Jarric - The Muscle Wizard Keeps Fighting

[Jarric]

The muscle wizard keeps fighting

 

This challenge I'll be taking part in a group challenge with @Starpuck, @Raxie, and @DarK_RaideR. You can find out more about that here: Welcome to the Underdark - 2020 December / Holiday Challenge (Dec 6 to Dec 26) - Nerd Fitness Rebellion

 

I'll be returning to the character I ran last time, Guglug the muscle wizard. Guglug is the half-orc bouncer at the Fiery Grog tavern, but he's left his job working the door to seek out a more adventurous life. Far from an average half-orc, Guglug works the door shift at the roughest bar in Port Meranda in order to pay for his tuition as a wizard. 

 

 

 

 

This challenge sees the party facing a group of grimlocks, and each of my goals will either allow me to deal damage to these dangerous foes, or to protect myself from injury. FYI, this is a grimlock:

 

 

So, without further ado (I like a little ado, but enough ado is enough), my goals are:

 

Attacks:

Greataxe - 10XP

Guglug hits a thing with his greataxe (he is a muscle wizard after all). For this goal I need to complete my workouts 7 days per week. I will deal 1 damage per workout after the first 2 (I deal no damage if I only do 2 or less workouts), plus a bonus point if all workouts are as prescribed, for a maximum of 6 damage per week.

 

I've currently paused my gym membership until after I move house, to save a bit of money and because I can't be certain if it will be allowed to open or not at any given time. That makes it vital that I stay disciplined in my home workouts. I've added the bonus point for doing all workouts as prescribed, as I've got into a bad habit of waking up late and cutting sessions short as a result.

 

 

Catapult - 10XP

Guglug magically flings an unattended object in the direction of an enemy, likely in a comedic fashion. For this goal I will need to make sure I have my protein shakes 7 days per week. If I hit 7 days I'll deal 5 damage, 6 days will deal 3 damage, or 5 days will deal 1 damage.

 

In previous challenges I've had a proper protein tracking goal or a calorie counting goal. This time I want to keep it simple, and I'm not too worried about letting loose a bit for Christmas. Last challenge I discovered that my protein shakes make up a huge proportion of my total protein intake, and that it's almost impossible to hit my protein goals without them, so that's where I'm focussing my energy.

 

 

Thunderwave - 5XP

A wave of thunderous force sweeps out from Guglug, hurting foes and blasting them backwards. For this goal I need to create something 3 times per week. It could be doing some drawing, or writing homebrew D&D content, or what ever I feel like. I'll deal 1 damage for the first creative session, 3 damage if I get 2 sessions, or 5 damage if I hit all 3.

 

The creative stuff really helps me to unwind, particularly after a stressful day. In previous challenges it's just been drawing, but I don't see that it's necessary to pigeonhole myself like that, anything creative should be a good thing.

 

 

Green flame blade - 5XP

Guglug's greataxe is magically enveloped in green flames, which leap from his target to an adjacent enemy. For this goal I need to brush my teeth twice per day, every day, and use the electric brush and clean between them in the evenings. I'll deal 1 damage for each day after the first 3 (3 days or less and I deal no damage), for a maximum of 4 damage.

 

This is something that I do easily when I'm feeling good, and if I'm feeling stressed or anxious it slips. So keeping on the straight an narrow here might be good for my mental health. If not, it'll definitely be good for my teeth!

 

Defence:

Guglug has 9hp, and as a half-orc also has relentless endurance. Guglug can use the following abilities to avoid damage:

 

 

Absorb elements - 10XP

Guglug's spell captures some of the energy of an elemental attack against him, which he can use to empower his next attack. For this goal I need to complete 3 foam rolling sessions each week. I'll take 1 damage for every session missed.

 

This is something that seems to really help with my dodgy hip, and with general aches and pains. It would help a lot more if I was more consistent with it, hence the goal.

 

 

Dodge - 5XP

Guglug dodges the enemy's attack. For this goal I will also need to keep on the protein shakes. For every day below 5 that I have protein shakes I will take 1 damage (1 damage at 4 days, 2 damage at 3 days, and so on).

 

If my catapult goal is the carrot for protein intake, this is the stick.

 

 

General stuff

I'm currently in the process of buying a new house, which is slightly stressful but so far has gone pretty smoothly - I'm hoping we'll be moving in January if all goes well. In the meantime I still want to make progress with my fitness, in the hope that obstacle course races will be on next year. In theory my first race is in February, so really there's no time to spare.

