Starpuck; So We Start Off in a Tavern...

[starpuck]

 

Welcome to the Rowdy Raven!

Pull up a chair, hear a tale or two... or maybe snag a bit of juicy gossip.

If you're looking for a good meal or a stout ale, you're in the right place.

If it's riches, fame or glory you're after, well in that case...

There's a fella upstairs; black cloak, thick beard and eyes that can pierce steel.

He might have a task or two for ya -if you've got the skill to handle it.

 

 

Years ago, a friend once told me: Stop just admiring all these awesome women characters you get so into, and be one for yourself.   As I am still riding quite high on the RPG/D&D creativity wave, I thought; what better way to do that, than to create my own real world adventure to go on.   Here's the next catch though... what is a tabletop adventure without a party?   So I am throwing out my Looking for Group /yell and offering this.    Having a hard time with challenges lately?   Know that you want to keep up on NF, but updating your own thread is being a bear?   Need a little extra motivation to remember to log in and poke about?   Then come to the Rowdy Raven and meet up with a few other young adventurers that want to change the world- starting with themselves!   I will be putting together an adventure to help motivate myself into becoming the hero I so often admire in my games, books, movies, and anime.   Using real world goals to theme a fantasy narrative!

I've no idea how well this will come together, but I am excited to venture out and become!

 

 

 

"The table upstairs huh?   Alright... well, I guess I should go see this man... Right.  Ok.  Going now..."

"and... ok, going now!"

"For real this time, I am heading up to talk to the man!!"

 

 

 

[starpuck]

Goals, reasons and plans.

 

Goal 1) To be functionally strong and sound of body.

Reason:  I want to continue adventuring for many years to come, and to do so with ease of movement.

Plan - I will strength train 3x per week this challenge, on Mon, Wed and Fri.

 

Goal 2) To be strong of heart and well winded.

Reason:  Heroes must have great endurance to face the challenges and foes that cross their paths.

Plan - I will run (or run-walk) 6-9 miles per week, covering a total of 30 miles this challenge.

 

Goal 3) To strive toward a healthy body fat percentage and shed a few excess pounds.

Reason:  Carrying less fat around the middle, and an overall lower weight, decreases health risks that might hamper my senior adventuring years.

Plan - I will track my calories in through MFP, aiming for 7 days/week but allowing three variances per challenge for outings/meals that are just too much of a wild guess to input.

 

Goal 4) To learn new things, and practice crafts that may not come easy.

Reason:  I want to learn how to progress with things I am not naturally talented with; learning keeps one's mind sharp.

Plan - I will sketch traditionally or digitally 4x per week.

Extra - Branching out to other hobbies will earn extra points toward the quest.

 

Life Goals

Continue budgeting monthly spending trains and tighten up where I can.

Put money into savings for potential house shopping.

Practice less eating out on the weekends; aim for 2 meals out per week max.

Keep up the cooking at the friends house to minimize cost, both financial and caloric, for game nights.

Keep doing the D&D DM thing!    That counts for under goal 4!

 

[starpuck]

Placeholder 2.

Story and Party Mates!

 

@Starpuck - Rogue/Ranger

@Tanktimus the Encourager - Paladin

@Oramac - Edgy Paladin

@Jarric - Sorceror

@Rebel Pilot Gar - Ranger

@Jonesy - Druid

@ParkstheOreo - Bard

The Monster!

The beast that Starpuck must defeat this challenge.    Created and written by @Oramac, inspired by G&S's Critical Role and Matt Mercer's world.

 

Spoiler

 

The beautiful rogue known only as Starpuck made her way out of Whitestone, having spent the last night celebrating the defeat of Vecna at the hands of the famed heroes, Vox Machina.  Word of their triumph has spread like wildfire, and tales of the fight, though undoubtedly embellished, still rung loudly in her mind.

She'd planned to visit the beautiful city of Emon, and headed in that direction, leaving the safety of Whitestone behind and venturing into the wilderness of the Parchwood Timberlands along the Alabaster Trail.  The first couple days of her journey were relatively simple, and she found herself reveling in the beautiful scenery of the Alabaster Sierra's reaching to the sky behind her, and the ranging expanse of the Timberlands before her.

Though alone, she was confident in her abilities to fight off lowly bandits and the ordinary beasts that roamed these areas.  She'd spent the last few years training her body to handle combat, and could handle a dagger almost as well as the famous assassin, Vax'ildan, or so she told herself.  It was only at the beginning of her third day away from Whitestone that she began to worry that things were not right. After several hours, she'd not seen a single animal, from squirrels to deer or even an insect. She had felt rumblings in the ground the night before, but dismissed them as small tremors and nothing to worry about.

