Randomness: the 18th sequel

[Serenity]

1 hour ago, Marvin said:

Sad/momentous/bittersweet day as I finally sold off the last big glut of loose Bones minis I had sitting around. 

I don't know when, but I expect I'll do something similar someday when I get motivated.  Was it a case of having too many or loss of interest?

[Chaoswolf]

[Marvin]

4 hours ago, Serenity said:

I don't know when, but I expect I'll do something similar someday when I get motivated.  Was it a case of having too many or loss of interest?

More a lack of energy and need, really. And eyesight! I still enjoy painting on the rare occasions I do it, but my days of trying to crank out dungeon fodder and NPCs and stuff for games are behind me, alas.

 

Definitely also have too many though lol. I’ve been trying to break my habit of collecting things just to collect.

[haldir]

I think I'm getting hooked on these microwave sticky rice bowls from Costco. 

 

Friend of mine aka the GM of the bi-weekly Pathfinder game, gave me a couple early in December, but I just kinda let em sit in my bag I take up there. One day I decide to try them out & 90 sec later, BAM! Pretty tasty stuff. Since I don't own a Costco card & my parents do, I ask whenever they head over there (anther town, 1 hour or so drive) to pick up a box of them & I'll just pay them for it.

 

[Froggy the Great]

Sad today - one of my old neighbors just posted he entered hospice last week.  We weren't close and this isn't a surprise, but he was a good neighbor and we were friends.  

I raise a stroopwafel and a jovially unmown lawn to him this morning.

[Jasper_the_2nd]

On 1/3/2023 at 7:41 PM, Chaoswolf said:

@Jasper_the_2nd---if you don't mind me asking, did you get a doctor's note to carry around explaining that you have metal in your back now? I've always wondered about people with metal 'replacement parts' being able to get through airport security without a bunch of hassle.

 

I'm very glad to hear that you're on the mend.

 

On 1/3/2023 at 7:57 PM, TripleH said:

 

Not needed anymore. I had 3 vertebrae fused back in 2016 and have never set off any metal detectors. 

 

On 1/3/2023 at 8:20 PM, Cygnwulf said:

Traditional 'metal' detectors have a hard time detecting non-magnetic metals (like titanium or most grades of implant grade surgical steel)  that's frequently used in medical implants, and the new backscatter x-ray machines can't see inside the body anyway, so it's not super common for modern surgical implants to even show up to airport security.

 

 

On 1/3/2023 at 8:45 PM, Inarah said:

 

It's not a problem.  Titanium doesn't show up on security x-rays, and I've never been stopped because of it.  I have a plate and 3 screws in each foot. Now, my purse they want to look at every time... 

 

 

 

Thanks for the info folks, I didn't know that either. I figured the 7 inch scar would be enough of an indication if they asked....

Although last time I went through an airport, and got selected for a secondary check, like usual, they were detecting something in my right shoulder.  I've never had anything done to my right shoulder.  Heck, it's my good one, the left one should probably get fixed at some point. No idea what it thought it was detecting, but after running the wand over the area about 50 times they finally agreed there was nothing there.....

 

 

[haldir]

Finally got back to the FLGS last night, something I really needed with the holidays & such. Changes the store owners have implemented  for the new year haven't affected the rpgs...yet, but I asked the last time I was in there if the day my weekly game was going to change & they said no, I was good to go for that. So, I'm happy to not worry about that.

 

Holiday game started out pretty well too, I had them start from the Saltmarsh game, but they woke up in comfy beds in a warm room like it was a dream. They went downstairs & the home had that "home for the holidays" feel to it. Outside was a mountain of a man, a woodsman. He was wearing a red jacket, had a snowy beard & hair. He introduced himself as Johan Schmidt. He said the party was brought to his home due to them being the Heroes of Saltmarsh. He described all of their exploits & such. I had one player who kept calling him Santa, but the man said he'd never heard of the guy. As Johan got down to business he explained to the party that the Yule Lord aka Krampus had taken some naughty children by mistake. The children in question are the children of some prominent nobles of the Summer Court. As they used the Changeling to swap their children with human kids due to they didn't want them to be used a leverage by their enemies. Little did they know the children would grow in a spoiled, privilege household & they themselves would become spoiled by their lifestyle & would become brats & bullies. Krampus knew who he had taken once he brought them to his lair in the Black Forest & he knew he could blackmail the Summer Court Fey, himself a member of the Winter Court.

