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IT'S TOOOOOOZZZZZ~!
celebrations ensue
Owls well that ends well. ... one year later... God bless you all, and hope you're doing well!
It sounds trite to say, but I am saddened by his loss, and am blessed that I had the privilege of interacting with him. He has done so much for this community just by being a consistent presence, and I pray that his care and kind spirit continue forward. I pray for his family and loved ones. Thank you, Gary, and I pray we get to meet again, some day - this time in person. God bless you. e: Clarification.
Owls well that ends well. Man, you guys are a hoot.
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"YOU SHAY THAT HAGAIN! COME HON! SHAY IT H'WONE MORE TIME, YA FEATHERY JAY!" the gray, bald, stiff-bearded man, deep in his cups, swung wildly, missing the the black-feathered linguist. "You could step in and say something, you know." the soft voice purred into Lovely Lysta's mind. The herc rolled her eyes at the wyverling voice entering her thoughts. "I could, true, but I'm not going to. He got himself into this mess. He can get himself out." Lovely Lysta replied to the invisible companion on her shoulder. The wyverling invisibly shifted about. She felt the swish and sway of its poison-barbed tail (she knew was in no danger), the small pain of its pin-pricking claws pressing through her very expensive gown and into her soft skin. It was cute when Liquor was agitated. He would never admit to it, but he had a tremendously sweet heart. Too bad for her familiar that she did not. "Besides." Lysta continued, "You remember how he insulted us last night." "It wasn't an insult, really." Liquor said lazily to Lovely Lysta. "You know that. He's just very bad with words." Lysta could positively feel the slow, steady blink from her familiar whispering into her mind, staring at her. She didn't need to see his face. He projected calm, but was concerned; he didn't want their friend - their linguistically talented, remarkably intelligent, incredibly poor-at-social-skills and foolish friend who couldn't shut up as soon as he had a thought - to get seriously hurt. He needn't worry. Not really. But she both knew what he was projecting... and knew what was going on inside. And it drove her nuts and he knew that. Still. He was fine - almost no one could touch him in single combat and he was trying to be defensive. Besides. His words had hurt last night, even if he didn't really mean them in a hurtful manner. Even if he was trying (very poorly) to be nice. Maybe it would feel good to let him feel- Several of the gray men drew short blades. Oh. Oh, crap, they were part of the Gakuzia. Hm. That changed things. "Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Pleassse!" hissed a crisp, clear sound. The piano had stopped. The pianist, a slithers, was doing the namesake thing and slithering right into the middle of things. You know, it's amazing how they clearly use their long legs to stride on two feet, but it still managed to look like slither- "Why don't I pay for your tab, then?" said the sibilant stranger. There was muttering among the gray-skinned guys. "We can all be... friendssss, yessss?" the tall thing hissed. "You." the duergar who'd been first insulted spat on the ground near the slithers' foot - a quick blink-like movement from the slithers almost went unseen even by Lovely Lysta. "Your kind ain't welcome here!" a round of nods from the duergar standing with knives. Okay, this went from bad to worse. "You... disgusting... filth." He spat again. Again the nearly-imperceptible blink-like movement from the slithers. "Well," noted Liquor, dryly, "He's stopped slurring so much anymore. Maybe he's sobering up?" Lysta didn't even respond to her familiar's wishful thinking. Fortunately, she knew he was ready with his poison stinger in case things actually went bad. And she was quickly sifting through her catalogue of spells she knew... how could she break this up and not kill anyone (or everyone)? The gray man spoke up, cheered on by the duergar around him "Maybes we should just spit ya first, and spit then that fat... foolish... f-" One of the duergar - one who'd sat at a table of others who hadn't stood and pulled a knife - slid out of his chair, a hand on the knife-wielding one. "Ey. Kloimn. Let's not start trouble at our fav'rite watering hole. You'n'me might be from rival Farms, but we've never been antagonistic and he made a good deal. You shou-" "DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE TAKING THE SLITHERS' SIDE." There. She saw it for sure this time. The Slithers' hand had twitched, too. Barely holding back seething rage. Good at covering it up, though. "Indeed, great and honorable duergar of the Kymyi Farmhold. I sseek only to diffusse tenssionss and sshare a fine beverage from the tap and hearing sstoriess of your courage and honor." Ah. So either the slithers- er, serapin, sorry - either didn't know, or chose death on purpose. The second duergar - the one trying to calm the situation blinked, quietly mouthing an unuttered curse word. It was funny. The entire world slowed almost to a halt. Everyone - everyone - in that room (with the possible exception of the serapins) knew what would happen next, and they were all running in slow time, desperately trying to be the first to act, but slightly afraid of taking initiative. "Ah. Yes, you see, that was my mistake, earlier." explained Kolkaw One, plainly, smoothing his black feathers. Everyone glanced at the linguist. Oh, no. No. No. Well, maybe. At least One couldn't make it any wor- "I didn't realize he was Gakuzia and therefore without honor, so what I meant as a compliment of an honorable loving family came off as suggesting that his mother was a harlot for a Gakuzia boss, instead." Everyone blinked in shock. Wow. He was, in fact, worse than she thought it was possible for a mortal to be. She hated him so very much right now. ... Some time later, the herc, serapins, and tengu were exhausted, the latter beaten almost to a bloody pulp, and by some of the same "allies" trying to prevent anyone from dying. Somehow they'd done it. A pang of delight went off in Lovely Lysta's mind. She would be furious at Liquor for looting the unconscious right now, but was too exhausted to be mad. Kolkaw One reached out a winged hand to the duergar who'd first tried to stop the violence, and was promptly punched to the ground. "We're square, now." he said, angrily. He looked at the serapins. "Listen up, sl-... guy:" he grunted, "I know you're ain't from around here. We are. It may be fair or may be ain't, but doesn't matter - you're kind ain't supposed to be around here. I've talked with the boys, here-" wait, when Lysta wondered, "-an' we get what you'w're tryin'a do. It was noble. But don't talk ta no duergar 'round here. This city we still got long memories. An' you might ain't be the one or whatever 'at done us wrong, but your whole kind is blamed. Choose the safe path - stay hidden an' quiet 'til ya move on. An' be good. Or else." He nodded. He turned to leave. Now or never. Lovely Lysta quickly stepped up and tapped him on the shoulder before shying away from his fist threatening to punch her. He stopped, surprised. "Excuse me. I know that my one ally down there really messed up how he says things-" "if that ain't understatin' it" the duergar muttered, but nodded for her to continue. She did. "-but you said you were from here, correct?" he confirmed with a quick nod. "Well, you're good in a fight, and we need some help from a... local. A guide, of sorts." She pulled out a map. It was very interesting to him indeed. A hard haggle ensued, but at the end, he nodded, gave directions to an inn, and promised to meet them at first bell. Lysta, tired as she was, thrilled. They were going to finally do it. They were going to the depths to find the lost treasure of Yiighk! ... now to see if that serapins was still around. She saw his kind of skill and it could be really useful in the dark down there, and besides, he needed to get out of town anyway. And... maybe he could heal One, at least a little. Stupid birdbrain. Quietly, the wyvern smiled. He was glad Lysta was thinking of others.
Well, we got engaged earlier in the month, and are to be married in February '24. YYYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!! Congratulations! Woo!
I’m really bad at dates. But e-hug.
Yay! Glad to see you! What’you mean this was eight months ago? It’s still January right? Right? Riiiiight? … oh.
Yay! Glad to see you!
