Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Going to have some low key celebrations this weekend. Having a couple of friends over for some backyard fun (takeout from a local restaurant on the patio followed by hanging around the firepit) on Friday, then grilling and another firepit night (and streaming my town's fireworks show) with the lady on Saturday.

We already watched a nice fireworks show and I'm hoping to catch another nice one on Saturday. The small towns around me usually have Independence Day celebrations on different nights so the 4th of July actually begins here the last Thursday in June, lol. Most celebrations were canceled this year but many towns are still doing the fireworks display.

Welleran wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 27, 2020 2:09 pm

Gonna start a three-module mini-campaign tonight just to keep off the streets the next few months. We'll be starting with this one, to be followed by its two sequels:

So this cover critter had its first kill in the half dozen times I've run this. A gnome thief-illusionist fell through a pit trap into an underwater tunnel. I gave only a 1 in 6 chance of the dragon turtle noting this. As luck would have it, it did notice and rushed after the gnome. After some fumbling about by both sides, it came down to a tied initiative roll. The gnome grabbed a rope dropped by his companions, only to be chomped and dragged down to feed the beast. An epic kill, to be sure. Not one of the other seven PCs was willing to jump down to aid the Gnome. Pretty smart in my book.

Welleran wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:45 pm

So this cover critter had its first kill in the half dozen times I've run this. A gnome thief-illusionist fell through a pit trap into an underwater tunnel. I gave only a 1 in 6 chance of the dragon turtle noting this. As luck would have it, it did notice and rushed after the gnome. After some fumbling about by both sides, it came down to a tied initiative roll. The gnome grabbed a rope dropped by his companions, only to be chomped and dragged down to feed the beast. An epic kill, to be sure. Not one of the other seven PCs was willing to jump down to aid the Gnome. Pretty smart in my book.

Ah dragon turtle, how we love thee. Let us count the ways!

Allan.

The Skype game is up this weekend, I'm DMing a modified House on Hangman's Hill (Judges Guild).


The map was a wee bit messy, the whole module has pages where art is behind the text, like a watermark or something. It makes things hard to read, and one of those pages is the map But the map fit REALLY well into excel which was cool! This is minus any secret doors or anything, but otherwise I got it all on there with minor modifications.

I've been on "Staycation" for the last week and for another three days. Been doing some work around the house and other assorted chores. Some of these include:

1. Water sealing my deck. My house overlooks the White River in Arkansas and I have a wooden deck in the back that faces the river. The deck is off the ground as the house is built on a hill.

2. Minor car repair issue. I had an oil change the other day and the folks could not change the air filter because two of the screws holding the cover in place are stripped. But i guess the idiots did not notice that the screws were hex and could be driven off with a socket instead. Which I did. Or perhaps they just did not care.

3. Vet appointment for my Jack Russel Terrier. Drive thru service in the Corona Era.

4. Minor cleaning around the house as I expect (corona willing) to have family coming up from Houston during my vacation next month. With Corona spiking as badly as it is there they may opt not to risk bringing it with them. And Corona is also having a small resurgence here as well. Not so bad in my area but a few more cases than we had before.

All has not been work though. I used the time to catch up on some work on my Hirst Art Molds projects. I had bought, but not yet used, some new molds and I wanted to test them out. I made some cave parts and cave floor parts as well as some hex tower parts. I did not actually do any building this time. I am generating parts to build up some modular dungeon parts for two ideas:

1. My Temple of Chaos (published on Dragonsfoot)
2. Caves of Chaos

I guess that I am anticipating a long recovery from the Corona and that my existing group will probably stop playing in person again if things get bad in the fall. I want to have a couple of things ready for video play should that become a necessity. And I think I would like to try it with minis and terrain if I go that route.

Have started running, again. Easing back into it. Some of my kids are running with me. We saw a hawk perching on a pole, yesterday morning. That was cool. It was watching us.

Cleaned my office. Got a start on cleaning/organizing my garage, which is a mess. But it's too damn hot to work out there for very long.

Taking it easy, now. Played some guitar. Tried to play some harmonica (I'm just learning, so I suck).

Some weekend music:



Some weekend beer:

We rolled up new PCs and played for about 6 hours last night. Of the party of six, two got back alive (a halfling thief/fighter and an elf thief using their almost invisible nature in the woods). A third CL/F gnome (UA rules) also on the way back to town got picked off by "something" that left no tracks (all we found was the gnomes spear). Given it was in a forest I'm thinking a giant owl, hawk, snake, wyvern maybe? Was a silent kill as well (the elf and halfling were relatively close by but spaced out to help go undetected). I guess we might find out on the way back to the dungeon in next weeks game.

I recorded a quick guitar + vocal cover of David Allan Coe's The Ride this afternoon:

Philotomy Jurament wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 19, 2020 4:59 pm

I recorded a quick guitar + vocal cover of David Allan Coe's The Ride this afternoon:

Nice!

Got a part-time job at a friend's shop repairing sickle bars. The last 6 months have been sedentary hell on me, as I let the laziness of unemployment non-gratis overcome my senses. So of course, I am out of shape and not used to standing on my feet in front of a drill press or vice, and carrying sickles back & forth between shops for 8-10 hours a day. Before I moved back to the green, green hills of home, I was employed as a forklift driver and walked several miles every day, even on my days off.

Since we've had 95 degree heat and 85% humidity for the last few weeks, I've not done my nightly walks. Well, that's not the only reason, but, suffice to say that I need to get off my ass and start walkin again.

Gaming has altogether dried up. My gaming friends have their summer vacation, joint custody, and other summertime activities that are not related to RPGs or gaming at all, not to mention some are scared to come out of their homes altogether even though they aren't at risk or have anyone else in their family who are. My "gaming" activities have so far just been forum browsing, and while it keeps my interest in D&D going, I believe its time to take a break from the internet and get active, especially now that I am specifically not.

Right after this session of D&D Online that I'm currently logged into.

I am desperately trying to get work done, especially on the extremely delayed add-on for my adventure, in a house filled with soul-crushing stress balls non-stop... You know? The usual...

DMing House on Hangman's Hill Saturday night. Continuing the search for an entrance to the dungeons of Arden Vul on Sunday afternoon (12 noon for me, 6pm for the DM in Germany ). A rare double D&D weekend, but it's the weekend right before my birthday so it's definitely good timing!
Oh, and in non-D&D related news, there's a swim meet for the 9yo on Friday that she's looking forward to. Should be a good weekend!

1e tonight. Home brew stuff.

Trying to catch up on minis.

Crab/shrimp/sausage boil. It rained on us a bit, but it was worth it. Delicious!