Happy Mardi Gras Tuesday!
Feb. 21st, 2023 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI haven't actually celebrated in any way, but I figured I might as well give it a shout-out (now that my tumblr friend who lives down in Louisiana has reminded me of its existence XD). Anyway, let's have the to-do list --
Work – Somewhat more annoying day – the drive in was pretty unpleasant thanks to poor weather (snow/rain mix making the roads a bit slick); we had our performance reviews today (even though I was told I was doing a great job, it was still a little stressful); and as the day went on, more and more people started calling in for credit card stuff (interrupting my breaks). It could have been worse, but it could have been better too. Meeh.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with the Sponsored Arcane Deal Oxventure, “Big Deck Energy!” We left it with Corazon getting a lightly-cursed ring that gave him extra spell slots, so he considered the curse worth it. After Dob checked that they still had their murder death wheel (Prudence was dragging it along by its chain), the group continued onward with their new centaur companions, finding their way to a drowned graveyard of sorts with a ghostly shipwreck on the water just a little ways away. Only it wasn’t a shipwreck – it was, indeed, the spelljamming ship Scavenger, captained by one N'ghathrod! Corazon, overcome by his pirate instincts, began explaining that they all needed to swing over on ropes with knives in their teeth. XD Oddly enough, the fact that the centaurs would not be able to swing over effectively came up before Merilwen pointed out there wasn’t anything to swing FROM. XD Dob, however, had another plan – use their murder death wheel to breach the hull by having someone get inside it and run it down the beach like a particularly horrible hamster wheel! Corazon asked if he was volunteering – to my surprise, Dob said no, that sounded super dangerous.
Not to my surprise, he then volunteered Egbert, who promptly agreed to be the hamster. XD Johnny had him roll to actually pull off the side plating and get inside the wheel – a dirty twenty indicated that Egbert may have done this before. Dob set up a ramp using the grave marker he’d made for Graz, and at Corazon’s nudging also gave Egbert a bit of Bardic Inspiration. Good thing too, because Egbert’s initial roll to get the murder death wheel going was only a nine – the extra die brought it up to fourteen, which was enough to ramp off the tombstone and send the Spinning Wheel of Deathbert (Johnny’s words!) into the hull, mincing someone inside. Corazon again was all for swinging over on ropes, but this is when Merilwen noted there was nothing to swing FROM and instead just urged everyone to use the convenient hole they’d made – though she did agree that they should all be holding knives in their teeth. XD She also cast Spike Growth on the deck to give anyone trying to investigate the noise an unpleasant time, to say the least!
Knives clenched between molars (well, mostly – Dob ended up swallowing his, and apparently the fish that he got in his lung on a previous adventure is still around and managed to grab it. Everyone began making jokes that the fish will be Luke’s next DnD character when Dob dies), the gang made it across to the ship without incident, to find the lower gundeck full of bio-luminescent coral creatures that started calling for the captain. With a dirty twenty, Corazon was able to go around kicking all their heads off, but not before N'ghathrod figured out someone was aboard his ship, thumping around above-deck on his peg leg. (Corazon was not impressed – peg legs are so passe. XD) Dob suggested they start moving the cannons around so they could fire straight up at where they guessed N'ghathrod was, and Corazon volunteered to be a distraction and ran upstairs to introduce himself as the local pirate king and try to broker an alliance. N'ghathrod wasn’t particularly impressed, but allowed him to parley, and Corazon proceeded to try and tell him how the sky was acid in other parts of G’eth and other such nonsense. N'ghathrod didn’t buy any of that, but he was very interested in hearing about the twenty-seven different types of clam available. XD While that was going on, the gang was able to get two cannons in position with decent stealth rolls from Dob and Merilwen. Egbert didn’t roll particularly well and decided to try a different idea – namely, grab a nail and a hammer and try to nail N'ghathrod’s peg leg to the deck to hold him in place. XD Johnny let him roll for it, and he rolled well enough to hamper N'ghathrod’s movement.
