#best Quest 3 charging dock

[crazydiscostu]

ZyberVR Quest 3 Sky Tower Charging Dock

The ZyberVR Quest 3 Sky Tower Charging Dock is a formidable addition to the landscape of VR accessories for Quest 3 users. This device promises not only efficient charging but also an aesthetic upgrade to any VR setup, combining practicality with a touch of futuristic design. Lets get into it! Product supplied for review purposes T3 Sky Tower Charging Dock The ZyberVR Quest 3 Charging Dock…

[ressing]

More about mass effect ocs pls?

ah right, thank you for the reminder sorry im so late lol i cant remember their names or if i even thought of names for any of them, but i was super into them for a time

human spectre because of course, didnt like how things devolved into politics too much with the council, spectres werent just spies they were also sent out on help missions and were like the vigilantes of the galaxy, or so she had thought but then it was red tape and you cant do this or that because itll look bad toward potiental allies blah blah so she stole her own ship back from dock at the citidel and basically went off on her own to form a crew and try to help like she always thought they were supposed to. side note 3 characters in and i remember the basis, its after me3 and shepard has destroyed the reapers and now while the galaxy and the citadel are rebuilding opportunistic space pirates start entering the system and taking out refugee convoys and medical ships and the council instead of doing anything refuse to try to fix the problem because any acts of aggression in the newly reforming civilizaed galaxy will almost guaranteed to result in a all out war.

the asari, the tech specalist who cant do much biotics unlike most asari, was passed up as a spectre due to a hot streak and just worked for c sec or whatever they were called ill be real its been YEARS since ive really written them all dow, but when the human spectre gets thrown in the brig for telling the council off and basically going rogue in their eyes they meet because she in charge of the cells that day lol, but some big speech about justice and being able to tell your bosses to fuck off shouldnt land you in jail and she agrees and helps the spectre break out but they both kinda realize that this is like... the end of their lives on the citadel and will be wanted fugitives from here on out but its better then sitting twiddling their thumbs while the galaxy goes to shit.

the turian quarian, quarian fleet finds a turian ship adrift and are going abuot searching it and clearing it out to add it to the flotilla as a new ship (i dont know if quarians actually do this but yolo) and onboard they find a baby turian and one of the search party kinda.. adopts her, doesnt wanna give her up due to her own issues with having kids and wanting to have a family she sorta puppy dog eyes everyone into letting her keep this baby, but of course being kept in sterile enviroments all the time your immune system tends to shut down and she started needing the full suits like quarians do. she joined the crew after on the citadel (during the daring escape/steal a ship mission the spectre does) after being saved by a different quarian and then talked into joining. was getting a lot of shit about her being a turian playing dress up as a quarian but shes fully like "uh but i am a quarian see the suit i was born on the flotilla?" joins the crew as a way to help find who she really is (soul searching quest)

the other quarian, this quarian is a biotic (which i also dont know if quarians can be but yolo) and only found out when he and his like best friend are sent on their quarian life mission thing to bring back to the flotilla, but his best friend came onto him and when he rejected her she flipped and like attacked him and he was just trying to hold her back honest he didnt mean his biotics to go off like that she was his best friend of course he wasnt TRYING to kill her it was an accident! so then hes on the citadel hiding in shady bars and back alleys kinda stepping into random muggings and assaults to try to redeem himself to himself and steps into the turian quarian getting mugged and saves her and is afterward also recruited to the ship by the spectre.

THE KROGAN now this one im upset about because i cant remember his name and its so GOOD HES THE BEST him and the turian quarian are my favorites. he was doing that puberty ritual against the giant worm, you know grunts best mission, and like during three when you walk through old krogan ruins and you find out they were this smart race before destorying themselves and their world in nuclear war? yeah well this krogan found out the same thing, during his giant worm fight it caused an earthquake and he was swallowed up into the ruins of his homeworld, thought dead his teammates left him and he just sorta steeled himself and went about trying to survive and get out. took a while for his eyes to get used to the darkness and after years and years in the dark his eyes are like only used to the dark now so he wears riddick style glasses. but he also found all these old ruins and books and poems and writing and religion and after years of being down there he suddenly had found a den of those weird lizard dogs vulvas or whatever their called vespas thats it, he managed to like tame the pack using recovered knowledge from the ruins and used them to lead him back out of the darkness through their own tunnels. hes now a messiah like dude on the citadel doing preaching about non violence but uh.. isnt against using violence to achieve non violence. argue it with him and he will headbutt you until you agree not to be violent, see there he was right all along, the strongest gets to say what goes and hes stronger and he says get the fuck along. his name was a one word holy esqe word like redemption or resolution or something and IM SO MAD I CANT REMEMBER HES THE BEST ONE just picture a big krogan guy in heavy armor but also draped in like a toga with a pack of VARREN (i remembered) and also little black sunglass/goggle thing. he joined the spectre on the promise that theyre gonna make the galaxy safer and better for everyone

the salarian, female salarian which are usually guarded on the homeworld for breeding or whatever that lore was, really hated the whole idea of being kept safe or like doing medical or science work, so she sorta jumped ship and became an arms dealer, you see this huge hulking krogan sized armor walking toward you and the visor opens up and its this fucking frog thing half your size and not even half the size of a krogan, jumping around doing scrobatics is boring and tiring and really if i can just wear my huge custom made armor ill never be hit by a bullet ever!

a biotic volus who works like a merchant for the group offering quests and discounts to friends (the crew) just asks for passage occasionally, always seems nervous and kinda shady, just wants to be safe from pirates stealing his goods and wants the galaxy back in working order and these guys seem to be doing a better job making space safer for someone dealing in moving vast quantities of merchandise around.

and finally on the ship are the stoways; a batarian and a "freed" (hacked) geth, they are actually kinda up there in rank space pirates in their own regard and realized when they were in a bad spot so played along as crew members wanting to bring peace to the galaxy too while sending out info to the space pirates they know will be around and tip them off something is happening

the geth has stickers all over it and graffiti and is only like half itself, its like half locked down by the batarian chick to be a body guard thing, if it could control itself it would most likely stick with her as it does actually like her but would probably be more vocal about disagreeing with some aspects of their "jobs"

the batarian was just some girl because i went "you dont see females of these species often so ill make one of my ocs that, and she will be a cool lesbian pirate hanging out with a cool geth"

[nordquestv]

Elevating Your Meta Quest 3 Experience: Essential Accessories for Comfort, Convenience, and Longevity! 🎮✨

Virtual reality experiences are getting more immersive, and the Meta Quest 3 is at the forefront of this evolution! While the device itself delivers impressive functionality, enhancing it with the right accessories can take your experience to a whole new level. From comfort-focused head straps to convenient charging docks, these add-ons ensure that your VR sessions are smooth, comfortable, and uninterrupted.

1. Boost Comfort with the Best Quest 3 Headstrap 💆‍♂️

When it comes to immersive VR, comfort is key. The Quest 3, while revolutionary, can feel a bit heavy during extended play. That’s why upgrading to the best Quest 3 headstrap is one of the most impactful modifications you can make. Premium headstraps offer improved weight distribution, reducing strain on your neck and allowing you to lose yourself in the game without constantly readjusting. Many upgraded straps also feature cushioned padding and easy-to-adjust sizing, perfect for anyone looking to dive into extended VR sessions with ease.

Choosing a comfortable headstrap is particularly beneficial if you plan on using your Quest 3 for physical VR games or workouts, as these often require quick movements. A good strap keeps the headset in place, letting you move freely without discomfort.

2. Prolong Playtime with a Battery Pack 🔋

Running out of battery in the middle of an exciting game can be frustrating, but the solution is simple: a battery pack. Several battery packs are designed specifically for the Quest 3, fitting seamlessly with the headset without adding too much bulk. With a battery pack, you can extend your playtime significantly, ensuring that you won’t have to cut your sessions short to recharge.

Battery packs also help to balance out the headset’s weight, similar to the upgraded headstraps. The added weight at the back provides extra stability, which can make a world of difference in terms of comfort, especially if you’re engaging in high-energy VR activities. Battery packs come in various capacities, so be sure to pick one that offers enough extra hours to suit your gaming style.

3. Keep It Charged and Ready with a Quest 3 Charging Dock ⚡

Having a Quest 3 charging dock is a game-changer for anyone who wants a hassle-free way to keep their headset powered up. These docks are specifically designed to accommodate the Quest 3, holding it securely while delivering a steady charge. Instead of fumbling with cables every time you finish playing, you can simply place your headset in the dock, ensuring it’s always ready for your next session.

Most charging docks also have a sleek, modern look that complements the Quest 3, so it won’t just be practical—it’ll look great as part of your setup! Additionally, many docks are equipped with fast-charging capabilities, so you’ll be back in the virtual world quicker than ever.

4. Enhance Your Experience with Prescription Lenses and Face Cushions 👓

For those who wear glasses, VR headsets can sometimes be uncomfortable. Thankfully, prescription lenses for the Quest 3 allow for a clearer view without the need for glasses, while face cushions add an extra layer of comfort. Both accessories improve the user experience, making VR accessible and comfortable for everyone.

Conclusion: Build Your Perfect VR Setup Today! 🌟

Equipping your Quest 3 with these must-have accessories ensures that every VR session is comfortable, immersive, and convenient. Whether it’s a more stable headstrap, a reliable battery pack, or a sleek charging dock, each addition elevates your VR setup, making it more enjoyable and personalized.

Ready to explore these essential accessories? Visit this site to find the best options and take your VR experience to the next level. With the right setup, there’s no limit to what you can achieve in the virtual world!

[onedirectdeals]

ZYBER RGB Charging Dock for Meta Quest 3 Accessories, Fast Charging Station with 2 Rechargeable Batteries for Oculus Quest 3, VR Headset Holder Stand & Controller Mount

Price: Buy Now Last Updated: From the brand We are a group of enthusiasts who love VR hardware and come together to provide the best experience for virtual reality hardware users. We trust virtual reality is going to change the gaming experience and the way you see the world. Our mission is to make it as comfortable and practical as possible. Batteries ‏ : ‎ 2 AAA batteries required.…

[graceslavenderhaze]

sunshine

{he’s so pretty, I physically couldn’t resist myself. here’s some fluff because I’m on edge about the season finale.}

synopsis: after coming back from being captive from the shadow man, connor and the reader have a hard time readjusting to life after the dark. 

reader notes: reader is non gender specific so anyone can read this and also luke’s sister this can be biological, adopted however you see fit! 

warning: anxiety, trauma, a little bit of angst if you squint but happy ending!

It was a bit traumatizing if you were honest, seeing a monster from something you thought only existed in nightmares first possess your boyfriend to torment you and your friends, then slowly pick your friends off one by one. Until it was only your brother and you left. After that it’s all fuzzy, it happened so fast. You barely had time to process anything before you both had acted on everything to save your friends and your own lives’. According to the internet it was trauma induced amnesia. That was the closest you’d get to closure. 

