View From the Bushes

So I'm playing a little bit of Neverwinter Nights the other day before dinner, and my son Preston is watching me play. He likes to watch me play my computer games almost as much, if not more, than he likes playing his own computer games. In any case, I'm playing a sorcerer in NWN, and of course I have a henchman and a familiar (a pixie). Well I got into this really nasty battle with a "bloated dire spider" and my familiar kept dying. Which distressed Preston (who's four) to no end. After reloading a couple of times, I realized the easiest thing for me to do would be to just unsummon the familiar, since she really wasn't helping. Preston, of course, wanted to know where she had gone, so I told him that I sent her home so she wouldn't get hurt.

At that point, it was down to me and my trusty henchman (the half-orc barbarian Daelen if you're curious). But it was still a pretty tough battle and I was still having to reload because my henchman was dying. Well, earlier my son had asked me who the henchman was and in an effort to involve him I had said that it was him. Well needless to say when the henchman started dying, my son, confronted by his own mortality, reacted with some dismay. After "he" had died for the third time and as I was reloading, he demanded that he be sent home, just like my familiar, so that he would be safe. An emminently practical suggestion if not for the fact that I had no chance of winning the battle without my loyal sidekick. Apparently he didn't care if I died -- he just wanted out.

Tonight is role-playing night. It's interesting that when I was younger, summer was the boom time for role-playing and it was during the school year that campaigns died. But this year, at least, we had a heck of a time playing during the summer. Part of the reason was that my sister had a baby, but there was also a huge amount of traveling going on (not many of us were part of the jet-set back in elementary), and as a result I think we played only two or three times all summer. But now that winter is approaching and college is back in session, it looks like we'll be back in the swing of things. I'm looking forward to it.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross