Meeeh Tuesday

Wasn't great (weather was hazy with smoke thanks to the Canadian wildfires, and we had some passing thunder, as will be elaborated on below), but wasn't the worst either -- and I did get some stuff done:

Work – One of those kind-of-annoying days, I fear – the morning was all right, if a bit boring, but when I went to get my lunch and found that someone had, once again, not pushed back the Brita water jug far enough and that the fridge was full of water because it was leaking, things went downhill. *sigh* Had a couple of calls (one a very rude lady who seemed irritated by the idea of us having a lunch break; the other a woman who somehow found an old page for online giving because apparently we don’t deactivate those, meaning her gift was under an old year), dealt with some last-minute gifts coming in, and just general tension around the office after Rude Lady’s call. *sigh* Oh, and it SORT OF thunderstormed this afternoon – at the very least, it looked like it was gonna pour any second on the ride home, and it kept thundering once I actually GOT home – but it only spit some rain, and we never actually got the proper “storm” part of it. Still kept us away from beanbags and me off my computer this afternoon! I don’t approve. >(

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with the Oxventure Live Show “Knight Shift!” Corazon’s attempts to kick the third goblin in the starting room of the dungeon (who, Johnny explicitly said, was loving all this random mayhem) resulted in him and Merilwen playing a brief round of “goblin volleyball,” wherein he kicked it to her and she tried and failed to volley it back. The goblin got off with a broken hip and yielded, and Algernon accepted its surrender. Dob promptly told the little guy to get going while he distracted Merilwen. Merilwen was like “guys I’m not gonna murder this creature, it’s not running off to tell our hated archenemy where we are” and everyone was like “yes, good, avoid the murder” – at least until Algernon said there was some sort of regenerative effect in the dungeon (only works on the monsters though) and thus these goblins always came back. And then everyone was like “okay you can do a murder Merilwen.” XD Leading Algernon to conclude they were a “no mercy” kind of group and Moonbeam the limping goblin. XD Merilwen was like “you slaughter a bunch of fleeing enemies ONE TIME,” while Prudence was like “yes good I approve of this goblin murder Algie.” XD

Anyway, with the goblins dealt with, the group proceeded to the next room – which proved to be a puzzle room! Dob was immediately like “I’m out” and sat down to play backing music with his lute. XD The others decided to actually try and had a look around – the main features of the room were a door shaped like an enormous snake (the actual DOOR part being its mouth); three sockets around said door that you might be able to stick circular amulets into; and three tables with four circular amulets on them each – one set with a weather theme, one set with a locations theme, and one set with an animal theme. Corazon quickly came to the conclusion that, to open the door, they had to put in the amulets representing things snakes would enjoy. He immediately grabbed the flat rock (for lying on) from the location amulets, and the mouse (for eating) from the animal amulets, but was briefly stumped by the weather amulets. Fortunately, Egbert was on-hand to remind him that snakes are cold-blooded and like sunbathing, so the sunny amulet should be correct. Corazon was willing to trust Egbert’s opinion on this (after all, he’s pretty reptilian himself, and does a lot of nude sunbathing) and grabbed the sun amulet for Algernon to slot into the door –

And presto, door open! In, uh, much less time than Johnny intended. XD Dob was informed of the puzzle being solved and invited to go first into the next room – which turned out to be a hallway with a wibbly floor! Nothing dangerous, just the floor wobbled from side to side as you tried to walk across it – like something you might find in a funhouse! Algernon actually confessed to liking this one and crossed it with some sensible chuckles, telling the others to have fun. Dob promptly proceeded to have a bit TOO much fun running around and ended up slightly concussed (or at least too dizzy by the wobbling to tell the difference). Prudence followed Algernon in having a respectable amount of fun, and looked good doing it, while Egbert deliberately had a DISRESPECTFUL amount of fun, rolled low, and came out rather more concussed than Dob. Corazon attempted to disarm the wiggly board traps as he went, but a poor roll meant he accidentally catapulted himself to the other side of the room and ended up ironically concussed against Algernon’s breast plate, leaving an image of himself in its shininess. XD And Merilwen, after watching all of this, attempted to follow Prudence’s example and did ALMOST as well – just having a scary moment where she thought she might turn her ankle. :p With that, the group proceeded into the next room –

Which was pitch black. Fortunately, those with darkvision (everyone but Corazon and Algernon) were able to fill in the gaps, seeing that it was a horrible circular room full of grates and chains like a fighting pit. Well, I say “circular” – Johnny accidentally called it “spherical” at first, and nobody let them live it down. Prudence in particular told Corazon it was spherical as a joke, and as Corazon was ironically concussed, he had to believe her. XD Algernon, however, actually recognized this spot – turns out its where a certain annoying bird-man-creature lives, with a head like an angry spoonbill and super-long, super-stretchy arms. And a terrible sonic attack. Corazon cast Dancing Lights so Algernon could actually see his opponent, and everyone took a moment to try and stopper up their ears somehow so the sonic attack wouldn’t affect them when they went into combat. Everyone did a great job at this except for Dob, who ended up making sort of wax prosthetic elf ears that strongly amplified sound and were mildly offensive.

