So here is how June played out:
( Cranky stuff... )
Enough grousing.
I last promised to talk about cliff diving in Jamaica. The other folks at the villa (friends of the bride and groom as opposed to us, the groom's family) found an ATV ride tourist-y thing that ended with cliff jumping at the end. The ATV part was US$75 per person. The cliff jumping was FREE. Guess which part we choose to do and which part we kicked to the curb?
( Read more... )
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So I was sick for a week (see previous post) then worked like mad to get things wrapped at the Dayjob and get all the stuff I needed to take with me to Jamaica, which left zero time for posting or anything else online.
But now I'm back hand have a bit of time to type.
My wife and I went to Jamaica to be at her brother's wedding. we went with a large group (including my in-laws) who rented a villa "just down the road" from where the villa where the wedding was going was going to happen. I put "just down the road" in quotes as there was nothing "down" involved and, in some places, very little road for that matter.
Our villa was up the mountain, along roads that were at a 45 degrees angle or steeper. At one point we turned where the completely paved road ended and onto the partially paved and partially washed-out road started, still heading up. We were in a bus for 22 people with a great driver (named Denton) and so while initially worried about the road condition in parts, we quickly learned confidence in his driving.
The villa was great and had two ladies working there, Grace and Cadian (pronounced like "Katy-Ann", so much so that that is what we thought her name was until the last day). They were great hostesses and cooks and took care of us very well. I'm working on getting a PhotoBucket account up for all the wedding photos, but it keeps failing with no explanation why. I'll post a link once it gets straightened out. The scenery from the villa was amazing. We could see 10-15 miles (possibly more) with the mountains on our left and the ocean on our right. It was beautiful.
It was also hot and humid with minimal air conditioning and mosquito netting over every bed (although that was not really necessary for the first few nights due the the heavy, 30-minute rains in the afternoons).
I'll type more later this week, including the cliff diving we did. Not watched, DID.
Later!
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There are many things I hate about being sick.
Right now its the insomnia from the combination of 24 hour Sudafed and not doing a lot to tire myself out.
Scratch that - it's the itchy nose and random sneezing.
But the cough that won't catch? I REALLY hate that. Makes sleeping difficult. Makes sleeping next to my wife without waking her up every 5-10 minutes impossible.
So I got out of bed an hour earlier than when I'm going to work (did I mention this is now my third sick day in a row?) and read from a Christmas gift I finally got to - Cartogaphia: Mapping Civilizations, by Vincent Virga. It's a bid coffee-table sized hardback that works its way through the history of map-making, a topic I have some interest in due to my hobbies. I'm about half way through it now and it has been an educational read. It explains a lot about why maps were drawn the way they were and provides excellent examples along the way. The part on Chinese map-making was particularly good and inspired me to try some different things in my own map-making. Now if only I could draw well...
I have an Adventure Log update to write for Obsidian Portal for my Naze Valley Rangers campaign. I updated the wiki with information about New Crosswalshire, a small city the PCs will be visiting soon, now that they have put an end to the ghoul threat (again, still need to write that up).
That's it for now. I need to go take some more Sudafed and maybe make some breakfast before my wife gets up. Then maybe I'll try and get some sleep. If my nose and the cough will let me.
feh.
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So I've discovered a paradox at my Dayjob.
In many projects, there is a point where the client is paying us to sit and look busy while they finish their stuff so we can do the job they hired us to do. Sometimes this is a couple of hours, sometimes it is a couple of weeks. This is the second project I've been on where it is measured in months. Yes, MONTHS.
But that's not what I'm here to talk about (today).
Normally during this slack time, I get a lot of writing done on my personal projects. I work in Word and I write in Word and I use very similar templates in both, so I look busy on work either way. Previously, I was a worker bee and not management and so I had plenty of time to my self. This time, I'm part of management and during this slack time, I am paradoxically very busy. So busy that I had to take time off from that project to get any time to do work on another project assigned to me that I was supposed to be able to work on during the slack time.