This thread needs to come back. What're'you talkin' 'bout, 'CAUSE IT'S BACK, BAYBEE kobold
Let's do this It was exactly 1,876 years ago to the day that the planet died. It's very sad, the planet being dead and all. Aliens did it. And not in the cool "laser weapons, pew-pew, powerful new technology we can steal for ourselves" way, either. It was in the stupid, "we throw big rocks at it until it dies" sort of way. Very lame. And, to make it worse, they weren't even cool aliens. At least most of them. Sure, a froghemoth or two, maybe an akata pack or ten thousand, but it was mostly gugs, bogwids, gricks, gibbering mouthers, an- oh, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. So, anyway, as I said, 1,876 years ago to the day that the planet died. Very sad. And aliens did it. Well. I say that aliens did it, but it's more accurate to say that they caused it. And, um. That we. That we did it. Look, hear me out, hear me out. It wasn't our fault! ... well, okay, it was, but not for the reasons you may think! See, the alien invasion happened mostly from underground, and the whole problem with that is that the ground is where most people keep all of their stuff. Including people. Now, let it not be said that the world died quietly. Oh, no. No we fought hard. Harder than most could imagine. Heck, the dwarves sacrificed themselves to the man. The elves lasted a little longer. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, you wanna know about us destroying the world, but it being the aliens' fault. Well, the aliens were invading and causing a really big mess, and we starts looking for a solution, see? And it's a whole... thing. Apparently these aliens and whatnot've been waiting for... well, I guess, forever, really. We never did get anything coherent out of them, but all the witches - all of 'em, every coven we'd ever heard of, and most of them that we hadn't - all went nuts about halfway through the invasion. Kind of head-throbbing, throttled screaming, seizure-having, almost-incoherent-rambling type nuts. Half those that survived went actual nuts and just started acting weird, while another half shut down and went vegetable (half literal, half figurative - yeah, that turnip garden over there supposedly descends from one), and the other half lost all sense of self and wandered aimlessly for a while until they just... vanished (though I suspect they died). We learned from their ramblings that the aliens first arrived from the sky beyond the world. Somewhere beyond the moon but sometimes before the sun and sometimes beyond it but further than many stars. Apparently they rode rocks onto our world from up there, or a really big one, or something. Then burrowed deep and waited and multiplied and then came up for killing. Call me crazy, but falling inside a big rock sounds dumb. Anyway, they all said that we'd ignored the signs and rejected the messengers (they meant flumphs, apparently, by the way) and that doom was finally upon us all. There were mutterings and "it's all our fault," and "their greatest weapons brings forth the end of the world," and "only by power may power be broken," and "hot flame burns; but a true cold chills; life blooms from winter or is taken by death," and "the moon murders but the comet crushes," and "rocks fall," and "these people are so stupid it's literally causing me internal bleeding," and whatnot. So people started getting... desperate. So, see, there's this sign thing, right? Like a glyph of colding? And it, well, it makes things dangerously cold. Well someone said that since the normal one worked pretty good, if we made a bigger one made to only hurt the aliens it'd be pretty good. We could guard whole areas really well. Well. It was actually really bad. See, the specific one they chose, well... I mean it works, but it has... other problems. See, you get close, makes you crazy, you gotta build a statue. If the statue breaks or the glyph is erased ya gotta make a new one. You build one (a new one or the first one or whatever), everything begins going cold. Not, like, chilly, but like really-really cold, the kind of cold that'll shut a body down and make them enter the sleep that never ends. That kinda cold. Like mad bad cold. Bitter. Brr. Anyhoo, eventually the sign makes a statue; the statue makes a creature, and the creature spreads the cold forever. Now that just sucks, right? So there was a problem: we had one of those stuck here. On-world, I mean. Because we drew it. To get rid of the aliens. So they wouldn't use their prophesied super-weapon. And, I mean, to be fair it turns out a lot of these aliens tend to, well, hibernate. So we could go around killing them in their sleep. Heroic? Eh. But effective! (The dwarves hated it. Hated it so bad.) Anyway, point is, mixed blessing. Mixed blessing. A bit blursed, you might say. ... or maybe just cursed, because we killed a lot, but the cold spread a bit faster than we expected. So the cold represented a pretty bad problem and a lot of people were going crazy and becoming "cold spawn." We worked out what the problem was and killed the majority of them, and even managed to break the last