. . .Guess which bird-man-creature got to go first. XD It let loose with an extremely annoying shriek – fortunately poor Dob only took a few points of screaming damage (he did point out previously that, as a bard, he DOES play a lot of loud music. . .). Egbert then stepped in to grab one elastic arm, pull it forward, and then snap it back to hit the bird in the face – it worked, but only did a small amount of damage, possibly because the bird is at least somewhat used to this happening. Merilwen stepped in and forewent Moonbeaming it to try and shoot it with her fancy bow – unfortunately, she rolled poorly, and ended up just putting an arrow into one fist and making that particular fist more dangerous. This is why she keeps to spells, people! Dob indicated Corazon should go next, to sword the monster – Corazon tried, but the bird got out of the way just in time. So annoying. . .Dob, for his part, tried Shattering it from a third-level spell slot – he pulled it off, but rolled a mere ten on the damage, so the bird-man-creature actually ended up ENJOYING it a bit, trying to glean inspiration from the noise. Whoops. Prudence decided it was time to go for a tried and true classic and Agonizing Blasted it – as usual, she only hit with one beam, and unfortunately didn’t do a HUGE amount of damage – but she DID manage to wrap it up in one of its own arms, which got pinned in place thanks to the arrow sticking out of that fist. (Merilwen was like “I helped! :D” XD) This just left Algernon to actually deal a decent blow to the monster –

Aaaand he promptly accidentally threw away his sword. Whoops. XD Fortunately, after a not-great attack by the bird, this brought us around to Egbert again, who decided to keep the Looney Tunes train going and wrap the bird-man’s legs up in its other elongated elastic arm (all while Corazon looked longingly at Egbert’s so-rarely-used cursed mace). He did succeed, but we’ll learn how WELL he actually succeeded tomorrow! Ah, fun times in the dungeon. . .

2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice, now very grumpy that she’s stuck in the mansion of an old-timey Malkavian psychiatrist, has made her way into the library and found the candle puzzle (after knocking out the ghoul playing with it – she’s trying to be nice and not commit too much murder). She’s also found the hint to said candle puzzle, and the Weekapaug Thistle, a magical item that helps deflect damage when carried (aka, it adds one to your Defense stat in the game). That’ll be handy! Now all Alice has to do is find the solution to the puzzle. . .or brute force it, as it’s not a hard one. We’ll see what path she picks on Thursday! XD

3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Half check – writing “Londerland Bloodlines” stories always takes a while, so I only had time for GrayStillPlays tonight, with “When you swallow a child whole” and more Happy Wheels! :D We started with a combination bottle flip (with multiple wins that could be gotten via dismembered body parts) and sword throw (where landing in the starting area was the hardest part), then progressed though a cube run (like a bottle run except it’s a collapsing bridge of cubes – proved to be quite hard!); a board where Gray had to smash through someone’s house to find and kill a mob boss (and then avoid his floor-mounted crossbow); a board where he had to get yeeted through a thumbnail hole via windmill (his two favorite things! Also if he got to the hole but didn’t make it through fast enough he’d be impaled by spikes); a truly terrifying pogo fight where Gray had to pogo pirates, a neighbor, an innocent man holding a floor of spikes, and a snake made of blades (the floor of spikes proved to be the most difficult to get through as it could hold Gray captive); a training board for someone named Aria showcasing some classic Happy Wheels challenges (spike fall, harpoon run, spike ceiling bumps, and a jet fall – plus a cheat win for anyone who wasn’t Aria); a gray rope swing with a ride on a conveyor belt (not that Gray could remember those words for the longest time) and a swing into nothingness (fortunately in the nothingness was the win); a demolition derby where Gray had to smash his way through the NPC competition, a number of other cars, and a train full of children (which was so well done I thought it was Dylan Snider’s board!); and a trip through the intestinal tract of a Karen, where Gray had to ball-wall his way through the peas, jump through the internal blades processing the corn, ride the Off-Brand Tootsie Roll conveyor, break his way through the weird spiky fruit, maneuver under the spiky M&Ms, and survive the spike fall into the colon (he ended up in pieces by the end, but he DID manage it – and THIS was Dylan’s actual board). Fun times in the land of horrific maimings, as always! XD

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got all seven of the Chill Valicer Save update posts into the Victor Luvs Alice queue for tomorrow, and a thread reply (different partner doing a thread with Victor and her Van Dort daughter Lily – it’s in a verse where Victor, Victoria, and Alice live in a blended, poly family with their two daughters Madeline and Lily) on Valice Multiverse. Hooray, that’s all done!

Oh, and a bonus – got Ace’s latest FF.net PM answered yesterday, and Moose’s latest messages answered today. Hooray, THOSE are all done! XD

And with that, I'm up too late again, so it's time to head to bed and prepare to do it all again tomorrow. :p Night all!