So what keeps management busy during slack time? Process updates, one-off format jobs, make-work from the client, stuff like that. PLUS, I have an entire team of folks asking me what to do while we're waiting. As a professional I have to set an example and find things to keep them from going stir-crazy, most of which has been training and data collection for the client. So despite being on the project for 4 months and the work we were hired to do being another month away, I'm actually very, very busy.
My team? Not so much.
Now once the work appears, the team will be VERY busy, while I keep everything on track and work assigned. This will leave me with tons of free time.
To recap:
So when there's no work, management is busy and the team isn't.
When there's work, the team is busy and the management isn't.
Later!
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First off, No, I haven't seen the Star Trek movie yet. That will happen this weekend. Yes, I've heard it rocks, I just haven't taken the time to see it yet.
Why? Well mostly because I had other stuff going on. Like the session 2 of The Mountain Kings, which was run by 4 of 5 last Saturday. She has also started an Obsidian Portal page for the campaign. Once set up a bit more, I'll start posting my campaign journal for that campaign there.
I'm currently working on the next part of Little Hungers, my current Pathfinder game. I'm struggling with the resolution of the current sub-arc (recurring villain or let the PCs kill him?), so I'll need the next two weeks to work out a satisfying resolution. I'd go into details, but at least one of the players is one of my small audience here, so I'll refrain. You can of course read the campaign log of what has happened here.
That's it for this week.
Later!
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Last Tuesday was jury duty for me. I got picked. The case itself was OK (civil court - a fender bender damages case) and I was OK serving as I consider it one of my few duties as an American (the others are voting and complaining about taxes). The biggest drag was getting to the actual trial.
I arrived downtown at 7:15 am on the bus so I wouldn't have to pay for parking (plus free ride with a jury summons). Got to the jurist rally point and waited until 8:30 when they started assigning us to pools. Not bad, just time consuming. I read part of the GM's section of the Spycraft 2.0 rules while waiting.
I was part of the 6th group for the day. We were lined up, moved off to another hallway, and assigned a juror number. There were 26 of us in this particular group and they only needed six people. I was number three.
Then we marched about three blocks away to the civil court building (as opposed to the criminal court or juvenile court buildings). Through security and then up to the floor with the actual courts. There we hung around for a bit until they were ready for us to come in.
Next we do the voir dire, where the attorneys decide who the want or don't want on the jury. The plaintiff's attorney basically told the folks on the back row "you aren't getting picked, so I'm not going to ask you guys any questions." I was on the front row and got asked questions. At one point I was certain that my answer got me dropped as after I gave it, the plaintiff's other lawyer started scribbling something down. In hindsight, it probably was something like "this guy understands, we have to have him."
So once both sides talk at us a while, we get excused outside while they work out who's been selected. I notice a TV truck over at the criminal courthouse and think "lucky me."
We get called back in and they start calling out names. "Jurors 1, 2, 3,..." I stopped listening at that point as I didn't care once I got picked. At least I knew what I was doing for the rest of the day.
Once all six of us were in the jury box, they excused the rest and we got sworn in. This was around 11:00 am. The judge explained that we'd take a lunch break at Noon, another break at 3:30, and probably wrap up around 4:30 unless we had to come back tomorrow for jury deliberations. I was hungry at this point, but I could wait another hour. So they started calling witnesses and asking questions to get all the info into the record. We took notes.
Lunch was at a place called "The Cloister". It's in a historic church downtown and catered by a cajun place called Treebeard's. Good food. I had the chicken fried chicken (like chicken fried steak, but with a chicken breast) with mashed potatoes and jalapeno cornbread. Plus a chocolate chip cookie I saved for later. Good move on my part.
After lunch, we returned and the lawyers continued. The plaintiff's lawyers did not appear very competent. If they had not had the stronger position to start with, they would have lost money on this. The defense lawyer was better, but clearly had the weaker position. He brought up some important points on the medical files that we might not have noticed otherwise and saved his client several thousands of dollars.
After both sides were done with the witnesses (there were three: plaintiff, plaintiff's husband, and the defendant), they did summations, listing what monies were being asked for. We missed writing that down. We regretted that during deliberations. So in deliberations we asked things like: is there a police report? What were those amounts again? Are there any photos? All got shot down with the same rubber stamp: "Use what you remember and was entered into evidence and during testimony. No more, no less."
