A Very Hot (If Rather Quiet) Wednesday
Jul. 30th, 2025 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickAnother absolute scorcher of a day over here -- they say that the heat is supposed to break tomorrow, though, and I am desperately hoping they're right! Even if it does come with two days of rainy weather, I just want to be able to not have to hide in the AC anymore! *grumbles* Anyway, here's how my day went:
Work – Another really-quiet day – I did the usual morning reports, I cleaned up some deceased people and duplicates in the system, I reran some reports for our Fiscal department as they were looking to see why the bank account wasn’t quite balancing on certain days, and I had the usual useless check-in call with the credit card people. And I got through another crossword. ^^; Just a day and a half to go, thankfully!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – hopped back on the bike this even and pedaled my way through –
A) The end of “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 5: Ironclad!” Which featured in the last ten-or-so minutes:
I. The five pouring more magic into the dying giant elm of Elmsteader, which happily began to heal as a result of their efforts! The moment he saw this, Happen decided he needed to show the villagers and cast a big old Mage Hand to get their attention before slapping it against the tree to add to the magic total – all while being glared at by Morven and Cressida, who remembered very well they’d been told specifically NOT TO GO NEAR THE TREE. XD But, happily, with the expenditure of a level 3 spell slot (Cressida), a couple of level 2 spell slots (Morven and Happen), a level 1 spell slot (Willowfine, who needed her level 2 spell slot to heal the guy who fell out of the tree and was screaming in agony), and a couple of cantrips (Lug and Happen), the tree received 219 whole points of magic energy, and – on a roll of 4 from Johnny – did not explode, implode, or otherwise collapse. Hooray! :D
II. The group being confronted by Edmond and the locals, who were naturally kind of pissed that the group had gone near the tree (and gotten their weapons back) – Willowfine apologized and explained that they’d had to act to save the dying tree, while Morven and Cressida were both bitchily like “you’re welcome.” XD Edmond set aside his iron collar for a moment and very cautiously cast Detect Magic on the tree – and, upon realizing that they had saved it, or at least bought it some more time, quietly palmed a little journal to Willowfine while putting his collar back on and softly told her exactly where they’d last seen North Team and how to get there. Before making a big ostentatious show out of kicking them out of the village, because he did have to save face. The group left without much of a fuss (Morven simply walking a liiiittle slower than normal), and once they were out of town (and behind a tree) checked out the journal. Which had a note inside from Edmond, explaining that one of the water-gatherers found it about two days ago, and that they were pretty sure that, based on the contents, North Team was dead. And begging them to give up their folly. :( Awww – I think this proves that, despite his grumpy demeanor, Edmond ALWAYS intended to give them the journal – he certainly didn’t have time to write a bespoke note to them after checking the tree! Good guy, honestly – I hope the elm survives. Anyway, Johnny then revealed that reading the journal would have to wait until next episode, which led into –
III. The players enacting the “rolling rite,” rolling that D100 to see if any of them would have their magic go wrong the next time they cast a spell – and after everyone avoiding consequences for ages, both Jane AND Andy had to take an envelope from the pile! Johnny was quite pleased. XD So yeah – next time Morven and Willowfine cast magic, those envelopes get cracked open, and we get to see just what it is they do!
