Okay Monday

Like, it wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't horrible either. You had ups, you had downs, and overall, it was just one of those days. *shrug* Let me tell you all about it via my usual write-up:

Work – A pretty quiet start to the work week, with not a lot of calls or activity – which is good, because we still can’t process any gifts, and had to tell the couple of people who DID call in with credit card stuff that we’d have to call them back later. I spent the day doing the GL (uh, such as it was – just had the one write-off); helping my supervisor get the audit reports off the file-sharing site and over to Fiscal; doing a few more obituaries; and going over a QC file for the next capital campaign billing. Oh, and looking through the latest batch of exceptions that we got back from our processors at the end of the day...which included more shit than I thought, because they sent back the WHOLE batch from one of the parishes that had a few problem envelopes instead of just, you know, the problem envelopes. *heavy sigh* People sometimes, I swear… We’ll see what we can do with it, and the other exceptions, tomorrow!

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike again today, and back to Oxventure for some more folk horror D&D with “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 2: Rootbound!” When we left our heroes, they were heading northwest on a mission, given to them at Folkmoot (the town that serves as a meeting place for all of Heorth): check on those who lived in Heorth in that direction; seek out oddness and find the cause; and see if they can get ANY hint as to what’s happened to magic to make it so unstable. Accordingly, the first chunklet of the second episode featured:

A) Our heroes making their way through the Wyrdwood, led by Lug (the firbolg barbarian, played by Mike) and Happen (the human “luck pervert” ranger, played by Luke), and with Willowfine (the aasimar cleric, played by Jane), Cressida Blackwater (the half-human half-elf wizard, played by Ellen), and Morven Hellwain (the spirit of an aberrant sorcerer currently sharing a body with Robin Oatcake, human commoner, played by Andy) bringing up the rear. Cressida and Morven in particular were bringing up the rear, as Cressida was unused to walking such long distances and thus wouldn’t stop complaining under her breath, and Morven had been awake for two days straight in a desperate effort to stay in control of Robin’s body and thus was walking a lot slower than normal. Cue Happen murmuring to Willowfine that they basically needed to stage an intervention, and Willowfine trying to talk Morven into getting some sleep because, well, sleep is healthy (and keeps you from getting things like a level of exhaustion that drops all your dice rolls by -2). Morven was VERY reluctant to go to sleep and give up control to Robin (stating if something dangerous happened or they found the answer to what had gone wrong with magic, she wanted to be awake for it), but then Happen pointed out that they could simply knock Robin out if they needed Morven’s talents for anything. Morven liked that idea, and an accord was reached where she’d get some sleep once they found a place to lie their heads, and let Robin do all the boring walking, like Lug suggested. :P

B) The gang coming across the little town (or, at least, a village with notions of being one) Oakburn in the Wyrdwood – so named because the area where it sits was cleared by a fire, leaving the soul rich with nutrients. Everything seemed pretty normal there, with people going about their business (hanging up the washing, fixing a hole in a house roof, banging away at the anvil in the blacksmith’s shop) as they do in every little town, and nothing particularly out of the ordinary happening. Though especial mention was made of their verdant vegetable gardens, with a little patch of brambles and weeds in the corner of each for the “holbans” (little satyr-like imps) to stay in – a symbol of their all-important bargains with the local Wild Folk... Anyway, the group was approached by a helpful man, who – upon hearing what they were up to and that they could use a place to rest – took them to see their “village elder,” Ashling, who greeted them cheerfully and said that, while some strange things had been happening in the village in the wake of the boom, they were doing pretty well, all things considered. But they’d be only too happy to let the group stay for a while and refresh themselves (offering them water and, in Cressida’s case, wine) before they headed off to aid people who needed help more. Hell, she ended up giving them full access to her own house, assuring them that she’d find a place to bunk down, the people here were willing to share. Sounds lovely, right?

Weeeell, not really. A few key things happened while they were talking to the man, and later Ashling at the big communal cottage where she received them before taking them to hers, that made Morven and Happen in particular feel a liiittle on edge:

I. Both the man who originally greeted them and Ashling talked a bit – oddly, at times. They needed a minute to respond to certain questions – and, more noticeably, they were a little TOO cheery about offering their help and homes to the group. Cressida said “no customer service person has ever been that nice to me” – and while that came from the stuck-up city snob of the group, it was still worth noting

II. Morven tried reading the thoughts of the man who initially greeted them, and found only two things going round and round in there – namely, get the gang water from the well, and bring them to Ashling. Very simplistic thoughts, as she noted later!

