it's the second-to-last prime-numbered anniversary before my 20th!

maybe it's silly, but i think every anniversary is a big anniversary. (even if, looking back at my archive, i haven't made a big deal out of most of them here on this blog.)

the planet has made a whole 'nother circle around the sun since my last one, right? i mean, it's been doing that for billions of years and all, so maybe one more isn't that big a deal on a cosmic scale. but we've done all the seasons yet again and come through it with our wacky but wonderful relationship intact and going strong, so it needs to be celebrated, right?

anyway, next year's an even bigger one, since the relationship's going to be old enough to vote!

love you, elle! love you, msg!

we will be together forever, mega pinky-promise.

xoxo,
claire

yams, we've got to pull ourselves together!

this time last year, I already had like, 27 posts written! not only that, but the whole crew around here at worthy acres started blogging in turns in february and kept going at a pretty good pace for several months before distracting ourselves into an emailing game instead.

and you know what? all of that was great!

so i'm going to see if i can convince everybody into giving it another swing and this time not distracting ourselves.

wish me luck!

xoxo,
claire

cheetos and triscuits

i think i've discovered the problem with the world. it's the difference between cheetos and triscuits.

hear me out!

cheetos ... i mean, we all know it, right? they're the best worst snack ever invented. the crunchy ones! the poofy-puff ones! good grief, i start eating either kind and it's just el-gorge-arundo until the whole bag is gone. how can two totally different textures both be so absolutely perfect? 

and that freaking cheese dust on them! not only is it delicious, but the mind-boggling mess factor forces you to lick your fingers, you know? if you don't, one false move and your favorite outfit has a big cheesy skid-mark down it. like, you could definitely try using a napkin and a paper towel, but we all know what good that does, right? you wipe and smear and scrub with the napkin and then you look and you totally only got half the dust off. so then you wipe and smear and scrub some more, and after all that -- still a third of the artificial cheddar-pollen still stuck to your fingers.

cheetos totally steal your dignity ... but they're so good it's completely worth it.

okay. so i know everyone with taste buds is with me so far. what i want you to do now, though, is picture a pantry -- an ordinary pantry, with a mix of stuff you bought this week and stuff you bought last week and that scary can with the 20th century expiration date stuck way way back in the back -- and on the snack shelf, there's a couple bags of cheetos and a box of ...

triscuits.

jeepers, those poor effing triscuits, right? nobody's taking that box down and opening it while there are still cheetos. are you kidding me? you'd have to be crazy.

pretty soon, though, all the cheetos are gone, and you're like, "wait a minute -- didn't i just buy two bags of those just a few days ago?" and the answer is, yeah, you did, and then you inhaled them like a giant mutated kaiju hog.

and the box of triscuits ... would you just look at it? it's mocking you. when did you even buy it? at some point when you thought, "geez, i ought to try and eat healthier," that's when. and you tried to, you really did, and you bought them, and they went up on the shelf, and you kept seeing them there when you went to the pantry desperate for snacks (by which i mean cheetos), and every time you'd turn away with a cheeto-deprived grimace of disappointment.

some weeks, you say, "screw it," and you just make another trip to the store and buy more cheetos. other weeks, you've got enough willpower to say, "if i'm going to snack, damn it, those triscuits are right there. eat them already."

but you don't.

and you don't.

and you still don't.

until one day you're either desperate enough to open them, or you make your mind up to just surrender and throw them in the trash unopened because they're probably past their expiration date anyhow -- but as you're walking to the trash-can, you see the date and it's still a month off because somehow as long as the inside bag isn't opened, a box of triscuits stays good basically forever.

so either you open them in desperation, or you open them because they're in your hand and the date stamp says they're still good, and what the heck, it's not like you have any cheetos to eat instead anyway.

everybody knows where this is going, right? (maybe not, maybe i'm just a kook about this.)

you put the first triscuit in your mouth (i mean, if you're a hog you do that, instead of biting off half or a third of it) --

and it's freaking delicious.

