Another Somewhat Grumpy Monday
Jul. 21st, 2025 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickLike, I wasn't TOO grumpy most of the day, but there was some stuff that annoyed me and threw my schedule out of whack (which just annoys me more) --
Work – It was a pretty quiet Monday at the office today – after doing the GL, I spent most of my time working on that one big mega-batch that came back in the exceptions last week with my coworker, finding ID numbers and setting up profiles for a bunch of donors before trying to get all the gifts on the system (they have to be in one big batch as they’re all covered by one big parish check). Unfortunately, a combination of there being a loooot of gifts in the batch (over a hundred!), me being interrupted at one point by a credit card call (someone making payments on their Appeal AND capital campaign pledges), and me discovering a small batch of envelopes that HADN’T had ID numbers associated with them halfway through the pile meant that I didn’t finish the batch before it was time to go, meh. *sigh* All I can do is pick up where I left off tomorrow (after getting ID numbers for the remaining envelopes) and hope I can finish it then! We’ll see what happens.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back to the D&D Folk Horror Oxventure with “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 3: Howls In The Night!” When we left off at the end of the last episode, the gang had been forced to kill an entire village of tree zombies and the tree controlling them; they’d gotten a message from the team going North that two of theirs were injured, and to be careful as the Wyrdwood was angry; and Happen had seen a rabbit made of shadow meld with Willowfine’s shadow while she was tapping out a reply to Team North, asking if they needed help. Today’s episode picked up a few hours after that, and featured:
A) The gang continuing their hike northwest, heading into the moors and out of the forest, after getting a message from Team North saying “we’re surviving, we’ll be okay, please continue your mission” on the magical copestones they use to communicate with each other (chiseling messages back and forth – yes, it DOES sound inconvenient, and I fully expect these things to fail at the worst possible moment sometime in the future). We also got a fun surprise lore drop about how the copestones work after Andy made a joke about if you could leave someone “on read” with the copestones; Luke told Johnny “it’s okay to tell him no;” and Johnny was like “actually, the way I pictured them working was the message heals over once its read, so you can reuse it.” Naturally, this sort of exchange promptly became a bit of a running gag in the early bit of the episode. XD
B) The gang coming across a fellow, Yoffie, and his two children, Michael and Lily, driving a mule-pulled wagon along the wreckage of the road through the moors and deciding to ask if they could bum a ride! Because all this walking wasn’t doing Robin’s feet any good, after all. :P This did not go PARTICULARLY well, as Robin’s attempt to reassure Yoffie they weren’t murderers was promptly derailed by Happen pointing out that that wasn’t true (Robin: “I haven’t murdered anyone!” The others: “Technically.”) and Willowfine trying to smooth things over by promising Yoffie they wouldn’t murder him specifically. XD Fortunately for them, Yoffie was a nice chap and willing to let them ride, and allowed them to clamber in the back while he gave Lily the reins and got out to walk alongside with Michael (who was rather put out at having to use his human legs, as Johnny put it XD).
C) The gang having a fairly awkward wagon ride, including:
I. Learning that Yoffie and his kids had yanked the wagon out of some mud a while back, meaning that it was absolutely filthy – Cressida cleaned herself a patch to sit on using Prestidigitation, and was horrified to discover the original color was OFF-WHITE XD
II. Robin asking Happen about his religion and what he got out of worshiping Cadence, with Happen trying to explain that it’s all about surrendering to luck, not about getting presents, and Robin going on about how a friend of his got the ability to fly from his god (though he did immediately admit the guy hadn’t been able to demonstrate as they’d been in the pub at the time), and someone else got first a bucket, then the ability to throw it over his house. XD It was also established that Happen’s order carries around little coins with them with Cadence’s symbol (a skull with dice for eyes) with them for quick decision-making, and give them out to friends – Happen gave one to Robin, who noted that Happen gave one to Michael (to soothe the kid grumpiness about having to walk) before the rest of them. Happen was like “...Michael seems nice.” XD
III. The gang telling Robin about some of the spells that Morven cast while in control of his body, including the blender that was “Hunger Of Hadar” and the terrifying purple “Sorcerous Burst” that helped take out the flame-guy monster back in episode one – Robin was pretty shaken up, as you might expect! Poor guy, he never asked for any of this...but to be fair, neither did Morven, so… And they did at least stress that using those terrifyingly deadly spells helped save them from danger, though I don’t think that was any comfort to him in the end.