B) The beginning of “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 6: Shapes in the Mist!” The first twenty-two minutes of which featured:
I. Willowfine reading out the most relevant journal entries from the journal they got from Edmond to the others as they prepared to journey onward! They’d written by someone named Edda from North Team, and detailed how, after they’d accidentally removed the magic from the elm of Elmsteader and gotten banished from the village, they traveled further into the woods...where one by one, every member of the team mysteriously vanished. Possibly as the result of a mysterious figure called only “the woman” who was noted to have previously harassed them. Edda’s last entry simply told the world that they’d just wanted to help. :( Morven wasn’t particularly sympathetic to North Team’s plight, summing it up as “we suck, everyone’s dead” and blaming their troubles on them being incompetent – however, she was rather interested in “the woman,” and scanned the journal for any information. There wasn’t much in the way of description – just that she was “strangely dressed” – but it did indicate that she had an MO much like The Poor Man who’d been following them around, only much more malicious. *grimace* Not fun! Anyway, the gang decided to try and find the trail of the missing team (or at least try to work their way toward the town they were trying to reach) and see if they could work out what had happened, which led to –
II. The team making their way through the hot and crispy forest, with Lug in the front leading, Willowfine, Cressida, and Morven in the middle, and Happen bringing up the rear. Happen, very in-tune with the ways of the forest (thanks to some good rolls) noticed pretty quickly that something seemed to be fucking around with his senses – all the noises of the forest were decreased, while all the noises of their clothes were increased. He relayed this to the others, and Willowfine decided it was time for them to tie themselves together in a nice chain with her fifty foot of hempen rope! You know, just in case. XD The gang thus knotted themselves up, and they continued onward, Lug marching them down a game trail –
That, on another good roll, Happen realized was going the wrong way. He went up to Lug to quietly inform him of this fact, pulling the chained-together party into a U-shape, and Johnny called for Wisdom-Perception checks for Morven, Willowfine, and Cressida, leading to –
III. Cressida getting an 8, and Johnny asking Ellen to leave the table as Cressida disappeared. The others were appropriately shocked – though they did wonder for a moment if she’d simply finally had enough of all these shenanigans and abandoned them and the mission. As Morven said, she did complain a LOT. XD But then Happen reached out with his awesome Swarmkeeper Ranger abilities (which allowed him to sense, among bunch of other things, any fey creatures within SIX MILES because they were in his favored terrain – Johnny was like “holy SHIT” XD) –
And managed to sense Cressida, surrounded by a crowd of fey creatures, traveling off impossibly fast. He told the others what he’d sensed, and after a brief argument about whether they needed to go after Cressida or form defensive ranks, they decided to go after Cressida –
Except. Around this time, Happen began to hear a strange, haunting melody. And when Johnny asked him for a Constitution saving throw, he flubbed it, leading to –
IV. Luke leaving the table, and the others rushing off, only to realize Happen was not with them and had also vanished! There was a very distinct moment of panic among the three remaining, and after trying to figure out what the best thing to do would be, they chose to huddle together, facing each other and looking over each other’s shoulders, arms linked. Which was a good thing, because when Johnny next called for Perception rolls, and Morven flubbed hers, she did not get immediately vanished! Instead, Johnny said that the melody got louder and louder in her head until it was the only thing she could hear, and paralyzed her so she couldn’t move. *grimacing* Lug, thanks to his good roll, could also hear the melody but was able to resist its effects – and, sensing it was bad news, told everyone to cover their ears. Which Willowfine of course did, but Morven naturally could not...
And that is where I left it! Oooh boy – people are being spirited away by the fairies, and it is NOT good! We’ll see tomorrow if Morven gets got, and, if so, what Lug and Willowfine do about it! Hopefully not magic, because Willowfine’s still got that envelope...
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – spent tonight’s writing session refining Alice’s mad dash out of the Grout mansion post-Bach setting it ablaze, with poor Alice:
A) Having to leap off a balcony into a room that was mostly on fire – which she rapidly discovered included the ghouls that were in it
B) Trying desperately to see if she could at least save 6768 and 6789 when she came across the door to the mirrored rooms they “lived” in – only to open it and find that the whole place had already gone up in flame
C) Running frantically through the various hallways up to the other side of the balcony she’d been on previously (where Bach was before he fled), her memories of the Liddell house fire assaulting her mind
D) Following Cheshire as he led her through the burning halls to the one safe window in the place
E) Throwing herself through said window and scrambling off the roof to land on the lawn, just out of danger
F) Curling up in a ball and crying :(
Yeaaaah – it was not a fun page today for Alice! Which means that it’s not going to be a surprise at all tomorrow when she shows up at LaCroix’s office in a VERY foul mood...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – it was back to my Watch Later today to start whittling down the number of OXBoxtra lists I had sitting there, starting with the OXtra list from two days ago – “7 Harmless Items That Are Definitely Not Monsters: The Return!” Ellen and Mike talking all about those seemingly-harmless items that were actually monsters looking to get you, as compiled from the top comments on the last video they did on this subject! And yes, after being shamefully excluded from the last list, the infamous Super Mario 64 grand piano with its lid-maw full of teeth made it onto this one – along with such winners as the Voltorbs from Pokemon (who happen to look almost exactly like Pokeballs and made life really hard for the people playing the original games who approached them looking for items), the rock crabs from Stardew Valley (almost identical to actual rocks except for some slightly different shading, some tiny pixel eyes, and a tendency to spawn off the grid from the other rocks), and the fake save point in the True Lab from Undertale (which looks EXACTLY like a regular save point but is in fact one of the horrible amalgamation monsters that you must fight – but not too hard, because you’re on a True Pacifist Run here). Basically, when you’re playing a video game, be prepared for anything to be a monster, because it could! I mean, nine times out of ten it won’t, but that tenth time...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)’s queue to finish off today, and as it turned out, picking my Song Saturday song was very easy! Why?
