Pretty Okay Wednesday
Mar. 11th, 2026 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickThe weather was nice but not spectacular (not as warm as yesterday, though still sunny for the most part -- snow is largely gone, hooray), and the events of the day pretty much matched:
Work – It was a quieter day at work today, with less in the way of irritating moments, I’m happy to say –
A) We had a handful of credit card calls, but unlike yesterday, they all went through, including a retry of one of the pledges that was vexing us yesterday (the other one the lady went on and did herself on the website)
B) The check-in call with the credit card people was pretty simple and to the point, and I was able to bring a couple of other issues to our contact’s attention (missing pledge payments and missing ACH rejects) – don’t know if anything will COME of them, but at least I did my part
C) And I was able to spend most of my day working on the obituaries and other roster maintenance tasks, which was a nice break from some of the nonsense we’ve been dealing with recently
*nods* I will take that for a Wednesday! Now we just have to see what Thursday is like...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – pedaled my way through the final chunk of “Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #2 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla” tonight! Though I have to admit, what started with a bang kind of ended with a whimper thanks to time restraints...anyway, the final half-hour or so of the adventure featured:
A) The party leaping the chasm and traveling down into the deepest part of the dungeon, past some creepy columns with the face of a gaunt high elf with skin like it had been yanked taut over his bones and words like “POWER” and “DESTINY” and all that on them (Astarion, possibly non-sarcastically, it was hard to tell: “Nice down here, isn’t it?”) and into a giant chamber where they saw the following:
I. A strange glowing orb with red lightning arcing off it atop an upper platform
II. Strange vats with vaguely-humanoid shapes glimpsed inside around the walls
III. A trio of unfortunates chained to the wall behind the machine – later revealed to be a priestess of Sune, a halfling thief, and a high elf in Cowled Wizard robes
IV. And, standing looking at the captives in front of the machines, a gaunt high elf with skin like it had been yanked taut over his bones – aka, the clone of Jon Irenicus! He turned when heard the party enter, regarding them with impassive, soulless malice as he recognized them as “the companions of the Bhaalspawn” (pretty much confirming that “Tav” in this instance was in fact a Durge). He seemed unworried about the fact that they had tracked them down, calmly informing them that he needed the power of their companion to complete his Great Work –
And then, after looking them all over, informing Gale and Karlach that they had great power within them, that would help power his machines for many years to come. (Given that they’re both canonically on the verge of exploding for a decent chunk of the game, I’m not so sure of that, Irenicus!) He thus proceeded to call to someone in a nearby vat, telling her that she was allowed to indulge her appetites on the other four so long as she left Gale and Karlach alive –
And the vat opened to reveal a beautiful-but-creepy high elf woman who, despite lacking Irenicus’s pulled-tight skin, was clearly related to him. This was a clone of Jon’s sadistic horrible vampire sister, Bodhi, as we learned a bit later (though Neil recognized her description right away and was like “oh SHIT”), and Mark the DM pulled in Amelia the Narrator to play her and be a co-DM of sorts for a while because why the hell not? She proceeded to giggle about the idea of absolutely fucking up poor Astarion, Shadowheart, La’zel, and Wyll –
B) And with that, initiative was rolled, and combat began! In order, we had –
I. Astarion hissing at Bodhi (revealing his vampiric nature once and for all) before dashing up onto the upper platform and doing another cool jump to hit Bodhi with one of the Arrows of Fire that he stole out of “Tav’s” pack! He got Advantage on the roll thanks to going first, and did some decent damage to her – but not as much as he’d hoped, as she yanked the flaming arrow out of her flesh with a little grin. (Astarion, seeing this: “Oh shit.”) And then Irenicus pulled some bullshit Legendary Action that allowed Bodhi to basically tack an extra turn onto the end of Astarion’s, letting her cartwheel her way up to him in an admittedly awesome way and attempt to stab him (Astarion was very much scared AND horny). Fortunately her attack missed, but she was still VERY much in his personal space…
II. Irenicus proceeding on his turn to harness the arcane power of the no-longer-Cowled Wizard before hitting poor Karlach with a Dominate Person. Gale attempted to use the Counterspell scroll Astarion had gifted him to counter it, but unfortunately didn’t roll high enough to pull it off – and when given the chance to fight Irenicus off with a Wisdom saving throw, Karlach flubbed it. Meaning Irenicus was able to get control of her...and command her to attack Wyll, standing beside her, on her go… (Poor Theo was like “hey” XD)
III. Shadowheart, after some contemplation of what she could do, deciding to blast Bodhi with Guiding Bolt from a Level II spell slot (and getting Advantage on the roll thanks to Bing Bong helping her) – and managing to at least MOSTLY fry the woman with a healthy blast of radiant damage! Though, sadly, it wasn’t quite enough to take her out of the fight (as you might imagine, Astarion wasn’t happy about that). Shadowheart then attempted to get to Gale to try and help him stealth up, but wasn’t quite able to reach him with the movement she had…
IV. Wyll going with the old classic Eldritch Blast, also on Bodhi – and unfortunately missing thanks to a low roll. Bodhi was very amused while Wyll (and Theo) were very frustrated.