III. Happen got his ear tugged by his sprites at one point during the meeting with Ashling (thanks to Luke using the Special Luck Die when asked to make a Perception check), a silent urge from them to listen – and when he did, he realized that the sounds coming from outside had mysteriously slowed. And when he peeped out the window to see what was going on, he found the townsfolk (well, the one guy on the roof that he could see) moving in slow motion for some reason. They quickly sped up, and Happen was like “maybe it was just tiredness,” but – yeah. Something was definitely up!

C) The gang discussing how weird the town was, and deciding that, even if it wasn’t strictly MAGICAL in nature (as Morven hadn’t successfully detected magic on anything Ashling gave them), they should probably investigate, which led to the following:

I. Most of the gang taking a lunchtime nap to refresh themselves, with Morven eschewing rest in favor of keeping watch (despite Willowfine’s best attempts to lull them with a lullaby – it got Cressida instead XD) – Morven happened to spot that creepy guy with the hat that was all brim that was at Folkmoot laughing at the chaos in front of the house across from them, but when he motioned her to meet him down a nearby alleyway, she followed him in to find he’d vanished like smoke. Even trying to detect his thoughts didn’t work...though it did let her hear that the only thing the nearby villagers were thinking was “midday meal, midday meal,” adding to the creepy vibes

II. Upon Morven coming back and reiterating how many bad vibes this place gave her, Happen, Willowfine, Cressida, and Morven all ransacking Ashling’s house to see if they could get some clues as to what’s going on – what they mainly found was evidence that the house hadn’t actually been lived in for a while, with Willowfine in particular finding some letters from Ashling’s sister, worrying about her and the village, with the latest one being from two weeks ago and expressing some concern that she never got an answer to her last letter

III. Lug, meanwhile, deciding to go ask the holbans what THEY knew and if they’d be willing to lead him to the village’s secret...only to find in the nearest vegetable bramble patch three dead ones. Slain by some outside force an unknown amount of time ago. :O And when he went to check the goat pen, remembering that Ashling had said they keep goats for milk, he found it completely empty. D: That’s not good.

So yeah – bad shit is going down, and it’s likely linked to those dead holbans and somebody breaking the ancient pacts with the Wild Folk. I left off with Lug arriving back at the house to report his findings to the others, who’d already come to the conclusion they needed to find where Ashling went when she headed off after letting them have the house. Tomorrow, we see if they manage to track the wayward village elder down...and if anything comes of the fact that both Morven and Cressida sipped the town’s well water at their meeting with her...

2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check plus tonight, I am pleased to report –

A) First, I got another page done on Chapter 4! Mostly featuring the gang getting a bit more packing done (taking all of Victor’s pictures off the wall and getting his suits and shirts in the carpet bag) while Victor continued to stress out about the fact that he had a lot of clothes and Alice and Smiler reassured him some more that they didn’t feel like he was flaunting his wealth or anything like that. What can I say – after seeing how poorer people live, and becoming friends with two of them, Victor has a lot of unnecessary guilt about the advantages being a Van Dort has given him. Fortunately, Smiler and Alice are willing to say things like “don’t punish yourself for your parents’ sins” and “you’re not spoiled, you’re slightly off at best” until he believes them. And to remind him that he is their friend and they enjoy his company and he makes them happier. :) I ended things with Alice and Victor being playfully snarky at each other – next time, we’ll see about getting the rest of his things packed up!

B) And second, I added two things to the BG3 Master Doc’s section on Smiler that I wanted to make sure got brought up at some point in the future, when I do that “the gang has to take on Dr. Kelman” story:

I. While writing the “don’t punish yourself for parents’ sins” line from Smiler, I got to thinking about how they knew what they were talking about because of Kelman, and their decision to run away from him at age 12 – and then had the thought “what if they had to break out of their room because they’d been locked in? Would explain how they know how to pick locks.” So yeah, I’m retconning in that Smiler was lying when they said they’d never picked a lock before in “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded” – they have picked ONE, the one on their bedroom, to escape the Sanctuary after a bad fight with Kelman. Naturally, since they try to avoid talking about that period of their life whenever possible, they weren’t about to bring it up to their new friends right then! Victor and Alice will have to wait to learn that tidbit…

