Adventurer’s Wanted: A West-Marches Campaign

[Artemis Prime]

Shava rummages through her pack, setting her torches aside. Lukaas is right; they have their uses, but in the wrong time and place are far more harmful than helpful. She holds her lantern up, gauging how much oil is left. Ought to be enough, provided her traveling companion has her own. She studies the elf. It would be useful to have a mage-type around, always full of interesting tricks, plus they have those floating lights that come in handy. But if she's being honest, she's happy to be heading into the woods with a fellow ranger to watch her back.

 

Ready to eradicate arachnids!

Current Challenge

[Heidi]

10 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

"Your task will take you to the mountains north of here" Ellereth Weedweaver tells the group assembled around the apothecary. "I beseech you to go there and gather the herbs I require, before the weather gets any worse and that area becomes impossible to traverse. I shall give you detailed instructions of what I need, how to locate it, how to harvest it properly and how much of each I will require."

Those of you who have taken up this quest are headed up the mountains! Any movement that simulates upward movement on your feet counts and we're measuring progress in steps. You can take the stairs, especially if doing so means you're skipping the elevator. You can use one of those stair-like treadmill machines at the gym. You could just do lunges. Or go for full-on simulation and hike on a mountain, just remember to have a step tracking app on or use a website like Stridekick to convert the distance you trekked into steps. Your goal is to hit 1.000 of these steps each by the end of Week 1!

I have a question.

For those of us hiking toward the mountain, which steps count -- just upward ones?

My steps app tracks "flights of stairs" -- how many steps should I count for each flight? I think conventional wisdom is like a dozen or so.

 

Happy to be marching along in such good company.  

[Ranger Hal]

Rezka checks her pack, making sure there are enough supplies for a journey into the mountains and a few extra pouches for carrying herbs. She's been on the road for a while and it will be nice to venture into somewhere a little more wild.

 

Here's my challenge!

[Ranger Hal]

16 minutes ago, Heidi said:

My steps app tracks "flights of stairs" -- how many steps should I count for each flight? I think conventional wisdom is like a dozen or so.

I don't know what's normal, but there are 16 steps per floor in my office parking garage (I feel a little weird for just knowing that off the top of my head). I haven't gotten around to counting the ones in the actual office building yet, but I might do that later this week (I've only been on those stairs once or twice because all the doors are locked except the one at the bottom, so you can only go down, not up).

[DarK_RaideR]

5 hours ago, Radost said:

Hey, is it too late to join?

Never! Besides, we've only just begun, hop right in!

 

5 hours ago, Radost said:

And will it still work if I’m checking in every couple days? I try to read daily but sometimes I miss. 

Of course. Daily check-ins are encouraged to keep you engaged and hold you accountable, but they are by no means a strict requirement. Random encounters are just things we'll spring on you every now and then to keep you on your toes so you don't get complacent about just having the weekly goal to look out for

 

  

2 hours ago, Heidi said:

I have a question.

For those of us hiking toward the mountain, which steps count -- just upward ones?

My steps app tracks "flights of stairs" -- how many steps should I count for each flight? I think conventional wisdom is like a dozen or so.

Just upward ones. Trying to keep this wide enough so people can participate but not overly loose either. As for flights of stairs, you can count them as you go and if not, a rough guesstimation will do. It's better to take them stairs and miss the exact numbers, than dodge them out of fear for not getting the numbers exactly right.

[Loveable_Bouncer]

8 hours ago, Radost said:

Hey, is it too late to join?

And will it still work if I’m checking in every couple days? I try to read daily but sometimes I miss. 

Same question as above. 

Have to catch up a bit and work on my creativity muscle. 

 

I have questions for my brain, I guess early bedtime tonight so I can catch up tomorrow!

[titsworth]

A disshevled Dwarf Wizard bursts loudly through the door of the Emberwood Inn. "No need for applause, I, Jorgron of the Nyerdfyit Fyords, am here! Right on Time!" One confused patron claps out of uncertainty but slowly trails off when she realizes she's the only one doing so. "Thank ye, miss." Jorgron says with a wink and a nod. "I hear there are adventures to be had in Rebel's Refuge, and I'm here to adventure as hard as I possibly can!"

 

Jorgron throws his heavy travel pack only the nearest table, interrupting a tense game of Gnomish Gnuno. "Now where are they..."  Jorgron reaches into his pack and pulls out

• A heavy tomb of spells. "Nope, not that."
• A wizard staff that should not be able to fit in the bag it was stored in. "My trusty staff! But not that either"
• A shimmering scale of a void drake emanating with dark energy. "Probably should store that more safely."
• Not one. Not Two. But THREE pairs of kobold underwear. "How'd those get in there?"
• A Radish Takes a bite

"Ahh yes, here they are." Jorgron pulls out a small pair of reading glasses and looks at the list of quests posted on the wall. Hmmm... Given I just ate my last radish, I think I'll aide in the quest for gathering herbs! Onward and upward!!"

