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[There should be a long, storyline introduction here, but there isn't. Life is full of surprises. This time I aim to switch from writing the story 1/week to including some narration every time I post the report of the day. Ambitious stuff, but isn't this what challenges are about?] Hello and welcome to this third (already?) challenge of mine, continued from my Battle Log. Last one was shaky to say the least, but it should be expected when summer rolls along. This time I'm getting back to my usual self, pushing the limits of awesomeness further and further. One of the things I learned last challenge is that randomness is inescapable, so I might as well embrace it! Onwards to Pandemonium! Quest 1: You gotta fight Take out the one or two settlements on the Plane and pretty much anything else alive there is out to kill and eat you. Plenty of battle for survival is to be expected. The start of the challenge coincides with my new box opening and I'm more than excited to get back into regular training after the summer. However, since I'll be travelling a lot, I'm easing a bit on the grading. Grading - A: Miss 1-2 trainings, B: Miss 3 trainings, C: Miss 4 trainings, D: Miss 5 trainings, F: Miss 6+ trainings Rewards: +1STR, +1 DEX, +1 STA Quest 2: Caves and tunnels Pandemonium is an underground realm, so while I'm in caves, I might as well eat like a caveman. Modified version of paleo, allowing for coffee and alcohol, minus beer and whiskey. Also not going crazy about traces of non-paleo stuff (i.e. breadcrumbs in the occasional burger). Grading - A: No cheats, B: 1 cheat, C: 2 cheats, D: 3 cheats, F: 4+ cheats Rewards: +5 CON. As usual, this is a priority. I've eased on limitations but not on my cheating allowance. Quests 3: Embrace the randomness It's a strongly chaotic Plane and my life has been all bout chaos lately. Gotta learn how to live with this and not stress out. For a minimum of 4 days/week, once per day, I'll roll a d10 and do 1 - 5d6 Woodchoppers 2 - 3d12 Pushups 3 - 1d100 minutes of housework chores 4 - 1d4 rounds of 4way planking (regular, sides and reverse) 5 - Play a videogame with 1d4 lives. After dying enough times, it's game over 6 - 2d100 Single Unders on my Jump Rope 7 - RPG related stuff. Either read at least 6d8 pages or write 2d4 pages 8 - 3d4 Box Jumps 9 - Read literature for at least 3d10 minuts 10 - 1d100 Squats Grading - A: 24 rolls, B: 20 rolls, C: 18 rolls, D: 16 rolls, F: 15 or less rolls Rewards: +1 WIS and +1 to a randomly rolled stat (d6) Life Quest: Get your motor running I finally have my motorcycle driver's licence and itching to buy one on the low cc end to get more familiar with riding a motorbike. For this goal, I'll have to set aside 100 Euros per week in order to create a small budget. Grading - A: 600+ collected, B: 599-550 collected, C: 549-500 collected, D: 499-450 collected, F: less than 450 collected Rewards: +4 WIS, +1 CHA Non graded goals: - Remain smoke-free for the duration of the challenge - When I'm home, listen to a vinyl record per day. Starting my epic quest to listen the entire collection - Deal with e-mails, facebook, checking the forum etc before I go to work in the mornings and afternoons. While at work, I don't want to log in any of those, the slacking is unproductive (work piles up and I get stressed) and most important, makes me feel bad and sours my mood Bonus reward: If I get at least 10 stat points by the end of the challenge, I'll be rewarding myself with an immovable rod for doing pullups Spreadsheet for tracking

Continued from my Battle Log: “Fight me over drinks, then. Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine.” The two men picked up the chairs and table, sitting down. Felgar appeared the next instant, holding two mugs which he placed in front of them. "My name is Skorri" began the dwarf, after gulping down some beer. "I hail from the Keep of Karak Azul, south of the World's Edge Mountains. It is the only southern Dwarfhold that hasn't fallen into Greenskin hands, a place of miners and metalworkers. My past is irrelevant, at least to you. What you need to know is that I follow the path of the Slayer. It's an ancient tradition of my race, for dwarves that have suffered great disgrace. Suicide is considered an even greater disgrace and it is against our nature to give less than our best effort in what we do, whether it's mining, crafting, brewing, drinking or fighting. So, dwarves like me, we shave our hair into a mohawk and dye it orange, along with our beards. We abandon all armor and protection, seeking an honourable death against a worthy foe as the means to redeem ourselves for what has befallen us. Most start as Troll Slayers, some go on to seek worthier foes and become Giant Slayers, while a select few advance to Daemon Slayers. It's a sick joke really, the mightiest are also the greatest failures, as they have failed to meet their purpose for so long. I'm probably one of them... I'd almost slain a Greater Daemon, when it disappeared back into the Warp and tossed me in this thrice-damned city. I came here hoping to find the mighty foe that would give me a hero's death, but once again, I failed." Raider listened, until the dwarf was done and began drinking more beer. "Your words answer many of the questions in my mind, Slayer" he began. "And I do not *know* whether you believe in fate or destiny, but it seems like I can help you. I am a Planeswalker, a traveller of the dimensions that make up the cosmos we live in. Some are nice, others are downright murderous. I seek a companion in