photo saturday: pumpkin jack

I do enjoy making some odd stuff for certain holidays and then being able to tie it back to DnD.

In this case, it's a little something for Halloween... Hans Kurbis... or to translate his name from the German, Jack Pumpkin.

I'm also slightly kicking myself, because last weekend I went though all my saved builds on Hero Forge and deleted a bunch of models that I didn't need anymore, including an original version of a scarecrow character... which I think was basically the same model, but I think the colour scheme on that one was better.

And yes, that is a marshmallow stuck on his wand.

Anyway...

Relatively speaking, I made goop this week for dinner. By which I mean I added vegetables and meat to a jar of a vaguely Asian style sauce. And it reminded me that... actually... I don't like goop that much. Which led to some slight improvisation later in the week.

Also on Monday the final episode of the current iteration of Doctor Who aired. And while I have had many opinions about Doctor Who in the past, I will admit that I'd mostly given up on the most recent Doctor because the writer/showrunner is supremely untalented, except on those rare instances when he pulls something out of his butt or is basically copying ("paying homage") the work of previous parts of the show.

His run has also been the most disliked and the least cohesive (partly affected by things beyond his control... like 2020) of the modern era. And while I think that the actress portraying the Doctor is a good actress, I don't think she's the RIGHT actress to play the Doctor. Part of that is the writing. Part of that is her. And not because she's a woman, because the other "Doctor" portrayed during this run is also a woman, and she commands attention every time she steps on screen.

Having said all of that, the season finale was uneven, rushed, disjointed but at the same time, there were elements relating to Doctors from years past that were actually pretty good. Including the Doctor that I consider to be MY Doctor (being the very first Doctor I really watched... if you don't count Tom Baker, because I think, somehow, everybody's first Doctor is technically Tom Baker, but that might just be because they used to repeat his episodes more than anyone else's), being Sylvester McCoy and his companion Ace.

Would I have preferred that they'd shown up in an episode/season written by a good writer? Yes. Was it overly emotionally manipulative? Yes, but I teared up anyway. Did it completely ignore pretty much every unanswered question that has been posed in the entirety of this Doctor's tenure and raise a few new ones that it likewise didn't bother answering? Yes, but also some of those questions were intensely stupid and didn't make any sense, I was okay with that. I'm just glad that the "lesbian kiss" that's been being hinted at in the last few episodes, after literally materialising out of fucking nowhere, didn't happen. Because literally nobody needed that.

Sadly though, just after that episode aired, the news broke that Disney had acquired the "worldwide" streaming rights to Doctor Who, which includes Australia, where the show has been airing on free-to-air TV since 1967, only three years after it first started airing, although it did screen at the same time across the whole country until 1978. But 54 years of history don't mean fuck all when you're staring at Disney money... so now Doctor Who will be behind a paywall.

In a word. Fuck that, fuck you Disney.

And even if a former showrunner is taking over and even if they're brining back my favourite Doctor briefly for the 60th Anniversary Special, leading into the regeneration of the next Doctor... I could also just leave it here. We'll see what happens, but let's just say I'm not pleased about the fact that Disney has very deep pockets, very long arms and no apparent conscience.

Anyway...

Thursday night's DnD was accidentally All About Me... by which I mean my character. Like I said last week, we're deep in part of my character's backstory at present... wasn't intending it... didn't expect it to go like this... but here we are. I also manufactured some moments so that my character wasn't around for certain things, to give everyone else a chance and not to totally hog the spotlight.

I've also already talked to DM Fluffy about having a one-on-one session to cover some private conversations my character wants to have with people so that I don't eat into the next game with stuff that only concerns my boy.

Friday night's DnD was pretty good. New area, new companions, new vibes. And I'm always very pleased when the group reacts to certain things in ways above and beyond how I anticipated. Usually when they see things as creepy... because, honestly, I'm so deep in this story now that I don't necessarily see any of it as that creepy. Plus, you know, I'm a little twisted.

