So the extra kids are leaving next Monday, so we are going to try for a good beach visit this Friday. Since the last time we tried, we were unpleasantly surprised by stinkin' 25 MPH winds once we got there, I checked this morning and found 15 MPH winds for Friday. I'm hoping that 1) it'll just gust that high without being a constant presence and 2) 15 MPH winds aren't that bad.
Looking forward to a fun beach visit!
Plus, I have to mention that watching Jackson play with his cousins has showed me just how awful I am at playing with him. I have shifted so completely into the adult world that watching them just run and play has reminded me what I have forgotten. There are all kinds of wonderful things about the adult world, but I really feel as though I have lost something marvelous by forgetting how to connect with a child through simple play.
Jackson has been absolutely loving the time with his older cousins, to the point that when I try to play with him, he pushes me away because I'm simply not fun enough. That's both funny and sad at the same time. I mean, I'm just not 6, and so there's a fundamental difference between me and his 6 year old cousin, making it kind of funny when he says, "No, Daddy! No!" He sees me getting in the way of playing in the way that little kids do.
However, I didn't know I had lost it until he got old enough to show me. Now that I know, I am going to try and reclaim that child-like portion of my soul. I think there is great value in being able to connect with little kids, and I want that part of my soul back.
Current mood: hopeful
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Bone and Lone Wolf
Many years ago, when I was around 18 or so, Mark Edmunson (one of my high school friends) introduced me to the wonderful comic book of Bone. Over the following years, I slowly collected the graphic novels one by one until I owned all nine.
After I got married, I introduced Bone to my wife, who also loved the story. And then we began moving. And moving. And moving. And moving.
All of my Bone books (heck, almost all of my books, for that matter) stayed in boxes for 5-6 years. As we were unpacking a couple of weeks ago, we found the whole set, and I have been slowly working my way through them again. I have even introduced them to my nephew and nieces, with the predictable result of adoration.
As I reflect, I am very grateful for the introduction so many years ago, which has brought great joy to so many people.
Bone rocks.
I'm just sayin'.
And while I'm on the subject? So does Lone Wolf. For those who don't know Lone Wolf, they are adventure gamebooks written long ago that still have a huge following.
I recall stumbling on Book 4, The Chasm of Doom, at a 5th grade book fair, and I was mesmerized. You got to make a character, and the special abilities were awesome! But I was confused - a few passages asked if I held some object or another, so I read and reread the gamebook over and over again, trying to find those objects. It wasn't until later that I realized that you found those objects in previous books! This was catnip for me! The same character with objects and abilities carried from book to book? Unheard of and amazing!
I still own books 1-15, though every one of them, including the books I do not own, can be found and played online at Project Aon. The creator, Joe Dever, gave permission for all of his books to be put for free in HTML format in order to keep the love alive. Yay!
I still go back and reread the whole series from Book 1 to Book 20, plus other series in the same world using different characters, online every few years because they are still so much fun. The whole thing can be done online, including the random number generation and character sheets.
If you are bored and need a few days' worth of diversion, go check out Project Aon and (re)acquaint yourself with Lone Wolf, the Kai Lord. It'll be worth it. :)
Current mood: nostalgic
After I got married, I introduced Bone to my wife, who also loved the story. And then we began moving. And moving. And moving. And moving.
All of my Bone books (heck, almost all of my books, for that matter) stayed in boxes for 5-6 years. As we were unpacking a couple of weeks ago, we found the whole set, and I have been slowly working my way through them again. I have even introduced them to my nephew and nieces, with the predictable result of adoration.
As I reflect, I am very grateful for the introduction so many years ago, which has brought great joy to so many people.
Bone rocks.
I'm just sayin'.
And while I'm on the subject? So does Lone Wolf. For those who don't know Lone Wolf, they are adventure gamebooks written long ago that still have a huge following.
