All Right Wednesday

I mean, the weather remains not-great thanks to all the smoke coming down from poor on-fire Canada, but in terms of what actually happened today, I can't complain --

Work – All right day I suppose – as one of my coworkers was out for personal stuff, I spent most of the morning doing the GL and helping the other coworker puzzle out some gifts that had had to be split up weird, then the afternoon was largely doing a QC file for the next remit and cleaning up a handful of duplicates. Oh, and updating one recurring gift. *shrug* I can’t actually complain! And tomorrow I only have to be there for four hours thanks to my dentist appointment. . . Still no beanbags thanks to poor air quality and it constantly looking like it’s going to rain but not raining. I suspect we will not be doing any games until this weekend because, well, this is basically the weather forecast until the end of the week. Meh.

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, finishing (to my own surprise) Oxventure Live Show “Knight Shift!” I thought it was gonna take up four nights, not three – but on the other hand, I am doing some longer workouts every other day now, so. . . (Plus I DID have to watch the last five minutes after supper.) Anyway, picked up with Egbert successfully tying up the annoying bird-man-creature in his own elastic fists, and the others encouraging Algernon to finish it off – which he did. Very violently. Like, there was so much chopping with the sword. Dob had to use Calm Emotions to get the guy to chill out. He apologized, explaining that he finds this stupid bird-man-creature VERY annoying, which, fair. (Prudence once again complimented him on his horrifying murder skills.) The gang told him to take that energy and move into the next room with it –

Only to find a giant gelatinous cube within it! Which Algernon was actually quite happy to see – and when the others were like “what” he explained that it’s actually a benign cube and serves as a place to pick up lunch! And indeed, along with the requisite scrub weapons and skeleton, there were a bunch of paper bags and such floating within it to pull out and enjoy. Egbert, being Egbert, decided to eat some of the cube itself (it tasted of lime, and thanks to a decent Constitution saving throw, didn’t hurt him), while Prudence, who’d always wondered what it was like in a gelatinous cube, climbed in to see. Turns out, when it’s not dissolving your flesh with acid, it’s quite nice! There’s even internal currents that you can drift around in. Everyone except Corazon immediately joined Prudence in floating, Dob specifying that he was bouncing around like a classic animated DVD menu. XD An annoyed Corazon retaliated by setting his language to Norwegian. XD

Anyway, the group enjoyed a long rest to regenerate their (poorly used) spell slots, then Corazon went and scouted out the next room, spotting some strange great automatons waiting in there. He reported to the others, who finally got out of the cube (telling him how great it was and prompting him to fill a wine-skin with cube for later) and crowded around the doorway. Algernon recognized the room and explained (via hand-crossbow bolt) that these automatons are impervious to physical damage until you find their weakness, but said weakness changes every time. Merilwen decided to see if it was flame that they feared this time with Create Flame – nope. Prudence tried blasting them with some Agonizing Blast – it didn’t explode them, but it did make them very sick. Corazon then tried splatting one with his wine-skin of gelatinous cube –

Hmmm. Suddenly some of the sheen was gone on the automaton he hit. He reported this to the others, and Dob decided to try Heat Metal on it, leaping onto its shoulders and hammering it with the spell in case the coating was metal. It was not, and Dob got powerbombed for his trouble for – well, it was going to be fifteen wrestling damage, but then Egbert commented that wrestling damage was generally zero damage (because, you know, all staged), and Johnny reduced it to twelve after Dob tried to sell the bit. XD Merilwen tried using Control Water to scrub the statues from a distance, but that didn’t work either –