Other than venting to the other members of the midnight society. It wasn’t as if you could tell anyone. They’d barely believe you. Your brother and you tried to explain what had happened to your dad but he hardly believed you. You couldn’t blame him. If you hadn’t lived through it, you probably wouldn’t believe yourself. Due to everything that had happened in your quest to defeat the shadow man, you and all of your friends were grounded. Your parents suggesting that you’d needed time away from each other to realize your wrong doings and make up for said wrong doings. 

You felt trapped. It’d only been three hours of seemingly endless grounding sentence. Your phone, laptop, and remote to your tv had been taken so you’d been left to your own devices for pure entertainment. But you can only stare out the window so long before you want to scream. So you decided to redecorate your room. It was too dark in the corners, and even though the shadow man was gone it was still going to be a long time before you were able to sleep in a dark room comfortability again. Before any of you were able to be okay in the dark again. 

You looked back at the chaotic but somewhat comforting array of fairy lights you’d strung up around your room. Around the doorframe of your closet which was now open so the light could lightly shine into it, then in the parallel corner the lights ran to your desk. Another identical strand wrapped around the mold of the door of your bedroom, then over your bed, and then ending over your dresser. The light yet protective purple blaze felt enough. Enough to temporarily distract you from how bad things had been, in all the chaos you never let yourself break. Here in the comfort of your own room, the fairy lights glowing surrounding you, several tears began to make their way down your cheeks. 

Suddenly there’s a knock on the door, you clear your throat and then get up to open it. Expecting it to be your dad or your brother. There was no surprise when you saw your brother, holding both your phones. “ midnight society meeting, dad’s passed out.” he said handing your phone back to you. 

“who called it?” You croaked out, your voice slightly rasped. “who do you think?” he said rhetorically. A moment of silence washed over the two of you. The only person the two of you had been worrying about since they’d disappeared. Connor. You took a deep breath. 

“He’s Connor, the real Connor. We don’t have to be scared anymore, everything’s going to be alright.” Luke said. You knew he was the real Connor, you felt it. It was this indescribable feeling that you felt once you locked eyes on him. But was everything going to be alright?

“It’s not about Connor, it’s about everything else, i’ve never felt so scared in my life. I honestly have zero desire to listen to scary stories when my fucking life has felt like one recently.” You spilled out to your brother. He was slightly taken aback, that was the most you’d said in the past forty eight hours. After coming home you’d gone silent. Only muttering three word sentences at most. 

“So don’t listen to the scary stories but you have to talk to Connor, you two are miserable without each other. You balance each other out.” he said before giving you space and going back to his room. Once back in his room, Luke texted the group chat that excluded you to let them know that their plan was in motion. 

Lacing up your shoes, you shrugged on a jacket and then snuck out your window. Something you’d picked up from dating Connor. Then making your way to the boat dock where the midnight society meetings were held. When you got to the door you started to second guess why you came, this exact spot was where you watched two of your best friends and her brother disappear. Everything in you was screaming to leave. But something in you was whispering to go in. Pushing past your feelings and the doors you make your way upstairs of the boat dock. 

Looking exactly as it had been left the trap for the shadow man sat still and mirrors surrounding. Taking a deep breath you walked further into the room. Goosebumps rising over your skin, your favorite place had instantly caused your blood to run cold and now everything was different, like it or not. The stairs of the boat dock creaked, you whipped around. Relaxing instantly when you saw that it was just Connor. He made his way over to you. Once he was within arms reach, you launched yourself onto him, having zero desire to let go. Eventually, the hug broke apart. 

“There’s no midnight society meeting is there?” You asked. A shy smile spreads across Connors face as he shakes his head. “ I just didn’t know how else to break you out of your prison ward, plus it wasn’t hard to convince everyone else to help.” he said as he brushed a piece of your hair behind your ear, letting his hand caress your cheek. Leaning into his touch and holding onto his wrist gently. If you could relive a moment forever and ever. Any moment with Connor would suffice, but this one? It would be a shoe in. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” You didn’t have to be specific, you both knew what the it implied. Connor removed his hand from your cheek, he began to mindlessly wander the room. You knew he was dodging your question and you couldn’t blame him.

“Do you remember the last storm? My dad had been away for a fishing trip and your dad was at an away wrestling meet with Luke. So you came over to my house because you were terrified of being home alone in a storm.” Nostalgia washes over you as you start to remember that day,  as you started to walk over it had already started storming so by the time you showed up it looked like you had swam there. He’d given you some of his clothes so you didn’t get cold from being soaking wet. 

“Honestly, I would’ve been alright on my own. I just like being around you.” You admitted ready for him to make a joke or two. Turning around, He looks at you and smiles. Connor had a tendency to smile looking at you but who could blame him? 

“After a few episodes of whatever we were watching, we lost power and then when our flashlights were dead you said that we’d be fine because eventually the sun would come up, and the worst would be over.” You both had been waiting for sunshine for several hours before it shines through the windows of the Stevens house hold. Your phones discarded for emergency flashlight purposes but you were so wrapped up in each other you had forgotten they were still charged. 

“When i was in the dark, the only thing that kept me going was that. At first i thought it was him taunting me or something. But it was hope. You saying that eventually the sun would come up and the worst would be over.” Connor had stopping wandering, making his way back to you. Taking your hands in his.

“You’re my sunshine, thinking back to that night and every time i’ve ever been with you it just kept me going. I knew you were going to get me out of there. Cause let’s be honest you’re always fixing my messes.” Laughing at the last part your heart fluttered. 

“I love you.” You jumped straight off that cliff not knowing if you’d be caught or not.

“I love you too.” You were caught.

--

I am really happy with how this turned out! <3

[gringolet]

top five most functional adults in arthuriana

lord thats a toughie lets see

5. bedivere, never onscreen because i assume he is busy offscreen, doing taxes. ranked this low for his one big notable fuck up (failing to dispose of sword when instructed)

4. lucan: invented the dewey decimal system. never does anything but that just means he never does anything dumb.

3. bors, just a nice tired dad trying his best to deal w his awful insane family. points docked for 0 percent survival rate of people in his charge on the grail quest

2. luned, smart and sly and has magical objects. loyal and a very very good wingman. points deducted for suggesting a woman marry the man who killed her husband like, within hours of his death. read the room.

1. tie between guinevere and lore. guinevere is a consumate manipulator living out a court drama but lore, she has a sword. she goes on a quest. i like her.

[lizzy-frizzle]

So, I haven’t written anything in quite a long time...about 6 months or more I think. But I got some creativity, and channeled it into a small thing, hopefully the start of more content.

So have a little piece on Alice Frizzle, an Au Ra from the black shroud

I step off the airship and took her first steps into Limsa Lominsa. Mom told me to introduce myself to the various adventurer guilds, so I guess I find that first.

An unknown voice rings out, “Lizzy!”

I looked around, no one else had gotten off the ship yet.

“Lizzy, I’m hurt! Has it really been so long that you’ve forgotten me?”

A person approaches me, he has pink and purple hair, and is brandishing some scissors.

“Uh, excuse me...are you talking to me?” I ask.

“Of course I am-” the man comes closer, “wait...what happened to your eye? Are you ok?”

Maybe he knows mom?

“I think yo-”

“-And you look so much younger! You’ve got to tell me your secret.”

“HEY!” I shout, “You’re probably thinking of my mom.”

“Your...mom?” he thinks for a moment, “Lizzy Frizzle had a kid??”

He seems shocked, how long has mom been hiding?

“As for my eye,” I continue, “I was born blind in my right eye.”

He looks like he wants to ask a question, but doesn’t, “I see...”

A beat, his eyes go wide, “Wait I didn’t mean! I’m sorry!”

“Listen, I’m sure you’re aware of what my mom can do to you. Well let me tell you that I can do double the damage she can. Have you ever had your teeth knocked out, healed back in, then knocked out again?” I don’t break eye contact.

“Ah, let me start over, my name is Jandelaine. I’m the world famous hairdresser, and your mom was one of my favourite customers before she vanished. I sincerely apologize for my first impression, and assure you that no such transgressions will continue.” He bows.

I wait a moment, “Alright. My name is Alice. Alice Frizzle. Which way is the adventurer’s guild?”

“Why, I’ll do you one better, and take you there! It’s the least I can do after that mess.”

I look him up and down and consider whether it’s worth trusting him.

“What color is my mom’s hair?”

“That’s a trick question, I refuse to believe she kept the same color since I last saw her. Why, she would go through 3 colors in a week if she was stressed!”

Alright, so he does know her, “Ok, let’s go to the guild. Mom told me to speak with whoever is in charge.”

“So, following in her footsteps eh? She was one of the best adventurer’s I’ve seen! It’ll be a hard mantle to take on. But I expect no less from you.”

He continues on a bit about mom, and her accomplishments. I start to tune him out as I look out at the docks. I hear the seagulls overhead. The wind on my face. This is a much nicer feeling than that stuffy forest.

I tune back in for a moment, “I also heard she killed 3 primals by herself with a broken arm!”

“What? No way. How do her stories get embellished like that?” Mom was never one to brag about what she’s done.

“Well, bards are all over, perhaps they are mis-remembering the stories. At any rate, she certainly is impressive.” he continues his talks.

Maybe this is why mom moved to the middle of the forest.

~~

Jandelaine waves me off muttering something about not being allowed in.

A pink haired miqo’te hops the counter and starts running towards me.

“Oh, I know that face anywhe-” the lady stops herself from hugging me, “Wait, no...Lizzy?”

“Alice.”

“Frizzle?”

“Frizzle.”

“My goodness! I didn’t know she had kids! By the looks of your clothes and the cane on your back, I take it you’re introducing yourself to the guilds.”

“Ah, yea..” I mutter.

“The name’s I'tolwann! I’ve helped your mum out several times! Boy did she look lost some of them..”

She’s very loud, and very pink, “So you’re in charge of this place?” “Not technically. Right this second sure.”

“Well, can you send me on a quest?”

She thinks, and her ear twitches, “Ah, I think I have just the thing!”

[littlemissgeek8]

Okay I just wanted to say I love your dnd art like so much!! It’s amazing!!! If you don’t mind me asking, can you summarize what you’ve done in your campaign with Jemima Appleblossom so far? She’s so cute and I would literally die for your PC

Aww!! Thanks! It’s always a joy to run into people who likemy characters! :3 I can totally give you a summary of our campaign thoughunfortunately it is 30 episodes atthe time of writing, with 31 going up later today, and I was unable to shrinkit to a reasonable size. I’ll put it under a cut to save on people’s dashspace, and I’ll also put links here for the youtube playlists in case there’sanyone who’d like to watch it instead of just reading about it. XD And for anyone interested in the series, this recap will catch you up in time for today’s episode to go out!

