House of Ainsley: Out-of-Character Discussion

If you think the undead can mess with clerics, think of how they can mess with rogues.  "I Sneak Attack the vampire!"  "The undead, lacking anything resembling a working anatomy, are immune to Sneak Attacks.  How good are you at fast-talking your way out of an Energy Drain?"  

Yeah, you might want to keep those clerics handy.  Corwin's a fairly strong Cleric, but Sylvea definitely has him beat.  And instead of chasing off the undead or turning them to dust, they both freeze them and turn them into pets!  How cool is that?  

Hawt female ranger trumps undead pets.

...especially once the hawt female ranger learns how to summon friggin' grizzly bears to her aid.  

But by then, the clerics might be creating their own vampires. So choose your poison, I guess.

Now that I'm reading back over a few things, I notice that Pesselrek had originally offered Karnoz the chance to join him in Morribord in about two months' time.  When Karnoz refused that offer, saying that two months wouldn't be an acceptable timespan, Pesselrek was then to amend his offer: that Karnoz would meet Pesselrek on Morribord in a year (more time for Karnoz to settle his affairs, if possible) for an even greater reward; though the reward was not specified, it was hinted that Pesselrek's mentor was working on a feat of great Transmutation.  (OOC: Considering that the Dark College of Morribord specializes in the school of Necromancy first and foremost, one can only guess what this may mean.)

...except that, as I wrote it, Pesselrek never actually breathed a word of the amended offer in the thread.  Oops.  

So I probably should have phrased the raven's words differently, omitting the "Remember" bit and replacing it with something more abrupt or impromptu, a la "Come to Morribord in a year and a day and we can further discuss what debts we now owe each other."  Something like that.

My bad.  


(Also, for the sake of clarification, Karnoz's new Feat is Weapon Finesse: Dagger, correct?)

*pokes GD regarding that last question again, just to be sure*

And there it is again: hardtack.  Highwaymen with hardtack in their rations.  And here's a video which should give y'all a better idea of exactly what kind of food hardtack is, and how much longevity it has:


You're welcome.  

As an interesting note, hardtack goes all the way back to ancient Egypt; though it has had many names over the past three millenia, it's been pretty much the same recipe: take some water, mix it into some flour, maybe add some salt, hold the yeast, then bake the living blue blazes out of it.  When you can bounce a hockey puck off of it, it's done.  For best results, eat before...well, 150 years after you bake the silly thing, I guess.

As another interesting note, Tolkien evidently based both dwarven cram and elven lembas on hardtack.  So if you guys ever come across "cram" or "lembas" or "waybread" in the campaign, it's friggin' hardtack.  Get it?  

The House of Ainsley wrote:

(Also, for the sake of clarification, Karnoz's new Feat is Weapon Finesse: Dagger, correct?)

Yup.

Groovy. Does Karnoz want some hardtack for the road?

Got some, but thanks.

Your loss.  

Anyway, I just got done reading Karnoz's post, and seeing as Hennbauer will be upholding his end of the deal (and that there's a fair bit of history between Yorgo and him), I'm anticipating my reply to be equally long.  So I think I'll turn in for the night, bleary-eyed as I am.  But I look forward to getting on with that reply in the morning (or afternoon, if I sleep that late).  Ciao for now.  

NP. Good night.

I'm just taking a brief break from Karnoz's post to look at the forums again (in another tab) and see what's up. Yes, Karnoz's update is so big that I need to take a break from it and rest my eyes. I hope you're up for some reading, GD.

BRB

...and I'm done. See? I told you it was massive, didn't I?

Hobey Geebus!!

This may take me a few..., but thanks for the post

You're welcome.  And with that post, I've finally started to bring things full circle, eh?  Enjoy!  

(I just had to tidy that post up with a few edits and corrections, but I think I'm done now.)

A good post... Now I just have to piece a plan together to deal with Yorgo....

And back to you, BTW

Dang, you quick!

