Mad Cow Chronicles

I’ve often wanted to get into the phenomenon known as Let’s Play. I have yet to have the time.

I’ve been looking for a way to stimulate myself to write more.

I’ve been looking at my first-edition D&D books sadly and wishing I’d had a chance to play way back then.

These three things are now coming together for your amusement!

After a few minutes of poking around with my Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide, I have created the Guild of the Talon. They are ten stout (hah!) stalwart (Hah!) adventurers (heh), setting forth for fame and glory.

So, as the vernacular has it, what does this have to do with you? It’s quite simple, really. These ten hapless would-be heroes will be yours to guide (to death, destruction, utter failure, etc). Once each week, at a minimum, I will be posting a short piece of fiction regarding their adventures here. There will be at least one question at the end, left up to public vote. I will then play out the scenario decided for me, and fictionalize the results.

Note that this differs from the classic choose-your-own-adventure books of yore in that, after you make a decision, the characters still have to succeed or fail at the relevant task.

The First Task:

We need names! Descriptions, even! The characters’ racial stock and professions are already decided (First edition D&D has some fairly strict requirements for class and race choices); descriptions, genders and names, I will leave up to my audience. Any un-named character will be summarily assigned personality, name, and appearance with the first update on Wednesday.

So here are your choices:

Elf, Magic-User
Elf Magic-User/Thief Jessmyn Kross, thanks to Kieran.

Half-Elf Druid Sevan Petrosian, thanks to Emmy who did not leave a link.
Half-Elf  Cleric/Fighter River Gantenbaine, thanks to Stop.
Human Monk Kosal, thanks to Kat who did not leave a link.

Human Paladin Restriction: This character must be a law-abiding, morally pure character- the quintessential ‘good guy’.
Dwarf Fighter
Dwarf Fighter
Halfling Thief Aert, thanks to A Two-Bit Jeremiah.

Gnome Thief Restriction: This character may not be law-abiding; they must be either neutral towards the law, or entirely disrespectful of it.

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Thank you.

Yeah, I have bronchitis. It’s chronic with me, so this is just the most recent (and frustrating) flare up. It does interesting things to my voice, though.

Ah, airing the craziness that has been my past month.

Well, on May 9th, I departed to spend a week in Ohio with my girlfriend. It’s ye olde long distance, writ large; I live in Ontario and she in Ohio. But in May, hurrah, a visit!

We had a fine old time, doing… well, just regular things. We cooked together, watched a couple movies (Have I recommended Iron Man 2? Allow me to recommend Iron Man 2), played with the cats, I made her bagels, and I put a diamond ring on her finger and asked her to marry me. ¹ We went to the zoo, we visited a bookstore (she bought some history books; I, the fifth Hitchhiker’s book and Brandon San
derson’s Elantris). We played some video games (Little Big Planet, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Fallout 3). I introduced her to pool (a pool table in the basement and you don’t use it for a dozen-odd years? Tragic) and was thence roundly stomped.

Okay, so not entirely ‘just regular things’. The zoo had an exhibition of eminently adoptable pets from the local humane society.

This was the first and most exciting of the things that happened in May. You now have a minor update on The Life of Llan! Apologies that this is more of a newsdump than The Most Exciting Thing to Cross Your RSS Feed; they can’t all be gems.

Howdy, folks. Yes, I know, a Llanion post (shock, horror).

So rather than ‘no news to report’, what’s actually been happening is ‘too much, too fast, too exciting to blog’. There’s been exciting stuff happening at Llanion Central, and I’ve just been too busy to sit down and write it all out.

So, yes, dusting off the old RSS feed, and we’ll be seeing some new activity in these parts. Stay tuned!