Aralis
Wow, been a while since I posted. Am largely using other forms of media now, but I still like the journal-ish aspects of this so I can find stuff later. Real life stuff has mostly been along the lines of, "It snowed, I shoveled, it snowed some more, I shoveled, stupid snow, yay sewing! stupid snow." That's been most of the last several months. Also, root canals are not fun but also not as bad as advertised, and I am a clutz on an impressive level. There was also visiting Arizona and the cancellation of the Madrigal revel :(.
This past weekend was Aralis. The weather was... uncooperative. Friday night it snowed, enough to make the roads dangerous (which I think caught a lot of us by surprise), and there was a foot of snow-pack on the ground most everywhere, solid enough that people were slinging totes onto their shoulders and then stepping up onto the snow to walk (cause it was a lot safer and more direct than using the paths). Then there was the cold, a bit of melting on Saturday day, and then yet more cold which resulted in most of the game just collapsing after a few major encounters Sat night. Then there was more cold! I love my mattress pad.
Anyway, on to :
- the rescue Avery mod was a lot of fun. Challenging set up, with each of us needing to talk to a jester and switching off before they could talk to us too long and start with the inflicts. Also, so glad I reviewed my stats before that encounter. Talking to Avery afterwards was gross, tragic, and awesome, which is an interesting mix to hit.
- kicking in doors! This was randomly my weekend of going on a lot of mods where we kicked in the door, beat some stuff up, and then ran away. Not Fathom's favorite thing, but JJ enjoyed the hell out of it.
- discovering what a 'huh' looks like. Was on a rogue mod (actually brought a rogue this time!!) and from the front of the line we hear, "Huh. Never seen *that* before." Not at all encouraging (especially from the person who was saying it). Then the next couple people in line leaned around him to look up the stair case, and we hear... "Huh." Well, at that point we had to see, so those of us at the back switched places with people until we too could look up the stairs, and I saw a little black... gizmo... with a bunch of darts poking out of it and a flashing light on the front. "Huh." So much fun.
- a very interesting discussion with Vanya
- couple good discussions with Yoko
- actually getting to know Grace a bit. Will be more of that in the future. :) Also, standing back with her watching frenzied Phoenix fight someone and explaining to her the frenzied-Phoenix protocol.
- one of the scariest meetings I've been to in a while. Partway through, Fathom found that she couldn't control herself well enough to keep from clenching her hands, so she stuck them behind her back so she could wring them to her heart's content while (hopefully) looking calm from the front.
- sitting down in one of the little cabins with Miyako to guard one of the points, and having Miyako comment that finally we were going to get to talk because we'd barely seen each other all weekend, and having that practically be the trigger for the nightmares to come in and inflict me. (Also, tragically, Fathom was actually happier in her nightmare than she was normally. Even more tragically, I got cured right away, and we found out later that there were other people with *way* more problematic inflicts that we probably should have saved the cure for.)
- in the middle of the Sanctuary fight (anyone else want to just burn that place to the ground), being like, "OK, this is a bit rough, but I think we've got it under control." Then doing a run through the building and seeing Azarin unable to heal, and Fujiwara unwilling to draw his weapon, and running outside to fight things, back inside to Fujiwara's group, back outside to fight some more, realizing I hadn't seen Squint in a while, finding *him* unwilling to draw *his* weapon, and then the giant blue sword showed up. We do *not* got this.
- As always, RP with Squint is a highlight, but this time I'll call out trying to talk him out of *his* nightmare inflict, by means of talking him out of being a pacifist by guilt tripping him like it was my job. I'm totally a good guy, right...
- watching Lin Zeshu mow his way through the vampires. I don't think I swung my weapon in that fight, I was too busy being totally delighted by watching him maim the vampires while calling no effect to just about everything they did. (Also, watching him sort of vaguely menace everyone who was trying to enter the tavern was sort of hilarious.)
- actually being standing by the end of all the terrible inflicts on the 9th item mod. Also, feeling very dumb for forgetting that my stun spell is off of priest and not off of mage. :sigh:
Edited to add:
- "Those aren't your real names?"
This past weekend was Aralis. The weather was... uncooperative. Friday night it snowed, enough to make the roads dangerous (which I think caught a lot of us by surprise), and there was a foot of snow-pack on the ground most everywhere, solid enough that people were slinging totes onto their shoulders and then stepping up onto the snow to walk (cause it was a lot safer and more direct than using the paths). Then there was the cold, a bit of melting on Saturday day, and then yet more cold which resulted in most of the game just collapsing after a few major encounters Sat night. Then there was more cold! I love my mattress pad.
Anyway, on to :
- the rescue Avery mod was a lot of fun. Challenging set up, with each of us needing to talk to a jester and switching off before they could talk to us too long and start with the inflicts. Also, so glad I reviewed my stats before that encounter. Talking to Avery afterwards was gross, tragic, and awesome, which is an interesting mix to hit.
- kicking in doors! This was randomly my weekend of going on a lot of mods where we kicked in the door, beat some stuff up, and then ran away. Not Fathom's favorite thing, but JJ enjoyed the hell out of it.
- discovering what a 'huh' looks like. Was on a rogue mod (actually brought a rogue this time!!) and from the front of the line we hear, "Huh. Never seen *that* before." Not at all encouraging (especially from the person who was saying it). Then the next couple people in line leaned around him to look up the stair case, and we hear... "Huh." Well, at that point we had to see, so those of us at the back switched places with people until we too could look up the stairs, and I saw a little black... gizmo... with a bunch of darts poking out of it and a flashing light on the front. "Huh." So much fun.
- a very interesting discussion with Vanya
- couple good discussions with Yoko
- actually getting to know Grace a bit. Will be more of that in the future. :) Also, standing back with her watching frenzied Phoenix fight someone and explaining to her the frenzied-Phoenix protocol.
- one of the scariest meetings I've been to in a while. Partway through, Fathom found that she couldn't control herself well enough to keep from clenching her hands, so she stuck them behind her back so she could wring them to her heart's content while (hopefully) looking calm from the front.
- sitting down in one of the little cabins with Miyako to guard one of the points, and having Miyako comment that finally we were going to get to talk because we'd barely seen each other all weekend, and having that practically be the trigger for the nightmares to come in and inflict me. (Also, tragically, Fathom was actually happier in her nightmare than she was normally. Even more tragically, I got cured right away, and we found out later that there were other people with *way* more problematic inflicts that we probably should have saved the cure for.)
- in the middle of the Sanctuary fight (anyone else want to just burn that place to the ground), being like, "OK, this is a bit rough, but I think we've got it under control." Then doing a run through the building and seeing Azarin unable to heal, and Fujiwara unwilling to draw his weapon, and running outside to fight things, back inside to Fujiwara's group, back outside to fight some more, realizing I hadn't seen Squint in a while, finding *him* unwilling to draw *his* weapon, and then the giant blue sword showed up. We do *not* got this.
- As always, RP with Squint is a highlight, but this time I'll call out trying to talk him out of *his* nightmare inflict, by means of talking him out of being a pacifist by guilt tripping him like it was my job. I'm totally a good guy, right...
- watching Lin Zeshu mow his way through the vampires. I don't think I swung my weapon in that fight, I was too busy being totally delighted by watching him maim the vampires while calling no effect to just about everything they did. (Also, watching him sort of vaguely menace everyone who was trying to enter the tavern was sort of hilarious.)
- actually being standing by the end of all the terrible inflicts on the 9th item mod. Also, feeling very dumb for forgetting that my stun spell is off of priest and not off of mage. :sigh:
Edited to add:
- "Those aren't your real names?"