my next journey and it seems you could be him. My next destination is the Heroic Domains of Ysgard, where the mighty gods of the Norse dwell, joined by their finest warriors who battle amonst themselves and defend their domains from the wicked frost giants. I intend to enter on the first layer, Ysgard, travel to the tracherous second layer of Muspelheim, the land of fire giants, then descend to the third, the caverns of Nidavellir, in order to visit the Forge-Cities of the Norse Dwarves. Join me and seek your glorious death against the mightiest of heroes there." Welcome to my second challenge! I hope you enjoyed the story and stick around for the incoming awesomeness. Main quest: Enjoy the summer and gather enough courage for the coming year. By enjoy, I mean do more than just lay around and occasionally go to the beach. At the same time, I don’t want to let go too much as far as my training and diet are concerned. So I guess the key word for this challenge is “Balance”. Quest 1: Never back down from a challenge. Ysgard is the land of heroic exploits and the biggest disgrace is to deny a challenge or back down from a duel. Since holidays will be involved, it’s impossible to set a SMART goal in a “train at least X times per week” format. Program will be unstable, so the goal by definition will be set too high or too low. “As much as I can” is not SMART either. So, my goal is to participate in every RPG Fanatics and Rangers challenge, every week, plus do some personal mini-quests I’ll set up for myself every week. Of course I’ll still be going to the gym, but that’s just not part of the quest. Rewards: +1 WIS for consistency and perserverance. Not my prime focus, plus most challenges have stat rewards anyway. Quest 2: Heroes’ feast. Fighting is not the only past-time activity in Ysgard. The heroes feast in great halls, singing songs of great deeds and mighty battles. For this quest, I’ll follow my 10-day diet plan twice. First is July 28 to August 6, second is August 7 to 17. After that, it’s no takeout or delivery until the end of the challenge. I’ll be hosting a visiting friend until the 25th, and then I’ll go out of town for holidays, my cousin’s wedding and his son’s baptism in Aug. 30 so I won’t have control over the cooking but I can at least try to eat healthy. No pork was too easy during the first challenge, so in order to make the goal more specific than just “eat healthy” I’m setting the bar to no takeout/delivery for that part of the challenge. Sounds easy, but let me remind you that I'll be not staying at my place, so the difficulty is greater that it would initially appear. Rewards: +5 CON. I really need to focus on this, especially the post-diet part so max points to motivate me. Quests 3: Swords, axes, hammers, spears, bows. They may be all weapons, but have different design, techniques, strengths and weaknesses. The ideal warrior should be master of all types. Just like not all weapons are swords, not all training is done by exercising. For this quest, I’ll have to do a different type of activity each week, unrelated to typical exercising. Long walks, running, playing football or basketball, cycling, whatever, I gotta do it. Also, since it’s summer, I’ll have to go and swim at least twice every week. Rewards: +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 STA, +1 WIS. Physical improvement plus WIS for finding out different and fun ways to work out. Life Quest: No two battles are alike. Different terrain, numbers, morale, visibility, weather, a multitude of factors make each battle unique. Woe to the one who gets lazy in his comfort zone. So last challenge I had complete control but my social life suffered a bit. This one I’m pushing myself through exposure to situations of peer pressure and not that much control in my hands. Besides, last year’s stuff made me too busy and anyway old friends are hard to get around anymore, so gotta go out there and socialize with new people! For this quest, I must go out at least twice a week. At least one of those times, it has to be to a place I haven’t been before. Also, I have to meet at least one new person each week. The idea is to go out more and stop going to the same old places with the same old people doing and saying the same old things. Rewards: +2 WIS +3 CHA. Another priority quest. Bonus Quest: Earn Skorri’s respect This one is mostly to incorporate the small victories and losses, as well as take into account unexpected events. Positive points are awarded every time I complete the Neila Rey training linked to Skorri’s character or do something noteworthy that’s unrelated to my goals but I’m proud of (new PR, extra event like last challenge’s OutDoor Training etc). Negative points subtract from the overall score and are penalties for doing bad stuff outside my main quests (cancel a training, eat unhealthy stuff etc). As a bonus, I’ll be doing the Bezerker challenge and each time I make it, I’ll score a Bezerker Point. Those will affect the storyline and ultimately can change Skorri’s behavior in the end. Motivation: I need to get out of my shell and socialize, immediately. Other than that, I need to enjoy the summer holidays well enough to have power to make the coming work year but not too loose that I undo the training and diet progress made so far. Once again, welcome and thank you for following. One last note, expect plenty of Norse/Viking music on this thread, just to set the mood. Here's one to go with Skorri's tale and his ambition of a glorious death in combat. Visual reference for Skorri and for my character Progress tracking spreadsheet