For those not wanting to read through all 8,930 words ofthis, TL;DR: “Ragtag group of adventurers get pulled into another world wherethey find themselves rubbing elbows with gods, fighting monsters, makingfriends, reviving demigods and unwittingly unleashing some massively dangerousthings onto the planet. In between accidentally dying a few times.”

[Ghostwolf] [EscoNitz] [CriticalHat]

Well, we started off in Parnast, sent by our individualfactions to investigate a missing wizard. My halfling bard Jemima is a Harper,same as our other bard, the human Gineye. Our other party members included Lei,the Tortle Paladin, Zuradar the Tiefling ranger, Lilystra the half-orcbarbarian and Zareem, the Aasimar warlock (who works for the Zhentarim, theonly other faction I remember.) On our way to find the missing wizard, we raninto a bunch of Kobolds who attacked us, but one Kobold --with distinctivewooden legs and one arm-- was trapped inside a cart by his own people and gaveus some assistance. When we finally found the wizard he was in the process ofsummoning something that turned out to be a Water Weird, which subsequently atethe whole party, ending the first session.

We woke up a week later inside an infirmary, which we soondiscovered was in an underwater city—the water weird didn’t just eat us, ittransported us basically to another dimension far away from Faerun. Seeing usas adventurers, one of the triton soldiers from the town we woke up in took us upto the surface to the port town of Audio Bay. (I might be spelling it wrong,sorry, I don’t have good notes this far back.) There, a dwarven merchant namedJonah gave us a quest to track down some missing gear that was stolen from him,a quest which lead us to a well with a Zhentarim symbol on it (surprisingly,since none of our factions exist in this dimension) and inside said well, weencountered a “dungeon” of a dubious nature filled with hobgoblins and bugbearsin leather armor and chain shirts. (Yes it was a kink dungeon, no I don’t wantto remember much about it. XD) After thoroughly stomping everyone involved, aminiscule orc calling himself “Bob” entered the room, shouting at us forhurting his people (whom he then revived with no effort at all.) We told him ofour mission and he agreed to let us take the stolen weapons back, along withgifting us a mysterious box filled with magic coins and a magical shield to ourpaladin. It wasn’t until later that we discovered that “Bob” was actually thegod of slaughter, not until after Zareem managed to roll a natural 100 and hithim with an eldritch blast.

As we left the dungeon, we were greeted by a pack of strangelooking wolves and a tall, blond man in a black coat who asked us to give himthe weapons we’d retrieved. He wouldn’t accept “no” for an answer, nor did wehave much time to try convincing him that we’d been assigned to collect thembefore our hair-trigger warlock decided to cast Charm Person on this newcomer.Unfortunately, the man was carrying a Staff of Charming and nullified the spellbefore it could affect him, before wildshaping into an earth elemental andproceeding to do his best to squash us. It wasn’t until Zareem and Zuradarmanaged to capture one of the “wolves” who turned out to be another druid thatthe man relented, changing back and calling off his friends. He admitted hisactions were hasty and together we traveled back to Jonah’s store with thestolen weapons, where it was revealed that the weapons were a special orderfrom the druid himself, Edan. In return for the weapons, Edan financed someupgrades for our group through the organization he works for (including a sweetring for Jemima which changes her vicious mockery from a d4 to a d6.)

The next day saw Edan taking us to an open air market on thedocks to shop around for supplies, before taking us to a tavern and treating usto lunch. (It was a pretty low-key session though there was a lot ofnon-story-important horseplay.) At the tavern we ran into the druids we’dfought the day before as well as a familiar face: Hanzi, the Kobold with thewooden limbs. While we ate, Edan mentioned that the druids, Hanzi and himselfwere all from Faerun originally and offered to let us join the organizationthey were working with when they went back to their base at the end of themonth. Shortly afterwards (after Jemima spent some time performing for thetavern patrons) Edan left the tavern, citing a “call” from his celestial parent(which Jemima immediately recognized, due to her own bardic master having beenan Aasimar as well.) Before they could pursue, the party was given a quest toinvestigate something in the tavern’s cellar, which turned out to be a wholeton of giant spiders (and a lot of screaming from Jemima) as well as a mimicwhich had taken the place of a box intended for Jonah.

As we returned to Jonah’s shop with his shipment, a heavystorm had started rolling in off the ocean, and after checking in with Jonah(and asking him if anyone would have been trying to kill him by sending him amimic) we headed out to the courtyard to find Edan standing by a scorched areawhere several lightning strikes had taken place. One of the lightning strikesleft behind a glowing orb that turned into a box which he quickly pocketed andrefused to tell us what it was, but we learned some troubling information aboutthe how though the portal we’d come through was a common occurrence, somethinghad interfered with it and kept his organization from closing it on time. Afterthings nearly came to blows between him, Zareem, Zuradar and Gineye, we allheaded off to prepare for whatever the next day would bring and eventuallysleep.

The next day was stormy again, but we set out with Edan anda few others to the docks, hoping to stave off whatever horrible thing wasapproaching the town from the portal in the ocean. Almost immediately, Edanflew off towards a monster out in the ocean, leaving us to deal with a largenumber of minor water elementals who did a good deal of damage before welearned we could destroy them by damaging the summoning circles they came from.Meanwhile, Gineye (with his Special Eyes) noticed “Bob” and several cloakedfigures watching the proceedings from the air nearby. As we defeated theelementals, a massive bolt of lighting shot from the storm over the ocean,right into the monster Edan was fighting, killing it and throwing Edan’slifeless body onto the docks nearby. Jemima tried in vain to use Healing Wordto revive him, only to be shut down by someone sending her a clear mentalmessage that she was wasting her time. Soon afterwards we found ourselvesfacing the same Wizard we’d been sent to find, who had merged himself with thewater weird. The battle was short and fairly one-sided as we all charged himbefore he could do much, eventually leading him to attack Lei one-on-one.Nobody’s entirely sure what happened but the wizard disappeared and Lei learnedhe could shoot a beam of radiant energy from his mouth.

That concluded, the realization of what happened to Edan hithome as a few of us tried to go over to him, only to be stopped by two of thecloaked figures Gineye had seen. One, a massive bugbear went to solemnlycollect the body, while the other (a skeletal form we couldn’t see well) tooksome glowing orb from Edan’s head before leaving. We’d managed to save thecity, but we’d lost a friend in the process. The next week was spent helpingthe city rebuild from the attack, though for Jemima it was a week of privatemourning and a grim realization that the fairy tale heroics she’d dreamed ofwere only a fantasy in the face of harsh reality. Then, we were called in toJonah’s again, only to find “Bob” sitting there, along with a large box and thedruids we’d met earlier. He gave us a mission we couldn’t really reject—travelwith Jonah and the druids to take the mysterious box to a town calledSylvenstand, checking in with a few towns along the way. When asked why hechose our group to do this, he admitted that we’d been specially requested, orrather Jemima had been requested for this job and it followed that everyoneelse would come too. In addition, Jemima was given three gifts—the owl-headedStaff of Charming that Edan had used, his bag of holding, and Bob’s holy symbolon her wrist as a sign of protection. And so, the group set off cross-countryto Sylvenstand in an enchanted cart with a box they weren’t allowed to touch(or let anyone else touch either, save for one contact they were told to meet.)

Their first destination was Flatol, where they were sent toinvestigate some reports of some strange goings on. This lead the party toinvestigate a crypt, one decorated with symbols and writing praising Orcus, andinside we found the necromancer that we’d been sent to find who almostimmediately trapped us into seeing our worst fears, but before anyone couldreally dwell on them, the Necromancer himself was murdered by the thingconjured up by Hanzi’s fear: a terrifying shadowy cleric. The battle thatensued was brutal, with us trying to defend against the cleric’s powerfulattacks or healing each other as best we could, but in the end the nightmarecleric was defeated. However, the cost of fighting him turned out to be Lei’slife, for the killing blow on the cleric sent our unconscious paladin into hisfinal death saves (Thanks, Zareem for not moving your Shatter spell somewhereelse.) However, instead of outright dying, a glow surrounded him, bringing himback but without his hard shell and with a much longer tail. The coins we’dreceived from “Bob” on our first meeting with him had each bonded with one ofus and this was the first time they’d revealed their powers: saving the bearerfrom death but bringing them back with a change or two.

We ushered our now semi-naked Tortle back to the cart andprepared to move on (though not until after a horrifying lunch in which ourTiefling nearly petrified several people with some of the dishes he’d made and did actually petrify himself for a shorttime.) Then, we moved on to Glens, the next town on our journey. TheNecromancer we’d run into had gone to Flatol from Glens and we were informedthat another necromancer had been in town as well, along with a frighteningbounty hunter who was hunting him down. Our search for clues turned up little,but as we all went to meet up in the town square, a huge hulking barbarianleaped down into our midst, wielding a massive axe. We weren’t much of a matchfor him, until Lei managed to grapple him, giving Gineye a chance to use a boltof petrification he’d picked up earlier. The Barbarian failed his save hard,turning to stone before our eyes, but as Gineye removed his hood, a familiarface stared back—Edan’s, thoughframed by dark hair instead of blond. Needless to say, Jemima didn’t take itwell, and we carefully moved the petrified man back to the cart to be restored.Before we left, however, the axe the barbarian had been using decided to attachitself to Gineye, revealing itself to be not only cursed but sentient as well.

A cleric who was currently traveling with us managed torestore the barbarian, and a conversation later revealed that he was not, infact, Edan. He introduced himself as Ivan the Lucky, a bounty hunter who hadbeen chasing down the necromancers we had run into, and he’d been working longenough to have a solid reputation, so the chances of him being Edan withamnesia or something was extremely low. However, we couldn’t let him leave asone of the jobs in our contracts was to investigate the grisly murders in Glensand there was a good likelihood he was involved somehow. So, with Ivan in towwe headed off to the next town, Crance, which was currently embroiled in arebellion of some kind. However, we had to stop there to meet up with acontact, and since we weren’t given a description of the contact we had tocross our fingers and hope we found him. A couple of men in a tavern claimed tobe the people we were looking for and agreed to come back to the wagon inexchange for some help with a situation they were in. It was only after givingthem the information we had and letting them inspect the box (which thankfullythey didn’t tamper with) that we found out they were not, in fact, our contact,but a mysterious half-orc in town might be. They were with the resistanceagainst the tyrannical government in the area and they directed us to a guardshack where the half-orc and some of their own people were being held.