 

My workout plan consists of 4 runs per week and 5 home workouts. Tuesday and Thursday are short workouts after my runs, with full workouts Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

 

You can also expect this challenge to be scattered with D&D talk, updates from the campaigns I play in and the one I run, and quite a lot of general rambling.

[Jarric]

Week Zero update

I've had the week off work this week, so it's felt like a proper week zero!

 

Monday I worked out first thing - upper body pull workout. We then had a 2 hour conversation with the bank about getting a mortgage for the new house, which all seemed to go very well. They still need to survey, but other than that there should hopefully be no issues. I honestly can't remember what I did with the rest of the day. I think we cleaned the kitchen?  In the evening I cooked roast chicken for dinner, and we chilled in front of the TV.

 

Tuesday I ran first thing, followed by a short pullup workout and some handstand practice. We may have cleaned the bathroom, and I may have done some D&D prep? I know I did some studying at some point. In the evening we played D&D, and having killed some horrible undead things in our Rise of the Runelords campaign we finally levelled up to level 15! We must be near the end of this campaign now, which is kind of sad, but given our group's propensity for dropping the plot and fucking off onto another plane for several sessions who knows when we'll actually finish it!

 

Wednesday I got up late, and did my workout after breakfast for a change. This was a leg workout - I've just started playing with rollup pistol squats (starting lying on my back and rolling up into them), and I'm really enjoying them. I need to get them looking a bit less messy though! Another day of D&D prep I think? My memory of this week is obviously a bit shaky!

 

Thursday I did nothing all day. We really just sat on the sofa all day watching Acquisitions Incorporated: The C Team; it was glorious! Late afternoon I went bouldering for the first time in over a month (gyms have just re-opened here after a 'fire-break' lockdown). It was amazing to climb again, but more than that it was amazing to see Hopalong, MG and their son, who I've barely spoken to for the past month. In the evening we played D&D, our Mummy's Mask game:

 

Spoiler

We're trying to get into a temple shaped like a giant sphinx, which is being guarded by cultists who want to bring about some kind of world-ending resurrection of an ancient pharaoh. The cultists have hired some girtablilu (giant scorpion people) to help them guard this sphinx. We decided to talk to the girtablilu, and see if we could sneak in without alerting the cultists. Somehow my bloodrager, Urah, ended up doing most of the talking. Diplomacy isn't really his thing, but thanks to some lucky rolls and good logic we managed to convince the scorpion folk that we were honourable folk, and they agreed to stand down.

 

We approached the font of the sphinx, in which were a pair of massive doors. There were some obviously magic buttons on the doors, so clearly this was a puzzle we needed to solve. Our most perceptive members of the party inspected the door though, and they couldn't find any traps, so we decided to give the door a go. We had everyone stand back and Urah try to push the door open. As he pushed it, the head of the sphinx cracked and fell towards us, a massive boulder certain to crush us all to death.

 

Jemima, our warpriest, and Aimon, our alchemist, passed their will saves to realise that this was actually an illusion. Woody, our barbarian, and Urah, passed their fortitude saves to survive being crushed by the illusory head. Safia, our sorcerer, and Tarn, our brawler, failed their saves and died of fright.

 

This lead to a very meta conversation about whether this was time sensitive, and whether we should continue on or head back to a city to get our companions reincarnated. After a lot of discussion we found a way to teleport back, and the rest of the game turned into an admin episode where we worked out what we we going to sell to pay for reincarnations, and the dead players found out what species they would be reincarnated as (the rest of us don't know yet). It was a bit anticlimatic really, but we're high enough level now that death is more of an inconvenience than the end.

 

Friday I got up early and did a workout - upper body push. My handstand pushups seem to have taken a step backwards since last lockdown, so they need a bit of focus. In the day I think I did some D&D prep? In the evening we watched a D&D stream of UK comedians playing for comic relief, which was bloody brilliant and utterly bizarre. I thoroughly recommend watching it, and apparently it's already on YouTube: Comic Relief Plays D&D Episode 2 - YouTube

 

Today I'm having a hangover from the beer I drank last night watching that stream, doing some more D&D prep, and catching up round here!

[starpuck]

Here to follow.  I seriously get so inspired by your challenge and updates.     You do so well doing the things you say you are going to do.  I need a dose of that for myself lol.

