photo saturday: barbarian buttons

A character sometimes starts with a single thought. In this case, the thought was... "what if Barbarian, but old lady". Not an original thought, I grant you. But I wanted to make more of an unexpected Barbarian after a lot of... let's be frank, very obvious ones.

So, for the last DnD Character Colouring Book Barbarian March we have Kordela "Dela" Buttons. Pronounced "day-la". An aasimar, a travelling merchant who sells ribbons and buttons and threads and... things. Notions, basically. Or the equivalent of a haberdasher in other places. Which is also why I added in the backpack, which I wouldn't normally do, but I figure that's mostly her wares.

I also revisited Granny Thornback for the general idea around the costume. But then Hero Forge dropped some cute straw hats and that kind of cemented the character a little more.

Dela is married to a tiefling, Mr Buttons (I'm still workshopping the full name), and the idea that if they had any children, those children were just 100% human, having either inherited none of their parent's unique heritage, or just having the aasimar and tiefling genes cancel each other out.

I'm playing around with the idea of her encountering either the actual Norns or just three creatures standing in for Norns. Worshippers of the Norns maybe? And they tell her fortune or otherwise provide her with information about needing to be at a certain place at a certain time. And they give her the axe in return for her sharing her fire and food and campsite.

Am I also cribbing minor ideas from The Wicked + The Divine and American Gods? Absolutely.

She's also very much the frontrunner right now. Tied with the tiefling from a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway.

This week's Mini Media Review is basically American Gods Season 3. And it's a huge shame that they're not going to be doing a final season. That's happened twice now. Westworld and this both missed out on a final season that would have tied all the threads together.

But I liked the third season. Favourite character definitely Technical Boy. But I like what they were doing with Bilquis this season. Honestly, the least interesting bits are actually the main Mr Wednesday plotline.

I managed to stumble my way through a matching hat to go with the scarf I made for Fluffy last week. I'm... less good at hats. It's fine. It's definitely a beanie.

And he has them both now, and was very happy, so that's the main thing.

Friday Night DnD happened. It won't be happening for the next two weeks, and then the next week will be Good Friday, so who knows.

It was very much a tale of two halves. My boy was going perfect normal things in a perfectly normal village talking to perfectly normal people...

And the other two were absolutely falling into weird holes and talking to gods and being big, big weirdos.

On the plus side, I stopped half the town burning down. And am not currently having emotional PTSD.  So there's that. Plus I'm absolutely claiming the abandoned building that I prevented from burning down as a headquarters.

Anyway...

Today wasn't hugely exciting. The usual supermarketry. Although, after having searched literally anywhere for the older style of Sodastream bottles, suddenly they were back on the shelf. And for some reason they didn't have a price in their system, so they gave them to us for WAY cheaper than they should have been. Woo.

But because the Universe must balance, nobody had the pizza bases I like.

After that, while we didn't really want anything, I just wanted to get out the house and do a good solid Looking At Things. So we did the Big W/Kmart loop. And that was it really.

photo saturday: barbarian bear

Because I've been doing a lot of what I like to call Character Sketches of late for my potential first 2024 character, this week's DnD Character Colouring Book Barbarian March has been through some iterations.

Originally the design was done for one of the former DnD Thursday friend, Samwise, while he was having Character Indecision. The original pose wasn't mine, but I did tweak it because the original wasn't quite working for me.

So I made a dual bladed wizard for Samwise. And then when he moved on to other ideas, because, honestly, I love him but he's a poster child for distraction, I ended up revisiting that character and turning it into yet another Aasimar Barbarian. But I was also reaching a limit on Aasimar. So I went back to my first loves. Halflings.

 I changed the whole head, and the weapon (because as much as I liked the spear/pike that the Aasimar version was holding, there's something about a big ass axe), and swapped the shoes out for the same leg wraps as Havok had. And there was a little Photoshop fuckery to increase the size of the head of the axe.