Our group headed over there and found the guards to besurprisingly easy to defeat, and in the cells were a group of heavily injuredresistance fighters and one massive, angry owlbear. The half-orc however wasnowhere to be seen, until we headed to a room in the back. There, we found himstanding over the corpse of the head guard, pulling a knife out of thestill-warm body. The distinctive red teardrop tattoo on his face marked him asthe person we were searching for, since it matched the mark Jemima had receivedfrom “Bob” at the start of our quest. The half-orc, Grug, followed us back tothe cart to properly inspect the box and pay us for the tasks we’d alreadycompleted, but took an immediate dislike to the currently sleeping Ivan. Heexplained that Ivan was Edan’s Alternate—somewhat but not quite the same personborn in another dimension, though many differences in environment and home lifecan lead to wildly different characteristics, jobs and lives. He then warned usto keep Ivan away from the box, stating that it was dangerous to have himaround when Edan was in such a “weakened state.” Yet again, Jemima freaked out,demanding to know what he meant by that before Zareem completely stopped theconversation by boasting about how Bob approved of him b/c Zareem had managedto hit him. In a fit of rage, Grug dragged Ivan’s sleeping body away andunleashed a bunch of monsters on us, since pissing off a paladin by boastingthat you’d hit his god is probably the worst idea ever.

Once the monsters were defeated we raced outside after Grugand Ivan, finding Ivan yet again possessed by Gineye’s axe as he’d been thefirst time we fought him. After getting the axe back from Ivan (which sent thelarge barbarian back to sleep) we turned our attention to Grug and the animatedswords he was currently attacking our cart with. A few near deaths later, ourfight was interrupted by Grug vanishing and “Bob” appearing in his place,demanding to know what was going on. Thankfully we were in our rights to defendourselves and “Bob” admitted that Grug was overzealous and a huge problem forhim, but he was obligated to keep the half-orc around due to Grug’s familyconnections. Still, Bob fixed our wagon for us and decided to travel with us toSylvenstand, stating that he couldn’t just teleport there due to the nature ofthe place. A few days of travel later, we reached the woods surroundingSylvenstand, a dark frightening forest that seemed to twist and move around,confusing travelers who dared venture into it.

Which is when we ran into the dinosaurs. About halfway intothe forest we were stopped by a dead end and a voice demanding to know why wewere there. When we explained our mission, the voice told us we could only passafter it had “tested our mettle” upon which an allosaurus and a swarm ofdeinonychus showed up. The battle was surprisingly long, made worse by thearrows being shot from an unknown source deep in the woods. However, thedinosaurs eventually backed down, but not until after Jemima heard a veryfamiliar male voice saying the phrase “You can do better” before their woundswere healed. The fight over, we trooped back inside the cart, following theAllosaurus (named Sharp) to the secret town of Sylvenstand.

When we arrived, Jonah took the mysterious box away, whileour group accompanied by “Bob” went to a building built into the massive treein the center of town. Before we could turn in our quest, we checked in with aman at the front desk by the name of Eldon. It was he who finally explainedwhat exactly it was we had been transporting all this time—Edan’s body,magically preserved and warded to prevent decay so that a reviving ritual couldbe performed once his soul was reclaimed. Then, we were ushered upstairs intothe massive tree to an enormous room where a humanoid figure seemingly made ofwood or possibly completely encased in wooden armor sat. Seeing as it wastechnically her quest, Jemima was chosen to speak for the party, turning in theletter they were sent with as well as being given a bag of coin to be dividedamongst the team later. Lei’s divine sense however, picked up the massive amounts of divine energy comingfrom the figure in front of them, as well as noticing the oak leaf symbol onthe man’s chest. Though the contract said we’d been sent to report in to a mannamed Tay’rados, there was little question that the true originator of thequest was none other than Silvanus, the god of nature and druids himself.

After some impromptu shopping at a small bazaar in town, weheaded off to the temple district to meet with one Captain Taylor who wassupposed to be able to help Zareem with a mysterious mark he bore on his chest.Captain Taylor agreed to help on the condition that we spar with him, anexperience none of us were quite prepared for, as he turned out to be anextremely high-level paladin who was pulling his punches. Midway through thefight, having taken a decent amount of damage, Taylor grabbed Jemima beforereaching an arm into her bag of holding, coming up with a purple coin that she’dnever seen before (she’d been getting small trinkets including a bag of dragonbone from Edan’s bag over time, but never seen that coin in all her searching.)Again, Edan’s voice chimed in with the phrase “You can do better” as Taylor’swounds began to heal. In an almost uncharacteristic display of kindness, Zareemhelped her get the coin back and to keep Taylor from taking it again, Jemimadropped it down the front of her shirt with a glare. Then, taking the staff ofcharming she’d inherited from Edan, she stormed over and slapped him deadbetween the eyes, shouting at him “How dareyou touch my things?” only for Taylor to shout back “How dare you take mybrother’s things?” When the fight finally ended, she confronted him about thosewords, discovering that Taylor (who is, in fact, the real Tay’rados and thenext in line to take over for Silvanus) wasn’t kidding about Edan being hisbrother, and the coin he’d taken was an Ioun stone that Edan had obtainedduring one of his many travels. The voice she’d been hearing was simply theHealing Word spell he’d kept inside it being activated.

After our sparring match ended, Tay invited us to join himat the local tavern for drinks to celebrate Edan’s approaching revival, thoughnot before we returned to the large tree building to answer a few questionsabout the wizard we’d fought back in Audio Bay. That was where, after the armorthe wizard had worn attached itself to Lei, that the wizard hadn’t justdisappeared that day, he’d been stowing along in Lei’s brain the whole timewithout anyone knowing. He hasn’t shown his hand yet, but the eventual effectsof this are unknown. Then we trooped off to the tavern, Lei and Zareemintending to party and have a good time, Zuradar and Gineye picking a fightwith a time-manipulating satyr who’d magic’d away some of our gear earlier (wegot it back thankfully) and Jemima meeting a nice man who gave her a book oncreating a Guard Drake from dragonscale (which she conveniently had thanks tothe bag of bones and scales in Edan’s bag of holding.) The party lasted allnight, though most were passed out before it got too late, particularly Zuradarwho was the first out after he failed to seduce an elf lady two times in a rowand left to drink until he couldn’t remember anything.

The next few days were less eventful, mostly everyone havinga bit of downtime and resting up, preparing for the next phase of the revivaloperation: retrieving Edan’s soul from wherever it had ended up. The owlbearthat we’d encountered in Crance had been put into a crystal by Grug fortransport, and thanks to Eldon, it was healed (though it had to be magicallyde-aged to save it) and given to Zuradar as a companion under the name Pip.When the time came for the expedition to set out, Jemima made sure our team wasinvited, since she desperately wanted to be able to save Edan. The expeditionwould leave Sylvenstand through a portal that had been set up over the last fewdays, though the endpoint was unknown until the portal was actually opened,bringing with it a group of dimensional “police” who wanted to know why we hadopened a portal onto a plane known as “Lunacy.” Tay seemed visibly distressedat the mention of that location, but in the end we were permitted to pass,providing he didn’t come with us (astipulation he didn’t challenge at all.) Armed with a glass jar with a locatingspell cast on it, we headed off into Lunacy.

The jar lead us through marshy woods until we came upon ascene of grisly carnage. Two hags had been torn apart along with a shambling moundor two, and as we approached we saw the one who had caused such destruction: acreature seemingly formed of wood with a featureless wooden mask. Immediatelythe jar Jemima was holding began to glow and vibrate, but just as quickly thecreature melted away into the ground, causing the jar to go dark again. Afterwe were set upon by another hag (and discovered that the damaged Weave on thisplane made casting spells a risky chance that often triggered wild magic tohappen) we continued on, the trail having been picked up again by the jar.After some walking we came upon a small tavern, the inside of which was emptysave for a lone barkeep in fancy eveningwear. He offered to give us informationor magic trinkets, and explained that the creature we had encountered, the“Beastmaster” was keeping him trapped. Our whole party was sure it was a trap,with the notable exception of Zareem, who made an agreement to smuggle a blackshard out of the plane in exchange for a magic sword and an axe.

Thoroughly disgusted at our companion, we continued on untilwe came to another clearing. As Zareem dashed across the grass towards a gate,the ground turned into more shambling mounds which proceeded to attack theparty. Midway through the fight, a large bear with a wooden mask lumbered in,attacking the mounds with us. However, once the mounds were destroyed, the bearturned towards us instead. Jemima had already put together that the jarresponding to both the Beastmaster (whose mask looked shockingly likeSilvanus’s) and the Bear (one of Edan’s common wildshape forms) were somehowconnected to Edan’s soul and she was reluctant to fight until being remindedthat druids change back from their wildshape forms after losing all their HP.When the bear finally fell, it morphed back into Edan, before dissolving intodust with a cry of distress, causing part of the jar to light up. This spurredthe party forward, towards the next location. There they ran across Eldonagain, who had followed them into the plane. He was badly wounded butsurrounded by corpses, including one giant spider wearing a wooden mask.Another piece of the jar lit up as Jemima approached it.

Then, Gineye managed to spot something across a nearbylake—on an island in the center, strapped to a cross-like structure, was Edan,or at least his soul. Coming from his body were five tendrils, two of whichwere rapidly dissolving. Using the teleportation that he had gotten from a wildmagic surge, Gineye teleported over to the island and summoned his axe, usingthe soul-collecting power of the axe to free Edan by having him slice off thetendrils. Edan’s soul disappeared, along with the fragments in the jar and theBeastmaster across the lake, but as soon as he’d done that, a massive shapeappeared in the distance. Sensing danger, Gineye returned, driving us all torun with Eldon in tow, back to the portal we’d come through.

The giant creature, which revealed itself to be a Terrasque,chased us all the way to the portal, eventually parking itself right on theother side of the portal but very much within striking range should we try toescape. Then, it revealed itself to be the same person Zareem had made a dealwith--the one who had marked him with the symbol of Vecna—itself an old andpowerful Primordial. It offered to let us pass as long as we kept the guardsbusy enough for it to escape, since the plane was rapidly dissolving around usas the weave unraveled. We agreed, while secretly planning to alert the guardsonce we were through, and escaped through the portal. The dimensional “police”were on hand to help, and drove back the massive claw that came through, butdespite our efforts, a tiny portion of the creature broke off and disappeared.Still, we had what we had journeyed for and after relinquishing the axe to Silvanus,so that he could extract the soul, we nervously awaited the revival itself. Wewere graciously allowed to be present for it, and the process went surprisinglysmoothly for all the trouble we put in. Upon waking up, groggy and disoriented,Edan asked for his bag which Jemima unquestioningly returned. However, insteadof keeping it, he simply took out the wooden box from the month prior andopened it, revealing a deactivated Void card from the Deck of Many Things. Witha glare he turned to Silvanus, telling his father to try harder the next timehe wanted to kill him before storming out of the room (just in time for Gineyeto return from searching the town for a saxophone in order to serenade Jemima’sreunion with the man she was clearly crushing on.) Gineye’s return lead to anembarrassment-fueled brawl, culminating with the party members involved (sansZuradar and Zareem who had left to talk to Jonah again) waking up the next dayin the infirmary.

