Zuzzak the witch

With the release of the Advanced Player's Guide for Pathfinder 2e, I wanted to try out either one of the new ancestries or one of the new "versatile heritages" which can modify any ancestry.

I'd already decided I wanted to try running a witch, and use of of the special backgrounds available to people who've played first edition PFS, and I had a half-formed character concept I was calling Urban Fantasy Heroine Minus the Tropes I Hate, but then I decided to randomize some aspects of the character and the concept didn't fit anymore.

So instead, I have Zuzzak the musetouched aasimar goblin. Zuzzak hails from the Hao Jin Tapestry, a demiplane originally created by a legendary sorceress as a place to stash interesting buildings, landforms, and entire communities. For most of 1e PFS play it was under the control of the Pathfinder Society, but the grand finale of 1e was it unraveling and the Pathfinders having to rescue as many people as possible from it.

Zuzzak's mother is remembered as a beautiful and mysterious goblin woman who stayed with the tribe a little over a year, spontaneously combusting shortly after Zuzzak's birth. (Goblins think fire is kind of neat, so this event is recalled more with admiration than horror.) In reality, she was an azata aware that the tapestry would soon unravel, trying to give the goblins a little help surviving the event by taking on a mortal form to produce a child with extraordinary abilities.

Zuzzak only knows that she found the prettiest lizard in the world when she was a few years old, and it helped her learn all sorts of interesting things, including how to guide her tribe through the planar upheaval to rescue. Zuzzak took a liking to the Pathfinders, decided they were the best tribe (goblins will readily switch allegiance to a stronger leader or a tribe which offers more opportunities), and became a field-commissioned agent.

Witches don't have to ever find out who their patron is, which allows me to not quite make up my mind yet. Maybe it's just Zuzzak's mother controlling her familiar, or maybe it's a loosely connected group of azatas.

Another thing I didn't quite make up my mind about was the character's gender. So she's identified as female for now, but Zuzzak has been questioning a lot of things lately...

Updated boardgame VTT list

Adding a couple that I learned about after the last list, subtracting a few that are not general-purpose VTTs: Board Game Arena, Tabletop Simulator, Tabletopia, VASSAL aka Vassal Engine, OCTGN aka Octagon, Sovranti, yucata.de.

I still need to try out most of these. I think that's what I can do with some of my spare weekend time as I start running out of PFS scenarios to play. I think I can have a presentation ready by the time Smofcon or whatever virtual event happens in its stead this year rolls around.

72 days to go

Hot again this week, but not overwhelmingly so. I managed to get out and cut the blackberry bramble back some this afternoon.

Inside, the SO has determined that the garage needed a new workbench, and dismantled and carted off the ratty old one that was in there when we bought the house. A new model has been picked out, but just like when I decided I needed a dedicated work table, approximately everyone has decided they need one at the same time, and so we will be waiting for an e-mail to let us know when Home Depot actually has one available locally.

I tried not to watch the political convention this week, because my mind is already made up, but it was everywhere, even on BBC America when I tried to tune in for BBC World News, so I wound up seeing some parts of the major speeches. The candidates seem like they'll do okay. It's still at least a month and a half until I'll have my ballot in my hands.

The part of isolation that's chafing at me right now is the grocery logistics. I used to not decide what I was going to make for dinner on the weekend until it was the weekend, then pop over to the store to get the ingredient or two I didn't have lying around. Now I have to have some idea on Thursday so I can get everything on the shopping list.

I'll probably be complaining about this less in a month or so when the rain is back and I don't want to go out in it unless I absolutely have to.