I’m looking forward to it! Last time it was a cake, which was delightful but also meant I had cake alllllll week. A fancy drink seems more instantaneous. 

Ok, let's give this a shot. And if it turns out to be eating vegetables instead, that's probably not a bad thing!   A brown haired ranger in simple leather armor and a gray cloak walks into the inn, a large pack and longbow strapped to her back and a pair of shortswords at her sides. She asks Avolen for a bowl of stew as she studies the notice board. "I have some experience with plants and nowhere in particular to be right now. I could help with gathering some herbs."

The Veridian Forest - Ranger Level 1 Hal paused at the edge of the Veridian Forest. If the rumors she’d heard in the nearby town of Kelton Junction were true, something had caused an infestation of Needle Blights to take up residence deep in the wood.  The townsfolk wouldn’t trust a wandering ranger, of course. They’d barely tolerated her presence in the tavern last night. But something had to be done about the Blights. If they weren’t dealt with, the infestation would spread and attract other dangerous creatures. With a sigh, Hal shouldered her pack and stepped into forest.   Welcome everyone! I’m Ranger Hal. Normally I would say that I hike, snowshoe, scramble, climb, and do search and rescue, but aside from the occasional hike and SAR, I haven't been doing much of that for most of a year and I'm still working on how to get myself in good enough shape to feel comfortable joining more of those activities again, especially the ones that require being able to hike uphill at a decent pace, because I feel pretty slow right now (slow being relative, but a lot of climbers tend to be fast hikers).   My current nerdy thing is Critical Role (as in, I pretty much quit watching all other TV shows shortly after discovering it last year). I'm at about Campaign 2, Episode 108. Also, anything by Brandon Sanderson.   I don't have much actual RPG experience (only a couple of short one-shots at comic con), but thanks to @Artemis Prime's awesome recent challenges (which I've borrowed from extensively), I've decided to try a DnD challenge!   Starting Out I'm starting as a Level 1 Human Ranger. My favored enemy is Plants (due to the blackberries currently trying to swallow one corner of my house) and my favored terrain is the Forest. I have leather armor, two short swords, an explorer's pack, and a longbow. I decided to roll for stats and they are Strength 12, Dexterity 17, Constitution 13, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 17, Charisma 11 (filling out a character sheet from scratch by yourself is kind of confusing, y'all, but I think I made something that should work). My AC is 14 and I have 11 hit points.   Combat Combat consists of workouts. I get 10 xp per workout and get to attack an enemy. If I skip a workout, the enemy gets to attack me. If I skip a workout due to SAR and do some exercise, it counts as a workout. If I skip a workout due to SAR and don't get any exercise, the enemy gets to attack, but I get to dodge. I plan to do 3-4 workouts per week. Maybe I'll look at my schedule at the beginning of the week and determine which days get workouts. If it's a gym cardio workout, I get a ranged attack. For a pack workout (hiking, stairs, step-ups), I get a melee attack. If the pack workout is an hour or more, I can do a two-weapon attack (using my bonus action, see I'm learning DnD stuff!). In my favored terrain (forest), i.e. hiking, I get an extra 5 xp per workout.   Exploration I get 1 xp for each mile I walk outdoors (so gym cardio doesn't count). If the distance is part of a workout, this is in addition to the workout xp. In my favored terrain (forest), I get 2 xp per mile.   For each bouldering session I do, I get 3 xp and for each new V3 or higher route that I complete (or V2 that I've really struggled with), I get another 2 xp.   Also, as Plants are my favored enemy, I get 10 xp if I remove some of the blackberries around my house.   Social Encounters Because I've been feeling out of shape and unable to keep up, I've been a lot less social in my outdoor (for fun) activities, so I get 20 xp per outing I plan or go on with other people.   Long Rest Long rests occur at the end of every week, so on Monday morning my hit points reset to full. If I die during the week, I regenerate on Monday morning, but earn no experience points for the week in which I died.   Short Rest I will have taken a short rest and can roll hit dice if I have done candles for morning and evening prayers and brushed my teeth. (Yes, I know, I technically only have one hit die right now to use between long rests, but I'm going to allow myself to roll it every day if necessary if it gets me to do candles and brush teeth.)   Enemies As implied in the story, I'm fighting Needle Blights. I thought it would be nice to start out with one of my favored enemies. There don't seem to be too many options for plants, so maybe in future challenges I'll go for some other types of creatures, but this seemed like a nice 1/4 CR enemy to start with. I get 50 xp for each one I kill (this seems like a lot at Level 1, but maybe it will work out better at higher levels). They have an AC of 12 and I think I'll give them the max hit points instead of average, so that's 18 hit points. Their attacks will depend on which type of workout I missed.   Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit,  2d4+1 piercing damage Needles. Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, 2d6+1 piercing damage   Finishing Notes and XP Cap I will level up at the end of the challenge if I have gained more than 300 xp. I don't think I've really balanced my challenge and expect that I have too much possible xp for the lower levels, so I'm putting a weekly cap of 100 xp so that I can't entirely bypass Level 2 (and I also don't want to deal with leveling up in the middle of a challenge). I will still tally up the total xp for the week because I want to see how much I'm getting, but I will only carry 100 xp over to the next week.   Well, here goes!

Just posted!    

I was sorely tempted by all the villainy going around this challenge, but in the end, something simpler was calling my name. This month all signs are pointing to mindfulness and who am I to ignore the signs?   I'm playing around with the idea of rituals instead of habit stacking - that lacing the mundane with intention and a little enjoyment will go a long way toward making these behaviors permanent. Plus it's spooky season, I just rewatched Practical Magic, and after all - There's a little witch in all of us.    Most of these goals are, well, practical. Several of them are the same things I've been doing all year. (If it works, why change it?)   But my overarching goal this challenge is to spend more time in the moment, to bring a little wonder and life to old habits.   Mindful. But make it Magic.     🍵 Drink 8+ cups of water. 🔮 Stretch at least 5 minutes, meditate for 2 minutes. 🍄 Plan food intake and stay under calorie budget. 🍃 Walk 6500 minimum steps daily, and 70k steps weekly.  🪄  Find one thing each day to make any routine more enjoyable.

It’s definitely time consuming. The stress is sneaky. Like it shouldn’t be stressful now but I feel it.      I’m not quite ready to be done with summer but I’m ready for cozy! 

Not following but I’ll still be here when you get around to updating.  I’m sure there’s another word for that.     

Happy Challenge! 

Glad to have you!       Thank you!!        (not the right tone, but too perfect for villain vibes to not include. My brother and I quote semi-frequently 🤣 )   Sovalis started it with her villain soft launch last challenge, but lots of people picked up on it and it became a Thing TM.    Artemis Prime set up a Wicked-inspired group challenge thread if you want to check it out!    

Here for all the dragon hoarding! Following