Anyway...

Today wasn't much of anything.

Basically supermarket and that was it.

Current mood:

photo saturday: poisoned apple

There have been three times where I've created a DnD character with the noble background, and, honestly, somehow they all kinda ended up being assholes. In varying degrees anyway.

I mean, I can't say for certain with Hemlock... since he's this week's Artificer DnD Character Colouring Book entry... but, honestly, the more I started to build him in my head, the more of an asshole he seemed.

Or at least a problematic yet lovable asshole. In my head if nobody else.

I mean, that's what happens when you combine a noble background, the alchemist subclass and the poisoner feat. And then give them an outfit in black leather and my favourite colour of acid green. Plus a homunculus made from a potion bottle (well, once he's able to make one anyway).

I'll be honest, I think he's probably in second place behind last week's Battlesmith.

His backstory details will really depend on the game we're actually playing and where we start out... but it would be a different vibe than any of the others. But he's from Waterdeep, and I actually picked a name from a list of Waterdavian noble families, one of the ones that is very light on details to give me all the leeway I want.

Anyway...

I think we're kind done with soup season, which is sad, because it's so much easier than the alternative. But this week I made a big old pot of bolognese pasta sauce which was totally just me making shit up. But it was actually pretty tasty and simmered for like three hours.

I basically lost all of Tuesday because Ma dropped her car in for a service, and rather than her plan, which was to just sit in the dealership for what would have turned out to be six hours, I went and picked her up, we went to breakfast, wandered around the bookstore on the Parade and then came back here and... basically sat around for like five hours essentially. But it was better than her just hanging around on her own.

Thursday night DnD actually existed... which was an improvement on the last two weeks where there was none.

And my character fell face first into elements of his backstory, and, honestly, not mad about it. Because I did tell DM Fluffy that basically he's Fate's bitch... but it's interesting, initially I thought that meant that he would do things that he was fated to do without complaint. No, because that's so not him (or me), he will absolutely object to the things fate has in store, but at the end of the day does them anyway. I mean, right now it seems like his overall vibe is just headbutting elements of fate without realising what he's doing, which is also fun.

I also very much had to tell the rest of the party off (in character) for wanting to stick their noses in his business. Will Dax do that when other people's backstories pop up, oh absolutely, but this is the first instance of that we've really had, so everyone kind of just got very over excited.

Friday was Chiro Day... so, the usual journey into town, complete with Wandering About and Looking At Things.

Then Friday Night DnD was very good. I got to spring some things on the party that I've been waiting to do for a while, but otherwise it was mostly one of those "mopping up loose ends and having big conversations" kind of sessions. I also got to leave them on a cliffhanger (and also they levelled up)... and I love that shit.

Plus I didn't have to drive Fluffy home, as he drove himself to my place... so bonuses all around.

Anyway...

Today was... not much of anything really.

We did the supermarket thing, and then we did an errand that resulted in a big fat nothing and basically did a wander and called the whole thing a day. So, yeah, nothing to report really.

Current mood:

photo saturday: making a friend

Remember a little while back where I posted about 67 different variations of rogues while I was trying to find my next character.

Yeah, we're doing that, but for Artificers right now. Or at least for the three Artificer subclasses I actually like (the first of which was Orval from a couple of weeks back). And it might just be three characters total. I'll have to see how I go.

I'll admit, it's a class I struggle with concepts for, because it seems very specific and generally speaking feels less "fantasy" and more something else. Not "steampunk" per say, although that's very much how people seem to think of it. But it's definitely one that probably fits better within the world of Eberron, which is more pulp detective novels meets "non-traditional fantasy technologies" like magically powered trains and skyships. So I kinda went around and around on some of these.

But we ended up with Hasim... also known as Haze. Honestly, the name is the most likely to change. It's a place holder right now, but I do definitely want a Persian/Arabian style name for him.