Prudence, meanwhile, rolled a five on her stealth check, set OFF the cannon she was trying to move by pulling the wrong rope, caused it to crash into another cannon, and then both cannons got blasted out of the ship – along with one of the centaurs. She desperately tried to explain that she didn’t know cannons when the other centaur demanded to know why she did that, causing Merilwen to make a “centaur of attention” pun. Cue a stony silence –
And cue Dob setting off the two cannons they’d successfully set up. XD Unfortunately, damage was only an eighteen (once they’d figured out who was actually rolling), but they did at least successfully send N'ghathrod tumbling down a nice new hole in his deck with a few nasty wounds! Initiative was rolled, and Corazon, with all his bonuses AND a nat 20, got to go first. He let his pirate instincts take over again and tossed himself into the hole after N'ghathrod, tussling with him until they hit the lower level and then cutting a C in his chest with his cutlass. Which N'ghathrod thought stood for “Clam.” XD This did NOT quite kill the captain in one shot, though (as Johnny was half-expecting), so Egbert did get to go next. . .and his big plan is to try and feed a BOMB to the captain! Johnny warned him this is a contested roll, but Egbert expected nothing less, so tomorrow we will see if Egbert invokes the “Chunky Salsa” rule or if anyone else gets to have a go in this “boss fight.” Including the boss himself. XD
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has gotten the rest of the story about Milton’s murder out of the bum (including that it was done by a guy who can grow claws, apparently, and seemed to have a personal grudge against him), and sent him on his way with a tenner and a gentle admonition to stay quiet about the whole “growing claws” thing, lest he get locked up. Alice has already connected this to the Southland Slasher killing on the pier, but she still needs to find a certain piece of evidence if she wants any clue where the hell Muddy has gone. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – both items today watched and enjoyed –
A) First up, from Josh Way – “Fun With Shorts: Out of This World Part 1!” Yes, Fun With Shorts returns with a look at the first chunk of “Out Of This World,” a short by GM about their vision of THE FUTURE! Involving cheap models in space, cheap models in Antarctica, cheap models at the bottom of the ocean (complete with a “submarine train” that looked more like a glasses chain), cheap models cutting down all the rain forests and erecting dangerous-looking highways between mountains, and very expensive “future appliances” that can cook a roast in MINUTES (don’t ask how many). Also a moving minibar and a fridge with loads of room for big salad bowls. Josh was NOT stingy with the anti-capitalist quips. XD
B) And secondly, from GrayStillPlays – “When you fly at a wall at 1000 mph,” aka Gray plays Base Jump Wing Suit Flying. Guess what? It’s another terrible mobile game about sending someone at a target really fast, and getting money for how many bones they smash along the way! This one was themed around base jumping, and featured all the usual boards – a simple starter cityscape; a lush green valley filled with hot air balloons and wind turbines; a tunnel on a busy road; a much more dangerous cityscape with loads of sky bridges to hit; 20,000 feet up in the air dodging hot air balloons to land in a moving plane; the Pyramids of Giza; a tropical paradise where you had to hit a target mounted on a cruise ship; and a mountain where you had to climb straight UP by grinding your “lifting power” to maximum levels. It did feature some unique characters, though – such as Iron Stan, the tarnished discount version of Iron Man (his suit is green); Hyper Man, your standard off-brand superhero who ALMOST has the power of flight; and Pizza Slenderman, a man in a pizza-themed wingsuit who deforms in frankly TERRIFYING ways when he hits the ground (and none of the other characters do this, mind, only him). Gray had to grind quite a lot to make it through all the levels (especially that last ‘you basically have to learn to fly’ board), but thanks to the power of bone-breaking and ridiculous speeds, he got the lifting power he needed and smashed his target! :D We do love a happy ending around here.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – all five posts for the Chill Valicer Save update and the gift fic for Marie are in the queue for Victor Luvs Alice, and I had two ask replies for Valice Multiverse. Nothing too difficult, which I very much appreciate!