Foo.
So we deliberated for about an hour and a half and rendered our verdict and damages (which we had to borrow a calculator from the bailiff to work out). I figure both sides went home equally unhappy. The defendant had to pay money, but it wasn't as much as the plaintiff was asking for. We did fair by both sides and got to leave at 5:00 pm without needing a second day. Good day all around, if a long one.
the weirdest thing? The judge could have been the twin of my father in looks. Really. He was a little heavier than my dad, but had the same hair, mustache, and face.
That's it for this week. Sorry for the delay, but, you know, jury duty.
Later!
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As much as I'd rather not blog about the weather, we got 10 inches of rain over the last 24 hours (or so). The streets today were "full" to say the least. And just in time for morning rush hour, too.
This past weekend I ran the next session of Naze Valley Rangers. I was particularly pleased about how this came out, even though I almost had a TPK at the end. My players wised up that this was more dangerous than they could handle and bugged out of there to heal and regroup.
This is harder for a GM to achieve than you might think.
Players have a tendency to lead with their chin (or at least SOME players do) and the GMs choice is kill their character, and everyone else's, or let them get away with it. Now while I like big cinematic, over-the-top fun combats, there is a time when a modicum of reality must exert itself. If there is no fear of death (or at least the death of your character), then where is the excitement of the challenge? Of not knowing for certain if your plan of action will work?
On the other hand, more challenge than fun is a bad combination as well. When there is no reasonable chance that your plan will work, why try? I've been a player in this style of campaign and it is no fun and all were short-lived campaigns.
So the fact that I was able to present a credible threat to my players without having to kill all of them or nerfing the villain part way through the fight was very satisfying. And my players are ready to go after the villain again, after a suitable period to heal up and re-provision with some appropriate gear to face an undead nasty. Next session should be very interesting in deed.
Later!
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After a week of no rain, I watered my lawn.
Two days later, we had two straight days of record-setting rain. Serves me right.
Due to this, our schedule got askew and we ended up not gaming on Saturday. Session 2 of The Mountain Kings has been delayed until May. This is frustrating as there were several things I wanted to find out about what is going on in-game. We did get to see the miniature made to represent the "man of iron" the Alfar sent us against. It was sweet! Very pulp robot look and feel and it will tower over us when we go up against it. I'll see if I can get a picture posted or a link to one.
The adventure for my Naze Valley Rangers campaign shaped up very nicely. I need to assemble the main NPCs and assign treasure and I'm done. I was able to finalize the map and room descriptions. After running it, I'll update the write-up and have a new adventure ready for Run This... #1.
Yes, I'm still working on that. I will publish a magazine and that magazine will be Run This... . I've realized that I will need to publish the first issue with work from the Gang of Five before anyone else will be willing to submit material. I'm cool with that. It just means it will take longer to produce. So be it.
That's it for this week - I have an adventure I need to finish writing.
Later!
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I learned two Russian sayings today:
"Fish is good, but the best fish is sausage."
I agree with the second half of this saying 100%. The first half... no so much.
The second saying is:
"He who does not risk, does not drink champagne."
I countered with a uniquely Houston saying:
"He who hesitates must wait another 10 minutes for the next break in traffic."
A little more unwieldy, but very to the point.
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Not that most of you care, but the weather here in Houston this weekend was great. Saturday was really nice. On Sunday it was cloudy and rainy when I got up, but by the time I left the house the sky was completely clear. I made progress on several writing projects this weekend. One was the campaign journal for our last Pulp Hero game, Session 1 of The Mountain Kings. I should have that done in time for Session 2 this Saturday. I needed to go back and re-read my campaign journals for the Tomb of the Lost Pharaoh to find the correct voice again. I also started updating deity details and descriptions for the Naze Valley Campaign. This will be a longer project (I have 25 deities at the moment) and I’m working with 2 of 5 on the development as she has excellent insights and works well as a sounding board of my initial notes. I have descriptions of about two thirds of the deities, but still need to tweak them. Then I want to add some details as to where their worship started and who it has spread to. The real question there is: Do I need to go into that much detail or do I just want to? Finally, I did some additional design work for the current adventure I’m writing for the Naze Valley Campaign. I’m not certain if this will be a side adventure or a full adventure of its own. I think design-wise, it will be a side adventure, but there is really the potential to introduce a rather large dungeon. I may hedge my bet and have this connect to something else via a hidden door or a collapsed passage. Hmm…
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So it's been a couple weeks. Sorry about that.
