Between the Ticks

A little update

2011-09-21T23:45:00.000-05:00

Hey folks, I haven't posted here for a while now. My writing efforts have been focused on revision and rewrites for the Belgian Run. Its a lot hard to post regular word counts and keep track of productivity when the guidelines and the level of work needed for each differs from section to section.

I've also been heavily focused on preparing and setting up a new blog that focuses specifically on role-playing and gaming. You can find it at http://betweentherolls.blogspot.com yes I did continue the "Between the" tradition. For those of you reading the Encounter reports you will find them there going forward.

Weekend Word Count

2011-09-12T20:48:00.002-05:00

It was a good weekend of gaming, writing and cleaning. Final word count for the whole weekend is 2745. Which 255 short of my daily goal.

On the plus side the first draft is nearly finished of the Belgian Run.

Lost Crown of Neverwinter - Session 5

2011-09-10T01:07:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it here is a link to my Session 4 Report

One quick note before I begin. I forgot to mention that the last session was run with the assistance of my new ASUS Transformer Tablet using the Android App DM's Assistant and it worked like a charm. This week I attempted to use the same app and it failed in no uncertain terms. Sadly I think a large part of the problem could be found somewhere between the chair and the keyboard. So before I write the app off and delete it I will be giving it another try. Maybe even for Lair Assault this coming weekend. If any of you have other suggestions for Android Apps to try out please comment. I am completely new to the Android platform.

I took time during the morning to do some prep for the encounter ND thought it was going to be a walk through for the PC. That couldn't have been further from the truth. Honestly in retrospect I would have to say this was one of the toughest encounters to date.

There were a couple of small changes to the table that should be mentioned. This week we are running with 7 players. So we have a new Bladesinger. Also Locke our Halfling thief is back with his deadly sling. Sadly our normal Bladesinger is still MIA.

This weeks table of 7

Our party left the gates and continued in the carriage to the bridge. I gave them a brief description of the Lord Protector's efforts to rebuild and the current state of the city. Then they arrived at the bridge, where they were greeted by the guards. I described them as moving with military precision and that they were on high alert.

The guards made it clear that due to the civil unrest that the bridge had been closed to the public. The group quickly flashed their new badges and were allowed across. Once the guards had seen the badges they pretty much ignored the group and sent them on their way across the bridge on foot. As far as the guards were concerned anyone who had a badge and wanted to go across should be able to take care of themselves.

Starting positions

As soon as the group was across the Plaguechanged creatures rushed out of the ruined houses and attacked. The party reacted much faster then the enemy might have hoped and were able to get the drop on them. Our new Bladesinger rushed to one side and smacked on of the for a respectable amount of damage and followed it up with a Mage Hand attack that tried and failed to push one of the monsters into the river but knocked it prone.

Next up was the ranger who put an arrow into one of them, then back on to the bridge to keep the distance between him and the monsters. Locke, our thief, hurried past the fountain and hit the one the Bladesinger had already damaged with devastating surprise attack.

The impact was enough to bloody the creature which then unleashed a massive forest blast. Locke was out of range of the burst but the Bladesinger took the blunt of the attack. He was left bloody as well.

Darbeck, the Dwarven cleric, and Fondle the great, both moved in and attacked on opposite sides of the battle field. They each attacked and cause minimal damage. However they did position themselves where they would keep the monsters off the archers. The cleric was also able to do a healing word and keep the new Bladesinger in the battle.

The plaguechanged wretches moved in to attack. Their positioning was heavily dependent on keeping as many of the party in their blast radius as possible. These creatures were under no delusion that they would get bloody before the fight was over. They did some damage throughout the party; including making the Bladesinger blood again and hitting Darbeck and Fondle pretty hard.

The Broxa another of the groups scouts opened up at range and nailed one of the wretches. The hit was enough to bloody and the resulting explosion of blue plaguechanged flames was enough to blood the Drow Bladesinger and the Dwarven priest. Afterward followed the other Ranger’s example and backed up on to the bridge

James why of commenting on the number of
pictures I was taking

Broxa’s attack was the third time one of the creatures had exploded after being hit with a ranged attack. This led to a bit conjecture that the explosive attacks were the results of being hit by ranged attacks. One of the players also pointed out that after each of the ranged attacks the creatures were also bloodied. I just smiled and listened to the ideas and left it up to them to decide.

The plaguechanged Wretches were the last to go and they charged in at the closest enemies. One went after Fondle and significant damage. The hit it delivered along with the other damage Fondle already absorbed was more than enough to drop him.

The next few rounds didn’t go well for the party. Some of the characters were two afraid to attack out of fear of setting off another burst reaction and further injury party members. This fear was so prevalent that one of the Rangers used his standard action to scan the area for other dangers. The rest of the players called for him to do more but he refused. Of the 7 characters 5 of them were unconscious at one point in the battle. As a DM i was honestly concerned about the possibility of a TPK. At might have helped the group had I not rolled 5 natural twenties over the course of the night. The joke by the end of the session was that I was warming up for Lair Assault.

In the end the party made a massive turn around. Darbeck rolled high enough to spend a healing surge on his Death Save. Then Ander, who was up right afterwards rolled a natural 20 on his Death save and spent a healing surge. Once Darbeck was up a healing word got the Bladesinger back into the fight. Together the party was able to finish off the last of them. Sadly they couldn’t do it before Fondle the Great was Fondle the Dead.

When the combat was over we played through the initiative order until everyone else was healed and back up. Broxia was the last to be saved. That didn’t happen before the group’s thief, Locke, was able to get in there and become the proud owner of a second set of badges. It will be interesting to see what becomes of those in the future.

I didn't get the chance to talk with the other DM's after the session but apparently one of the tables had something of a chain reaction happen. The party and the monsters were all grouped tightly tighter and fighting it out at the base of the Wing Wyvern Bridge. Then when one of the Plaguechanged Retches exploded several others were caught in the blast. Then when they were hit they all went off. Sorry to say I don't know how the whole thing turned out. Either way it would have made for a nasty attack if the majority of them hit.

5 Stages of Star Wars Grief

2011-09-08T11:46:00.000-05:00

Lost Crown of Neverwinter - Session 4

2011-09-07T23:29:00.000-05:00

We had a couple of minor table changes for this evening session. Our lovely Bladesinger was at home sick and the Halfling thief Locke was nowhere to be found. Doing their best to pick up the slack were a Scout and a Range. Their ranged attacks might have been more helpful if they hadn’t kept firing at targets that were within melee reach, but more on that later.

The players settle in and get ready for the Encounters Session.

A quick trip across lake to the Lord Protector’s castle was all it took to get the scene started. The main group of PC’s arrived at the same time as a second boat that contained the scouts and ranger. The General turned the group over to an aide who quickly led them up the walkway and into a room where they were to wait for the Lord Protector. In the few minutes they had they quickly examined the room. Most of the questions revolved around what they could line their own pockets with. Their own exploration was cut short as the doors were opened and the Lord Protector arrival announced.

