

I attended “The Biggest Little Train” part 5

These two images are overhead shots of the Minnesota Free-mo Modelers layout.

You can see how big this layout is in comparison to the Depot’s spacious Great Hall.

I attended “The Biggest Little Train” part 4

A helpful map to show what is where on the Minnesota Free-mo Modelers layout.

I attended “The Biggest Little Train” part 3

Those are some impressive appearing trees.

I sometimes wonder if this Art Deco Arrowhead Hotel is based on a real hotel somewhere in Minnesota.  Or is this hotel based on the modeler’s creative imagination.

I attended “The Biggest Little Train” part 2

The industrial area near the docks reminds me of the industrial areas in the Half-Life and Black Mesa games.

I attended “The Biggest Little Train”

This free event is set up in the Great Hall of the St. Louis County Depot.  It is an impressive display of how many people working on their sections by themselves and then brought together can make something impressive.

Nobody that has read my blog posts will be surprised that I’d choose a train related topic for my 100^th post for 2023!

I found “Kill Bill” graffiti on North Second Avenue East

These must be a graffiti street artist who lives on or near North Second Avenue East.

I found graffiti art in Duluth, MN

I found this “art” next to the sidewalk on London Road, looking towards Leif Erikson Park.  I have no idea how to pronounce those words, let alone what these words mean.

I found a pair of abandoned shoes on North Second Avenue East

The Unsolved Mysteries and Mysteries of the Abandoned writers should look into the case of the abandoned footgear.  Did he or she abandon their shoes because they are somewhat muddy?  I could make many blog posts about strange things people abandon on Duluth sidewalks.

Making extra money for Dungeons & Dragons parties, fifth revision

Decades ago, there was a long running, TV crime drama series named “The Mod Squad”.   According to Wikipedia®, they were The Mod Squad (“One black, one white, one blonde”), described by one television critic as “the hippest and first young undercover cops on TV”.  Police Department Captain Adam Greer recruited these three unlikely young adults to become undercover detectives as an alternative to being incarcerated.

In my campaign, my PCs were sponsored by a Lawful Good deity (although they could have been sponsored by a wealthy nobility or secular government official).  The deity and her temple have given the PCs party legal rights as detectives by giving my PCs letters of identification.  They were also given a small at first yet steady monthly income; along with access to essential supplies from food and tents, to weapons and armor.  While the PCs keep all coins that they find; the PCs must give identifiable treasures, such as artwork and jewelry back to their rightful owners.

Speaking of treasures, at higher levels my PCs hired an estate manager that sells any non-monetary treasure such as artwork and unneeded weapons for a ten percent fee deducted from the sale price.  This saves the party time and effort to have their estate manager do this mundane selling work for them.

Bonus:  If your PCs party owns a river boat and/or ship, or a flying ship, they have a means of economical travel.  Their vessel is a conference room, hotel, and dining hall.  Being on the water means they are less likely to be attacked by land based opponents; while increasing their chances to be attacked by water based opponents.  This boat or ship could be used for housing for the PCs Hirelings, Henchmen, and Mercenaries.  It could also be the office and housing for the PCs estate manager and other support personnel.  Having the PCs own a secure mobile headquarters and housing vessel will save the PCs’ party much time and effort finding and spending money on insecure hotels and camping sites.

According to Wikipedia®, “Hammerspace (also known as malletspace) is a fan-envisioned extradimensional, instantly accessible storage area in fiction, which is used to explain how animated, comic, and game characters can produce objects out of thin air. Typically, when multiple items are available, the desired item is available on the first try or within a handful of tries.”

To ease the burden of keeping track of items, while keeping these items safe from theft or destruction; each of my player characters have access to their individual Hammerspace.  Only the individual can access their hammerspace.  It takes one combat round to remove one item or place one item into their hammerspace.

I attended the 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum

This is the meal that I ate in the Great Hall of the Duluth Depot.

Making extra money for Dungeons & Dragons parties, fourth revision

“Those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.”