 

Thanks so much for setting this up! Super fun!

[Radost]

5 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Daily check-ins are encouraged to keep you engaged and hold you accountable

Perfect, thanks!

~~~

As folks start to drift out of the Emberwood, a stocky, short-haired woman with a fox embroidered on her cloak jogs up the path towards the Near Woods. 

“Hi, excuse me, Lukaas said folks were heading out to do something about the spiders over here?” She jogs ahead and turns to give the group a broad smile and wave, giving everyone a chance to admire her multicoloured boot laces. “I’m glad I caught up! I’m Radost!” Turning again to fall in beside Shava, she offers, “I hear it’s dark in the forest but we can’t rely on fire. Just so happens I’ve been working on some neat tricks with starlight, so I hope I can be of assistance. Plus I am so interested to learn more about the habits of these spiders. Do either of you know what their natural diet is when they’re not preying on adventurers? Do they hibernate in winter like some of the mountain spiders out East? What’s their average lifespan, are  they likely to have survived previous relocation efforts? I heard about some owlbears that got habituated to adventurers and even though they were relocated  hundreds of leagues away they found their way back to the adventurers’ caches! They had to cart them all the way to the East Marches to get them to stay away, I hope we won’t have a journey that long. ”

 

If I’m honest, this week is kind of easy mode for this challenge since I’m out at choir 6/7 nights, which means no tv or videogames at all those days. So I’m going to aim to match screen-free before-bed time with early lights out, which is a much bigger challenge for me in general. 
 

Challenge thread is Here!

[Elastigirl]

Grewynn Summergleam  walks alongside her group, as they enter the forest searching for the spiders. Silently she ponders the instructions about no torches. Apparently, humans can't carry torches without accidentally setting the  forest on fire? Hmm, humans can be a bit, shall we say clumsy. No matter,  she has her floating lights. As she ponders this , another companion joins the group. and excitedly begins chatting about spiders. Grewynn is not a big talker, so mainly she just smiles and   nods her head.  Looking  at her companions, Grewynn is  hopeful that this will prove to be a  good group  to accomplish the task ahead.

 

 

I  do pretty good at turning off screens   before bed. During summer, I tend to get more lax about it, since it's light later. Now is a good time for me to get  more intentional about it.

 

 

 

[DarK_RaideR]

The swordsman had barely unpacked his belongings and soon enough he finds himself back on the trail, heading for the mountains nearby Rebel's Refuge. Even with his backpack and armor weighing him down, it's not the trek that worries him. He's used to long marches carrying his belongings. It's the dangers of the mountain itself he's thinking of, from the local flora and fauna to mere environmental hazards. Mountains can be dangerous for those who take them lightly...

 

With all the posting yesterday, I almost forgot about my own contribution to the group! Took out the trash late at night and used the stairs to go up to my flat, since I live on the 5th floor I counted a total of 99 staircase steps back up, which I added on the spreadsheet to track my progress. Speaking of which, not only can you track your own progress there, but since it's open to editing, feel free to upgrade it visually and functionally if you feel like it could use some of your amazing sheet-fu.

 

Also, I added the week 1 narrative and quests, as well as the link to the spreadsheet on the first post of this thread, for ease of reference.

[Heidi]

12 hours ago, titsworth said:

Hmmm... Given I just ate my last radish, I think I'll aide in the quest for gathering herbs! Onward and upward!!"

Heidi watches the shenangians, smiling in spite of herself. It's been too long since she adventured in company, the downside of too many scrolls to read and write. 
"Well met, Jorgon! The inn fare is simple and restorative -- come, pull up a chair with the Herb Gathering Group, and have a spot of tea or ale or whatever goes best with radishes and boisterousness. There's a swordsman already on the path up the mountains, and I spent yesterday getting a lay of the land before heading out. You're welcome to join me, or catch up in a bit, if you'd like companionship. I'm new to this mountain, but not new to mountains generally, and I think some companionship is often a blessing during the climb."

 

I did 17 flights of stairs yesterday, and I think I'll use 12 steps per flight as my conversion. Different staircases, different places, different everything, but this seems to capture the gist of it, for a total of 204 upward-steps yesterday. 

[Jarric]

23 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Quite an interesting thing to research (and by that, I mean google). Apparently in French, there are actually two words for owls. Le hibou is an owl with egrets on its head (those feathers that look like “ears”), while la chouette is an owl without egrets.

 

Yeah, I just like it because Duolingo gives you this lovely example sentence:

 

Duo n'est pas une chouette, il est un hibou.

 

Which it helpfully translates to:

 

Duo is not an owl, he's an owl.

[Heidi]

5 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Duo is not an owl, he's an owl.

Duo is a Druid?

 

[Jarric]

Got a little lax on my translation yesterday (actually I was just exhausted, and there was no way I was going to get to the next story on my path, but whatever). Got 2/3 daily goals done working on French.

 