II. And, inspired by adding that, I finally added a note about someone I’ve been thinking about a bit lately – Smiler’s birth mother. You may notice that Dr. Kelman’s always been a single father whenever he pops up in an AU? Well, the reason for that is because I never gave much thought to who Smiler’s birth mother should be – I was always more focused on their relationship with Kelman. I always figured that she’d probably died or left when Smiler was a baby and thus was never going to be important to an AU…

And then, in the shower a few weeks back, I had an awful idea – what if, after Smiler was born, she started suffering postpartum depression...and Dr. Kelman tried to “fix” her with his horrible brain surgeries? D: Yeaaah, so now Smiler’s birth mother is another one of Dr. Kelman’s failed “experiments,” and there is a non-zero chance the VITD trio will run into her while roaming the Sanctuary. Talk about a gut-punch for poor Smiler! I just need to give the poor woman a name now...

3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – watched a fun video that popped up in my Recommendeds just today: “FUNNIEST Baldur's Gate 3 Mods | We React to the Most Out of Pocket Mods for BG3” by OXBox! :D Ellen, Mike, and Andy reacting to footage of a bunch of weird-ass BG3 mods inflicted upon them by Jane! Including:

A) Prudence demonstrating the power of the Thomas The Tank Engine summon (complete with glowing red eyes in the character portrait and 69 health)

B) A tour of Baldur’s Gate itself, showing off how all the chairs in the game had been replaced with the cute froggy chair from Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Ellen instantly recognized it and had a squee moment)

C) The reveal that Gale had been shrunk into a halfling...and then having him meet with an Elminster sporting a pair of, uh, “big naturals” (tumblr meme, it means he has amazing, if hairy, cleavage now)

D) Bananastarion (aka a naked Astarion in a large banana with his face, pecs, and ass poking out) braving the Nautiloid and waking up on the beach after the crash (Ellen could NOT stop laughing)

E) Prudence having chats with a “yassified” Shadowheart (think horrible plumped lips and hollowed cheeks), a Joker-ized Astarion (the makeup actually didn’t look half-bad on him), and a Withers with Big Naturals (which everyone concluded that, given the amount of decay, HAD to actually be silicone – Andy was like “correct the mod name mod maker!”)

F) Prudence demonstrating the power of the summoned Shrek (who looked particularly goofy given he lumbered about like any other ogre in this game and had a particularly dead-eyed stare XD)

G) Prudence returning to Baldur’s Gate to show that it had been taken over by giant rabbits (Andy and Mike were concerned, Ellen deeply charmed – and then horrified when Prudence chose to attack one of them)

H) Prudence having a chat with a “handsome” Astarion with a huge nose and cleft chin and even more sunken-in cheeks than the yassified Shadowheart (everyone was horrified by his giant lips – oh, and fun fact? The person who made that mod also made the “Alt Lae’zel Hair For Tav” mod that I used for Smiler’s haircut for a bit)

I) Prudence leading around a bunch of gnome-ified versions of the Origin characters, causing a lot of jokes about her leading kids around on a school field trip (though Ellen wasn’t a fan of Lae’zel having a normal nose in this mode)

J) Prudence leading around Shadowheart, Gale, and Astarion – who kept running around on all fours (Shadowheart constantly, Gale about half the time, and Astarion when the mod remembered – Ellen, Mike, and Andy were like “that’s creepy” and “this is definitely a kink thing”)

K) And someone (Jane insisted it was someone else’s save file) romancing both Lae’zel and Handsome Astarion...as a character whose head was just a throbbing brain (an Elder Brain, according to the mod linked the description) – the trio officially tapped out when Handsome Astarion went in for the kiss XD

Delightful stuff – some of these mods I already knew about thanks to the “Modding Mayhem” short, but others were, uh, very much new. XD Bananastarion was fantastic, and the gnome versions of all the Origin characters were so cute. ...Could have done without seeing the “Elder Brain Head” character, admittedly, but eh. Rest were great! I do love these “react” videos they’re doing now – they find some excellent weird-ass stuff!

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A, as it usually is on Mondays, when I have just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about and no truly pressing drafts to work on. *shrug* Hopefully I can figure out my Wednesday-through-Saturday queue when the time comes tomorrow!

Not bad, I think -- but now I really have to go to bed, as I am TIRED. Night all!