Is it too late for me to go back and fix something with that novella of a post? (Note to self: Hennbauer's Lebeqian bodyguard's name is Sadu, not Sabu. Rassum frassum.....)

You want to fix a typo? Be my guest.

It was bugging me.  Done now.  

Now to see what you have for me here....

So did you guess right about that bowl, then?

I did actually. Although I was wondering if it was even real after it was clear that Yorgo was lying to me.

Yeah, it was real. It was a red herring, but it was real.

And how 'bout that cask of booze he hid it in? Where do you suppose he got that?

And i called it

But in the meantime, I'm out for the night. I have a lot to do tomorrow and I need sleep.

G'nite

Hasta luego, amigo.

So, what makes you think that the redheaded dwarf was spying for Yorgo, anyway?  Don't all dwarves stare at humans like that?  

Anyway, peoples, I may not be posting as much for the next month or two--save for the weekends--because tomorrow I go to Beto Unit (at the Tennessee Colony penitentiary) for my Physical Agility Test.  I've already been practicing and testing myself at what that test encompasses: push-ups (15 in a minute if I'm lucky; always have sucked at push-ups, always will), sit-ups (which I can handle), deep squats (which I can ace), ladder climbs (ditto), carrying 45 pounds 15 yards two ways (hell, I already do that every time I feed my chickens...again, gonna ace it) and a quarter-mile run/walk (which I should handle well enough; I'm not sure if I can beat three minutes, but I'll probably come close to that mark).

After that, if all goes well, I start 5 or 6 weeks of academy training...physical conditioning, restraints, defensive tactics, holds, chemical agents, firearms...everything you might expect a prison guard to know.  Then after that, I embark on an exciting career of keeping a bunch of felons behind bars.  And that $2,600 monthly paycheck--with full medical, dental and a possible pension and retirement plan on top of it--certainly sweetens the deal.  Obamacare can kiss my fuzzy ass.  

Anyway, I'm off to bed in about 20 minutes, so I can get to Beto Unit by 0800 hours (and preferably by 0700, just for the sake of preparation time).  Wish me luck!  

Okay, so last week, I and the rest of my class went through chemical agents training...pepper spray, CS gas grenades, pepper foggers and all the other fun toys that we get to use whenever our colorful assortment of convicted felons start to get uppity. That week reached a fever pitch on Thursday, when we got hit with the stuff which, to that point, we had merely been talking and reading about.

The prelude came when Sgt. Crutcher (one of our instructors) stood upwind from us and misted the air with pepper spray. Even from that distance, it felt like I was sticking my face over a steaming skillet full of cayenne pepper, but a hundred times worse. Then we got to put on our gas masks and let Sgt. Farmer (our other instructor) walk around us with a CS gas grenade in a basket, burning away. I and every other ex-military guy in our class knew how to properly don a gas mask, and we helped as many civvies as we could don their masks. All the same, a few from our class weren't so lucky.

The next round, we had to stand in Sgt. Farmer's cloud again, only this time it was without the gas masks. And let me say that you can count your blessings if you can go your entire life without taking one whiff of CS gas, because it was all I could do to keep myself from panicking as my lungs seized up and stopped working for a good ten seconds (or however long it actually was before we were told to walk out of the cloud). Even then, my breaths were very shallow and brief, and each breath let to a coughing fit. By the time I could breathe right again, the front of my shirt was steeped in snot and saliva, and I felt completely spent of all energy. So I could see how CS gas would be good at taking the fight out of most inmates (except for the small percentage who are too psychotic and/or too drugged up to feel the stuff).

On a completely unrelated note, I've been laid up all weekend with the flu, and I'm going back in this morning. Sorry if I didn't get anything done this weekend, but it was a pretty sucky weekend overall. We'll see how next week unfolds.

Look at the bright side; I still haven't been able to land a job that's worth a damn. Hope you feel better soon Ainsley.