i know, i know, it's sacrilege for me to even think this, much less type it out, but in their own way, triscuits are just as good as cheetos.

especially when you first open a box of them up, they have this wholesomely light texture to their crunch, and the flavor is real, not something stirred up in a lab like cheeto dust, and pretty soon, you've eaten one, and then you've eaten two, and then you've polished off a big chunk of the box.

and i think this is what people do with life, a lot of the time. (life life -- not the cereal life, which is its own whole other form of ambrosia)

they think they know the thing they want. they crave it. they practically drool over how amazing it is and how colossally its very existence calls out for them to pursue it and grab hold of it with both hands.

but they get it, and it's basically gone in a fraction of a whiff.

done.

and they stew over not having more of it, and they walk past the pantry and get these pangs of yearning, and they turn their nose up at the plain-old, boring-old, no-excitement-about-it-at-all alternative.

and a lot of them never even get around to opening up that box of triscuits.

so that's what i mean about life. you spend a lot of time pining for cheetos when the triscuits are staring you right in the face.

crazy, right?

xoxo,
claire

(p.s., i showed this to my boyfriend before posting it and he said, "believe it or not, years and years ago there were these cheddar triscuits that basically were triscuits covered in cheeto dust. they were basically the greatest thing in all of creation." and now i'm like, oh, great ... now instead of being happy i realized how terrific both cheetos and triscuits are, i'm all gloomed over from knowing there used to be cheeto-dusted triscuits and i'll never get to have them.)

ick. and anti-ick!

i'd call this past week pretty sub-optimal, to say the least. i don't want to go into details ... anybody wondering about it years from now while obsessively reading my blog posts can just look up the news for early 2026 and find plenty of explanation.

(and by the way, thanks for obsessively reading my blog posts, wonderful person years from now! i really appreciate it!)

what i do want to do is say, you know what? there's always something this bad happening to someone in the world, right? it's just mostly that you don't hear about it. and the flip side is, even when something comes on your radar and gives you the icks, there's also always something good happening to someone somewhere far away, or maybe even pretty close.

what i'm trying to get at is, don't let what's flooding your eyes and ears and dragging down at you make you think, this is what life is.

because life's literally billions of things happening at once to billions of people. and so far, overall, if you're looking back across all of history, it think there's mostly been an upward trend in whatever billions of things are happening at any given time.

so, look to the good, you know? and if you don't see it, imagine it. it's out there, and it's more reachable if lots of people do that looking (and follow up with that reaching) than if everybody sits around with the icks whenever we get flooded with bad news.

xoxo,
claire

the bar is set!

79 posts in 2025! that means if i want to keep my record-breaking streak going, i need to hit at least 80 for 2026.

but, whoops, today's the seventh, and that's a week of 2026 gone, and that's one fifty-secondth of the year with only one post to show for it.

gack! i'm already off pace!

so long, 2025!

well, the fireworks are starting up outside, so it looks like we've just about got another year under our belts. and after five straight years of creeping my "most posts ever" count up a bit every year, this year i took a big jump and almost hit 80 posts, so i'm feeling like at least on that end of things, it's been a pretty good spin around the sun!

(thank goodness i didn't actually break 80 -- if i did, i'd have to get  all the way to 90 next year to make it seem like i was making real progress. but this way, just outdoing 2025 by one post means i get into the 80s, which sounds like a big deal.)

i'm going to try getting the gang back on our blogging relay again. it worked out pretty good last year before we got sidetracked, and it would be nice if 2026's blogging doesn't consist entirely of rpg play-session notes.

have a great year, everybody out there! i'm rooting for us all in 2026!

xoxo,
claire

dcc thracia part 11 ... the search for egress!

the group has finally struggled their way back up to level 1 of the dungeon! but can they get out???

