No Post Zone

Yikes! I didn’t post at all during the month of August. Probably because the month of August was a month of Insanely Busy! I fought the CMS and the CMS nearly won, but we held a Come to Jesus meeting and the CMS Powers That Be sent an Ektron Savior who helped us in our time of need and now we are Good to Go.* We launched a new home page to great acclaim after an incredible number of hours spent working on it. I fell in the lobby of my building and popped my shoulder out the Friday before we were supposed to go live on Monday. We played Fruit Basket Turnover with offices–my team and I all reside within polite calling distance of each other on the 4th floor, which is a truly wonderful thing. And we have a meeting space. My bestest bud had liver surgery (!), but it was not the Big Scary we feared and he is recovering at a mutant healing rate.

I’m still playing catch up, so this is brief. The best news is–we resumed gaming this past weekend! A new campaign with two new players. I’m running "The Winds of Change" homebrew, yoinking from Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes and using the new Pathfinder RPG rules and setting. How long has it been since we’ve actually played with 4 players?? Should be fun.

*In English: We had extensive troubles with our content management system, Ektron. My division Vice-President and the campus Chief Information Officer and various directors had a phone conference with Ektron chiefs about it. They sent a technical support engineer to our campus for two days, at their expense, who determined what the problems were and fixed them.

Surgery Anniversary

Today is the 2-year anniversary of Thomas’ quadruple bypass surgery. Wow. Hard to believe.

A Good Friend

The definition of a good friend is someone who will come over while you’re recuperating from surgery and surprise you with a one-shot D&D adventure. Thank you, thank you! I played Zane von Ronzel, disgraced scion of wealth (a cross between Raef and Jezal dan Luthar) turned thief, in debt to the Red Fingers gang for some 5000 marks. A gestalt fighter 2/rogue 2.

I’m not the worst D&D player on earth, but I seriously am not the best. (Oh be quiet!) I’m not a tactical thinker either. (I said, be quiet!) Zane had his chance for a Big Score, so he scoped out the house. And opted to try to break in from the front gate.

OK, not too bright. Especially since I was rolling for crap that day. Since that approach didn’t work, I opted for climbing the wall and entering through a front window. The family was supposed to be out at the opera, but I knew it wouldn’t be as easy as that. Naturally I failed a crucial Reflex save and would’ve fallen had it not been for the lovely young daughter of the house who pulled me in. Actually, if not for her, Zane would’ve died really early on.

Romantic adventures ensued as I convinced her I was a dashing ne’er-do-well down on my luck, forced into thievery to regain my fortunes. She didn’t completely believe that, but she was having fun. Then her nasty drunken cousin showed up. Glad I didn’t enter his bedroom instead. I essentially killed him with my deadly rapier and main gauche attacks and left her to staunch the bleeding while I found the painting I’d come for.

Zane, you’re not a good thief. At all. I failed Open Lock and Strength checks to get two doors open, fortunately avoiding the needle trap on one door. But at length I forced one of the doors open and found the creepy painting–a landscape of Hell. Complete with a booby-trapped frame. I began cutting it out after at last getting the idea to disarm the trap (see? not a great thief akshully), when I was rudely interrupted by an imp.

I HATE IMPS. Amazingly annoying, especially when you keep fumbling your Fort saves and getting poisoned by their #$%^ tails. And when you can’t get past their damage resistance. At least Zane was clothed. (As I’m sure my faithful readers recall, Raef was naked when he faced an imp. Ouch. Adventurers should NOT sleep naked. Just sayin’.) If it hadn’t been for Annalee’s quick thinking (she’d make a great bandit queen, possibly), Zane would be another corpse to explain away. She threw a sheet over it, succeeding after several tries. I got away with the painting, one last kiss, and an open invitation to call again.

Although I only received 2000 marks for my trouble. Zane still has to come up with some more geld to prevent being mutilated by mobsters. Maybe he should form a quick liasion with Annalee. Or get the heck outta Dodge.

Despite my ineptitude, I had so much fun. Thanks again!

Surgery on the Morrow

Ugh, liquid diet today.

Fun fact #1: Grape jello for breakfast is not so grate akshully.

Fun fact #2: As T reminded me, it’s named JELLO for a reason, not Kool-Aid Gels. I shoulda bought the actual brand. I do loves me the grape, but…um…nope. Not in Kool-Aid version.

Success

Thomas’ heart catheterization went well yesterday, and turned out to have been a false positive. His bypasses are clear. Huzzah! He’s doing his requisite 24 hours of bedrest today. SO glad that’s over with.