QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Starday 18 / Sunsday 19, Cosmicah
They discovered the derelict ship stuck in an asteroid and it looks like it might have gone through some battle in the past. There’s no response to any communications.
Zarylla chooses to try and land on the asteroid - using the DEX option, of course - and is able to do so with just 1 point of damage to the ship. This is negated by the ship’s shields, so all is well.
She also successfully enters the ship through the top hull without any trouble. Gotta love DEX bonuses.
Along with all that, entering the Sunday Lottery earned the crew 3 extra credits!
- HP: 13
- Credits: 81
- Virtue: +7
WordPress.com enables ActivityPub, but it seems to be only for higher-tier business accounts that can utilize plugins (for now?). -WordPress.com
Irony.
My yearly payment to Micro.blog went through two days before my premium WordPress.com plan expires.
Do I sound like I’m going to miss it?
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Fruitsday, Cosmicah 17
The ship begins to pick up a distress signal, and the crew is determined to answer. However, Zarylla doesn’t have many bonuses to her rolls on this page, so it’s all down to base rolls.
My first roll was super crummy, so she couldn’t determine anything from the signal itself. Thankfully, the second roll was excellent, plus a WIS bonus, and they were able to find the ship while only using one meal ration. Not that there’s a lack of those…
- HP: 13
- Credits: 78
- Virtue: +7
The February 2014 blog archives are up! 🎮
A bunch of EverQuest Next (yes Next), trying Starbound for the first time ever, some FFXIV exploration (first time to Mor Dhona!), and playing the Hatch app!
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Thornsday, Cosmicah 16
Well, it’s time to do something that sounds pointedly illegal. Zarllya doesn’t have skill in Engineering or Computers, but she does have a +2 in Wisdom. So I chose to have her attempt to emulate the signal of a paid ship.
My roll was mediocre, but enough to get them a discount of 2 credits. Fair attempt!
- HP: 13
- Credits: 78
- Virtue: +7
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Windsday, Cosmicah 15
So a couple of guys acting like authorities get up in Zarylla’s face today. Turns out, she’s more aware of the port laws than they suspected. The fact that the Karnack is a Voidspark class ship did, indeed, give them the right to transport passengers without all the red tape.
My rolls were good today - Zarylla knew the laws and she was able to bully the bullies with a +2 bonus to her intimidation roll. The so-called authorities back down when faced with the facts and all is well.
- HP: 13
- Credits: 81
- Virtue: +7
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Truceday, Cosmicah 14
Transporting other people. Wonderful idea! What could go wrong?
The first roll I made determined how much Zarylla knew about the galaxy map. Turns out she’s got a medium knowledge of it all - this earned a +1 on the next roll.
The second roll determined her ability to convince passengers, which she did a fair job of. She was able to get a pair of scientists, a tourist and an artist to join the voyage. All said and done, this earned 20 credits. And probably a potential headache, but we’ll just have to see.
- HP: 13
- Credits: 81
- Virtue: +7
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Moonsday, Cosmicah 13
Back to town and time to do a lot of shopping! Zarylla returned with a whopping 89 credits. She also sold a gem she found for an additional 5 credits. That means she’s got a lot of money to toss around.
First, she took a rest in the inn to get back all her HP and used abilities.
Second, she bought 20 meal rations because they were dirt cheap at 1 credit each. I know from previous experience that the cost of meal rations will never be this cheap again, and she will need a lot of them. So I may as well save credits up front by spending earlier. She also picked up a couple of med kits because she only had 1 on hand.
A good day shopping overall!
- HP: 13
- Credits: 61
- Virtue: +7
Going back to where it began: January 2014 Blog archives are up!
This includes my first posts for my main blog, and some imported FFXIV content from my Tumblr at the time.
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Starday 11 / Sunsday 12, Cosmicah
This was a good day for Zarylla!
She earned 25 credits for bringing the pilot back to town. However, she also chose to stand testimony and defend Ahlex during his trial, confirming that the Stitchers were real and his family were captives.
She earned yet another virtue point for this, but her existing virtue was also a bonus to her defense. In the end, she was able to convince the council to spare his life. The pilot’s family gave Zarylla an extra 5 credits for all her help.
- HP: 9
- Credits: 89
- Virtue: +7
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Fruitsday, Cosmicah 10
Zarylla and crew return to the planet with the pilot, Ascel. They have to protect him on the way to his trial for fear that someone might try to attack (since he’s thought a traitor) or steal him as a bounty.
They were able to disguise him well enough to protect from basic recognition, but a well-trained bounty hunter caught a whiff of him. Zarylla was able to protect him, however, and do so without calling any additional attention to him.
Really, just had some borderline decent rolls and the bonuses pushed them over to the best outcome today.
- HP: 9
- Credits: 59
- Virtue: +6
The January 2019 blog archives are up – and that completes all of the 2019 archives! What was happening back then? A whole lot of FFXIV – Blue Mage was just released! Also, my blog’s 5th birthday!
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Thornsday, Cosmicah 9
Another day of dog fighting, another day of getting really good rolls against enemy ships.
This time, however, the captain realizes the enemy is going to keep on coming, so it’s time to engage the warp drive and get out of there before the ship is overwhelmed. So, it’s time to rocket away and return with the pilot as instructed - we’ll see what happens with him. :(
- HP: 9
- Credits: 59
- Virtue: +6
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Windsday, Cosmicah 8
Today was an absolute flip of yesterday, thankfully. Getting into the ship, Stitcher ships followed in hot pursuit! Thankfully, my ship has a good bonus to AIM, and Zarylla was able to shoot each of the four ships without taking damage. Good run!
