Productive Monday Ho
May. 1st, 2023 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickManaged to beat my period by going to bed just slightly earlier and then getting up a little earlier today, giving myself a little more time to get going on the day and thus accomplish all the shit I wanted to get done. Didn't turn out ENTIRELY how I expected, but I'm happy with the results --
Tumblr: Had a good productive day on Victor Luvs Alice, mostly because I refused to have an unproductive one – did some quick catch-up on the dash and tags this morning, then got all six posts of my Chill Valicer Save update drafted and the full text-and-tags on the first two completed before lunch! And then, after some time trying to figure out what mods and CC I wanted to download for my game and agonizing about what I actually wanted to do in Sims 4 today (see below), I decided that it would be best for my own peace of mind if I just took some time and finished the other four posts. So that’s what I did, throwing myself into them and getting all but one completely done before we played beanbags (see “Other”), and finishing up the tags on that last post right after. So I AM all good for my Wednesday update, yay. :) I was hoping to get some more done on some of my other drafts too, but no dice – hopefully I can catch up a little on those tomorrow!
Sims 4: Bit of an odd one for Sims 4 today, but I AM happy with what I ended up doing. Here’s what I did both in and out of game today –
A) As stated above, I ended up downloading some new mods and CC, after going through my folder and updating what needed to be updated – namely, I found some produce stand “fridges” (that work like the retail fridges from Get To Work – customers can browse and buy directly from them) and some flower arrangement fridge displays from one BrazenLotus that were just about perfect for the Van Liddelton grocery store, so I downloaded those and the necessary “core” mods to make them work; and I also found some new clothes – some new male underwear in some fun colors, and some Pride flag/rainbow-themed clothing sets for both masculine and feminine frames – courtesy of a lookbook post I saved on tumblr featuring someone’s Sims 4 recreation of one of their VTMB fledglings (dude had some bold looks). Took me a bit to figure out what I wanted and if any of it would conflict with each other, but it seems to be okay for now!
B) With the CC in, but the hour growing late, I decided that, while I still wanted to play, I wasn’t going to do a full session – instead, I was just gonna visit my Valicer trio, create a new save branch, update some looks in CAS, and maybe do a thing or two with the lot if I felt like it.
And then I ended up spending most of my hour and a half in build mode tweaking the lot, and only doing a couple of things in CAS. XD Still, I’m very satisfied with what I did –
I. Biggest change to the lot? Scooting the barn up a few tiles so I could fit a large animal shed behind it! Yes, I’m putting cows back into play for this lot – now that they have a grocery store, it makes sense for them to have a cow as a convenient source of milk. And the cow needed someplace to live, and the spot behind the barn seemed ideal. It just wasn’t large enough for the shed’s footprint, hence the scoot up. So now the future cow has its own little fenced-in grazing area behind the barn, with the chicken coop and its little fenced-in area right next to it (there’s even a gate connecting the two, in case the chickens want to go visit the cow), and a couple of decorations – a hose and a barrel fountain on the back of the barn (to represent the kind of stuff you’d need to wash and water the cow), and a Patchy scarecrow in the far corner of the fence (just to make the area look a little less blank, you know?). Oh, and since I had to put all the chickens back in their little chicken area because moving the barn shunted them and their coop into my household inventory, I wrote down all their names – the two roosters are Cockadoodle and Grumpy, the black hen is Cluckina, and the white hen is Foghorna. XD Look, Smiler named them, so they were gonna be goofy.
II. But what of the Extremely Necessary Wind Farm, you may ask? And the water collectors? Well, I moved all the wind turbines to the FRONT of the barn! Specifically, they’re all lined up on the side of the lot between the barn and the tree in the front left corner (facing the lot). I was thinking that might be a good place for them anyway, since I don’t really use that space for anything. I even managed to fit in one more ground turbine to help with power production! The water collectors got lined up against the side of the house, on the other side of the path to the barn behind them, since that felt like a good spot to keep them out of the way.