Judge Claire: The rusty iron bars stand between you and the two guards across the way. They continue eyeing you suspiciously, with their spears crossed in front of the divide in the black curtains that hang floor-to-ceiling behind them. To your left, you see some kind of ceremonial basin or font, filled with water. To your right, a hallway leads north. What do you do?
Sasha: Connie says, "Hey, can you guys understand us?"
Judge Claire: The guards scowl. One of them says something in an unknown tongue.
Akane: With a new day, Nanda can attempt again her spell of Language Comprehension! However, it has Mercurial Magic of Crack of Thunder and requires 10 minutes for casting. Should I?
Sasha: Fine by me. Worst case, it'll either make them scared of us or make them attack us, and since there's only two of them, Connie's not worried.
MSG: Only two of them we can see. Who knows how many are behind those curtains?
Hettie: Or how many might be down that hallway to the right, just waiting to be brought running by the sound of magical thunder.
Sasha: All right, well, is there a keyhole for these bars? I'll try some hand gestures like turning a key in the lock and see if they catch on.
Judge Claire: The bars seem to just be built straight into the floor and ceiling. The guards shake their heads at you and say something else in their language. One of them points back in the direction of the stair-slide you came up.
Sasha: No thanks. Connie's going to step up and see how strong these rusty bars are. Can I try to bend them open enough to get through?
Judge Claire: You can try, and I'll let you roll your Deed Die.
Sasha: 11.
Judge Claire: You strain and feel them quivering a bit, but they don't bend.
Elle: Imlero will give it a shot. Nope, worse.
Judge Claire: The guards appear to relax a little at your failure to break through.
Ariel: Granny tries! 21! Seniors rule!
Judge Claire: Granny wrenches the bars apart, startling the guards and making them grip their weapons more tightly.
Elle: Imlero holds a hand up in a gesture of peace and points down the hallway with her other hand. Then she sweeps both hands from pointing at the group toward the open bars and then on toward the hall.
Judge Claire: The guards confer for a moment and then appear to decide that you can proceed. One of them says something stern to you and points emphatically down the hall, then grips his weapon with determined defensiveness.
Sasha: Connie gives him a salute and sidles toward the hall, keeping an eye out that they don't suddenly change their minds and try attacking her.
Judge Claire: If everyone follows, they allow you all to pass without issue. To the north, about 40' away, the hallway takes a turn westward
Elle: I'm watching for traps as we go and not rushing. 15 on my Intelligence check.
Judge Claire: You don't notice anything. When you reach the corner, you see that the corridor extends another 35 feet or so to the edge of a cavernous drop-off. There, it meets with a rope bridge stretching off into the darkness.
Heddy: Didn't the giant say there were two rope bridges where giant bats attacked it and tried to push it off?
Hettie: That's my recollection of his tale.
Ariel: I hope he's wrong, because just the normal little bats in that first part of the dungeon made so much bat poop we had to walk through!
Akane: Nanda recalls something else about smallish bats ... when dwarves and other infravisioners went without light, no bats were roused. Perhaps this strategy is repeatable?
MSG: It might avoid the bats, but if we put out our light, how will we light it back up?
Hettie: Didn't we already suspend disbelief on that subject when we camped out before that disaster of a gem-stealing caper?
Sasha: Oh, hey, maybe there's a flint and steel in this bag I found on the bridge downstairs. I forgot I hadn't checked it yet. What's inside, Judge?
Judge Claire: 221 copper pieces, 68 silvers, 89 gold, and a small gem worth about 30 gp. There's also a large, rusty iron key. No fire-starting materials, though. I'll make you figure out what to do about that yourselves this time.
Ariel: Dang.