statue, erase the rune, and kill the survivors from far enough away that no one else got infected. But it was kind of too late? And a lot of the world started withering in the cold. Global cooling. What a catastrophe. This was only made worse by the other aliens. Turns out these five things had been statues for basically ever, and it was them coming to life that started to shove out many of the aliens from underground. So that was another whole... thing. Especially since they drove all of our priests mad. No more divine magic for us. That's right! There was a time when the gods still had servants here! But these five hulk... things... all just drove 'em barmy until they lost all their power and went insane. So we had what is, I must admit in retrospect, perhaps not our best idea. Unable to kill the things, we, uh... we made a bargain with a snake... guy... thing. Well, not all of us, but some of those dispossessed clerics we were talking about. Anyway, turns out Sertrous was sealed away for a reason. So that was bad. And that's when the kultist- sorry, the cultists of Kyuss offered a solution. It turned out it was a bad solution. So we had a godlike fiend and a godlike... worm... fiend... both fighting over the planet while the hulks were wreaking havoc and the last stupid thing is, right in the middle, someone activated an immortal Zargon monster. It was... it was a bad idea. I mean, Zargon wasn't really that big a deal, all things considered, but it was just more chaos all things considered. So, with all that, we went to an "ultimate annihilator." Turns out there was a crystal with a bad mind in it who wanted to kill 'gods.' Some fancy negotiations made sure that it agreed that Kyuss, Sertrous, Zargon, those five hulk things, and whatever was left of that cold nonsense all counted. So, uh, that happened and Pandorym sure did wipe the floor with all that mess, though, uh... we... we think that Pandorym got eaten by the snake head, which was filled with worms, and had a horn sticking out the end. Either way, the five hulks were dumped into the same reliquary place where they all were and it was all sealed into that crystal thing from before. Don't go looking for it. Bad things happen to those who do. So after all that mess the world was not really in a good place; it was kind of dying off. We started looking for a new way of imbuing life into our world. And it worked like a charm! We summoned a rock from that "outer space" place. See, we'd learned that there was one that was all life-affirm-y! Super-life affirm-y! ... to life-affirm-y, as it turns out! We also may have made the problem worse by contracting every planar shepherd we could to make as much of the world as life-y and connected to life-i-ness as we could. So, uh, things started living. A lot. Even if they shouldn't. Sometimes the dead didn't stay dead. Not, like, undead or anything, just... not dying. And, what's more, birthrates no longer became a problem. Like, at all. Like, once upon a time, way back before the world died, aasimar had trouble birthing new aasimar. Not no more! Which, you know, is a good thing these days. But still. Caused a lotta problems way back when. So the life rock first fell near the Halfling lands. Heh. Everyone thought it was kind of appropriate - kind of like the sling that would help us kill the bad giant cold thing, you know? Well, I mean, the cold thing was dead, but to recover from all the lost stuff. Well, it didn't quite work out, as you might expect by now. Because here's the thing. You know what else is alive? Animals. Including pests. Diseases, as it turns out - at least a lot of them. Vermin. Monsters. So we had summoned salvation only to have it backfire and all the things that kill us proliferated just as much as other things. Only the dead didn't die. Didn't recover, either. At least not from the worst things. Just... kept living. And things kept breeding. It was... it was real bad. Ragnorra kept things living, but it kept them living when it shouldn't and made the things we don't want alive to stay that way. So that nightmare was horrible in every way. And we needed something to stop the unfettered life flow that was taking over everywhere in the world. So we did what we had learned how to do and found a big "life mitigation rock" out there in the blackness, based on the most brilliant but most insane alien scribblings. And, desperate to save our planet, we took it. That, as it turned out, was also bad, but we were kind of prepared for that, this time. At least we learned, sort of? Anyway, we had a pickle of a time figuring out the incantations, but that's how we got Atropus here. And so that puppy was orbiting our world ("orbiting" means "going around" by the way) and... turns out it wasn't so much "life mitigating" as it was "life replacing... with undeath." So we had one life-maker and one death-and-undeath-maker, and we weren't really surprised by this point, but we were kind of dying off. And those who went up there to fight the thing had limited success, but ultimately would die and couldn't get rid of a whole extra moon. So the Halflings (with the help of the flumphs) had