#351
Jun 22, 2025
Books
No books this week.
Roleplaying Games
The Halls of Arden Vul
This week was a pretty cool session indeed. Firstly, I dropped a plot hook on the party. There are a few of these listed in the introduction to Arden Vul, but I haven’t tended to use them as the players are pretty self-directed, but I felt like mixing things up. An archmage of one of the imperial collegia hired them to find a pair of magic swords she had a lead on, she gave them enough information to get going, a down payment, and a flexible deadline: ideally within the month.
After that, we spent most of the session sneaking around to learn more about two of the party’s big goals: war against the Cult of Set, and finding all the rudishva. The session ended with the party’s assassin, disguised as a Set Acolyte, fleeing the Inn of the Lost after breaking into Thegan’s room, stealing his diary, and starting a fire. The escape all came down to a very critical initiative roll to determine whether Thegan could leap across the flaming bed to grab her.
Session 100 inches ever closer, and it’s a toss-up as to whether that session’ll be the start of open war against the Cult of Set, or a heist mission to bust Isocorax out of the Inn of the Lost.
Miscellaneous
This week the paint samples finally arrived, and I’ve picked the ones I want to use:
- Basically Black for the living room and office
- Forest Shade for the master bedroom
- Honey Mustard for the guest bedroom
The painter’s booked for the 7th. It’ll be great to finally get this redecoration done, though I’m going to start assembling furniture and moving things into rooms (even if I don’t, say, unpack all my books yet) once the carpet is done next week.
With everything still packed, it doesn’t feel like I’ve moved in yet.
I’ve also ordered the art for the hall, stairs, and landing. Those being:
- Pinecrabs for the hallway, above a cabinet in which I’ll hide the router
- Blue Heron, The Electric Tower, and Great Horned Owl up the stairs, which curve around 180 degrees so I have three walls to play with
- Fiji Mermaid for the upper landing, probably above a cabinet or something though I’m not sure yet
I’m leaving the living room, office, and bedrooms until after the painting. I have a fairly good idea what I want in all those rooms, but I want to see them painted first.