The Protector knew how to make a grand entrance and drew the group’s attention instantly to him. Fondle the great, was instantly attracted to the Lord Protector, the handsome man that he was. An aide followed him in and supplied the group with a selection of meat, cheese, and bread. Other offers of food and drink were ignored or outright rejected. In the end the players were much more interested in getting down business.

The Protector acknowledged and respected their desires and made his offer in plain simple language. He wanted them to find and bring the So-called heir to him. Then they could discuss the state of Neverwinter and his claim to the throne face to face. So far all attempts at diplomacy had been ignored. The group was once again somewhat split in their reaction to the Protector vs. The Heir. They wanted to ensure that the Heir wasn't being brought in to be executed. He was quick to reassure them that was not the case and that he only wished to talk.

In the end it was the Lord Protector’s generous offer that ended any discussion among the party. Afterwards they were all given a new badge as well as their initial payments. Then sent on their way to an awaiting carriage where they were given a tour of the wall that kept the Plaguechanged out of the recovering section of the city. The tour ended when they arrived at one of the gates and noticed a few men in blood splattered cloaks lingering around the entrance and no sign of the guards. They were quick to act. Our new Ranger peppered a group of bandits with arrows and with that attack combat was underway.

The wall section is from a Heroescape
accessory.

Two of the bandits ducked into the gate house, closing the doors behind them, and began to work the cranks that would open the gates. A third one that was close to the door moves out enough to toss a dagger but stay near enough to the doors to run interference. The rest of them mobbed the archer that had just turned them in to pin cushions.

Those fighting furthest from the gate were being stalled by the bandits although they didn't know it yet. The group’s new Drow scout proved once again that his race wasn’t one to be trusted when he fired a rapid shot volley with the Fondle the Great, at the centre of the burst. Of course he scored a solid hit on fondle and did a poor man's crit. At least one of the two bandits in the burst was also hit.

It didn't take long for someone to break away from the main melee and to rush for the doors. He was intercepted by the bandit nearest the doors. One of the bandits inside swung open the door threw a dagger and then closed the door behind him. This tactic became a major part of the bandit strategy - Minor Action to open the door / Standard Action to attack / Minor Action to close the door / repeat as required.

The first PCs to make to the doors were the party's Ranger and the Scout they both pulled open the door and fired their bow. They both also received a Mace to the side of their head for their efforts. Opportunity attacks are a wonderful thing especially when a DM gets to use them. In the end their attacks were enough to bloody both of the remaining bandits.

On the bandits turn they took their attack and closed the door behind them. By then the group’s fighter had reached the door and went in and finish off one of the bandits. On the other side of the gate the bandit had made the mistake of shifting out of the door and a party member made good use of the mistake and got inside to finish him off.

Everyone was fairly surprised by how quickly they had blown through the Encounter. Then the arrival of Seldry made everything make sense. About half of my table had played through Gates of Neverdeath and their PC recognized her at once. They did ask about the whereabouts of the crown and if she could help them find the Heir. Of course she declined and directed them to the tavern. One character who had shown the most loyalty to the Heir asked if she would come with them. Again she declined saying that she had business with the Lord Protector she had to attend too. Afterwards she wished them luck and continued on her way.

It was a good session all in all. My only disappointment was that none of the PCs ran for the gate and jumped on it to try and pull it back down. I thought it would have been a rather heroic moment would have made a great peace of cinema.

Lost Crown of Neverwinter – Session 3

2011-08-31T16:04:00.000-05:00

Ten days have passed since the PC’s fought alongside the Heir and defeated the White Plaguechanged Dragon. The characters have all been keeping themselves very busy. We started off with a quick trip around the table to see what everyone had been up to for the past ten days. At the same time I also asked about the badges they had received from the heir at the end of the last session and what they had done with them.

There was a surprisingly interesting split in what the party and they had done with the badges. First off no one had sold them, which was my first big surprise. Second two of the players were proudly wearing them. One of those two players went so far as to say that he had been actively supporting the Heir and trying to recruit people to his cause for the past 10 days. Another couple of players said that they were wearing them as well. However they were being discreet about them. One had his on the inside of his clock so he could flash it if he thought it would be helpful. The other one kept her badge tucked under the lapels of her cloak. The last of the group had tossed them in their backpacks and basically forgot about them.

There was a lot interesting discussion on the forums before the game about making the encounter more cinematic and to try and give the fight a real bar room brawl. There were several great suggestions for the encounter including one person directing us to the At Will Blog for a great selection of barroom fights encounter and at will powers. http://at-will.omnivangelist.net/2010/10/dungeons-flagons-essentials-barroom-blitz/ I really liked this idea and grabbed the information for the encounter.

The session starts with the PC hanging out at a local tavern. Due to rising tensions in city the owner is enforcing a strict no weapons policy and now collects them at the door and stores them in a lock box under the bar table. This fact had several of the players very worried and why shouldn’t they be worried there hasn’t been a single non-combat encounter in the history of Encounters. Ok it could be argued that the PC’s could have tried to talk their way out of a number of encounters over the past year. It isn’t something that I’ve seen done at our store, and we have an average of 3 to 4 table’s right from the very beginning.

I went around the table one player at a time and allowed them each the chance to move through the tavern and interact with the various NPC’s. Most of the pcs were very interested in the group of young
blades. A couple even joined the table and flashed the Heir badges to win the groups respect. Mean while our groups Dead Rat Deserter skittered in rat form about the bar listening in to conversation. Another PC walked up to the Water Elemental Genasi and rudely asked what the hell she was? The later made for an interesting bit of role-play.

To keep the role-playing portion of the evening moving smoothly I made four passes around the table. It gave everyone enough time to do something. To learn a little from the NPC’s while at the same time not dragging it out for too long and boring them. During each pass of the table the Dwarven PC did nothing beyond getting another drink.

Right before I had the general arrive I went around the table and asked everyone how drunk they were on a scale of 1 to 5. Several players pushed for zero saying that they weren’t drinking. In turn I pointed out that the barkeeper would have tossed them if they hadn’t been drinking at least a little. After all he is running a business and selling drinks is how he makes money. So they happily accepted a rating of 1. The dwarf who had done nothing but drink each and every time I came around to him also claimed to only be a 1. His response gave the whole table a good laugh. We settled the issue by having him make a saving throw, success meant he was a 3 and failure meant he would be a 4. His dwarven constitution to the rescue and he succeed.

The general’s arrival silenced the bar and made the Harrag, the tavern owner, even more uncomfortable. His place was packed with people who supported the Heir and here was the Lord’s General. The general called out for the PC’s they tried to play sly to learn more about what was going on before giving themselves over to the General. This plan would have worked out much better had they all been on the same page. One of the characters stood up and said “Yep, that’s us!” and walked over to the general. Within seconds the place exploded tankards flew thru the air at PCs and the general.