erected wards in their lands. The kobolds, though, provided our last big rock. See, we got to examining the prophecies again, and we thought, maybe, "rocks fall" was both the problem and the solution? So when the kobolds introduced the spider people we kind of thought we'd found the thing we were looking for: the final solution, you know? So the driders offered us a solution. After the drow all died from their low constitution and vulnerability to disease the driders had found ancient lost knowledge poking through their corpse-strewn dead cities. And so we called on one final rock. It took some doing. We had to find the perfect comet, the perfect timing. We had to make sure the evil death moon was over top of the evil life rock as the big smash-it-all rock was going to shatter it all. So there used to be a cool kind of creature called a couatl. It's a snake with feathery wings. Anyway, they gave up their life to contain as much of the evil as they could. The halfling-born aasimar used their connection with the Beyond with the psychic power of the flumphs, every lingering divine magic or extra-spatial magic we could get our hands on, the kobolds digging tunnels as deep as possible, and the driders weaving things both physically and magically together, the Halflings prepared provisions, as the couatls prepare to unify their inner fire together. And the mortals fled. The great glyph was made. The rock was summoned. It smashed the moon of Atropus, shattering it. It crushed the entire region and Ragnarra in particular. It even broke its way into the depths of the crystal spire below the sea we flooded it with. And with that, we'd successfully done it. It was dead. Everything was dead. The world died. Pretty thoroughly. And, according to our calculations, it would stay that way for a really, really long time. But something happened. Something weird. Yeah, imagine, right? Turns out a weird triune thingy of creatures came by. The E'loi, 'Nuki, and 'Kallu came by and added life, added minds, and added information. And Solar, Veranallia, and Fiend brought security, new life, and order. And so the Sextuple of Astra was founded and we have our modern sense of religion. And with the rains bringing the ash from the sky, the waters purified, plants restored, and animals about (including intelligent ones trained in the lore of 'Kallu) our timeless slumber beyond reality was much shorter than we thought. And then we did the mining all the way up to the surface once again - kinda had to, though, 'cause the earth was shifting and about to swallow any who stayed behind! These days we kobolds labor in the ground, the driders provide silk and arcana, the aasimar provide spirituality and leadership, the Halflings explore and recover what we can, and the flumphs provide, uh... well, they're also around, I guess. 'Course, not everybody likes how we've started living in society. And, you know, we're not the only society. That's just how we do it here - in the city built by the Sextuple of Astra at the center of the world, where the great rocks all fell - the former home of the Halflings. And, of course, not all the aliens are gone. So we still got work to do.
So good to hear from you! How is Lady Firedove doing? Has she completely recovered from the accident? Y'all have been in my prayers. About as fully recovered as one gets! I still have head problems, but what else is new? :V (I, unfortunately, cannot read like I used to. Headaches just kind of crumple me, now. But fortunately most anime is dubbed, so!) XD Me smash you into the ground to say "welcome back!" *HOOF* Thanks, guy!
Hurray! Finally signed in and it worked again! WHAT?! ! ... it's really more like seven or eight months. ANYWAY, I came here to ask WHAT THE BIZNESS IZZZ, by which, of course, I mean, "Hi, I missed you all and hope you're doing well!" and "Feel free to catch me up on stuff!"
So glad, my friend! <3
Hello, everyone!
I read this as you and "meowing guy" multiple times until I finally got that it was "mowing" - I'm good at reading. (I'm not, though, especially since December. XD)
I might regret not reading all the pages on the way here, but a quick-scan didn't notice it already asked: have you ever heard of the game Coyote & Crow? It's very new and a really fun system so far! Related: I know you've mentioned not having much time, but do you tend to check out new systems much? (I know myself it's gotten more difficult as I lack time and get older.) EDIT: Also - welcome back! :D
Yay! Back to work!! All play and no work makes cap go a little nuts.
sometime last wee-, no, last mon- wait, two months ago, what the what?! Huh. Life buuuuuuuusy. Anyway, Freehold! Tiger & Bunny 2 is out! AAAGGGHHH~! Also, how is everyone?
HUZZAH~! So happy! God bless you and your family and have an awesome one! Celebration for you!
Indeed, grits must be eliminated and replaced with the far more sensible corn meal porridge.There's so much that's leaps and bounds better for food in Georgia. I will give the South a lot of crap about a lot of things, but the food (aside from grits) is not one of them. False. Grits good. (Of course #notallgrits; but still.)
