2024 Session 2: TLQuest week 5

If you're busy this week/when reading this, the weekly goals and prompts are right at the bottom after the list of last week's goals, just skip the earlier stuff! 

It's grey and rainy here in the UK right now, and between politics and bureaucracy both national and university-specific, that feels pretty apt!  When necessary, tedious things, whether it's dentist appointments, house repairs, personal or professional administration, or a series of nights of bad sleep or bad allergies, are messing with your attempts to be in work mode, do you have any tricks or tips on how to make it happen anyway?  Last week I tried minimising, basically going in with the attitude I woke up with and seeing what happened, and it went quite well,  This week ended up being more of a "treat yo'self" week which started well but is not a long term solution (and given the packages of yarn and stationary that arrived this morning, and the list of items on this week's paypal accounting, CAN'T be a long term solution... it is the nibling's birthday soon, which is what started the shopping, but "one for rabbit, one for hare" syndrome kicked in hard and most of this stuff is for me!).

THIS WEEK'S GAMEPLAY

Last week, our characters met Silas and he asked them to "go to Darkthorn Woods and fetch me some Singing Nettles, Feyflax and Perennewinkle".  They're all cynics and can see a plot hook coming a mile off, so wanted to spend some time investigating first (NOTE: in fullon D&D, some DMs won't let players have characters who don't "go along with" any plot hook or damsel in distress they encounter, others just ensure adventure comes along anyway, whether the characters follow the hints the DM sets out or not - I'm definitely the second kind!).  I did a little bit of interpretation to come up with what people did in a way that worked across all characters...

Alice, Linnet, Martha and the monk (who doesn't seem to have a name yet... there are online name generators if you'd like a starting point?  Or they might have a military nickname like "Shorty" or "Ears" or "Squirrel"?) wanted to learn more at the cottage, either by talking to Silas, looking at his garden, or trying to remember specific information.  So I decided that they would offer to help Silas out with a bit of garden work since he's been ill for a while, and see what they could learn.  After a bit of polite demurring, Silas will agree that a hand would be welcome, and say he can at least offer you a decent lunch as a neighbour brought a big game pie over the night before, which he's happy to share.  

Alice and the monk will talk to Silas as they work - the monk, wary after the encounter with Strangling Vine, will ask about the plants and their possible dangers, and Alice will ask a couple of very casual questions about any people who live in the Darkthorn Woods.  Those are both checks of their social skills, their ability to come across to Silas as helpful and trustworthy people who he can share information with, so they are CHARISMA checks.  I rolled a 13 for the monk and an 8 for Alice on a 20-sided dice (d20).

Silas will explain that Singing Nettles look very like nettles, but don't have a sting, that Feyflax is a dainty little white flower which grows in woodlands in the fey world as well as ours, and Perennewinkle has flowers which only open at night, and grows on the lower branches of trees in old woodlands.  He assures you that none of them will actively attack you, and offers some handy tips for dealing with Strangling Vine if you ever feel it sneaking around your ankles again.  He seems a bit more suspicious of Alice, but says that he's never had any problems with anyone who lives in the woods, and he can write them a letter saying they're there on his behalf to show people if she's really worried about that.

Silas will ask Linnet if she would mind going into the cottage and making some tea for everyone, he doesn't want to cough in it.  Linnet will go inside and take the opportunity whilst the water boils to take a good look around - this is an INVESTIGATION check.  As a druid and a gnome, Linnet is very observant - and I rolled an 18 for her without any additions for her inate skills!  Everything about the cottage matches what Silas has said - other than the workshop area, the main room is superficially a bit untidy, both because he's been ill and because neighbours have been in and out, but underneath it is is well organised.  The cottage has one main room, which is combination kitchen, eating area, sitting area and workshop with a wooden screen which can be pulled across to separate or hide the workshop area.  The furniture is old and mismatched but well cared for with bright cushions, and the working area carefully separated from the kitchen area, with its own pots and utensils stored neatly on shelves above a workbench scrubbed almost white.  Doors off lead to a small store room, where Linnet smells nothing suspicious, and a bedroom which is currently airing out with the window shutters thrown open, but cluttered with all the detritus of illness.  Linnet will take a careful look at the work area, where dried herbs and supplies, jars of made up mixtures labelled in angular, legible writing, boxes of packets and little pots of infusions and salves for common ailments ready for dispersing, and a well worn logbook currently open at a page where he appears to have been stock-taking those prepared remedies are all orderly, and Linnet will see nothing that arouses suspicion.  The prices jotted on the paper packets seem low, even by country standards, but everything she smells and sees seems to be professionally done.  Linnet will also be impressed by the range of teas and tisanes Silas keeps in his kitchen, and pick a refreshing, bright brew suitable for a brisk sunny morning.  His house seems well equipped for visitors, with a dozen sturdy pottery mugs and a pile of simple plates stored in easy reach.