I handed around a print out of the various option presented on the At-Will website http://at-will.omnivangelist.net/2010/10/dungeons-flagons-essentials-barroom-blitz/ and the players got down to business. One of the options available was lighting up spill alcohol as a fire attack, to represent this potential option anytime a PC or NPC attacked with a bottle I marked the square they attack to keep track of the spills.

The Halfling thief went straight for the lockbox that contained the group’s weapon. While the group’s main fighters went straight for the door and fully intended to leave. It wasn’t until he was called back by the general to help that he stopped and got involved. The rest of the group got down to business; bottles were thrown or smashed over opponents, and the bladesinger made do with a handle off a broom in place of her trusted sword. All in all it was going well for the group.

When it was the drunken brawlers turn they did little slow the PCs down. Then roughly half of them collapsed due to their own drunkenness. After that the group worked with the General and cleaned house. Fondle the groups fighter started tossing them out of the bar. While the Halfling lit up a group of them who were standing in pools of alcohol and broken bottles. Harrogate and the General both flipped over the sudden flames.

Fire was more than enough to take out take the spirits out of the brawlers. One of them ran from the bar trailing smoke behind him and dove off the pier. Others had to be put out by the PC’s and a couple of the General’s Bodyguards.

The Drow hunter didn't have the best run of luck. His lack of ranged weapons and poor dice rolling left him bloody, in a pool of alcohol, and beside a fireplace. It wasn't a good position for him. A drunken brawler grabbed a flaming log and set him on fire. Then he tried to make good his escape through window only to be cut off by PCs. They were kind enough to leave him a path, but only if he wanted to risk four opportunity attacks. In the end they beat him down hard and I don’t think these drunks will be causing any problems soon.

Monday's Word Count

2011-08-29T23:41:00.001-05:00

Nil, Nada, Zip, Zero, Zilch. That about sums it up. I made a choice to go and take a run at Lair Assault instead of writing. Guess that shows me where my priorities are. Sigh! Enough of this time to go to sleep

Weekend Word Count

2011-08-28T23:54:00.000-05:00

So I sort of feel out of the habit of writing a nightly word count. I'll be honest it was mostly out of shame from not writing. As is often the case life tries to get in the way of the things you love to do. More often then not it will tempt you with other things you love. If the universe is feeling very nasty it might present you with wonderful commitments that you really don't want to do but that you have no choice but too. Either way it is a bunch of excuses and I need to make sure that I make the time to write. Which is what I am trying to do more of now. If you find a few says go by without an updated word count then comment on the blog and remind me.

Well then without further a due the weekend word count is 1723.

Lair Assault - Building a Character

2011-08-25T23:28:00.000-05:00

Alright so next month is start of the new Lair Assault program. If you haven't been living under a rock & you have any interest what so ever in Dungeons and Dragons then you will have heard about it already. So I'll assume that you have and not bore you with a recap. While I am of two minds of this whole thing, I do intend to DM for it. So that means that I'll also get a run at the Assult as well.

So this afternoon I started putting together a character. The problem here is that I am not the type of person who min/maxs to any great extent. I build a character to have fun, I build a character to tell a story, I build a character for a lot of different reasons. However one of them is never to make him the biggest possible bad ass I can within the confines of the rules. So this build has been difficult to say the least for me. Here is what I have so far. Any in put would be welcome.

Perra, level 5
Dragonborn, Bard
Build: Valorous Bard
Bardic Virtue: Virtue of Valor
Dragonborn Racial Power: Dragonfear
Theme: Noble
Background: Officer Who Came Out of Retirement (Officer Who Came Out of Retirement Benefit)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 18, Dex 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 20.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 15, Dex 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 17.

AC: 20 Fort: 19 Reflex: 18 Will: 21
HP: 50 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 16

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +7, Intimidate +14, Perception +6, Acrobatics +7, Diplomacy +12

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Bluff +8, Dungeoneering +2, Endurance +6, Heal +2, History +6, Insight +2, Nature +2, Religion +3, Stealth +3, Streetwise +8, Thievery +3, Athletics +2

FEATS
Bard: Ritual Caster
Level 1: Heavy Blade Expertise
Level 2: Strength of Valor
Level 4: Improved Defenses

POWERS
Bard at-will 1: Guiding Strike
Bard at-will 1: War Song Strike
Bard encounter 1: Focused Sound
Bard daily 1: Stirring Shout
Bard utility 2: Moment of Escape
Bard encounter 3: Charger's Call
Bard daily 5: Strictures of Fortune

ITEMS
Ritual Book, Amulet of Protection +2, Pelaurum Chainmail +1, Adventurer's Kit, Light Shield, Bard's Songblade Scimitar +2, Climber's Kit, Footpads, Journeybread, Oil (1 pint) (5), Sunrod (4)
RITUALS
Comrades' Succor, Glib Limerick

For my level five magic item I'm thinking either the Power Jewlry or the Counters of Second Chances. As for the two consumable's that we are allowed I have no clue at all. I am certainly open to any constructive suggestions, that would improve the character.

Weekend Word Count

2011-08-22T07:41:00.001-05:00

What an amazing weekend it was. Friday night was spent out in the park watching Ice Age 2 followed by Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. It didn't end so well, but that sorted itself out. That morning before work I put in 950 words. Sadly that was the last of the written for the weekend. Saturday was running errands followed by the Keycon Games Day and Movie Night. They were showing Young Frankenstein, followed by Rocky Horror Picture show. We only stayed for the first movie, thankfully. I am not a fan of rocky. The rest of the night was spent with the ladies at home. Friday brought about the end of our D & D 4th edition campaign. I've gotta be honest here ad say I am glad it is over. Now on to Paranoia and Shadowrun Oh well either way great weekend for life, but crappy for word count. Back to the word mines today

Lost Crown of Neverwinter - D&D Encounter #2

2011-08-19T09:33:00.000-05:00

The evening started off when I heard a couple of the other dm's discussing short rests. I told them about the skill challenge I had written and both were interested in trying it out. Then after looking again at the Neverwinter Campaign Guide, I'm still debating with myself if I want to buy it or not. We head down stairs and got set up.

I made a few announcements including the upcoming Lair Assault, and Isles of Rot continuing this coming September. It will be interesting to see how both of those combined with the school year effect attendance at Encounters.

Tonight my table was missing a fighter and had gained a Bladesinger, otherwise it was the same group of players.

Opening positions were based on where
people ended last session.

The bladesinger opted out of the skill challenge and called the dragons attention to her. It gave the group their first success and her the dragons attention. Another party member threw a stone at and tried to shout it down (he failed his intimidation roll) The groups thief Locke tried a different tactic and attempted to bluff the Dragon into believing a Gold Dragon, this also failed.

At this the group was on the verge of failing the skill challenge. The next 3 checks however were successful and they ended the challenge with a win. An insight check gave them an idea of where the dragon was going next. And the clever use of Mage Hand distracted it with a lit sun rod.

The Heir then did his thing with the dragon. Sadly the battle of wills was short lived when the players took the opportunity to pile on some opening damage. Afterwards thanks to a poor initiative the Dragon's beat down continued.