[iatetheyeti]

Following along, of course

 

Looking forward to see how Guglug fares! And I hope things continue to go smoothly for you in regards to the move, it's a stressful enough business without any issues.

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

On 12/4/2020 at 9:32 AM, Jarric said:

this is a grimlock:

THIS is a Grimlock!

 

Otherwise, this challenge looks great. Following along!

[Rhovaniel]

Posted in the other thread you put up but this one seems to be your main one so I'll stalk  follow ya here, too! 

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

(I sincerely hope you are not actually out of milk, because otherwise that would be creepy.)  

 

 

[Jarric]

On 12/5/2020 at 4:58 PM, Starpuck said:

Here to follow.  I seriously get so inspired by your challenge and updates.     You do so well doing the things you say you are going to do.  I need a dose of that for myself lol.

 

Thank you! I'll try and share it with you if I can.

 

On 12/5/2020 at 5:28 PM, iatetheyeti said:

Following along, of course

 

Looking forward to see how Guglug fares! And I hope things continue to go smoothly for you in regards to the move, it's a stressful enough business without any issues.

 

 

Thanks! Yeah, we're trying to do it in the most stress-free way possible, just need to hope for a bit of luck.

 

On 12/6/2020 at 5:10 AM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

THIS is a Grimlock!

 

Otherwise, this challenge looks great. Following along!

 

I will defer to your superior 80s knowledge, sir.

 

On 12/6/2020 at 2:10 PM, Rhovaniel said:

Posted in the other thread you put up but this one seems to be your main one so I'll stalk  follow ya here, too! 

 

  Hide contents

 

  Hide contents

(I sincerely hope you are not actually out of milk, because otherwise that would be creepy.)  

 

 

 

Thankfully I have milk.

 

Yeah, I've stuck the accountabilibuddies thread here as well as there isn't a separate section this time round. It's probably better this way - people might actually see the other thread!

[Jarric]

Yesterday was a good day. I went bouldering in the morning - it was great to see Hopalong and MG, and to feel like life was more normal than it has been. When I got back I cooked brunch, and watched High Rollers. I did some life admin stuff, then got out for a 6 mile run.

 

That used up all of my mental energy for the day. I spent the rest of the evening playing mindless games on my phone and avoiding all productivity.

 

Challenge proper starts today, but that's a story for tomorrow!

[RhiaWolfe]

This is awesome. Love the D&D structured challenge you're doing! Here to support you all the way! 

[deftona]

WELL HELLO THERE YOUNG MAN! 

[Jarric]

19 hours ago, RhiaWolfe said:

This is awesome. Love the D&D structured challenge you're doing! Here to support you all the way! 

 

Thank you! Always good to have you here

 

14 hours ago, deftona said:

WELL HELLO THERE YOUNG MAN! 

 

WHY HELLO *eyebrows*

[Jarric]

Monday was a good day. I did a workout first thing - a circuit of weighted pullups (+23#/11kg), single leg elevated ring rows, and half bridges, followed by hangboarding, crow pose practice, and stretching. The hangboarding was dreadful after climbing on Sunday, which is to be expected. I also very nearly fell on my face doing crow pose

 

Work was insanely busy. I almost wish I hadn't taken last week off - I came in to 190 e-mails and I'm now an extra week behind on all of my deadlines. Work will be mental now until at least the new year I think.

 

I finished work about 7pm, then cooked a lazy dinner of gammon, egg, chips and beans. I stayed up late trying to catch up on here before the start of this challenge.

 

Teeth were done, protein shake was had, no progress on drawing or rolling.

 

Tuesday was a good day. I got up a bit late, so had to skip some of my workout, but I still got in my 4 mile run and some handstand practice.

 

Work was really busy. I was in the office for a change though and it was nice to see everyone at least. I also found out that I've won an award, which will be officially announced at our virtual Christmas party. I found out because my managing director had to drive me home, so that he could film himself 'surprising' me with the award at my front door. All very silly and I'm sure that my acting surprised was terrible

 

In the evening WW cooked a lovely fish dish and we played Pathfinder. We fought an insanely powerful statue (this thing had something like +43 on his rolls to hit, and the best armour class in the party's only about 33, so he almost couldn't miss), who attacks also caused us to start to turn to stone. Luckily we were able to destroy the thing by sheer strength of numbers.

