Laghail's Wandering Inn

[Laghail]

 

Quote

When one thinks of the most important building in the fantasy world, whether in games or stories, there is one that stands out above all the rest: the inn.

From a place to sleep and recover health to a meeting place for adventurers, the inn is a place of solace, refuge, and respite. Epic quests begin around an inn’s hearth fire, and companions may be met dining upon repast both foul and fair. An inn is safety, or so the weary traveler hopes.

The inn’s signboard was faded and the years had worn the paint long away. But still, she had hope, and she was desperate. So the trespasser mustered what courage she had left and pulled at the door’s simple handle.

Nothing happened. After a few seconds she pushed instead of pulled and the door swung inwards.

The door creaked open and revealed a dark room. To be more accurate, it was the common room where food and drink was served. Normally, the tables would be filled with weary travelers like the intruder herself, but dust covered every surface and no one was present. The inn was clearly long deserted.

“…Of course it’s empty.”

 

It's been a minute, and the world has changed quite a bit in 2020. I'm here and I'm well. 

 

Numbtongue's Language Lessons

I'm in an odd place with linguistics, between covid stealing some of my spoons and me being happy in an unprecedented way, language study fell in my priority list over the last 4 months. This challenge is part of finishing 2020 with a daily German news and duolingo habit. 2021 has me adding French again, and slowly working on my Icelandic vocab, but for now this challenge is about daily success with my old workhorse friend, Deutsch.

 

Grimalkin's Cruel Tutelage 

This project is to set end of year targets for the big four lifts, and hit my mid quarter goals by end of challenge. 

 

Garden of Sanctuary

This project is to track minutes per day spent in sitting practice. For this challenge, I'm only counting minutes spent in seated meditation or prostrate in seid-work; sleepily drifting while I'm in bed at night doesn't count, nor does sneakily counting yoga time. The larger goal is to grow my practice, but I'm not setting target metrics yet, just tracking.

 

Octavia's Workbench

I have a few backlogged orders for mediation beads and percussion instruments I'm behind on. This goal is to log what projects I have outstanding, get them all completed and mailed before holiday shipping craziness locks everything down.

 

Olesm's Chess Journal

I'm playing a few tabletops via video call during covid. A dear friend is running a small forgotten realms 5e heroic tier, and I'm running a Dresden RPG campaign set in milwaukee. Expect to hear nonsense about either campaigns in this section.

[Rurik Harrgath]

Glad (my bullying convinced you) to see see you back, old friend!

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome back!

[Heidi]

3 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

It's been a minute, and the world has changed

Welcome back.

Thanks for the nudge, @Rurik Harrgath!

[Rurik Harrgath]

Just now, Heidi said:

Welcome back.

Thanks for the nudge, @Rurik Harrgath!

 

No thanks necessary, I'm always happy to be of servicing coercing friends and frenemies alike to be their best selves 🤣

 

Lag won't admit it, but he knows this is for his own good. 

[Heidi]

3 hours ago, Laghail said:

duolingo habit

Same, but for Spanish. I still plan to take the Pilgrimage that was cancelled this summer (Paris to St. James). We should be Duolingo friends! Look me up: I'm PhilosophyHeidi

[Laghail]

8 minutes ago, Heidi said:

Same, but for Spanish. I still plan to take the Pilgrimage that was cancelled this summer (Paris to St. James). We should be Duolingo friends! Look me up: I'm PhilosophyHeidi

Added! Also, does your doctorate program have a language requirement?

[KB Girl]

4 hours ago, Laghail said:

This project is to set end of year targets for the big four lifts, and hit my mid quarter goals by end of challenge. 

Hi! Welcome back

what's the fourth? 

[Mike Wazowski]

Hold up. You're back??!? I might actually have to abandon my "just lurk" habits from lately.

[Laghail]

31 minutes ago, KB Girl said:

Hi! Welcome back

what's the fourth? 

Oh just overhead press. Not a competition lift, but one I care about. 

Any favorite accessory lifts for you?

[Laghail]

1 hour ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Hold up. You're back??!? I might actually have to abandon my "just lurk" habits from lately.

Yep; get in loser, we're doing mental health and butt stuff.

[Heidi]

3 hours ago, Laghail said:

does your doctorate program have a language requirement?

It doesn't, but that's not why I'm studying. I used to have a passingly sad Spanish ability, but language for scrambled. Even my Latin is gone! I'm doing Spanish because it's handy here and because I want to walk the Camino.

3 hours ago, Laghail said:

Added!

Yer falling behind. 😉 (Wait, does it track all activities or just same-language?)

[Scaly Freak]

2 hours ago, Laghail said:

Yep; get in loser, we're doing mental health and butt stuff.

 

I'm in. What are we doing for mental health?

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

5 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Hold up. You're back??!? I might actually have to abandon my "just lurk" habits from lately.