Sasha: I say we rope ourselves together and whatever yellow chicken-birds don't want to fight bats can sneak across in the dark after our halfling, with a bunch of slack between them and the real adventurers who bring up the rear with the lamp. Then if bats wake up and knock one of the lamp patrol off the bridge, the others can reel her in.
Hettie: This sounds fraught with peril, but it does have the advantage of putting an anchor team on the far side of the rope bridge before any bats start attacking. Hopefully.
Ariel: Let's do it!
Akane: Nanda recommends this: first, attach to our halfling the rope. She can scout so carefully across a bridge and see infravisionly into the dark to know what is there. 
Heddy: Glynette is a little nervous about being volunteered for this, but she's Lawful, so she'll probably go along with it if the group insists.
Akane: If she finds a place to tie the rope end, then she can return to advise us, it's anchored.
Judge Claire: Everybody good with that? If so, Glynette starts across the bridge. Since your infravision is only 30', you can't see the far side as you start out. But the bridge appears to be of relatively recent construction, well made of strong hemp ropes and wooden planks, with a handrail of rope along each side.
Heddy: I'll move as quietly as I can. My Sneak and Hide check comes to 18.
Judge Claire: About 10' along the way, you see the far side ahead. It looks like there's more hallway ahead.
Heddy: Do I have a sense of how far down that next floor is from here? It occurs to me that if the group pays out 50' of rope for me, and then I fall, it won't matter that I'm tied to the rope if the ground is only 40' down.
Judge Claire: Based on your climb up the stairs, you do think there's reason to be concerned about that.
Sasha: Just don't fall. Seems pretty obvious to me.
Heddy: How is this handrail tied up?
Judge Claire: There are wooden posts on either side of the end of the bridge, sunk into the floor of the corridor. Vertical support ropes are tied between the hand-rope and the bridge itself.
Heddy: Can I tell if it's the same on the other end?
Judge Claire: Yes, it is.
Heddy: Once I see that, I think I'll head back and let everybody know the setup.
MSG: So it should be okay if you're at the end of 50' of rope even if the ground below is less than 50' down. If you fall, you'll be falling between two of those vertical support ropes, so you'd dangle from that point, not straight down from where we're paying out the rope.
Heddy: Why don't we just rope ourselves together 10' apart with Glynette in the lead, followed by the next 3, and then 20 or 30 feet of slack before the group with the lamp? 
Sasha: Why do we need 3 people in the lamp group?
Heddy: Safety in numbers for one thing, but also, I think whoever has the lamp should really have both hands free to keep hold of it if they're knocked off the bridge and dangling while the others pull them back up. 
Akane: Also, a cord or short rope could be tied from lantern handle to a belt or belt loop of our lantern carrier. Then, it's retrievable even if bats attack them with fatal biting or claws.
Sasha: I just realized I forgot something else besides the giant's bag. I'm still busted up from falling off that statue. Can I get some healing from Chopper before we go up against these bats?
MSG: Sure. First roll fails ... second roll is over 20, but I only get a 3 on the d12. Third roll ... fail, fourth roll, fail, then a natural 20. Can I crit on a healing roll?
Judge Claire: No sign of that in the rules that I can see. I think it just factors into your level of success if you're healing someone who can receive more than one hit die.
MSG: Only 2 more, then.
Sasha: I wouldn't mind at least one more of those.
MSG: All right ... natural 19, for 3 more points.
Elle: Wow. You rolled a 3, a 2, and a 3 on a d12? That's some piss poor dicing.
MSG: Hey, at least I didn't roll more Deity Disapproval.
Sasha: Plus, I'm all better, so let's get going.
Judge Claire: This scheme is nerve-wracking for the people who can't see in the dark, but the lead 3 make it across to safety on the far side, with whoever's in 4th place still on the bridge as the followup team sets out. Who's that 4th person, and what's the order of the lamp brigade?