The heir charged in shouting a valiant battle cry to the effect of "Never in my city!" Our new bladesinger rushed in as well and hit. Not keen on fighting 2 blades, the dragon turned and trampled over several party members. The beasts claws dug deep into flesh as it moved.

Two dwarves both War priests were caught in the dragons trample. Only 1 was able to still strike it. Then the Drow Hunter who had taken a pounding the week before, this was able to stay at range and stay out of the dragons reach. He was able to hit it consistently through out the combat.

Then it was time for some revenge on the part of the Dragon. Most of the group was clumped together nicely, including the heir. I described the breath weapon as looking like super hot blue flames. Then the players were surprised when it dished out the cold damage. I rolled the damage and was grateful for some decent rolls. The players look crushed when they heard the numbers. Then I described the crown drawing in the energy of the blast and they were all very grateful for half damage.

As a DM I just wish we had a theifling in the party, that wood have made the surprise perfect. In hopes of finishing off one of the dwarfs it double clawed as it was still smoldering.

The rest of the encounter was pretty much a slow-motion blur. Most of the pc's had a hard time shaking of that effect. One was stuck slowly rushing to heal the bladesinger. He'd used up his healing words already and had to give her a portion of healing he carried. Besides of that the highlights include the dragon's trample attack that kept the players hoping and did account for a decent amount of damage and some repetitive hack & slash.

The final moments of the combat could have flowed together better if I had hand scripted them. A massive trample attack from the dragon knocked down several party members and the heir. It even killed one of them. This final attack was enough to bloody the heir. It ended it's trample snarling at the halfling who stood two squares away. The little halfling twirled his sling about and moved to a better position and let fly. The stone hit him for the finishing blow. All of that happened at the same time as the Heir was standing back up and starting his magic and turned the Dragon to stone. After the battle there was a brief exchange between the players in which the heir where he rewarded them and thanked them for their assistance. Then he left disappearing into the city.

I wanted to comment on one of our other tables as well. We have one table of really young (around 12ish) players. They all came in as a group and like to play together. A few of them were at my table for Gates of Neverdeath. They didn't do all that well in the encounter. Out of a table of 6 only 2 survived and they had less then 10HP each. What is really important about the table is how it ended. In the end the players who had died were still around the table. They were excited for the survivors and cheering them on. It was great to see them that into the game and what was happening.

I was excited for this encounter and thought it would be a lot of fun. In the end I felt it was a bit of a let down. Fighting a dragon is a great way to kick a campaign off, but you need to be invested in your characters to make it a real threat. The players, with the exception of those who played Gates of Neverdeath, were to new to the characters and had no real attachment to them. I also felt that they needed more of a reason to be there and more importantly to stay an fight. I over heard the player of Locke comment about running away.

Well that sums up this week for me. Sorry for the lack of photos this week, I had a couple of others but no matter what I did with them Blogger kept turning them upside down. Anyways I am off to work on a new Shadow Run Campaign now so later.

Thursday Word Count

2011-08-19T00:30:00.001-05:00

Well I said it yesterday and I did it today 2146 words. More importantly I've started on of the final scenes in the book at this point I can almost taste the finished first draft. For now however it is time to get some sleep. Night all

Wednesday Word Count

2011-08-18T01:26:00.001-05:00

Today I hang my head in shame. There was a single word typed in today. :( Now here are the excuses: I worked a full shift, and then had D&D Encounters. Now here are the reasons those excuses are a bunch of BS. I brought my laptop to work and same with my flash drive. Also I was dropped off at work an hour before I started. Finally D&D Encounters ended and I was home by 10. It is 130 and I am going to be now. In the time I have been home I've done some cleaning and watched the new Thundercats. But still not written a word. Minimum 2k for Thursday, it doesn't make up for the lack of words but it helps. I hope you've all kept written better then I have today.

Tueaday's Word Count

2011-08-17T00:43:00.001-05:00

This morning got in 1175 words. A total that I was very pleased with. The disappointment came this evening when I didn't add anything to the mornings count. Tomorrow I expect to be equally hard. I am scheduled for a full shift at the JOB, that ends at 6pm. After that it is straight to Encounters where I am running a table. If things go like they normally do I should be home around 10ish. That doesn't make for a productive day of writing.

A Writer's Space - Picking your Space

2011-08-16T17:41:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already read the first article you can find it here

So once again we explore this physical space that we occupy as we write. The author talks about past clients and her own experiences in various homes she's owned. The difference in how in one home she had a massive office with a stunning view that she had selected with the intent of making it her writing space. Then when she went into write her book the space was just too over powering. In the end she repurposed a closet and turned it in to a writing space.

Honestly I found this chapter to be a lot of rehashing what was discussed in the first chapter. It just focused more heavily on the idea of distractions. In my own circumstances unless I am looking for a place to write outside of the home, which I am not, I have fairly limited options. There is my office/bedroom, our living room, or the back-deck. A quick late addition as I edit this recently we have been suffering from a horrible heat wave and the deck has served as a wonderful place to write into the wee hours of the morning Until the heat wave I’d never really considered using it. I have no plans to move and certainly won't be doing so for the sake of a better writing space.

One idea that did come from this chapter was the idea that I am not writing a book, but that I'm writing a draft. Apparently someone the author was working with was so paralyzed by the overwhelming thought of writing a book that she was unable to do so. However once she started to view it as a draft she was able make head way with the project. Disappointingly the author doesn't go on to say how successful the person was because of this new thought process. So we never get to find out if she was able to transform the draft into a book. That fact leaves me with the impression that she wasn’t success, I still think the idea however is valid.

Lessons:

Some writing spots are more congenial than others. Find your best spot; or create it, if it doesn't exist. Move furniture around, reclaim some space, or do whatever else it takes.

To do:

1. Be willing to write. No writing space will serve you if you don’t write.
2. Go on a vision quest and locate the place in your home where you will write.
3. Test your writing space, by writing in it
4. Keep writing there.

That sums up Chapter 2 of the book. I wasn’t overly impressed and was grateful that the chapter was short. There was only a single idea that I took from the chapter as a whole and that was the idea of looking at your work as a Draft rather than as a Book. Otherwise I guess you could sum the whole chapter up with the following statement; Writer’s Write!

Monday's Word Count

2011-08-16T00:17:00.000-05:00

It was a great day for writing 2576 words. The goal had in fact been 3k and a finished first draft by today. Sadly neither happened but I am still slaving away towards the finished first draft.

I will get there sooner rather then later.

Skill Challenge - Keeping a Plaguechanged White Dragon Occupied

2011-08-15T21:35:00.001-05:00

If you are not a DM running the Lost Crown of Neverwinter you might want to skip the post. If you are a PC playing in the same campaign you will most certainly want to skip the post. I will try to keep over arching spoils out of post, but some encounter specific ones might creep in.