- Nicolas Cage

Remember that information is as valuable as traditional treasure.  For example, imagine that within the Chaos Temple that the PCs find an important letter about a Chaos tax caravan that collects taxes for the regional Chaos Lord.  These taxes pay for Chaos soldiers and neutral mercenaries to wage a wider war against the forces of Law.  (Did you think that Chaos soldiers would risk their lives for free?)  Without this tax money, the Chaos Lord can’t recruit as many soldiers for important battles waged many miles away from the keep.

Note:  This tax caravan raid happened in my campaign.  The opposing Chaos Lord suffered several off-stage military defeats because of a shortage of soldiers and supplies; because my PCs raided their tax caravan.  Afterwards, the Chaos Lord was publicly reprimanded by her superior officers in the Chaos Army.

Also, to my surprise, my PCs didn’t talk to random people about their tax train raid.  Thus, the Chaos Lord never found out what group of heroes raided her tax caravan.

Imagine an adventure based upon Robert E. Lee’s Special Order 191.  This happened during the Maryland campaign, before the Battle of Antietam. A copy of the order was lost.  It was recovered by Union soldiers of the 27th Indiana on the Best Farm in Maryland.  A Lawful general would pay much to buy these Chaos plans from the PCs.  Even a letter describing the strengths and weaknesses of the Chaos army in the Caves of Chaos would be worth money to a Lawful general.

Also, my PCs once impersonated Chaos message delivery soldiers to see the evil priest controlling the inhabitants of the Caves of Chaos.  They gave him fake - yet believable orders to set up an ambush outside the caves.  They collected intelligence about the caves as they waited for the evil priest to write a reply, and after he gave them his letter, they walked away.  That evil priest along with his loyal acolytes and adepts would be either captured for information or killed in battle in a future ambush by Lawful fighters.

I bought Twisted Tea

Not only do I love canned tea; I also bought these cans to get a fine-artsy, environmental product shot.  I should build up my visual portfolio in case I ever get the chance to interview for a job at a marketing agency.

Making extra money for Dungeons & Dragons parties, third revision

“That place... is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go.”

- Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

Your player characters could also use the lands around the Caves of Chaos ravine as farmland. Yet, the Chaos magic of the caves and surrounding area that deforms the established vegetation might make any food grown there dangerous to eat.  At least until the Chaos temple is destroyed.  While marijuana grown in soil infused with chaos magic might be twice as addictive as normal marijuana.  Good aligned player characters should burn, while standing upwind from, these chaos magic saturated marijuana plants.

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

― Abraham Lincoln

Another idea adding extra options to your campaign:  The humanoid inhabitants of the Caves of Chaos have little and poor quality food.  Most of the caves’ inhabitants would be malnourished and sick from the decayed food that they eat resulting in them being both visibly underweight and physically sick.

I see these humanoids as individuals, with different degrees of commitment to their beliefs, along with having the same basic needs as the PCs.  These humanoids would get sick and tired of being kept in unheated caves, underfed, and not doing anything that would improve their lives.  Thus, they would have negative 1 to their hit points.  They would also have negative 1 to hit and negative 1 to damage.

In my campaign, the party leader is a Bard as well as a follower of the Goddess Marianne.  This Goddess is the personification of liberty, equality, fraternity, and reason, as well as the Goddess of Liberty.  The Bard made several successful Charisma (Persuasion) checks, while explaining to the inhabitants several benefits of being on the good side.  After all, Maslow's hierarchy of needs motivates these caves’ inhabitants as much as they motivate the PCs.  Half of the smarter inhabitants were persuaded to change allegiances to the good side.  This also gives my campaign the aspect of intellectual transformation in NPCs that many campaigns lack.

Note:  As a Game Master, designing your home created campaigns, you should ask how your settlements, regardless of alignment, get their clean water and food.  If a settlement’s clean water and food is blocked by enemies; it is up to your player characters and their NPC allies to restore these vital resources to the residents as fast as possible.  But, before that happens, the PCs party and the settlement administrators will determine the payment for the party for restoring their supplies of clean water and food.