When the party reunited in the tavern the next day theyfound out about a list of jobs open to them, now that they had been acceptedinto Mantle, the organization based in Sylvenstand. The party was very excitedover an upcoming tournament (though Jemima had her eyes more on the Bardcollege which nobody even looked at twice) but Gineye demanded they go to thecapitol city Paplus first, upon seeing not only the capture of the resistanceleader they’d encountered in Crance, but also a name he recognized—Lord Darius,a man he’d known before we first met up who seemed to be somehow connected tothe scars Gineye hides under a porcelain mask. As we geared up to go, we askedEdan if he wanted to come along, which he agreed to do, as he wanted to get asfar away from Sylvenstand and his family as possible.

The furthest we could travel by portal was to Paplus’sneighboring town StoneHelm, a two day’s walk from Paplus. Once the journey byportal was completed, Edan took his leave, stating he would be taking the jobat the Bards college there, though the party (save for a heartbroken Jemima)were too busy making plans for marching order and cooking arrangements to evennotice. A days walk later, they set up camp, dividing the nighttime watch intoshifts. During the second shift, after Jemima had bedded down for the night atthe end of her watch, a group of drow appeared, demanding Zuradar tell them thename of the halfling in the nearby bedroll, and at her last name ofAppleblossom the drow attacked, easily subduing the sleepy party and cartingthem off.

We awoke in darkness, with our arms and legs bound, with theexception of Zuradar who had been inadvertently untied by his owlbear Pip, andZareem who instead found himself in a nice room as if he’d been invited as aguest instead of kidnapped. It wasn’t long before the drow returned, removingtheir blindfolds and walking them out of their cells to a large central roomwhere they saw Jemima trussed up and suspended over a fire, and a hooded man atthe end of the room. The man demanded Gineye be brought forward and demandedhim to take off his mask or risk Jemima’s life. Grudgingly, Gineye complied andthe man removed his own hood, revealing the face of a man Gineye had worked withbefore during a similar rebellion back in Faerun, Tiberius. Like many of the peoplethey’d met, Tai had found his way to this world as well and joined the currentrebellion due to his own curiosity at how similar it was to the one in theirown world, even down to the blonde lady behaving shockingly like Gineye himselfhad done. A betrayal from within their ranks had gotten her caught by LordDarius’s forces, and the traitor in question happened to be the reason theywere captured in the first place—they were searching for a young halfling manwith the last name of Appleblossom who was known to use polymorph spells withthe aid of an enchanted broom. Alternates again, the party realized as theygrouped back up.

As we had found our way not only to Paplus but the rebellionwe were supposed to aid, we found ourselves tasked with helping them take downsome high-priority targets. Namely, we were sent to investigate a guard house(since trying to talk a gnomish inventor into helping us without copiousviolence was sadly not anywhere close to our forte.) Inside we found no guardsat all, but instead a massive iron golem guarding the place which we wereforced to fight after the attempts to bluff our way past it failed. With sometricky maneuvering (and a hand grenade), Gineye managed to deactivate the golemand we entered the captain’s office. Our suspicions were on high alert when theguard captain’s voice didn’t quite seem to match his body, but before theErinyes possessing him could do anything, Gineye petrified the captain with acrossbow bolt, then shattered the resulting stone form to prevent the Erinyesdoing more harm.

By the time we returned, the other team had safely securedthe inventor who was currently very clearly possessed himself. After a gooddeal of fooling around and failed attempts at exorcism using the Command spell,Lei realized that as a paladin, he could perform the exorcism himself. With theinventor finally free of possession, he demanded we shut down the factory thathad been making the golems and mechanical enforcers for Lord Darius, butinsisted that we not harm Darius when the time comes for he was in fact, a goodman. The revelation that the revenge Gineye sought would be deflected by yetanother Alternate did not go over well.

So, we set off towards the golem factory with Gineye leadingthe charge, revenge still smoldering behind his mask. When we arrived, thefactory seemed deserted, but when the guard dogs that came out of a few nearbykennels turned into hellhounds, and an ice devil dropped in from above, werealized we were in trouble. The battle, though brief, was tough, painful andlikely made worse by the absence of help from Zareem (who spent all of his timeattempting to get one of the hellhounds to trust him in an attempt to keep it.)Meanwhile, the ice devil managed to get inside the mental world Gineye used toconverse with the spirit of his axe and begin to corrupt it, leading to Gineyebeing unable to get back in. In a desperate bid to regain control, he demandedLei kill him, hoping that the soul trapping powers of the axe would give him aback door and a chance to find “Axey” again before his coin revived him. With aheavy heart, Lei and Zuradar complied, using their own weapons to kill theircompanion.

Gineye fell, then disappeared, reappearing shortly afterwardsacross the room, but something was very much different. Instead of the cheerymask he wore, there was a more sinister one with a jagged smile and a sinisterred glow from his eyes. As it had several times before, the axe had taken overGineye’s unconscious body, puppeteering it into using all of its abilities toattack his friends. Hoping to somehow break its control, Lei, Jemima andZuradar threw themselves into combat while Zareem continued to ignore the fightand attempted to gain favor with the hellhound in the corner. Even aftercalling for help, Zareem didn’t join the fight, stopping only to retrieve anice spear that had fallen from the ice devil’s body and throwing it into a furnace,completing the job of destroying the factory that they had been given.

Meanwhile, inside his head, Gineye was locked in a battlewith a being that resembled a corrupted version of the mostly benevolent spirtwho had helped him for the last several weeks. Assuming (probably correctly,though no confirmation has been given on this point) that this was in fact thepower source of the axe, built from the many slaughtered souls trapped insideit, and having corrupted the actual “Axey,” he sought to free her from thecorruption. A few times her consciousness seemed to flicker, as if his attemptswere getting through, but he was running out of ideas. In one last desperate move,he pulled her into a hug, and when that didn’t work, he used the power of theaxe to summon two spears, stabbing them both through her back and into his ownchest, aiming for the coin around his heart.

Back in the real world, the spear tips manifested out ofGineye’s body before they and he vanished again, leaving only the axe behind.The party barricaded the factory and then rested, worried about their friendbut too battered and tired to leave (save Zareem who had done basically nothingthe whole fight.) As they were ending their rest, a figure began to crawl outof the axe nearby, eventually solidifying into Gineye, though mysteriouslywearing the dress his spirit friend had worn. Naturally the team had questionsbut Gineye was evasive and wanted to move on, stopping only to shoo Jemima awayafter noticing that her poking his leg was causing no sensation of touch.

Their mission complete and their party gathered, theyventured forth to return to the rebellion’s hideout, only to find the doorwelded shut and a trail of blood leading them towards the other door and an unconsciousTai. Thankfully his injuries were minimal, but Tai’s story was grim: during thetime they were away, the hideout had been attacked by the robotic enforcersthat Lord Darius was using, but during that time they had made contact with adivination wizard by the name of Monty who was also a transplant from Faerun,one willing to aid them in their cause. Monty had given them a tip, telling thatthe leader of the rebellion was going to be publicly executed the next day, whichhappened to be only hours away now. Together they went to the town square, nowfitted with a gallows and a horde of people gathered to watch the execution.

Something was very much off, however, as the party hid amongthe crowd, waiting for their chance to strike. The man introduced as LordDarius was a far cry older than the man Gineye had known, and something feltvery wrong about the whole scenario. Those feelings were proven right whenGineye was attacked by one of the masked enforcers and the cloak was knockedoff of the “prisoner,” revealing yet another masked enforcer. The crowd ran asour heroes found themselves surrounded by more of the metallic men. Having dispatchedhis own attacker, Gineye used his axe to create a rope and swung over to thebox with the elderly Lord Darius, soon after followed by Lei using his ownmisty step ability to teleport over.

Inside the box, while the old man may have been recognizedas Lord Darius to the crowd, behind him, hidden from the audience, sat a muchyounger man with a stony expression on his face. The same Lord Darius who hadscarred Gineye’s face. Gineye readied one of the many small powder keg grenadeshe owned, but before he could exact his revenge, the two figures flanking theyounger Darius revealed themselves—one, an arch devil and the other, a demonlord. The demon quickly whisked Darius away, while the arch devil took off intothe city, leaving a swath of destruction in his wake. Before long, our heroesfound themselves in the midst of a holy war, with hordes of demonic forcespreviously hidden in the town, rising up to fight an onslaught of paladins, clerics,and other warriors blessed by divine forces.

Flanked by Zuradar, Gineye ran after the arch devil that hadfled from the observation box, but quickly ran into a group of paladins andclerics who were also pursing the same target. Two of the group, marked by thesymbol of the Raven Queen, immediately took offense at Gineye’s existence, callinghim a “filthy undead” as one attempted to smite him with a lightning bolt. AsGineye protested the inhumane treatment (while the gaping hole in his chestproved their accusations correct) a paladin marked with the symbol of “Bob,”the god of slaughter they had met previous, came over and uppercut the one who castthe lightning bolt (said storm cleric looking shockingly like Zareem.) Thepaladin of Bob revealed soon himself to be in fact Grug, released from thepunishment he had been given by Bob, who urged them to leave before somethingworse happened.

The older Lord had been retrieved from the observation boxby the time Gineye and Zareem returned, but as they returned so did the archdevilwho Gineye had failed to catch before. Introducing himself as Bael, he demandedthe old man be turned over. The party refused, attempting to stop him throughcombat, but their efforts proved futile as he simply walked over and took whathe wanted, before disappearing. Through the use of a haste spell and his own paladinskills, Lei was able to track Bael’s movement back to the Lord’s castle, but itwas decided that the party should rest before continuing on. After a short rest(in which Jemima hounded Gineye for a while in regards to his new undeadstatus, one he couldn’t really deny when the gaping hole in his chest magicallypatched itself up) they trooped off to the castle, preparing for a confrontation.

Lord Darius was inside when they entered, Gineye fullyprepared to take him down one-on-one, were it not for the young noble killinghis older counterpart in front of the bard. Remembering the request from thegnome earlier, Gineye used a new spell, revivify, to revive him before whiskingthe old man outside to protect him. Then, as he returned, finally ready for hisrevenge, that moment was stolen from him as a dark shape appeared behind theyoung Darius, taunting the party before snapping his neck and summoning shadowsto attack our heroes. After having fought them once thanks to Grug, the partyknew how to deal with these shadows and the fight was brief, but by the timethey finished the shadowy creature had left, leaving behind the empty husk thatwas once Gineye’s most hated foe.

Gineye was all set to use his magic to revive or preservethe body, but the arrival of a man through a dimensional door stopped him. Itwas Monty, the diviner they’d been told about, who was more than happy to usehis magic to prove that even if Gineye preserved the body, there was no soulleft to revive him. However, Monty was able to speed them along on their waytowards finding the rebellion’s missing leader, as he directed them towards a dungeonarea that his scrying couldn’t see into—which must be the place as he couldfind her nowhere else.