So last week our Encounter’s session ended with a massive Plaguechanged White Dragon sweeping down on the party. Unlike other tables at other stores, my table didn’t end with the benefit of a short rest before its arrival. Yes, I know I’m sure some of you are thinking that I’m a mean and nasty DM. You’re welcome to think that I don’t really care. I did it because it tells a better story this way and it certainly is more suspenseful.

So this week I am going to start off my session with a little bit of a skill challenge. The idea for it came to me from an article I had read on http://www.dungeonsmaster.com It basically used a skill challenge to simulate the effects of a rushed / dangerous short rest. I figure that a dragon breathing down your neck and trying to eat you will qualify as both. So it was a really good fit.

The basic idea behind the skill challenge is doing things to keep the Dragon occupied or distracted while the group catches its collective breath. Various possibilities exist as to how they might achieve this. A couple that come to mind off the top of my head is to try and convince it to eat Jarvy’s meat pies as an appetizer to eating the PCs. One of them might also try and draw it away from the main body of the group giving the others the chance to rest. I like to leave skill challenge options up to the players, anytime I write out ideas for the skills they can and should use the come up with others and it was a waste of my time.

Skill Challenge – Occupy the Plaguechanged White Dragon while trying to catch your breath

Success means 5 successful checks before you get 4 failures.
If successful the group will be able to take a short rest and gain all the benefits of said rest.
If the group fails they may choose up to half of party members who are still taking part in the skill challenge and only they will receive the effects of a short rest. The rest will not gain any benefit and lose a Healing surge
Special Rule – A character may opt not to take part in the skill challenge. Instead they use the time and their bodies to keep the Plaguechanged White Dragon occupied. This gives the party 1 automatic success. It also removes them from receiving the benefit of the short rest. If the party is unsuccessful in the challenge those people who chose to do the distracting loose a healing surge.

Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t run a challenge like this with a Dragon. They are just too smart fall for anything like this. In this case however the various effects caused by the Spellplague, allow it to work in my opinion. I’ll let everyone know how it turned out in my next report if you have any specific questions about what I have plan please comment with them. I will either answer in the comment or if possible email something back to you.

Once the Skill Challenge is completed then go into the adventures flavour text.

Weekend Word Count

2011-08-14T23:06:00.002-05:00

So a big part of restarting my blog was to once again make myself more accountable for my writing. So one of the things I'm going to start doing is just posting a night Word Count. This first one covers the weekend word-metrics (I'm not sure if that is a word or not, but I like the sounds of it) the weekend word total is - 2973 The goal is a minimum of a 1k a day so missed for the weekend. On the plus side I did that while I was camping so I am pretty impressed by the results overall. Feel free to comment with words of encouragement or give me crap for not meeting the goal. Or worse still not blogging about it. Oh, I forgot to say blog posts don't count for word count.

B is for Blank - Friday Flash

2011-08-12T17:18:00.001-05:00

Due to a first draft deadline that is looming on August 15th I don't have time to write a fresh piece of Friday Flash. So here is a repost of a story I wrote back in 2009.

B is for Blank

It arrived just as I hit send on my column for the Phoenix Republic. The address wasn’t familiar. I just knew it belonged to a free service that anyone could sign up for. It was the first line of the e-mail that grabbed my attention 'I have to set the record straight...' clicking it open I scanned the contents. Someone calling himself Mr. Griffin wanted to meet and wanted me to tell his story, apparently his real story. I would have ignored it if I had anything else planned. It all sounded to Deep Throat, but the evening was clear and the place he wanted to meet was just around the corner.

At the restaurant I looked around for anyone sitting by themselves waiting. “Do you have a reservation for a Mr. Griffin?”

“Yes, I’ll show you to your table.” She led me to an empty booth at the back with a heavy curtain for privacy. “Anything to drink?”

“Coffee, thanks.” I set my mini-recorder on the table as I sat down. The waitress was back before I’d even consider if I’d been had.

She disappeared behind the curtain leaving the carafe on the table. “Thank you for coming,” a voice from the opposite side of the booth said. There was no one there “I wasn’t sure if you would come. I’m Hawley Griffin, although you likely know me better by that nickname Wells hung on me The Invisible Man. I never even met him you know. All of those lies he wrote about me where based on stories of men who was prejudice.” As he finished his introduction the coffee carafe rocked then floated into the air as it poured us both a cup.

I stared blankly trying not to show my disbelief as I watched cooling ripples form on the coffee from nothingness. “That story was fiction^”

“Yes and no, some of the events where real others made up. That’s what I want to set straight.”

“Alright,” I said having no idea what I was getting myself into. I pressed the record button “It’s October 2nd 2010 and I’m sitting at a table with the Invisible Man or as he would rather be known Hawley Griffin.”

“H.G. Wells got the opening right; I was a scientist working to bend light rendering something invisible. Filled with the foolishness of youth I tested it on myself, ruining my life. Afterwards I was understandably angry and confused. I did some things I regret when I look back on them. Certainly I wasn’t trying to kill anyone I just wanted help.” There was a deep sadness in his voice as he talked about these events.

“Where did the story come from than?”

“It was Doctor Kemp he was jealous and wanted to claim my formula has his own. So he discredited me through Wells. Later he raised a mob against me in Burdock. I barely escaped catching the next ship to London and hid naked below decks for the journey” He gulped down his coffee and I could see it going down his throat before fading from view. It was enough to make me want to throw-up but I calmed that reflex.

“What happened in London?”

“I tried to get on with my life but it was impossible without cash, which I couldn’t get legally. So I turned to petty crime which in a cash society was easy. A streetwalker offered me assistance believing I was the Holy Ghost and gave herself whole to me. Through her I rented a small loft where she kept house and was the breadwinner when I wasn’t on my sick bed.”

“Was your sickness related to the serum?”

“Partially, London is a retched climate for a man who spends most of his time running through the streets naked.”

“Is that how you ended up in Phoenix?”

“When I was healthy enough I worked on a cure until my vision failed me completely. It had been gradually going since I injected the serum. So no cure, no sight, and nothing holding us to England we moved to better a better climate. America was a lot to get used to, but being a dad even more so. There isn’t a lot to do on an ocean liner as a blind and invisible man so Martha and I kept busy in the cabin.”

So how do you spend your days now?”

“I spend a lot of time with my grandkids and family, they have grown up with my condition and don’t think it is anything special. I also spend a lot time on the internet it is a wonderful thing for a man in my state. You can reinvent yourself as anyone I have a wonderful online relationship with a blind woman in Toledo. I’ve gotten myself a decent job that I do across the internet. I’m having my first taste of a normal life in 100 years.”

Seconds later the curtain opened slightly but no one came in “Are you still here?” I asked tentatively.

“Yes, I am.”

Beside the booth a young man appeared out of nowhere fading slowly into view and fully clothed. “Sorry Grandpa, mom’s calling and wants to know where I am, we’ve gotta go. She’ll be pissed if she finds out I helped you with this. You know she doesn’t want it to go public.”