I recall stumbling on Book 4, The Chasm of Doom, at a 5th grade book fair, and I was mesmerized. You got to make a character, and the special abilities were awesome! But I was confused - a few passages asked if I held some object or another, so I read and reread the gamebook over and over again, trying to find those objects. It wasn't until later that I realized that you found those objects in previous books! This was catnip for me! The same character with objects and abilities carried from book to book? Unheard of and amazing!
I still own books 1-15, though every one of them, including the books I do not own, can be found and played online at Project Aon. The creator, Joe Dever, gave permission for all of his books to be put for free in HTML format in order to keep the love alive. Yay!
I still go back and reread the whole series from Book 1 to Book 20, plus other series in the same world using different characters, online every few years because they are still so much fun. The whole thing can be done online, including the random number generation and character sheets.
If you are bored and need a few days' worth of diversion, go check out Project Aon and (re)acquaint yourself with Lone Wolf, the Kai Lord. It'll be worth it. :)
Current mood: nostalgic
Monday, July 16, 2012
Game Days! Plural!
So after a long dearth of game days, I finally held one this last Saturday. The last Game Day was February of last year, so I haven't had one in almost 18 months. Since Saturdays off were few and far between, it wasn't until my client load dropped a bit that I could justify spending a day playing games instead of being with my family. I had several free or almost free (1 client only) Saturdays in a row, so I scheduled a game day and it was a rousing success.
Some guys from my church had never played Age of Renaissance (and we didn't play it the last game day we had, so it's been almost 2 years since I had a chance to play it), so we scheduled an all day event. We had two experienced strategy gamers, one dad and his 15 year old son, and one very smart guy who was interested but had never even played Settlers of Catan. We laid out the AoR board and played a practice game where I taught them the ropes, and then we got down to business in a real game. I won both games, only because it's so complicated and deep that it takes a few games to really get the hang of it. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.
Well, as I've mentioned before, we have 4 extra kids currently - our nephew and three nieces are staying with us for a month. They hail from Albuquerque, and Jenny will be driving them home, then swinging up to Mesa, Arizona to see her family there before heading home again. She leaves in around 2 weeks, and sans family, odds are good I'll be able to host 1 or maybe even 2 more game days, depending on other peoples' schedules.
I've heard awesome things about Arkham Horror, but have never played it, so I may be able to squeeze in a game while she's gone. Yay! I'll enjoy it because my client load is picking up again soon(just scored 1 and possibly 2 more large referral sources), so after this round, it could be another 18 months before the next game day.
Current mood: gaming delight
Some guys from my church had never played Age of Renaissance (and we didn't play it the last game day we had, so it's been almost 2 years since I had a chance to play it), so we scheduled an all day event. We had two experienced strategy gamers, one dad and his 15 year old son, and one very smart guy who was interested but had never even played Settlers of Catan. We laid out the AoR board and played a practice game where I taught them the ropes, and then we got down to business in a real game. I won both games, only because it's so complicated and deep that it takes a few games to really get the hang of it. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.
Well, as I've mentioned before, we have 4 extra kids currently - our nephew and three nieces are staying with us for a month. They hail from Albuquerque, and Jenny will be driving them home, then swinging up to Mesa, Arizona to see her family there before heading home again. She leaves in around 2 weeks, and sans family, odds are good I'll be able to host 1 or maybe even 2 more game days, depending on other peoples' schedules.
I've heard awesome things about Arkham Horror, but have never played it, so I may be able to squeeze in a game while she's gone. Yay! I'll enjoy it because my client load is picking up again soon(just scored 1 and possibly 2 more large referral sources), so after this round, it could be another 18 months before the next game day.
Current mood: gaming delight
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Magic system
I had an interesting experience last night trying to describe my magic system to a friend who was helping me think of how it could be applied in various ways across a culture. He's a musician, and I realized that while I understand how the magic works on a more abstract level, I still have a lot of work pinning it down on how it works in the details.