Inside the dungeon lay a maze of traps, pitfalls andsentient doors who kept their rooms locked with riddles. Inside the very last doorin the maze was a set of stairs leading down to a large room, where a strange,sinister ritual was taking place. A number of cultists surrounded summoning circles,two of whom were wreathed in flame, the one in the middle conjuring up a domeof solid darkness. As stealthily as they could, the party slid closer, Gineyemanaging to make it all the way to a door on one side of the room where he cameacross a terrifying sight: the same exact cell in which he had been tortured.

Unleashing the full power of the axe, he demolished the cultistsin a single hail of swords, which left the summoned fire elementals free toattack at will. Again, the fight was short, the most notable event was Jemimadoing her best to attack one of the elementals with the rapier she’d beencarrying all this time—while forgetting that without magical properties to it,the enchanted fire could easily melt it. Rest in peace, rapier, you were loved.Once the fires died down (literally) the team set about investigating the roomand the dome of darkness in the center of the room. Sadly, efforts to dispel itproved fruitless so the party turned their attention towards a mural on thewall, one depicting a multi-segmented circle, each with a crowned creature carvedinside. After close inspection—including noticing that one segment seemed todepict the same tarrasque they had unleashed upon the world previously—the partyguessed the mural was related somehow to the cult they had encountered, worshippingprimordials from the different planes (each of the elementals seemed to bedepicted, along with ones that looked celestial and infernal.) Finally, theygave one last attempt to dispel the dome, finally breaking the spell with awell-placed arrow, but instead of finding the leader inside as they’d hoped,all they saw was a shadowy creature who disappeared in seconds, followed by hermagical cloak which Zareem kept for himself.

As they went to leave, who should they run into but Grug andthe same paladins and clerics from before? Gineye, remembering their reaction tohim, attempted to hide in the stairwell, but the storm cleric (who still lookedshockingly like Zareem) detected him with his own divine sense. As the partyrushed to protect him, Zareem himself squared up, drawing his sword anddemanding that the paladin face him instead. It only took one single mightyblow from the paladin’s mace to instantly kill the already injured Zareem. Therepresentatives of the Raven Queen left, telling the group to keep “theirundead” on a leash, as everyone tried to figure out what to do now. It was thenGineye posed an idea: someone should let him borrow a 3rd levelspell slot. His words were cryptic, but nobody had any third level slots leftafter the long day they’d had, so Gineye lowered it to a second level slot. TentativelyJemima offered him one of her second level slots, and Gineye in responseplunged his hand into his own heart, pulling out an axe and handing it to her,fading into the axe as his mask appeared on her face. From inside her mind, heused her body and magic to cast a spell to preserve Zareem’s body, before the groupset about a much longer rest.

About halfway through their rest, Zareem revived, his coinhaving activated—giving him permanent wings and a new set of powers. Gineye leftJemima’s mind and reformed in the physical world, and after a bit of foolingaround with him trying to mind-hop into Pip the owlbear’s mind that ended withGineye accidentally killing (and immediately reviving) the poor creature, the teamdecided it was time to move on. The war had died down across Paplus, and theirmission was over though at great cost. After delivering the news of the outcometo Tai, the team set off in search of a Gnoll paladin of Silvanus who they weretold had a scroll for them

What they found instead was a mysterious bar—the same barthey had encountered in Lunacy, still run by the extremely shady feeling manwho just so happened to sometimes be the primordial of Earth. Zareem andZuradar both asked to see what goods he was peddling today, leading to Zareemgaining a +1 chain shirt and Zuradar acquiring himself a +2 bow (for only twoof his hit dice, a total “bargain!”). Meanwhile, Jemima found the gnoll seatedat a table and retrieved the scroll from him. The man let them leave afterthat, noticing how uncomfortable the other three were, but with a reminder thatthey could find him if they only looked for him.

Outside the shady bar (which had mysteriously vanishedagain) they discovered that the scroll was a teleportation sigil, but one thatthey weren’t capable of activating. One person however, was, and it took only asingle utterance of Monty’s name for him to appear through a tear in reality,casting the spell that would take them off to the tournament.

After the chaos of a holy war and a rebellion all in thespan of less than a week, the gang was happy to have a chance to settle down andrelax. Once in the tournament building, they had to sign up, either in solo matchesor groups of 2, which lead to Zareem and Zuradar becoming a group (fittinglynamed Heaven and Hell), Lei and Jemima teaming up (as Swords and Chords) andGineye going solo (under the name “The Entirety of France.”) Then, with an hourto prepare, the teams wandered the building, discovering their old friend Jonahhaving set up a merchants stall there. Jemima immediately informed him of theloss of her rapier, relinquishing the melted remains. In return, he gave her asword he’d fashioned from some of the dragon bones she’d given him, a rapierelegantly combining master swordcraft with the sublime beauty of the naturalworld.

Geared up once more, the matches began. Zareem and Zuradarfound themselves heavily outmatched by a pair of orcs. After Zareemaccidentally hit the younger (and far more badly damaged) of the two with acritical hit poison spray, inadvertently killing the orc, the older and moreexperienced orc proceeded to knock both of them out. Jemima and Lei’s roundwent much smoother, against a lizardfolk and a man in a strange leather dusterwho carried what could only be referred to as guns. Despite the strange man’sapparent prowess with his weapons, he managed to score only one hit on Jemimabefore he was knocked unconscious himself, and the Lizardfolk surrendered soonafter.

Gineye’s match however was stranger still. His opponent wasa man who seemed to disappear shortly after the match started, stayinginvisible or hiding behind dust clouds the whole match, but doing significantdamage to Gineye in the process. Finally, angered, Gineye readied a crossbowbolt, striking as soon as he saw the man’s arm clearly. The petrification boltworked perfectly, petrifying the man and winning Gineye the match (though notbefore a contingency spell activated, using lesser restoration on the man whograciously conceded.)

After their match concluded, Gineye left to find his friendsin the infirmary (though only Zuradar and Zareem needed much attention.) In themidst of their conversation, the man he had just fought walked in, joining thediscussion of the fights he had witnessed. He introduced himself as James and extendedan offer to Gineye to meet him for breakfast at a specific tavern the nextmorning. Tired from their battles, the group headed out to an inn to rest. Itwas agreed that Gineye should go to the tavern to meet James the next day (sincethey might be more relaxed if it was just him) while the rest would return tothe tournament location to find out what was going on. The tournament itselfwouldn’t start for two days, and the actual matches were entirely team-based,but since Lei and Jemima both had passed their matches (as well as Gineye) theywere allowed to form a team and invite the two who had failed their matches aswell.

Gineye’s investigation only put him more on edge. Jamesseemed very eager to recruit him away from the others, even offering to “helphim leave” should Gineye need it, in a way that suggested assassination wouldbe involved. He also knew more than he should, particularly about the war inPaplus and how Gineye’s party had come through a portal in Paplus that shouldhave originated north of the town of Tance, the same as another group whoarrived recently (where, unknown to James, the hidden town of Sylvenstand waslocated.) Gineye played along as best he could, mocking his teammates and theirdecisions and offering to send a package later that day that might be useful toJames’ group. However, once he returned, he clearly wasn’t eager to join such ashady group, but instead had Lei send a package over to the tavern—one containingthe Axe Gineye had pulled from his own heart yet again. However, to his dismaynobody actually took the axe while he was there and in fact nobody was home forthe full day, leaving him to sneak out the next night with a pilfered spellbookand a sour mood.

Finally however, the day of the tournament arrived. The gangwas among the first to compete, finding themselves soon in a large arena packedwith thousands of onlookers. In the middle of the arena, a Kenku introducinghimself as Veo Elmwood was acting as the Emcee, introducing first our heroes asthe “NaCl Pain Delivery Service” and their opponents as “The Hands of Nature.” Theparty (and especially Jemima) were pleased to see Edan again, along with hisalternate Ivan, the ranger Alice (whom Zuradar had attempted and failed to seduceback in Sylvenstand) and Leafsong, the Gnoll paladin from earlier.

However, instead of a fighting competition as the party hadexpected, it was instead a series of games and tests of skill, each with a “firstto 3 points” system of one-on-one matches. The actual games were chosen by diceroll, with the first being a drinking contest. Gineye stepped up, certain hecould win with his undead constitution, even against his opponent Ivan, butonce again Ivan’s luck was on his side as he came back with three points toGineye’s two. Next, Jemima found herself face-to-face with Edan in a challengeof pure luck as they rolled dice, each hoping for a higher roll than theiropponent. Right at the last moment, when it looked as though Edan would scoreanother point for his team, Jemima caught a glow around Ivan’s hand for amoment as the dice flipped over onto a natural 1. Finally, it was Lei and Leafsong’sturn, a test of endurance as they were forced to withstand increasingly harderthrown rocks without crying out in pain. In the end however, Lei managed tohold out the longest, scoring another point for our heroes. And as we left themat the end of that session, they were preparing for the next round of combat: atrial by combat, forced by Ivan again using his luck to twist the die to his favor.

And there you are, thirty episodes summarized as best Icould, with deep apologies for not being able to condense it even further. Ihope you enjoy reading it, and feel free to check out our episodes on youtube!

[junker-town]

The 30 best ‘NBA on NBC’ intros

Relive the glory of basketball nostalgia with these old ‘NBA on NBC’ intros.

The 12-year run of the NBA on NBC is mostly beloved for John Tesh’s iconic “Roundball Rock” musical intro, which just so happens to be my ringtone. But I will always cherish it because of the network’s soaring introduction monologues to its big games, which transmitted the viewer inside a piece of art with intense moods and high stakes.

Basketball wasn’t better in the ‘90s than it is today, not by a longshot. But I do think it was sold far more effectively, with the kind of visual and thematic care that made the key figures larger than life. I wish the league’s current television partners tried harder to mimic the scale and grandeur of NBC’s work.

Luckily, YouTube offers us the chance to look back on the days where playoff games really felt like epic dramas. I found more than 150 available on the internet and collected them in a playlist you can find here.

While you watch that, let me show you my 30 favorites. Let me know if you think I overranked, underranked, or missed any from this glorious era.

(All the titles were made up by me).

30. “First Round”

Timberwolves at Sonics 1998 First-Round Game 5 Bob Costas

I love the timing of this one. George Karl’s deep breath sets the mood before any narration is needed, and the multiple Gary Payton still shots capture the incredulousness of Seattle’s first-round demons. Costas’ closing line – “Maybe too often” – is delivered perfectly.

29. “Lil’ Penny is Ready”

Magic at Bulls 1996 East Finals Game 1 Chris Rock

No NBA on NBC list is complete without including this one, even if it’s gimmick’y and the narration doesn’t age well.

