Outside
This post is an attempt to convey the impression that I haven't just spent 9 days sitting on a couch eating cake.
I did actually manage to get Outside most days, usually accompanied with dogs (or, sometimes, by dog, with the second dog being somewhere thataway.) I did venture out alone one day, unaccompanied by either dog or native guide, and was Led Astray by an apple. A helpful-looking post carved with an apple suggested that I should turn right, so I decided to follow the apple, as one does. It led me for a little while along a very obvious PATH! only to betray me and abandon me in the middle of the wilderness. I tried various possible-paths, one of which tried to drown me in a raging Tamar, and the other one of which led me on a broad circle back to where I'd started.
On the Sunday, there was a lot of mist in the valley, enough to suggest that Grimnir wasn't just present but was running around madly chasing an exuberant lucher. Excited by this novelty, I took various bad pictures (which would have been better had my foreground stopped running away), only to find that Grimnir's morning run was a daily occurence, and nothing remarkable. Oh well. The cobwebs were pretty, anyway.
On the Monday evening, our roleplaying party reached a planet that they intended to search for the site of a crashed spaceship, and a mysterious octagonal building. This provided an excuse for the GM to throw us all out of the house and send us out into Devon to search for a natural feature that might possibly resemble an impact crater.
We obediently headed into Lydford Gorge, where the nice National Trust lady merrily told us that we could do a nice gentle three mile dog-friendly walk along the buccolic pathways of the gorge. It would take two hours, she said. "Two hours to do three miles!" we thought. "That timing's for wimps. We can do it in half that!" Sure enough, we did the first half of the walk in about 25 minutes, scampering along with eager dogs in tow, hope and innocence in our hearts. Every 100 yards or so, a post told us where the nearest emergency telephone was, and we had a little chuckle about the ridiculous safety-obsessed National Trust, fretting about danger on such an easy stroll as this.
How naive we were! Halfway through the walk, the path descended to the river, and the next mile and a half involved picking our way along narrow rocky outcrops mere inches away from a raging torrent, all of them wet with spray and slippery with moss. So here it is: proof that GMs (and nice National Trust ladies) are indeed always out to kill their parties.
It was all too precarious for me to take pictures, but here is a teeny waterfall:
And here, on a broader part of the path, is a Probably Ritual log, complete with its worshippers, both animal and canine:
Finally, we emerged from the chasm, by way of the roaring, raging Devil's Cauldron, and decided that we should probably race back to the Land of Mobile Phone Reception and check in with the GM. Therefore we stayed where we were and went to the teashop for a nice cup of tea and pots of interesting ice cream.
Later in the day, we had to find a ruin that could pass for a mysterious octagonal tower that our characters found near the crash site. This proved to be Brent Tor, which houses what must be one of the least accessible parish churches in England. The guide book told of brides arriving covered in cow pats, and burial parties forced to crawl along "like frogs" by the force of the wind.
We all failed our navigation roll initially, and ended up trying to climb a sheer rock face to get to the church. Fortunately, one of our party managed to get ahead of us and finally make a decent roll. Here he is pathfinding for us: "Turn right at the cow!"
The view at the top was very impressive. Here is the party casting their long shadow across the world at their feet. Unlike in the game world, the world survived the encounter.
I include this photo because it was the only one in which canine foreground co-operated, and I want proof:
The graves were very precariously positioned on a cliff edge:
And finally, returning to Inside, here is a shot of a fierce monster that we didn't meet:
I did actually manage to get Outside most days, usually accompanied with dogs (or, sometimes, by dog, with the second dog being somewhere thataway.) I did venture out alone one day, unaccompanied by either dog or native guide, and was Led Astray by an apple. A helpful-looking post carved with an apple suggested that I should turn right, so I decided to follow the apple, as one does. It led me for a little while along a very obvious PATH! only to betray me and abandon me in the middle of the wilderness. I tried various possible-paths, one of which tried to drown me in a raging Tamar, and the other one of which led me on a broad circle back to where I'd started.
On the Sunday, there was a lot of mist in the valley, enough to suggest that Grimnir wasn't just present but was running around madly chasing an exuberant lucher. Excited by this novelty, I took various bad pictures (which would have been better had my foreground stopped running away), only to find that Grimnir's morning run was a daily occurence, and nothing remarkable. Oh well. The cobwebs were pretty, anyway.
On the Monday evening, our roleplaying party reached a planet that they intended to search for the site of a crashed spaceship, and a mysterious octagonal building. This provided an excuse for the GM to throw us all out of the house and send us out into Devon to search for a natural feature that might possibly resemble an impact crater.
We obediently headed into Lydford Gorge, where the nice National Trust lady merrily told us that we could do a nice gentle three mile dog-friendly walk along the buccolic pathways of the gorge. It would take two hours, she said. "Two hours to do three miles!" we thought. "That timing's for wimps. We can do it in half that!" Sure enough, we did the first half of the walk in about 25 minutes, scampering along with eager dogs in tow, hope and innocence in our hearts. Every 100 yards or so, a post told us where the nearest emergency telephone was, and we had a little chuckle about the ridiculous safety-obsessed National Trust, fretting about danger on such an easy stroll as this.
How naive we were! Halfway through the walk, the path descended to the river, and the next mile and a half involved picking our way along narrow rocky outcrops mere inches away from a raging torrent, all of them wet with spray and slippery with moss. So here it is: proof that GMs (and nice National Trust ladies) are indeed always out to kill their parties.
It was all too precarious for me to take pictures, but here is a teeny waterfall:
And here, on a broader part of the path, is a Probably Ritual log, complete with its worshippers, both animal and canine:
Finally, we emerged from the chasm, by way of the roaring, raging Devil's Cauldron, and decided that we should probably race back to the Land of Mobile Phone Reception and check in with the GM. Therefore we stayed where we were and went to the teashop for a nice cup of tea and pots of interesting ice cream.
Later in the day, we had to find a ruin that could pass for a mysterious octagonal tower that our characters found near the crash site. This proved to be Brent Tor, which houses what must be one of the least accessible parish churches in England. The guide book told of brides arriving covered in cow pats, and burial parties forced to crawl along "like frogs" by the force of the wind.
We all failed our navigation roll initially, and ended up trying to climb a sheer rock face to get to the church. Fortunately, one of our party managed to get ahead of us and finally make a decent roll. Here he is pathfinding for us: "Turn right at the cow!"
The view at the top was very impressive. Here is the party casting their long shadow across the world at their feet. Unlike in the game world, the world survived the encounter.
I include this photo because it was the only one in which canine foreground co-operated, and I want proof:
The graves were very precariously positioned on a cliff edge:
And finally, returning to Inside, here is a shot of a fierce monster that we didn't meet:
