End of September Update...

 As Summer goes away, and my wonderful Fall season is now here, it is time for me to get up off of my duff (No relation to Hillary), and get to updating this blog for the month.

Seasons Change...

A lot has happened around Murph-Haus since the last update. Most of it although isn't on the gaming front; however there is some of that too. 

The Fall season here is always wonderful. Our trees turn from green into a mixture of golden yellows and red-oranges, displaying their glory in all their colors until the time comes for the leaves to fall. 

Our little town is already decorating for Halloween. I promise to get some pictures up soon. 

Our towns high school football team is having a really bad season.

The road construction in our town continues. "Soon" is the answer as to when it will be finished.

Construction continues on our new police station.

An antique store went out of business. The owner died in Feb, and I think they were just getting rid of stock.

On our side, the rest of the ginkgo tree came down....

("He is a lumberjack, and he's okayyyy...";  The tree guy taking town the upper sections of the ginkgo....

The pulling of ropes; the buzzing of saws; and the yells from the crew below, as part of the tree came down. 

Then it was time for the trunk and with a LOUD  "CRAAAAAAACK" it too was on the ground.

(Aaaanddd it's down!)

(That's a big hunk o' tree there...)

Truth be told it was sad to see the tree go as it had a bit of history with the house, but we couldn't let the growth damage the house, or the pods continue to rot. 

I allowed the neighbors to come and help themselves to "FREE FIREWOOD!", and boy did they!

90% of the wood in the yard was taken. The larger tree part was taken by the street department. So now all I have left is a little brush and branches to burn.

And on that morning that the ginkgo was coming down, it went and got DONUTS!!!!

Food, wonderful food!

In the town of Lebanon, Indiana; is the well known "Titus Bakery".  It is one of the best known bakeries in the state. That Saturday morning I decided to haul down there and get a box of their goodies. 

The place was packed. but your gallant author persevered, and brought back the spoils of his expedition...

(WARNING: You may gain 3-5 lbs just looking at the pictures....)

(A box o' treasure...)

(The lid opened! The treasure revealed!!!)

(Yessss....Maple Baaaaaaaaacon.... Bacon...glorious bacon...)

(Blueberry Turnovers, Black Forest Donuts, and Strawberry Bismarck's, among the box of treats!)

(Glazed tempation... Can't you hear it calling your name?)

(So much gooey, tasty, goodness!)

GAMING....

Nothing was done on the painting table this month, except for a well deserved cleaning of the work room. The table is once again clean and organized, as are the item shelves. I'm seriously starting to look at a way of making my craft paints more accessible, and it seems to involve some of the nail racks that I purchased earlier that will be mounted on racks on pegboard. It will involve a bit of room rearranging I think but in the end, I will be able to see utilize my almost 400 bottles of craft paint. Plus it will help remove that horrible look 3 drawer plastic "Organizer" thing that sits beneath the project table. This is an ongoing process so pics in the future will be posted.

However we did game!

We got back to our D&D game in Sept. after a 3 month break. We lost Tim and Jared, but gained Nick. Tim was lost due to being asked to DM a group in his area and he couldn't handle two games, and Jared has major life changes which prevented him from continuing. I wished them well. They are always welcome back at our table. 

We gained a new player, Nick, who is running an interesting character. 

(The gaming area, DM's and players was set and ready for action!)

(The rest of the game room was ready also.  The TV has Spotify on it playing RPG tavern ambience music as the snack table is slowly filled up with tasty treats!)

(The snack table at the moment. More was added including my wife's homemade guacamole dip which went FAST!)

(And she even made cookies!)

(The fridge was filled with a wide variety of tasty drinks!)

(And Pizza Skull stood by ready to do his duty...)

(And one of the players brought along some more drinks...Hmmm..."Liquid Death". Sounds like the #1 drink of Ravenloft...)

And we got to playing. 

The characters were able to get through the top of the temple, making their way into the first room, guarded by two skeletons, which were quickly disposed of, and then continuing through a small series of rooms until they found a holding area and torture chamber. 

At this point they freed an NPC and the new player. After freeing them they made their way into the main chamber....

There they found two goblins, two flunky henchmen, an orc, and THE EVIL PRIESTESS!

Zounds! She was STILL ALIVE!!!!

She was looking worse for wear but was drinking something from a bowl, when the players burst in. 

And hanging in the hair about two feet off the ground was a portal with a glowing purple inside.

Battle was joined!

(The players at the table. Old faces and new ones...)

(The Chaos of Combat! The party tries to get to the Evil Priestess before she escapes YET AGAIN!!! Will they succeed this time in stopping her?!?!)

(Short, quick, work was made of the goblins! Now it was up to the flunkies and the orc to stop the PC's!)

( A close up of the beautiful, but evil priestess taunting the PC's before her attempted escape! Will she make it or will the PC's finally give her what she has coming to her?!?!?)

(ESCAPE YET AGAIN!!!!  The Orc and the flunkies buy precious time for her with their worthless lives, while she steps through the portal to wherever she went to! Will they meet her again? Will they match their wits against her's once more in the future???... We shall have to find out!)

After this fight, there was an issue with murdering an NPC that caused a massive discussion on "Whether this was an evil act or not"....

Meanwhile the players were able to partake in the snacks and drinks, including the fresh tea and lemonade set forth by my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!)

(If you go hungry or thirsty at our games, it's your own darn fault...)

(A shot of the group making "plans"....)

(The contribution from Pizza Skull! Three large pizzas for everyone! A welcome break from killing goblins, religious flunkies and trying to conquer a beautiful, (but still evil), priestess!)

So the game ended and we have our next game scheduled a few weeks down the road.

However my wife is planning.

The next morning I walk into her small "office" at home, (she works remote), and I see this....

Yeppers indeed. She is boning up on being a cleric!

Well, that's all for now. More is coming down the pipe, so be sure to check back in for another update!

Thanks for reading!