V. Karlach attacking Wyll as commanded – but doing so with a simple unarmed strike instead of drawing her weapon, and without going into a barbarian rage, meaning that while she did punch Wyll in the face, she only did two points of damage. Hey, you did not command her to kill him EFFICIENTLY, Irenicus! Should have thought about the player looking for loopholes! XD Anyway, she then made another Wisdom saving throw to toss off his control, and again biffed it. Poor girl. :(
VI. Lae’zel deciding to put Bing Bong to good use by grabbing him, setting him on fire by holding him next to Karlach, and then throwing him at Irenicus! Unfortunately, while Mark loved the plan, the dice did not, and Lae’zel completely fluffed the roll, meaning she ended up flinging a screaming Bing Bong into the ground, instantly “killing” him and sending him back to the Hells (where, as per his final words, he very much did not want to go!). Shadowheart was naturally furious, while Lae’zel was calmly like “let’s not turn on each other.” XD She then used her githyanki jump spell to get all the way up into Irenicus’s personal space for later – which turned out to bite her in the ass, as per the next turn...
VII. Bodhi, seeing Lae’zel get close to her brother, cartwheeling away from Astarion to backstab her instead – and getting a nat 20 on the roll. Meaning she critically hit, did 31 points of damage, and basically downed Lae’zel in one stab! *shakes head* That’s what you get for killing Bing Bong, Lae’zel. She then flipped her way back to Astarion and tried to stab him again –
Only to miss again, because she did not roll nearly as well that time. She complained that she hated him while Astarion once again complained that it was unfair of her to be that hot while she was trying to kill him. XD
VIII. And Gale preparing to take his turn – only to hear boots racing toward them, and Drizzt yelling at him to destroy the machine, as it would take the clones out too. Gale chose to take the “subtle hint” and, after considering his options, decided to do a second-level Magic Missile –
And, well, Magic Missile IS the spell that always hits, so the orb never stood a chance. Four flaming missiles later, it was out of commission – and so were Irenicus and Bodhi, who were incinerated shortly after the orb was destroyed. The explosion admittedly also brought Astarion down to 0 HP, but as per D&D rules, that just meant he was downed, not dead – and he collapsed while giving the dying Bodhi both a shit-eating grin and double middle fingers, so I don’t think he minded THAT much. :p Wyll and Shadowheart rushed to aid the fallen and get their wounds tended as the prisoners were unshackled –
C) And that, thanks to time constraints, was the end of the adventure! Meaning we never got to see the group return and reunite with “Tav” (and possibly inform them “hey, so, we heard you’re a Bhaalspawn?”), nor see Guenhwyvar in action (she never even got put into the initiative order from what I saw!), nor even get thanked by the freed prisoners! >( Like, okay, I get that Mark HAD to cut things short because he realized that his big boss fight was going to run over the time he was allotted, but still – it’s kind of frustrating that the final scene of this adventure was Wyll and Shadowheart scrambling to keep Lae’zel and Astarion from dying, and nothing else. I think you should have maybe gone with a less complex final setpiece, Mark! And maybe not bothered shoehorning Drizzt Do’Urden in there, as he didn’t really add much value. *shrug* The whole thing was still fun overall, though, and I’m happy I watched it. Tomorrow, we return to the Mojave – and then immediately leave it for the Sierra Madre as P. D. Shoot finally braves “Dead Money…”
2. Continue final edits on Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – took me a bit longer than I’d hoped (mostly because there were more fiddly edits of the “adding in extra actions to dialogue tags” and “changing up complete sentences” types), but I DID in fact complete my final edit pass of Chapter 4 tonight! Meaning tomorrow will be dedicated to getting this sucker posted on Archive Of Our Own. :) And then it’ll be back to Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” for a while so I can see about getting that sucker up sometime this century...
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check, because, as usual, no time – workout video write-up took most of my evening, and editing Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” swallowed up the rest. *grumbles* I hope I can at least watch the OXBox list video tomorrow! But then again, posting a new chapter of a fic always takes ages too, I’ve noticed...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: No check – while it was another Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)-only day, I didn’t have the time to go looking for an appropriate Song Saturday for my queue tonight either. Though, given I will be posting another chapter of “The Van Dort Vacancy” soon, I suppose I should prioritize one of my “Valicer In The Dark” songs...remind me to go through those again tomorrow.
Yeah, I'd classify that as "good, but not great." Very pleased I got Chapter 4 of "The Van Dort Vacancy" sorted, at least -- I was very much hoping to post that this week! And now it is time for me to head to bed and try and get some sleep. Night all!
