Well, our heroes, Matthias and Aury are headed for the Barrowmaze with their guide, a dungeoneer named Brother Jasyn. It's October 23, 204 Post-Ravaging. I spent some time this evening doing some setup for a fight with a hunting party of lizardmen they've encountered.

My plan is to run the combat tomorrow. I can use it for entertainment during breaks while working on a Sunday School lesson.

Allan has been gone almost sixteen months now. I sure do miss him. I wish we'd spent more time together over the years. But we lived in different states. Contact was infrequent. There are so many things I wish we had done together: camping, playing D&D, hiking the Appalachian Trail, whitewater rafting — to name just a few. I worry about the state of his mind, attitude, and spirit at the time of his death. There isn't really anything I can do about that except pray for him. I think that prayer can be effective even across temporal boundaries. In other words, in my mind there is the possibility that after-the-event prayers may possible impact the event itself, even though it occurred already in the past.

Here's a picture of me and my brother after my niece's wedding several years ago. I honestly can't remember what year (I'm getting old), so I'm going to send the link to my niece. Her memory will be better than mine.

Allan and I sure did enjoy our card games. We were both big fans of Magic: The Gathering. I have a lot of fond memories of afternoons and evenings whiling away the time playing, and just enjoying each other's company. What I wouldn't give to reclaim some of that time now. We never realize just how precious someone is to us until they're gone.

For this trip, I rode/drove with Bobo to Toledo with two other nieces, Katy and Lauren. We had a good time and a safe trip.

The trip home with Bobo, Lauren, and Katie seemed shorter than the trip to Toledo. We stopped at a McDonald's once for something to eat. I felt it was thoughtful and kind of mother to invite my two nieces on the trip. Those are the kind of events that make good memories, and I'm glad they had the opportunity. Now, in the tail end of 2023, I look back and those kids are grown up, and I'm past middle age.

Update: I’ve converted the XP advancement system so that it’s not fractionally based.

Of course, treasure XP may still be fractional since 1 spent gp translates to 1 XP.

If I recall correctly, a day or two ago, I began spit-balling a way to determine fractional experience values for defeated monsters in Scarlet Horizons.

Here, I refine my thinking a bit more:

0.001 (per Hit Die) If AC < 7 add 0.00010 If AC < 4 add 0.00015 If AC < 1 add 0.0002 Special ability (attack or defense) add 0.0003 per ability/quality

I've attempted to apply this to aboleth spawn.