IV. Robin asking Willowfine about where she was from (probably to stop thinking about his Morven situation), which led to her and Happen having a bit of a theological debate (Willowfine not thinking much of Cadence, since HER god does a lot for her local community – Happen was unruffled by this, thankfully). Prompting Robin to try and change the subject again by asking Cressida if she’d like to try his homemade wine. Which had “grape-adjacent” things in it. XD A desperate Cressida actually consented to try it, and fortunately made the Constitution saving throw not to be poisoned. Johnny called it “passable sewage” in their description (prompting Mike to note that all sewage is passable). XD
V. The gang talking to Cressida about what she did in her hometown as a banker (as they’re all rather more familiar with the barter system), and her explaining how she inherited the business from her mother, and that she was in charge of looking after everyone’s coins and keeping them safe from harm. Cue Lily handing her a bag of money, which Cressida very happily took (along with some wooden nickels from Robin, and more of Happen’s Cadence coins). XD Johnny also took the opportunity to drop some lore about money in Heorth – namely, only the upper crust really use it much, and there’s the standard set of gold, silver, and copper pieces. There USED to be iron pieces as well, as the lowest value, but everyone kept melting them down to turn into tools, so the mint just gave up. XD
VI. And talk turning back to the whole “could you throw a bucket over your house?” question after Robin asked if Cressida could throw one over hers – Cressida said she could make the bucket fly over her house; Lug said it would be easy for him, as he’s both really strong and lives in a tiny hovel; Willowfine said she’d never tried, but was pretty sure she could; and Robin revealed he’d tried and accidentally gave himself a second window in the attempt. XD I’m sure the goat that now lives there appreciates it, Robin!
D) The conversation finally being interrupted by Willowfine and Cressida noticing some odd shapes against the setting sun – Willowfine wasn’t sure what they were, but Cressida’s half-elf eyes could see they were a strange blue-gray, and very furry… Cue the pair of shapes howling and giving chase to the wagon, and Cressida hastily trying to warn everyone of werewolves, or at least something wolf-shaped! Causing the mules to start scenting the air, smell the downwind wolf-creatures –
And PANIC, bolting ahead and leaving poor Yoffie and Michael behind! Lug hopped off to help protect the two as Robin scrambled to help Lily get the mules under control, and combat against the two wolf-creatures (which were terrible things with the bodies of wolves but the heads of humans, sporting yellow cat-like eyes and mouths full of needle-like teeth) began! I got through Happen’s round before having to stop for the night, with the guy managing to get off a pair of good shots against both the wolf-creature menacing Yoffie and Michael and the one running alongside the wagon trying to get to the mules (with the help of a little Heroic Inspiration) – tomorrow, we’ll start off by seeing what Robin does to help Lily regain control of the wagon, and go from there!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – started Chapter 5 today, with Victor, Alice, and Smiler collecting Barnaby and Kasimir from the wine cellar! As expected, Barnaby was very reluctant to leave, while Kasimir had quietly knicked a few bottles of the good stuff (Victor politely pretended not to notice the gaps in the aging racks). XD However, on their way up and out, the gang was surprised by the appearance of Mrs. Pemberly, looking for her wayward staff – fortunately, the minute she saw Barnaby, it was very easy to convince her that he’d essentially stolen Alice and Smiler from her to show him around the cellar. (Especially given what Barnaby is like to anyone lower-ranked than he is!) Victor followed up by lying that Nell had banned him from the party for showing up so suddenly, and that he’d been sent to check on the new servants, which happily Mrs. Pemberly also bought (probably because she knows what Nell is like, and was so impressed by Alice and Smiler’s work in the kitchen that she was willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt now). I left off with Victor claiming that he was bringing the newbies to the servant’s quarters to get settled in (subtly implying that his bag is their things) – next time, we see if Mrs. Pemberly buys that too! (Spoiler: she will, because of that crit engagement roll. XD)
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – I unfortunately got to the YouTubes later than I wanted (I got annoyed by WeirdKev on tumblr asking if I’d been checking the doc with all the info on what he wanted in his birthday fic – yes, I’d checked it, the fic is already written, you’re gonna get what you’re gonna get now – which meant it was much harder for me to concentrate on the Wyrdwood write-up and my page on “The Van Dort Vacancy,” meaning it took loads longer for me to accomplish anything tonight), but I was determined to watch SOMETHING. So I turned to Proxy Gate Tactician, and watched the final under-ten-minutes video I had left to watch on his channel: “40 Ways You Can Escape Jail In Baldur's Gate 3!” Featuring Proxy going through the six jails you can get locked up in over the course of the game (from the crappy jail in the Emerald Grove to the pretty solid jails in Baldur’s Gate’s Lower City) and demonstrating 41 ways to escape them (he added in one bonus way to offset two of the ways involving making and climbing a tower to get out over a door). Ways to escape ranged from the ridiculously simple (pickpocket a guard when they’re near your cell to get the key), to the simply ridiculous (using an illusory cat to lure in the guards and sneak out the open door while they were distracted), to the “obvious when you think about it” (melt the door with anything that involves an acid-based attack), to the “completely unique to this jail” (leaping out a giant hole in the wall in the side of the Grove jail, or answering the riddles of a talking skull to get teleported out in the Wyrm Fortress jail). It was a pretty interesting video, and I enjoyed seeing just how many ways you can climb, trick, or just magically teleport yourself to freedom. XD Good to know if Smiler and company ever end up locked up during their adventures!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about tonight, and while I’d hoped to do more, I did at least get the most important post in my queue for tomorrow – WeirdKev’s gift fic! The conversation between LaCroix and Glomgold that serves as a sequel to his Christmas fic. I hope he likes it! (Especially after him asking about if I was checking the doc or not earlier...hmph.)
Other: It was actually a nice day out for once, so me and the family played beanbags shortly after I got home – and while we were all kinda rusty, nobody was rustier than me, who lost all three games. :( I’m just not good at beanbags anymore, it seems! Dad, of course, dominated the first two games, but Mom managed to sneak in a win in the third one – final scores were me 3-3-3; Dad W-W-2; Mom 2-2-W. *shrug* Tomorrow’s supposed to be good as well – we’ll see if I improve any then!
So yeah, not overall a bad day, I just wish things had gone better this evening! Didn't help that a BG3 mod that I thought looked really cool might actually wreck your progress in an act if you actually use it the way it's meant to be used (it's a "player home" mod, but if you go to the player home, it advances quests and stuff without warning you, so...). *grumbles* Why is all the neatest stuff most prone to screwing things up? *shakehead* Anyway, I gotta get to bed -- night all!
Work – It was a pretty quiet Monday at the office today – after doing the GL, I spent most of my time working on that one big mega-batch that came back in the exceptions last week with my coworker, finding ID numbers and setting up profiles for a bunch of donors before trying to get all the gifts on the system (they have to be in one big batch as they’re all covered by one big parish check). Unfortunately, a combination of there being a loooot of gifts in the batch (over a hundred!), me being interrupted at one point by a credit card call (someone making payments on their Appeal AND capital campaign pledges), and me discovering a small batch of envelopes that HADN’T had ID numbers associated with them halfway through the pile meant that I didn’t finish the batch before it was time to go, meh. *sigh* All I can do is pick up where I left off tomorrow (after getting ID numbers for the remaining envelopes) and hope I can finish it then! We’ll see what happens.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back to the D&D Folk Horror Oxventure with “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 3: Howls In The Night!” When we left off at the end of the last episode, the gang had been forced to kill an entire village of tree zombies and the tree controlling them; they’d gotten a message from the team going North that two of theirs were injured, and to be careful as the Wyrdwood was angry; and Happen had seen a rabbit made of shadow meld with Willowfine’s shadow while she was tapping out a reply to Team North, asking if they needed help. Today’s episode picked up a few hours after that, and featured:
A) The gang continuing their hike northwest, heading into the moors and out of the forest, after getting a message from Team North saying “we’re surviving, we’ll be okay, please continue your mission” on the magical copestones they use to communicate with each other (chiseling messages back and forth – yes, it DOES sound inconvenient, and I fully expect these things to fail at the worst possible moment sometime in the future). We also got a fun surprise lore drop about how the copestones work after Andy made a joke about if you could leave someone “on read” with the copestones; Luke told Johnny “it’s okay to tell him no;” and Johnny was like “actually, the way I pictured them working was the message heals over once its read, so you can reuse it.” Naturally, this sort of exchange promptly became a bit of a running gag in the early bit of the episode. XD
B) The gang coming across a fellow, Yoffie, and his two children, Michael and Lily, driving a mule-pulled wagon along the wreckage of the road through the moors and deciding to ask if they could bum a ride! Because all this walking wasn’t doing Robin’s feet any good, after all. :P This did not go PARTICULARLY well, as Robin’s attempt to reassure Yoffie they weren’t murderers was promptly derailed by Happen pointing out that that wasn’t true (Robin: “I haven’t murdered anyone!” The others: “Technically.”) and Willowfine trying to smooth things over by promising Yoffie they wouldn’t murder him specifically. XD Fortunately for them, Yoffie was a nice chap and willing to let them ride, and allowed them to clamber in the back while he gave Lily the reins and got out to walk alongside with Michael (who was rather put out at having to use his human legs, as Johnny put it XD).
C) The gang having a fairly awkward wagon ride, including:
I. Learning that Yoffie and his kids had yanked the wagon out of some mud a while back, meaning that it was absolutely filthy – Cressida cleaned herself a patch to sit on using Prestidigitation, and was horrified to discover the original color was OFF-WHITE XD
II. Robin asking Happen about his religion and what he got out of worshiping Cadence, with Happen trying to explain that it’s all about surrendering to luck, not about getting presents, and Robin going on about how a friend of his got the ability to fly from his god (though he did immediately admit the guy hadn’t been able to demonstrate as they’d been in the pub at the time), and someone else got first a bucket, then the ability to throw it over his house. XD It was also established that Happen’s order carries around little coins with them with Cadence’s symbol (a skull with dice for eyes) with them for quick decision-making, and give them out to friends – Happen gave one to Robin, who noted that Happen gave one to Michael (to soothe the kid grumpiness about having to walk) before the rest of them. Happen was like “...Michael seems nice.” XD
III. The gang telling Robin about some of the spells that Morven cast while in control of his body, including the blender that was “Hunger Of Hadar” and the terrifying purple “Sorcerous Burst” that helped take out the flame-guy monster back in episode one – Robin was pretty shaken up, as you might expect! Poor guy, he never asked for any of this...but to be fair, neither did Morven, so… And they did at least stress that using those terrifyingly deadly spells helped save them from danger, though I don’t think that was any comfort to him in the end.
IV. Robin asking Willowfine about where she was from (probably to stop thinking about his Morven situation), which led to her and Happen having a bit of a theological debate (Willowfine not thinking much of Cadence, since HER god does a lot for her local community – Happen was unruffled by this, thankfully). Prompting Robin to try and change the subject again by asking Cressida if she’d like to try his homemade wine. Which had “grape-adjacent” things in it. XD A desperate Cressida actually consented to try it, and fortunately made the Constitution saving throw not to be poisoned. Johnny called it “passable sewage” in their description (prompting Mike to note that all sewage is passable). XD
V. The gang talking to Cressida about what she did in her hometown as a banker (as they’re all rather more familiar with the barter system), and her explaining how she inherited the business from her mother, and that she was in charge of looking after everyone’s coins and keeping them safe from harm. Cue Lily handing her a bag of money, which Cressida very happily took (along with some wooden nickels from Robin, and more of Happen’s Cadence coins). XD Johnny also took the opportunity to drop some lore about money in Heorth – namely, only the upper crust really use it much, and there’s the standard set of gold, silver, and copper pieces. There USED to be iron pieces as well, as the lowest value, but everyone kept melting them down to turn into tools, so the mint just gave up. XD
VI. And talk turning back to the whole “could you throw a bucket over your house?” question after Robin asked if Cressida could throw one over hers – Cressida said she could make the bucket fly over her house; Lug said it would be easy for him, as he’s both really strong and lives in a tiny hovel; Willowfine said she’d never tried, but was pretty sure she could; and Robin revealed he’d tried and accidentally gave himself a second window in the attempt. XD I’m sure the goat that now lives there appreciates it, Robin!
D) The conversation finally being interrupted by Willowfine and Cressida noticing some odd shapes against the setting sun – Willowfine wasn’t sure what they were, but Cressida’s half-elf eyes could see they were a strange blue-gray, and very furry… Cue the pair of shapes howling and giving chase to the wagon, and Cressida hastily trying to warn everyone of werewolves, or at least something wolf-shaped! Causing the mules to start scenting the air, smell the downwind wolf-creatures –
And PANIC, bolting ahead and leaving poor Yoffie and Michael behind! Lug hopped off to help protect the two as Robin scrambled to help Lily get the mules under control, and combat against the two wolf-creatures (which were terrible things with the bodies of wolves but the heads of humans, sporting yellow cat-like eyes and mouths full of needle-like teeth) began! I got through Happen’s round before having to stop for the night, with the guy managing to get off a pair of good shots against both the wolf-creature menacing Yoffie and Michael and the one running alongside the wagon trying to get to the mules (with the help of a little Heroic Inspiration) – tomorrow, we’ll start off by seeing what Robin does to help Lily regain control of the wagon, and go from there!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – started Chapter 5 today, with Victor, Alice, and Smiler collecting Barnaby and Kasimir from the wine cellar! As expected, Barnaby was very reluctant to leave, while Kasimir had quietly knicked a few bottles of the good stuff (Victor politely pretended not to notice the gaps in the aging racks). XD However, on their way up and out, the gang was surprised by the appearance of Mrs. Pemberly, looking for her wayward staff – fortunately, the minute she saw Barnaby, it was very easy to convince her that he’d essentially stolen Alice and Smiler from her to show him around the cellar. (Especially given what Barnaby is like to anyone lower-ranked than he is!) Victor followed up by lying that Nell had banned him from the party for showing up so suddenly, and that he’d been sent to check on the new servants, which happily Mrs. Pemberly also bought (probably because she knows what Nell is like, and was so impressed by Alice and Smiler’s work in the kitchen that she was willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt now). I left off with Victor claiming that he was bringing the newbies to the servant’s quarters to get settled in (subtly implying that his bag is their things) – next time, we see if Mrs. Pemberly buys that too! (Spoiler: she will, because of that crit engagement roll. XD)
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – I unfortunately got to the YouTubes later than I wanted (I got annoyed by WeirdKev on tumblr asking if I’d been checking the doc with all the info on what he wanted in his birthday fic – yes, I’d checked it, the fic is already written, you’re gonna get what you’re gonna get now – which meant it was much harder for me to concentrate on the Wyrdwood write-up and my page on “The Van Dort Vacancy,” meaning it took loads longer for me to accomplish anything tonight), but I was determined to watch SOMETHING. So I turned to Proxy Gate Tactician, and watched the final under-ten-minutes video I had left to watch on his channel: “40 Ways You Can Escape Jail In Baldur's Gate 3!” Featuring Proxy going through the six jails you can get locked up in over the course of the game (from the crappy jail in the Emerald Grove to the pretty solid jails in Baldur’s Gate’s Lower City) and demonstrating 41 ways to escape them (he added in one bonus way to offset two of the ways involving making and climbing a tower to get out over a door). Ways to escape ranged from the ridiculously simple (pickpocket a guard when they’re near your cell to get the key), to the simply ridiculous (using an illusory cat to lure in the guards and sneak out the open door while they were distracted), to the “obvious when you think about it” (melt the door with anything that involves an acid-based attack), to the “completely unique to this jail” (leaping out a giant hole in the wall in the side of the Grove jail, or answering the riddles of a talking skull to get teleported out in the Wyrm Fortress jail). It was a pretty interesting video, and I enjoyed seeing just how many ways you can climb, trick, or just magically teleport yourself to freedom. XD Good to know if Smiler and company ever end up locked up during their adventures!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about tonight, and while I’d hoped to do more, I did at least get the most important post in my queue for tomorrow – WeirdKev’s gift fic! The conversation between LaCroix and Glomgold that serves as a sequel to his Christmas fic. I hope he likes it! (Especially after him asking about if I was checking the doc or not earlier...hmph.)
Other: It was actually a nice day out for once, so me and the family played beanbags shortly after I got home – and while we were all kinda rusty, nobody was rustier than me, who lost all three games. :( I’m just not good at beanbags anymore, it seems! Dad, of course, dominated the first two games, but Mom managed to sneak in a win in the third one – final scores were me 3-3-3; Dad W-W-2; Mom 2-2-W. *shrug* Tomorrow’s supposed to be good as well – we’ll see if I improve any then!
So yeah, not overall a bad day, I just wish things had gone better this evening! Didn't help that a BG3 mod that I thought looked really cool might actually wreck your progress in an act if you actually use it the way it's meant to be used (it's a "player home" mod, but if you go to the player home, it advances quests and stuff without warning you, so...). *grumbles* Why is all the neatest stuff most prone to screwing things up? *shakehead* Anyway, I gotta get to bed -- night all!
