Pr3++yG33kyTh1ng

So Monday I totally skipped work. I just decided to not go. OMG!
On the plus side, we built a fire pit in the back yard and saw a movie while Gwynyth was in school. We also had lunch, but (as it was quite certainly the worst Chinese food I've ever had) I won't go into detail on that.
Later in the afternoon, we burned the remains of a wisteria tree that I've had to drag out of the way every time I mow for so long it actually bothered me. Fire pit = w00+.
I'm looking forward to burning things ritualistically during our next game night.
So, before this becomes two posts in a row dedicated to lighting things on fire in the back yard (how rural is that?), I'm going to avoid talking about work by typing out the plot of the last (and technically on-going but on hiatus) Dungeons and Dragons campaign in which we were involved.
A few years ago, the people that own Dungeons and Dragons (we'll call them "Hasbro") announced a contest to design their next campaign setting.
The lucky winner would get a job and some cash and, most importantly, his setting would be published.
I never got around to submitting mine (80's glam-rock superstars are transported back in time to fight dinosaurs) so Keith Baker won with Eberron.
Eberron is quite a departure from your standard sword and sorcery setting. There are new races and classes (professions) and magic is seen as taking the place of technology. It enhances communication, transportation and manufacturing. And you can still fireball bad guys. Or good guys. Whatever you are into, I guess.
Someone comment if I screw this up:
The story line takes place just after the end of The Last War, a conflict that involved everyone and lasted over a hundred years. The war also mysteriously resulted in the complete destruction of an entire country. Fear of a repeat of that unsolved magical disaster ended the war, though there is still a good bit of animosity out there.
During the last part of the war, there was a small military company fighting for independence for a small, backwater territory. A druid (strangely from a wealthy merchant family), his Warforged (living construct) bodyguard, a Shifter (kind of were-creaturish, feral race) ranger and the company's "procurer," a Changling (shape-changing near human) rogue managed to stay together after the conflict and accepted an assignment from the druid's family to resolve undisclosed issues in a large trading town near the border.
So, the party arrived in a town built around a lake inside the rim of an extinct volcano. This was particularly fun due to an incident when other characters (same players) stored a lot of loot inside a cave in a volcano which later erupted.
Anyway, the trouble in Cauldron was related to disappearances of locals, most recently of a young boy stolen from an orphanage. This is where the Changling emerged as the natural negotiator of the group and the Warforged fighter first solidly demonstrated his gift for turning big things into a lot of little things.
The characters tracked the kidnappers to an ancient gnomish complex located under the city. Rather than pick their way though the countless traps and twisting halls, our heroes opted to get themselves captured in order to be taken directly to the source of the issue - a vicious half-troll slaver whom they dispatched, freeing the boy who was then whisked away to safety by a giant floating eyeball creature.
After that adventure, they were instant heroes - enjoying high-society, meeting with the Lord Mayor and getting a 5% discount on their rented rooms. They were not, however, celebrated local heroes.
They were hired to return some stolen wands, which they tracked to a conflict with a psychotic were-baboon and then back to some smuggler's caves carved from ancient lava tubes. In the course of returning the wands they discovered a lost city buried in the mountain and briefly, peripherally, explored it. At this point, the Shifter ranger began his career as a stunt archer, calling shots and felling bad guys like George Michael through rabid bulwarks.
The wands were used to save the city, and they began to come into direct competition with a local band of adventurers.
They were contracted to return a long-lost dwarf to his brother, which they managed quite handily. The dwarf was found, nearly incoherent, ranting prophesies of destruction and doom (side note: some of the prophesies were valid) and being worshipped by lizard people. He never even noticed the rescue. The Druid chose this point to become a master of the arcane arts, adding old-school magic to his growing druidic prowess.
After that adventure, they made nice with certain members of the competing party from town. When one of them went missing in an ancient shrine deep in the forest, they rushed off to save him. They were waylaid by a tribe of evil humanoids who needed to be beaten into submission and there the journey paused.
Surely when they return to town with the rescued local hero they will be accepted into the good graces of the community. They may even (finally) get those statues created in their likenesses, which has long been a goal.
They may even find out how all these events are inter-connected in a sick and twisted Machiavellian web of evil and deception that would make the Enron scandal look like a simple purse grab.
But the statues . . . Those would be awesome.
Plans for today include investigating a blown up system and trying to figure out why I showed up at work today. Without coffee. It's almost like I want a fight.