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And Back To Really Late Updates
Jan. 5th, 2023 11:52 pmTo be fair to me, I was answering Moose's latest messages tonight, so. . . Also, it was a not-great day, as seen below:
Work – UGH. Today was – not fun. Shitty commute in, I had an error in the antivirus on my work computer that kept me in limbo for half an hour (and then in semi-limbo for about another half-hour as I did what work I could while waiting for it to be fixed), I had to sit through a long memorial for the ex-Pope over what should have been my lunch hour (I was masked the whole time, and stayed in the back, but STILL) and then had a very late lunch, and then I had a call with the Give Central person, and while she’s TRYING to be helpful most of the stuff I’ve noticed as being a problem is stuff she has to talk to HER supervisor about, and he’s NOTORIOUSLY difficult to reach. . .plus I learned that stuff I thought was just normal for the system was stuff that confused HER, so. . .and a shitty ride back just sealed the deal. *huffs* It really does not take long to lose the good feelings from the long break, let me tell you.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight, and back with Live Oxventure “Let’s Get Fiscal!” Now that I’ve figured out what’s going on, anyway – and what’s going on is a tax dungeon so the Oxventurers can file an extension on their G’eth IRS audit! Fuddlestuff led them into the Dungeon of Temporary Extensions (chortling over Egbert asking if there was one of “Permanent Extensions”) via a secret door in the back of the pub, leading into a super-dark passage below where the wine cellar should be! Luke’s attempts to make it kinda scary were immediately foiled by most of the party having Darkvision. XD (Not that this stopped them from initially trying to make a conga line of sorts. . .) Merilwen deduced there were no traps, and the gang went up to the stone pillar at the other end, which rose to reveal a gap into the next room! The group went through (Prudence initially tried to hang back and let the others be guinea pigs, but Fuddlestuff informed her that the door was automatic and she’d be crushed), and found themselves facing The Test of Organization! Which was a room with a big old pit in it, a central “spine,” and – balanced along this spine – a trio of seesaws! It took me a minute to figure out this room, so allow me to clarify now that the seesaws were PARALLEL to the pits’ edges – the bit that was going across like a tightrope was their pivot bar. Which was covered in fearsome spikes so the group couldn’t just walk across. Fuddlestuff said that they had to make it across while organizing themselves appropriately to leap from seesaw to seesaw –
Cue Corazon asking Egbert if he could just teleport across. XD And Egbert, uncharacteristically, asking how big the pit was. 35 feet across, apparently – just five feet shy of his teleport range with Misty Step! Egbert decided to try a running jump and go for it anyway – only to roll a crit 1 and fall over his shoelaces (even though I’m pretty sure Egbert doesn’t even have shoes!) and into the pit. Corazon quickly cast Featherfall on him, and as it turned out the pit DID have a handy portal system at the bottom to spit people back up onto the ledge – probably because it’s a dungeon for people looking to FILE PAPERWORK, so they don’t want it to be too deadly. So Egbert only took 14 points of damage for smacking his head. XD Fortunately, Merilwen had already figured out that the idea was they had to balance themselves appropriately on each side of the seesaws to keep them level and good for jumping, and even though Egbert – being a giant dragon-man in full plate – was heavy, she figured Bearilwen would balance him nicely. Prudence tucked Fuddlestuff under her arm like a football, and Luke had them all roll Acrobatics for their initial jump, saying that they’d planned it out so well in the end (with them thinking of things like “if the heavier people shuffle toward the fulcrum, we’ll be fine) that he’d keep it easy – just beat a three. Which they all did handily. He also didn’t make them roll for the subsequent jumps (gotta keep the adventure moving! And you don’t make characters roll if you aren’t prepared for the consequences of failure), allowing them to just get across with their well-timed jumps and out the other side. And on the other side was a stone pillar door –
Leading into party town! Seriously, it was a super-bright room painted to look like a beach, complete with a sandy floor and a bit of fake ocean. And a bunch of kobolds hanging out by a fire pit, playing chill music and eating sliders and having nice umbrella drinks. Everyone was like “is this a simulation of a tax haven like the Cayman Islands?” XD Corazon initially thought the test was about downing sliders (and promptly volunteered Egbert as their champion), but Prudence, upon being told the test was one of Spine, correctly guessed it was a limbo contest! Though they were allowed to eat sliders and have umbrella drinks first (to the point where Fuddlestuff ended up rather drunk). XD Eventually, though, the test began, with the kobolds excitedly taking out their limbo kit and chanting “SPINE! SPINE!” (with only one reluctantly going back to the drums to do the music after Corazon asked about it). Corazon volunteered to go first while the bar was at its highest (“nipple height” is a thing Luke actually said), and rolled so high on his Acrobatics that he basically folded himself in half. XD The bar was then lowered about a foot, and Egbert quickly volunteered himself to go next before things got more complicated. He did not roll well, and said that probably his slider-extended belly was brushing the pole – however, Corazon quickly got it with Mage Hand and held it JUST high enough for Egbert to get under. The kobolds were a mite suspicious, but let this pass and lowered the pole. Prudence went next, and ALMOST made it, only for her horns to snag the pole at the last moment and drag it with her as she stood up. The kobolds began angrily demanding a redo (complete with more sinister drumming), and Prudence called for an emergency huddle. Corazon said if she distracted everyone, he could get the pole and Minor Illusion up one for her to limbo under.