Today I managed to knock this out early, so 3/3 today on my Portuguese track.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Heidi]

Also, I haven't mentioned it yet, but:

Thank you to @DarK_RaideR and @Sovalis for setting this up. 

Logging into work had become a diffulty and everything about it was leaving me feeling depressed, and that was spilling into the rest of everything.

Now, I go to the gym before I log in, and I log in to write about the Adventuring, and yes, work does happen along the way after I log in, and this is so much better.

❤️

[Artemis Prime]

Shava is a little bemused by their new, talkative companion and absent-mindedly finds herself reaching into her pack for a torch out of habit. Shaking her head, she shoves it back in. She will have to do better than this if she is to avoid letting her companions down.

 

Started out fine last night. Shut my computer down at 9:15, did a bit of tidying, read a couple chapters of fiction, and promptly zonked right out on the couch. Woke up a couple of hours later, was using my phone as a light to navigate back to my bedroom, saw that I had an interesting notification and...well, you see where this is going, yes? New rule, no touching the phone after 9:30. I clearly cannot be trusted to even have it within arms' length.

[Sovalis]

Avolen watches this latest crew of adventurers gather their supplies and head out to their respective tasks, brimming with satisfaction. It always surprises her that strangers come to Rebel’s Refuge and team up so easily. Is it something about the energy of the place? It’s certainly been a pattern going back for years… She makes a mental note to add the inquiry to her leather bound notebook about the mysteries of the Refuge and wipes the bar down one more time. Time to get back into the kitchen. There might need to be biscuits to go with the stew tonight. Maybe some with Yesper’s fine cheese in them and some sweet ones with cinder berries for dessert…

[Artemis Prime]

6 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Speaking of which, not only can you track your own progress there, but since it's open to editing, feel free to upgrade it visually and functionally if you feel like it could use some of your amazing sheet-fu.

Not entirely sure yet what we might need in terms of sprucing it up, but open to take suggestions and make it so.

[Ranger Hal]

Rezka starts the trek north towards the mountains. Some of the group are moving faster right now, but that's okay. Everyone will get there at their own pace. And then we'll see about these herbs that Ellereth needs to keep folks healthy through the winter.

 

Monday: got my usual 32 stairs from parking two floors up in the parking garage.

[Artemis Prime]

Would y'all prefer spots on the spreadsheet to log steps/minutes/quests by day, or are you happy lumping weekly numbers together?

[Ranger Hal]

7 minutes ago, Artemis Prime said:

Would y'all prefer spots on the spreadsheet to log steps/minutes/quests by day, or are you happy lumping weekly numbers together?

I don't mind having the weekly numbers together. I was planning to add up my numbers in the cell, so by clicking on the cell, I'd be able to see the daily numbers, but the total is displayed.

[Elastigirl]

I'd rather have a spot for daily numbers.  Though Ranger Hal's magic of adding it up and then seeing each day seemed like a fine idea, but I don't know how to do that.

[Ranger Hal]

28 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

I'd rather have a spot for daily numbers.  Though Ranger Hal's magic of adding it up and then seeing each day seemed like a fine idea, but I don't know how to do that.

What I was thinking of is using an equation in the cell, but just using numbers instead of referencing other cells. If you type in "=100+50", the cell will display 150. If you click on the cell, the equation bar (at the top of the spreadsheet) will display "=100+50". If you double click the cell (to edit it), you will see and be able to edit "=100+50" and add more numbers for the next day.

[athousandwords]

As adventuring parties start dispersing from the Emberwood Inn, a short figure in oversized robes and practical boots stands dithering over the noticeboard. Evanna mindlessly twists her hair into a messy bun, securing it with her wand, as she reads the notices for the fourth, fifth, twelfth time. She glances at the barkeeper - "Avolen, I don't suppose there are any other notices being posted soon, you think?"  She sighs. "Only I'd love to help... but I just can't decide!"  Truthfully, she's not sure she's well suited for any of these tasks, but then, it wouldn't be  an adventure without an element of  challenge, would it? She draws some shiny gems from her pouch and turns them over in her hands a few times before letting them rattle onto the table. "Red's the highest," she murmurs, then looks up purposefully. "Guess I'll try my hand at spider hunting."  Gathering up her gems and securing her wand, she sets off to catch up with the party headed out to the Near Woods.

 

 

[Elastigirl]

Grewynn  is very happy to see another adventurer running to meet up with their group. They will need all the help they can get.  Extinguishing the torch's flame, she continues on through Emberwood's forest. She realizes it's been a while since she let her eyes experience the dark. It is good to let her eyes adjust and  just use her night vision to peer through the forest. At first it is difficult to make her way, but as her eyes adjust, she begins to notice the details of the trees, and even perhaps a few spider webs.

 

Last night I was successful at my quest. Turned off screens, and climbed into bed with a book. I was reading on my Kindle, but I can set it to dark mode..