I've also never played a male tiefling. And I've only ever played one other tiefling, Mama Lullaby, who was my... second ever character I think. Which is odd. You'd think I would have played a bunch of them, since I really do enjoy tieflings... and I've made a few, they just never made it through to a table at any point.

And for some reason I have a tendency to gravitate towards tieflings with human coloured skin rather than the traditional red or the very internet popular tones of purple. I did go back to the official tiefling description though and saw that their eyes can just be white, which is not a direction I would normally go, but felt right.

What's interesting is that at a certain point Hasim actually had a completely different colour pallet and name. He was originally Knack and the colours were all shades of blue. But then I went looking for some kind of art for a Steel Defender (since you really can't make those in Hero Forge right now) and ended up finding this amazing looking "Automata Quad" by Graey Erb. 

After that the colour pallet got a bit of a tweak to bring it more into like with the Quad's colours (I might, at some point, go in and make the armour metal a little closer of a match to the illustration). And I very much dig it right now. There's always a hierarchy to these things, and I think that Hasim is in the lead of the three designs I'm currently toying with. I think, very possibly, the Defender is what pushed him over the edge. I love the slightly non-specific big cat/sabre-tooth creature/jewellery vibe of it along with what is very clearly an artisan's eye.

I don't really have a backstory for him yet, although I did suddenly realise that there are probably more tieflings working as blacksmiths that you might otherwise expect, if only because they're resistant to fire, so, to paraphrase, the heat wouldn't bother them anyway.

Anyway...

I made Toona Noodle Doo this week... I don't know why, but sometimes it's amazing and sometimes it's... m'eh. This time around it was just fairly average. And I never quite know what makes the difference. Should I have thrown in an extra can of soup? Should I just not bother adding in boiled egg? No idea. If was fine though.

Otherwise... this week was kinda m'eh.

No urgent trips to Service SA, no issues with anybody's internet... and no DnD. Yeah, there wasn't supposed to be a Thursday game, that I already knew, but Friday's game got pulled at roughly 4:15pm on Friday. And Fluffy had stuff going on at his end... so... yeah, nothing there either.

So that's it really.

The weather was fucking nuts, but otherwise, nothing to report.

Anyway...

Today became a semi-Christmas related excursion.

We started with the usual supermarketry... and then headed off to look for some specific bits and pieces, which led us to both Big W and Kmart... and mostly their Christmas stuff. It should also have included more of their Halloween stuff, but the stuff I liked was either too expensive for what it was, or they just didn't have what I was looking for.

But a good trip overall.

Current mood:

photo saturday: spooky boy

It seems that I'm somewhat slightly obsessed with the Undead Patron Warlock at present. Which is something of a shame, because it's going to be a hot minute before I get the chance to actually play one. If that ever actually eventuates.

But given we've entered the Spooky Month, it seemed like a vibe for today's DnD Character Colouring Book... even if the colour is basically black.

It also came together nicely with a number of pieces from the outfit that was released the week before last. Which I quite like, but they're a little specific or at least have a less general vibe, at least when it comes to the spiked kneepad. At some point it would be nice if they got really modular with some of the stuff, but I suppose that's a little hard to do with everything.

Zherne started out as a redhead with stubble. And then I basically covered his face and head, so it didn't seem like there was a ton of point to it all. But the stubble kind of stuck around. It's probably something I would ditch if I was really going to play him.

I also really dig the armoured glove. And his dead, yet functional, eye.

I haven't quite pieced together a backstory for him... I feel like he was a member of a cult of one of the evil gods of death, but was sacrificed, probably against his will. Or maybe not, he certainly didn't expect to come back. And suffice to say, it's less pleased about the cult he used to be a part of.

So I don't quite know who his Patron actually is, but he does take on a bleeding, gaunt, rotting visage for his Form of Dread. And his is covered in healed scars in his day to day existence, they just start to ooze thick dark ichor when he transforms.

And yes, his name is a variation of Chernobog, the Slavic god of misfortune.

Anyway.