 

From there we went into a horribly polluted part of the dungeon, where we fought some filth daemon things and tried to stay out of the water. Then we found some levers that we couldn't resist pulling, and finished the session having just summoned an ancient water elemental which will no doubt try to kill us.

 

Teeth were done, protein shake was had, no progress on drawing or rolling.

[RhiaWolfe]

I know that feels with work. I took the week of Thanksgiving off and came back to a ton of work waiting for me. It was worth it for me though, I really needed that time off. My stress levels were crazy! 

 

Man, that sounds like quite a battle with the "statue thing". Intense. Good luck with that water elemental!

[deftona]

Yay for an award! Well done   I'd really love to see this video too but ya know... no pressure. 

 

[starpuck]

Nice week so far.   Your adventures in gaming are always so cool sounding.   I feel like my own experiences are dull compared to yours.   Course, I haven't shared much recently... Hmm.

 

Do you know what the 'award' is?  Or did you have to act surprised for a non-known prize?

 

[Rhovaniel]

6 hours ago, Jarric said:

I found out because my managing director had to drive me home, so that he could film himself 'surprising' me with the award at my front door. All very silly and I'm sure that my acting surprised was terrible

You have no idea how much I wish I could see this video! .

 

Congratulations on the award!!

[Jarric]

23 hours ago, RhiaWolfe said:

I know that feels with work. I took the week of Thanksgiving off and came back to a ton of work waiting for me. It was worth it for me though, I really needed that time off. My stress levels were crazy! 

 

Man, that sounds like quite a battle with the "statue thing". Intense. Good luck with that water elemental!

 

Yeah, I think it was probably worth it for me too, though my opinion on that changes based on how busy a given day is!

 

Yeah, it was really tough! For the elemental, ironically our kineticist decided to battle his 'large' fire elemental against the witch's 'elder' greater elemental after the statue fight, as they both had a few sounds of summoning left. The elder elemental smashed the fire elemental in about 2 rounds, and the elder only took 2 points of damage.

 

At the end of the session when the water elemental appeared, we asked the GM if it was large, greater, or elder. Apparently it's an elder, so we really will need that luck!

 

19 hours ago, deftona said:

Yay for an award! Well done   I'd really love to see this video too but ya know... no pressure. 

 

 

Thank you! Will see if I can get a copy of the video after it's been announced (no promises though).

 

18 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Nice week so far.   Your adventures in gaming are always so cool sounding.   I feel like my own experiences are dull compared to yours.   Course, I haven't shared much recently... Hmm.

 

Do you know what the 'award' is?  Or did you have to act surprised for a non-known prize?

 

 

Thank you! Of course, I didn't include the half hour of levelling up maths at the start of the session 😛 Your game experiences always sound cool to me, you should share them more.

 

Yeah, it's something like "best performance in a technical role". I knew I'd been nominated, but it's voted for by all of the employees so I'm very chuffed to have actually won.

 

17 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

You have no idea how much I wish I could see this video! .

 

Congratulations on the award!!

 

I'll see what I can do And thank you!

 

[Jarric]

Yesterday was a good day. I got up and worked out - a circuit of rollup pistol squats, toes to bar, and arm and leg elevated side planks. My hip was feeling crappy so I only did 2.5 rounds of the circuit mixed with lots of stretching. I followed that with 3 sets of 10 each side handstand palm raises, and some split stretches.

 

Work was mad, and I stayed as late as I could before the last person with keys to the office had to leave.

 

In the evening I cooked a smoked fish and gnocchi gratin from a recipe box we get - it was very easy and bloody lovely. We also did a little bit of house stuff - putting away and hanging out washing, that kind of stuff.

 

After dinner we caught up on a bit of Questing Time, and I did some drawing on a thing I'm working on. I should have done some foam rolling, but by the time I thought of it it was almost bedtime and I couldn't be bothered.

 

Protein shake and teeth were done.

[Maigs]

I'm doing a terrible job of keeping up with people, but I'm here! And congrats on the award! Even if it was awkward  

[JuiceeTarget]

18 hours ago, Jarric said:

Protein shake and teeth were done.

Hmmm, I'll have to try brushing my teeth with protein shake now

[DarK_RaideR]

Ah, so this is your personal challenge thread. I seem to have stumbled upon the common one first.

