Whispers in the Windstorm

But before I continue, the sleep report:

11/19 -*- 02:00 - 07:00
11/20 -*- 00:00 - 01:00
11/20 -*- 02:00 - 05:00
11/21 -*- 02:00 - 09:00
11/22 -*- 05:00 - 07:45

I think that's it. But I really haven't been tired. I think my body's starting to agree with my head - sleep's just time you could have been doing other things. :)

Sunday I woke up at 10. Nobody else was up, and I really had no idea what to do. So I just laid there, closing my eyes when a lone red-robed figure (whom I only later learned was Lori) ambled through the distant kitchen, and otherwise tried to read the spines of a bookcase across the room. After around fifty minutes, Kathy and Joe finally roused themselves to consciousness. I didn't know if they'd stay up, and I didn't know if Lori was up yet, so I kept schtum - but opened my eyes. I could swear Joe made eye contact with me twice during this time, but apparently not. Chris finally awoke, said hi, and walked into the kitchen.

(mumble)
(mumble)
(mumble) - "Jeff's still asleep."
"Jeff's up."
(Me, from other room) "Yeah, I've been awake for over an hour, now. You guys gonna come say hello?"
(step-step-step-step-step)
(FWUMP>
"Hey, why'd you throw a pillow at me?"

The nerve!

Anyway, we went to Bob Evans' for breakfast. I still can't believe the server asked how to spell Lori's last name. What - are they tracking customer frequency per person or something? I can just imagine:

"Party of 4."
"Name?"
"Johanson."
"Could you please spell that?"
"S-M-I-T-H."
"I beg your pardon?"
"It's Venezuelan."

Are they gonna call Johanson or Smith? Or Gomez, for that matter? Just being nosy is what it is - or lazy. (Then again, a linguistic vampire was only a yard away. Slurp.)

Breakfast was nice, albeit slow. My companions seemed to have a few complaints about the food and such - but being a veteran of the Chicago suburban dining scene, somewhat littered with substandard help, it seems - I was quite impressed with the speed, the memory, and the attentiveness of the waitress. Quite professional, I thought. I had blueberry pancakes, ham, and six cups of coffee. Everyone else had eggs and some form of fat. (Yes, Kathy - bacon has fat. Bacon largely IS fat. I don't care how much you burn it. You just get high-fat charcoal.)

We returned to Lori's place, and after Joe went to his family's house for a moment, I introduced the group to Puerto Rico. I gotta say that was the single best first-time game of Puerto Rico I've ever been involved in, and just a damn fine game of Puerto Rico all around. The game ended by the victory points running out. DO YOU HEAR THAT?!? THAT NEVER HAPPENS!! People started getting the gist of it right away - I went over goals, game-end, components and basic turn order and we dove right in. I think this group will enjoy a lot of German games - they seem to have a good talent for them, and we even stayed late to finish it. The result? A tie! Chris and I finish with 51 points and no money! Well done, sir! I look forward to a rematch against you all.

We left around 6PM (with Lori too depleted from her exertions to see us to the door - hmph), and Joe, Kathy and I talked in the car the whole time back. We talked Amber, D&D, history, and just how much fun we'd had the whole weekend. We talked about a possible participation in their New Year's Eve party (doubtful but not yet out of the question), perhaps joining them for another trip to Bay City for a cluster of birthdays in their group (not likely at all, since I now have THREE important birthdays to celebrate between 1/17 and 1/21), and I floated the idea of asking them to visit near the end of January (which was approved by the parental unit, as long as I clean). Rich, Noel - you might get to meet more of my players! I think you'll get along rather splendidly in some regards - both pairs of you can cite 3.5 stats until my brain goes all mushy have my utmost respect as experts in the mechanics of the d20 system.

Kathy's brain seemed to fail as a driver after she kept seeing the number 69 over and over again. Can't imagine why. Anyway, she asked me to switch places with her - apparently a random thought and certainly not an attempt to suppress and displace anything she might have been thinking about - and I drove the rest of the way to my brother's house. We said our goodbyes and they drove away.

I went inside and Mom was pretty much ready to go. We gathered her stuff up, Chris told me he's coming in Wednesday night, and he also mentioned that he has not fully completed FFX, despite my failing memory's attempt to credit him as Lightning Dodger and Butterfly Catcher. Sorry, folks - he's only human. The drive home was as swift as any midnight drive through Illinois has ever been. Talked with Myra near the Illinois border - she was tired, even with a four-hour nap. And she had this insane, irrational idea that I might be tired after 16 hours of sleep in four days. Some people just don't have an eye for detail, you know. But she's doing well, thank you.

Home and the computer beckon. I cleared my spam, said another good-bye to Lori as she appeared online, chatted with Matt (who is in town starting tomorrow), and finally caved and played like three hours of Half-Life 2. Totally awesome. But I now definitely want to finish HL1 before I play it again. So many Demons, so little time.

