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There's one more encounter to recount from my D&D game last weekend. Yes, it's a week since we gamed and I'm still catching up on writing about it. I said the group was very productive despite a short gaming session!

Recall that the group is going through an adventure I created called The Collector's Menagerie.



In a story that turned out to be like a twisted take on the boardgame Clue the group is investigating a mansion where exotic monsters have escaped their cages following the recent, totally-no-reason-to-be-suspicious death of the wealthy owner. Instead of "Colonel Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick" it's "Stirges in the Conservatory try to kill you!"

After choosing to descend to the basement first, a reasonable choice as they were told by the butler other household staffers were trapped down there and they could hear faint cries for help wafting up the stairwell, the group already fought a carrion crawler in the kitchen and a few ghouls in the crypt. (What's that, Clue doesn't have a room named the Crypt? Well, Clue doens't have a basement either! ...Okay, nominally it does, but it's not part of the gameplay. 😂) The voice calling for help could still be heard from the last room in the basement.



The group, at this point, was wary of a trap. Deadly monsters— deadly to zero-level household servants, anyway— seemed to have the run of the house. Could someone still be alive at the far corner of the basement? Especially when the room at the far corner of the basement was literally the shit-room?

Yes, the shit room. A room with a large grating leading to the sewer. The room where things like food scraps and chamber pots were emptied, then occasionally shoveled into the sewer. And from amid the literal shit-pile next to the floor grate the group could hear "Help me! In here! I'm stuck!" Total trappage. 😅

"It could be an illusion," the group reasoned.

"You think it's fake shit?" I asked.

"Or a mimic," they added. "A mimic impersonating a pile of shit."

"You think it's intelligent fake shit?"

At least this time they decided to find out rather than close the door and nope out of it. Though they sent in the NPC first. 😂



Sure enough, it was a trap. But not a mimic. No, the shit was real. And in the pile of shit was a real monster, an otyugh.

It appeared first with a tentacle-like appendage rising up out of the muck. Then a rough body with greenish-brown skin and a huge mouth. And two more appendages, these covered in spikes at the end. The otyugh reached out with its spiky tentacles and tried to wrap them around Otonio (the NPC).

Otonio dodged the attack and retreated. He regrouped near the door, where the rest of the group was holding. He drew a bow, as did Herran and Leoghnie. It seemed nobody wanted to fight toe-to-shit-covered-toe with the Otyugh. 🤣 But between a volley of arrows and some damage-dealing spells from Ryuu-Han and Kiarana, the group vanquished it without taking further damage. Or getting any shit on their boots.

For the past 12 days Hawk has been going through a familiar process of recovery from having foot surgery. It's familiar because this was Foot Surgery II: The Other Foot. But this is also a case where the sequel is better, or at least less bad, than the original. That's because this recovery is going faster.

On Day 12 today we went to the monthly flea market at De Anza Community College in Cupertino. Hawk wheeled around with her knee scooter covering quite a bit of distance as we rolled/walked/kick-pedaled up and down the long aisles in the parking lot a few times. And this wasn't her first outing with the scooter. We went out to eat together last night as well as once earlier this  past week.

One of the reasons Hawk's recovery is going better with Surgery II is that she doesn't have an infection in the wound site like she did with Surgery I. That's giving her an overall lower amount of pain level to contend with. In particular, she doesn't have the burning feeling in the wound site that she did last time. Last time she had that burning feeling right away after drugs from the surgery wore off. We think now that she got the infection during surgery, not from having the stitches removed too soon at Day 14. Though still, fuck Dr. Yips for removing the stitches too early and not seeing the signs of infection, and also being a misogynist douche who mocks female patients and female clinical staff.

Without an infection in the wound this time, markers of Hawk's recovery seem to be coming quicker. Here at Day 12 she's already at, say, where she was at Day 16 (or later) last time. I say that from gauging her energy level moving around. Yes, she still needs to rest after an outing, but there's no face-planting in her pancakes like last time.

She'll likely get the splint removed and replaced with a boot at her clinical followup this coming week on Day 20. Yes, that's later than last time; but IMO that's because the doctors are playing cautious because doing it on Day 14 last time was too soon. Or because that's the day that fits their schedules. 🤷 Though again, it was too early last time not because Day 14 was too soon but because the wound got infected, and because the doctor who subbed in at Day 14 was a douche who missed the signs of infection (despite being a physician with 30+ years of experience!) and brushed off Hawk's reports of pain as yet-another weak woman whining.

I am optimistic that subsequent markers of Hawk's recovery will continue to arrive ahead of schedule. In particular, I'm thinking that by Week 3 this time she might be where she was at Week 5 last time. We'll see.