III. In more minor changes, I moved a tree that I’d placed in the middle of the back edge of the lot (after having to move it out of the corner when I expanded the greenhouse) into the empty spot beside the porch, since it looked better there; did some terrain painting to give the ground a bit more texture, better define the path to the barn, and put some dirt beneath the rocks and trees out in the yard; rearranged the plants and rocks around the path to the barn and placed some of the flowers that sprouted from the Flower Bunny’s visit along it; put some nice bushes along the sides of the main path to the porch in the front of the house; and put a decorative potting bench with decorative seeds, pots, a plant IN a pot, a book on plants, and a watering can in the back of Victor’s newly-expanded greenhouse (thanks, “Cottage Garden” Fan Stuff!). It’s the little touches, you know? Makes the whole house look nicer. :) (Even as what passes for a back yard gets smaller and smaller. . .)
IV. And in CAS, just did a little outfit fiddling – gave Alice a new Everyday with the paint-splattered tank top she unlocked in her Artist job, AND made sure she had a tail in all of her werewolf “outfits” (as I was correct – that one time she transformed without one, it was because she went to wolf form from her workout gear, and no tail was set for that); gave Victor some of the new underwear I downloaded; and fiddled with a couple of Smiler’s outfits to remove any that were a little too far off theme (they now have a nonbinary flag colors shirt for one of their Everydays, and a yellow open-front Hawaiian shirt to replace an orange one in their Hot Weather wear, along with yellow undies – I STILL haven’t been able to get myself to get rid of their original Everyday shirt, though, even if it’s a little too orange. I love the pattern on it too much! Am I gonna have to learn how to do recolors to make it yellow and black?).
And that and getting a quick cute shot of Alice “dancing” briefly with Shadow when the dog came for pets was my playsession! Not exactly what I was expecting, but I’m still happy with what I accomplished. Next weekend, I think we’ll get the gang a cow, do some gardening, then do some more work on the grocery store and get some more bulk food processed! Having those new produce stands and flower fridges should help a lot in that regard. . .
Writing: Got another page on the escape sequence of “The Joker And The Queen,” writing the Coaster gang’s reaction to the Corkscrew getting disabled (they’re not sure what happened, but they – or at least Thirteen and Smiler – know that it’s quieter for some reason down in the basement), them getting confronted by Phalanx Alpha team. . .and Rita reacting badly to being called “SW2” and getting ready to lay down some punches. But not even she’s prepared for how FAST she’s about to lay them down. . .oh, that’ll be fun to come back to on Wednesday. XD
YouTube: I am pleased to say I managed to indeed catch up on my GrayStillPlays videos from the Subs –
A) “When giant sharks eat humanity,” aka Gray plays the shark levels of Tasty Planet Forever, a game where you are apparently a bunch of sea creatures fighting back against pollution by eating everything in the damn ocean. XD Gray previously played an octopus getting fat on trash – today’s levels featured a tiny shark getting fat on fish, coral, sea urchins, ducks and geese, otters, spear fishermen, other sharks, humpback whales, boats, planes, and whole log cabin “villages.” XD Gray’s delight in making his shark grow and grow until it was basically the size of Milwaukee was honestly cute in a dark way – and to his credit, he didn’t want to eat the adorable otters, he just HAD to because that was the game. :p I look forward to seeing more levels of this in the future!