- HP: 9
- Credits: 55
- Virtue: +6
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Truceday, Cosmicah 7
These folks don’t look too nice…
You ever just had one of those days? Yeah, that’s the kind of day Zarylla had with this fight. While she never was frightened, my attack/damage rolls never even came close to hitting the guy, aside from one round. This was a really tough fight for this early on in the game. Thankfully her defense was strong enough that she only took 3 damage.
- HP: 9
- Credits: 51
- Virtue: +6
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Moonsday, Cosmicah 6
Well, not only was the pilot telling the truth, but here’s his family… aren’t they too cute (despite being locked up and afraid). Must… free!
Zarylla’s strong point is DEX, so I went with picking the lock. She also had a +2 to her roll, so it wasn’t too hard to break out the pilot’s family. But then, other prisoners realized there was a jail break happening and asked for help.
Of course, she couldn’t turn a blind ear. This earned her another point in Virtue.
I did have to use the Time Step skill to re-roll this roll because the first time was a little lower than I wanted it to be. The second time, though, was a solid 19 (without bonuses), so she was able to release all the prisoners before anyone was the wiser.
- HP: 12
- Credits: 50
- Virtue: +6
Found this nice JS/CSS Mastodon sidebar widget. Was using a free hosted widget before that eventually vanished, so I’m happy to have code right here in my files. Tweaked it a bit, now perfect. Gotta love static HTML sites!
WHERE MICRO.BLOG FITS FOR ME
For a while now, I’ve been trying to determine what I’m going to use this Micro.blog for and how it fits in with my existing blogging/social media ecosystem.
I have a “main blog” on a static HTML site, which will always remain my main. I also run a side Twitter for gaming-related story and RP.
Mastodon is my major short-form micro posting location, and I adore it. So I don’t really need a micro blog for actual micro blogging.
Compared to my main blog, which requires full on HTML coding each new post I add, dropping a post like this into M.B costs much less time. It’s faster and easier for me. Still, I’m determined that my main blog remains - it has the search clout and I’ve put way too much time into coding it to move now.
That being said, I realized that while Mastodon is great for micro posts, like most social media, what you toot there flows down that river of content, often not to be found easily again. M.B has an advantage of archives, tags and more permanence than a Mastodon toot.
So, I’ve decided that in keeping this blog, I’ll use it as a place for posts that I want to keep around - something that I want more permanence for - but doesn’t need a full on HTML post. In the past, I’ve used sites such as Pillowfort and Tumblr (which are also somewhat considered microblogging sites) for this. I’ll be moving this kind of content here - I already have with my quest calendar posts and the like.
TONIGHT, ON SOLASTA, CROWN OF THE MAGISTER...
Orcs in Luv…
(Actually, two orc berserkers charmed.)
Walking on Shields
My sister found a Cloak of Arachnida, which allows for wall walking. Sometimes this makes for interesting physics situations. We warped back to the entrance of this zone, and somehow, her character’s feet had attached to our cleric’s shield.
Shield walking, anyone?
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Starday 4 / Sunsday 5, Cosmicah
The first thing Zarylla stumbles upon in the compound is a surgical room that looks none-too sanitary. This backs up the pilot’s story about what these Stitchers are supposedly doing there.
Not to leave something like this sitting around, she went full on destruction mode, taking out every machine and resource that might be used in the crimes here (I get a bonus +2 to tomorrow’s rolls). She also stumbles upon a storage room where she is able to confiscate 5 credits and 1 ship part.
Most importantly, she discovers a row of small cells. Yeah. This is what they are looking for. Scary stuff.
- HP: 12
- Credits: 50
- Virtue: +5
QUEST CALENDAR 2023
Fruitsday, Cosmicah 3
Oh, so a detachable pod on the ship for travel. How handy! I hope they’ll use this more instead of eating up meal rations all the time.
So they arrive at a cave, but Zarylla can see that this is not a natural formation. Instead, it’s a bunker that’s been disguised as a cave - pretty good chance that the pilot’s family has been taken there.
Due to good rolls and DEX bonuses, they are able to sneak their way into the bunker without being caught. Zarylla also earns 3 credits (for what?).
- HP: 12
- Credits: 41
- Virtue: +5
FEBRUARY 2019 ARCHIVES UP!
Lots of FFXIV including a release date for Shadowbringers and our first look at Viera!
FFXIV: DEVELOPING EXPERIMENTAL ONLINE ROLE PLAY
Tonight, I dressed my RP character, Amon, in a new jockey glamour. He’s just unlocked chocobo racing in Final Fantasy XIV, you see, and needs the proper attire - this was as close as I could get (while still maintaining his signature style).
This is actually a part of an ongoing Role Play/Interactive Fiction experiment I’ve been developing on Tumblr. Recently, Tumblr introduced a new feature that allows users to make polls in their post, and these have been very popular.
I thought to myself… what better way to use polls than to create Choose Your Own Adventure fiction that followers can vote and interact on? All the while, my character takes their choices and continues on as I write mostly impromptu responses to poll results.
You can see the entire thread here on this tag page.
I feel like this project has been met with enthusiasm. It started with just a day-in-the-life of my bard Amon… led to a community-wide Tumblr Swap Meet event…
..which ran over the past weekend, had good participation, and saw several RP threads between individuals pop up. Now I’ve unlocked chocobo racing, allowed the community to help name the bird - Typhoon Nemesis, and will have to figure out where it’s all going from here!
I know there’s only so far you can take a story about chocobo racing and keep it interesting. So while this is the turn it has taken for now, I have to be figuring future options for the story soon.
I’m just happy to see people get involved and find their own RP in the middle of all this.