And that’s when they realized “oh, wait, Corazon used gelatinous cube – maybe it’s acid?” Dob (in Norwegian, with Corazon translating) asked Prudence if she could cast an acid-related spell, and – after expertly dodging an ax blow from an automaton – she let loose with Hungry Hungry Hadar and all its milky tentacles (Johnny mentioned really hating the sensual description of the spell, and was promptly shamed for breaking their own “no kinkshaming in the dungeon” rule XD). The automatons started screaming, and Algernon easily just kicked one apart now that it lacked its protective coating. He tried lending Corazon his sword to take out another, but Corazon, despite having gotten over his ironic concussion, couldn’t keep a hand on it and instead flung it across the room. XD He instead did a spinning kick to take out one, while Algernon uppercutted another and Prudence crushed the last one with her bare hands. After a brief discussion about how, apparently, the spell that renders them impervious until you discover their weakness must be faith-based (as the gelatinous cube goo Corazon used was from the friendly cube in the other room and shouldn’t have acid-burned ANYTHING – but as the automatons were expecting acid damage. . .), the gang went to leave –

And found TWO doors leading out, as Johnny had abruptly realized the dungeon was a bit too linear. One had a picture of a bird on it, and the other a picture of a skull and crossbones – Corazon promptly decided that was the pirate room, and strode on in to find what appeared to be a statue of a guy on a throne. Eager to have the chance to sit on a pirate throne, he went to yank it off while the others followed him in –

Cue the door slamming behind them ominously, cue Johnny telling Corazon to make a strength attack, and cue Corazon rolling a crit one. Getting slashed across the chest and taking a bunch of necrotic damage from what proved to be a death knight with a literally smoking head. Though, admittedly, Corazon’s Uncanny Dodge did mean he took LESS necrotic damage than he could have (Johnny was like “I hate rogues!” XD), though it did still leave him with skeleton fingers. The death knight rose dramatically to his feet and began trying to make an intimidating speech, only for Corazon to cut him down by claiming he went to the Jerk Conference and everyone knew him. XD He then tried to fire a dramatic fireball into the wall, only for Egbert to shout “You missed!” and – when he tried to explain himself – Dob to go “well, firing a fireball at US would have been more dramatic.”

Cue the annoyed death knight firing his once-per-day HELLFIRE ORB at Dob. Who managed the Dex saving throw but still took like seventeen points of fire damage and twenty-one of necrotic damage. XD Fortunately Merilwen healed him up a bit (completely ignoring poor rotting Corazon). Anyway, the death knight insisted on facing Algernon in one-on-one combat – the Oxventurers huddled to try and come up with ways to secretly help their new friend on the sidelines (cue Corazon asking Dob if he had a real plan or some Three Stooges bullshit and poor Johnny just COLLAPSING XD – though admittedly Dob did have an interesting plan of trying to use the faith-based weakness system to try and trick the death knight into think an illusory basilisk was a real one and thus turn to stone), but as it turns out, Algernon was actually completely pumped up by just having some friends to help him make the dungeon new and exciting again (and by trying the tuna fish with pickles) and proudly accepted the challenge. The gang decided to see if he could actually do it on his own –

Cue Algernon getting a dirty twenty to actually hit the death knight, and the death knight going down! Mostly because, as Egbert could see, he was pretending to be more hurt than he actually was, sliding the sword into his armpit. (Egbert was like “now THAT’S how you sell the bit” to Dob. XD) He fell over and discreetly dropped a coin purse while Algernon looked at the others agog, and his throne sank into the ground to reveal the hidden door to the treasure room! Full of shiny shiny gold coins –

And all the dungeon residents, James included, clapping Algernon. They congratulated him on his win and explained that they had genuinely missed him and that, if he was up for it, they would like to offer him a job in the dungeon! Egbert was initially like “take the treasure,” but when James said that Algernon would have the same regenerative abilities as the rest of them AND immediately get the position of mid-level boss, he admitted that it sounded like a sweet deal. Algernon, who’d fully gotten his groove back (and perhaps weirdly touched by the fact that the dungeon residents had missed him and the stupid “hi AC!” “yes that’s why I’m so hard to hit” joke), agreed, and the episode ended with a horrific blood ritual to turn him into a dungeon resident while Corazon grabbed some gold. XD I mean, you have to admit, it was darkly heartwarming. XD And a lot of fun!