Most magic systems focus on the effects, the end result. For instance, a wizard says, "I want to fly." They cast a spell that somehow breaks all the laws of physics AND builds in some kind of control into the spell so the person is easily able to maneuver. I've seen some games/stories where a fly spell still requires an education on how to use it well, but that tends to be abstracted out.
But the devil is in the details - flying is *hard*. Coming up with a spell that breaks the laws of physics when I can't even describe said laws might be possible in other worlds, but not in mine. The only reason we have airplanes is due to hundreds of years of scientific discoveries layered on top of each other, combined with the engineering required to accomplish said feat.
So let's examine said Fly spell. First off, levitation: am I changing my mass so I float? If so, how do I compensate for wind? I have become a balloon, and so the spell needs some way to help me go where I want to go despite air pressure to the contrary.
Perhaps I alter myself so that gravity has no effect on me personally, and I float around as though I am in space? But if I can do that, why could I not do the opposite and make gravity stronger in my area? That's a great attack spell - increase someone's personal gravity to the point where very heavy objects hit them with high velocity. And I would need some way to move forward and backwards, taking into account I still have my mass.
Perhaps I generate some kind of force beneath me that has the effect of rocket boots without the fire and heat. Or maybe a force bubble/platform that I stand in/on and I use it to carry me around.
Obviously, each one of these methods has unique needs. In the first example, I need both the ability to choose my direction *and* a method of generating forward movement. While the first need is shared by the second example, my method of generating forward movement if I am massless will be different if I retain mass. The latter two examples bring with the means of forward motion, but the rocket boot example still needs a form of guidance.
Which brings us to the next step - how do I guide it? With my mind? I need some way of connecting my means of guidance to my thoughts. But how does that work? Do I mentally choose a direction and it takes me there until I say otherwise? But what about random thoughts that go through my brain - do they throw the spell off? How would the spell distinguish between a random thought about a direction and a thought it should listen to?
Or what if I use my body to control it? Perhaps my hands as they flick in different directions is what guides the spell. But think of the spell as a computer program - unless I specifically program it to recognize those signals, I can't use them. So a fly spell needs to take into account all of these factors, making it a remarkably complex enchantment.
I will note that no one has been able to design a flying spell in my world yet. They've just barely come up with some sort of flying craft, and they are slow, expensive, and vulnerable. It takes multiple mages working pretty constantly to keep the craft running rather than a fire-and-forget type experience.
So a typical D&D Fly spell abstracts out these questions. "How does it work?" isn't even asked. It doesn't matter how it works, it just does. And somehow the spell is magically able to compensate for all of these concerns. In our world, we have to ask how things work to a major degree. Obviously, we've not needed to understand physics behind flight to design bows and arrows, nor did we need to understand molecular structure to create steel, but understanding those deeper laws have assisted in our military and transportation endeavors.
My magic system still allows for a small level of abstraction (else it wouldn't be MAGIC), but not even close to the level of most worlds. My mages cannot simply decide what they want to do and ignore all the details required to make that work. Some types of magic (Divination, Illusion) allow for more abstraction than others (Mind, Elementalism, Motion), but still, none of them get the D&D level of abstraction. It's hard to create a complicated effect, and there are always unintended consequences, just like in our world.
Current mood: thoughtful
Most magic systems focus on the effects, the end result. For instance, a wizard says, "I want to fly." They cast a spell that somehow breaks all the laws of physics AND builds in some kind of control into the spell so the person is easily able to maneuver. I've seen some games/stories where a fly spell still requires an education on how to use it well, but that tends to be abstracted out.
But the devil is in the details - flying is *hard*. Coming up with a spell that breaks the laws of physics when I can't even describe said laws might be possible in other worlds, but not in mine. The only reason we have airplanes is due to hundreds of years of scientific discoveries layered on top of each other, combined with the engineering required to accomplish said feat.
So let's examine said Fly spell. First off, levitation: am I changing my mass so I float? If so, how do I compensate for wind? I have become a balloon, and so the spell needs some way to help me go where I want to go despite air pressure to the contrary.