Hettie: Antwerp is passably strong, whereas Nanda is hideously unlucky and Chopper poses a significant amount more dead weight in his chainmail, so I think it makes sense for me to be the 4th.
Elle: I think Imlero and Connie are better suited to bat combat than Granny. I'd make her the lantern-bearer.
Ariel: Sure, Granny doesn't mind.
Sasha: Connie will let Imlero bring up the rear.
Elle: Very generous.
Judge Claire: Okay, as soon as the lantern gets out on the bridge, roll initiative.
Heddy: 18.
Hettie: 13.
Elle: 17.
Ariel: 15! We're doing great!
Sasha: Sheesh, Aers, don't jinx us. See? Now I'm on 5.
Akane: Nanda initiates elevenly.
MSG: Whoosh, 2 for Chopper. Glad he's off the bridge at this point.
Judge Claire:  Natural 20 for the bats.
Heddy: Damn.
Judge Claire: Bat number 1 bites at Connie ... 12 to hit, 2 damage, and you need to save versus disease from the bite and knockback from getting hit. Fortitude and Reflex.
Sasha: Crap! All right, Fort is 15, Reflex is 9.
Judge Claire: You're knocked off the bridge. Granny needs to make a Strength check to keep from being pulled off balance.
Ariel: Is 11 good enough?
Judge Claire: Yes. Second bat attacks Granny.
Ariel: Noo!
Judge Claire: It easily hits you doing 2 damage and forcing the same saves.
Ariel: That's 18 on my Fortitude ... but only 8 on my Reflex.
Judge Claire: You need a 12, if you want to spend some Luck.
Heddy: Glynette spends 2. I don't think we want Imlero trying to support both Granny and Connie. I'm getting down into Nanda territory on my Luck now, though.
Judge Claire: Glynette's up first.
Heddy: I'll tie the rope fast to one of the posts. No clue what else I could do.
Judge Claire: Imlero.
Elle: I'll move up and try to slash the bat's wing with my Deed ... 11.
Judge Claire: Miss. Granny's turn.
Ariel: I guess I try pulling Connie up some? One handed?
Sasha: That seems like a really bad idea. Why don't you just let me climb back up myself?
Ariel: I mean, because Granny's really dumb, remember? Can I Mighty Deed it?
Judge Claire: Go ahead.
Ariel: No Deed, but I do get a 19!
Judge Claire: I'll say that gets Connie high enough she could grab the bridge and heave herself up on her turn. Antwerp's next.
Hettie: The one that hit Connie is no longer engaged with anyone, so I'm going to try a sling throw. 15.
Judge Claire: Hit.
Hettie: Only 3 points.
Judge Claire: It's still flapping. Nanda's turn.
Akane: A spell of Flaming Hands seems poor to choose on a wood-and-rope bridge. I wait.
Judge Claire: Connie, then Chopper. Strength check for Connie.
Sasha: 18.
Judge Claire: You're up.
MSG: Is a giant bat a mundane animal? Because those count as Unholy for neutral clerics.
Judge Claire: I think the "giant" part speaks for itself.
MSG: Yeah, thought so. I'll look around for a rock I might be able to throw.
Judge Claire: Back to the bats. Number 1 hits Connie for 2. More saves, please.
Sasha: Botch on the Fort. 12 on the Reflex, so at least I don't go over the edge again.
Judge Claire: The  other one misses Granny. 
Heddy: I'll follow Chopper's lead and look for rocks.
Elle: Imlero hacks at bat 2. I assume 16 hits, so that's 5 points of damage.
Judge Claire: Just enough to kill it.
Ariel: Can Granny get to number 1 to punch it? 
Judge Claire: You're still roped to Imlero and it looks like he's more than 10' from that bat. If you succeed at a Mighty Deed I'll let you reach.
Ariel: Nope. Boo.
Hettie: No sling fire into melee, so I think it's down to Connie.
Sasha: Big time miss.
Judge Claire: Chopper has found a rock. Does he want to throw it?
MSG: Honestly, I think it's worth the risk. If I don't take the bat out, Connie may get knocked off the bridge again. Oh, wait, though. I'm outside of rock-throwing range, aren't I? Never mind. My chance of missing is too big.
Judge Claire: Bat! That's a miss.
Elle: I'm guessing Imlero can't get past Connie and Granny on this narrow bridge.
Judge Claire: You can try, but it would be a really bad time to fumble.
Elle: Goddamn it, now that you've said that, I'm guaranteed to roll a 1 if I try. Never mind. I do move up as close as I can get, though.