Work – It was a quieter day at work today, with less in the way of irritating moments, I’m happy to say –
A) We had a handful of credit card calls, but unlike yesterday, they all went through, including a retry of one of the pledges that was vexing us yesterday (the other one the lady went on and did herself on the website)
B) The check-in call with the credit card people was pretty simple and to the point, and I was able to bring a couple of other issues to our contact’s attention (missing pledge payments and missing ACH rejects) – don’t know if anything will COME of them, but at least I did my part
C) And I was able to spend most of my day working on the obituaries and other roster maintenance tasks, which was a nice break from some of the nonsense we’ve been dealing with recently
*nods* I will take that for a Wednesday! Now we just have to see what Thursday is like...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – pedaled my way through the final chunk of “Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #2 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla” tonight! Though I have to admit, what started with a bang kind of ended with a whimper thanks to time restraints...anyway, the final half-hour or so of the adventure featured:
A) The party leaping the chasm and traveling down into the deepest part of the dungeon, past some creepy columns with the face of a gaunt high elf with skin like it had been yanked taut over his bones and words like “POWER” and “DESTINY” and all that on them (Astarion, possibly non-sarcastically, it was hard to tell: “Nice down here, isn’t it?”) and into a giant chamber where they saw the following:
I. A strange glowing orb with red lightning arcing off it atop an upper platform
II. Strange vats with vaguely-humanoid shapes glimpsed inside around the walls
III. A trio of unfortunates chained to the wall behind the machine – later revealed to be a priestess of Sune, a halfling thief, and a high elf in Cowled Wizard robes
IV. And, standing looking at the captives in front of the machines, a gaunt high elf with skin like it had been yanked taut over his bones – aka, the clone of Jon Irenicus! He turned when heard the party enter, regarding them with impassive, soulless malice as he recognized them as “the companions of the Bhaalspawn” (pretty much confirming that “Tav” in this instance was in fact a Durge). He seemed unworried about the fact that they had tracked them down, calmly informing them that he needed the power of their companion to complete his Great Work –
And then, after looking them all over, informing Gale and Karlach that they had great power within them, that would help power his machines for many years to come. (Given that they’re both canonically on the verge of exploding for a decent chunk of the game, I’m not so sure of that, Irenicus!) He thus proceeded to call to someone in a nearby vat, telling her that she was allowed to indulge her appetites on the other four so long as she left Gale and Karlach alive –
And the vat opened to reveal a beautiful-but-creepy high elf woman who, despite lacking Irenicus’s pulled-tight skin, was clearly related to him. This was a clone of Jon’s sadistic horrible vampire sister, Bodhi, as we learned a bit later (though Neil recognized her description right away and was like “oh SHIT”), and Mark the DM pulled in Amelia the Narrator to play her and be a co-DM of sorts for a while because why the hell not? She proceeded to giggle about the idea of absolutely fucking up poor Astarion, Shadowheart, La’zel, and Wyll –
B) And with that, initiative was rolled, and combat began! In order, we had –
I. Astarion hissing at Bodhi (revealing his vampiric nature once and for all) before dashing up onto the upper platform and doing another cool jump to hit Bodhi with one of the Arrows of Fire that he stole out of “Tav’s” pack! He got Advantage on the roll thanks to going first, and did some decent damage to her – but not as much as he’d hoped, as she yanked the flaming arrow out of her flesh with a little grin. (Astarion, seeing this: “Oh shit.”) And then Irenicus pulled some bullshit Legendary Action that allowed Bodhi to basically tack an extra turn onto the end of Astarion’s, letting her cartwheel her way up to him in an admittedly awesome way and attempt to stab him (Astarion was very much scared AND horny). Fortunately her attack missed, but she was still VERY much in his personal space…
II. Irenicus proceeding on his turn to harness the arcane power of the no-longer-Cowled Wizard before hitting poor Karlach with a Dominate Person. Gale attempted to use the Counterspell scroll Astarion had gifted him to counter it, but unfortunately didn’t roll high enough to pull it off – and when given the chance to fight Irenicus off with a Wisdom saving throw, Karlach flubbed it. Meaning Irenicus was able to get control of her...and command her to attack Wyll, standing beside her, on her go… (Poor Theo was like “hey” XD)
III. Shadowheart, after some contemplation of what she could do, deciding to blast Bodhi with Guiding Bolt from a Level II spell slot (and getting Advantage on the roll thanks to Bing Bong helping her) – and managing to at least MOSTLY fry the woman with a healthy blast of radiant damage! Though, sadly, it wasn’t quite enough to take her out of the fight (as you might imagine, Astarion wasn’t happy about that). Shadowheart then attempted to get to Gale to try and help him stealth up, but wasn’t quite able to reach him with the movement she had…
IV. Wyll going with the old classic Eldritch Blast, also on Bodhi – and unfortunately missing thanks to a low roll. Bodhi was very amused while Wyll (and Theo) were very frustrated.