Last weekend was the beginning of a Pulp Hero adventure being run by 4 of 5. I'll post a character journal of the events later, but the quick synopsis is our team was sent to Belgium for rockclimbing lessons and ended up in Alfheim. Sadly, my character knows almost nothing about European mythology (ask him about Mezoamerica, the Middle East, or the Indus Valley and that would be another thing). More details later once I have time to do a proper write up.
Normally, I like to do my write up the next day, but the Dayjob was making demands of my scarce free time last weekend so we could make a perilously short deadline on some work. After that it was "doing things with the wife," meaning chores around the house and grocery shopping.
This weekend has been 10th Wedding Anniversary stuff, which has been very fun. I took off Friday from the Dayjob and we spent the day going to places down in Clearlake we don't normally get to. I remembered why when we got down there - traffic really sucks down there and there are real idiots all over the roads. Plus, driving to the other side of Houston on the Pierce Elevated (the part of I-45 that goes around downtown) is like driving through molasses. Chilled molasses. feh.
The payoff was worth it: Houston has a LEGO store and we are both LEGO geeks. I got the $14.99 tall container for the bits wall and filled it with about $50-$60 worth of specialty LEGO parts. Next time I'm down there I'll get mostly regular bricks and have some really cool stuff to work with. Now if I can find the right bendy parts, I can build a bunch of LEGO mechs and play Mechaton (buy here but read about here).
We have also been eating at restaurants we like, but don't get to often, like Han's Mongolian BBQ and Ruggles Grille 5115, where we had our first meal as a married couple (not including the wedding reception of course).
Yesterday we spent at the Woodlands Waterway Art Festival. There was some amazing art there in various mediums. We got there just after Noon (after stopping at Which 'Wich for lunch) and the weather was great, but after 3 hours the clouds went away and we started to wilt. I gave up and we missed about a fourth of the stalls. We dragged our exhausted bodies into Which 'Wich to cool off in the air conditioning. we then walked down to a new market (cooling off even more in their refrigerated, walk in beer area, with about 100 different kinds of beer) and re-hydrated with fruit juices and some organic, cane sugar root beer. We then hung out at Borders until we were hungry for dinner. Holly was looking for a particular manga and I was just perusing Spectrum 15 and scoping out last years best fantasy/sci-fi artwork. (Did I mention we are both book geeks as well? I really should have...)
Today we are going to make our second shot at the Genghis Khan exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science. We tried on Friday, but they stop selling tickets at 3:00 and we got there at 3:30. The exhibit is so large they allow 2 hours for a person to get through and don't want to rush people out at 5:00 when they close. I am intrigued to say the least.
That's it for now. More this week as I have time.
No, really. I mean it.
Stop laughing like that.
;)
Later!
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The dayjob has been crazy busy with the project kicking into gear. The amount of work we have is actually low, but with four new people unfamiliar with the structure of the project and technical issues galore (from lack of access to the data storage system to the high speed printers crapping out) my job is mighty busy. On Friday, my boss was out on vacation so I had to fill in for him and his full time job.
Doing two full time jobs at the same time is quite hectic, let me tell you.
Still, I recognize that this is a short term issue. We'll get the technical issues sorted out and the rest of the team will get up to speed on the project and not need my continuous guidance. Looking forward to that.
As to writing, I'm working on two things rather unevenly. (See the parallel with the dayjob there?) The first is my Naze Valley Rangers campaign. I'm actively working on fleshing out the pantheons so the cleric and the paladin actually have something to work with. This is a new experience for me as I have rarely detailed the pantheons for my campaigns as there are rarely clerics in them. I have not decided if there is a cause and effect relationship there or not. I'm liking the intellectual challenge of building a believable pantheon, including description s of what the deities look like and their spheres of influence.