Perhaps I alter myself so that gravity has no effect on me personally, and I float around as though I am in space? But if I can do that, why could I not do the opposite and make gravity stronger in my area? That's a great attack spell - increase someone's personal gravity to the point where very heavy objects hit them with high velocity. And I would need some way to move forward and backwards, taking into account I still have my mass.
Perhaps I generate some kind of force beneath me that has the effect of rocket boots without the fire and heat. Or maybe a force bubble/platform that I stand in/on and I use it to carry me around.
Obviously, each one of these methods has unique needs. In the first example, I need both the ability to choose my direction *and* a method of generating forward movement. While the first need is shared by the second example, my method of generating forward movement if I am massless will be different if I retain mass. The latter two examples bring with the means of forward motion, but the rocket boot example still needs a form of guidance.
Which brings us to the next step - how do I guide it? With my mind? I need some way of connecting my means of guidance to my thoughts. But how does that work? Do I mentally choose a direction and it takes me there until I say otherwise? But what about random thoughts that go through my brain - do they throw the spell off? How would the spell distinguish between a random thought about a direction and a thought it should listen to?
Or what if I use my body to control it? Perhaps my hands as they flick in different directions is what guides the spell. But think of the spell as a computer program - unless I specifically program it to recognize those signals, I can't use them. So a fly spell needs to take into account all of these factors, making it a remarkably complex enchantment.
I will note that no one has been able to design a flying spell in my world yet. They've just barely come up with some sort of flying craft, and they are slow, expensive, and vulnerable. It takes multiple mages working pretty constantly to keep the craft running rather than a fire-and-forget type experience.
So a typical D&D Fly spell abstracts out these questions. "How does it work?" isn't even asked. It doesn't matter how it works, it just does. And somehow the spell is magically able to compensate for all of these concerns. In our world, we have to ask how things work to a major degree. Obviously, we've not needed to understand physics behind flight to design bows and arrows, nor did we need to understand molecular structure to create steel, but understanding those deeper laws have assisted in our military and transportation endeavors.
My magic system still allows for a small level of abstraction (else it wouldn't be MAGIC), but not even close to the level of most worlds. My mages cannot simply decide what they want to do and ignore all the details required to make that work. Some types of magic (Divination, Illusion) allow for more abstraction than others (Mind, Elementalism, Motion), but still, none of them get the D&D level of abstraction. It's hard to create a complicated effect, and there are always unintended consequences, just like in our world.
Current mood: thoughtful
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
This is Sparta!
Someone made this change to a Wet Floor sign sitting in one of our bathrooms.
Current Mood: amused
Current Mood: amused
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
My Awesome Holiday (or How My Work Got In the Way of My Fun)
I'm a trainer for my job, and we were supposed to start a large new hire class last Monday. However, the contracting agencies screwed up, and this class of nine came in pieces at a time. The first wave arrived on Wednesday, the next wave came on Friday, and the last wave came on Monday.
The problem with this is that we had two weeks to finish new hire training, which is normally not a problem. In fact, it would normally not be a huge problem that they came in waves - irritating, but not a real problem. The real issue is that we have several new clients being transitioned in at this moment, and so the timing was critical.
So, yay! That means because the agencies screwed up, I had to work through most of today to train everyone in time for Friday. It's not SO bad because it works like flex-time for me. I'll just take off next Friday and get a 3 day weekend. But *still*.
Mumblegrumblehadtoworkonthe4thmumblegrumble.
Current mood: cranky
The problem with this is that we had two weeks to finish new hire training, which is normally not a problem. In fact, it would normally not be a huge problem that they came in waves - irritating, but not a real problem. The real issue is that we have several new clients being transitioned in at this moment, and so the timing was critical.