B) “Testing Cars vs LARGEST Gaps in GTA 5,” aka another Alex Torture Board in – well, GTA V. XD This one was seeing which of a given selection of cars could conquer all of Alex’s weird-ass gaps, starting with “Geometry Gaps” (gaps shaped like L-pieces, triangles, or just had a big old block slightly higher than the gap itself in the middle), and then progressing through “Ball Gaps” (one gap with lots of soccer balls bouncing in it like popcorn, and another with two rotating bowling balls you had to ramp off of to make the gap), “Giant Gap” (a gap made out of one of those giant people art installations, with a gap in the person’s chest and two rapidly-vibrating balls on either side ready to punt cheaters straight across the map), “Explosive Gaps” (with a helicopter dumping explosive barrels down one gap, and a gas tank affixed to the edge of the other, with two helicopters shooting rockets at each other just next to it), “Gap Buffet” (a gap where you could either jump the middle or do a rim ride on the curved bit around the side, and a timed course where teleporters kept appearing and disappearing on top of a bunch of platforms, and you had to make it across all the platforms in the ten seconds they were gone), “Widening Gaps” (essentially a bunch of ramp “dominoes” set farther and farther apart, so that unsuspecting cars either slipped down the bigger gaps or got yeeted off when the car hit a gap wrong), “Large Gap” (just one really big gap in the road), and “Wet Gap” (the only gap after a checkpoint, mostly because said checkpoint teleported you to the ocean where you had to jump a gap across a broken boat while avoiding the churning waves and the crate dumping random cars into the sea, then squeeze past a dead whale and the stairwell on the other side to reach the finish). Gray was allowed to use any car repeatedly until it blew up – which, uh, caused him NO end of problems in the “Explosive Gaps,” mostly because, well, cars kept blowing up as he hit the tanker. That gap was basically his endpoint for most of the run, with even fan favorites such as the Wastelander falling to it. He ALMOST made it in a lovely cherry red car, but the winning car proved to have a horrendous purple-and-blue paint job, a good top speed, a propensity for ejecting Gray through the windshield every time it crashed, and just enough room to slip through the final gaps – the perfect combination for a Florida Man driving himself insane for YouTube views! XD We appreciate it, Gray.
Workout: Another night on the bike, another night with Oxventure: Legacy of Dragons – “Mist Opportunity!” Having discovered Mistmire and Le Dragon D’Or’s secret – namely, there is a golden dragon kept prisoner under the order’s keep, and the heat from its body is being used to power the entire citadel, and it sounds like what Egbert did to get kicked out from the order was try to free it – and voiced their objections to this, Dob pointed out that one very important voice hadn’t been heard – the dragon’s. What did IT want? Corazon pointed out that it was pretty easy to tell from the tremors, but agreed that it would be nice to get confirmation. Shattershield said that the dragon hadn’t spoken to them in quite some time, but Egbert (who does speak Draconic) was willing to give it a go. He approached the head of the dragon slowly and carefully, and greeted it with all due respect –
And the dragon raised its head and replied, saying it remembered Egbert from the last time. Corazon, wanting to understand what was being said, quickly cast Comprehend Languages – Dob, meanwhile, thought it would be cooler to just hear the conversation in Draconic and get the deets when Egbert went back to Common. (Subs not dubs and all. XD) Egbert asked the dragon what all the tremors were about, and the dragon explained it could feel another gold dragon in the world. Egbert confirmed there was a gold egg and asked what the dragon wanted – it declared that it would in fact like its freedom; that while the time it had spent imprisoned here meant less to it than it might to the members of the Order, it missed the feel of the wind in its wings. Egbert then asked about the golden egg and the best thing to do with it – the dragon admitted it wasn’t sure. It was willing to look after the hatchling once it did hatch, but said that it would need to hunt and roam, and thus wouldn’t be able to look after it all the time. And the hatchling WOULD need protection. Egbert thanked it and relayed the information to the others (noting that Shattershield, who understood Draconic, was looking thoughtful and maybe just a little bit ashamed). The gang agreed that they definitely wanted THIS dragon freed, but admitted that they weren’t sure about the egg – Dob pointed out that they could still try to find its mother, and failing that, maybe they could get Le Dragon D’Or to set up elsewhere and look after it in a setting where it would still be free to be a dragon – turn them into proper conservationists instead of prison guards. They talked to Shattershield about what should be done next, and he said that they definitely had to summon the council (sending Adededuh to tell them). He agreed that they should probably hold the actual meeting in the morning, after a good night’s sleep and some breakfast –