Diswhat?I dunno. Must be some Millenial thing Tac's into. Fun times: I am potentially one of three different generations, depending on who you listen to. Fun times. Fun times.
Finally caught up. ~looks up and screams~ STOP SCARING ME!!! Both of you! And that means Tact and CY!!! Look, I'll stop scaring you when people stop smashing into our cars, animals of unknown kind stop eating through our car wires, and COVID dies in a fire and/or otherwise comes under relative control. ... it's been a busy couple months, I gotta say.
You're still around? I'd thought you'd succumbed to the cat allergies years ago. And either way, considering I'm officially middle-aged now, I was sure you'd be too elderly to remember me...Holy s++$, this thread is still going...~screams like a little girl~ Don't sneak up on me like that! I am on a Discord where I am locally known as the "old man of the server." I keep talking to people I think are adults, but it turns out their, like, nineteen. hee-hee, i subtly implied nineteen year olds weren't adults; for sure that'll never come back to haunt me, ever, in the history of the anywhere
EDIT: I wear clothes, dang it!
This reminds me. I need to clean out my email better. Even after very "strong" (from my opinion) purges, I've got thousands and anyone who has to go through them after my death is going to have a really bad time. Alas. More than that, I'm glad to see you around, my friend. e-Hugs and prayers for you and your family.
For lisamarlnene from an earlier, tougher time, if she feels like it:
Sorry to hear that. Hopefully life improves sooner than later. Oh, wow. Huuuuuuuuuuugs. I'll say, as a former teacher, the pay literally was lower than the cost of expenses for me to continue teaching even without going on unemployment. This is what turned me into a stay-at-home: it was simply more financially viable for me to stay at home and take care of the kids than it was for me to pay for them to stay with professionals while traveling to work. So I really and truly understand on that front. But hugs and prayers for you. Because that's a lot of pressure and difficulty. Love y'all big time. What I did with my snow day, part two: taxes are DONE and filed, baby! Huzzah! Great job!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH
Will I ever be able to afford them? Not likely! But I'm super-happy they exist, nonetheless!
We just had our first successful in-home nurse meetings, yesterday, and they both went well! Forward is still hard, but God is good.
So, I'd like to apologize in advance if this upsets anyone, but I was kind of busy last year and it seems like I missed something important that happened on the forums. I don't want to dredge up bad feelings; I feel it's important to ask anyway to at least be aware of things:
Anyone know what happened last November/December? Seems like some sort of big storm around here. Not the Sarah/Diego and/or Jessica stuff, but something else? I honestly know nothing about it except that, apparently, "something" happened during that time frame. Please feel free to PM me, if this isn't the correct place to chat about it. Either way, love you guys!
FIREDOVE IS HOME We have a long way to go for full recovery, but she is home, and that's wonderful!
I'm so sorry, my friend. Please feel free to contact me through DMs or Discord. Prayers for you and your family are being said right now.
*sad noises about missing games with others*
I truly hate wealth by level.Agreed 100%. But what you learn when you drop it entirely is that you have to start adjusting CRs downward, and that "meaningless" DR 15/magic is suddenly a "big deal". Easier to make sure your players have "good enough" gear to be happy and effective in CR-appropriate encounters. And my players roleplay much better when they feel like they have plenty of money to give away to NPCs. Same! ... I cannot tell you how much I kept frustrating my GM by constantly absorbing large treasures, vaguely sorting through them, and then thoroughly reassigning them to various NPCs in Kingmaker. It wasn't that big a deal, and we never needed equipment, but it made it really, really difficult to justify anything like rebellion or intrigue or anything when there was literally no reason to ever reject ruler-ship.
Gettin' bettah! Kids are back in school. I'm still recovering, but basically on the upside, I think I'm glad I was able to get both shots and booster in before this puppy hit. I'm prime material for it to crush, and while it's been rough, it's been far milder for me than many.
Guess who’s got two thumbs and tested positive for COVID?! ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ (Follow up tests will be had to make sure, but anyway. Also, kids tested negative.) Fun times at the household, let me tell you~!
The plot of Hamlet is so convoluted that at one point the main character is kidnapped by pirates, and it's not really a major plot point. I have now shared this several places. Thank you for it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Love you guys! May God bless and guide each of you for all of 2022~! e-Hugs!