Aaand I answered my friend Ace's FF.net PM, so that's something too! Moose, you're next on the list. XD As it stands, though, it's time for me to head to bed and get some sleep -- night all!
Work – Somewhat more annoying day – the drive in was pretty unpleasant thanks to poor weather (snow/rain mix making the roads a bit slick); we had our performance reviews today (even though I was told I was doing a great job, it was still a little stressful); and as the day went on, more and more people started calling in for credit card stuff (interrupting my breaks). It could have been worse, but it could have been better too. Meeh.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with the Sponsored Arcane Deal Oxventure, “Big Deck Energy!” We left it with Corazon getting a lightly-cursed ring that gave him extra spell slots, so he considered the curse worth it. After Dob checked that they still had their murder death wheel (Prudence was dragging it along by its chain), the group continued onward with their new centaur companions, finding their way to a drowned graveyard of sorts with a ghostly shipwreck on the water just a little ways away. Only it wasn’t a shipwreck – it was, indeed, the spelljamming ship Scavenger, captained by one N'ghathrod! Corazon, overcome by his pirate instincts, began explaining that they all needed to swing over on ropes with knives in their teeth. XD Oddly enough, the fact that the centaurs would not be able to swing over effectively came up before Merilwen pointed out there wasn’t anything to swing FROM. XD Dob, however, had another plan – use their murder death wheel to breach the hull by having someone get inside it and run it down the beach like a particularly horrible hamster wheel! Corazon asked if he was volunteering – to my surprise, Dob said no, that sounded super dangerous.
Not to my surprise, he then volunteered Egbert, who promptly agreed to be the hamster. XD Johnny had him roll to actually pull off the side plating and get inside the wheel – a dirty twenty indicated that Egbert may have done this before. Dob set up a ramp using the grave marker he’d made for Graz, and at Corazon’s nudging also gave Egbert a bit of Bardic Inspiration. Good thing too, because Egbert’s initial roll to get the murder death wheel going was only a nine – the extra die brought it up to fourteen, which was enough to ramp off the tombstone and send the Spinning Wheel of Deathbert (Johnny’s words!) into the hull, mincing someone inside. Corazon again was all for swinging over on ropes, but this is when Merilwen noted there was nothing to swing FROM and instead just urged everyone to use the convenient hole they’d made – though she did agree that they should all be holding knives in their teeth. XD She also cast Spike Growth on the deck to give anyone trying to investigate the noise an unpleasant time, to say the least!
Knives clenched between molars (well, mostly – Dob ended up swallowing his, and apparently the fish that he got in his lung on a previous adventure is still around and managed to grab it. Everyone began making jokes that the fish will be Luke’s next DnD character when Dob dies), the gang made it across to the ship without incident, to find the lower gundeck full of bio-luminescent coral creatures that started calling for the captain. With a dirty twenty, Corazon was able to go around kicking all their heads off, but not before N'ghathrod figured out someone was aboard his ship, thumping around above-deck on his peg leg. (Corazon was not impressed – peg legs are so passe. XD) Dob suggested they start moving the cannons around so they could fire straight up at where they guessed N'ghathrod was, and Corazon volunteered to be a distraction and ran upstairs to introduce himself as the local pirate king and try to broker an alliance. N'ghathrod wasn’t particularly impressed, but allowed him to parley, and Corazon proceeded to try and tell him how the sky was acid in other parts of G’eth and other such nonsense. N'ghathrod didn’t buy any of that, but he was very interested in hearing about the twenty-seven different types of clam available. XD While that was going on, the gang was able to get two cannons in position with decent stealth rolls from Dob and Merilwen. Egbert didn’t roll particularly well and decided to try a different idea – namely, grab a nail and a hammer and try to nail N'ghathrod’s peg leg to the deck to hold him in place. XD Johnny let him roll for it, and he rolled well enough to hamper N'ghathrod’s movement.