Allowing Dob, under the guise of wanting to fill out an autograph book, to ask who the council members even were. Shattershield confirmed he was on the council (and gave Dob an autograph, which turned into a bit of a thing as he and Corazon went back and forth about what Shattershield should sign), and gave them the names of the other four – Drysdale, Rowan, Hammerfist, and –
CHAUNCEY. Everyone was surprised and kinda pleased that old squeaky-voice had done so well for himself, and Shattershield very grumpily said that he had climbed the ranks and that he was also just back from his honeymoon. Having married Lady Fyengh – pronounced “Venga,” as in “the Venga bus is coming~” XD (If I recall correctly, she and her troupe were part of “Quiet Riot,” the adventure where the gang originally saved Inkwater – them trying to get her wheels fixed up was what kicked off the adventure.) And it was all great and everyone was happy and no he’s not bitter, how about you give your warmest regards to minding your own business, Dob? XD (Dob was actually so impressed by the burn that he tried to get Shattershield to sign another autograph with THAT.) The gang decided not to press too much and instead get themselves and the eggs set up in some quarters for the night. They ended up in one of the little mini-apartment suites that the various Dragon D’Or teams live in – four or five bedrooms off of one main common room where they can eat and meet – and met for a little conference around the table. After confirming that their aims were “get the gold dragon under the city free” and “see if we can get Le Dragon D’Or on-board with protecting the gold egg and the resultant hatchling in a less prison-guardy way,” the gang decided the thing to do was to talk to each of the four remaining council members and see if they could sway their votes. Corazon promptly volunteered to handle Chauncey, as he felt he knew the guy pretty well from their previous adventure here; Dob agreed to take Hammerfist on the basis of “you seemed excited about his name;” and Merilwen took Rowan because it sounded the most elfy, leaving Egbert with Drysdale.
And so the group split up! Egbert headed straight to Drysdale’s quarters, making an ATTEMPT at stealth (aka, not slapping his feet so hard against the floor), and tried to listen at the wall to see what was going on inside. A really poor Wisdom/Perception check meant that he heard nothing, so he just strolled right on in –
Interrupting a dinner Drysdale was having with some other paladins. One of whom was so disgusted upon seeing Egbert that they just got up and walked out. Egbert immediately sat down and started eating the leftover food. XD He told Drysdale that he had something to talk to him about privately after dinner, and Drysdale VERY reluctantly let him stay (where he proceeded to absolutely hoover up the food, even moving to another seat after another dining paladin decided they were done with this nonsense). Once the meal was over and the other paladins been dismissed, Egbert laid out his case, explaining about the golden egg and that he’d actually talked to the gold dragon and that it wanted its freedom. Drysdale was very disinclined to believe him, pointing out that one of HIS paladins had been – killed? Injured? SOMETHING – when Egbert did what he did, but Egbert pleaded that the order had to change, because the current ways weren’t working. If nothing else, Drysdale could see the citadel was falling apart! Johnny called for a contested Charisma check, and rolled an eighteen for Drysdale –
And Egbert rolled a nat 20. Basically the ONLY thing that could have made Drysdale listen to him. Drysdale very reluctantly said that if Shattershield could back up his ridiculous story of having spoken to the dragon, he would vote to free it. But he also said that if he ever saw Egbert again after this mess, he would kill him. Egbert couldn’t help saying “well Shattershield said they might let me rejoin” before fleeing when Drysdale told him to get out. XD Such a troll, Egbert. . .though ooh, we’re definitely getting some dark backstory vibes here. . .
Cut to Corazon, who found Chauncey’s rooms, snuck into his quarters easily, discovered him and his new bride sound asleep after much partying (as Lady Fyengh does like to party), and promptly started trying to kidnap him because his big plan was to impersonate Chauncey at the council meeting. XD “Pirate diplomacy,” as Mike put it. XD I left it with him having succesfully started levering Chauncey out of bed, because dude DRUNK, y’all. XD We’ll see how this goes, and how the other two Oxventurers handle their respective council members, tomorrow!
Other: Well, it actually dried out some today – the sun was shining, anyway – so despite some really strong winds, we ended up playing a few rounds of our beanbag game! And it was actually almost all nice and equal today, with each of us winning once (despite Mom getting struck on threes a lot and the wind trying to take our beanbags). :) Final scores were me W-3-2; Dad 2-2-W; Mom 3-W-3. Not too shabby!
Yeah, pretty nice final day off! Too bad I have to ruin it by going back to work tomorrow. :p Ah well, at least it's a short week -- and thanks to various holidays, it's actually gonna be a short week every other week for this whole month. I'll take it! But for now, bed -- night all, happy May Day!
Tumblr: Had a good productive day on Victor Luvs Alice, mostly because I refused to have an unproductive one – did some quick catch-up on the dash and tags this morning, then got all six posts of my Chill Valicer Save update drafted and the full text-and-tags on the first two completed before lunch! And then, after some time trying to figure out what mods and CC I wanted to download for my game and agonizing about what I actually wanted to do in Sims 4 today (see below), I decided that it would be best for my own peace of mind if I just took some time and finished the other four posts. So that’s what I did, throwing myself into them and getting all but one completely done before we played beanbags (see “Other”), and finishing up the tags on that last post right after. So I AM all good for my Wednesday update, yay. :) I was hoping to get some more done on some of my other drafts too, but no dice – hopefully I can catch up a little on those tomorrow!
Sims 4: Bit of an odd one for Sims 4 today, but I AM happy with what I ended up doing. Here’s what I did both in and out of game today –
A) As stated above, I ended up downloading some new mods and CC, after going through my folder and updating what needed to be updated – namely, I found some produce stand “fridges” (that work like the retail fridges from Get To Work – customers can browse and buy directly from them) and some flower arrangement fridge displays from one BrazenLotus that were just about perfect for the Van Liddelton grocery store, so I downloaded those and the necessary “core” mods to make them work; and I also found some new clothes – some new male underwear in some fun colors, and some Pride flag/rainbow-themed clothing sets for both masculine and feminine frames – courtesy of a lookbook post I saved on tumblr featuring someone’s Sims 4 recreation of one of their VTMB fledglings (dude had some bold looks). Took me a bit to figure out what I wanted and if any of it would conflict with each other, but it seems to be okay for now!
B) With the CC in, but the hour growing late, I decided that, while I still wanted to play, I wasn’t going to do a full session – instead, I was just gonna visit my Valicer trio, create a new save branch, update some looks in CAS, and maybe do a thing or two with the lot if I felt like it.
And then I ended up spending most of my hour and a half in build mode tweaking the lot, and only doing a couple of things in CAS. XD Still, I’m very satisfied with what I did –
I. Biggest change to the lot? Scooting the barn up a few tiles so I could fit a large animal shed behind it! Yes, I’m putting cows back into play for this lot – now that they have a grocery store, it makes sense for them to have a cow as a convenient source of milk. And the cow needed someplace to live, and the spot behind the barn seemed ideal. It just wasn’t large enough for the shed’s footprint, hence the scoot up. So now the future cow has its own little fenced-in grazing area behind the barn, with the chicken coop and its little fenced-in area right next to it (there’s even a gate connecting the two, in case the chickens want to go visit the cow), and a couple of decorations – a hose and a barrel fountain on the back of the barn (to represent the kind of stuff you’d need to wash and water the cow), and a Patchy scarecrow in the far corner of the fence (just to make the area look a little less blank, you know?). Oh, and since I had to put all the chickens back in their little chicken area because moving the barn shunted them and their coop into my household inventory, I wrote down all their names – the two roosters are Cockadoodle and Grumpy, the black hen is Cluckina, and the white hen is Foghorna. XD Look, Smiler named them, so they were gonna be goofy.
II. But what of the Extremely Necessary Wind Farm, you may ask? And the water collectors? Well, I moved all the wind turbines to the FRONT of the barn! Specifically, they’re all lined up on the side of the lot between the barn and the tree in the front left corner (facing the lot). I was thinking that might be a good place for them anyway, since I don’t really use that space for anything. I even managed to fit in one more ground turbine to help with power production! The water collectors got lined up against the side of the house, on the other side of the path to the barn behind them, since that felt like a good spot to keep them out of the way.
