Next week - many pagans.

This week, one pagan, accusing me of forgetting to make noise while moving. Megan accompanied this by demonstrations of Grumpy postures, strides, and expressions.

Apparently I normally stomp (well, more of a sailor's swagger, really - sort of like Popeye, arms pumping across the chest rather than forward and back...) around Borders looking moderately angry, most of the time. When I am looking for something specific, I guess I head right wear I am going, grab what I want, and head to the counter.

But when I am looking for something to go with a particular idea, I guess that my face goes blank and I move silently.

She seems to think that when I am stumping along I am making noise on purpose, but if my mind is in the clouds I forget, and sort of ghost around. Not sure about that one, but she is not the only one who thinks that I sneak when distracted. I always think that I make more noise than I do.

The good news is that Megan will be at the retreat - she is on the morning crew for the liquidation of Borders, so I was surprised to see her today - I thought that she had already found work elsewhere. She will also be joining the game that I am playing in, so I think that I have recruited a new player.

Finished running the game for the Retreat management. Once they figured out what was going on they worked well together - for the record, Dave is a sneaky bastard. Also, Inquisitors are bad freakin' news in the right circumstances. Once they knew where to be they shut the cult down fast.

The Auld Grump

Thursday.... All scenarios ready. Going too smoothly, something will go wrong. Hopefully it will just be the rain that is predicted for the weekend.


by , on Flickr

Got a note reminding all folks at the retreat that while drinking is allowed they must clean up any bottles, cans, etc.. (Somehow it didn't strike me until I saw the note that the #1 reason for the no children policy this year might be beer....) I am planning to be sober for the weekend. (Not a surprise - I may go through the equivalent of a six pack per year.)

Stopped off at the bookstore to give Megan her mini (she commisioned it a couple of weeks ago). Then my brain connected a John Hiatt tune that was playing at Borders to a comment about Douglas Adams and threw up:
But the master of disaster
Drinks a pangalactic gargleblaster
He can't drink it any faster,
Or he'll start to spew....

Thanks brain, I needed that. It is a sad thing when your train of thought is carrying a load of toxic waste....

Internet access is likely to be limited, going up Thursday night. Be back Sunday.

The Auld Grump

is one of the pieces of the adventure one group is facing.

The Auld Grump

Ow! Me leg!

There was a lot more skyclad folks this year, but it was not as bad a Bacchanal as I think Dave was fearing that it would become. A fair amount of moderate drinking, if there was pot smoking then I managed to avoid it. The nudity, as predicted, was mostly by folks that I wish had kept their clothes on, thank you muchly.

Without the kids the retreat was more reserved than I expected, to me it almost felt morose. Less like a camp out/wilderness party and more like... a company picnic maybe? A bunch of folks with one thing in common, and not much else. Last time did not seem to have much of a religious or contemplative air, but this was worse. Not as much fun.

Other than that... I had a naked witch sit in my lap twice - the first time she said that it was to see if I freaked (I didn't), the second time... because she had already done so once? She told me that I actually feed on running games, was standing about two inches taller, my eyes had changed color, and I was moving like a cat. (I have my doubts....) Umm... then she bit me on the shoulder to 'just mark' me. (No, I have no idea what that means.)

Strangely, this bothered me less than when one of my players propositioned me. (Though that player was also at the retreat. Fortunately she did not see me being used as a chair cushion.)

I swear, the girl weighed about ninety pounds. I could count ribs. She has invited me to her Friday night circles, saying that I will 'bring power' to the meetings.

I am somewhat relieved that I have games on every other Friday night and use the other for planning. Otherwise I might be tempted to show up in full steampunk regalia. (I can see that going horribly wrong in two ways, one - it upsets them, because I am not taking it seriously; two - they come to expect it....)

I guess retreats are a bit like conventions - people do things that they wouldn't do otherwise. I knew she planned to go skyclad, but I did not expect to be sat on. Ah well, she seemed to have a good time in the games, and that was my only evil plan.

The games went exactly as planned - River Recon, for the evening crew. A town adventure involving nastiness at the Aldlyke cemetery for the other.

Both handled the adventures quite well. (And a dozen pagans panic just as well facing 300 zombies as six teens do. )

The only change that I made to River Recon was to fold it into Ghoul Wood and increase the number of fast zombies from that encounter. Aldlyke I changed quite a bit, someone was recruiting Neb Long Nose, part of a ring of necromancers. The Master of the Shambles again managed to creep everybody out, without doing anything really nasty. (Though I suppose biting the belly out of a rat while the PCs came into the room counts as nasty....)

After my last minute trepidation it was kind of anticlimactic.

Terrible wireless internet connection at the camp, I tried logging in here a few times on Thursday, the page took ten minutes for a partial load.

Rained for set up and tear down, but it was clear otherwise. Once again the black flies made their presence known, and once again they went after folks that taste better than I do. (We don't want gamers with good taste, we want gamers that taste good!)

I hope the kids are back next year, without them the retreat just seemed so much smaller.