Prudence, meanwhile, rolled a five on her stealth check, set OFF the cannon she was trying to move by pulling the wrong rope, caused it to crash into another cannon, and then both cannons got blasted out of the ship – along with one of the centaurs. She desperately tried to explain that she didn’t know cannons when the other centaur demanded to know why she did that, causing Merilwen to make a “centaur of attention” pun. Cue a stony silence –
And cue Dob setting off the two cannons they’d successfully set up. XD Unfortunately, damage was only an eighteen (once they’d figured out who was actually rolling), but they did at least successfully send N'ghathrod tumbling down a nice new hole in his deck with a few nasty wounds! Initiative was rolled, and Corazon, with all his bonuses AND a nat 20, got to go first. He let his pirate instincts take over again and tossed himself into the hole after N'ghathrod, tussling with him until they hit the lower level and then cutting a C in his chest with his cutlass. Which N'ghathrod thought stood for “Clam.” XD This did NOT quite kill the captain in one shot, though (as Johnny was half-expecting), so Egbert did get to go next. . .and his big plan is to try and feed a BOMB to the captain! Johnny warned him this is a contested roll, but Egbert expected nothing less, so tomorrow we will see if Egbert invokes the “Chunky Salsa” rule or if anyone else gets to have a go in this “boss fight.” Including the boss himself. XD
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice has gotten the rest of the story about Milton’s murder out of the bum (including that it was done by a guy who can grow claws, apparently, and seemed to have a personal grudge against him), and sent him on his way with a tenner and a gentle admonition to stay quiet about the whole “growing claws” thing, lest he get locked up. Alice has already connected this to the Southland Slasher killing on the pier, but she still needs to find a certain piece of evidence if she wants any clue where the hell Muddy has gone. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – both items today watched and enjoyed –
A) First up, from Josh Way – “Fun With Shorts: Out of This World Part 1!” Yes, Fun With Shorts returns with a look at the first chunk of “Out Of This World,” a short by GM about their vision of THE FUTURE! Involving cheap models in space, cheap models in Antarctica, cheap models at the bottom of the ocean (complete with a “submarine train” that looked more like a glasses chain), cheap models cutting down all the rain forests and erecting dangerous-looking highways between mountains, and very expensive “future appliances” that can cook a roast in MINUTES (don’t ask how many). Also a moving minibar and a fridge with loads of room for big salad bowls. Josh was NOT stingy with the anti-capitalist quips. XD
B) And secondly, from GrayStillPlays – “When you fly at a wall at 1000 mph,” aka Gray plays Base Jump Wing Suit Flying. Guess what? It’s another terrible mobile game about sending someone at a target really fast, and getting money for how many bones they smash along the way! This one was themed around base jumping, and featured all the usual boards – a simple starter cityscape; a lush green valley filled with hot air balloons and wind turbines; a tunnel on a busy road; a much more dangerous cityscape with loads of sky bridges to hit; 20,000 feet up in the air dodging hot air balloons to land in a moving plane; the Pyramids of Giza; a tropical paradise where you had to hit a target mounted on a cruise ship; and a mountain where you had to climb straight UP by grinding your “lifting power” to maximum levels. It did feature some unique characters, though – such as Iron Stan, the tarnished discount version of Iron Man (his suit is green); Hyper Man, your standard off-brand superhero who ALMOST has the power of flight; and Pizza Slenderman, a man in a pizza-themed wingsuit who deforms in frankly TERRIFYING ways when he hits the ground (and none of the other characters do this, mind, only him). Gray had to grind quite a lot to make it through all the levels (especially that last ‘you basically have to learn to fly’ board), but thanks to the power of bone-breaking and ridiculous speeds, he got the lifting power he needed and smashed his target! :D We do love a happy ending around here.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – all five posts for the Chill Valicer Save update and the gift fic for Marie are in the queue for Victor Luvs Alice, and I had two ask replies for Valice Multiverse. Nothing too difficult, which I very much appreciate!
Aaand I answered my friend Ace's FF.net PM, so that's something too! Moose, you're next on the list. XD As it stands, though, it's time for me to head to bed and get some sleep -- night all!