Lori, Kathy, Joe, Chris - I wish to thank you sincerely and completely for a wonderful weekend. I had an excellent time, many memories slotted away for storage ("Look, Lori, there's a rest area. Want me to pull over and whip it out?"), and I look forward to seeing again the only sight I've seen worth seeing in Bay City sometime soon. (Other friends of Lori and Kathy - well, you apparently didn't have the inclination to come see me. Sniff.) I only wish I could reward you folks a little with some competent discussion of 3.5 statistics - sadly, it has not been for me to devote myself to it as you have. I thank you for suffering this fool's silence as he attends the conversation of the learned.

Eat Snacky Smores - now with cinnamon, cinnamon, cinnamon and then some cinnamon.

Ah, U-Con! Finally, the glorious days have returned, albeit under new auspices.

U-Con has slightly degenerated for me over the past few years - indeed, I didn't even go last year. A lot of the friends I once knew there don't go, and a lot of the friends in the area I've lost track of. I didn't even see Pat this weekend. (Sorry, man. Write me sometime - I'm quite voluminous in my written discourse.) But this year's U-Con, thanks to Kathy, Joe and Lori, was one of the best I can recall! (That has nothing to do with anyone calling me "Mr. Sieve", either.)

Finally, the day of the Con had arrived (for us, anyway). I got up, dressed and packed, and lurked outside Kathy and Joe's room door for around twenty minutes. After ten, I noticed a light on, so I didn't knock. I loaded up Bookworm and played it while a few people came and went. Joe opened the door first, and after some loading, he noticed Lori's car down the way a bit. He walked over and they came back - my first time meeting Lori.

Random thoughts at the moment of first impression -

"She looks thinner than the picture I have."
"She looks a lot like Jenny, and not so much like Kathy as I thought."
"I'm driving now? Well, okay - but I'm not familiar with Ann Arbor streets."

We loaded into her car and drove out to the Union. Parking went very smoothly - suddenly I was not sure what the headache was about. We offloaded and went inside.

Oh, nobody's event is starting until 9:00AM? Registration isn't even open until 8:30AM? Crap. Sorry, folks.

We went down to the first floor and enjoyed breakfast at Amer's Cafe. I had a cinnamon bagel and a milk steamer - I used to have those quite a lot. Everyone else had sandwiches. Hmmm. We went up to registration, and then down to the basement to give them the layout of the food area, the bookstore, and the ATM machine. Then, on to my first event.

9AM - 1PM : Iron Dragon

Saw a lot of the Puffing Billy regulars. I don't know their names, but I know their faces and how they sound. Quite a cantankerous bunch in a joking-kidding sort of way. I was kind of happy that some of them wanted essentially a private game - they're all devastatingly good pros anyway. I sat down with a pro and two good players.

I have never started as I started that game. I built out of Eaglehawk, through the Underworld (never stopping at Uloggh) and up to Killavare and the big K-city. Yeah, my cards were kind of bad. I had a 41-payout for Pilgrims to Killavare, and I had a Dragon payout to Uderyn. (The rest of my cards were positively unmixable, I believe.) That track was nice, passed close to a number of spec-type loads, and I think if I'd gotten a mid-range load to subsidize the trip to the Dragons, I'd have made it to Bluefeld. But I didn't. FIRST, the first event in the game was Vampire Attack, which derails in the Underworld. Guess who that hit? Sigh. Then, I flushed after the pilgrim payoff. I got another pilgrim to K-country card, and the game never really improved. I held onto the Orc for over half the game, it seemed - if only because I never found anything I would need to build out for. At the end of the game, I had finally gotten a nice combo that sent me out to Wikkedde - but I never built it, as the game ended before I could build. But thank goodness it did to some respect - I had 41, and the last-place finisher had 7 - but he would have had over 100 in two turns, I think. But anyway, it gave me a chance to explore the western seaboard and Underworld strategy for opening - I could see how it might work, actually. But it would need good cards to support it - at least two guaranteed payouts.

After the game, I called Myra and checked in - she was still sleeping. Sigh. Then I went up to the dealer's room. I looked around and surveyed the wares. Underworld was offering 20% off - better than GP does normally - so I looked at their wares. And lo and behold - they had the game Kathy had asked for from the auction, Myth Fortunes! I looked over at Titan Games - yippee! They didn't have it! I could snag the one copy in the room, double-bag it to make sure the box wasn't visible, and surprise both Kathy and Lori that night!

Oh, wait a minute. They have two copies. Shi...itake.

I stood there for about three to four minutes, just annoyed. But I finally decided that the present was better than the timing. So I picked it up (and Russian Rails, which I hope to play with R'n'N soon), and went over to the Kuenzel Room, where most of the RPG events were being held. I saw all three of my cohort there, and I sat down to read the Nobilis book. I rested my eyes for a while, and I read a bit of Waste Lands. Then they came out, and we went downstairs to Subway for lunch, and I made my presentation on the way. Gleeee! (Not Gleep - he's inside the box, thank you.) I was worried that I had misremembered who had wanted what, but success was mine! (Of course, it turned out later that the box has no rules, but that is easily remedied, as Lori has access to a copy. So it's all good. Then, I rushed back up to Kuenzel for my second event - the Nobilis RPG.