Cue Prudence doing some very swanky hula (thanks to her Charisma bonuses), and Corazon himself getting distracted briefly before stealing the pole, burying it in the sand, and putting an illusory pole there. Prudence redid her limbo, her horns passing harmlessly through the imaginary pole – the kobolds were again suspicious, but again let it pass. Mostly because Prudence then began krunking to distract them while Corazon put the regular pole back. Fortunately the fact that Jane has no idea how to krunk was not an issue, as she rolled a nat 20 and managed to confuse the kobolds long enough for the switch to be made. XD The kobolds lowered the pole a final time, and Merilwen stepped up –
And turned into a duck. XD I thought she was gonna be an octopus, but I guess she does turn into a rather LARGE one. . .anyway, she waddled under with her neck bent backward. The kobolds hastily consulted their rulebook, but apparently there ain’t no rule about becoming a duck. XD Merilwen went for a fake swim in the fake sea, and the gang proceeded on to the next room!
Which entirely lacked party vibes, and was instead made up of horrible hard math vibes, as according to Fuddlestuff, they’d reached The Maze. Which contained the form they sought, but first they have to get to it. And you know it’s gonna be tough if the official G’eth IRS agent is a little scared of it! We’ll see how the Oxventurers handle it tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland:” Check – Alice just successfully murdered Boris! WHILE showing him the fake blood packets she and Venus used to trick him, because she can be a bit of a vindictive bitch when she wants to be. XD Of course, upon completing the job, she had to figure out how to keep the heat off Venus. . .Wonderland has suggested pretending she was actually an assassin sent by someone else, and she thinks she’s come up with a way to get Dima thinking that while also getting past him at just the right moment with Obfuscate. We’ll see how it goes later!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – have caught up on my missed Call Me Kevin video from yesterday, “Stardew Valley but I only have a tiny farm!” Yes, Kevin is back to playing Stardew Valley challenges, and the challenge this time was to make a nice farm out of EXTREMELY limited space, with the help of a “tiny farm” mod he found. Even HERMIT got more space than this! But Kevin was determined to not only have a profitable but a pretty farm, and so got to work clearing the land and trying to make something that worked – in only one year, at that! It was a bit of a slog – his first few fields of crops had to be hand/rain-watered because he couldn’t get the stuff for sprinklers (and when he DID get far enough in the mines to get the ores he needed, he had to do some very strange layouts to try and make things efficient); it took him a full week to figure out how to make a scarecrow; he kept forgetting to lay down his homemade sap fertilizer before planting his crops; and his attempts to find good stuff to donate to Gunther’s museum led to him finding like five million chicken statues. And he tried to murder Robin a couple of times randomly with an ax. But he kept at it, and his hard work started to pay off – he started selling bigger and better crops at Pierre’s place; he got down nice and deep in the mines and started finding the good ores; he got a better pickaxe which allowed him to break up the boulders taking up space on his tiny farm; he figure out how to fit a chicken coop next to his house and put a couple of chickens on there; he started turning the little patch behind his house into a cute forest; and he figured out how to make preserve jars so he could start making the fancy artisanal goods, where the REAL money lies. Also he constantly taunted JoJo Mart with a potential membership but never actually got one, as far as I know. XD By the end, he had a nice little patch of crops in front of his personal bat cave; a nice chicken coop to the right of his house with chickens; and a cute little fire pit in front of his property! And he was making fairly decent money too. I’d say, mission accomplished! :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got an ask reply and a video from my friend Marie’s boyfriend’s band in my Valice Multiverse queue. I’ll have to catch up with Victor Luvs Alice tomorrow for Song Saturday!
At least I got a few things done, but yeah -- not a great Thursday at all. *sigh* And I've still got one more day to get through. . .a day that's predicted to have rain and wet snow. *grumbles* Hopefully it'll go by quick. . .night all!
