It's All in the Details

I play Dungeons and Dragons. I L-O-V-E the game to no end. I had wanted to play it for years but never got a chance to. Within the first few months of being with Grendal we joined a small group before starting our own. The group we started is still going strong and we have incorporated other games into our 'play list'.

Last night, Sundays are our gaming nights, we made a decision on what we should play next. We had just finished a genre jumping game set in the Big Eyes, Small Mouth system and needed something to fill in. We decided to go back to Grendal's campaign since his work and class schedule had gotten better and the semester is nearly over. This made us pretty happy since that game had just truly gotten started and we all wanted to get back to our characters.Of course this meant my mind was going a mile a minute.

In that game I play a character by the name of Ruslan. The characters in the group, so far, consist of a human male(my character), a half-doppelganger female, a male Tibit(cat morph), a human female, a male Lizardfolk, a male gnome, and, now, a mechanized creature. Save for the mechanized being, the Lizardfolk and my character are seemingly the only ones with a major back story. The other players either haven't divulged or hinted at a story and their characters are doing these huge missions and bounties for, well, the money and the fact that one had mommy issues.  That's all well and good, and very much a reason to do things, but I look at Ruslan and wonder if his history is just too big. It's honestly what drives him to do what he does.

15-20 years prior to the game starting Ruslan's village was destroyed by a Copper dragon. To make matters worse, the dragon had raped and killed his wife as well.  All this had happened while Ruslan was away, having taken their two year old child to another village to stay with his wife's family while they began their move. When Ruslan returned and saw the destruction he searched the city for survivors. He found his wife's broken body and was quickly spotted by the dragon. Ruslan was no match and was easily pinned to the ground. The dragon, putting two and two together, began to tell Ruslan, in detail, what he had done to his village and his wife. To add insult to injury the dragon used it's acid breath to melt his left arm.

Somehow Ruslan made it back to his daughter. He told his in-laws what had happened and stayed with them while he healed. The moment he could travel, though, he slipped away with his daughter and headed towards a major city, which was well defended from such attacks. He raised his daughter alone, never telling her what had happened, and soon her memory of her mother was barely there.

Ruslan not only vowed vengence against the copper dragon he also denounced his god in favor for another. His god had not come to his aid, which was a major blow because during his younger years Ruslan was a devout paladin. Now, he served a god of justice and vengeance.

Yeah......the Lizardfolk only knows a small portion of this story, mainly Ruslan's complete and utter hatred of Copper dragons. Ruslan is very much ingrained in the city that the team calls 'home' and while I want the others to know his story, out of character, he isn't one to talk about it.

I'm worried that I put too much thought into Ruslan, which does make for a well rounded character but much of that history probably won't come to light. Which is what usually seems to happen with my D & D characters. :I

Ah well.

A Wee Bit of the Blues

I don't know what it is about today but Grendal and I had one hel of a time waking up. We slept through nearly all of his alarms. Got out of my stupor when Grendal nudged me and asked if I'd make him coffee for the morning. So, even after dragging my groggy butt out of bed and having a cup of coffee myself, I feel like I'm dragging. I don't know if it's the weather because I know I had gotten a decent amount of sleep. No waking up in the middle of the evening, but I'm still just feeling like a bump on a log right now.

This week is gonna be a busy one at work. I have nearly 40 hours, which is rare for us part time peons.  I've been feeling a little bit more like I'm in charge of this around the deli, for some odd reason, and really feeling my age. This past Sunday, while a short shift of four hours was not a happy one for a moment. Why? I had one of the higher ups refer to me as 'the help'.  : |     What now? First off, I don't get paid nearly enough to be called 'the help' nor am I watching the children or cleaning the house of a wealthy person. My opinion of the man quickly slipped into the negative. I knew he wasn't the greatest guy but it had been all decent business when he'd show up. Nope. Not now. The guy can bite me and the next time he calls me as such I will say that if he wants to call me 'the help' he needs to increase my wage a few bucks.  I'll even wear my serious face.

We've gotten some more snow around here, so my previous comments of 'Hey, it looks like spring' seems to have been thrown off. Still seeing those birds, though, and I'm able to walk outside without the cloak nearly as much as I needed during the colder days.

Touching on the notion of feeling my age, it seems like my gaming group and I are becoming 'adults'.  Out of the eight of us our age range from 21 to the mid- to late 30s.  Next year will be my 30th birthday, which I plan to have a wonderful party.  But yes, we're becoming adults.  One of the guys has finally gotten a job, in the Chicago area, in the area of massage which means his time with us on Sunday is gonna come to an end(at least for the time being). Another one of the guys is attending college in the Chicago area and his classes this semester has kept him away. The youngest of us has finally gotten a job and it seems like she'll be getting the evening shift on gaming night. Then there's Grendal and I: about to get married and Grendal having his eyes set on getting the job with the railway. We're growing up and I'm honestly a little worried. My Sunday group is made up of the people I consider my friends. Honestly, the only friends I have and the ones that are within reasonable driving distance. Work and life is pulling us apart, which I don't like.

Maybe that's what has me like this? Who knows.

I've been building a good relationship with my tarot deck. They seem to like me and their personality is coming to light(when I'm working with them, my attention is on THEM, nothing else). I need to reconnect with Odin somehow. :\  Perhaps an offering or just some time with him. Winter is usually a good time for me. For the first time I'm finding myself want Spring to come.