“Too right, Justin, I’m so sorry.” He sighed “I so wish I could appear and disappear like they do, youth always taking what we give them and pushing it one better. Trevor I’m going to have to cut this short, perhaps you would be willing to join me for dinner another night. I’d be happy to fill in the details we glanced.”

I just stared at the boy in disbelieve it took a moment to realize I was being spoken to again. “Certainly, I’ll e-mail you?” the boy had disappeared again and I was all alone I think.

Lost Crown of Neverwinter - D&D Encounter #1

2011-08-11T22:31:00.001-05:00

I got my materials about a week ago and have been really looking forward to season. The story looks like it will be an interesting one to tell with the PCs. It also looks like it will be a challenging one for the players as well. So pitting those two things together and it will be a great season.

Things started off a little rocky two of my regular players texted me and let me know that they wouldn't be able to make it. Hopefully they will both be back next week. I end up with 1 of my long time players, 3 regular encounter players who just normally play at a different table, and one player who was an experienced gamer who is still new to 4E. This was his second encounter session.

None of the players had a copy of the Neverwinter campaign setting so I quickly read of the description of the background themes. Three of the five players grabbed a theme and two didn't bother. I think in the long term they will be kicking themselves for that decision.

I laid out the map and set up a few 3D paper fold items I have to set the scene. Rather then clutter up the board with a ton of extra townsfolk minis I used the PC tokens for them. I also used minion token for the shop owners. Then we rolled initiative to give everyone an order to act in.

With the theme I really stressed the newness of the area of town they were in. As well as the disrepair of everywhere else. I also stressed the marketplace as being both a market and a place to escape the hard that everyone was doing as part of the effort to rebuild the town.

The characters went around and did a bit of shopping. Those who had played through the Gates of Neverdeath had gold burning a hole in their pouches. A couple of the players worked hard to help repair the supply cart, and never asked for anything in return. Another character paid double for a portion of healing. This is a dangerous city after all, and the merchant liked to keep them for himself.

Our Heir of Delzoun meeting the armour, who it turned out was also an heir of Delzoun, and shared a bit of information. Then offered to spend some time working with him and help him with his stall. It was a great exchange and a new friendship born. I hope the player remembers it and it comes back up in the game later.

My favorite role-playing encounter came when the Drow Hunter went and spoke with the half-Orc weapon merchant. He wanted a new bow and got all offended when Nagda suggested that he check with the toy vendor down the pier and that she only dealt in true weapons, not children's toys. By the end of the roleplaying portion of the evening everyone had at least one interesting exchange or two.

After about an hour or so I could see that some of the players were starting to slow down and it was time to move on. I read out the next section of flavor text and deployed the minis. The new 4E player was ready to cut and run when he saw the number of them. Then another player explained the concept of minions. I of course refused to admit if there were any minions on the field. Encouraging them instead to man up and attack to find out.

The combat moved swiftly Locke the halfling thief hid in the fountain and used his sling to great effect. The plaguechanged skeletons rushed and attacked pc's, that were in reach, and towns folk when they couldn't. A couple of towns folk dropped and some minor damage was done to the PCs.

The players fought back ignoring the downed townsfolk. In using the PC tokens I was able to just flip them over to bloodied. Clorde jumped into his cart drove away. However because of the placement of the guard drakes he had to go the opposite direction.

The Eat This twitter effect went off and kept a drake pinned down. Then the next round the kicked off and the PCs kept making short work of the plaguechanged skeletons. However the drakes on the other hand were all hitting the characters hard. By the end of the round all but two of the original plaguechanged skeletons were down, but the start of the third round fixed that.

More climbed up out of the sewers and to the fortune a PC was in striking distance and so was the last remaining towns person. The townsfolk was dropped, while PCs armor saved him. It was that moment that the Heir stepped out from between the buildings and with flash of his sword he dropped two skeletons. By the end of the round it was mostly a clean up operation for the party. Only the Drow hunter was in any real danger. The poor guy had been bloodied so many times his party was tired of healing him and he was now hovering at 2 HP.

The heir opened up the forth round and I might have put a bit to much description in to his actions. One of the players commented "ok, we get it! This guy is awesome.". With some good teamwork the PCs dropped the remaining drake. They had pinned the poor then and immobilized it might have had a chance if someone else was rolling the saving throws.

The last beast fell and the townsfolk cheered their returned king. Apparently the party's contribution wasn't worth cheering or it was completely forgotten. Being a man of the people he waved them away and pointed to the sky. The battle wasn't done just yet, and the White Dragon arrived. I ended the encounter and reminded the players to note what powers they had used and where they stood for hit points. At this point I've left them with the impression that they won't be getting a short rest before they have to deal with the dragon.

Be back in a week, hopefully this report gives other DM's ideas.

-------------- Edit ---------------

Given's comment reminded me of something that I had forgotten to include in the post. When there was only a single monster left on the battlefield. Two of the characters broke away from combat to rush over and help downed townsfolk. In the end the party was able to save 3 of the townsfolk, while a fighter type went over and finished off the monster. Sorry I forgot to include this in my original post.

World Wide Games Day - Gates of Neverdeath - Aug 6th

2011-08-09T21:33:00.000-05:00

This Saturday I was one of the two DMs at Pendragon Games and Hobbies for the World Wide Games day. We had 14 people come out. One had intended to just watch but with a bit of peer pressure from me and his friends we got the guy tossing dice. So it worked out to be two tables of seven, not ideal but we two of the regular DMs are at Gen-con (lucky bastards) you make do. If you haven't played this yet and plan to in the new future you might want to skip this post for now. I'll try not to give away to much but you might get some information you don't want from reading it as a player.

At one table was a group of friends who had all arrived together with one extra player. This group was mostly adults as well so rather then splitting them up I took the group of kids who had shown up and a couple my regular players. Now it is important to me that I note here that I normally run the adults table. Not that I have anything against kids. In fact I have two daughters and a grandson. It's just been a long time since I've had kids at my table, either way I've done my time and look forward to my regular group on wednesday.

The session was intended to start with thirty minutes of character. To my surprise the kids already had characters. The oldest among them had built everyone characters, the down side to this was that he had done it for them. So instead the thirty minutes was taken up with explaining the various powers to them and making sure they noted what they could do. Honesty I am eternally grateful that they had characters already I don't think we could have pulled it off if they hadn't. There just wouldn't have been enough time.

We got the game started with everyone reading off there backgrounds from the bags. It took a bit of card swapping but it all worked out in the end. The bags where a really great idea. My experienced players liked the roleplaying benefits of them. As well as the in game benefit as well. Although the only power that was used during the game was the Harper's Pin.

The group took on the assignment of bodyguard with little to no question. No one showed to much interest in what/who they were protecting or why. The only thing anyone wanted to do was to buy a Potion of Healing with their new found money. This came in very handy during the final encounter. So once that was done we got on with the first encounter. To account for the additional players I added an extra wave of skeleton in round three, and two additional Zombies.

Undead swarmed up on to the deck of the ship and keep many of the characters busy. There ability to shift and attack allowed the undead a lot of freedom of movement. Unfortunately it also pinned down the players so there wasn't a lot of movement on there part. From the shore the archer fired from behind a cart and then hide after each shot. None of the players ever got close enough to spot him, let alone attack him.

The biggest challenge of the encounter was drawing the characters away from Seldra long enough to hit her and steal the crown. In the end I pulled one of the zombies back and bull rushed with a skeleton to get her into a good position. In the end this worked out alright. Oddly enough the only person to notice anything happening was the pre-gen druid's spirit animal. The encounter ended at the end of the turn with the undead dropping back into the water and being struck down..

To my surprise this was the moment that the PC's decided it would be a good time to renegotiation their pay. One of the youngest at the table argued that since they had arrived there job was done. They ended up negotiating a pay increase of a 100 gold. A natural 20 goes a long way in a diplomacy roll.

The skill challenge of the session came next and it moved along fairly quickly. I started it off with an Athletics challenge for everyone at the table. Only one succeeded out of the seven players, six healing surges eaten. After I let the players suggest skills that they wanted to try. That lead basically no where, the younger players just weren't comfortable enough with the characters or what they could do. So in turn I started making suggestions and telling the story of what was happening based on their rolls. It worked really well and the kids where smiling. Although I think I might have scared/mortified the young girl at the end of the table when I described how she Intimidated information out of someone. I don't think she knew what the word meant until I explained it after-wards. This type of story telling worked really well and kept everyone interested. The group scored two failures really fast and then followed it up with 3 successes. It could have gone either way, but in the end they failed the final challenge.

The final encounter brought us to the Neverdeath grave yard. Tolivast was waiting and ready for them. His work on the crown complete he called forth his hounds and zombies and prepared to take on the party. The hounds struck first darting in to various points among the party and biting down on a PC, those who hit shifted out of harms way and avoided clumping together. Tolivast acted before the PC's could move and called forth skeletal hands that grabbed and clawed at them pc's, It wasn't a good start for the players But they got back into the game quickly

Ash zombies at the back of the group where the first to feel the party's blade. There bloodied effect came as quiet the surprise to the players. Over the combat was great and really well balanced. Honestly it could have gone either way. At one point I was fairly worried I had a TPK on my hands. While none of the monsters were overly powerful worked very well together. The combination of the Ash Zombies ability to prevent healing surges from being used and Tolivast aura along with his teleportation were absolutely deadly. Of course his ability to attack and pull people into the aura equally deadly and responsible for at least one character falling.

The battle is nearly over, on the right side of the map Tolivast and his last hound
are both already bloody. But then again so are most of the PCs

In the end PC eliminated Tolivast support and then those still standing were able to get out of the his aura's affect and then hammered him with ranged attacks. Seldra came in grabbed the crown and disappeared into the crowd before the watch arrived. We skipped the final skill challenge, due to time.

All in all it was a great session. My thanks to Pierre and Reid for their patience. It was a long day, working with inexperienced players. I'm thinking at some point down the road I might run NewbieDMs game system RPGkids for all the new players. Hopefully it will give them all a better feel what gaming is all about. I know a couple of them are also just the right age for it as well.

Well that about sums up World Wide Games day report, now on to update Lost Crowd of Neverwinter to a level three adventure.

A Writer's Space - Chapter 1 - Thinking about your writing space

2011-08-08T18:26:00.000-05:00

So stumbled across a book a few months ago called ‘A Writer’s Space.” The idea behind the book being that it helps you to create both a mental and physical space to write. If you’ve watched the little video I shot of my room you will know that the physical space needs a lot of work. I can also assure you that the mental headspace needs work as well. I’m easily distractible by pretty much anything shiny.

So the plan is to work through this book at a nice slow and steady pace. At the same time will be sharing my progress through the blog. Hopefully something rings true in the process for you and helps as well. As always comments, encouragement, and suggestions are always welcome.

Just to give everyone a sense of the space I am working with her is a video I shot with my iPhone before I started the process. Sorry for the quality of it.

Chapter 1 – Thinking About your Writing Space

This first chapter focuses on the physical space in which you write. The author, Eric Maisel, is careful never to say exactly what you need in your physical writing space. Noting really that everyone requirements will be somewhat personal. He does however offer an interesting example that goes something along these lines. If you are having surgery would you rather the doctor work in a sealed room with no windows or would you rather he has a magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the harbour. It really brings home the importance of removing distractions.

Each chapter ends with a short lesson and a few questions to go along with it.

Lesson:

Moving words from your brain to the page is a prolonged act of thinking and feeling that requires that inhabit a physical space. Any given physical space will do a better or poorer job of serving this process: How good a job does yours do?

Right now my space does a piss poor job of this. More often than not I take my laptop to another place in the house and work there instead. It just isn’t conducive to writing at the moment. It feels cramped, messy, disorganized. All of which leads to frustration when I do go into that room to write.

To Do:

1. Assess your current physical space.

As things stand right now the space is less then useless as a writing space. It has a desk in it which I imagine would be a good start, if it were not always covered in a mountain of other things. Perhaps it would also be more helpful if the drawers were not filled with a variety of random crap that had been tossed in haphazardly.

The physical space itself is barely large enough for me to fit a chair into. I am forced to sit in an oddly uncomfortable position with my legs spread much wider then I comfortable in spreading them when I’m alone. More often than not I just pulled the desk away from the wall and sit on the bed. Of course that creates problems of its own since the bed is too high for the desk.

My writing space also lacks in any that would help with organization or to track characters and locations. There is also nowhere to store works in progress. Over all it needs a lot of work and a lot of care in order to make the space I have more author friendly.

2. Describe your ideal Writing space. What can you do to transform your current space into something more like your ideal?

My ideal writing space would be well organized, with lots of storage and places that I could use to display picture and other story. There would be enough space that I could sit down and start working right away without having to fight access to the power cord or move anything up. It would just be ready to go.

3. What is the biggest problem with your current space? Identify 3 possible solutions, decide which most feasible to implement, and make those changes.

The biggest problem I have right now with my writing space is the complete lack of space. Everything is so crowded in my wrong that I barely have room to even put in a chair to sit on to write. The problem is that the room is duel propose. It is both a writing space and a bedroom. So there is only a certain amount of changes I can make. The first change I plan the removal of the headboard that should give almost a full extra foot of space right in front of the desk. I’m also looking at a few other small changes as well.

4. Is your space private? If it isn’t, can you make it more private or even completely private?

My space has a nice door that can be closed if needed. So honestly I think it has all the privacy it needs. Thankfully this isn’t that much of an issue for me.

Aftermath - Friday Flash

2011-08-05T23:37:00.001-05:00

Up just under the wire. As always comments and feedback are always welcome.

Aftermath

Wham! The half-orc’s fist slammed into the bar top. “Barkeeeeeep, more ale!” his voice slurred out the words in a drunken stupor.

Getta sighed and hurried across her raised platform behind the bar. It was time for this Halfling to cut that monster off. “You’re done for the night. How’s about my famous hang over cure? It’s on the house. You’ll thank me for it in the morning.”

The half-orc leaned in closer and towered over her his face just inches away. “Ale, Halfling or you won’t be around in the morning,” he shouted into her face.

All through the bar people looked on. Some looked seriously concerned. Others pounded their mugs against the table waiting for something to happen. Getta wiped the spittle from her face with her apron. “This is my place,” she said her voice as pleasant as can be. “I’ll decide who’ll drink and you’re done.”

“Look...” was the last word she heard. After that it was nothing but blinding pain and darkness.

***

Getta tried to blink away the pain but her head was throbbing. She lifted her hand up and ran it through her hair it was a tangled wet mess. There wasn't any doubt in her mind that some of came from her own blood. The smell in the air told her the rest of it was; Orcish Rot Gut. She sighed, that shit had a stink that would stick to you for weeks. "That half-orc bastard!" she spat the words out like a curse to the darkest of deities.

She tried to use her arm to prop herself up. It had gone numb from laying on it for so long. As she cringed the whole way up as the pins and needles shooting through her arm. She groaned and propped herself up against the stage. How in the hell did I end up here? she wondered. She tried to think back through everything that had happened.

The place was packed. Zephry's Pass was due to open sometime in the next few days. Then things would go back to normal. Tonight however the place had held at least 4 different groups of adventures, and 2 people trying to hire them. Most of the regulars knew to steer clear right before the pass opened.

On the stage was an empty chair with three empty mugs and a small bowl half full of coins. “No one was performing tonight,” she muttered. Both to try and figure out if that was true and to convince her it was. She set her hands on the stage and lifted herself up on to it. The whole thing took some effort and left her out of breath.

She held her head in her lap as she caught her breath. That little bit of exertion had her head spinning. Then after several long deep breaths she surveyed her bar. It had seen better days that was for certain and maybe one or two that could have been described as worse. A quarter of her heavy wood tables now lay in splinters along with a slightly higher number of chairs. A lot of broken glass was scattered about the floor but somehow a number of tables had survived the fight with their glasses intact. A few even had a little bit of alchol left in them.

She reached over and scooped up the coins from the performers bowl and made them disappear into her pouch. The thought of what the repairs would cost had her head swimming and she just wanted to lie back down and pass out. It wasn’t an option so she reached over and pulled a chair to her and stood up. It would be her third, fourth, fifth, and sixth leg all rolled in to one and would make standing so much easier.

Slowly and carefully she made her way between the tables, making her way towards the bar. One table she passed was covered in a deck of her cards although several of them had spilled over on to the floor. What had she done with the cards? She stared at them for a while trying to remember, before she recalled giving them out to an adventuring party that had order a rather large meal.

She carried on across the tavern at paused again at the table closest to the bar. Something small and yellowish was sticking out of the table. At first she couldn't quite make it out. So she reached over and pulled. It took a bit of wiggling but in the end it popped out just fine. When she realized what it was she couldn't help but smile. This was something she would keep, and she dropped the fang into the same pouch that the coins had gone too. The chair slid much easier than expected as she pushed away from the table. Cleaning up the blood was going to take almost as much effort as the getting the furniture fixed.

It took a couple of minutes but she finally reached the bar. The small space that left by her platform was now filled with a half-orc. He was tied-up, unconscious and covered in dried blood. Judging from the rich brown colour Getta guessed that it was his. Someone had left her a present she decided with a smile. She was looking forward to her talk the watch when she noticed a second present. Beyond the Half-orc was a sack. Hurrying over to it she pulled it open and was greeted by the glitter of silver and gold coins. A small note was tied to the inside of the bag that read “It was too early to go home so we kept your place open. Hope this covers the damage and you are out of bread.“

News - Friday Flash

2011-07-28T16:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry it is a little early but I'll be out at the lake on Friday and won't be able to post this through my iPhone. A few things are going on in my life at the moment and I used this story to work through it. Sometimes it helps to just write things out.

------------

An ignored alarm cries out in the corner as two bodies sleep soundly on the bed. Their bodies barely touch each other, because of the heat, but there is contact. She’s first to wake up which is normally the way it works for them. "Turn off the alarm," she mutters.

He rolls over and grabs the iPhone from its base. He's done this same thing a hundred times since he got the phone, a few months ago, but he still has to look at it to see what he's doing. His forefinger slides the length of the icon and the fake dog stops bark. From the hallway they can both hear the soft mew of one of the cats. It brings a smile to his face. He'd picked that alarm sound to play with the cats mind and it seemed to work every morning. One day they'd get him for it but until then he'd have his fun.

He thought about trying to go back to sleep. It was too late, at this point he was awake and there was no any going back. A soft snore rose up from behind him, she could sleep through anything he thought and smiled. His finger tapped the email icon and his email started to download into his phone. How had he lived before his iPhone? By the time he reached the bathroom it had chimed and his mail was already on the phone. A quick tap of his thumb and emails disappeared into the trash. Freecycle announcements for garbage no one wanted or for things that had already been taken were the first to go.

He was about to send another one to oblivion when he spotted the sender's name. It was his aunt. His eyes scanned the words three times before he could even look up. 'Your mom has cancer, and will be going for six weeks of chemo and radiation treatments.' That line echoed over and over in his mind. Beyond that there were no details. No mention of where the cancer was. Nothing about a prognosis.

The news did come as to big of a surprise. Doctors had said it was a possibility after her operation. "We are confident that we've gotten it all. However, there is a chance it might have moved already." Up until that he had hoped that was more than just a platitude that they told everyone. Now as he read the email he knew had been false hope. Maybe the doctors did that so that they would have to answer so many questions. This way they could pass on the problem to another department, someone who dealt with people that might be terminal.

He gave his head a shake at the thought of anything being terminal. It wasn't the way to think about things right now. Nothing was terminal anymore. Cancer could be beaten. it wasn't as scary as it might have been in the days of his Grandmother. Not that any of them had had cancer or anything. As he walked out of the bathroom and down the stairs he searched his mind for the names of any family member who had had cancer. None came to mind. Wasn't this type of thing supposed to run in families? Isn't that why doctors ask for all that patient history? Was this something he'd have to start telling them about when he saw a doctor? So many fucking questions generated by that one sentence.

Why the fuck had it been a freaking email in the first place? The opening few words had been an apology for not calling, apparently 630 in the morning was too early to tell someone a family member had cancer or something. What would be the right time to do that? Sarcasm battled with anger for which emotion would take control. Secretly fear had already won out, but he wouldn't realize that for a few days.

---------------

Absence

2011-07-27T17:04:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the absence the past couple of weeks have been the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. A week and a half of fun, theater, and great people. I've been a volunteer for them for a number of years and pretty much everythign gets put on hold while I work, party and see a lot of great shows.

My plan tonight is to attend D&D Encounters so I should have a new report for you in the next couple of days. Also I have a couple of ideas bouncing around in my head for a Friday Flash, so you can look for that this week as well.

See ya soon

Randilin