Ariel: Granny punches again! 13!
Judge Claire: Barely misses.
Ariel: I spend a point of Luck!
Judge Claire: In that case, you take it down. 1 xp each. Connie is starting to feel a little woozy from that bat bite.
Sasha: Can a cleric do something about that?
MSG: It takes 2 dice worth of healing. I'll give it a shot. 18 makes it. Then I'll try again to heal the damage. 17 for 5 points. Then a 16 on Granny for 3 points since she was hit too.
Judge Claire: Up ahead, you see that the next stretch of corridor runs about 50' before reaching another gulf in the cavern with a rope bridge.
Heddy: The giant did say there were two. So after this one we should be in the clear.
Hettie: Or, if one avoids too much assumption, we could prepare ourselves mentally for the possibility that the giant fell off of the second bridge, but that there was another one, or two, or ten, that he never saw because he didn't get that far before being knocked off by bats.
Sasha: Well, Connie's going to be pissed at him if he gave us bad info. I'll feel even less bad about him being dead now.
Judge Claire: What do you do about the new bridge?
Heddy: Rinse and repeat, I suppose. Glynette tries her Sneak and Hide scouting again with the rope tied around her. 19.
Judge Claire: This time, things are a little diffrent. Ahead, you see the bridge you're on reach a T intersection with a perpendicular stretch of bridge running north-south. To the left, it reaches another stretch of unlit corridor. To the right, there's another corridor that appears to have torchlight coming from it.
Heddy: Do I have enough slack to go to the end of the bridge and look down that unlit corridor?
Judge Claire: Yes. When you do, you see that it takes a bend west after about 20', and you think you see stairs leading up there.
Heddy: I go back to the group and let them know what I found.
Sasha: Stairs up sounds great.
Akane: It's definite agreement from Nanda.
Heddy: So the question is, do we draw more bats down on us by keeping our lamp on, or do we shut it off and let me lead everyone through the dark instead of just the first group.
Ariel: But what if those stairs don't lead out? We won't have any light!
Heddy: If there's torchlight to the north, we can backtrack and head that direction.
Elle: Solid. I like this plan.
Sasha: Connie's not eager to fall off more bridges or get bat diseases again, so, sure. Let's blow out the lamp.
Judge Claire: In that case, when you get past the bridge and turn the corner to the stairs, you think you see far above the shine of sunlight through a distant opening.
Ariel: Woohoo!
Judge Claire: I think this is a good place to end the session ... and actually a good place to pause and go back to Akane's campaign, if everyone wants to.
Heddy: If Akane's ready to be the Dungeon Master again, I wouldn't mind. This has been fun, but ... a little heavier on the intensity and lighter on the role-playing.
Elle: You hit the effing nail on the head there. That's Dungeon Crawl Classics for you.
Akane: It's enjoyable either way for me.
Judge Claire: I'll hand over the reins, then. Let's assume all the characters make it back to town, where you can recuperate and spend your loot to better equip yourselves for when we take this one up again. Also, everyone can have one point of luck to represent fortune shining on you in your survival and escape from Thracia.
Akane: Improvement! My Luck modifier is no longer minus 2!
Hettie: As a thief, do I add that to my current Luck or my permanent score?
Judge Claire: I'm going to say thieves and halflings only get a permanent bump if they're at full Luck when they receive a Luck award. Otherwise it would be too easy for them to spiral their Luck scores up over time.
Elle: Uh-huh. Like "too easy" describes anything in this game.
Ariel: Well, dying is pretty ding-dang easy!
Sasha: Not too much to worry about there, though -- we've got a pretty giant crew of gals and dudes to choose from if we ever get back to this adventure.
Ariel: I don't like that "if!" Granny is too awesome!
Akane: Yes. A "when" of Dungeon Crawling Classics is better than "if."
Judge Claire: I'll be sure not to lose the book, then!