28. “Teacher and Pupil”

Heat at Knicks 1997 East Semifinals Game 3 Tom Hammond

This was the first of many NBC introductions for brutal Heat-Knicks playoff games, so it’s neat to look back and remember the larger context before it was obscured by all the fighting. Teacher vs. pupil framed the two teams beautifully, especially because the teacher-pupil relationship was flipped on the court. The music makes me feel like I’m at a graduation ceremony, and Hammond leans into the theme with his word choices — “protege,” “taught their former coach a lesson,” “school was out,” “pass the test.”

27. “The Second Season”

Pacers at Knicks 1994 East Finals Game 7 Bob Costas

The highest points of this intro rival anything NBC has put together. The rapid tone change before Game 5. The drumbeat as John Starks violently high-fives Spike Lee. The final line — “48 minutes from what they were merely expected to do.” Those moments give me chills. But I docked this one for all the fluff it took to reach those high beats. If NBC had an Achilles heel, it was the length of some of their intros. This one was nearly two minutes long, which is a bit much.

26. “Stalemate”

Blazers at Lakers 2000 West Finals Game 7 Bob Costas

As much as I love the openings that center around a specific theme, sometimes it’s better to simply run through the key protagonists and what’s at stake for each. Costas does so comprehensively in this one, illustrating the wide-ranging set of characters in what proved to be a memorable series.

25. “Something to savor”

Knicks at Bulls 1998 NBA Regular Season Bob Costas

Did I only include this one because of the early release of ESPN’s 10-part The Last Dance documentary. Yeah, probably.

24. “Not Like This”

Knicks at Bulls 1993 East Finals Game 6 Marv Albert

I loved two things about this video. One was the close-up picture of a hoop as Albert narrates Charles Smith’s three blown bunnies. Talk about vivid imagery. The second: the melancholy feel of the music, combined with Pat Riley stuttering with doubt as he tries to sell the public on this being the Knicks’ “defining moment.” It’s as if NBC knew New York would never be the same after Game 5.

23. “Right Now”

Bulls at Knicks 1993 East Finals Game 1 Marv Albert

Van Halen’s “Right Now” was (and still is) a popular song choice for a pump-up video, one NBC used a few times too over the years. But it works perfectly for this video because it fits the overall theme while simultaneously allowing NBC to visually speed up the entire season before reaching the climax we all knew was coming.

22. “Desperation”

Sonics at Rockets 1997 West Semifinals Game 7 Greg Gumbel

Gumbel deserved more chances to narrate these introduction videos. He had a way of putting his own spin on common themes, expertly using language that others wouldn’t. Seattle didn’t just fall behind Houston, they “teetered on the edge.” They didn’t just win all their elimination games, they “persevered.” The sentence structure that both conveys Houston’s history facing long deficits and their history against these Sonics. We’ll hear more from Gumbel later on in this countdown.

21. “Another Time And Place”

Pistons at Knicks 1992 East Quarterfinals Game 2 Marv Albert

Albert’s narration tended to be super serious and at times over the top, so I enjoyed the goofy change of pace. I’m not sure the second half of this intro was necessary, though it did give us Dennis Rodman picking up a stray dog that wandered onto the Madison Square Garden court.

20. “The Year Of Sir Charles”

Suns at Sonics 1993 West Finals Game 6 Dick Enberg

It’s the little touches that make this video work. The patriotic music choice before leading with his gold medal. The split screen of Barkley deep in thought on one side and his accomplishments flashing on the other. Enberg’s repeated use of Barkley’s full name. This intro underscores how much care was actually put into these introductions.

19. “I Wanna Take You On A Rollercoaster”

Pacers at Knicks 1999 East Finals Game 6 Tom Hammond

18. “The Ride of a Lifetime”

Magic at Rockets 1995 Finals Game 3 Marv Albert

These two videos show how NBC used the same theme — a rollercoaster ride — to convey very different emotional journeys. The Knicks’ rollercoaster was unplanned and filled with self-induced drama, so NBC chose Lunatic Calm’s “Leave You Far Behind,” a heart-pumping dance song that conveys raw, and at times misdirected, energy. Houston’s rollercoaster, on the other hand, was more of a fantasy story, so NBC chose a musical element that made the Rockets’ journey to the title seem like a quest. Both choices fit the teams perfectly and showed how the power of sports is that it provides singular variations of familiar story arcs.

17. “Michael vs. Sir Charles”

Bulls at Suns 1993 Finals Game 1 Bob Costas

This one’s on the list because NBC used the Jurassic Park theme song before the movie even came out. That is a baller move. But NBC also uses it brilliantly to paint the contrast between the classic success of Michael Jordan and the bumpier, rawer success of Barkley. Jordan’s section is narrated over the slower part of the song, while Barkley’s comes over the louder section. This was another example of NBC’s attention to detail.

16. “Big City vs. Small Town”

Jazz at Bulls 1997 NBA Finals Game 1 Marv Albert

In general, the 12 NBC openings for the two six-game Bulls-Jazz Finals series are a tad overrated in my book because they got a little too sappy. (I’m sure many of y’all like the post-Flu Game one, but it kinda makes me cringe). The best of the bunch is the first one because it wonderfully paints the contrast between the dominant incumbents from Chicago and the small-town underdogs from Utah.

15. “Big ‘Mo”

Blazers at Lakers 1991 West Finals Game 6 Dick Enberg

The music choice makes this entire video work. I feel like I’m in a murder mystery. Holy crap, this is tense.

14. “A Test of Faith”

Suns at Bulls 1993 Finals Game 4 Bob Costas

Sometimes, the less said the better. Game 3 of the 1993 NBA Finals — a triple-overtime thriller won by the visiting Suns, who had dropped the first two games at home — was such a weird event that it needed to be commemorated on its own. Costas knew he couldn’t say anything to properly sum it up. Thus, Bon Jovi’s “Keep The Faith” serves as the perfect backdrop.

13. “Little Brother”

Cavaliers at Bulls 1992 East Finals Game 5 Marv Albert

I’m not sure anyone really believed the Cavaliers would beat the Bulls in this series, even if they had knotted it up at two. It had the same feel that 2016’s Raptors-Cavaliers series had, where everyone knew who was going to win. But it was still noteworthy that the Cavaliers actually fought with pride, not unlike a boy who finally stood up to his big brother. Albert’s narration properly captures that sentiment while still conveying the reality that the Bulls were favored.

12. “Best Team Ever”

Bulls at Sonics 1996 Finals Game 4 Bob Costas

The glorification of Jordan’s jerk-ish leadership tendencies makes me a bit uncomfortable, but Costas rescues this with some of the most poetic narration of his great career. Everything after “they tower over all present competition” is right up there with the best any TV network has ever produced. (Imagine this wording, but with Kevin Durant’s switch to Golden State instead of Jordan’s return from retirement).

11. “Game 7”

Jazz at Sonics 1996 West Finals Game 7 Greg Gumbel

Gumble is his usual excellent self, but the music and camera work make this introduction feel epic. I love the musical contrast, which makes the small-market Jazz seem like underdogs and the fast-charging Sonics feel like they belong in a horror movie. The dissolves and fades to separate the different segments of the video underscore how each point is related to each other. Matching Gary Payton’s loud clap to the drum beat is a brilliant touch. All in all, this video provided real stakes to a matchup between two teams that nobody thought could beat the mighty Bulls.

10. “Vindication”

Magic at Rockets 1995 Finals Game 4 Bob Costas

If the Game 3 intro to these Finals felt like being taken on a fantasy quest, this one is the epilogue when Frodo and friends return to the Shire. In time, this has become the perfect appreciation of the Rockets’ mini-dynasty.

9. “The Tormenter”

Bulls vs. Knicks 1996 East Semifinals Game 3 Marv Albert

“The concept may be team. In reality, it’s the individual.” Whether intentional or not, Albert perfectly encapsulates decades of NBA marketing with those 10 words. From there, he made me feel so sorry for Patrick Ewing. How much must it suck for the official broadcast partner to promote a game by repeatedly dunking on you?

8. “One Game”

Pacers at Bulls 1998 East Finals Game 7 Bob Costas

Costas’ delivery here is perfect. The slow pacing. The repetition of “one game.” The mix between short sentences and longer ones. The twist at the end: Jordan’s section ends with “one game” instead of beginning with it, a clear signal to the viewer that he is the biggest story here. The script itself isn’t magical, but Costas’ voice makes it so. Chills.

7. “Agony”

Bulls at Magic 1996 East Finals Game 3 Marv Albert

Knowing what we know now, this feels a lot bigger than a video setting up a must-win Game 3 after losing two road games. Because of Shaquille O’Neal’s summer departure to the Lakers, it has become known as the last chance for Orlando to sustain a future dynasty. But the video also stands beautifully on its own, with well-executed music changes and a beautiful still of Penny Hardaway peering to his left as if he’s staring at a black-and-white image of Brian Hill’s final huddle of the previous year’s NBA Finals.

6. “Neither Right, Nor Fair”

Bulls at Blazers 1992 Finals Game 4 Bob Costas

Imagine this voiceover, but instead of it being about Clyde Drexler in 1992, it’s about Dirk Nowitzki in 2011. Same 2-1 deficit. Same history of postseason failures obscuring their greatness. Similar age range — Nowitzki was 32 and in his 13th season at the time. Similar caliber of competition: Drexler against Jordan, Nowitzki against James and Wade, though the former hadn’t won a title. It would have given any human the feels, especially knowing Nowitzki would persevere when Drexler didn’t. This was an incredibly powerful, yet empathetic way to convey the overwhelming pressure title-less all-time greats face before they win one.

5. “David vs. Goliath”

76ers at Lakers 2001 Finals Game 1 Marv Albert

I don’t know what’s better: the original version of this intro from the 2001 Finals or this brilliant remake for the first Curry-James, Warriors-Cavs Finals battle in 2015. Both are terrific, but I’m still partial to the original. David vs. Goliath fits the Iverson-O’Neal battle better, and there are a number of NBC’s typically brilliant little touches dotted through the video. For example, notice how the camera zooms to Iverson’s “The Answer” sleeve just after Albert’s “Who can stop this imposing force?” narration ends. What perfect timing.

4. “Worst Nightmare”

Bulls vs. Knicks 1993 East Finals Game 5 Marv Albert

Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap. I feel like I’m about to start an apocalyptic movie where a supernatural demon has been set loose to torment the world. Jordan feels like Godzilla here after scoring 54 points to lead Chicago to a Game 4 win. My heart is still racing as I type this, even though I’ve already seen that video a thousand times. When does Game 5 start?

3. “Coronation”

Bulls at Suns 1993 Finals Game 6 Bob Costas

The 1993 Finals were really effin weird. The Suns entered as profound underdogs with one edge: They had home-court advantage. When they squandered that edge with two home losses, they looked done, but defied logic with a triple-overtime Game 3 victory. When Jordan dropped 55 on them in Game 4, they also looked done, but defied logic again by winning Game 5 on the road easily. It was inexplicable, a feeling Costas expertly captured in his opening monologue. There’s no way God actually was pulling the strings for the Suns … right? What other explanation existed? It was the ideal backdrop to a Game 6 that lived up to the billing with John Paxson’s last-second three.