Suddenly, as she traveled the empty road towards the Turst Fields, she felt the ground of Tal'dorei shake with a fury she couldn't ignore, and erupting from the ground not more than a mile from her she saw a beast of untold power.  Nearly the size of the castle in Whitestone, and roaring at a decibel that nearly made her ears bleed, she saw the brown and black form of a Terrasque in front of her!  Even as she watched, it turned and began lumbering in her direction. 

She knew the parties in Whitestone had been a raucous affair, and surely the noise of the new gunpowder powered festivities, called Fireworks, if she recalled, had rocked the ground enough to shake the great beast from its slumber. 

Her mind racing, Starpuck wondered what she should do?  She knew that Vox Machina would be able to slay the great beast without breaking a sweat, but she had no way to contact them, or anyone else for that matter.  Besides, they'd just done the impossible and slain a god, and were several hundred miles away. 

She knew she couldn't outrun it, no matter how hard she tried, and obviously talking it down was a laughable idea. She chuckled in spite of herself at that thought.  Coming to her conclusion with a grim determination silenced her laughter quickly.  She would have to fight the great beast.  There was no other option. 

Slinking towards it, she readied herself for battle.  As she readied her attacks, she couldn't resist a smirk as she again thought of Vax'ildan and his signature phrase.  Launching herself towards the monster, she yelled, “DAGGER, DAGGER, DAGGER!”

=======================================

The fight mechanics:

The Terrasque has 10,000 hit points. 

 

Your main 3 lifts are: Bench Press, Squats, Deadlift (don't worry, pull ups are in there too!)

Your prescribed (RX) weight for each lift is:

• Bench: 85 pounds
• Squats: 95 pounds
• Deads: 95 pounds

Each rep at your RX weight deals 1 damage to the Terrasque.  For each 5 pounds you add, you deal that many points of damage per rep.  For example, if you add 5 pounds to your squats (to 100), you deal 5 points of damage per rep.  If you add 10 pounds, you deal 10 damage per rep, and so on.

Pull ups: each COMPLETE pull up deals 15 damage.  Half reps do not count.  Only a complete rep.

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Following for D&D shenanigans and general badassery.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

6 hours ago, Starpuck said:

So I am throwing out my Looking for Group /yell and offering this.  

Well, Paladin, but the gif was too good not to use.

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

7 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Then come to the Rowdy Raven and meet up with a few other young adventurers that want to change the world- starting with themselves!   I will be putting together an adventure to help motivate myself into becoming the hero I so often admire in my games, books, movies, and anime.  

 

Epic challenge Master Puck. Have room for a young ranger (Aragorn-style) in your party?

 

Also? I love your goals and how you formatted them - the what, the why and the how all together. Very inspiring

[starpuck]

6 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Following for D&D shenanigans and general badassery.

Yes!  Great to have you along!!    

 

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Well, Paladin, but the gif was too good not to use.

 

Indeed, that gif could not be passed up.   Val Kilmer-Holiday is the best!!  Mmmmm, yes.   Ahem!    

A paladin you say?   I most definitely need a paladin!

 

45 minutes ago, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

 

Epic challenge Master Puck. Have room for a young ranger (Aragorn-style) in your party?

 

Also? I love your goals and how you formatted them - the what, the why and the how all together. Very inspiring

 

Heeeeck yeah!   Aragon-style Ranger is like top 2 in my book!  Actually, he is the epitome of amazing ranger in my books.    I just also have a love for the rogue/ranger multiclass, lol!    And thanks... I realized that I often lose track of my actual what's and why's so it felt like good timing to reaffirm those!

 

And ... please, please, someone ... give me ... "Your sax!"

 

It's Zero week, day 2 I suppose, and I am only just trying to keep some momentum without worrying too much about alllll the fine details.   I am pretty excited about some of the things I'm cooking up for this challenge.    The timing is so perfect for me.   My vacation starts on Friday the 17th when I head to Florida to visit my dad for the holidays, so I will have 4 weeks of totally decent scheduling to get the habits in place.    Then I can use that week for some more different type activity but also lots of R&R.

 

I am continuing to eat really well for the most part.  

I also went out and got my 3.5 miles in on my lunch break, even though I faced this bit of challenge...

My usual run route is still flooded from the 11" of rain we got in a span of 18 hours on Saturday.   Oi!   

If it was just a bit shallower, I'd have gone through but instead I did a bunch of alternate routes until I finished Week 2, workout 3 of Run Zombies Training App.

 

I then managed to get my chibis inked, so tomorrow, all I have to do is color and shade.   That's leaving kind of a lot of work on the project tomorrow, but chibi's color faster because there's not as much to detail out.    I should have this all done for Thursday and our player's going away evening.   Sadness!   I also had everyone 'sign'  their names ICly, and then copied the signatures onto it for a little personal touch.