2. Continue writing “The Joker And The Queen”: Check – I am now in the final “upgraded powers” portion of the escape sequence, with the Coaster Crew and Victor having finally made it up the stairs and into the hallway, only to be locked into a particular section for “SW3 Containment Procedure Omega.” What is that? Well, they don’t know yet, but they’re on the verge of finding out, and it’s the kind of thing where you want someone who can fly to help. . .

3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – have caught up on the Subs, w000! Meaning I might hopefully have some more time tomorrow to catch up on other videos. In the meantime –

A) First up, Josh Way’s video from yesterday – “SKETCHY: Rooster!” Or, rather, four roosters, as is often Josh’s want. This episode, we had Alan A Dale from Disney’s animated Robin Hood (you know, the furry classic); Foghorn Leghorn from Looney Tunes (THE animated rooster), Heihei from Moana (in all his scraggly glory); and – Jeff Bridges as “Rooster” Cogburn from the 2010 version of True Grit. XD Look, Josh likes his little jokes, and all four pictures were very well done – Cogburn’s portrait in particular. :) You gotta love Josh’s artistic talent!

B) And secondly, today’s GrayStillPlays – “Cars vs Stairs in GTA 5!” More Alex Torture Board time, with a timed stair-based course which Gray had to complete in two and a half minutes or suffer eternal agony. We had Neon Stairs (tron-like stairs with thumbnail holes surrounded by teleporters – and one fake thumbnail hole at the very end (fortunately Gray noticed that one was red, not yellow or pink)); Icy Stairs (made up of icy road sections, with snowmen and, nearer the end, spinning trees serving as the theme-appropriate obstalces); Uneven Stairs (multicolored, haphazardly stacked random shapes with “!” signs going across them at random intervals); Satisfying Round Stairs (curved stairs made up of alternating blue and purple cylinders, with pink cylinders spinning through them, emerging from the stairs periodically to serve as barriers); and Sloping Stairs (black-and-white hump stairs – with a complementary meteor shower midway through). Gray tried a lot of cars, and a LOT of them sucked (the race car, the go-kart, Mom’s smart car), but a few did all right – the pick-up truck with the hay in the back did okay, as did the monster truck, and the faux-Playmobile four-wheeler actually did amazing on the Neon Stairs and got Gray all the way to the Satisfyingly Round Stairs, which no other vehicle had managed at that point. But you want to know which car won the course?

That’s right – the Wastelander! :D Our favorite rust bucket, here painted a peeling green. Fantastic suspension, amazing ability to save itself whenever Gray screwed up, decent top speed, and a lot of tetanus combined for a run that was JUST fast enough to get Gray through the timed gate, through the win, and into the water. Where he nearly choked to death in real life because he was so thrilled that he finally got it and couldn’t figure out how to breathe, laugh, and scream at the same time. XD Oh, I do love it when the Wastelander gets to shine. Beautiful suffering today, Gray!

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – have reset the queue speed to one on Victor Luvs Alice, and I have a bit of A:MR fanart, a Corpse Bride photo set, and a reblog of an old Song Saturday (“Your Love Could Start A War” by The Unlikely Candidates) set up for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday respectively. :) Add in a couple of reblogs (including someone apparently being surprised by my Sim Smiler feeding on Alice – uh, this has been happening for a while now XD – and a reblog about what wings you would pick from a wizard poll – purple dragon wings please), and I’m all set for the rest of the week!

And with that -- well, TECHNICALLY I don't have to be up at normal time tomorrow, since my dentist appointment is at 10:30 AM and then I go into work at 12:30 PM, but as it's not a "proper" day off, I'm gonna try to stick to my regular schedule. So it's off to bed for me! Hoping to spend some time tomorrow morning working on tumblr drafts and suchlike, or at least catching up on tracked tags. Night all!