Happy Birthday, smrgol_t_kirin!

I don't have today's Forgotten English handy, so here's a legion of Mr. Sixes!



-The Gneech

Saturday Workout Report (Most Boringest Evar Edition)

Yourself! Fitness
Focus: Core Body Strength
Duration: 30 mins
Calories Burned: 252
Result: Y'know, I don't need a computer program to tell me to do set after set of crunches for 25 minutes straight. DULLEST WORKOUT EVAR.

The only part that gave me any difficulty was the "Plank" -- which is to get into pushup position and hold it for 25 seconds (rather than moving up and down). I couldn't really do this, for the same reason I can't do pushups -- I just can't get air into my lungs in that position! I managed to hold one for 16 seconds, according to Laurie, and I considered that a major achievement.

Also, since it suddenly became May without telling anybody, we walked around Lake Thoreau this morning, which took roughly an hour. It was nice to realize we'd climbed the killer hill without even noticing it -- I guess the cardio workout really is working!

Anyway, it's off to D&D later tonight. It'll be interesting to see the players' faces when the [SPOILER] shows up, backed by a [SPOILER]!

-The Gneech

Score Another for Freedom of Speech

From satyrblade: Court upholds "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" student banner

"Public schools are instrumentalities of government, and government is not entitled to suppress speech that undermines whatever missions it defines for itself," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in the court's opinion.

Hurray, Judge Kleinfeld! And hurray for the pendulum hopefully turning back finally.

-The Gneech

Well, That Was Fun :)

Revealing what [SPOILER] and [SPOILER] were, respectively, they were a mind flayer and a roper. The mind flayer had an alter self potion to make it appear as a woman in distress, and used its charm monster at will ability to enslave some gnolls to create an "ambush" for the characters to "rescue" it from. It then lured the heroes back to "a standing stone" in the woods, where a friend of the heroes from a previous adventure had been "left wounded."

Once they got to the scene, the mind flayer revealed its identity, announced that it was there to kill them as vengeance for slaying the son of Evard the Black (who is essentially my game's Voldemort), and the "standing stone" opened its baleful eye and maw and revealed itself to be a roper.

The fight didn't open well ... the mind flayer's mental blast stunned lythandra and the NPC monk/cleric right off the bat, camstone's ranger was hit with a massive strength drain from the roper's strands. Fortunately, jamesbarrett's fighter came bounding in to engage the roper, giving camstone the opportunity to get away. jamesbarrett's wizard started blasting the mind flayer (I forget its spell resistance until near the end, but since I'd given it a few other boosts, particularly magic armor and of course the alter self potion, I figure it about evens out), giving camstone the chance to bring it down with his arcane archery. (Fortunately, STR drain doesn't hurt your bowmanship!) Unfortunately, the mind flayer had managed to charm pholph's bard, causing him to take potshots at the wizard instead of helping with the fight.

Once the mind flayer was down and the group could concentrate on the roper, the rest of the fight went fairly quickly. The fighter got kinda chewed up, but well within survivability; by making the roper concentrate on him, he kept the ranger from being a roper snack. I seem to recall it was the ranger who got the killing shot on the roper as well, but it was definitely a group effort. All in all, nice teamwork all around. (Except, alas, for Laurie, who got unstunned just as the roper fell.)

Next week, pholph is not available and camstone asked for a break. I might try to run my long-neglected Star Wars game, and just say that pholph's Jedi Guardian is off on another mission somewhere.

-The Gneech