they read your smiles, nothing but teeth

First, a bit of a swerve for content on this blog. I try my best, my very best, to avoid political discussion. I've slipped from that resolution a not small number of times, but I do try. However, this is an issue I feel must be mentioned, at least once: the National Public Vote is a bad idea.

I freely state my biases: I was formerly for this, until this article and one passed by a friend before it. With great reluctance, I have to agree with the author here: my left-leaning, communitarian, registered Democrat self is seeing the need to preserve the Electoral College.

I'm not going to say much more about it; read or not, as you will, but while I do not agree with every point made, the salient conclusions are unavoidable: going to a National Popular Vote gives us a winner-take-all contest where the worst, not the best, will seize power. We need to fundamentally rethink this entire movement.

Now then. Fair warning, Raven Mist on Luna Isle starts off as a store. Not a terrible one, a touch expansive for the limited amount of items shown, but still, seasonally spooky.



Walk through the market, though. You can stop before you reach the 'Haunted Forest', but if you want to walk through that, that's fine too; there's another bright blue teleport pad just inside the vine-overgrown cave beyond the forest. From there, you have a choice of five other locations.


The "Cemetary" port drops you behind three Reaper statues, and in front of a small cemetary scene, with skulls on sticks and hovering winged skeletons.



The "Castle" stop will require a bit of climbing, as the port drops you off at the base, not within the walls.



The "Ruins" stop drops you at the base of the stairs for a square set of ruins. There's some bad texture flicker inside, but unless you're buying the piece, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.



The "Tavern" stop is fun, but I needed to hop up to reach the porch; I remember that happening before, but...I think that was a different store, wasn't it? Or was it?



The "Witches" stop is fun--I want that half-burned house, which is rather sad, because it's the one structure I've found without a bright blue "Buy here!" box somewhere around it.



Finally, the "Art" stop is an art gallery, seemingly largely stocked with downloads from the net, including a vast number of Luis Royo rips. Still, over the course of porting about through the zones, I found a few items I couldn't live without, and you don't need to wander via the port pads; while it's an expansive space, it is possible to walk from section to section if so desired.

I'd recommend going if you want some seasonal knick-knacks, or just cannot live a moment longer without someone's illegally downloaded copy of a Luis Royo painting, but don't go expecting a full haunted house. It's not there.