The roses that tied the initial character to Chauntea, tie this one to her halfling equivalent, Sheela Peryroyl.

And he's one of those characters who I don't necessarily have a handle on a specific backstory, but I absolutely have a handle on a general vibe and I don't think it would take much to turn that into a backstory.

His parents were druids or clerics (probably druids, honestly, given his background feat provides him with knowledge of a couple of druid cantrips and a spell) of Peryroyl, he grew up in a temple in the wilderness, and while he felt no specific pull to follow the family calling, he did feel drawn to the wilder aspects of the goddess, the wild untamed lands and wild beasts. He started acting as an escort and guard for various halfling worshippers who came to the temple and travelled to many places.

And that's basically just me thinking on my feet. I'm not sure that Chasing-Bear is his original surname, so I might need to come up with an origin for that. Or, just lean into it.

I've also done the 2014 version of the Wild Heart Barbarian, so I'm not sure that this would actually be my choice for a 2024 character, I'm just very much enjoying his whole vibe right now.

Anyway...

Was this week something of a hot mess? A little.

Mini Media Reviews to begin. I tried to start with The Boy And The Heron. I put it on on Saturday night...  and promptly succumbed to Ghibli Nap. I don't fully understand why, but a lot of Ghibli movies just start lulling me to sleep. And I realised about halfway through that I hadn't been paying attention for about ten minutes and had instead been reading the insides of my eyelids.

As soon as I turned it off and started doing other things, I was perfectly fine. So I gave up for the evening.

Next up was the 2019 version of Charlie's Angels. A movie that doesn't know how to either Charlie nor Angel properly. The script is laughably bad, there is literally no dramatic tension in working out who the bad guy is. Because it's so very clear from the first 5 minutes. The movie does try to pull a "it's not X, instead it's Y", but that also feels incredibly fucking obvious also.

In the 2000 movie inside of the first 3 minutes you know the names of all the women, you know what their history is, how they got to be who they are and what their whole deal is. In this movie... I know one of the characters was called Jane. Because it's the most boring name ever. I remember neither of the other characters. The movie wants to be both About Serious Things and also comedic. It fails at both. It's trying very hard to be Misogyny Is Bad: The Motion Picture, because the only "good" male characters are ineffectual idiots that contribute nothing to the plot.

Monday I managed to actually stay awake through The Boy And The Heron. Mostly because I was crocheting at the same time. More on that in a second.

Later in the week I watched Shin Ultraman. I haven't interacted with Ultraman previously, although I did watch the Shin Godzilla movie, which is part of the same collaborative project, if not the same cinematic universe. In much the same way that Shin Godzilla was a comedy without actually being a comedy, I didn't really understand the vibe this movie was going for. Especially since you have one character, Asami, who is absolutely an insane person. Not least of all because she keeps grabbing her own ass.

And because Friday was cancelled (more on that later), I did a double header of Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person and The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales. Both delightful in their own way.

HVSCSP is a dark comedy that is very French, but in a... suburban French way that I don't often come across in movies. If you'd told me this was a French Canadian movie I would have believed you, which isn't a dig at either country. Also, the male lead is definitely French Tom Holland, so I'm not mad about that. As much as I was slightly frustrated by the titular vampire for not wanting to bite people, I also realise that's the point of the movie. I did very much like the end though.

The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales is incredibly sweet. It's three animated stories that were originally intended to be half-hour TV specials, but were grouped together with a very loose framing device. Of the three stories, I think they potentially decrease as they go. I liked the first story very much, the second (and titular) story is sweet but a little repetitive, and the third one... well, that one would be good in December.

Monday I started working on a ribbing scarf for Fluffy that I told him I'd make him if he bought the yarn for it. He only did that about a month ago. So I was working on that on and off during the week. And started it on the same day that Fluffy went to get another tattoo that he didn't tell me about until he was literally in the chair. Which is an improvement on last time when he didn't tell me for literally weeks afterwards. Is there a requirement that he tells me? I mean, no... but also yes, so that I can both share in the excitement of upcoming tattoo and also live vicariously through him. And, also... not telling when it's MY BIRTHDAY WEEK... jail. Straight to jail.