This week's soup was yet another minestrone I made up based on what I remembered to buy last week. And it was pretty good... with the bacon and chorizo goodness and whatnot.

Otherwise, we're mostly filing this week under "unexpected problems".

The least of which was the fact the fucking weather couldn't make up it's mind all week... first it's going to be sunny and warm, then it's going to be cold and windy, then it's going to be temperate with a lot of rain.

So Thursday, I got an email from the nice folk at Optus, following up from the previous "yeah, sorry, your data definitely got leaked" email with a "yep, definitely leaked, and it was definitely your drivers license, so now you have to go get a new one".

Which we can now file under "things I didn't expect to be doing at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon"... driving to Service SA to get a new license number.

On the plus side, while a large amount of the people who were there were also in the same boat, I think I was there for a grand total of maybe 15-20 minutes, tops. And the line was longer when I left than when I got there, which is always the correct state of affairs.

But now I have no license until they get around to sending out the new one. Well... no physical card. Me and the other trillion people who were making their way through Service SA that day.

There was also no Thursday night DnD. Because something something people had other things happening. And no Thursday night DnD next week either, for similarly associated reasons.

Then Friday, my internet just cut out for no well explained reason. I think it might have been a more localised neighbourhood issue rather than just being me specifically, but I still called the ISP and got them looking into it, but fortunately, it came back about half an hour later while I was busy doing other things.

And then Friday night DnD was also cancelled, because Mrs was interstate. We also didn't end up doing board games, so Fluffy and I just did movie night instead. Which was pleasant. Nothing particularly to write home about, we watched the Great Mouse Detective and then I introduced Fluffy to Empire Records, which went over very well.

Because of course it did, it's a great fucking movie #DamnTheMan.

But that was our evening. Finishing up much earlier than normal.

Today was mostly about average, supermarketry, then back here to do some bits and pieces and then off to Bunnings for pick up various things, including some more potting mix for my, inexplicably, twenty year old parlour palm, after I realised how much the soil had compacted/disappeared while putting the supportive plastic cage around it last Saturday night.

And a couple of other stops, all in the general neighbourhood, but again, nothing exciting.

There was another brief moment of panic this afternoon though when the electricity went out... just what I didn't need after the internet outage earlier in the week. Fortunately it only lasted a few minutes and then came back up.

But that's it for the week really. Nothing groundbreaking, but a lot of "really?".

Current mood:

photo saturday: professor

So what do you do when it turns out that the next DM for the Friday game doesn't want to run Adventure A, as assumed by last week's DnD Character Colouring Book, but instead, wants to run Adventure B.

You make a different character.

And I figured, if I'm doing this... why not actually play the one character class that I've never actually played before, albeit, one that I've struggled to actually get a handle on making an interesting character for.

And this is also not one of the subclasses I thought I would ever want to play. But somehow little Orval just fell into my brain pretty much fully formed. And he kinda knew who he wanted to be. So those are the characters I just run with, because, as a wise woman (by which I mean Barbra Streisand in What's Up Doc) once said... "Listen, kiddo. You can't fight a tidal wave."

So I don't try.

And yes, the look and the outfit are basically a mashup of two previous characters that I will never actually play, but I liked the look then, and I like the look now. I did try out a blue variant, but, honesty, the orange/golden yellow and purple combo is pretty much where it's at.

Like I said, he dropped in pretty fully formed, so I know a bunch of things about him, but there's also other stuff that will depend on where we start out and you know, other stuff. But I'm kind of digging it. And it should be a different kind of character to play, so that'll be good.

I mean, between now and then I fully expect to change his outfit 12 times based on what new gear appears on Hero Forge, but the core will remain.

Anyway.

This week I tried out a new soup recipe, for Easy Creamy Chicken Rice Soup, and mine came out pretty much the same as the photos with the recipe, which is always nice. Although I think I had more celery than carrot in mine, which is fine, because I like celery more than carrot anyway.