So, yay! That means because the agencies screwed up, I had to work through most of today to train everyone in time for Friday. It's not SO bad because it works like flex-time for me. I'll just take off next Friday and get a 3 day weekend. But *still*.
Mumblegrumblehadtoworkonthe4thmumblegrumble.
Current mood: cranky
Monday, July 2, 2012
Post Apocalyptic Dream
I haven't had one of my awesome vivid dreams in a while, and this one was fun!
It started out with me being an actor on a TV show about a group of people in a small underground compound after some kind of disaster above-ground. Nuclear fallout was alluded to, but never specifically discussed. I recall certain scenes in my dream where I knew the audience had been waiting a while for it, however, as the dream progressed, it became a real thing rather than a TV show (though an RPG element crept into it a little later).
It started out with me knocking down a guard and taking his massive assault rifle-thingie. Really big, powerful gun. There had been an enemy within the compound, and they had seized control! But we had had enough and it was time to fight back. I walked slowly through the compound, taking out all the guards - people were screaming and running. Guards poured out of a door towards me and I gunned them all down.
I should mention that this gun was big enough that it had a strap I put around my shoulder to help steady it. Those that were on my side would grab the weapons of the downed guards and we marched on, freeing the whole compound. One of those I freed was a young child, and as I knelt beside him, I knew the audience had been waiting a long time for this.
I told him that I was his father, which was why I had been watching out for him all this time, but I couldn't tell him because there were people after me, and if they knew he was mine, then they would take him. See, the reason certain people were after me was because I wasn't fully human - some kind of alien DNA had been implanted in me when I was younger, and I needed to teach him about his own heritage and how to hide his secret.
After I explained this to him, he gave me a big hug (he was maybe 6), and I could almost hear the audience saying, "Awwww!"
He asked me what I meant by "alien DNA", so I concentrated and 5 or 6 tentacles crept out of my skull like a crown. I explained that they could be used at short range to attach to another person's head and read their thoughts, and even control them like a puppet, but that he shouldn't use these abilities except for helping others and defending himself. I retracted them again and told him I'd still watch out for him, but he couldn't tell anyone else for now since it was still dangerous.
We finished our conversation and he ran off with the adults who had been watching him since the beginning of the show.
Suddenly, I heard screams from the front of the compound, and I knew that "he" was back. This man had been hunting me for my alien DNA since the beginning of the show, though I cannot tell you what his name was. (This was the last time I was aware it was a show - after this, it became real.)
I felt grateful my son had gotten away, and then I ran as fast as my big gun would allow me to where he was coming in. He had acquired some kind of technology, maybe alien, maybe not, that covered him and his even bigger gun in shiny metal strips.
Imagine Colossus from the X-Men, except that he did not have multiple unbroken metal bands around his body - they were broken up by vertical slashes, as if there hadn't been enough metal to make a single band, so they had to be applied a section at a time.
Also, he was in some kind of walking machine - I don't recall if he had spider legs or tank treads, but he was definitely not walking on two legs. I fired my gun into the barrel of his gun, trying to make it blow up, but the metal strips peeled away from the gun and caught the bullets, all of them. I think they had some kind of magnetic ability so as to attract the bullets, but then they flexed and threw the bullets back. The speed of the redirected bullets wasn't as fast as it had been from my gun, but it was still plenty fast enough to do damage, so I was dodging them as best I could.
I tried to shoot him in the face and around his body, with the same results. I knew I couldn't take him down with this gun, so I dropped it and ran to the back of the compound, knowing that I needed to come up with a solution quickly since the back was a dead end.
As I ran, some other people came to me and reported that they had tried grenades, and he had been immune to the explosion, throwing the shrapnel back just like he had the bullets. They had also tried magic (at this point, I recall thinking as a dreamer, There's magic here? Oh yeah, when we level up, we can take light and dark magic as skills! Yep, my dreams are awesome), to no avail. He was immune to that as well.