Because it was the same song I listened to while writing Alice’s No Good Very Bad Escape From Grout’s Mansion! Basically, what happened is I wanted to listen to something appropriately frantic and scary while writing Alice’s escape to match the mood of the scene. And while trying to figure out what music I wanted, and where I could go on YouTube to get it, I suddenly remembered that I’d already come across a piece of music that would be perfect for the vibe I wanted – the “Survival” theme from the Dishonored soundtrack! The minute-long track that I looped repeatedly while writing the chase sequence in “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of!” Which I’d put on my blog last year for a Song Friday (because I missed a Song Saturday due to real-life shenanigans)! So I tracked that down on my blog, opened it up on YouTube, and set it to loop while writing my scene. And then, once I was done with my writing and had watched my OXtra list video, I started thinking about what I wanted to do for my Song Saturday post –
And went, “You know, I’ve already got the post with the ‘Survival’ theme open on my tumblr...and it was originally a VITD song, meaning it would go well with all the VITD-tagged stuff I posted this week...and I posted it just under a year ago, so it’s just about old enough for a reblog…”
Aaand yeah – I went ahead and reblogged it into my queue for Saturday, talking about how I still love it as a piece of music for tense scenes; how I’d used it as background for Alice escaping Grout’s; and how I was sure I would use it again for more VITD adventures. :) So the queue for the rest of the week is officially all set, yay! We love to see it!
*nods* Not too bad, eh? I do like keeping on top of things when I can, and getting the queue sorted so quickly and easily was nice. :) Now I just have to get myself to bed so I can get a decent amount of sleep! Night all!
Work – Another really-quiet day – I did the usual morning reports, I cleaned up some deceased people and duplicates in the system, I reran some reports for our Fiscal department as they were looking to see why the bank account wasn’t quite balancing on certain days, and I had the usual useless check-in call with the credit card people. And I got through another crossword. ^^; Just a day and a half to go, thankfully!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – hopped back on the bike this even and pedaled my way through –
A) The end of “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 5: Ironclad!” Which featured in the last ten-or-so minutes:
I. The five pouring more magic into the dying giant elm of Elmsteader, which happily began to heal as a result of their efforts! The moment he saw this, Happen decided he needed to show the villagers and cast a big old Mage Hand to get their attention before slapping it against the tree to add to the magic total – all while being glared at by Morven and Cressida, who remembered very well they’d been told specifically NOT TO GO NEAR THE TREE. XD But, happily, with the expenditure of a level 3 spell slot (Cressida), a couple of level 2 spell slots (Morven and Happen), a level 1 spell slot (Willowfine, who needed her level 2 spell slot to heal the guy who fell out of the tree and was screaming in agony), and a couple of cantrips (Lug and Happen), the tree received 219 whole points of magic energy, and – on a roll of 4 from Johnny – did not explode, implode, or otherwise collapse. Hooray! :D
II. The group being confronted by Edmond and the locals, who were naturally kind of pissed that the group had gone near the tree (and gotten their weapons back) – Willowfine apologized and explained that they’d had to act to save the dying tree, while Morven and Cressida were both bitchily like “you’re welcome.” XD Edmond set aside his iron collar for a moment and very cautiously cast Detect Magic on the tree – and, upon realizing that they had saved it, or at least bought it some more time, quietly palmed a little journal to Willowfine while putting his collar back on and softly told her exactly where they’d last seen North Team and how to get there. Before making a big ostentatious show out of kicking them out of the village, because he did have to save face. The group left without much of a fuss (Morven simply walking a liiiittle slower than normal), and once they were out of town (and behind a tree) checked out the journal. Which had a note inside from Edmond, explaining that one of the water-gatherers found it about two days ago, and that they were pretty sure that, based on the contents, North Team was dead. And begging them to give up their folly. :( Awww – I think this proves that, despite his grumpy demeanor, Edmond ALWAYS intended to give them the journal – he certainly didn’t have time to write a bespoke note to them after checking the tree! Good guy, honestly – I hope the elm survives. Anyway, Johnny then revealed that reading the journal would have to wait until next episode, which led into –
III. The players enacting the “rolling rite,” rolling that D100 to see if any of them would have their magic go wrong the next time they cast a spell – and after everyone avoiding consequences for ages, both Jane AND Andy had to take an envelope from the pile! Johnny was quite pleased. XD So yeah – next time Morven and Willowfine cast magic, those envelopes get cracked open, and we get to see just what it is they do!