But it worked really well. And while I might not lean into this specific recipe again, I will definitely adapt some of techniques to my own soups in the future. And this soup actually taught me the proper way to use cornflour, so that was nice.

I spent various portions of the week sorting out my whole external hard drive situation... copying things across, deleting things, getting shit organised. And then I realised that when I was taking things off my laptop last week, I actually forgot to pull all of my photos from my digital cameras off the laptop. I thought I had, but then I couldn't find the folder... and realised I had been "saving it until last" and then forgot to get to "last".

Tuesday Ma lost her mind. Well, she had a stress out because her internet wasn't working, and I walked her through the things I knew that might do something (switch it on/off, stick a thingy in the reset hole, etc) but it turned out it was the NBN box and she would have to call the ISP and get them to look into it. And she just worked herself up into a tizzy about it.

I thought she'd be fine, but then I didn't hear from her for a while, so I called her back, only to find that we'd hit Peak Tizzy.

So I spent a while talking her down off that particular ledge, and basically got her in a state where she could call and have a coherent conversation with them.

Of course the upshot was, she called, they couldn't fix it over the phone, they arranged to send out an NBN tech on Thursday, he was basically there for like five minutes and it turned out that some previous work on the junction box or whatever had fucked up the connection.

So a whole storm in a teacup in order to get him there, he was there for like 10 minutes and it was all fixed before 9am.

Bless her little cotton socks.

It did partially stress me out during the week, not knowing if the problem was an easy fix. Although assuming that it probably was.

But, once again... Storm. In teacup. I will admit though, it's my preferred kind of storm. Both in size and location.

I also made apple cake... the downside is that I ended up looking at a bunch of different recipes trying to find one I'd seen the week before, and so now I can't find it. But it used oil and Greek yogurt and it was really fucking good. Admittedly, I went off the rails a little on the butter, sugar and cinnamon topping that was supposed to form like a crust on the top... too much butter, which soaked into the cake as it was cooling and was not in any way bad, it did just make the cake fall apart a little and end up kinda sticky and very sweet... although less greasy than I was expecting. It was pretty good actually. Especially with a little vanilla ice-cream.

If I can hunt down the recipe (and remember to bookmark it this time), I'm definitely going to try it again.

Thursday night DnD was good... we lost a drinking contest and therefore lost being able to rub our victory in the face of the shitty NPCs we kept encountering before that. But my boy did manage to hook up with the lovely elven NPC, so that was nice.

But now we're on the road, finding out things about each other... keeping secrets and feeling each other out. And having prolonged dream sequences. And discovering that you're having a shared dream sequence with another character... which is a bit of a shock when there was no pre-existing relationship established between the two characters.

Good though. Fun though. Something to dig into later though.

Friday night DnD was equally good. Not least of all because I got to drop the needle on various things that I've been waiting to do for a while. And finally got to reveal to them what happened to the things they'd lost. And reveal to Fluffy's character what his mother looks like. And retell a story I'd already told from a different perspective now that they know that it's important and to pay attention to it.

What's interesting is how much stuff just rolls off my tongue without pre-planning it. There are whole chunks of this adventure that go a little off book that have just gone straight from brain to mouth. And I very much dig that. Even just pivoting in the moment based on dice rolls and things they do.

It's also all very good fun.

Next session will be a little more back-tracky as they head back to see the first hag, not knowing whether or not she knows that the second hag is dead.

So that'll be a fun time.

Anyway...

Today wasn't much of anything yet again.

We did the supermarket thing, didn't buy a huge amount, but then afterwards we were basically going to call it a day until we decided to head down to see if we could find some kind of trellis/support for my twenty year old parlor palm... yeah, that bitch is old. And a touch top heavy these days. So we'll see how this goes.

There were a few other things we grabbed, nothing overly exciting, just useful stuff. But we then discovered that they'd overcharged us on a couple of items. So back in I went to make them sort it out. Yes, it was less than $10 but it was the principle of the thing.

And that's about it really.

Current mood: