"I wonder if that was from the pastrami rueben I had yesterday?"

Monday, January 30, 2012

The Campaign Saturday

The Pathfinder game went swimmingly on Saturday.  The group was down to 3 with the absence of the dwarf fighter and gnome oracle.  The intrepid band of heroes has been adventuring in the dwarven city of Freeholm, beset of late by a plague of alchemical zombies created by Androgenes Narulo the evil head of the Narulo crime family.  Androgenes came to an unfortunate end last session... well several unfortunate ends, really.  He had mastered the secret of creating alchemical simulacrums of himself, and had made two previous attempts to slay the party.  They finally cornered the scoundrel in his laboratory, accessible only through vents in one of the inmates cells of Narulo Tower (the city's center for the criminally mentally ill).  The only way in was through a 2" high by 4" wide vent... that is, until the party cleric stoneshaped the ceiling and did some renovation on the assylum, the lab, and finally Narulo himself.  In the penthouse of the tower, the party found Narulo, an elderly bedridden woman (Isis Narulo), 3 clerics, and a young girl (the daughter of Margrave Lager, who had been kidnapped to ensure the Margrave did not thwart the Narulo's plans for taking over the city). 

This is an experienced and wily party I play with, and they quickly suspected a possible bait and switch between the elderly Isis and the Margrave's daughter (Isis was known to be a powerful sorceress).  The halfling paladin detected evil on the young girl and did indeed find she was evil... only seconds after the party sorceror had incinerated the elderly woman on the bed with a fireball.  The young girl then became enraged, told the group her father would make them all pay dearly, and then vanished.  The ensuing fight between the party and Androgenes and the three clerics was brutal.  The party had already used up considerable resources to get to this point.  The top Narulo assassin, called 'Jumper', had feebleminded the party sorceror on the level below (restored after the battle with a Heal potion found in Narulo's lab) and nearly slew the party inquisitor with a Phantasmal Killer spell.  It was a close thing, ending in a fistfight between the exhausted sorceror (who had used all his spells for the day) and a naked Narulo, finally cornered in a concealed chamber when the paladin's mount sniffed out another creature using its scent ability. 

With Androgenes slain and Isis in the body of the Margrave's daughter, this left many questions open.  Would the Margrave retaliate against them?  And how would they yet thwart the alchemical zombie invasion the Narulo's had planned?  And if they did manage to thwart the invasion, had Androgenes told them true when he claimed the entire city of Freeholm would be incinerated if the Margrave or the party managed to stop the Narulo takeover of Freeholm.  ('This city will submit or burn, one of the two.')

Friday, January 27, 2012

Stream

My hands are full of mangoes in light syrup.  A shopping cart once ate my family.  A classmate of mine froze to death this week at the age of 41.  Some of these statements are true.  You cannot go against nature.  I am convinced that all my coworkers hate me.  Many of my thoughts seem to stray back to food.  You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead.  I do not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.  I find toothpaste in the cat litter all the time.  Why are my fingers on fire?  Even my stream is muddied with repetition.  Small muddy little mind.  Will this excercise clear it?  No one is listening.  A lot of songs use the same cliche's over and over.  Can't stop, Can't stop.  Even if there's nothing to say.  Another person just walked by.  I am a speck of mud on the lapel of the universe that can only be seen under infinite magnification.  Why does everyone I went to highschool with look so old?  I used to miss being a child; I blame this fact on my poor memory.  Life can be sweet at times but it is never really easy.  You can rest but somewhere in your mind you know you are floating closer to the waterfall's edge with every second you aren't swimming. 

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Dying

Well, my character in Alexis' campaign currently has 3 hp left, and my opponent doesn't seem to want to let me leave.  C'est la vie.  If Ninetoes does buy the farm, it could well be a sign that my time is better spent in things other than an online campaign.  No regrets, I've enjoyed the game immensely, but some new characters have joined of late, and I'm under increased pressure and scrutiny at work.  All things work for the good in the end.

In the meantime, I have a job, baby's coming, all's right with the world.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Ugh.

Thanks for the visit, Beedo!

Well, as I can see from the last day I posted here, I haven't kept with my resolution.  I've kept with some of my resolutions (exercise, practicing guitar, yoga breathing, prayer) but writing wasn't one of them.  I find the practice of writing excruciating under most circumstances.  I am so disenchanted with what winds up on the page.  Things that seemed beautiful in my mind look ugly when they see print.  I have had this frustration with all my attempts at art in any medium.  I hear a song in my head but lack the displine and practice to play it on guitar.  I see a picture in my mind but lack the skill to draw or paint it.  When I act and have the opportunity to see myself after the performance, I am shocked by how differently I appear in reality than I appeared in my mind's picture of myself.  I delete so much of what I try to write over and over again. 

D&D is a nice outlet, as I am usually unaware of the fact that I'm creating a narrative for my players when I conduct portions of the campaign over email.  Current players are level 22 in my 4e campaign (hopefully coming to a close before the baby arrives in June), level 6 in my Pathfinder campaign.  I'm a 12th level monk in another Pathfinder campaign, and a 2nd level monk in Alexis' campaign.  I have to say I love them all, mostly because I love the people involved in them.  I've come to believe that the system played does matter, I won't pretend that it doesn't, but the people playing matter so much more.  No system will ever be able to codify imagination or level of involvement/commitment.  I've played from 1e to the present, but my background in roleplaying began with my dad.  He painted our house when I was 4 (an endeavor that took him nearly all summer) and while he would work he would mimic voices of Disney characters (rather well as I remember - Donald and Mickey were his fortes) and he would essentially narrate an adventure with myself as an active participant.  We didn't roll dice; there weren't any rules.  That remains to this day my favorite role-playing experience - my dad spending time entertaining his 4 year old son while he worked.

He painted the house lime green.  Hey, it was the 70's....

I'm actually glad to read my first post on this blog, as I'm somewhat abashed for not keeping with my own promise.  Maybe this will become a means of holding myself accountable.