Hi, everyone! I am so grateful you're all a part of FaWtL and my life! God bless you all, and Merry Christmas!
e-Hugs to you all and Merry Christmas season!
As of midnight last night, Firedove is finally out of the hospital as of midnight last night. Insurance is a jerk sand refused multiple first-choice places for rehab, but the one we ended up at is a good place so far and we are grateful for it. Kids recovered enough to attend school for the last week, and even joined in the big Christmas singalong with their class they’ve been practicing for all year! Also; I got my booster and my kids have their first COVID shot! Today’s been busy… Sorry I’m not around much…
I just want one decent night's sleep before I go back to work tomorrow. Same! XD But I do really hope you get rest. That's important. In news from the medical field, the boys and I are all extremely sore, but there is no currently-obvious long-term damage (though they're still keeping a watchful eye, just to be sure). I kind of have to waddle-walk a little (), and most notably Firedove was moved from ICU to a regular room. She's unfortunately in a loooooot of pain, and it has worsened the day after, just like everyone said, but we have literally the best neighbors in the world. And here I start ranting, but it's cathartic; sorry:
Also, my parents came down and are staying for a few days in a hotel with the kids - kind of critical for me to get any rest or even physical recovery at all (they are very loving, but also have the physical enthusiasm Firedove has had the best care possible, though we're worried about potential long-term effects on all of us. Unfortunately the kiddos are (understandably) a tad traumatized, and were really worried about the other cars when driven around earlier; but they have significantly warmed up to the idea that they are on a much-delayed Thanksgiving visit to the Grands* (even - and especially! - in a hotel), and they almost couldn't get to sleep at all last night, so excited were they for the SLEEPOVER (apparently a life-long goal both shared that I'd learned about... last Thursday) at our neighbor's house last night. They loved being at our neighbor's house so much that when I went to visit them today, my Youngest looked at me from the couch, said, "Daddy, I'm not ready to get picked up, yet." and went immediately back to playing video games instead. (My Eldest was slightly more interactive. "Oh, Daddy. It's you. Well, I don't think we're ready to go, yet, this place is great. Anyway-" turns to neighbor, "-as I was saying..." ) But thank you all for your well-wishes and prayers. Honestly, it's terrifying and nerve-wracking and sometimes you're great and fine and other times you aren't. It's kind of like the sore spots. There are parts of me that don't feel any different than normal and I can move those fine, but when I move unprepared even a hair into the ouchies, everything kind of crumbles. Blegh. But. It could have been so much worse. - Jaws of Life, con: ripped out a part of our car that couldn't be fixed anyway
- Carseat destruction, con: there goes a buncha money
- Car wreck, con: most of it
I have complaints, too, of course, but ultimately I am grateful. So, daggum, grateful. * Love you all, and hope you're day is going well. e-Hugs.
So in other news, we are all more-or-less okay, but were in a serious car accident today. A kid who shouldn't have been driving ran a red light and hit us square in the side at full speed. He was entirely fine, but felt horrible about it. I really worry about him and how this will affect his future. Poor guy. Firedove is coherent and seems to be doing reasonably well, but has a pelvic fracture. The boys are doing relatively well, though Youngest had to get three stitches on his face and the Eldest had to briefly get an IV to get scanned (the scans revealed no real problems). Our kids currently staying at neighbors and doing well; Firedove is in the hospital for at least the weekend; we will see about surgery or not (it's not currently known). I'm home and told to sleep, but it's difficult. Don't know how available I'll be for a bit as a result. If you're the praying type, please do. Love you all!
(Though he's got a few things wrong - he got corrected in the comments by employees.)
We made it! :D
Clarification - I am not affiliated in any way with St. Jude or The Game Theorists: I am only a fan. :)
We're close to hitting the 1.5 million dollar goal for donations to St. Jude, and the stream will soon be coming to a close! At time of this post, we are only God bless you all, either way, and we all hope for cures to ever more cancers as we go forward. Love you all! EDIT: Eight minutes makes $25k of difference!
