Miguel Classico

I love (hate) answering a question for someone in one Slack thread and then having that person drag me into a whole other channel that I don't have any business being in just so I can answer it again but in front of other people?

When we last left our intrepid heroes they were surrounded by a ghastly garden of blights. The party fought on with flame and fist and moxy but to no avail. The villainous vines and thorny terrors just kept coming!

And lo! Just as the tide seemed to turn in our heroes favor, disaster struck!

A mass of thorny vines sprung from the tree and entangled Hawk Feather, the intrepid Tabaxi trickster. Hawk struggled with all her feline might but disappeared under the surface of the haunted tree.

The rest of the party rallied and fought off the remaining blights and made the only choice that a group of righteous, fearless heroes could possibly made when a sister-in-arms is in danger.

They cut their losses and left her ass to rot. Eyyyyyy, just kidding, bitch. They coming for you.

With weapons drawn and the holy light of Sune guiding their way, our heroes made their descent into the musty, dank tunnels beneath the tree. The entry way led them to a network of Duergar handiwork that looked to be in dire need of upkeep. The stone tunnels were cracked and broken, roots and vines crawling in from the outside and spilling dirk and other debris all over. A stark contrast to the pristine stone tunnels of the lardery where they spent the night past.

Ahead lay two doors, one to the left and one to the right. Beyond the doors, the tunnel split into two paths, also to the left and right. No light save the holy radiance of the Shining Mace of Sune’s Good Boi shone anywhere in sight.

The party carefully crept towards the door on the left and found a storage room. Many boxes and barrels were in disarray, their contents long gone or rotten.

Two boxes remained intact and bearing a familiar sight. Emblazed upon the boxes was a black spider, the moniker of Nezznar the Drow, the would-be master of The Forge of Spells and the mines of Phandelver. Ya’ll merc’d his ass, if you recall.

Wise Stumbleduck carefully searched one box and recovered two chests. One contained an exquisitely carved jade statue of an owl and three smaller mouse statues. The other contained a want that Stumbleduck deciphered (somehow) could be used to summon a flame blade (maybe).

Stumbleduck, with wand held high, rushed into the next room and came face to face with a pack of monstrous hounds led by a ferocious alpha. Our heroes rushed to Stumbeduck’s aid and fought off the horde of hellhounds. But not before Stumbeduck suffered an infectious wound and now fears that a rod grub resides inside of her. What a turn of events!

Thoroughly disgusted and a bit exhausted, our adventurers have barricaded themselves in the storeroom where they found the chests and hope to find the mildest respite in order to tend to their wounds.

As they lay in rest, however, the entrance to the tunnel slid itself shut and razor-sharp brambles have grown over it, completely obscuring it from vision.

And what of brave Hawk Feather? Will our heroes reunite with the plucky plunderer before she succumbs to whatever fate has befallen her?

Woke up from a dream where my cat was alive and a visit from my sister cheered him up a bunch.

Woke up confused, realized he’s not alive and had a good cry before going to work.

What a great day.

My cat has cancer.

Tumors in his mouth that are preventing him from eating, to be specific.

Until his biopsy came back on Monday, the vet had been treating this as gingivostomatitis (basically mouth ulcers caused by bad bacteria/infection in the mouth area).

He’s been losing weight for months now. Like, a lot of weight. Like, there’s less than half of him than there was back in January. He can’t eat without hurting, he’s in pain because he’s hungry and even the softest of foods eventually irritate his tumors and cause them to bleed. He barely even drinks water anymore and that has come with its own laundry list of issues.

I’ve been guilt-stricken knowing that I’ve been putting him through this along with multiple vet visits, a tooth extraction, multiple rounds of steroids and antibiotics just on the chance that some of it will work and he’ll recover.

So now the vet is telling me there’s no coming back from this. That this will only get worse and the cancer will eventually spread and cause respiratory issues and get into his bones.

So, I made the decision to put my darling Chester to sleep this Saturday. I know it’s the right thing to do. I know it’s going to end his suffering but that doesn’t make this any easier. I’m going to miss his tiny, adorable face every single day of the rest of my life and no amount of telling myself that this is for the best is going to reconcile that.