Work – UGH. Today was – not fun. Shitty commute in, I had an error in the antivirus on my work computer that kept me in limbo for half an hour (and then in semi-limbo for about another half-hour as I did what work I could while waiting for it to be fixed), I had to sit through a long memorial for the ex-Pope over what should have been my lunch hour (I was masked the whole time, and stayed in the back, but STILL) and then had a very late lunch, and then I had a call with the Give Central person, and while she’s TRYING to be helpful most of the stuff I’ve noticed as being a problem is stuff she has to talk to HER supervisor about, and he’s NOTORIOUSLY difficult to reach. . .plus I learned that stuff I thought was just normal for the system was stuff that confused HER, so. . .and a shitty ride back just sealed the deal. *huffs* It really does not take long to lose the good feelings from the long break, let me tell you.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight, and back with Live Oxventure “Let’s Get Fiscal!” Now that I’ve figured out what’s going on, anyway – and what’s going on is a tax dungeon so the Oxventurers can file an extension on their G’eth IRS audit! Fuddlestuff led them into the Dungeon of Temporary Extensions (chortling over Egbert asking if there was one of “Permanent Extensions”) via a secret door in the back of the pub, leading into a super-dark passage below where the wine cellar should be! Luke’s attempts to make it kinda scary were immediately foiled by most of the party having Darkvision. XD (Not that this stopped them from initially trying to make a conga line of sorts. . .) Merilwen deduced there were no traps, and the gang went up to the stone pillar at the other end, which rose to reveal a gap into the next room! The group went through (Prudence initially tried to hang back and let the others be guinea pigs, but Fuddlestuff informed her that the door was automatic and she’d be crushed), and found themselves facing The Test of Organization! Which was a room with a big old pit in it, a central “spine,” and – balanced along this spine – a trio of seesaws! It took me a minute to figure out this room, so allow me to clarify now that the seesaws were PARALLEL to the pits’ edges – the bit that was going across like a tightrope was their pivot bar. Which was covered in fearsome spikes so the group couldn’t just walk across. Fuddlestuff said that they had to make it across while organizing themselves appropriately to leap from seesaw to seesaw –
Cue Corazon asking Egbert if he could just teleport across. XD And Egbert, uncharacteristically, asking how big the pit was. 35 feet across, apparently – just five feet shy of his teleport range with Misty Step! Egbert decided to try a running jump and go for it anyway – only to roll a crit 1 and fall over his shoelaces (even though I’m pretty sure Egbert doesn’t even have shoes!) and into the pit. Corazon quickly cast Featherfall on him, and as it turned out the pit DID have a handy portal system at the bottom to spit people back up onto the ledge – probably because it’s a dungeon for people looking to FILE PAPERWORK, so they don’t want it to be too deadly. So Egbert only took 14 points of damage for smacking his head. XD Fortunately, Merilwen had already figured out that the idea was they had to balance themselves appropriately on each side of the seesaws to keep them level and good for jumping, and even though Egbert – being a giant dragon-man in full plate – was heavy, she figured Bearilwen would balance him nicely. Prudence tucked Fuddlestuff under her arm like a football, and Luke had them all roll Acrobatics for their initial jump, saying that they’d planned it out so well in the end (with them thinking of things like “if the heavier people shuffle toward the fulcrum, we’ll be fine) that he’d keep it easy – just beat a three. Which they all did handily. He also didn’t make them roll for the subsequent jumps (gotta keep the adventure moving! And you don’t make characters roll if you aren’t prepared for the consequences of failure), allowing them to just get across with their well-timed jumps and out the other side. And on the other side was a stone pillar door –
Leading into party town! Seriously, it was a super-bright room painted to look like a beach, complete with a sandy floor and a bit of fake ocean. And a bunch of kobolds hanging out by a fire pit, playing chill music and eating sliders and having nice umbrella drinks. Everyone was like “is this a simulation of a tax haven like the Cayman Islands?” XD Corazon initially thought the test was about downing sliders (and promptly volunteered Egbert as their champion), but Prudence, upon being told the test was one of Spine, correctly guessed it was a limbo contest! Though they were allowed to eat sliders and have umbrella drinks first (to the point where Fuddlestuff ended up rather drunk). XD Eventually, though, the test began, with the kobolds excitedly taking out their limbo kit and chanting “SPINE! SPINE!” (with only one reluctantly going back to the drums to do the music after Corazon asked about it). Corazon volunteered to go first while the bar was at its highest (“nipple height” is a thing Luke actually said), and rolled so high on his Acrobatics that he basically folded himself in half. XD The bar was then lowered about a foot, and Egbert quickly volunteered himself to go next before things got more complicated. He did not roll well, and said that probably his slider-extended belly was brushing the pole – however, Corazon quickly got it with Mage Hand and held it JUST high enough for Egbert to get under. The kobolds were a mite suspicious, but let this pass and lowered the pole. Prudence went next, and ALMOST made it, only for her horns to snag the pole at the last moment and drag it with her as she stood up. The kobolds began angrily demanding a redo (complete with more sinister drumming), and Prudence called for an emergency huddle. Corazon said if she distracted everyone, he could get the pole and Minor Illusion up one for her to limbo under.
