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It's Quiet Uptown
Yesterday we played our Godswake D&D campaign, run by K. The table is all old friends, but for some reason a lot of our worst habits come out in this game particularly. We're a Half-Elf warlock, a Dragonborn paladin, a Tabaxi monk, a Tiefling bard, and me, a Firbolg druid. The setting is homebrew, built on an interesting premise. 20 years ago, the gods returned and fundamentally changed the way the world works. People had been praying to gods before then, but almost none of the gods we thought were real turned out to be. Over time, we found out that the "High Gods" are actually interlopers from some other realm, sapping this world of its natural magic to fuel their conflicts on other planes. The original gods of this realm are beginning to wake up now -- partly due to our adventures -- and are setting us on the mission to take back our realm from the High Gods.
Meanwhile, a lot of the allies we've made during the game are fervent worshippers of the High Gods, so suddenly we're experiencing all of this tension there. On top of that, some of the "native" gods we've awoken are stone-cold assholes. We're all just normal men (and women), charged with taking our world back from other deities who would drain it dry.
Recently our group decided to go to Adrozia, a theocracy that has outlawed heretical worship of other deities. Since we're all 11th level we've developed a bit of a reputation, but we're going "undercover" in order to find out more information about native gods we've heard about -- and about the plans a mighty bugbear army have for the world just putting itself back together. An Aasimar has been essentially forcing a band of refugees to camp in the winter because she's having continual dreams about being attacked just down the road. In order to make sure those poor bastards don't freeze to death, we offered to help.
It turns out the assailants are a band of Lolth-worshipping drow who really want to kill this Aasimar -- because she's been hunting them down to extinction. The refugees are just collateral damage to them. We only found this out after killing 8 of their 12-man group(?) and they basically cried "Uncle!" We agreed that the Adrozians sucked, and they won't be attacking the caravan (partly because their numbers have been so drastically thinned).
On the way back, Chi (our Tabaxi monk) had the idea to seek an audience with a native god whose followers we recently came across, the Winter Vixen. She's clearly an evil God who relishes in the suffering and hunger that accompanies winter, and her followers have been waylaying travelers and taking their supplies to expose them to the harshness of the season.
In order to find her, you basically have to strip naked and wander around in the woods -- so Filbert, my druid, decides to tag along. The session ended with us taking our second level of exhaustion (two failed CON saves'll do that) while the rest of the party is becoming increasingly concerned that we haven't come back yet.
We'll have to see what happens -- our monk is going to Japan and then R. is away to Arkansas for his family visit, so it might be a bit before we continue. It was a fun time overall. Even though we were in a pretty bad position almost the entire game, it felt easy to make failure interesting you know?
Work was a little frustrating, but only because I'm still a rookie. I'm fumbling my way through a couple new reports and it's been next to impossible to find good documentation that allows you to make sense of what you're seeing. What's more, it's difficult to parse out which deviations from SOP are allowable, and which ones basically make it impossible for something to pass certification. My boss is going to have a meeting with me a little later to hash that out, for which I am grateful.
People are being a little intense online right now, and I feel bad that I don't have the spoons to rise to that occasion. It's hard for me to split my attention -- or more accurately, rapidly shift my attention from one thing to another. I know there's a bit of cognitive load every time you need to do it, so I've been trying to change my habits and environment to favor pomodoros of concentrated effort. It doesn't always work, but that's why I'm still building it.
However, this often leaves only ten minutes every hour to talk to folks, and when you're trying to counsel a friend that's not nearly enough. Other folks are really excited about various creative projects and want to deep-dive into that; some just want to vibe. :) To be honest, it feels like I've fallen out of practice with being social, especially chatting online. I'm hoping to get my groove back, but that only happens with deliberate practice right?
Maybe shifting my perspective so that I approach communication with more intentionality will help with that? Formalize the transition from working to talking, and seeing that as its own activity that requires specific attention. We'll try it, see how it goes.
Meanwhile, a lot of the allies we've made during the game are fervent worshippers of the High Gods, so suddenly we're experiencing all of this tension there. On top of that, some of the "native" gods we've awoken are stone-cold assholes. We're all just normal men (and women), charged with taking our world back from other deities who would drain it dry.
Recently our group decided to go to Adrozia, a theocracy that has outlawed heretical worship of other deities. Since we're all 11th level we've developed a bit of a reputation, but we're going "undercover" in order to find out more information about native gods we've heard about -- and about the plans a mighty bugbear army have for the world just putting itself back together. An Aasimar has been essentially forcing a band of refugees to camp in the winter because she's having continual dreams about being attacked just down the road. In order to make sure those poor bastards don't freeze to death, we offered to help.
It turns out the assailants are a band of Lolth-worshipping drow who really want to kill this Aasimar -- because she's been hunting them down to extinction. The refugees are just collateral damage to them. We only found this out after killing 8 of their 12-man group(?) and they basically cried "Uncle!" We agreed that the Adrozians sucked, and they won't be attacking the caravan (partly because their numbers have been so drastically thinned).
On the way back, Chi (our Tabaxi monk) had the idea to seek an audience with a native god whose followers we recently came across, the Winter Vixen. She's clearly an evil God who relishes in the suffering and hunger that accompanies winter, and her followers have been waylaying travelers and taking their supplies to expose them to the harshness of the season.
In order to find her, you basically have to strip naked and wander around in the woods -- so Filbert, my druid, decides to tag along. The session ended with us taking our second level of exhaustion (two failed CON saves'll do that) while the rest of the party is becoming increasingly concerned that we haven't come back yet.
We'll have to see what happens -- our monk is going to Japan and then R. is away to Arkansas for his family visit, so it might be a bit before we continue. It was a fun time overall. Even though we were in a pretty bad position almost the entire game, it felt easy to make failure interesting you know?
Work was a little frustrating, but only because I'm still a rookie. I'm fumbling my way through a couple new reports and it's been next to impossible to find good documentation that allows you to make sense of what you're seeing. What's more, it's difficult to parse out which deviations from SOP are allowable, and which ones basically make it impossible for something to pass certification. My boss is going to have a meeting with me a little later to hash that out, for which I am grateful.
People are being a little intense online right now, and I feel bad that I don't have the spoons to rise to that occasion. It's hard for me to split my attention -- or more accurately, rapidly shift my attention from one thing to another. I know there's a bit of cognitive load every time you need to do it, so I've been trying to change my habits and environment to favor pomodoros of concentrated effort. It doesn't always work, but that's why I'm still building it.
However, this often leaves only ten minutes every hour to talk to folks, and when you're trying to counsel a friend that's not nearly enough. Other folks are really excited about various creative projects and want to deep-dive into that; some just want to vibe. :) To be honest, it feels like I've fallen out of practice with being social, especially chatting online. I'm hoping to get my groove back, but that only happens with deliberate practice right?
Maybe shifting my perspective so that I approach communication with more intentionality will help with that? Formalize the transition from working to talking, and seeing that as its own activity that requires specific attention. We'll try it, see how it goes.