Quagmire!

Quagmire! is a 1984 adventure module for the Expert Rules of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

Plot summary

In the beginning of this adventure, the player characters set off in search of the city of Quagmire. The characters must travel through a monster-infested swamp to get to the city, which is being slowly swallowed into the sea. Quagmire is a whelk-shaped "spiral city", built by a dead race in the Serpent Peninsula. The module includes a description of the city.

Publication history

X6 Quagmire! was written by Merle M. Rasmussen, with cover art by Steve Peregrine, and was published by TSR in 1984 as a 32-page booklet with an outer folder. The module featured interior art by Jeffrey Butler. The scenario was written for the Expert Rules.

Reception

Graham Staplehurst reviewed Quagmire! for White Dwarf, and gave it 8/10 overall, calling it "a useful acquisition for any D&D player, particularly as a first excursion into a fully fledged wilderness." Staplehurst praised the module, stating that it "promotes a whole 'experience', a total environment and ecosystem, with background colour and depth which more localised scenarios and modules lack. The designers have done a good job in describing large areas of wild lands, giving inspiration and yet not pedantic detail to DMs with players itching to see a bit of their characters' world and feel it come to life." He called the eponymous city a "superb piece of original design", although he noted that DMs running the scenario "will want to dress up the city a little to add to the scenario as it is a little sparsely populated". Staplehurst concluded the review stating, "The weather, the fatigue of travel, disease, the question of provisions, etc, all play a major part in the characters' concerns, and this increases enjoyment of the game no end. A very good scenario."

Mire

A mire or quagmire, sometimes called a peatland, is a wetland terrain without forest cover dominated by living, peat-forming plants. For botanists and ecologists, the term peatland is a more general term for any terrain dominated by peat to a depth of at least 30 cm (12 in), even if it has been completely drained (i.e., a peatland can be dry, but a mire by definition must be wet).

There are two types of mire – fens and bogs. A bog is a domed-shaped land form, is higher than the surrounding landscape, and obtains most of its water from rainfall (i.e., is ombrotrophic) while a fen is located on a slope, flat, or depression and gets its water from both rainfall and surface water.

Also, while a bog is always acidic and nutrient-poor, a fen may be either slightly acidic, neutral or alkaline and either nutrient-poor or nutrient-rich. A mire is distinguished from a swamp by its lack of a forest canopy (though some bogs may support limited tree or bush growth, mires are dominated by grass and mosses), and from a marsh by its water nutrients and distribution (marshes are characterized by nutrient-rich stagnant or slow-moving waters; mire waters are located mostly below the soil surface level) as well as its plant life (marsh plants are generally submerged or floating-leaved; those in a mire are not).

Glenn Quagmire

Glenn Quagmire, often referred to as just Quagmire, is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is a neighbor and friend of the Griffin family and is best known for his catchphrase "Giggity" and his hypersexuality. The show's creator and voice actor Seth MacFarlane describes him as "an appalling human being who is still caught in the rat-pack era" based on anachronistic 1950s party-animal clichés.

Origins and appearance

The name Quagmire was chosen by a college acquaintance of MacFarlane's; the word quagmire refers to both a soft soil that yields easily (such as quicksand), and a situation that is difficult to get out of. The title of the episode "Quagmire's Quagmire" plays on the second meaning. MacFarlane came up with Quagmire's voice after listening to fast-talking radio jockeys from the 1950s era, describing the character as a "50s radio guy on coke." The "giggity" phrase was inspired by Steve Marmel's Jerry Lewis impression. Quagmire's home follows the same retro theme, decked out in a style reminiscent of the swinging party set of the 1950s and 1960s; nearly every part of the house has a discreetly hidden bed.

Grimace

Grimace may refer to:

McDonaldland

McDonaldland was a fantasy world used in the marketing for McDonald's restaurants. According to a lawsuit, it was based on the "total concept and feel" of Sid and Marty Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf television program. McDonaldland was inhabited by Ronald McDonald and other characters. In addition to being used in advertising, the characters were used as the basis for equipment in the playgrounds attached to some McDonald's. McDonaldland and the supporting characters were dropped from McDonald's marketing in 2003, but Ronald McDonald is still seen in commercials and in Happy Meal toys.

History

1971–1974: Early years

The first phase of the McDonaldland concept began in January 1971, when McDonald's was replacing its drive-ins with mansard roofed restaurants. The early commercials were built on an upbeat, bubble-gum style tune, and featured a narrator; many had plots that involved various villains trying to steal a corresponding food item, foiled by Ronald.

McDonaldland itself, as it was depicted in the commercials, was a magical place where plants, foods, and inanimate objects were living, speaking characters. In addition to being the home to Ronald and the other core characters, McDonaldland boasted a theme park of "Thick Shake Volcanoes", anthropomorphized "Apple Pie Trees," "French Fry Bushes" (where McDonald's French Fries grew from bushes), "The Hamburger Patch" (where McDonald's hamburgers grew out of the ground like plants), "Filet-O-Fish Lake", and many other fanciful features based around various McDonald's menu items. In the commercials, the various beings are played by puppets or costumed performers, very similar to those used in the popular H.R. Pufnstuf TV show.

Grimace (composer)

Grimace (also Grymace or Grimache) was a French composer active in the mid-to-late 14th century.

Grimace was active in the period of music history known as the ars nova and was probably a contemporary of Guillaume de Machaut, since his compositions lack the complicated rhythms of the Ars subtilior (Günther 2007). Grimace's birth and death dates are not known; little is known about him outside of attributions in medieval music manuscripts. Five works are attributed to him securely; two doubtful attributions have been proposed based on stylistic similarities. His virelai, A l'arme, A l'arme, is his most often performed work in modern times.

The works attributed to Grimace are:

Doubtful works:

References