 

 

I need to finish laundry and I'd like to play some Witcher yet, so I will save the rest for tomorrow!    

 

 

 

[Oramac]

Got room for another Paladin?  This one a bit more on the ragged edge than most? 

 

 

Also, kill that damn Terrasque!!  You know what I'm talking about!  

[Jarric]

This sounds awesome. Any room for a sorcerer in your party?

[starpuck]

2 hours ago, Oramac said:

Got room for another Paladin?  This one a bit more on the ragged edge than most? 

 

 

Also, kill that damn Terrasque!!  You know what I'm talking about!  

 

2 hours ago, Jarric said:

This sounds awesome. Any room for a sorcerer in your party?

 

 

Yes yes, indeed, join along!    

And hah, @Oramac I am totally picturing you and Tank in the classic anime stare down with each other...

 

 

Alright, so I think I have everything in place for now!   I drew out my new BuJo challenge tracker and I couldn't be more excited about it!   

 

 

• Tracking down the artifact equates to ... tracking my food on MFP!   7 dashes represent each day of the week.  
• Prove your grit is marked with the little mountain symbols.   These represent the days I work to build strength and stick to the program of lifting 3x week!
• Honing my skills means I must maintain my art practice, 4x/week and 4 boxes to be filled out.
• Then there are 30 dots, representing 30 miles.    I looked at my schedule and I will be able to run 2-3x a week for the next 4 weeks, because the hockey schedule shifts to a much quieter month.    Likewise, if I miss a "day" of running for whatever reason, I can still reach the goal by adding in extra miles on off days, or other run days.

 

In addition.   @Oramac has created and written up the most epic boss encounter for me to play along with during this challenge.   He and the rest of the Midwest  Marauders have been encouraging me to stick with a lifting program and lift heavier.   So I've an epic monster to face during this quest, that will be toppled by my consistency and progress with added weights to Bench, Squat and Deadlift.

 

Is it Sunday yet?

(And holy crap... starting on a Sunday is going to be brutal.     But time to hero up and face the challenge.)

[starpuck]

Another good day.   Food on track!   Worked out on my lunch break.   Finished the art project in time to give it to our player who is moving away on Friday.    I even passed up the free pizza that was brought in at lunch.  Wow!

 

Finished chibi D&D party!

[Kestrel Grey]

Wow, this is an amazing challenge layout.  I'm following your four week adventure, good luck!

[Jarric]

Your chibi D&D party are so cute - that's a great present for your friend.

 

Can't wait to see you crush this Terrasque! (also, @Oramac, great story! I got unnecessarily excited reading that.)

[starpuck]

Thursday went well folks.

 

Food on track, run during my lunch break.   

It was a very hectic day at work, so I really only could do work.  (What a novel idea... right?)

No sketching was done, so I am hoping to get something going this afternoon.   Tonight we're playing more Divinity II, so no can do after work.

 

A good D&D night was had, and our friend who is moving away really loved the pic.   So I'm stoked that it turned out well.   

My game night snacking feels in control.  I had this awesome super light popcorn, called Lime Fresco....   4 cups for 140 calories!     I don't think I even had a full four cups, but I did have one of my Wicked Ale's that I sipped most of the night, so just one.    Finally, the sweet tooth craved and I had a single Oreo Dipper snack.   So... yeah.  I feel like that was a good night!

 

The down side of the night is....

My dentist found a teeny tiny cavity.

... ...

Guys... it's my first one EVER.

 

I am so super bummed about this!!!   /sigh

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Are you going to have to do anything with the cavity?

[SkyGirl]

I had probably better not commit to joining your party this month, because I have so much other stuff going on - but darned if I don't want to like crazy!! This is epic and amazing!!

 

I'm SOOO sorry about your cavity - I have never had a cavity either (*knock on wood*) and even the thought is traumatic! So many hugs to you!!

 

[karinajean]

oh Puck! this challenge is so cool! I can't wait to see what happens!

[Kestrel Grey]

5 hours ago, Starpuck said:

The down side of the night is....

My dentist found a teeny tiny cavity.

... ...

Guys... it's my first one EVER.

 

I am so super bummed about this!!!   /sigh

 

That's awful!  I've only had the one, a few years ago, and I remember feeling embarrassingly traumatised over it.  My whole self-identity was slightly shaken.  My tooth care routine now takes 25 minutes every morning (plus 2 minutes in the evening) so I can oil-pull before brushing and flossing.  I hope yours is a little one that goes away!

[starpuck]

20 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Are you going to have to do anything with the cavity?