 

The party agreed to Johan's terms & the reward & they were whisked away in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. As they got to the portal to the Black Forest, Johan warned the party that the realm was extremely cold & unless they had innate abilities to subdue that cold, nothing they wore would protect them from it (ie game terms, no cold resistance or immunity, you're going to make Con checks every hour or suffer exhaustion levels & the DC for those checks goes up by 5 each time you miss that check. Couple players got affected & one is at level 2 as it took 2 hours to get to the village outside Krampus' lair. They encountered a dark satyr singing a song, I took the lyrics of Arch enemy "Handshake with Hell" song & said a few verses as a distraction but my player's characters I think out of 6 people that were there last night 5 have some sorta Alertness feat or a weapon of warning.....

 

So no surprise but they encountered a patrol of Dark elves & 2 hornfangs. These being not the Drow we all know & love & the hornfangs are wolves with antlers. The battle was somewhat quick but the party found out they weren't going to be push overs as the Dark elves have the ability to give an opponent Disadvantage when they strike if there are 2 of them together. They also have a shadow teleport & can hide in Darkness with a bonus action. The wolves have allot of HPs & their damage can be significant if a person is teamed up upon, the warlock found this one out....

 

The party made their way into the village & they peaked into the cottages, where they seen mostly sleeping elves. There was 2 cottages that had a couple of single elves, one was a muscular female one who had 3 hornfangs, she was brushing the fur of one. The other singular elf was a particular nasty looking one, who just sat in the dark staring into space. The party made their way to the stairs that lead up to a large dark door. Fortunately for them the warlock had devil's sight & he was able to make out a creature hiding in front of the door. The creature was a undead troll shadow. Luckily for them, the troll didn't want to fight, he was just lonely & hungry. He asked the party to get him some hot cocoa & gingery boy cookies from the evil ones aka dark elves. So the party went back into the village & then one of the characters, a fairy paladin, flew down a chimney & found what the troll wanted. Unfortunately for him, when he went to grab a cookie, it was alive & ran off, shouting the entire time. Since the elves had just celebrated krampusnacht, I gave them a 30% to wake up & were groggy. Initially 1 elf woke up but just saw the cookie & she fell back to sleep. The fairy then moved to the cookie & got initiative & struck it down. Now, he wields a greatsword & the cookie only has 2 HPs, he dealt over 10 to it, so it was the impact of the weapon that woke the elf back up & then she woke up her 2 roommates.

 

Since it was quiet in the village I gave the party the opp to do a Perception check or use their passive Perception to see if they heard the noise, they all did but the Drow rogue (which is funny, since he's got the highest passive, but choose to roll even thou he suffering 2 levels of exhaustion right now). The party got to roll initiative & joined the fray & during the battle is when I pulled the shadow step abilities. The 3 dark elves then went to alert the closest cottages & their occupants, which include to the two named Dark elves above & currently 6 or 7 additional dark elves.

 

We ended the night with the first round  of combat, thou one of the named dark elves (ie the mean looking one) holding his action. Since it was getting close to the store closing, I choose to hold his holding action up till the party moved & then the 3 dark elves that alerted the rest, I still need to do their moves. Fun times ahead for the party, especially since the the undead troll has yet to do anything.

 

I do know the hobby session I had on Monday failed, as the glued weapon hands on the elves failed. So I need to work on those before next Weds. I think later today I'm going to get some different superglue & see if that'll work this time around. I also need to print out 6 more elves, as I didn't think my party would alert the entire village. 

30 minutes ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the info folks, I didn't know that either. I figured the 7 inch scar would be enough of an indication if they asked....

Although last time I went through an airport, and got selected for a secondary check, like usual, they were detecting something in my right shoulder.  I've never had anything done to my right shoulder.  Heck, it's my good one, the left one should probably get fixed at some point. No idea what it thought it was detecting, but after running the wand over the area about 50 times they finally agreed there was nothing there.....

 

 

 

In that case never go through the Boise, ID airport, ha ha. Seems like every year I go to ReaperCon, it's always Boise that gives me problems. Last year (nice to say that now), I forgot to take my wallet out (stupid me) but I told them as I walked through the metal detector & they allowed me to pull it out of my pocket but then proceeded to swab down everything inside it & they did something to my fingers & stuck the strip into a machine (ie bomb making residue). Of course nothing came out of it, but just annoying. One year it was magnets inside a miniature case that set off an alert. Since I'm heavy set, my backpack heats up my back when I wear it & that'll show up on scanners so they've got to feel their way in those spot, etc etc. Nothing ever in both DFW or Love Field, nothing!!! 

