As I type this, I’m in a cubicle in the LRC. I’ve been spending my afternoons this week on campus, deep in the law review mines, going through the packet and taking detailed notes. It’s midway through the write-on competition, and I have a title, a thesis, and concepts of a structure, but I’m nowhere close to being done with the assigned readings, much less the whole writing business. It’s a real shame I can’t discuss the topic, because it’s genuinely really interesting as a question, and some of the specific facts of the assigned cases are actually pretty funny. But I’m honor-bound not to disclose the details, and I don’t wanna jeopardize my chances of joining law review.
They’re starting to get the pool ready at my apartment, so that’s exciting. I’m not sure when it’ll be open, but I’m currently planning a pool party for when it is. I’m so glad I’ll be able to swim in it.
A few weeks ago, I started DMing for the Drexel Gaming Association. My table is technically running 5.5, but with plenty of 5e to paper over the many cracks WOTC left in their endless greed (note: revise if ever hired by Wizards or Hasbro legal). It’s a classic, sword & sorcery dungeon crawl with horror elements on the frontiers of a shattered empire (a la late antiquity). Our heroes are exploring the catacombs beneath Naranjgrad (the old provincial capital). As of last night’s session, they made amicable first contact with the Bashanga (giant, silvery spiders with eight humanlike hands, faces like porcelain masks, and stone tools) and negotiated with their Grandmother to deal with the “guardian” who dwells within the “Great Dragonfly” (the wreck of the ancient sky trireme Morning Star) and retrieve at least one of the “little fires” (hell hounds) from within. We should have a much fuller roster next session, which Just Works™ for the pacing I had planned.
Aside from D&D, I was kept busy yesterday. I had a couple of doctor’s appointments. The first doctor was impressed with my weight loss; I’m making very good progress in that respect. The second was my shrink; we agreed that a med change was finally in order, and that now was the best time to do it, given my obligations are minimal compared to the semester or, especially, during exam season. My first dose is tonight, though there’s a titration period during which I’ll still take my old med. I also got a haircut; not really a reduction in length, mostly layering (so my curls curl better), plus some tidying up of my current hairstyle.
(Postscript: I mean, maybe this is just my head playing tricks on me, but it certainly feels like the new med is taking effect as of a few minutes to 11 PM)
I could ramble about Incunabuli, or the Ball, or finals season; I definitely need to get the write-up for the A Thousand Years of Jade finale done, I’ve put that off for far too long. I might update this entry later tonight. I’m debating whether to get dinner or keep working on law review.
I decided to do both. I had falafel over rice, then continued taking notes. I managed to get through the case law and statutes, but there are still a hundred-something pages, at least, of articles and whatnot. Ten pages, due at 8 PM on the 20th. I think I can manage. The swimming pool looks ready, but the person at the front desk said they’d send out an email when it opens.
Oral Argument went extremely well. I represented the Defendants in Gregory v. Johnson to the best of my ability, and Wolman was impressed with (in his words) my “gift of gab”. He also enjoyed my creative use of the law and my invocation of Justice Stewart’s eternal words. Fingers crossed that my strong performance at OA bumps my grade on the brief up. After OA was finals season: Crim was a cakewalk, Property was a little tough (but fair), and LegReg was fighting for my life in the trenches (always a good sign when there are numerous typos on the exam and borderline illegible multiple-choice questions). The days between exams were largely spent studying, or, at times, pretending to study.
The day after the LegReg final was the Ball. It was theoretically fun, but I was in a sour mood that day because that’s just how the cosmic dice landed, and the cowards tending bar wouldn’t give me a shot glass of vodka, smh my head. I really did try to get drunk at the Ball, but I couldn’t even get tipsy. I was invited to an afterparty at Midnight & the Wicked afterward with some acquaintances, but the vibes were off, and I left early.
Returning to my hobbies, the FLGS formerly known as Redcap’s reopened last Monday under new management. About time; I picked up a book of dry-erase battlemaps, because the so-called “smart” board in MacAlister 4016 is anything but. I should probably print out paper tokens since I have cardstock.
Appendix: Naranjgrad and the Duskmarch
- Naranjgrad sits about midway along the Western Sind River, where it cuts through the Jordale Spur of the Rusty Mountains. To the north are the fertile plains of Mersil (and the allied town of Pevena), to the south the Arelough Woods. The city sits above the river’s natural flow, and the Western Sind accordingly flows beneath, through the lower catacombs.
- Pevena is the second largest settlement in the region (see below), with a population of about 1,250. It’s surrounded by fortified villas and latifundia growing cloves, citrus, and sugarcane, which are sent to Naranjgrad and exported across the Gulf.
- The population is in the ballpark of 2,500 as of the 2,263rd year of Talahrius, mostly [Prymir-]Gherdunnic human. At its peak, the city held over five times that. The modern town mostly squats amidst the relative safety of the old Acropolis.
- The GP limit is 2,000, and most professions can be found here, although high-status professions are few and far between. There are no dedicated booksellers, for instance, nor specialists in ritual implements, spell components, or magic items. The latter can still be bought from individual tradespeople when appropriate, and likewise sold.
- There are six taverns, and one of those (the Homely Troll) doubles as an inn.
- Proconsul Kyriakos maintains a small retinue of sixteen guards/vigiles to keep watch. Kyriakos also keeps a diviner on retainer, Elder Magister Alesse, an old man of few words.
- Kyriakos rules Naranjgrad on behalf of the (vacant) Radiant Throne de jure and on behalf of the local patricians de facto. The surrounding uplands are terraced for rice farming.
- The most prominent landowning families in the Pentapolis are the houses Kardizi, Mosa, and Triskhato, headed by Lords/Domni (singular Domn) Porson Halfelven, Abad II, and Lady/Doamna Sekhmet Thrice-Widowed, respectively.
- In Naranjgrad, there are nine other households in residence whose names are [locally] prominent. Allegiances among this nobility, formal and informal, are evenly divided among the big three.
- The Pentapolis is a grouping of five settlements in the center of the region that claims continuity with the old Subcirneal Proconsulate.
- Formally known as “Subcirnea”, the Duskmarch is a rugged, depopulated borderland of about 31,500 sq. miles in area east of the Great Rampart, between the Cirneal Gulf (to the north) and the Sea of Valnagos (to the south). Savannas and tropical woodlands predominate, and it has a proper dry season (in contrast to the perpetually waterlogged west). The region is marked by the northward flow of the Western and Eastern Sind Rivers, which eventually converge and flow due north out of Duskmarch to the Sind River Delta, ultimately emptying into the Gulf. Both branches are prone to river piracy, which is still preferable to the brigandage or monster attacks overland travel usually invites. The semi-nomadic horse clans (mostly orcish) of the eastern prairies have begun migrating into the region.
- There are two temples of the old Imperial Collegium Pontificum, one specifically to Anubis (served by a dour human hieromonk– Qemoel– and ten equally dour acolytes armed with maces), the other containing four shrines: to the abstract concept of Ma’at (as a stand-in for the rest of the celestial gods), to Re-Horakhty, to Isis, and to Osiris (served by a kindly tiefling priestess of Ra- Ea– and 40 acolytes armed with scimitars, quarterstaves, and flails).
- For simplicity’s sake, we’re using the Fantasy-Historical Pantheons from the 2014 PHB, specifically the Egyptian and Greek pantheons, to show how the gods are perceived Around Here™ and in Foreign Parts™, respectively. Shayone maps to Ra, Vaerahsiilos to Osiris, etc.
Sierpinski Tetrahedron 