Buying a Beast

When I was a kid, my family used to play a game called Dark Tower. It was a quest to cross a medieval kingdom, aquiring three keys to storm the Dark Tower. If you solved the riddle of which key opened which lock, you won. That was not too difficult. The hardest part was making your way through the kingdoms, turn after turn, gathering the necessary keys. There was a motorized machine (before computer games!) which told you what happened on your turn: you could get lost, for example, or be struck by plague or worse yet, be attacked by brigands and lose your gold and your warriors in a raging battle. Fortunately, you could buy a scout (so you wouldn’t get lost), a healer (to solve those pesky plague problems) and best of all, a “beast” to carry all your gold. That way even if attacked by brigands, your gold was still safe, even if all your warriors died.

Several times lately, since we’ve begun this massive moving project to our new building, I have wished I could buy a beast. It would truly be my beast of burden, carrying all these desks, filing cabinets, and boxes full of hardback Bibles in Arabic. I would point my finger, or better yet, snap them, and the beast would go gallumping off to deposit the heavy things where I wanted them. Life would be much easier if I had a beast!

Comments

Ben Rainey said…
It's a shame that she lives in millersville, while you're over there.
2:12 PM
Dad said…
Those were the days. I still hum the victory tune when I achieve something or "a plan comes together". The bazaar is always the first place to stop.
2:17 PM
Ariel Rainey said…
you know, I tried to find in on ebay a while back, and couldn't. What a shame. I always wished they would redo it, cause it was a great game!
3:13 PM
Matt Boyer said…
Are you serious?? I was just talking about this game last night!! I want so badly to buy it too and I have found it on EBay but it is crazy expensive!! One in good condition was going for over $200! Who would have thought that holding onto that game could have made me some money?? So, if you find one at a yard sale, even if it doesn't work, buy it because you can sell it for the parts! MB only made it for one year. What were they thinking?

On a side note, I think my wife has me confused with a beast. I'm always carrying her stuff. Actually, I don't mind being the beast... as long as I can be a handsome beast!

Long live Dark Tower!! :)
4:36 PM
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