The Auld Grump, simmering curried lamb at the moment.

*EDIT* A HUGE number of people complimented me on my Hanna is Not a Boy's Name tee shirt. And one person has apparently met the cartoonist of Stupidity in Magic - Willow Taylor. (Not surprising, I think that she is a New England pagan.) Both were recognized!

And there's the camping cough.... I knew that I should have slept in the cabin instead of my tent....

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New recurring villain in the kids game - they just aren't sure yet how much they hate him. A Blacksword Magus lich.

The first battle with him was, for all intents and purposes a TPK, three unconscious, and two petrified. One of the unconscious people came too after the fight, wounds bound, and some scrolls of Stone to Flesh with a note both apologizing for beating them, and thanking them for the entertainment....

The fact that I had the note ready as a handout was kind of cruel, though I actually had three letters prepared, one for if they ran away (mocking), and one for if he ended up running away (respectfully humorous).

Chaotic evil, but heavier in chaos than evil, not particularly atrocity prone, just amoral, and willing to kill others while having a good time. Not going out of his way to kill, just not trying to avoid it. A planner and a schemer who has more fun when his plans and schemes fall apart.

A bit of Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius in his makeup.

His sword is actually a bigger villain than he is....

By the by, a close combat, in your face, magus lich is fun! They had some bad luck early in the combat, the fight was pretty even, but....

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Heh, forgot to say how my paladin's plan worked for the game where I get to play.

The GM never knew what hit him - he really believed that the rogue didn't trust my paladin, and the bad guy fell for the bait. He was caught planting evidence against my character - one of my character's superiors in the Church was actually working for the other side. He was the person that the Rose & Star Society had me looking for.

I set up a lot of it be e-mail between games, notes flying fast to the GM in the crucial moments as the trap closed.

Fun.

Megan is going to become a regular, bringing the party up to five - she will likely be playing either a witch or an inquisitor. The GM likes folks to generate two characters, then pick when play begins.

In my case, he wanted me to play the paladin, who had much higher stats than the wizard that I was intending to play.

Also, the emblem for the Rose & Star is an outline of a gold star. A second star is made of thorny vines or branches, with roses at their tips. A sixth rose is in the center, on a field of midnight blue.

The Auld Grump

Books-a-Million will be moving into the local Borders store - they wanted to rescue it from the liquidators, but said liquidators decided to go for the quick dime over the slow dollar. So, BaM is waiting until the old store closes before moving in. Two weeks plus. October or November, at a guess.

I gather that some of the staff is staying, but no idea as to who, yet. I am not sure who is even applying, though Megan is thinking about it, though reduced hours because of school.

The Auld Grump

Apparently when Megan sat in my lap, both times, she was announcing availability if I was interested, not just freaking the 'dane.

Two of my players knew that she was going to make a play at the retreat. (A married couple, I am preparing to paint a dragon for them.) She apparently started asking about me three weeks before the retreat - the sitting nekkid in my lap was opportunity and impulse, but the attempt was planned.

I have told her that I am flattered, but I have someone. She is looking for a casual relationship, and I don't do casual. So, no friends with benefits. The bite was because one of the other players at the retreat had expressed interest - I have no idea who, I didn't notice.

A new personal record for obtuseness, not recognizing a seduction attempt when it sat nekkid in my lap a second time. I have to suspect that I may have been in denial. (Though not exactly a seduction - more that she was letting me know that she was available.)

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The kids have decided that they like the liche - even the paladin. They do not feel that he is acting all that villainous, and want to find out more about him.

Oi!

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Heh, Megan is playing an inquisitor from the same faith as my paladin - my guy is the one that just ran a successful sting on his church to flush out some corrupt clerics in the administration.... Looks like he is being watched by the hierarchy.

It is not often that a paladin gets to run a five man con on his church.... But, hey, just because he's Lawful Good does not mean that he can't be a manipulative bastiche. That high charisma means something, eh?

He got rescued in tonight's game by the summoner's eidolon. She has been cozying up to him for several games now, when the summoner has been on watch my paladin has awakened several times to find the eidolon snuggled up next to him, having snuck away from her summoner. Jen seems to play the eidolon more than the summoner herself. (She's a chaotic good eidolon summoned from beyond time and space. He's a lawful good paladin fighting against corruption in his faith. )

Things went as smoothly as I could hope for, bringing a new player into an existing campaign. About an hour in I realized that the girl Megan had mentioned a while back was Jen - in one of the finest examples of nonverbal snark that I have ever seen. Jen used the pose that Megan had mimicked when we were talking about what had happened/not happened at the retreat.

Left to my own devices I might have balked at bringing Megan into the game, given the whole thing about being sat upon, but it went well.

The Auld Grump

There is a thread on how many PC deaths for campaigns this year.

I started with 'there haven't been too many', then started counting them off.... I killed a dozen PCs this year! Hokey smokes! Not too many at a time, spread across four campaigns, but... hokey smokes!

The Auld Grump