The other writing project I'm working on is Getting Educated, my On the Edge novel. Sadly, it is not getting all the love it deserves right now. This afternoon is allocated solely to working on it and I'm looking forward to it. I know the important bits about what happens next and I really want to get it down on paper (OK, actually typed into my laptop, but you know what I mean). The first of a series of important connections will happen back at the Double Nines. The only stalling point right now is naming the rappers on stage when Pug shows up. I liked the Atomic Sons a lot and I want this next crew to have a solid name, but names are my weakness. Hmmmm. Have to think some more on it...
Later!
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This was a short session for a variety of reasons, including the no-show of a player and his son (so two players actually). I don't know the details yet, but when I do... ...I won't actually be posting them here. I suspect it is a private matter and that's all I'll say about that.
First we started out with the passing out of the loot from the last two sessions. Items of interest were a masterwork cold iron long sword, a savage-looking +1 longsword from the gnoll leader, an efficient quiver (renamed quiver of Elohna from 3.5), an elixir of flame breathing, a moonstone statuette of a gnollish deity, and a lot of turquoise. The coinage was mostly Sovereign Manticores (an ancient gnoll coinage from the time of the Gnoll Hegemony), some Gold Commonwealths (over 500 years old but still common currency), and even some Gold Marks (only recently coined), indicating that the gnolls have been sending slaving parties into the Kingdom of Kaldahnaka.
The Rangers then stood watch over the ruins while the Redbird Expedition members got their first good nights sleep in weeks. On second watch, Bones heard the sound of things moving about in the woods. He pretended not to notice and continued his circuit around the wall. On the next circuit, he heard what sounded like some quiet arguments in the area the gnolls had been leaving their dead. On his third circuit, he heard nothing at all. It was too quiet.
He woke up Clem by the simple expedient of throwing a rock at her. He missed, but she woke up to the sound anyway and he didn't have to throw a second rock. Lucky him. She looked around and the spotted him pantomiming bow fire. She put on her chain shirt and headed up the scaffolding to the top of the wall. While Bones used the remains of machiolations for cover, Clem just looked. What ever was out there spotted her and ducked down into cover, so she quietly invoked Natea to sense if there was any evil afoot. There was, a sickly and hungry evil. Concentrating further, Clem was able to determine there were approximately seven distinct focuses emanating this evil, but they were at the very edge of her abilities and there could be more. After a short conversation with hand gestures, she sent Bones down to wake Owen and Oralon and the Redbird Expedition members.
By the time the rangers were all on top of the wall, the hunger of the creatures in the forest had finally overwhelmed them and seven of them charged the wall. It was dark with only moonlight and so the rangers could not clearly see what the creatures were, but their odd gait and low gibbering was all the rangers needed to be convinced to shoot their bows - to minimal effect. The creatures rapidly scaled the walls and the fighting began in earnest.
The fighting was tough. Oralon was paralyzed early by the touch of the creatures, confirming that these were ghouls. As the tide was slowly turning towards the rangers, two additional foul beasts charged the wall. As they closed, the stench of death emanating from them sickened Owen and the still re-paralyzed Oralon (one of the ghouls had forgotten himself in the fight and started eating on Oralon until Owen rescued him with an acrobatic throw of Oralan). When it became clear to the creatures that the fight was turning against them, they grabbed paralyzed rangers (Oralan and Clem at this point) and jumped from the wall, 30 feet down to the ground!
Bones was down, paralyzed and unconscious, but the warrior-diggers of the Redbird Expedition finally arrived at the top of the wall. This allowed Owen to jump off the wall himself to give pursuit. While being dragged by one of the foul creatures, Oralon regained control of his body and slew the creature with a blast of electricity.
Separately, Clem also shrugged off the paralysis effect of the creatures attacks and channeled the healing power of Natea through her hands into the creature, damaging it and forcing it to drop her. The creature attacked her, attempting to recapture its meal, which allowed Owen to catch up. After two rounds of furious fighting, both Owen and Clem were paralyzed, with Clem on the verge of unconsciousness. As the creature brought back its claw to to rend Clem one final time, Oralon blasted it with the last of his magic, destroying the creature. The three rangers then limped back to the Moon Mountain Ruins.
