That Holiday Thing
Dec. 3rd, 2022 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Yesterday was R's birthday! Happy birthday to my loving, awesome husband. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I'm so glad that he's in the world. <3
We went to Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ place, for his birthday dinner. It was fun, but chaotic! It's one of those places where you select a sampling of meat and/or vegetables and cook it yourself over a grill in the middle of the table. Their cuts of meat were really great, well-marinated, and I like this kind of restaurant a lot more now that I know a thing or two about cooking. And the best part? It was significantly less expensive than I thought it would be!
R. has been off-work since Thanksgiving, which is a much-needed break for him. It really sucks that he got slapped down with a cold right after the holiday, but it hasn't been SO bad. He's been getting a lot of rest, playing a lot of Lost Judgment, and just decompressing from work. He's back in the office on Monday, but I get the feeling he might work from home next week. We're both still kind of congested after battling this illness, and working from home is definitely more restful than doing it in a cubicle at the university.
We've got a fairly busy weekend planned. In addition to the birthday dinner yesterday, we'll be playing a D&D session this afternoon and hosting some out-of-town friends on Sunday. All stuff we want to do, all great, so no complaints here!
The D&D session is a monthly meet-up in a friend's homebrew world, where we're one of two parties making our way through. Each one of us has a birthmark in the shape of a comet, a sign that portends a great (or terrible) destiny for anyone marked by it. In the first sessions, a literal comet came down and smashed the top off a nearby mountain! The territory is controlled by a red dragon who took over lands that had been settled by halflings, so we're in a kind of fantasy dictatorship. Dragonborn are preferred citizens, usually in positions of power like the head of the military, magical research, things like that. Gnomes and halflings are...not well-respected, even though there's been an organized halfling resistance for a while now.
We all met up together for various reasons, and we've got quite a diverse party. There's a halfling cavalier whose been trying to free her ancestral lands from the influence of Redrogomore; a dragonborn pit fighter who grew up in slavery and hates oppression almost as much as she loves to put on a show; a tiefling warlock running away from his supernatural fate by becoming a "cleric" of a new god, then a unicorn; an ambitious human wizard determined to become one of the great magical practitioners of the age; and me, a forest gnome arcane trickster who's become a true believer in the tiefling's new religion AND the keeper of a phoenix egg wanted by the agents of Redrogomore.
It turns out that comet was a phoenix that died shortly after impact and turned into the egg. Wimblyvort constructed a carrying case out of sticks, sap, vines and such so that it can handle a bump or two -- and now we have to find a volcano hot enough for the egg to mature. But in the meantime we've also become something of a revolutionary party, breaking political prisoners out of jail, spreading the word of this banned religion through disobedient action and propaganda, and cleansing the land of corruption that has been creating some awful creatures and nasty places.
Honestly, it's been a blast. :) Wimblyvort is someone who started out the campaign looking forward to a small life of petty thievery. He thought the best he could do would be unnoticed by a hostile society while he took what he needed to survive -- and help those trapped in the shadows with him. He had been pretty resistant to the idea that he was destined for anything great, but after achieving what we have as a group he's ride-or-die for these folks. The dragonborn pit fighter has even gotten him to be less-afraid of her species, and there's a lot of respect for her passion and deadly skill.
He's a bit of an earnest mess, but also a really GOOD thief. He's great at striking where least expected and jumping back out of harm's way, using his illusion magic to distract the enemy. When Yaz (the tiefling) casts fly on him, he is SCARY good with sneak attack. <3 <3 <3
So it's bound to be a fun time! Everyone at the table has been gaming for a while, and friends for a while, so we have a comfortable rapport and a great sense of teamwork. My only complaint is that we don't play this game quite often enough for my tastes, but...life being what it is, I understand how difficult it can be to put something together on the regular.
This morning, more Writing Masterclass and prep for my own D&D game while listening to the rain outside. :)
We went to Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ place, for his birthday dinner. It was fun, but chaotic! It's one of those places where you select a sampling of meat and/or vegetables and cook it yourself over a grill in the middle of the table. Their cuts of meat were really great, well-marinated, and I like this kind of restaurant a lot more now that I know a thing or two about cooking. And the best part? It was significantly less expensive than I thought it would be!
R. has been off-work since Thanksgiving, which is a much-needed break for him. It really sucks that he got slapped down with a cold right after the holiday, but it hasn't been SO bad. He's been getting a lot of rest, playing a lot of Lost Judgment, and just decompressing from work. He's back in the office on Monday, but I get the feeling he might work from home next week. We're both still kind of congested after battling this illness, and working from home is definitely more restful than doing it in a cubicle at the university.
We've got a fairly busy weekend planned. In addition to the birthday dinner yesterday, we'll be playing a D&D session this afternoon and hosting some out-of-town friends on Sunday. All stuff we want to do, all great, so no complaints here!
The D&D session is a monthly meet-up in a friend's homebrew world, where we're one of two parties making our way through. Each one of us has a birthmark in the shape of a comet, a sign that portends a great (or terrible) destiny for anyone marked by it. In the first sessions, a literal comet came down and smashed the top off a nearby mountain! The territory is controlled by a red dragon who took over lands that had been settled by halflings, so we're in a kind of fantasy dictatorship. Dragonborn are preferred citizens, usually in positions of power like the head of the military, magical research, things like that. Gnomes and halflings are...not well-respected, even though there's been an organized halfling resistance for a while now.
We all met up together for various reasons, and we've got quite a diverse party. There's a halfling cavalier whose been trying to free her ancestral lands from the influence of Redrogomore; a dragonborn pit fighter who grew up in slavery and hates oppression almost as much as she loves to put on a show; a tiefling warlock running away from his supernatural fate by becoming a "cleric" of a new god, then a unicorn; an ambitious human wizard determined to become one of the great magical practitioners of the age; and me, a forest gnome arcane trickster who's become a true believer in the tiefling's new religion AND the keeper of a phoenix egg wanted by the agents of Redrogomore.
It turns out that comet was a phoenix that died shortly after impact and turned into the egg. Wimblyvort constructed a carrying case out of sticks, sap, vines and such so that it can handle a bump or two -- and now we have to find a volcano hot enough for the egg to mature. But in the meantime we've also become something of a revolutionary party, breaking political prisoners out of jail, spreading the word of this banned religion through disobedient action and propaganda, and cleansing the land of corruption that has been creating some awful creatures and nasty places.
Honestly, it's been a blast. :) Wimblyvort is someone who started out the campaign looking forward to a small life of petty thievery. He thought the best he could do would be unnoticed by a hostile society while he took what he needed to survive -- and help those trapped in the shadows with him. He had been pretty resistant to the idea that he was destined for anything great, but after achieving what we have as a group he's ride-or-die for these folks. The dragonborn pit fighter has even gotten him to be less-afraid of her species, and there's a lot of respect for her passion and deadly skill.
He's a bit of an earnest mess, but also a really GOOD thief. He's great at striking where least expected and jumping back out of harm's way, using his illusion magic to distract the enemy. When Yaz (the tiefling) casts fly on him, he is SCARY good with sneak attack. <3 <3 <3
So it's bound to be a fun time! Everyone at the table has been gaming for a while, and friends for a while, so we have a comfortable rapport and a great sense of teamwork. My only complaint is that we don't play this game quite often enough for my tastes, but...life being what it is, I understand how difficult it can be to put something together on the regular.
This morning, more Writing Masterclass and prep for my own D&D game while listening to the rain outside. :)