Martha will be taking a good look around the garden, and racking her memory for herb-lore.  We'll call that a NATURE check - I also rolled an 8 for Martha.  She'll find that the plants are a bit unknempt, but no more than you'd expect if Silas had been ill as he says, and everything there including some rare plants has a legitimate apothecary use as far as she's aware.  All she can remember about Feyflax is that it is a plant which grows in both this world and the world of the Fey, and is only found in wooded places with limited interference from people.

Scout meanwhile went off to see Mistress Underwood and check her maps along the way.  Her maps have the most detail around the roads, but she will find Darkthorn Woods noted 1-2 days journey from the road, shown as the origin point for the River Thorn.  There aren't any specific "here be danger" notations, and it doesn't look like dangerous country - not the kind of place where you might find large groups of goblins or nastier creatures, although a few will turn up just about anywhere.  Talking to Mistress Underwood is another CHARISMA check, and I rolled a 5 for Scout.  Conveniently for Scout, though, it turns out that Mistress Underwood's tongue wags as fast as her needles.  In the process of measuring Scout's feet, discussing the merits of different types of heel and offering a double sole to improve the wear, she will explain that Silas is a local man who went to the city (she is vague about which city) to study and become an apothecary, who then took service with a mercenary troop to pay off the costs of his schooling, and lost his leg in a border skirmish with "a dark wizard.  Or maybe even a necromancer.  Or the king's war mages.  I don't quite remember the details, but it was all anyone talked like for months.  And even the best of healing magic and potions can't yet regrow a leg, at least not for an ordinary soldier.  So he settled back here, and he's been a real asset to the village.  A bit of a soft touch with the discounts for the feckless (she clearly does not fully approve of this), but he's a respectable person overall".  She'll also mention that he usually takes a couple of local youngsters as an escort and goes away to collect herbs for a few days in Spring and Autumn every year, "last year that Andia girl from Alderbank Farm went along and she's been a bit more polite since although given what her mother was like as a youngster..." Scout will leave with ringing ears and an order placed for a couple of pairs of good socks to be picked up in a couple of days.

Silas is clearly running out of energy, even just sitting on the bench, and he will accept Martha's suggestion that he should take a nap - he'll tell the cats and dog to keep an eye on things, point out to Linnett where to find the knife and the pie, and soon you'll hear regular snoring coming from the bedroom.

You've cut everyone a slice of pie and settled down to eat lunch - it's time to discuss what you want to do next.  Ask someone else (Andia at the farm, the tavern keeper, another local person)?  Decide to take on the task - or to reject the task?  Do a sneaky check of the cottage whilst Silas is asleep looking into drawers and cupboards?  Take the pie and the dog (who is currently staring at each of you in turn very earnestly in hopes of a little piece of pie) and get back on the road?

LAST WEEK'S GOALS

DAISY

Enjoy birthday on Monday
Submit revisions for Paper 2
Plan field work with students
Repot my office violets, they seem unhappy
Run three times
Real Summer 1: get fancy food truck lunch for birthday
Real Summer 2: pick up a few new local ciders to try on the deck

DEH

1. Write report on MS I'm reviewing for a press
2. 1.5 units Greek (finish last week's, plus all of another)
3. Actual writing progress on Alms
4. 2 x 2 hours garden
5. Take notes on another ILL book
6. Do something else worth reporting (ex. make an appointment, get a picture framed, tidy the linen closet)

HEU MIHI

1. Enjoy my birthday, my son’s birthday, my son’s graduation, my son’s piano recital, and my son’s birthday party (a busy week!). Consider buying myself some new sandals.
2. Write 15 hours
3. Review article
4. Score 3 papers for assessment thing
5. Prepare for meeting re. Festschrift (read abstracts, look at submission guidelines)
6. Start putting together zero waste pamphlet for town sustainability committee
7. Assess grad student’s progress and send email to committee about next semester, knowing that it will go against a colleague’s wishes; work on convincing colleague for one more semester’s grace

JANEB

1. self-care: enjoy the two days off, without pushing to be artificially productive, tick off at least 75% of the regular chores list, sort the Clothes Pile Of Doom (there may be a chair under there...), additional intentional movement three days, do physio recommended stretches with great caution at least once, practice rest as needed.
2. fun: play D&D, knit some, draw something (Father's Day card maybe), read something
3. teaching and administration: one block of teaching preparation from my list
4. step two of service stuff (transferring names from one email tool to another), two hours on the Slowly Developing Paper preparing for a meeting the following week, an hour on Neglected Paper.

JULIE

1. Translate paper into French and have someone check it.
2. Powerpoint slides
3. Read and comment on two chapters for the friend who is hosting the workshop (probably on the train).
4. Pack for trip, organise things here for while I'm away.
5. Dissertation meetings tomorrow with students for next year.
6. Father's Day.

SUSAN

1. Finish re-reading Famous Author and make plan
2. Read one of two articles I need to review for journals
3. Respond to admin issues, get all memos in on time.
4. Have fun at the weekend

IN SUMMARY:

Your TLQuest prompt is: Given the information you've learnt, what do you want to do next?

Your real-world TLQ prompt is: weekly check in, plus when necessary, tedious things are messing with your attempts to be in work mode, do you have any tricks or tips on how to make the switch into that mode happen anyway?