"Forgive me, but I was under the impression that sorcerers did not want the uninitiated involved in their work," her Ladyship said.

"Typically, no, but most don't know how to make the most of those around them." He shook his head. "It's to their detriment, really. They could be so much more efficient, but I suppose that's what happens when you let fear override mastery of your craft."

"Some would say it's foolhardy to let the uninitiated handle even a fraction of such dangerous power."

"We were all uninitiated once. And I think you underestimate how trivial I find simultaneously fixing your problem and managing a layperson assistant."

Final Fantasy XV and the Final Fantasy VII remake make it seem like Final Fantasy games are about a group of friends who are ultimately trying to save the city/country/world, but that's not going to stop them from having a fun road trip and if they're able to help people and make some gil along the way, so much the better!

I'm all for this new direction.

A simple map of Brightshore, the party's adopted hometown. Their house is the one on the south side of the ravine.

So this happened in my D&D game tonight:

The party was hired to rescue someone who is able to project an antimagic field around them. She was captured by a cabal of dark mages who summon demons into their soldiers to enhance their combat capabilities and was being transported by a lightning rail-like hovertrain. The party managed to board the train undetected and used a couple of shaped charges to disconnect the car from the locomotive and blow open the door.

However, when they opened up the impressive-looking vault they believed was holding the prisoner, it instead unleashed a wave of intense cold and unleashed the antimagic field, stunning everyone in the train car (the party and the possessed soldiers alike). Inside the vault was a couple of glass jars holding what looked like pieces of a human's brain.

Things are about to get very interesting, however, as they are on a rapidly slowing train traveling around 100 mph while hovering over 5 feet in the air. The barely contained antimagic field within the vault was causing some glitches with the arcane levitation units, but now with the vault open, well...

Things could potentially get messy.

I can't wait for next week!

Tried roasting vegetables again, only this time I stuck to Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and mushrooms this time and I cooked them for 25 minutes instead of 30 minutes.

Those 5 minutes seem to make a huge difference. The broccoli and mushrooms were much better and less burnt to carbon, while the Brussel sprouts would've benefited from staying in the oven for those 5 extra minutes.

The leftover 4-ingredient bread was still good after being frozen and microwaved for a minute. Not as good as freshly baked, of course, but no bread is as good as when it's fresh out of the oven.

Also, being liberal with coarse salt in the olive oil for dipping bread in is definitely the way to go.

Aramis's Culinary Adventures: 4-Ingredient Homemade Bread

Made some simple bread over the weekend using this recipe, and this I'm very happy about.

Another simple recipe, though one that you'll need anywhere between 2 hours to 3 days to fully realize, so plan head accordingly. Only four ingredients needed:

The recipe also suggested adding 2 teaspoons each of garlic powder and herbs, so I tried that as well, and I think that really made this bread amazing.

After mixing the ingredients together until the dough is sticky and moist throughout, cover and let sit at room temperature for 2-3 hours to let the dough rise (the dough will be twice as big after that time). It's okay to bake after that, but the recipe highly recommends putting the dough in the fridge for 12 hours to 3 days for the best flavor. Shape into two long loaves and place on a baking sheet (though it worked just fine in a loaf pan like I did). Cut three slashes into the loaf, then bake at 475°F for 20-25 mins.

I baked half right away after the dough rested for 3 hours and saved the other half for later.

Here are the results:

This bread is delicious, and the crust is the best part. The garlic powder and herbs went a long way to making this bread distinctive, but it doesn't overwhelm it to the point of tasting like a spice rack. I would've devoured the whole thing if I let myself. It's really good dipped in olive oil mixed with herbs and coarse salt. This is the kind of bread an Italian restaurant would serve as an appetizer and it would be in danger of spoiling your dinner before you read through the entire menu.

I forced myself to save a couple of slices as I'm curious as to how it tastes a couple of days later. I'm really looking forward to baking the rest of dough after it's had a chance to sit for a couple days.

I'll definitely make this bread again, only next time I'll try bread flour or whole wheat flour.

Aramis's Culinary Adventures: Roasted Vegetables

Today I tried making roasted vegetables, as I've had them before and I've always like them.

I used this recipe, which is pretty simple:

I used small potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and a mushroom medley. The carrots were already chip-sliced to reduce prep time. All of these were store-bought and most came in small bags. Using the recipe linked above, cook time for the broccoli, mushrooms, and Brussels sprouts was 30 mins and the potatoes and carrots was 1 hour

Here are the results:

Overall, pretty decent for a first try. I didn't time it so both were done at the same time, so I had the broccoli and Brussels sprouts first. The Brussels sprouts were easily the best part of all this. Seriously, roasted Brussels sprouts are amazing.

For my next attempt, I think I'll be even more generous with the olive oil, salt, and pepper, and try baby carrots instead of chip-sliced to see if fewer carrots get burnt to cinders.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to cook meals from scratch (well, from "scratch") once a month. My first foray this month was trying out ice cream bread since it seemed extremely simple, and it turned out pretty well. Kinda like a denser angel food cake. Not bad for a first try at baking.

Since I have left over flour, I think I'll try making some Irish soda bread in February. I also want to give roasting vegetables a try, as I've heard that's the superior way to eat vegetables and I do have a lot of olive oil on hand (been slowly changing my diet to the Mediterranean diet for health reasons).

Been thinking again about the age-old question of how to handle firearms and armor in Dungeons and Dragons, but I'm starting to think that regardless of anything else, getting hit with a even a small cannon shot should ignore AC due to nonmagical armor. If full plate could not save you from even a glancing hit, then it shouldn't count. A one-pound cannonball will completely ruin your day.

Magic armor probably should still work as normal, which would create the image of the fighter taking a hit from a cannon shot and just getting the wind knocked out of them instead of being reduced to salsa with metal bits in it. That way even a +1 suit of armor can become the stuff of legends.

No stream this Thursday due to a family emergency. Have a good week everyone.

No stream tonight. Enjoy your Tuesday evening.

Game stream schedule for this week!

Tuesday, 24 Oct, 8pm EST: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Thursday, 26 Oct, 8pm EST: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Obligatory sewer level, now with shoggoths, tonight at 8:00pm EST as we play Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth!

https://twitch.tv/aramisdagaz