[spezzy]

7 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Hold up. You're back??!? I might actually have to abandon my "just lurk" habits from lately.

 

12 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

 

It's been a minute, and the world has changed quite a bit in 2020. I'm here and I'm well. 

 

 

 

Ahhhh yes, I see how it is. Just wait for spezzy to go to the rangers, and THEN come back. 😂😂😂

JK I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU

 

Mike you can come back, too, pls 😬 

[Mr_Willes]

Wait

 

...

...

...

 

 i knew a Laghail once...

 

 

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Laghail said:

Yep; get in loser, we're doing mental health and butt stuff.

 

 

You did that for me didn't you...

 

 

 

[KB Girl]

11 hours ago, Laghail said:

Oh just overhead press. Not a competition lift, but one I care about. 

Any favorite accessory lifts for you?

I should have guessed  

Ehm, I’ve been enjoying bulgarian split squats lately. But feel absolutely no urge to add weight there 😂 

[WhiteGhost]

OHAI!  Nice to see you around again

[Laghail]

16 hours ago, Heidi said:

Yer falling behind. 😉 (Wait, does it track all activities or just same-language?)

All languages, I was up late and I got some xp logged 😛 

[Laghail]

6 hours ago, KB Girl said:

I should have guessed  

Ehm, I’ve been enjoying bulgarian split squats lately. But feel absolutely no urge to add weight there 😂 

Every day we stray farther from god hahaha

[spezzy]

6 hours ago, KB Girl said:

I should have guessed  

Ehm, I’ve been enjoying bulgarian split squats lately. But feel absolutely no urge to add weight there 😂 

 

BSS are the one movement I cuss myself out for programming for myself every. Single. Time I see them.

 

And then I program them for myself again because they are the best 😂

[Laghail]

11 hours ago, spezzy said:

Ahhhh yes, I see how it is. Just wait for spezzy to go to the rangers, and THEN come back. 😂😂😂

JK I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU

 

Aaaaalmost like we all should be in one mega guild or something?? *innocent whistling 

[Big_Show]

Hi there!

 

I'm also currently working on a Duolingo habit.  Trying to learn Spanish, then want to go back to my German again once I hit a point where I won't start confusing the vocab.  Those are the two countries where I'll want to visit again once all this *gestures wildly at the world* calms down again.

[Laghail]

 

Numbtongue's Language Lessons Streaking with Saliss

1 day streak

 

Grimalkin's Cruel Tutelage 

Quote

The world was changing. In small and large ways, unknowingly, the world Erin had found herself in was altering itself to mirror Earth. Some of it was intentional, by design of the strangers who found themselves in another world and tried to bring what they knew into this place. But other events were incidental. They occurred because it was a natural evolution.

Like weights. Pallass’ prisons were as yet devoid of sets of weights and the world in general lacked gyms. But in Pallass, at the very moment Erin came face-to-face with Drake nudity, the first weight bar was being lifted by a grunting Gnoll.

Some things were universal. A bar of steel, lead weights on each end. Rounded, naturally, and balanced on either side. Heavy lead weights. It had to be at least three hundred pounds of weight including the bar, and the Gnoll pumping the weight was unused to the exercise.

Her arms strained as she tried to do a bench press. For a second it looked like her arms might give out as she halted halfway, but a roaring voice shouted a few feet above her.

“Lift! Don’t you dare let that bar sink, Ferkr! Lift! Two more times! Push your limits!”

The struggling female Gnoll growled and the bar moved up. Slowly. So slowly. Grimalkin stood over her, bellowing encouragement.

“Don’t let it slide! Balance! That’s right! Up! Up!”

The arms moved—from the force of Grimalkin’s bellowing as much as sheer willpower. The bar rose—and it was up! But there was no place to lock the bar. The Gnoll panted.

“Master Grimalkin—”

“Two more times! That’s right! Down! Slowly—”

The Gnoll gasped as the bar lowered. She was fighting to keep it steady. Because—another thing yet missing from weight training—there was no locking nut on this bar. If Ferkr’s arms let the bar go left or right, the weights would just slide off.

Oh, and there was no spotter. As the bar lowered to her chest, Ferkr groaned. Grimalkin was still shouting.

“Inhale! And exhale as you push! That’s right! Up! One last time! Push!”

“I can’t—”

“No one will help you on the battlefield or when a spell fails! There is only you! Push! Now—”

One last rep. Ferkr growled, then she howled as the bar lowered—and then rose. It wobbled as it came up and Ferkr’s arms lost their strength. The bar twisted—the weights began to slide and Ferkr’s eyes went wide.

“Good!”

Grimalkin grabbed the bar. Without apparent effort, he lifted the bar up and caught the weights with one claw. He lowered the bar in a perfect squat, and then rose as Ferkr lay on the bench, panting.

“Look at that! Testicles!”