Back to the scarf... It came out well. I still haven't 100% mastered the art of stitch it together in a way that looks good to me. And this should have. I married up all the stitches and did a ladder stitch between them all... and yet, it's still slightly on wonk somehow. And I did it three fucking times. The last was the best of the three, and yet still not 100%.

But now I have my Ketchup Red scarf and Fluffy will have his Mustard Yellow scarf... and if we go anywhere wearing them together (which mostly will be to Friday Night DnD), we will be Condiment Scarf Twins. Which I'm fine with.

I am planning to attempt a beanie with the remaining ball. The last attempt at a beanie was... questionable. I'm sure this attempt will also be... questionable. But at least then I've made him a beanie.

I also reorganised my books a little in order to get the books Fluffy gave me for my birthday, and all the other books that were currently sitting on top of other books, actually on a shelf properly. I ended up pulling out the three book safes that were mostly just taking up space.

There was no Friday Night DnD this week due to small people problems, but Fluffy and I also didn't do anything because he was sick... so DnD wouldn't have happened regardless.

Anyway...

Today wasn't much of anything. We did the usual Supermarket thing, came back here and I ended up putting on The Big Bad Fox. And that was that really.

photo saturday: barbarian berseker

Back in 2020 [makes sign against the Evil Eye], before one of the previous sourcebooks came out, I was dabbling in ideas and came up with Wrath, Path of the Beast Barbarian. Consider Havoc to be the 2025 evolution of that idea. And also today's entry for Week 3 of DnD Character Colouring Book Barbarian March.

I don't know exactly what the allure of an angry albino tiefling barbarian is, but I'm absolutely here for it.

Havoc's backstory is still a little vague... the original idea was some sort of mash up of The Count of Monte Cristo... but, honestly, when you start to pick apart the inciting incident to that story, it gets very complicated. So right now I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing with his backstory.

The other interesting thing about Havoc is that I could very easily switch up his subclass to any of the ones from the new PHB with very little tweaking.

Patience, his greatsword, is the result of a little bit of Photoshop fuckery, plus somewhere in that idea that is a catchphrase about "trying his patience" or "running out of patience" or something similar. I don't know exactly what it is yet, but it's in there somewhere.

I was also very proud of myself with his posing too. It's not hugely complex, but it came together just right.

Anyway...

This week's Mini Movie Reviews are definitely a mixed bag... I started out with Season 2 of American Gods, still loving Mad Sweeney but also definitely coming around on Technology Boy.

Next up, I took a little detour after having recommended the 2002 version of The Importance of Being Earnest to Fluffy, and watched it later that night. It's still very good.

And lastly I did Paris Police 1905, which I actually liked more than 1900 season. Whether that was because this was much less anti-Semitism and much more sex workers and homosexuals. Everything is still incredibly terrible for everybody concerned, but I enjoyed it more overall.

This week was My Birthday Week... but honestly, it essentially boiled down to Friday and today.

Friday I did my usual loop to Baker's Delight and Boost Juice to get my free stuff and make people in shops wish me Happy Birthday. So I came home with a nice cheese and chive scone and a King William Chocolate Boost.

Yes please and thank you for free stuff.

Fluffy got me both the Wolfsong book that was Very Important To Me in 2023, along with it's sequel, Ravensong, which I haven't gotten to yet, because it was, and I quote, "annoying me that you didn't have a copy of it".

And then there might have been a brief but deep conversation that followed.

Then it was off to Friday Night DnD. Small child of the Mr and Mrs house had felt compelled to make me "a card", which was very sweet. I also got another Dymocks voucher, so I'll put that to good use eventually.