Cue Prudence doing some very swanky hula (thanks to her Charisma bonuses), and Corazon himself getting distracted briefly before stealing the pole, burying it in the sand, and putting an illusory pole there. Prudence redid her limbo, her horns passing harmlessly through the imaginary pole – the kobolds were again suspicious, but again let it pass. Mostly because Prudence then began krunking to distract them while Corazon put the regular pole back. Fortunately the fact that Jane has no idea how to krunk was not an issue, as she rolled a nat 20 and managed to confuse the kobolds long enough for the switch to be made. XD The kobolds lowered the pole a final time, and Merilwen stepped up –
And turned into a duck. XD I thought she was gonna be an octopus, but I guess she does turn into a rather LARGE one. . .anyway, she waddled under with her neck bent backward. The kobolds hastily consulted their rulebook, but apparently there ain’t no rule about becoming a duck. XD Merilwen went for a fake swim in the fake sea, and the gang proceeded on to the next room!
Which entirely lacked party vibes, and was instead made up of horrible hard math vibes, as according to Fuddlestuff, they’d reached The Maze. Which contained the form they sought, but first they have to get to it. And you know it’s gonna be tough if the official G’eth IRS agent is a little scared of it! We’ll see how the Oxventurers handle it tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland:” Check – Alice just successfully murdered Boris! WHILE showing him the fake blood packets she and Venus used to trick him, because she can be a bit of a vindictive bitch when she wants to be. XD Of course, upon completing the job, she had to figure out how to keep the heat off Venus. . .Wonderland has suggested pretending she was actually an assassin sent by someone else, and she thinks she’s come up with a way to get Dima thinking that while also getting past him at just the right moment with Obfuscate. We’ll see how it goes later!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – have caught up on my missed Call Me Kevin video from yesterday, “Stardew Valley but I only have a tiny farm!” Yes, Kevin is back to playing Stardew Valley challenges, and the challenge this time was to make a nice farm out of EXTREMELY limited space, with the help of a “tiny farm” mod he found. Even HERMIT got more space than this! But Kevin was determined to not only have a profitable but a pretty farm, and so got to work clearing the land and trying to make something that worked – in only one year, at that! It was a bit of a slog – his first few fields of crops had to be hand/rain-watered because he couldn’t get the stuff for sprinklers (and when he DID get far enough in the mines to get the ores he needed, he had to do some very strange layouts to try and make things efficient); it took him a full week to figure out how to make a scarecrow; he kept forgetting to lay down his homemade sap fertilizer before planting his crops; and his attempts to find good stuff to donate to Gunther’s museum led to him finding like five million chicken statues. And he tried to murder Robin a couple of times randomly with an ax. But he kept at it, and his hard work started to pay off – he started selling bigger and better crops at Pierre’s place; he got down nice and deep in the mines and started finding the good ores; he got a better pickaxe which allowed him to break up the boulders taking up space on his tiny farm; he figure out how to fit a chicken coop next to his house and put a couple of chickens on there; he started turning the little patch behind his house into a cute forest; and he figured out how to make preserve jars so he could start making the fancy artisanal goods, where the REAL money lies. Also he constantly taunted JoJo Mart with a potential membership but never actually got one, as far as I know. XD By the end, he had a nice little patch of crops in front of his personal bat cave; a nice chicken coop to the right of his house with chickens; and a cute little fire pit in front of his property! And he was making fairly decent money too. I’d say, mission accomplished! :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got an ask reply and a video from my friend Marie’s boyfriend’s band in my Valice Multiverse queue. I’ll have to catch up with Victor Luvs Alice tomorrow for Song Saturday!
At least I got a few things done, but yeah -- not a great Thursday at all. *sigh* And I've still got one more day to get through. . .a day that's predicted to have rain and wet snow. *grumbles* Hopefully it'll go by quick. . .night all!
