In the USA, Easter Monday is a workday. So it was working from home today, and 6:AM came sooner than I wished. The issues I left on Friday were still there on Monday. Time has moved on, and milestones are closer, and the required tasks are undone. Some panic is beginning.
I had quite a few meetings on-line. I also had the Volvo Valet come and get the car and leave me a brand-new S/60 Volvo as a free loaner until my car was done. It was time for the free 30,000-mile service. Carlos, the guy from Volvo, dropped off the loaner, having driven it with gloves on. It was hard to do the proper social distancing and fill-out all the forms. Carlos and I both must have dropped the pen twice–we both are nervous and jumpy trying to stay safe. He took my XC60 Volvo for service. Oil change, check-up, new alignment, and tire rotation, and I got it back and Carlos took the S/60 back. I will let my XC60 Volvo bake in the sun tomorrow, and then wipe it down inside.
The sparrow nest and eggs in the wreath on the door are good still. The little bird sits on the nest and flies away when we need the door. These are common tiny sparrows. We are happy to support even the local Wildlife.
I ordered lunch from La Provence, a Tuna Melt. It was wonderful. I ate it while online with my boss as we measure the amount of panic we needed. It is a lot.
I received a birthday present I bought myself: The Kaiser’s Battlefleet. This is a book published just a few years ago by the US Naval Institute and is the only book on the old German fleet. I am happy to read it today. It is more than I had hoped, including plans for some of the ships and has references to everything. I have already found some new online sources. I know the rest of you are already bored, but it is fascinating for me.
Dinner was pizza with coupons, so it was not so expensive from Domino’s Pizza delivered.
My sister, Linda, got her necklace. I sent her a lucky four-leaf clover necklace to help stay lucky. She is a nurse in infection control in Lansing, Michigan.
We then played Roll20 Dungeons and Dragon 5e. We play every Monday at 6:30 local time. We have one player that is handicapped, one who lives in Minnesota, and two here in Oregon and me. Today was the first time for a new adventure: The legendary 1970s adventure, revised for 5e rules, The Tomb of Horrors, the original version. This is an online version that runs nearly like the table-top version with all the traps and pictures updated from the line art of the 1970s. The players managed to not get killed off in the first play–The Tomb of Horrors has a very high mortality rate for Dungeons and Dragon adventures.
I needed an introduction to the adventure for my players. I wrote this to them (Acererak is the main bad guy and undead):
Acererak and I were chatting today, and he suggested that we should go old-school again and not use all of the newfangled death machines and god-creating gizmos he has tried in the last attempts. Acererak suggested in his dead voice that maybe it is time to return to our roots and provide a Tomb of Horrors with all the old ways. As it is hard to judge emotions from the skinless face, it was difficult for me to tell if he the would-be-god and face-on-the-DMG was attempting irony or if he really wanted to return to the start. “Yes, bring back the old hill in the desolate swamp” I heard in that whistling dead voice of the former time-traveling wizard. “And not the one from the book! I am not playing Joust in my throne room, again,” he said with what could be emotion—again it is hard to tell from the undead. I summoned up twenty Efreeti and had them wish the Tomb back into existence. We had stored a copy in a small bubble universe for them to use as a reference—Acererak knows the value of good back-ups. Acererak and I then toured the tomb, with him reminding me where not to step. It was clear that some of the artwork needed improvements and some of the monsters, “Are you kidding me—that is what we went with,” was not up to Acererak’s expectations. Fifteen surviving Efreeti completed the updating. Ten escaped after they wished their memory of the work away. The final touches, smell of long lost halls, cobwebs, and dust everywhere took a few more spells from Acererak who cannot leave the final work to anyone but himself.
I then sealed the tomb and left a few hints. Next, I headed to the Yawning Portal for a brew. There I tried to hide a few undead with maps that lead to the tomb. I was spotted by the proprietor with a skeleton and a map—it is not that strange of sight at the Yawning Portal to bring undead with you, but a map, that got attention.
The proprietor grabbed a map from me after running up and knocking one of my undead into the yawning pit. “Not him again,” he said with a snarl. “Last time the death-curse cost me my best customers,” he said quite unhappily waving over some rough types to remove me and my undead slaves from his facilities with likely unnecessary roughness.
“It is not like that,” I begged him. “We are going back to the original this time,” I explained as the room filled with folks who were not happy about the death curse thing. “This is the old tomb,” I said with various positive body language for different races and a smile. The proprietor raised his hand and the crowd stopped and raised an eyebrow and said, “Joust?” I quickly wet my lips and said, “No, the original.” The crowd went back to what they were doing and the rough types smiled and patted me, with a nearly back-breaking strength, on the back. “Round on Acererak, no make that two rounds,” I heard the proprietor call out. I placed the maps and undead.
I paid the bill, quite large, in ancient gold. “These are nearly collector items,” said the proprietor eyeing the coinage. “You could give me their numismatic value for the bill,” I said. The proprietor laughed and added twenty-percent to the bill for me being a smart-ass.
The maps and Acererak are ready. I could hear that infinitely dry voice say in my mind, as I finished a strange brew called “Dead Guy Ale” from some unheard of place—Oregon: “Somewhere under a lost and lonely hill of grim and foreboding aspect lies a labyrinthine crypt.”
We got started with the new adventure, and everyone appeared to enjoy the change of pace.
Returning to the reports, more than one-thousand five-hundred people lost their battle with the virus today. We also heard that Oregon, Washington, and California are beginning the planning to start up again. Let’s go with this old song as we remember all who we lost and the hope of an end to this comes: Let It Breathe on Me.