The next two days were spent healing as Sereah used her entire complement of healing spells each day to bring the rangers back to full health. On the third day, Sergeant Lars Bloodaxe and twenty soldiers of the County Guard arrived to reinforce the ruins. Clem brought Lars up to speed on the situation and discussed options. Clem decided she and the rangers would track down the ghoul lair to determine if they were all killed or more still existed. After half a day following trails and ghoul-sign, the rangers located a cave that seemed to be the lair of the ghouls and prepared to enter.
This is where we ended the session. More next month!
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The next session of my Naze Valley Rangers game is tomorrow. What's happening? Let me give you a hint:
gnoll+ghoul=gnoul
Heh, heh, heh
>:)
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Today I guest lectured to a Tech Writing class at one of the local community colleges.
The professor and I are friends from a gaming group. When she found out I was a tech writer by trade, she asked if I'd be interested in guest lecturing to her Technical Writing course. I for some reason said yes. Today was that day.
Students do not always believe their professors about what is really important. This class is a required class for most students and sometimes (most times) they don't really understand why they have to take the class. The professor wanted someone with actual experience in the field to talk and drive the point home.
For those interested, behind the cut are my lecture notes.
( My Lecture Notes )
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We had a new player sitting in this episode, the 10-year old son of one of the players. So the part of Katan was played by the son (and hence, no where near as creepy) and a cleric was introduced to the party off-stage. As a reminder, this is a Pathfinder RPG game and we're still learning the rules (and by "we" I mean "me").
Dramatis Personae:
Ranger-Sergeant Clementine "Clem" Rollins (Ranger-Paladin)
Ranger Oralan Skycaller (Sorcerer)
Ranger Jason "Bones" Carmichael (Rogue)
Ranger Owen Sands (Rogue)
Ranger Katan Valofor (Fighter)
Ranger Sereah (Cleric)
Events:
The session starts with the gnolls attempting to ambush the ranger team. The gnolls find the camp just at dawn, getting mighty close before being noticed by Bones and Sereah, but not Owen, who was actually on watch. After a furious fight, the attacking gnolls were dead but the PCs hear one get away. (I learned that the rules on the Surprise Round are different in PF by having all the gnolls get slaughtered instead of doing the slaughtering. Important learning experience - read the new combat rule rather than assuming they are "mostly identical".)
After the fight, Owen scouts out ahead to see what the gnolls besieging the Moon Mountain Ruins are doing. He discovers that the gnolls have re-deployed into three larger groups rather than 6 smaller groups and they have built a primitive catapult to attack the Redbird Expedition holed up in the ruins. He is also spotted and exchanges some bow fire with some gnoll archers until he gets hit by a lucky shot. He returns to the team and reports his findings.
The team has a short discussion on tactics and sets up another ambush to lure the gnolls into. Then all but Clem move to just within sighting distance of the catapult. They find the catapult is now complete and starting to fire wicker balls of pitch at the ruins. The team fires arrows at the gnolls, some with smokesticks attached. Sereah pegs the catapult bucket with a smokestick and Oralan casts faerie fire to trick the gnolls into believing that the catapult is in danger and they should chase down the humans shooting at it. This doesn't quite work as there is a gnoll leader there and the gnolls hold position, realizing the "flames" are not real.
The team shouts in the balna tongue to Clem to move up as the gnolls are not pursuing, and then sets to attacking the gnolls with bow fire. This lasts a while with neither side achieving good results as they are at a difficult range to hit each other. When the gnolls get the catapult to fire again, the team decides they cannot hang back any more and charges forward. The fighting is hard and Bones and Sereah both go unconscious before the gnolls can be killed. Unfortunately, two gnolls got away early and the howls of the rest of the gnoll force moving in is heard. There is also cheering from the top of the ruins as the Redbird Expedition now knows they are not alone. Clem uses the healing wand on Sereah, who then channels divine energy to get everyone mobile again and the team flees east for the rest of the day, finally losing the gnolls after three hours of hard work, and then holing up to rest and regain spells. (Note: A cleric's ability to channel divine energy as a wave of healing energy is mighty handy. The inability to separate friend from foe keeps it from becoming too cheezy.)
