photo saturday: unexpected old lady

beilyn porridgepot - swordcaptain, retired, focused

I swear that I'd featured Beilyn Porridgepot previously.... but scrolling through old posts, there's not a single sign of her anywhere... so she definitely gets a place in this week's DnD Character Colouring Book.

So Beilyn came from a number of places... firstly, halfling, but also because I love a small barbarian. And I also wanted to play in the "unexpected old lady" character space. Of course, the Hero Forge model never looked appropriately old until the face customiser let us age up characters.

Secondly, she was intended for adventures set in Waterdeep, so I wanted to make her a retired Swordcaptain from the Waterdeep City Watch (at least I think that was her rank, it's the one that makes the most sense to me looking at the list now). It also let me lean into the "focus" over "rage" idea for a barbarian.

But I also wanted to mess around with the idea of "Ancestral Guardian" and lean into the idea that the Guardian Spirits she called upon weren't from her family, but were former members of the City Watch, because that just made sense to me. I did at one stage have a whole group of characters designed for that, but they fell by the wayside long ago.

The axe was a magic item that I got as a DM Reward in Adventurers League, but in-game it was left to her in the will of her former Captain, who was a dwarf.

And yes, I did definitely remix her name from Lin Beifong, the Chief of Police in Republic City from The Legend of Korra. Because there was also a definite Lin vibe to the character.

Anyway...

This week was... a lot.

Which is what happens when I need to do a full clean for a rental inspection. And also, because I split the clean over two days so I'm not completely broken afterwards. So Monday I cleaned the kitchen including the oven, straightened up and got everything ready to go, then used to stove and had to give it a once over again.

Then Tuesday there was a full bathroom clean, full vacuum and floor mopping... and when I went to switch the vacuum on again, it wouldn't stay on. So I had to finish the last of the vacuuming with one foot holding down the on button. Not what you would call ergonomic. But I essentially got the job done.

I also managed to get all of that in the morning, so basically collapsed for the afternoon.

Then on Wednesday I cleared out because I hate being here for an inspection. It also let me go drop some old printer ink cartridges off at Officeworks, wandered around Spotlight, and then went and poked around the library at Burnside and caught up on some reading before heading home.

When I got home, it was a little strange because I'd left a note for the real estate agent, and it was still on the counter, but I'd had that happen before and it wasn't too strange. Until I checked my email.

Yeah, the land agent couldn't work out how keys work and hence didn't actually get inside. They sent me a message saying that they didn't have a key for one of the two locks on my door, to which my reply was "I'm confused, there is only one key".

Turns out that they just didn't try hard enough, and they didn't bother calling me, so, they just emailed me after the inspection window was done and rescheduled. In two weeks.

*cue me flipping a very tiny table*

So I didn't even get to enjoy the feeling of coming home to a totally clean house and no looming inspection. Dagnabbit.

No Thursday Night DnD...

Friday was also Chiro Day... which was good, given that I needed a tune up.

The Hexagon Cardigan Project continues... I've gotten to the point where I've sewed the sleeves along the top seam, and I'm working on extending the back. But...

I should have known better. It was a bad decision on top of a bad decision. I'd run through most of a ball of black yarn. And thought "I'll just wind it into a ball"... first mistake. But then I made it worse... because I thought "Let me wind it around my hand so that I can start the ball from the other end of the yarn". Second mistake.

So now what I have is a giant tangle of yarn, with both ends being wound around a couple of highlighters and just a mass of black fluff in the middle. And I spent basically two hours yesterday trying to untangle it, and then a little time this morning, and I'm still determined to get it all untangled. So that will be... a thing that happens.

Friday Night DnD was good... although we did spend a bunch of time talking about other things, as we occasionally do. But otherwise it was a lot of "busywork" moving from one location to another, which I'm fine with.

Anyway...

Today was... average. We did the supermarket thing, and did a run to Spotlight because they're having a sale, and also I needed more black yarn for the Hexagon Cardigan.

And that was it really.

If you'll excuse me, I need too try and untangle some more yarn...

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