Conan Day Four: Barrels of Fun

[pyat]

_{All Creatures Will Make Merry Under Penalty Of Demonfire}

I made level 7 today! I spent several minutes dancing a grim little jig along the main path in celebration. I did a couple of quests today. But first, I had to deliver my Evangel, Unto Them Who Had Ears.


A preachment, dear friends, you are about to receive, on rancid wine, Stygian lotus and the temptations of Caprinae!


_{Dramatic nightgown flourish!}

I started in the town square, disagreeing with every statement of the town crier, and claiming that death and fiery apocalpyse were at hand.


_{That's my club hanging from my waist, not a thigh-slit in the dress robe.}

I moved to the path outside the city, shouting at newcomers on their way to retrieve bricks from the demon-haunted quarry. Usually they were too busy fighting pirates to pay attention.


_{Welcome to back to life! Let me tell you about my friend Mitras!}

I haunted the ressurection zones, and said "I told you so!" to respawning players.


_{BOOGA BOOGA!}

I crept up behind players who seemed lost in thought, and called them to repentance.


_{Now, get off my preaching rock!}

Finally, I stood in front of the town gates and claimed to be the Bishop of Tortage.

Total Converts: Zero


So, the quests. Those were epic.In the first quest, I ventured into the wilds (50 feet outside the city gate) to retrieve three spools of non-magical thread from a shack for an out-of-work tailor. In return, I received a pair of shabby pirate pants. I only had to kill 8 people to get the thread! I'd say that was a win-win for everyone.


_{I'm telling my grandchildren about this day!}

Next, I took on a quest for a blacksmith. He wanted me to scavenge a meat cleaver, a bundle of leather, and a rolling pin from some abandoned market stalls on the waterfront. Man, if I'd known cleavers were going around spare, I'd have ditched the hooked stick a long time ago. Alas, I was not able to use the meat cleaver, as it was a "quest item." As an aside, the smith said he needed these things for his work. Blacksmiths are always using meat clevers, right? And rolling pins are great for flattening out sword blades.

In return, the blacksmith gave me five dead rats. These are, apparently, intended as comestibles.

With these two glorious adventures under my belt, I decided for something a little more exciting. I went out to recover two barrels of stolen goods from a camp of pirates. I'd already killed about 20 of them while preaching at people and retrieving thread, so, hey, what's one more encampment?


<sub>Ow. Ow! OW!


On the plus side, I found a piece of carrot cake when I came back to loot the corpse. No, I'm not kidding.</sub>

Man, those pirates were a lot more dangerous than I remembered...I did get the barrels, in the end. And, I had my first positive interaction with another player. I wandered into a basement full of 18th level prison guards, and a wandering adventurer who was there on a quest saw me hiding, and led me out to safety. That was nice.

He did not, however, Repent.

Comments

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yeeg. I'm not sure I'd cotton to a game that wanted me to accept dead rats as a quest reward. o_o I mean, it's good for people to think they've got a lot to look forward to, but I don't think you can expect people to lower their expectations that much at the start.

[rowyn]

I like City of Heroes' model, where you're treated like a superhero from the start, but progress from gangs to evil corps to world-threats as you go up in levels.

This way does rather capture the "escaped slave" Conan experience, though. >:)

And to Pyatt: you got pants but decided you love the breezy feel of the dress robe too much to give it up?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I put the pants on under the robe!

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

This sounds a little like playing in Marnee's friend Grant's homebrew D&D game.

Except you actually got to do neat stuff like defeat monsters to get bananas and dead rats and all.

::B::

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I want to play in one of Grant's games one of these days! Just to see. :)

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

He'll be here in a couple of weeks, and I know he wants to play.
I don't think I'll intive the Brian character, though. Or Daniel.

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

THAT Brian character. Damn fingers.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Were they insufficiently respectful of his lifework? :)

[relee.livejournal.com]

LOL You killed eight people for thread.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Yes, and when I returned it to the tailor, he said something like, "This will help me pass the time." So, he didn't even really need it for anything in particular.

[katepufftail.livejournal.com]

Five rats? Alas! That's not enough for the recipe that I have. It calls for six, and follows:

Six prime millers (rats) about six ounces each after cleaning.
Flour for dredging
Salt and Pepper
4-5 tablespoons of bacon fat from the captain's breakfast
1 large onion
1 1/4 cup of stock

Cut the millers into serving pieces, season the flour with salt and pepper, dredge the millers and set aside.

Heat 2 T of the bacon fat in a large heavy pan, and the onion and sauté, stirring until limp and golden. Remove the onion and set aside.

In the same pan, brown the millers on all sides, a few pieces at a time, adding more bacon fat as needed, set the millers aide.

Deglaze the pan with stock. Return the millers and the onions to the pan, add salt and pepper to taste, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.

Serves six midshipmen (or one zealous priest)

[foomf.livejournal.com]

He can stretch it out by adding a turnip or a carrot.

[katepufftail.livejournal.com]

Or a Banana or two.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Mmmm....

There used to be a recipe for "rat-on-a-stick" wandering around the old school gaming circles. Though it actually used beef.

[katepufftail.livejournal.com]

Rat on a stick? Don't think I'm old school enough to have run across it. Instead, I'm reminded of this :)



The authors of my book, though, do assure their readers that they did cook with rat, and assure us that "...miller is absolutely delicious, rather like very young and tender rabbit." And I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about that!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Hassenpfeffer!

[katepufftail.livejournal.com]

Also. *I* would join your doom cult! A simple life in the jungle, eating looted bananas, and wearing simple, rugged Victorian night shirts tunics. That's the life for me!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Bless your bunny heart. :) We could train one of the gorillas to be a butler!

Or, you know, terrify him into servitude by beating all the other gorillas to death.

[armadillo-king.livejournal.com]

Was it better than killing wolves with a length of chain?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

That would have been pretty epic.

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

I'm getting a total kick out of reading about your attempts to in-game proselytize.

Do not go into the city!
Repent and seek the jungle!
DOOOOOM!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I'm glad someone is reading the messages! :)

[kores-rabbit.livejournal.com]

You're my kinda gamer, that's for sure!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

^.^

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

This is flat hilarious. I will continue to follow your preachy adventures with interest, and I hope you're having as much fun playing this game as I am reading about it.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

It's sort of an incredulous enjoyment sometimes, but yeah. :)

[paka.livejournal.com]

So you're basically saying that you keep playing the game to see how much more ridiculous it can get.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

It's addictive, I have to admit. And I feel I'm doing a public service by actually roleplaying a character.

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

Too funny. Thanks for the belly-laughs.