Books
This week I read:
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
I got this for Christmas in 2022, and got so into it I read it in a single day, almost non-stop. This week I decided to read it again, to see if it still held up (while stuck back at home, a book doesn’t have to be that amazing to be a welcome break); and it did, I could hardly put it down.
Last time, I felt the ending was a little weak. But this time around I felt that I was maybe being too harsh.
Roleplaying Games
This has been a good week for kickstarters: Wildendrem opened its backerkit, so I’ve now paid for shipping for that, and Dolmenwood will be following suit tomorrow; Nightmare over Ragged Hollow arrived in the post; and the Pioneer playtest should be coming soon, just in time for our next one-shot.
The Halls of Arden Vul
Another successful session, with the players heading into newly-discovered territory and making off with some loot. Unfortunately for them, this area is fully under the control of one of the dungeon factions—an especially paranoid one at that—and there will be consequences to this incursion. Fortification, at the very least. I need to think things over, but this entrance they’ve found may just end up lost to them (e.g., the stairwell collapsed, rendering it impassable without major work).
But their interest has definitely been piqued, and they have clues leading to another entrance, so maybe losing this entrance will just spur further exploration. But the route to the other entrance is now the home of a monster they accidentally unleashed. That monster, by the way, is breeding now that it’s got more space, and it could cause a major infestation if left unchecked.
Consequences!
Miscellaneous
I spent some more time this week working on my DNS nameserver. No new features this week, just some refactoring, but it’s satisfying work. I’ve done nothing but merge version bump PRs since June, and yet recently I’ve been inspired to fiddle with it. Is it something I ate?
I also bought some plane tickets. To Japan. For next April. Some online friends are going for a few weeks, and I’ll be joining them. We’ve not met in person before, so this’ll be fun. I’m also going to take advantage of the trip to see a couple of other friends who will be living in Japan at the time. It’s a long way off still, but I’m excited. This’ll be my first trip abroad in a while, and I really liked Japan last time I was there.