 

Between lockdown, mad work, purchasing a house and moving, runs, home workouts and a bunch of RPGs you really have a lot on your plate! It's impressive, but please make sure to pace yourself and factor in some recovery so you don't suffer from burnout, yes?

[starpuck]

Yeah he's like, at Raxie level's of busy. 

Super nuts!   But he's doing really well so far.

 

[Jarric]

On 12/11/2020 at 3:27 PM, Maigs said:

I'm doing a terrible job of keeping up with people, but I'm here! And congrats on the award! Even if it was awkward  

 

That's alright, I'm doing a terrible job keeping up with my own challenge, let along others!

 

And thank you! It could have been worse; one of my colleagues wasn't dressed when a director turned up to delivery his award!

 

On 12/11/2020 at 5:24 PM, GoodDoug said:

Hmmm, I'll have to try brushing my teeth with protein shake now

 

It's efficient, but I can't recommend the flavour.

 

On 12/13/2020 at 8:49 AM, DarK_RaideR said:

Ah, so this is your personal challenge thread. I seem to have stumbled upon the common one first.

 

Between lockdown, mad work, purchasing a house and moving, runs, home workouts and a bunch of RPGs you really have a lot on your plate! It's impressive, but please make sure to pace yourself and factor in some recovery so you don't suffer from burnout, yes?

 

Thanks man, you make a good point. I'm pretty good at regulating the workouts to avoid going overboard, not entirely sure how to do it with work, house move etc.

 

14 hours ago, Starpuck said:

Yeah he's like, at Raxie level's of busy. 

Super nuts!   But he's doing really well so far.

 

 

No-one in the world is that busy 😛 . Anyway, I don't think I could ever be busier than you!

[Jarric]

I had a good end to week 1 (socially anyway, not so much goal wise!).

 

Friday night was our work virtual Christmas party. It started at 3pm, and we had videos from all the teams, awards (including the one I won), a very naff game of bingo which we all got to laugh at, and then time to chat and drink afterwards. Having started drinking a 3pm, I signed off at 3am after a bottle of red wine and two-thirds of a bottle of Jack Daniels. Almost felt like a proper Christmas party

 

After the party I stayed up for an unspecified amount of time, so I probably got about 4 hours sleep? I was also probably still drunk when I woke up, but I managed to have breakfast and make it round Tesco with WW. After lunch I just crashed, to the point where I could barely sit and watch TV. I even went for a nap mid-afternoon to get me through the day. In the evening I cooked some very over the top Christmas burgers and did my best to survive until bedtime.

 

On Sunday I was still hungover, but less so. I went bouldering first thing, and put in a reasonably good session despite not feeling 100%.

 

In the afternoon I ran our Ranger D&D game. After 28 sessions the party finally got to face their first dragon. Being a green dragon, he's a consummate liar, and weaved a tale of hardship at the hands of his sister in order to gather the party together in the centre of the room. Once he had them where he wanted them he unleashed his poison breath, straight up killing the Tilean the wizard ( @jonfirestar ) in one shot and dropping the Osric warlock ( @Rhovaniel)  unconscious. Thankfully the party's goblin monk Dragtald ( @Mr_Willes) was able to pull off a very unlikely stunning strike, and once the dragon was stunned all that was left was for the party to hit it with everything they had until Dragtald could surf it down the tower to the others.

 

WW's sorcerer Pheelie was then able to activate a scroll of revivify to bring Tilean back from well past the brink, so in the end I didn't get to murder any of them!

 

Attacks for week 1:

Greataxe (workouts): 6/7 days = 4 damage dealt, thanks to missing a workout the day after the Christmas party

Catapult (protein): 5/7 days = 1 damage dealt - totally failed this on the weekend

Thunderwave (create): 2/3 sessions = 3 damage dealt - just missed out over the weekend again

Green flame blade (teeth): 4/7 days = 1 damage dealt

 

Defence for week 1: 

Absorb elements (foam rolling): 0/3 = 3 damage taken - totally messed this up, must do better

Dodge (protein): 5/7 = 0 damage taken

[jonfirestar]

20 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Once he had them where he wanted them he unleashed his poison breath, straight up killing the Tilean the wizard ( @jonfirestar )

Tilean is never going to follow the party into an obvious trap again! She was frustrated like hell with how everyone just insisted that they were going to wander into it. But she got caught in the end too. She should have trusted her instincts and bolted