The team spends the next day circling the ruins around the north side and approaches from the northwest. They spend a cold, tense night in a dark camp and move forward at dawn. Ahead they see large amounts of smoke. Are they too late?
When they finally get close enough to see the ruins through the forest, they find the gnolls have surrounded the ruins with smokey fires, blinding the defenders. The gnolls have massed up on the west side of the ruined manor house and are preparing to mount an all-out attack. Katan fires an arrow with a message into the ruins to warn the defenders. The team then waits for the attack to start and moves in behind the gnolls to attack from the rear. Oralan's ability to cast multiple sleep spells quietly puts down the gnoll archers and lets the team move in really close. His decision to shoot the gnoll leader only draws attention to the PCs. Fighting got heavy after that.
During the fight, the defenders on the walls barely hold the line against the gnolls, losing half their people to the gnolls. Between the defenders and the ranger team the gnolls are ground out of existence, but it was a close thing. The final gnoll pickets flee the area with as much food and water as they can carry and book to Gnoll's Crossing. Clem makes contact with Valfrid Redbird, leader of the expedition and noted historian, and learns that the reason the expedition was able to hold out against the gnolls originally was because they had fortified the ruins against the ghouls.
Ghouls!?
The team quickly organizes to burn all 30+ dead gnolls on the still-burning fires and prepares to defend the ruins until relief arrives from New Crosswalshire. They're fairly certain the relief troops will beat any gnolls that might return from Gnoll's Crossing, but will they beat any ghouls that show up looking for a snack?
Turn in for Session 3 in one month's time to find out!
EDIT: Corrected some grammar and names. Never post a draft when you are coming down with a cold.
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Tomorrow is the second half of Little Hungers. I'm looking forward to the run. Didn't have a chance at work to get all fancy with some printed maps, but this should be fun.
Details on Sunday.
Later!
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I've posted the start of Getting Educated, Chapter 2, here.
My plan at this point is to post everything new I have at the end of each month. I should finish Chapter 2 in February and then start Chapter 3. Chapter 2 should be the end of the setting chapters and things start happening.
Later!
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I ran the first part of Little Hungers yesterday and it went well. A summary is behind the cut in deference other folks' friends lists.
( Here's what happened... )
This is where the session ended for the night. Due to intrusive work schedules, our next session is very early and only two weeks away. I'll use this time to fine tune the gnoll leaders and do up some proper maps, something I ran out of time to do before the game session.
That does it for now. Later!
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First off, if you use Commerce Energy, scrutinize your bill every month, comparing month to month. I'd also recommend changing to another service provider if at all possible. They were forced to leave Texas for a reason, a reason I've learned the hard way. 'Nuff said.
January is now known as Drama Month to me and I will not see the end of it soon enough. A death, no work for my wife, issues with my brother-in-laws out of country wedding, and the above mentioned issues have packed more drama in my life this month than I really ever want to see ever again.
Feh.
On the other hand, Little Hungers runs tomorrow. It should lead to interesting places and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out. I'd say more, but one of my players reads this occasionally and I don't want to give any spoilers. I'll talk more about it next week.
One of the other players has a book idea of his own and wants my assistance. We'll be talking about it over lunch, prior to the game. With me writing a book (and an idea for another), him writing a book, and my wife occasionally talking about writing one, I've been giving serious thought to organizing a writers support group. It's easy to let writing fall to the wayside when it's just you, but having a group to share experiences with and get help from would work well. I need to mull it over some more, but my plan is to start it or drop it completely by February 28. I want the time to get out of Drama Month and for things to normalize somewhat.
Next weekend I'll be posting more of Getting Educated to the Podgecast forums. I'll post a link so folks can find it.
On a different tangent, I'm a Team Lead at the Dayjob. I'm finally starting my first project where that will be more than a team of one. What this really means is that I'm doing the process planning for a significant project, telling the client what my team will be doing, and then doing it. For some reason, it feels so different now than when it's just me. I can't explain it (yet). I'm starting to have a sneaking suspicion that I may be good at management. Weird.
Later!
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