Actual Friday Night DnD was... slightly less chaotic than I was expecting it to perhaps be. We dispatched the last of the bad guys and cashed in some quests, which was good.

It did lead to my boy perhaps revealing more of his backstory than I'd expected to this early.

We do now need to forcibly extract Mrs character's backstory... since she's the only one still sitting on secrets.

Anyway...

Today started like it always does, with the supermarket. Then we killed some time before heading out to Spotlight to actually do the thing we tried to do last week. This time successfully.

And then we went to The Republic Norwood for Birthday Lunch. I had the fried chicken burger, Ma had the fried halloumi burger. Should I have gone with my original plan to get a schnitzel? Very possibly. Did I only learn just now that they have a much more reasonably priced lunch menu that only exists from Monday to Friday? Also yes. 

Was it still very tasty? Absolutely. And the service was excellent.

photo saturday: barbarian barmaid

Welcome to Week 2 of DnD Character Colouring Book Barbarian March. So, in my explorations for potential new characters I've had to narrow down my race/species choices given that I've already played a drow, a gnome, a dwarf and a human in Friday Night DnD.

But also the only one that I've never played is the Aasimar. So there's been a lot of poking around that idea. Which brings us to Agnetha Aledaughter, or Aggie. Much like last week, she's an Aasimar Zealot Barbarian. I did originally have her as just a dwarf and a World Tree Barbarian, but then I stumbled across Hanseath, Dwarven god of carousing, brewery, and singing... who also happens to be a war god.

The single line in the info about him that sold me was... "Hanseath's herald was a celestial dwarf, this servant also being an unimaginably powerful barbarian."

So after about half a dozen versions, all of which required a lot of messing around in Photoshop, I circled back around to more or less where I started. Just the minor details changed. Weirdly, any time I took the muttonchop sideburns off her she looked wrong.

And the pewter tankard acts as her shield for the purposes of mechanics.

Anyway...

This week's Mini Media Reviews where accidentally good choices. Mostly I was looking for something to fill in the gaps until Season 2 of American Gods showed up.

First up was Three Star Bar (aka Three Star Bar in Nishi Ogikubo aka Nishiogikubo Mitsuboshi Youshudou). A short, six episode series where the episodes are only about half an hour long. But it's SO good. Turns out it's adapted from a manga, which makes perfect sense, and it made me cry. It's very much one of those "person stumbles into a store/bar exactly at the point they need to" stories.

But I really enjoyed it.

I followed that up with Paris Police 1900. Which was... much more intense. It's all based on real world people and events involved with the fallout from the Dreyfus Affair. Basically it's a lot of terrible people doing terrible things. There's a second season which takes place 5 years later, and I will probably watch that at some point. It's very well made, full of fantastic performances, but is occasionally hard to watch because of the aforementioned terrible people doing terrible things. Even the supposed hero isn't immune to that and becomes more of a schmuck as the show progresses.

I also tried watching the 1994 miniseries of The Stand. Which is nearly unwatchable. I got maybe 4 hours into the 6 hour miniseries and just noped out of the last part because I just couldn't do it anymore. I can't tell if the issue was King's writing, the direction or the actor, but it was bad.

We can also reset the Yani Fall Down counter. It's a long story, it's mostly dull... but it wasn't on my walk this time. It was because while I remembered that there is a section around the back of the apartment complex that it at a different level to the rest of it, I then forgot that fact 37 seconds later and fell up the step. Which is, admittedly, better than falling down the step. But also, fucking hell.

Thankfully this week was also Chiro Day... so at the very least everything that got shaken up got put back in the right place.

Friday Night DnD was a slight comedy of terrible rolls. But also managing to shank the miniboss of the area in one surprise round.

Do I regret giving our DM ammunition that allowed him to tie my backstory to a later story boss... slightly. But at the same time, I was much less tied into the villains in the previous campaign, so at least it's something different.

We're also essentially past the only bits of the story that I was previously aware of thanks to a couple of Adventurers League games back in the day.