B) The beginning of “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 6: Shapes in the Mist!” The first twenty-two minutes of which featured:
I. Willowfine reading out the most relevant journal entries from the journal they got from Edmond to the others as they prepared to journey onward! They’d written by someone named Edda from North Team, and detailed how, after they’d accidentally removed the magic from the elm of Elmsteader and gotten banished from the village, they traveled further into the woods...where one by one, every member of the team mysteriously vanished. Possibly as the result of a mysterious figure called only “the woman” who was noted to have previously harassed them. Edda’s last entry simply told the world that they’d just wanted to help. :( Morven wasn’t particularly sympathetic to North Team’s plight, summing it up as “we suck, everyone’s dead” and blaming their troubles on them being incompetent – however, she was rather interested in “the woman,” and scanned the journal for any information. There wasn’t much in the way of description – just that she was “strangely dressed” – but it did indicate that she had an MO much like The Poor Man who’d been following them around, only much more malicious. *grimace* Not fun! Anyway, the gang decided to try and find the trail of the missing team (or at least try to work their way toward the town they were trying to reach) and see if they could work out what had happened, which led to –
II. The team making their way through the hot and crispy forest, with Lug in the front leading, Willowfine, Cressida, and Morven in the middle, and Happen bringing up the rear. Happen, very in-tune with the ways of the forest (thanks to some good rolls) noticed pretty quickly that something seemed to be fucking around with his senses – all the noises of the forest were decreased, while all the noises of their clothes were increased. He relayed this to the others, and Willowfine decided it was time for them to tie themselves together in a nice chain with her fifty foot of hempen rope! You know, just in case. XD The gang thus knotted themselves up, and they continued onward, Lug marching them down a game trail –
That, on another good roll, Happen realized was going the wrong way. He went up to Lug to quietly inform him of this fact, pulling the chained-together party into a U-shape, and Johnny called for Wisdom-Perception checks for Morven, Willowfine, and Cressida, leading to –
III. Cressida getting an 8, and Johnny asking Ellen to leave the table as Cressida disappeared. The others were appropriately shocked – though they did wonder for a moment if she’d simply finally had enough of all these shenanigans and abandoned them and the mission. As Morven said, she did complain a LOT. XD But then Happen reached out with his awesome Swarmkeeper Ranger abilities (which allowed him to sense, among bunch of other things, any fey creatures within SIX MILES because they were in his favored terrain – Johnny was like “holy SHIT” XD) –
And managed to sense Cressida, surrounded by a crowd of fey creatures, traveling off impossibly fast. He told the others what he’d sensed, and after a brief argument about whether they needed to go after Cressida or form defensive ranks, they decided to go after Cressida –
Except. Around this time, Happen began to hear a strange, haunting melody. And when Johnny asked him for a Constitution saving throw, he flubbed it, leading to –
IV. Luke leaving the table, and the others rushing off, only to realize Happen was not with them and had also vanished! There was a very distinct moment of panic among the three remaining, and after trying to figure out what the best thing to do would be, they chose to huddle together, facing each other and looking over each other’s shoulders, arms linked. Which was a good thing, because when Johnny next called for Perception rolls, and Morven flubbed hers, she did not get immediately vanished! Instead, Johnny said that the melody got louder and louder in her head until it was the only thing she could hear, and paralyzed her so she couldn’t move. *grimacing* Lug, thanks to his good roll, could also hear the melody but was able to resist its effects – and, sensing it was bad news, told everyone to cover their ears. Which Willowfine of course did, but Morven naturally could not...
