Long Rest : Line Shift - It All Began in a Tavern

[duckberg32 81]

Long Rest : Line Change

It All Began In A Tavern

Watson Stonebridge

 

So, the draft happened. It was a whirlwind of emotions over the course of 24 hours, but I am officially in the VHLM. For those who do not follow too closely, I was drafted back to Philadelphia in the 6^th Round. That tracks seeing as I went off the grid right after we were eliminated from the playoffs due to my injury. Where things got weird, was that the Mexico City Kings ended up coming in and trading for me to come join their roster. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the ticker across the board and my ears as I got the call. That was until I recognized the phone on the other end of the line. It was Christopher Miller, my old coach from my Pee Wee hockey days. Seems like I made an impression on him and he really wanted me on the Kings under his new regime. It also shows that the Reapers were not as enamored with me as I thought. It is a business, as they say.

 

While the season started well, things plummeted quickly. After winning our first two games, our goalie stopped showing up to practices and barely there for games. He ended up getting cut from the team but it has put us in a rough spot ever since. We are currently in the middle of a 25 game losing streak, and they are not close games. Coach has told us to use this year as a learning experience and something to fall back on moving forward. No matter how bad things may get for us later on in our careers, it will never be Season 76 Mexico City Kings bad. Personally, I've been trying to do what I can. I've put up 20 points over the first 27 games, with nine goals and ten assists. That's probably the most even I have ever been on a stat sheet.

 

First impressions are strange. A good first impression can be a fickle thing. We were on Cloud nine being 2-0 and thought we had a shot to be something special but it sank fast and showed up the errors in our ways. Bad first impression are much more difficult to fix. That's what I am currently dealing with myself and trying to take control of. We had our first session of Long Rest and Anime Protagonist was nowhere to be found. We decided to start without him but it really put me in a tight spot to start the campaign with one player already missing the session. We trekked through it (synopsis down below) and the session went well, but it was still eating at me. He ended up reaching out to me the next day apologizing that he had miscalculated that days and passed out after a practice and I said I understood, but that first impression stuck with me.

 

It took some serious self thought to process where I was with it. I realized, who was I to complain about timing? I had delayed the campaign almost two whole weeks due to my head, why couldn't he take a week off, even intentionally? I also realized just how important a good first impression is, and how imperative it is to give people an honest second chance. Because, damn, when Protagonist made it to the second session, they were the perfect final puzzle piece to the party. The game has been going amazing ever since, Tyler Walker even shows up every week with a pirate hat. He is a trip.

 

Long Rest

The term trope has started to get a negative connotation behind it in recent years. Things that become too predictable are not “fun” anymore. There are three ways to go about this fact 1. Avoid tropes altogether and sweep them under the rug. 2. Flip the tropes on their head and throw the guessers for a loop or 3. Go in headlong with the trope tongue in cheek style where everyone laughs at how predictable it is. There's a fourth option I suppose, and the one that I like the most, its the questioning option. Why did the dragon capture the princess? Why is she in another castle? Why are there so many goddamned rats? (That last one might be important).

 

 

Lets meet the intrepid party though, shall we?

 

Spoiler

Edwin Encarnacion : Human Barbarian : Pirate

 

Former Captain Edwin Encarnacion is travelling the world looking for his lost parrot, and possibly a new crew afterwards. He is realizing that the bird population of the Mad Realm is at a whopping zero. What is going on?

 

Uzax Daardendrian : Dragonborn Paladin : Soldier

Uzax has had a rough turn of luck lately. He is almost hitting middle aged for a dragonborn, and still has not lost his virginity. Its not without trying, he has, on multiple occasions, courted a female and as soon as he is about to “do the deed” something happens and they lose all interest. And Uzax is a man... well, he is a dragon man, who believes in consent. This did create a large problem in recent weeks though. There is currently a warrant out for his arrest after his courting of the Queen's handmaiden went awry.

 

Yllawynn Darora : Firbolg Rogue : Outlander

Yllawynn is a culinary enthusiast and beginner cook. Her quest to find the secrets of the legendary dish Rah-Ve-Ouly has led her to wander the lands in search of ingredients and leads. Finding her way back to her home would be a nice bonus as well.

 

Flaunk Torgolatein : Goliath Wizard : Hermit

Flaunk is an arcane prodigy. The only problem is that his form of arcane magic is an old outdated system of tattoo magic. Flaunk wishes to expand his arcane knowledge, but the only way to do so is to learn the one thing that he cannot do from his home. He has to learn how to read. Only then can he have any chance of being accepted into the College Arcanium to begin to learn larger spells and become a powerful mage. For he has had dreams of catastrophe on the horizon and he must become stronger in order to stop it.

 

 

The adventure begins as Edwin, Uzax, and Yllawynn are spending time at an inn. They have been there for about a week as separate patrons, but are aware of the other's presences. Flaunk had been there earlier in the week but it appears he has left recently without closing his tab. The bartender is not exactly happy about it. The three spend some time in the tavern talking to patrons and each other. Edwin and Uzax begin a bit of a rivalry about who is more reliable in a fight and Yllawynn tried to have an in depth culinary conversation with the cook of the inn (who literally only knows how to make stew) when a bar boy comes barreling out of the cellar, covered in bite marks, screaming about an infestation. Right behind him, multiple swarms of rats come squirming out of the opened cellar door and the team has the first combat!

 

The combat got a bit dicey, a rat swarm ended up getting a critical hit (double damage) against Yllawynn and knocked her unconscious. It was at that moment I realized that the party had very little help in regards to healing. Uzaxx has some natural healing as a paladin, but I made a mental note that I should be generous with healing supplies. Yllawynn got her revenge though as after being brought back to conciousness she got off a huge sneak attack to finish off the last of the rats. Max combat damage did come out of Edwin though, and he made sure everyone knew about it. I feel like Uzax and Edwin are going to be an interesting dynamic.

 

After defeating the rat swarms, the party explored the cellar and located a large hole in the wall leading to the depths below. Traversing the tunnels out of the inn, they reach a large sewer system under the city, they find Flaunk unconscious and tied up with rope, and three half human, half rat creatures. Something strange sure is happening in the city. And that is where session one wrapped up. The players were very excited to see what the hell was going on in the sewers and the unique rats in the cellar problem through them for a loop. But the question is... Why?

 

Anime Protagonist makes his debut next entry and the Flaunk addition sure puts a spin on how things are going to roll. I waited to level them up due to missing a player to let Flaunk get some level 1 time. I will probably give them a level up after the next session though. With things turning well for the Dungeons and Dragons campaign quickly, maybe we can even right this ship for the end of our Kings season. Playoffs are a bit of a reach this year, but maybe, just maybe, we can get some momentum going into next year. All we can do is take a chance I suppose. Never know when you'll roll a Natural 20.

 

@Advantage @Jericho @BOOM @diamond_ace

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1546 words

 

Claiming for weeks ending 4/4 4/11 

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Also week ending 4/18