Making extra money for Dungeons & Dragons parties, second revision

"A place of worship for some. To others, an engine of destruction."

― Maul, referring to the Malachor Sith Temple (that also applies to the underground Chaos Temple)

 

Killing or capturing the slobber bucket Chaos priest and then destroying the Chaos Temple would also destroy the source of the Chaos magic within the Caves of Chaos.  Good and neutral PCs will earn at least ten thousand experience points each for destroying the Chaos Temple.

 

Petroleum seeps have been used for thousands of years for bitumen, pitch, asphalt, and tar.  For example, bitumen was and still is used for the construction of buildings and waterproofing of reed boats, among other uses.

 

One thing I forgot to include was farms to feed the fortress residents and travelers such as the PCs party.  Half the farms would be intended for growing food for the inhabitants.  Built and owned by the player characters, there would also be grain warehouses and a windmill for milling grain (gristmills).  Without these farms, the fortress inhabitants would be dependent on distant food brought in by inefficient, costly, and vulnerable to ambush wagons.  As opposed to efficient, less expensive to move per ton riverboats, while being harder to ambush.  PCs could make money by building piers and warehouses on the riverbank and then charging rent for the people that use their structures.

 

The other farms nearby the fortress are for cash crops.  One example of a cash crop is industrial hemp used for food supplements, woven fabrics for clothing, sail canvas, and rope.  Hemp is also used for building construction material, paper, as well as oil for lanterns and torches.  Player character parties investing in local real estate could create those farms around the fortress.

I found another Super One truck blocking the sidewalk on my way to buy food.

In Super One’s defense, their building was planned and then built decades before cargo trucks became one car trains on pneumatic tire wheels.  In addition, the tractor cab that pulls or pushes the freight semi-trailer drove off about one minute after I took this image.

I found an attractive, painted rock on a windowsill

I found this painted rock on First Avenue East, at the building that is the home to Heirloom Property Management.  Why do people make art and then leave their art on random places?

Making extra money for Dungeons & Dragons parties, first revision

Dungeons and Dragons needs rules for our player characters (PCs) to earn extra money by going beyond ways described in modules, such as The Keep on the Borderlands.  Our PCs can be high fantasy adventuring against non-player characters and monsters one day.  The next day, our PCs could earn coin while working to gain additional money from more mundane activities.

 

For example, they could collect food by harvesting wild fruit, while hunting deer and game birds such as wild turkeys for wealthy individuals of the keep.  What about hunting for fur-bearing animals?  The player characters could establish a fur trading company, over time becoming wealthy like John Jacob Astor’s family became wealthy in the real world.  Players can learn how to build a fortune studying how Mr. Astor created his wealth.

 

They could fish for game fish like Trout in the nearby river.  Are the trees around the caves usable for lumber?  The trees could be hauled to the river, chained into large rafts, and then floated down the river to markets.

 

The module The Keep on the Borderlands describes a wide river near the keep.  So, why is this river not being used to move people and cargo, soldiers and their equipment?  The players could rent or own a riverboat that they use as their home as they travel the world.

 

Is the rock, which the caves are within, usable for building structures?  Turn the caves into a surface rock quarry and in a few years the caves will be eaten up by the quarry.  To become wealthy selling stone, along with metals such as iron and silver.  Other valuable products that could make the PCs wealthy are coal and salt.  Forever destroying the Caves of Chaos is something that my player characters can dig.

 

Also, our PCs could find caves filled with magical crystals used for creating magical artifacts.  Those caves would be based on the real world Cave of the Crystals or Giant Crystal Cave that is a cave connected to the Naica Mine at a depth of 300 meters, in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico.  Such crystals could be worth tens of thousands of gold coins each.

Railroad safety sign

I found this railroad safety sign, in the passenger waiting room, of the reproduction passenger station of the Depot Square storefronts.  This safety advice is as good in 2023 as it was 100 years ago.