[Cranky Dog]

1 hour ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

Thanks for the info folks, I didn't know that either. I figured the 7 inch scar would be enough of an indication if they asked....

Although last time I went through an airport, and got selected for a secondary check, like usual, they were detecting something in my right shoulder.  I've never had anything done to my right shoulder.  Heck, it's my good one, the left one should probably get fixed at some point. No idea what it thought it was detecting, but after running the wand over the area about 50 times they finally agreed there was nothing there.....

I have a mechanical heart valve *and* a pacemaker.<

 

If an airport only has metal detectors, I have to notify them and we bypass it and I get a full pat down (free body massage!). I hardly remember them using the metal detector wand at all, but they do use the chemical bomb detector.

 

Now if it's a larger airport that has the full body scanner tubes, I can use them and never had any trouble with them. If they did spot something, it was probably the pacemaker, and then the wand would confirm it.

 

 

[Pegazus]

I’m always a bit nervous coming back from my Alabama business trips that I will get swabbed for explosives at the airport. Being on the assembly floor so much I’d test positive for sure. But then again, since that’s a huge industry there, it may be routine and I’d simply be asked to show my company badge before even explaining who I worked for.

 

Fun titanium fact is that it’s biocompatible. Your body won’t try to push it out as foreign debris. It just accepts it as its own and carries on. 

[Chaoswolf]

Back when I used to smoke,  I used to have all kinds of trouble with those explosives residue tests. For a while,  you weren't allowed to have a lighter, so I was using matches. Sulphur counts as a  bomb making material. Guess what was all over my hands from the smoke I had right before I got in the security line?

[Cranky Dog]

3 minutes ago, Pegazus said:

Fun titanium fact is that it’s biocompatible. Your body won’t try to push it out as foreign debris. It just accepts it as its own and carries on. 

Ah, that would be one of the reasons why it's used in hip replacements.

 

[TGP]

Today’s error rate—

 

0.72727277272727272727272

 

8 out of 11

[Pegazus]

33 minutes ago, Cranky Dog said:

Ah, that would be one of the reasons why it's used in hip replacements.

 

And with titanium 3D printers, some places are gearing up to test out replacing more than joints. Entire bones could be replaced/repaired.

[TGP]

21 minutes ago, Pegazus said:

And with titanium 3D printers, some places are gearing up to test out replacing more than joints. Entire bones could be replaced/repaired.

Wow. 

[Inarah]

1 hour ago, haldir said:

We ended the night with the first round  of combat, thou one of the named dark elves (ie the mean looking one) holding his action. Since it was getting close to the store closing, I choose to hold his holding action up till the party moved & then the 3 dark elves that alerted the rest, I still need to do their moves. Fun times ahead for the party, especially since the the undead troll has yet to do anything.

 

I do know the hobby session I had on Monday failed, as the glued weapon hands on the elves failed. So I need to work on those before next Weds. I think later today I'm going to get some different superglue & see if that'll work this time around. I also need to print out 6 more elves, as I didn't think my party would alert the entire village. 

 

 

My game went down a different track.  I ran it a few weeks ago on a night we were short a few players, as an alternate to our regular game.  The 3 characters, getting ready to celebrate Yule in the village they are based out of, were alerted to shadowy figures near the woods, which turned out to be minions of the Fey court.  Summoned to court they met the fairy king and queen, who spun them a story of fey children stolen by a horrible beast (most of my players had never heard of Krampus).  

 

The players stealthed their way through every encounter, never entered a cottage or woke the elves or the dogs.  I didn't hit them with the cold penalties, since it was only 3 of them, and no cleric in the party.  (their cleric has a fire sword, it would have been a very different game)  But they hustled none the less, made friends with the guard at the door, promised him cookies, and went in.  Again, they stealth past the creatures, right into Krampus' lair, where he is napping, and head over to the kids.  Krampus "wakes up", he'd been watching them the whole time.  The players think a fight would get them killed so they start trying to B.S. their way through it, and Krampus calls them out for lying.  This is when the players find out they are rescuing the royal changelings, who are real brats, and there was some hesitation over whether or not the kids should be left there and thrown in the fire after all.  But in the end their strong negotiating skills get them out of it and back to the Fey court to be rewarded.  They negotiated that the fairy brats had to stay in the fey kingdom, and the two human children who had been stolen by the fairies went back to the village with the party.