III. In more minor changes, I moved a tree that I’d placed in the middle of the back edge of the lot (after having to move it out of the corner when I expanded the greenhouse) into the empty spot beside the porch, since it looked better there; did some terrain painting to give the ground a bit more texture, better define the path to the barn, and put some dirt beneath the rocks and trees out in the yard; rearranged the plants and rocks around the path to the barn and placed some of the flowers that sprouted from the Flower Bunny’s visit along it; put some nice bushes along the sides of the main path to the porch in the front of the house; and put a decorative potting bench with decorative seeds, pots, a plant IN a pot, a book on plants, and a watering can in the back of Victor’s newly-expanded greenhouse (thanks, “Cottage Garden” Fan Stuff!). It’s the little touches, you know? Makes the whole house look nicer. :) (Even as what passes for a back yard gets smaller and smaller. . .)
IV. And in CAS, just did a little outfit fiddling – gave Alice a new Everyday with the paint-splattered tank top she unlocked in her Artist job, AND made sure she had a tail in all of her werewolf “outfits” (as I was correct – that one time she transformed without one, it was because she went to wolf form from her workout gear, and no tail was set for that); gave Victor some of the new underwear I downloaded; and fiddled with a couple of Smiler’s outfits to remove any that were a little too far off theme (they now have a nonbinary flag colors shirt for one of their Everydays, and a yellow open-front Hawaiian shirt to replace an orange one in their Hot Weather wear, along with yellow undies – I STILL haven’t been able to get myself to get rid of their original Everyday shirt, though, even if it’s a little too orange. I love the pattern on it too much! Am I gonna have to learn how to do recolors to make it yellow and black?).
And that and getting a quick cute shot of Alice “dancing” briefly with Shadow when the dog came for pets was my playsession! Not exactly what I was expecting, but I’m still happy with what I accomplished. Next weekend, I think we’ll get the gang a cow, do some gardening, then do some more work on the grocery store and get some more bulk food processed! Having those new produce stands and flower fridges should help a lot in that regard. . .
Writing: Got another page on the escape sequence of “The Joker And The Queen,” writing the Coaster gang’s reaction to the Corkscrew getting disabled (they’re not sure what happened, but they – or at least Thirteen and Smiler – know that it’s quieter for some reason down in the basement), them getting confronted by Phalanx Alpha team. . .and Rita reacting badly to being called “SW2” and getting ready to lay down some punches. But not even she’s prepared for how FAST she’s about to lay them down. . .oh, that’ll be fun to come back to on Wednesday. XD
YouTube: I am pleased to say I managed to indeed catch up on my GrayStillPlays videos from the Subs –
A) “When giant sharks eat humanity,” aka Gray plays the shark levels of Tasty Planet Forever, a game where you are apparently a bunch of sea creatures fighting back against pollution by eating everything in the damn ocean. XD Gray previously played an octopus getting fat on trash – today’s levels featured a tiny shark getting fat on fish, coral, sea urchins, ducks and geese, otters, spear fishermen, other sharks, humpback whales, boats, planes, and whole log cabin “villages.” XD Gray’s delight in making his shark grow and grow until it was basically the size of Milwaukee was honestly cute in a dark way – and to his credit, he didn’t want to eat the adorable otters, he just HAD to because that was the game. :p I look forward to seeing more levels of this in the future!