V. Karlach attacking Wyll as commanded – but doing so with a simple unarmed strike instead of drawing her weapon, and without going into a barbarian rage, meaning that while she did punch Wyll in the face, she only did two points of damage. Hey, you did not command her to kill him EFFICIENTLY, Irenicus! Should have thought about the player looking for loopholes! XD Anyway, she then made another Wisdom saving throw to toss off his control, and again biffed it. Poor girl. :(
VI. Lae’zel deciding to put Bing Bong to good use by grabbing him, setting him on fire by holding him next to Karlach, and then throwing him at Irenicus! Unfortunately, while Mark loved the plan, the dice did not, and Lae’zel completely fluffed the roll, meaning she ended up flinging a screaming Bing Bong into the ground, instantly “killing” him and sending him back to the Hells (where, as per his final words, he very much did not want to go!). Shadowheart was naturally furious, while Lae’zel was calmly like “let’s not turn on each other.” XD She then used her githyanki jump spell to get all the way up into Irenicus’s personal space for later – which turned out to bite her in the ass, as per the next turn...
VII. Bodhi, seeing Lae’zel get close to her brother, cartwheeling away from Astarion to backstab her instead – and getting a nat 20 on the roll. Meaning she critically hit, did 31 points of damage, and basically downed Lae’zel in one stab! *shakes head* That’s what you get for killing Bing Bong, Lae’zel. She then flipped her way back to Astarion and tried to stab him again –
Only to miss again, because she did not roll nearly as well that time. She complained that she hated him while Astarion once again complained that it was unfair of her to be that hot while she was trying to kill him. XD
VIII. And Gale preparing to take his turn – only to hear boots racing toward them, and Drizzt yelling at him to destroy the machine, as it would take the clones out too. Gale chose to take the “subtle hint” and, after considering his options, decided to do a second-level Magic Missile –
And, well, Magic Missile IS the spell that always hits, so the orb never stood a chance. Four flaming missiles later, it was out of commission – and so were Irenicus and Bodhi, who were incinerated shortly after the orb was destroyed. The explosion admittedly also brought Astarion down to 0 HP, but as per D&D rules, that just meant he was downed, not dead – and he collapsed while giving the dying Bodhi both a shit-eating grin and double middle fingers, so I don’t think he minded THAT much. :p Wyll and Shadowheart rushed to aid the fallen and get their wounds tended as the prisoners were unshackled –
C) And that, thanks to time constraints, was the end of the adventure! Meaning we never got to see the group return and reunite with “Tav” (and possibly inform them “hey, so, we heard you’re a Bhaalspawn?”), nor see Guenhwyvar in action (she never even got put into the initiative order from what I saw!), nor even get thanked by the freed prisoners! >( Like, okay, I get that Mark HAD to cut things short because he realized that his big boss fight was going to run over the time he was allotted, but still – it’s kind of frustrating that the final scene of this adventure was Wyll and Shadowheart scrambling to keep Lae’zel and Astarion from dying, and nothing else. I think you should have maybe gone with a less complex final setpiece, Mark! And maybe not bothered shoehorning Drizzt Do’Urden in there, as he didn’t really add much value. *shrug* The whole thing was still fun overall, though, and I’m happy I watched it. Tomorrow, we return to the Mojave – and then immediately leave it for the Sierra Madre as P. D. Shoot finally braves “Dead Money…”
2. Continue final edits on Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – took me a bit longer than I’d hoped (mostly because there were more fiddly edits of the “adding in extra actions to dialogue tags” and “changing up complete sentences” types), but I DID in fact complete my final edit pass of Chapter 4 tonight! Meaning tomorrow will be dedicated to getting this sucker posted on Archive Of Our Own. :) And then it’ll be back to Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” for a while so I can see about getting that sucker up sometime this century...
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check, because, as usual, no time – workout video write-up took most of my evening, and editing Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” swallowed up the rest. *grumbles* I hope I can at least watch the OXBox list video tomorrow! But then again, posting a new chapter of a fic always takes ages too, I’ve noticed...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: No check – while it was another Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)-only day, I didn’t have the time to go looking for an appropriate Song Saturday for my queue tonight either. Though, given I will be posting another chapter of “The Van Dort Vacancy” soon, I suppose I should prioritize one of my “Valicer In The Dark” songs...remind me to go through those again tomorrow.
Yeah, I'd classify that as "good, but not great." Very pleased I got Chapter 4 of "The Van Dort Vacancy" sorted, at least -- I was very much hoping to post that this week! And now it is time for me to head to bed and try and get some sleep. Night all!