As I skidded to a stop at the dead end (it was actually more like a T-intersection - the hallway ended and branched out to to short rooms, one on either side), I turned left and decided to make my stand there. I suddenly remembered that I had leveled up a couple of times and so could take some extra skills! Yay! I quickly selected Light Generation and Light Control, the two Light magic skills. I didn't want the Darkness skills since I knew those were evil and I wasn't evil.
I quickly thought through my options - even if he was immune to our direct attempts to stop him, he wouldn't be immune to our indirect attempts. In other words...
I told some of the other people to slow him down while I cut through the stone ceiling in order to drop a ton of stone on him when he came around the corner. I figured it was time for us to come out of the compound and see what was going on above ground. I summoned my magic and used the intense light to cut a large section of the ceiling, leaving one little edge in for when he rounded the intersection into my line of sight. I knew that there was no way for me to avoid getting hurt in the rockfall, either, but I hoped my new light shields would be enough to offset most of it since I was prepared.
I finished barely in time - he came at me, and I collapsed the ceiling. I was knocked almost completely unconscious - I barely remembered being pulled up and out of the new hole into the sunlight by others in the compound, and I was delirious for some time. Either we had been underground long enough for any residual radiation to fade, or the disaster was never nuclear in the first place because the air was clean and the sun was shining. (When I woke up, I recall thinking, Huh, that must have been a real twist in the story for the TV audience! "It wasn't a bomb after all! Dun dun duuuunnnnn!")
I slowly regained consciousness, but when I was fully awake, I felt afraid that the guy after me had not been killed, and was still after me. But now, with the whole world in front of me, he would likely never find me again. Plus, with those two new skills, I could fly, and pretty darned fast, too! Whee!
Some time had passed, and for some reason, I had to go back to the compound - I don't recall exactly why, but I flew back into the hole I carved out and went to the front. It was then that I realized it was a trap - the guy hadn't been killed, and now with me underground again, he blocked my exit and came towards me, this time with some kind of energy shield (magical or technological, I'm not sure which) that prevented me from pulling the same trick again. I was looking around for some kind of option, when...
I woke up. I wonder how I got away. :) I'm in a good mood - these dreams always make me feel pretty awesome.
Current mood: pleased
It started out with me being an actor on a TV show about a group of people in a small underground compound after some kind of disaster above-ground. Nuclear fallout was alluded to, but never specifically discussed. I recall certain scenes in my dream where I knew the audience had been waiting a while for it, however, as the dream progressed, it became a real thing rather than a TV show (though an RPG element crept into it a little later).
It started out with me knocking down a guard and taking his massive assault rifle-thingie. Really big, powerful gun. There had been an enemy within the compound, and they had seized control! But we had had enough and it was time to fight back. I walked slowly through the compound, taking out all the guards - people were screaming and running. Guards poured out of a door towards me and I gunned them all down.
I should mention that this gun was big enough that it had a strap I put around my shoulder to help steady it. Those that were on my side would grab the weapons of the downed guards and we marched on, freeing the whole compound. One of those I freed was a young child, and as I knelt beside him, I knew the audience had been waiting a long time for this.
I told him that I was his father, which was why I had been watching out for him all this time, but I couldn't tell him because there were people after me, and if they knew he was mine, then they would take him. See, the reason certain people were after me was because I wasn't fully human - some kind of alien DNA had been implanted in me when I was younger, and I needed to teach him about his own heritage and how to hide his secret.
After I explained this to him, he gave me a big hug (he was maybe 6), and I could almost hear the audience saying, "Awwww!"
He asked me what I meant by "alien DNA", so I concentrated and 5 or 6 tentacles crept out of my skull like a crown. I explained that they could be used at short range to attach to another person's head and read their thoughts, and even control them like a puppet, but that he shouldn't use these abilities except for helping others and defending himself. I retracted them again and told him I'd still watch out for him, but he couldn't tell anyone else for now since it was still dangerous.
We finished our conversation and he ran off with the adults who had been watching him since the beginning of the show.