B) “Testing Cars vs LARGEST Gaps in GTA 5,” aka another Alex Torture Board in – well, GTA V. XD This one was seeing which of a given selection of cars could conquer all of Alex’s weird-ass gaps, starting with “Geometry Gaps” (gaps shaped like L-pieces, triangles, or just had a big old block slightly higher than the gap itself in the middle), and then progressing through “Ball Gaps” (one gap with lots of soccer balls bouncing in it like popcorn, and another with two rotating bowling balls you had to ramp off of to make the gap), “Giant Gap” (a gap made out of one of those giant people art installations, with a gap in the person’s chest and two rapidly-vibrating balls on either side ready to punt cheaters straight across the map), “Explosive Gaps” (with a helicopter dumping explosive barrels down one gap, and a gas tank affixed to the edge of the other, with two helicopters shooting rockets at each other just next to it), “Gap Buffet” (a gap where you could either jump the middle or do a rim ride on the curved bit around the side, and a timed course where teleporters kept appearing and disappearing on top of a bunch of platforms, and you had to make it across all the platforms in the ten seconds they were gone), “Widening Gaps” (essentially a bunch of ramp “dominoes” set farther and farther apart, so that unsuspecting cars either slipped down the bigger gaps or got yeeted off when the car hit a gap wrong), “Large Gap” (just one really big gap in the road), and “Wet Gap” (the only gap after a checkpoint, mostly because said checkpoint teleported you to the ocean where you had to jump a gap across a broken boat while avoiding the churning waves and the crate dumping random cars into the sea, then squeeze past a dead whale and the stairwell on the other side to reach the finish). Gray was allowed to use any car repeatedly until it blew up – which, uh, caused him NO end of problems in the “Explosive Gaps,” mostly because, well, cars kept blowing up as he hit the tanker. That gap was basically his endpoint for most of the run, with even fan favorites such as the Wastelander falling to it. He ALMOST made it in a lovely cherry red car, but the winning car proved to have a horrendous purple-and-blue paint job, a good top speed, a propensity for ejecting Gray through the windshield every time it crashed, and just enough room to slip through the final gaps – the perfect combination for a Florida Man driving himself insane for YouTube views! XD We appreciate it, Gray.
Workout: Another night on the bike, another night with Oxventure: Legacy of Dragons – “Mist Opportunity!” Having discovered Mistmire and Le Dragon D’Or’s secret – namely, there is a golden dragon kept prisoner under the order’s keep, and the heat from its body is being used to power the entire citadel, and it sounds like what Egbert did to get kicked out from the order was try to free it – and voiced their objections to this, Dob pointed out that one very important voice hadn’t been heard – the dragon’s. What did IT want? Corazon pointed out that it was pretty easy to tell from the tremors, but agreed that it would be nice to get confirmation. Shattershield said that the dragon hadn’t spoken to them in quite some time, but Egbert (who does speak Draconic) was willing to give it a go. He approached the head of the dragon slowly and carefully, and greeted it with all due respect –
And the dragon raised its head and replied, saying it remembered Egbert from the last time. Corazon, wanting to understand what was being said, quickly cast Comprehend Languages – Dob, meanwhile, thought it would be cooler to just hear the conversation in Draconic and get the deets when Egbert went back to Common. (Subs not dubs and all. XD) Egbert asked the dragon what all the tremors were about, and the dragon explained it could feel another gold dragon in the world. Egbert confirmed there was a gold egg and asked what the dragon wanted – it declared that it would in fact like its freedom; that while the time it had spent imprisoned here meant less to it than it might to the members of the Order, it missed the feel of the wind in its wings. Egbert then asked about the golden egg and the best thing to do with it – the dragon admitted it wasn’t sure. It was willing to look after the hatchling once it did hatch, but said that it would need to hunt and roam, and thus wouldn’t be able to look after it all the time. And the hatchling WOULD need protection. Egbert thanked it and relayed the information to the others (noting that Shattershield, who understood Draconic, was looking thoughtful and maybe just a little bit ashamed). The gang agreed that they definitely wanted THIS dragon freed, but admitted that they weren’t sure about the egg – Dob pointed out that they could still try to find its mother, and failing that, maybe they could get Le Dragon D’Or to set up elsewhere and look after it in a setting where it would still be free to be a dragon – turn them into proper conservationists instead of prison guards. They talked to Shattershield about what should be done next, and he said that they definitely had to summon the council (sending Adededuh to tell them). He agreed that they should probably hold the actual meeting in the morning, after a good night’s sleep and some breakfast –