Put this on DaWtL, realized I should put this here, too. Attended my uncle’s funeral today. (The brother of my wife’s mother.) Got to see his wife, their children, and their children; as well as many other family members. It is a beautiful day.
** spoiler omitted ** That was religion, and now econoooomics
I mean... the spell bless is, like... right there. :V (It is one of the few core options to entirely break the bounded accuracy limits of 5e.) reddit's take on life domain cleric. Cleric guide: life domain rates pretty highly (all domain spells blue and green, except its ninth level spell, which sucks). It suggests you'll want heavy armor and shield. You're really not there to deal damage so much as defend and mitigate.
For multiclassing, cleric generally comes recommended as a low-level dip, but not anything beyond that (because of "dead levels"). Paladin is broadly admired as a multiclasser, but it emphasizes charisma (and also probably strength). Generally fighter, monk, paladin, and rogue are recommended for cleric. If you "main" paladin, cleric seems less recommended. Some sample recommendations for optimized multiclass:
From here: Cleric Fighter 1 or 2 / Cleric (Any) X: Starting with Fighter gets you proficiency in Constitution saves, which is a huge help with Concentration checks. It also gets you heavy armor if your domain doesn’t provide it and a Fighting Style. Two levels gets you Action Surge, allowing you to do things like casting two spells in the same turn without running into the limitation on Bonus Action spells. Action Surge only works once per Short or Long Rest, but it’s still noteworthy. You might go to three levels for a subclass, but that’s uncommon. Monk (Any) 1 / Cleric (Any) X: Unarmored Defense and Martial Arts are interesting options for clerics that don’t get heavy armor proficiency. Grab a monk weapon and focus on Dexterity and Wisdom, and many domains which offer a version of Divine Strike can be considerably more effective in melee. The second attack from Martial Arts will be redundant for War Domain, but other domains like Grave Domain or Light Domain gain a reliable way to make more than one weapon attack per turn. Unarmored Defense also allows you to hit 20 AC (though this requires quite a few Ability Score Increases) without using armor or a shield, which means that you can keep a hand free to perform spellcasting components without reluing on War Caster or juggling your weapon. Paladin (Any) 2, 5, or 6 / Cleric (Any) X: Two levels of paladin offers Divine Smite, which combined with the cleric’s better spell progression (and therefore larger pool of spell slots) offers more smites and generally better martial options for the Cleric. You won’t get proficiency with Constitution saves like you would with a Fighter class dip, but If you can manage 6 levels Aura of Protection can help compensate or you can take Resilient. Unfortunately, this build can be very MAD since paladins are already MAD and you’re adding a Wisdom requirement. Most likely, you’ll have better results attempting the same build with a Divine Soul Sorcerer. Rogue (Any) 1, 2, or 3 / Cleric (Trickery) X: The Trickery cleric makes sense in a stealthy party, but lacks the core proficiencies brought by a rogue, and doesn’t have access to finesse weapons better than a dagger. If you want to replace a rogue with a trickery cleric, starting with a level of rogue gets you all of the rogue’s proficiencies and a splash of Sneak Attack damage. Two levels gets you Cunning Action so you’ve always got a good use for your Bonus Action without pouring spell slots into Spiritual Weapon, and three levels gets you a bit more Sneak Attack and a subclass. Personally I would go for Arcane Trickster for the spellcasting or Mastermind for Master of Tactics to complement the cleric’s support capabilities.
Humorously, the multiclass guide and the cleric guide disagree on multiclassing suggestions. :D That said, I'm definitely not a consistent player of 5e, but my recollection of cleric is predominantly support and "safety net" in case things go bad fast. That said, if you like doing damage but also being an emergency healer, paladin generally has you covered. Aaaaaaalso, are you remembering what's a bonus action and what's not? I obviously don't know how you're playing your game, so... salt grains! But I do remember that entirely turning around one dude's game when he remembered he had some things that were bonus actions that he wasn't considering. Hope it helps.
I'm so sorry! :( e-Hugs! EDIT: but with clothes on, dang it! *dressed*
Orthos update: his test came back inconclusive, but as he's running a fever and dealing with headaches, he figures it's more likely than not that he's got it, too. |