Yeah, Gotta get a "patch job".   She said it'd be fast and easy.

 

20 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

I had probably better not commit to joining your party this month, because I have so much other stuff going on - but darned if I don't want to like crazy!! This is epic and amazing!!

 

I'm SOOO sorry about your cavity - I have never had a cavity either (*knock on wood*) and even the thought is traumatic! So many hugs to you!!

I think part of it is that I was a little prideful over my perfect teeth, lol.  I mean, I got a lot of other stuff that ain't perfect, so I took great joy in telling all my friends about how my dentist report was spot on!      I suppose a nearly 41 year long streak of no cavities is still pretty epic.

 

20 hours ago, karinajean said:

oh Puck! this challenge is so cool! I can't wait to see what happens!

Wee, I can't wait to see either.    I am going to actually try starting on a Sunday!  That's the hardest day to start, omg!

 

 

17 hours ago, Kestrel Grey said:

That's awful!  I've only had the one, a few years ago, and I remember feeling embarrassingly traumatised over it.  My whole self-identity was slightly shaken.  My tooth care routine now takes 25 minutes every morning (plus 2 minutes in the evening) so I can oil-pull before brushing and flossing.  I hope yours is a little one that goes away!

Omg, you totally get me!   Yes~!    You can bet that my first string of thoughts was ... "why did this happen? what can I do to make it never happen again?"   I'm wondering if it's because I went back to real sugar (albeit measured out to two actual teaspoons per cup) in my morning coffee.    Or if it's that over the past 3-4 years I became a coffee drink at all!   (And heck no I am not giving that up hah!)   

 

 

Friday night went stellar guys!    Home cooked glazed salmon with mashed taters and broccoli, then I went to friends house and had some sea salt popcorn while we gamed.    I was pretty hungry at 9pm, so I stole some of their cereal and skim milk as a snack.   I opted to NOT work out yesterday I was kind of beat from 4 straight days of working out.   But I did take a 10 minute walk with my sister after dinner which was nice.     Also it was 72.  After dinner, at 7pm, in the dark of mid October.   Freaking amazing!

 

Today is eye appt. (after the tooth thing I am bracing for the 'bifocals' Rx, lol) and then cutting the grass, then eating more of that salmon while I work on some game stuff, then hockey up in Evanston at 5:15.   Afterward might watch some anime with my friends and then call it a day and sleeps.

 

Have a good weekend nerds!

 

Oh, I did manage some really crappy ink sketches yesterday just to be able to check off the art box.   I'll try and share them later for laughs!

[Sloth the Enduring]

41? Bifocals? I thought you were a youngling.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[starpuck]

39 minutes ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

41? Bifocals? I thought you were a youngling.
 

 

Good news is!  Eyes are great!  No bifocals needed.    Everything healthy and nothing's changed from my normal sight craziness.   Which is to say, my right eye is + in power, and my left is very - in power, so each eye basically accounts for it's own thing.  (Add in a lazy eye on the left to boot, and astigmatisms.)    Need to read up close?  Right eye on the job.   Need to see mountains in the distance?  Left eye's got it covered.      What that means is ... glasses won't  be great for me.   The brain can't sort out one eye being magnified while the other is being DEmagnified with corrective lenses and it leads to dizziness, headaches and eye strain.   Still, having a pair of back up glasses in case there is ever a reason I CAN'T be in my contacts meant having to pick out some frames...  O M G.   Sooo nervewracking!   Went with these...  sooo cannot get used to seeing glasses on a face!

 

 

And yup!  Youngling indeed!   I like to think of myself as a solid 29-1/2!

[Jonesy]

Loving this theme!

 

If you need a healer, I can be your druid. No idea what that would entail but I'm here hanging out in the trees if you need me. (I've never played D&D, always wanted to but never had the chance.)  

[starpuck]

 

DAY 1 GUYS!!!

 

.oO(Starting on a Sunday?    And the gang games on Sunday night??  Oooh man!)

 

 

[Oramac]

WOOT!  Go Puck!  Idk what I'm supposed to do as the resident Dark Paladin, exactly, but I'm cheering for ya!  (Or being encouragingly asshole-ish, if that's more in-character)

[starpuck]

Starpuck versus the Terrasque - Maths for @Oramac!
 

Spoiler

 

Squats

5 x 95

5 x 100

3 x 5 x 105

 

Bench Press

2 x 5 x 85

3 x 5 x 90

 

Bent Over Row

5 x 50

4 x 5 x 60

 

Pull Ups : 3 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 1

 

 

Food will be on track as I have my calories entered and my dinner and snack plan in place for the rest of the day.

3 cups of Skinny Pop popcorn and 3 Regular Oreos if my sweet tooth kicks in.