Made a covid DL pr yesterday at 475. 505 is doable by end of year to match lifetime PR DL #.

Made 1x3 315 bench today. I need a 1x5 at that number and I think 365 1x1 for a lifetime PR is doable to close the year.

Made a clean rep on OHP at 185. I don't think 225 1x1 is doable by EOY but imma set my cap for that number anyway. Likely a bunch of push press and negatives over the next few weeks at 225 while I get a clean rep of 195 and 205.

 

Octavia's Workbench

Aight, projects pending are:

54 bead mala - one of my own daily pieces, I used waxed cotton with 8mm beads and a lovely 24mm guru bead. Dumb. I'll restring with elastic to compound the bad idea, and that will eventually bug me and I'll complain here before I restring it with wire, like god intended. No knotting involved, so its nbd.

27 bead mala- 6mm Larvikite with two pyrite 4mm spacers breaking them into 9 bead stretches, with a 9mm pyrite coin as the guru. I need to dremel some characters on the pyrite coin and that's been my holdup.

27 bead mala - see above but garnet instead of larvikite

27 bead mala- rose quartz and obsidian with hematite rondel trios in two spots, and then 9 rondels for the guru bead. This one might be too large for a more narrow cis man's wrist, so the hematite might get scaled back.

Re-string 108 bead mala - A lodolite and obsidian piece with a brown agate guru bead shaped like a blunt claw, I need to swap out the narrow diameter claw pendant for a wider green quartz nugget. I used waxed cotton again and the narrow pendants tend to cause the surrounding knotting to stretch and that bugs me. If I'm careful, I should be able to splice and glue in the new guru bead without restringing the whole thing. Someone remind me to work with nylon string more.

108 bead mala -Sigh, this one is way overdue. I need to knot 6mm sodalite, charoite, and howlite, with a sodalite teardrop for the guru bead. Going for an upper chakra color scheme and all three stones have a complementary opacity and black veined surface. I think I have enough material to make two and save the extra for a Christmas gift, but this is top priority. Naturally, I plan to start it this weekend, at the soonest. #PlannedADHD

Stav and Tein - this is a today project. I think 9 bells (bc auspicious) interspaced with rosewood and olivewood beads, which I'll hang on the stave by setting hooks near the top and draping the thing in a cluster. I have a strand of lacquered brazil nuts I might work into the piece for a clattering to accompany the jangling bells, but I don't want the sound to get too cluttered. The stav is a driftwood piece with cool worm eaten tracings, and the hippy friend that's getting the piece is pretty excited. 

 

Garden of Sanctuary

Quote

She was lost. She remembered, vividly, the moments before Lyonette had opened the door. She had looked around, seen the open window, the table, the door, and—

The other door.

It had been strange. Faded wood and iron, and a brass handle, set into one wall. It had been different from the other ones in the inn. And it hadn’t belonged in the guestroom. It should have connected to the roof, so Mrsha had flung it open. But when she’d rushed through—

The door was gone. Mrsha stared about. She was standing in grass. But shadowed. Tall plants grew behind Mrsha, twisting vines, covering a…wall of sorts behind her.

The Gnoll sniffed the air. She inhaled the scent of nature, strong. Wild. No smells of fire or metal. Just—plants. The grass was interspersed with tiny flowers. And the…place she was in was shadowed. Partly. Darkness obscured the area to Mrsha’s left and right.

But there was sunshine ahead. It poured down, and Mrsha saw more plants. Wild grass where she sat. She wriggled her toes.

But where was she? She only knew she’d been afraid, and the door had been here. Slowly, the Gnoll padded forwards. The first to step into a magical room, one that whispered in the faint breeze, where plants grew. A safe place.

The [Garden of Sanctuary].

Yesterday was 15 mins with some singing bowls, but no afternoon sitting time. Anytime I split gym trips with Mr. Laghail so someone can be with the three month old pup, like today and yesterday, I end up sacrificing my afternoon sitting time to get home sooner. 

Doing some mound sitting after work at one of my favorite places in the city. 1,000+ year old grave mounds a few blocks from my house, and some mound preservation geeks are coming with to nerd out over the coolness of it all. Dis gunna be good.

 

Olesm's Chess Journal

Thursday the players and I are looking at a google map of Milwaukee and layering on our consensus opinion on supernatural turf wars in the area, on where the redlight district is located, and what the major power groups are that they want to interact with. Char creations to follow, I'll let y'all know what they come up with. 

The only pieces that I know for sure are the Milwaukee PD is going to have lycanthropy as common thing in the department. #ACAB

[Laghail]

1 hour ago, Big_Show said:

Those are the two countries where I'll want to visit again once all this *gestures wildly at the world* calms down again.

Mood.

 

1 hour ago, Big_Show said:

I'm also currently working on a Duolingo habit.

Whats your handle on duolingo?