Allowing Dob, under the guise of wanting to fill out an autograph book, to ask who the council members even were. Shattershield confirmed he was on the council (and gave Dob an autograph, which turned into a bit of a thing as he and Corazon went back and forth about what Shattershield should sign), and gave them the names of the other four – Drysdale, Rowan, Hammerfist, and –
CHAUNCEY. Everyone was surprised and kinda pleased that old squeaky-voice had done so well for himself, and Shattershield very grumpily said that he had climbed the ranks and that he was also just back from his honeymoon. Having married Lady Fyengh – pronounced “Venga,” as in “the Venga bus is coming~” XD (If I recall correctly, she and her troupe were part of “Quiet Riot,” the adventure where the gang originally saved Inkwater – them trying to get her wheels fixed up was what kicked off the adventure.) And it was all great and everyone was happy and no he’s not bitter, how about you give your warmest regards to minding your own business, Dob? XD (Dob was actually so impressed by the burn that he tried to get Shattershield to sign another autograph with THAT.) The gang decided not to press too much and instead get themselves and the eggs set up in some quarters for the night. They ended up in one of the little mini-apartment suites that the various Dragon D’Or teams live in – four or five bedrooms off of one main common room where they can eat and meet – and met for a little conference around the table. After confirming that their aims were “get the gold dragon under the city free” and “see if we can get Le Dragon D’Or on-board with protecting the gold egg and the resultant hatchling in a less prison-guardy way,” the gang decided the thing to do was to talk to each of the four remaining council members and see if they could sway their votes. Corazon promptly volunteered to handle Chauncey, as he felt he knew the guy pretty well from their previous adventure here; Dob agreed to take Hammerfist on the basis of “you seemed excited about his name;” and Merilwen took Rowan because it sounded the most elfy, leaving Egbert with Drysdale.
And so the group split up! Egbert headed straight to Drysdale’s quarters, making an ATTEMPT at stealth (aka, not slapping his feet so hard against the floor), and tried to listen at the wall to see what was going on inside. A really poor Wisdom/Perception check meant that he heard nothing, so he just strolled right on in –
Interrupting a dinner Drysdale was having with some other paladins. One of whom was so disgusted upon seeing Egbert that they just got up and walked out. Egbert immediately sat down and started eating the leftover food. XD He told Drysdale that he had something to talk to him about privately after dinner, and Drysdale VERY reluctantly let him stay (where he proceeded to absolutely hoover up the food, even moving to another seat after another dining paladin decided they were done with this nonsense). Once the meal was over and the other paladins been dismissed, Egbert laid out his case, explaining about the golden egg and that he’d actually talked to the gold dragon and that it wanted its freedom. Drysdale was very disinclined to believe him, pointing out that one of HIS paladins had been – killed? Injured? SOMETHING – when Egbert did what he did, but Egbert pleaded that the order had to change, because the current ways weren’t working. If nothing else, Drysdale could see the citadel was falling apart! Johnny called for a contested Charisma check, and rolled an eighteen for Drysdale –
And Egbert rolled a nat 20. Basically the ONLY thing that could have made Drysdale listen to him. Drysdale very reluctantly said that if Shattershield could back up his ridiculous story of having spoken to the dragon, he would vote to free it. But he also said that if he ever saw Egbert again after this mess, he would kill him. Egbert couldn’t help saying “well Shattershield said they might let me rejoin” before fleeing when Drysdale told him to get out. XD Such a troll, Egbert. . .though ooh, we’re definitely getting some dark backstory vibes here. . .
Cut to Corazon, who found Chauncey’s rooms, snuck into his quarters easily, discovered him and his new bride sound asleep after much partying (as Lady Fyengh does like to party), and promptly started trying to kidnap him because his big plan was to impersonate Chauncey at the council meeting. XD “Pirate diplomacy,” as Mike put it. XD I left it with him having succesfully started levering Chauncey out of bed, because dude DRUNK, y’all. XD We’ll see how this goes, and how the other two Oxventurers handle their respective council members, tomorrow!
Other: Well, it actually dried out some today – the sun was shining, anyway – so despite some really strong winds, we ended up playing a few rounds of our beanbag game! And it was actually almost all nice and equal today, with each of us winning once (despite Mom getting struck on threes a lot and the wind trying to take our beanbags). :) Final scores were me W-3-2; Dad 2-2-W; Mom 3-W-3. Not too shabby!
Yeah, pretty nice final day off! Too bad I have to ruin it by going back to work tomorrow. :p Ah well, at least it's a short week -- and thanks to various holidays, it's actually gonna be a short week every other week for this whole month. I'll take it! But for now, bed -- night all, happy May Day!