2. “Two Dreams Collide”

Rockets at Suns 1995 West Semifinals Game 7 Greg Gumbel

Remember when I said that NBC’s only Achilles heel was that their introduction videos occasionally dragged on for too long? This one clocks in at a crisp 41 seconds, with no wasted words, images, or music. We have a saying at SB Nation: Sometimes, it’s just best to Say The Thing instead of getting cute. Gumbel says the damn thing bluntly — one dream will “die,” Barkley’s legacy is “hanging in the balance,” “the banner does not hang for Clyde Drexler.” In 41 seconds, I know exactly how big a game this really is. This is a nearly perfect piece of art.

1. “Being Mike”

Bulls at Lakers 1991 Finals Game 4 Michael Jordan

Twenty-nine years later, this reads like a poignant social commentary on the nature of celebrity, which has gripped our culture in new and unexpected ways. That it came before the release of Sam Smith’s landmark The Jordan Rules, before the burden of Being Mike led to Jordan retiring in his prime, before two returns to the fast life of basketball that consumed him, and before an awkward post-playing process that flipped his ruthlessness from a virtue to an anchor, is extraordinary. How the hell did Costas take one playoff performance and somehow capture the allure and pain of being a national icon like Jordan? It’s one of the most impressive feats I’ve ever seen.

[makingoutinyour30s]

the quest for our co-captain

Dear A-

So here’s your DD4 post-dinner update. Because we went to a very warm, very cozy dinner last night. 

Let me first say that through dinner I couldn’t feel it. I swooned. I smiled. I craved a hand across the table. But I could feel that he wasn’t where it ends. Or even ends for now. There were a few moments during dinner last night where I reflected back on our first two dates. They were magic, they really were. I remember a moment at the bar on first date where we shared a common detail, he gave me this enormous grin, and looked at the ceiling and shouted, “I want to know more!” Or that moment on our second date where we hopped into the light structure in the artist loft, proclaiming it a time machine, and shut our eyes together with our faces inches from each other. Fun things like that are still happening, but they just don’t feel the same. Things feel less light. Less generous. Less adventurous. Not to say that things don’t shift the more time you spend with someone. But it’s almost like I can see a darker cloud where before there was nothing but light. 

So dinner. We spend most of dinner just chatting. Nothing too serious. But sort of talking about life, Thanksgiving, future plans. I waited until closer to the end of the meal to bring up a redo of Friday’s conversation because 1) I didn’t think it was going to be too long, 2) I didn’t want to put a weird tone on the evening if it didn’t go well, and 3) I knew that we could switch venues or stay for another drink if we want to continue it. It was a good decision. I said, “I think we should continue our conversation from Friday because it was confusing.”  He said, “What was confusing about it.” 

Oh come on. 

I told him it was still unclear to me what he wanted. And he asked me what I wanted. Which, looking back, seems stupid because he had a clear answer for himself. I told him that I enjoy spending time with him, it feels good to be around him, and I’d like to get to know him better. He echoed the same things. Said I was “really great” and that I “have a lot of opinions he likes”. And then explained what I think was a general lack of interest in a relationship. Now, I’m perfectly comfortable assuming this is some sort of line. Or something. I still find the last two weeks of this thing confusing. The request to see me more, the weird times spent on couches, the Getting Naked together last weekend. He said he’s been trying to figure some things out in the last few weeks - what he wants out of life (does he want to get married? to have kids?), work (does he want to stay at his job? sell his company?), and various other things (does he believe in god?). 

But. While he’s telling me this, I started to feel some old twinges. And then some things about myself. 

He’s been talking about his work a lot lately. And I get that this is a thing a lot of adults talk about because it consumes us in a lot of ways. But I definitely don’t care that much, if I’m being honest. A, you and I are two people who really love our work, but I think when we talk about it, it’s much more in the abstract sense. It’s about things we care about: social issues, research findings, etc. Not the logistics of being researchers or the day-to-day grind of it all. If I’m talking with someone about their work, I want to talk about their passions and disappointments in all of it. Not the gritty details. Or at least, I don’t want that to be the major focus of their conversations. But also, in general, I don't want to talk so much about someone’s job. 

But he’s also started to feel a little aimless to me. It’s fine to be confused in life. I am definitely at a place of restructuring and figuring out what this new life looks like for me. But I think I know the general direction into which I’m walking. But his feels like an aimlessness akin to OH’s. Not quite so all-encompassing, but similar. My brain has been harping and harping on his use of the word “restless” last week. And I thought a lot about what that means to me. Right now it means something different than it would have a year ago. Because right now I have a desire to steady myself a bit more than I have before, because I know I need a different and better foundation on which to move forward. Whereas before it was a constant poking and prodding of the foundation I had built, and was building, with OH. Almost like removing the blocks from a Jenga tower. Can we pull this one out? Nudge it a little? Without the whole thing falling over? 

DD4 can have a lot of fun. I know I reflected here on his joy a lot. And that was such a great alternative to OH, who was always so full of sturm and drang (yeah, I’m using that). And he talked a bit about how he’s the person his married friends call when they need someone to hang out with, because he’s fun and free. And I recognize that in myself now. And it’s a great place to be. It’s a place that gets you invited out for impromptu lunches, concerts, trips, whatever. I’ve had such great experiences in the last few months since becoming that person in my own social circle. But I also know, for me, that’s not enough for a life. I don’t want to just be an accessory to other people’s lives. And also: I love creating adventure. I don’t like to just wait for it to find me. And when I think about what I know of DD4′s social life, he seems often like an accessory for other people. Myself included. I think, perhaps, he has become accustomed to being this person for other people. I don’t think he has honed the ability to be the one creating surprises and adventures. And that is a thing I want. A few weeks ago Tall Boo and I had dinner and he was reminding me that I get to expect a partner to create events for me, as well, when I was spending much cognitive energy attempting to plan a great date. And yes, I know this. But sometimes I also think I am a great arranger, but not a great in-the-moment-er. And I thought this was perhaps a great way DD4 and I complimented each other. But now I’m a little like, “But what are your ideas? Where are the places you’re looking for amazing things?” If you value restlessness, DD4, what are you doing to challenge complacency? Take charge, my friend! Be hungry!

Here is also what I’m thinking about myself: I know I still have a lot to learn about this new version of life. So I will tentatively put this out there, with the understanding that I will maybe/probably change my mind as I make my way further into this world. I think I just work so much better with a co-captain. My parents raised me to be on a team. My parents are the best team I know. And as children we spent much of our free time working together on the farm, dad teaching me how to change the brakes in my car, building a dock for the lake, pruning trees, sanding, sawing, whatever. And my dad is one of the best, most patient teachers I’ve ever met. 

During dinner I told DD4 the above, after he asked what I had planned for a visit from my parents this weekend. And he sort of responded with, “That’s great. We never did anything like that in my family”. In your last post, A, you mentioned that DD4 hadn’t done a lot to make cognitive space for me. And something about this conversation was representative of that. These are the things about which I would have so many questions for a partner. This is what makes a person interesting and are the foundational things that shape a person. 

It might seem counterintuitive right now to believe that I might work better with another person, but I just think that’s the truth. I enjoy putting energy into other people. And I am having a difficult time these days figuring out where to direct it. I have been cooking a lot for friends. Making bread for the professor I teach with when she has a difficult week. Spending all day making broth for a sick friend. Snapping pictures of construction equipment for friends’ kids. Watching people’s kids so they can go out. Life feels richer to me with another person. Fuck, even in the last week of my marriage, roaming around Paris with an always-drunk partner I had many moments of, “I’m so glad we’re here together”. And I can look back and still see the honesty in that.

You and I have been getting weirdly into astrology lately. It’s nice to have thoughtful things to interpret and reflect on. And a line in this week’s has felt important to me: Find ways to hold your energy until the right moment. When the container is solid and ready, pour yourself in.

At the end of our recap conversation I asked where we go from here. And it sounds like he’s into continuing to hang out. Though, I’m assuming, probably not as much as we have been. I also assume these hangouts will continue to be largely curated by yours truly. If we place DD4 into the friend category I’m O.K. with this. If he’s my friend, and not a boyfriend, I’m O.K. ringing him up whenever I need a pal for a movie, an art show, trivia, etc. And I do believe we honestly enjoy doing these things with each other. Last night I texted my west coast BFF (we need a good code name for her, she shares the same initial) and gave her the update. She asked if I was O.K. being friends with DD4. And yes, I totally am. I did not fall in love with this dude. Or rather, what ringing sensation I had in my chest initially I can feel has faded. He is not the person who will run across streets holding hands with me. Yes, I will probably continue giggling like an adolescent when I’m with him. And he’ll be able to make me smile in a way that only a totally charming and handsome dude can. But there’s not enough underneath for me to dig in. 

Oh! Yes. Digging in.  I’m sorry, this is getting long and very scattered.

I didn’t sleep well last night. My brain was working a lot, thinking on all of this. I kept having this visual while I was coming in and out of sleep. In a similar way that I was thinking a lot about restlessness/complacency over the last week, my brain kept thinking about the words “Digging in”. And I kept picturing, bear with me, two people trying to eat a massive cake together. Like, the kind that is multi-tiered and very wide. But rather than using forks, it was fistfuls. I don’t want to eat my cake alone, A. We all have our own big questions we’re trying to figure out. And I stewed over walking up to this cake and thinking, “Well shit. I don’t know how I can eat this whole thing”. And if you sat alone and ate the giant cake it would be weird, right? You’d just be a person trying to eat a giant cake. But in my mind, with my imagining of Team S co-captain status, it’s two people encountering the cake, laughing hysterically together and saying, “Well, there’s nothing to do but try!” and digging in with bare hands. Eating until we’re sick. Pausing to talk about the absurdity and re-strategizing. And afterward telling people, “Did we ever tell you about that time we ate the giant cake?!”

There’s a lot of people helping me take bites of the cake right now. And that’s so awesome. And I’m so lucky. Last night when I was texting with West Coast BFF (Let’s just go ahead and call her WCBFF) she asked if I wanted to take a break from dating. I told her no, that this made me realize that I want a buddy, in some capacity. And she said, “Well then we are doing this thing over then!” And that “we” was so clutch. It was such a gift and a blessing. We will all work on this cake together right now. Because there will be more in the future to be eaten.

And then, to be honest, I am glad that it doesn’t seem DD4 has to go anywhere. I am perfectly comfortable texting him in a few weeks whenever I want a good meal and a laugh. And I am perfectly comfortable Doing the Grown Folk (as a former colleague called it) sometimes, if he’s up for it. I’m a grown-ass lady, after all. 

xo, S.