Suddenly, I heard screams from the front of the compound, and I knew that "he" was back. This man had been hunting me for my alien DNA since the beginning of the show, though I cannot tell you what his name was. (This was the last time I was aware it was a show - after this, it became real.)
I felt grateful my son had gotten away, and then I ran as fast as my big gun would allow me to where he was coming in. He had acquired some kind of technology, maybe alien, maybe not, that covered him and his even bigger gun in shiny metal strips.
Imagine Colossus from the X-Men, except that he did not have multiple unbroken metal bands around his body - they were broken up by vertical slashes, as if there hadn't been enough metal to make a single band, so they had to be applied a section at a time.
Also, he was in some kind of walking machine - I don't recall if he had spider legs or tank treads, but he was definitely not walking on two legs. I fired my gun into the barrel of his gun, trying to make it blow up, but the metal strips peeled away from the gun and caught the bullets, all of them. I think they had some kind of magnetic ability so as to attract the bullets, but then they flexed and threw the bullets back. The speed of the redirected bullets wasn't as fast as it had been from my gun, but it was still plenty fast enough to do damage, so I was dodging them as best I could.
I tried to shoot him in the face and around his body, with the same results. I knew I couldn't take him down with this gun, so I dropped it and ran to the back of the compound, knowing that I needed to come up with a solution quickly since the back was a dead end.
As I ran, some other people came to me and reported that they had tried grenades, and he had been immune to the explosion, throwing the shrapnel back just like he had the bullets. They had also tried magic (at this point, I recall thinking as a dreamer, There's magic here? Oh yeah, when we level up, we can take light and dark magic as skills! Yep, my dreams are awesome), to no avail. He was immune to that as well.
As I skidded to a stop at the dead end (it was actually more like a T-intersection - the hallway ended and branched out to to short rooms, one on either side), I turned left and decided to make my stand there. I suddenly remembered that I had leveled up a couple of times and so could take some extra skills! Yay! I quickly selected Light Generation and Light Control, the two Light magic skills. I didn't want the Darkness skills since I knew those were evil and I wasn't evil.
I quickly thought through my options - even if he was immune to our direct attempts to stop him, he wouldn't be immune to our indirect attempts. In other words...
I told some of the other people to slow him down while I cut through the stone ceiling in order to drop a ton of stone on him when he came around the corner. I figured it was time for us to come out of the compound and see what was going on above ground. I summoned my magic and used the intense light to cut a large section of the ceiling, leaving one little edge in for when he rounded the intersection into my line of sight. I knew that there was no way for me to avoid getting hurt in the rockfall, either, but I hoped my new light shields would be enough to offset most of it since I was prepared.
I finished barely in time - he came at me, and I collapsed the ceiling. I was knocked almost completely unconscious - I barely remembered being pulled up and out of the new hole into the sunlight by others in the compound, and I was delirious for some time. Either we had been underground long enough for any residual radiation to fade, or the disaster was never nuclear in the first place because the air was clean and the sun was shining. (When I woke up, I recall thinking, Huh, that must have been a real twist in the story for the TV audience! "It wasn't a bomb after all! Dun dun duuuunnnnn!")
I slowly regained consciousness, but when I was fully awake, I felt afraid that the guy after me had not been killed, and was still after me. But now, with the whole world in front of me, he would likely never find me again. Plus, with those two new skills, I could fly, and pretty darned fast, too! Whee!
Some time had passed, and for some reason, I had to go back to the compound - I don't recall exactly why, but I flew back into the hole I carved out and went to the front. It was then that I realized it was a trap - the guy hadn't been killed, and now with me underground again, he blocked my exit and came towards me, this time with some kind of energy shield (magical or technological, I'm not sure which) that prevented me from pulling the same trick again. I was looking around for some kind of option, when...
I woke up. I wonder how I got away. :) I'm in a good mood - these dreams always make me feel pretty awesome.
Current mood: pleased
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