However we do keep ending games with my character up to his nipples in trouble. Which I don't hate.

Anyway.

Today was not terribly exciting. The usual supermarket nonsense, then we made a brief run to Spotlight, but that was it really.

photo saturday: barbarian priestess

Welcome to a special edition of DnD Character Colouring Book... Barbarian March. I've been throwing so many barbarian concepts at the wall lately for the next campaign we play just to see what, if anything sticks. The issue mostly is that a lot of things stick for a little while, then fall off onto the floor once I come up the the next thing that sticks.

But given that I've made so many recently, I figured that I'd just run through a collection of them for the entire month of March. And, at this point, I could get most of the way through April also. We'll see about that though.

We start with Grimwarden Lily, who is what happens when I start out by thinking about a halfling and then pivot to the idea of an Aasimar who just happens to have halfling parents (because Aasimar don't need to be of human origin any more).

I was also slightly working with the idea of the old version of the Zealot barbarian, where spells that brought them back from the dead didn't need a material component (which I still think is a great concept). Now, instead, they just get to do a little bit of healing on themselves.

But that did get me to the idea of a halfling priestess who died, was brought back by her god in order to be his little divine champion. Which got me to the halfling god of the dead, Urogalan, who I absolutely want to use on a character eventually. Her mace I entirely cobbled together in Photoshop, because Urogalan is also a god of the earth. And because offerings to him sometimes take the form of uncut gems, it seemed appropriate.

I also came up with who she was before she died, the halfling version and her wife Poppy, who is a potter, and the student/apprentice of Lily's (previously Asphodel... because an Asphodel is a type of lily) mother, also a potter. I made a couple of versions of Poppy's outfit. Basically she wears a lot of big gingham check dresses in various colours.

Anyway...

Not a lot going on this week...

The mini media review is American Gods. I read the book back in 2018 and enjoyed it. Or at least I have positive memories of it. My actual review from back then is a little light on detail.

The first season of American Gods covers, so Google tells me, about the first 120 pages of a 600+ page book. But also a lot of that is character set up, so I don't really know (without encountering spoilers for things I've forgotten) if the three seasons cover all the book or not. But we'll see. Eventually, because these DVDs are taking their sweet time coming into the library.

A little like the book, it is occasionally all over the place, with flashbacks, flashsideways and the like. But I enjoyed the season. Favourite character is absolutely Mad Sweeney for reasons I can't completely articulate, but I can say is actually not because they stuck Pablo Schreiber in a ginger wig. He also has a lot of scenes this season with the character I probably care about least... Laura Moon. I have a vague idea that I didn't really care for her in the book either. Emily Browning is doing a fine job with what she's given, I just don't know that I care for the character itself.

Bonus points to Gillian Anderson, because Gillian Anderson always makes things better. And I can't really think of anybody else who could have played Mr Wednesday other than Ian McShane.

Friday Night DnD went in something of a different direction from the way I thought it might. Yes, my character was off to beat up the daughter of one of the other characters. My solution, like many things in life, keep talking as much and as fast as you can until you figure a way out. Or a way out just presents itself and you just latch onto it with both hands. In this case, the plan I came in with was slightly getting away from me, as often happens, but thankfully the DM also had A Plan. Which saved my ass.

But because I'd been The Focus for much of the first half of the game, my character happily Went To Bed to let the other two get some spotlight time. It is that weird balance with certain characters who absolutely would go off on their own and do their own thing versus staying together as a group and making things slightly simpler for your DM. The Friday group as a whole does seem to veer more towards the former rather than the latter to be fair. At least in the last couple of campaigns.

And now, my character getting involved in a threesome with the some of the folks whose base we're currently sneaking into in order to potentially dispatch their leader is about to pay off.

We'll see I guess.

Anyway...

Today was fairly simple. Supermarketry as usual. And then a mostly pointless errand out to Mitcham Shopping Centre that didn't do much except letting us go for a drive.