And that is where I left it! Oooh boy – people are being spirited away by the fairies, and it is NOT good! We’ll see tomorrow if Morven gets got, and, if so, what Lug and Willowfine do about it! Hopefully not magic, because Willowfine’s still got that envelope...
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – spent tonight’s writing session refining Alice’s mad dash out of the Grout mansion post-Bach setting it ablaze, with poor Alice:
A) Having to leap off a balcony into a room that was mostly on fire – which she rapidly discovered included the ghouls that were in it
B) Trying desperately to see if she could at least save 6768 and 6789 when she came across the door to the mirrored rooms they “lived” in – only to open it and find that the whole place had already gone up in flame
C) Running frantically through the various hallways up to the other side of the balcony she’d been on previously (where Bach was before he fled), her memories of the Liddell house fire assaulting her mind
D) Following Cheshire as he led her through the burning halls to the one safe window in the place
E) Throwing herself through said window and scrambling off the roof to land on the lawn, just out of danger
F) Curling up in a ball and crying :(
Yeaaaah – it was not a fun page today for Alice! Which means that it’s not going to be a surprise at all tomorrow when she shows up at LaCroix’s office in a VERY foul mood...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – it was back to my Watch Later today to start whittling down the number of OXBoxtra lists I had sitting there, starting with the OXtra list from two days ago – “7 Harmless Items That Are Definitely Not Monsters: The Return!” Ellen and Mike talking all about those seemingly-harmless items that were actually monsters looking to get you, as compiled from the top comments on the last video they did on this subject! And yes, after being shamefully excluded from the last list, the infamous Super Mario 64 grand piano with its lid-maw full of teeth made it onto this one – along with such winners as the Voltorbs from Pokemon (who happen to look almost exactly like Pokeballs and made life really hard for the people playing the original games who approached them looking for items), the rock crabs from Stardew Valley (almost identical to actual rocks except for some slightly different shading, some tiny pixel eyes, and a tendency to spawn off the grid from the other rocks), and the fake save point in the True Lab from Undertale (which looks EXACTLY like a regular save point but is in fact one of the horrible amalgamation monsters that you must fight – but not too hard, because you’re on a True Pacifist Run here). Basically, when you’re playing a video game, be prepared for anything to be a monster, because it could! I mean, nine times out of ten it won’t, but that tenth time...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)’s queue to finish off today, and as it turned out, picking my Song Saturday song was very easy! Why?
Because it was the same song I listened to while writing Alice’s No Good Very Bad Escape From Grout’s Mansion! Basically, what happened is I wanted to listen to something appropriately frantic and scary while writing Alice’s escape to match the mood of the scene. And while trying to figure out what music I wanted, and where I could go on YouTube to get it, I suddenly remembered that I’d already come across a piece of music that would be perfect for the vibe I wanted – the “Survival” theme from the Dishonored soundtrack! The minute-long track that I looped repeatedly while writing the chase sequence in “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of!” Which I’d put on my blog last year for a Song Friday (because I missed a Song Saturday due to real-life shenanigans)! So I tracked that down on my blog, opened it up on YouTube, and set it to loop while writing my scene. And then, once I was done with my writing and had watched my OXtra list video, I started thinking about what I wanted to do for my Song Saturday post –
And went, “You know, I’ve already got the post with the ‘Survival’ theme open on my tumblr...and it was originally a VITD song, meaning it would go well with all the VITD-tagged stuff I posted this week...and I posted it just under a year ago, so it’s just about old enough for a reblog…”
Aaand yeah – I went ahead and reblogged it into my queue for Saturday, talking about how I still love it as a piece of music for tense scenes; how I’d used it as background for Alice escaping Grout’s; and how I was sure I would use it again for more VITD adventures. :) So the queue for the rest of the week is officially all set, yay! We love to see it!
*nods* Not too bad, eh? I do like keeping on top of things when I can, and getting the queue sorted so quickly and easily was nice. :) Now I just have to get myself to bed so I can get a decent amount of sleep! Night all!