3PM - 7PM : Nobilis

Not. The GM, a Cixtian Trybe, did not show up. All five players did, though. Funny that. Anyway, we talked for a bit, waited the requisite fifteen minutes, and then we talked about what to do next. One player (the GM of an event I played at Origins, actually) said that he had Betrayal at the House on Haunted Hill. I've been looking at that game for two months now, wondering if I wanted it. So I leapt at the chance to play. The others were interested as well, so he went and got it.

It's an interesting game! I might get it. You start with no actual win condition - just exploring the spooky house until Something Bad (tm) happens. At that point, you look in the master book, and compare what omen triggered the Bad Thing (each omen has a test at the end - if you roll less than the number of omens in play, the Bad Thing happens) and where that omen was drawn. This gives you a scenario, and the person to the left of the person who drew the Omen is the Traitor - and now is trying to kill the party. The traitor has a book, and the heroes have a book. Each have special rules for winning the game. In this one, the traitor was trying to suck the house down into Hell. We were trying to exorcise the spirit of the house. But because we had gotten so far in our exploration before the Bad Thing, we had almost everything we needed in play already. So it was actually painfully quick death for the traitor. But it's a rockingly funny game! One of the room tiles is the Ball Room, and it draws an event. The event card read, "You look cautiously into the closet...".

That's right - the ball room has a closet. Not a cloak room - but a closet.

(And then there were all sorts of jokes when the character who found it, a Lara Croft type, came out of the closet. Of course.)

After that game, we played James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game - otherwise known as Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond. I own the game, but I've only played once before. But I read the rules and the strategy section, and I think that gave me a lead on the others. For the game keys off pairs of doubling cards and knowing when they're safe to play. The game plays to 33 points. At the beginning of my turn, after maybe 8-10 turns in the game, I think the score was something like 8-16-14-12-my 5. Then, I play a nine-point spy and kick off two doublers successfully. A gutsy, risk-all 36 point play. Sweet victory! Compliments on my cagey play. Then, we break out...All Wound Up. I can't believe my first game of this didn't involve Brian. Too weird.

The game is good - but it has a one-shot gag quality to it. Lots of silly zombie kissing scenes and ring-around-the-rosies, and a few miswinds to amusing pratfall effect. But the players made the game fun and wacky and smart. (Though Brian - perhaps a note or two in the box on specifically how to place zombies on the board would be cool.) And after that, we'd burned through the four hours, so it was time for the next event.

7PM - 12PM - The Word of God

This was a diceless event about an FBI investigation into the murder of a rabbi. A few hiccups in getting it started, though. First, they sold seven tickets to a six-ticket event. Secondly, which the room was Kuenzel, the table was not given. So we kind of just claimed one. But the GM wisely suggested that a RP-heavy event might not benefit from all the loud conversation going on with the other five games in the room, so we started looking for a more private venue. And we found one - only to be told a LARP would start there at 8PM. Sigh. But then the con organizer, a wonderful woman named Laura whom I have had the honor of playing a few of Anne's LARPs with, gave us the Michigan Room - perhaps one of the best available.

I drew the forensic expert. I had a lot of show time at the beginning as we worked the murder scene, but I faded back as the investigation proceeded along more theological/cultural lines. I guarded the body, as I didn't want anything to happen to it and our team blamed for mishandling it. But this was a good thing, as two of the team accidentally set off a bomb and put themselves into the hospital. In the end (although the game had run on past midnight) we didn't solve the puzzle, but we came close enough that the GM said it really only would have been a matter of time. (But what we DID do was get most of the witnesses killed by not finding them soon enough.) We had suspected for a time that the three officers investigating the murder were agents of the conspiracy, and I (as the lone CIA attache) had the surviving officer disappeared for questioning and eventual...um...well, there really wasn't an eventual for her. So solly. But it turns out she was completely innocent. My bad.

And then there was the drive back from Ann Arbor to Bay City. Sheesh. I make one innocent comment about my huge...well, maybe I should let Lori tell it. After all, she felt the greatest impact from it. Again and again. Until her jaw ached, she said. But she was a good sport about it - a real trooper.

We got back to her house, and I met Chris and the-guy-with-the-bird-on-his-shoulder-who-didn't-talk-a-lot. I made my official presentation of my glad-to-meet-you/birthday gift to Lori - but it appeared at the time that she might not have a working DVD player at the moment. Oh, how my heart sank to tell her she might not be able to watch the Key To Time series right away. Really, it did. Honest. We talked for a bit and then I got the couch, Kathy and Joe got an air mattress on the floor. Oh dearie me, blessed sleep.

Eat...Snacky Smores. Yeah, that's it.