Saturday: P.F. Changs, Authors, and True Dungeon Part 2.

"I am the Cleric who says....Ni!!!"

Jeff managed to make it up for a 9:00 a.m. seminar, but the rest of us were up with only time enough for a brief stint in the exhibit hall before lunch at the mall food court. I should mention, at this point, Todd's Friday shopping, and perhaps the most interesting purchase any of us would make over the course of the convention. At one of the toy booths, he found and fell in love with a cloth helmet replica (complete with antlers) from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the helmet, if you're familiar with the movie, worn by the Knights who say "Ni!" and demand shrubberies from passersby. I should also point out that 95% of Gen Con attendees have seen this movie. Believe me, I counted. So, in typical Todd ingenuity, he bought a blue cloak from a costume booth and ta daa! A six foot, bearded Knight of Ni! was walking through the mall food court with us, alternately frightening shoppers and delighting the gamers who'd come to eat. I found the best position to be in to fully enjoy this spectacle was about ten feet behind Todd, so I could watch the shoppers turn and stare when he passed and still hear the gamers calling out "Ni!" from all directions. Needless to say, after the transformation we had no trouble finding Todd in a crowd.

After lunch, Jeff and I and the Knight headed to Tracy and Laura Hickman's World of the Bronze Canticles seminar, while Tim headed to the auction in search of Games Workshop bargains. Delighted by the costume, Laura took Todd's picture (which in turn delighted him, I think :) ) and the seminar was well worth it. We got to hear both authors read exerpts from the upcoming third book in the trilogy, so of course afterwards Jeff and Todd had to buy book two from Margaret and Tracy's booth. =)

At some point, the group (minus Jake and Joe) met up again to go through the miniatures room and maybe see how Rupert was doing in his Mechwarrior tournament.

Jeff: "Do you want to hit the miniature room?"
Tim: "Sure."
Me: "I'll go with you."
Todd: "Ni!"

Up to this point, Todd's costume had generated several requests for photos (including one from a young girl who didn't even know what he was supposed to be, she just wanted a picture with him :) ) and several shouted "Ni"'s from gamers. But when we entered the miniature room, the floodgates opened. Apparently, even on Saturday, not many costumers made it into the miniature gaming area. From every table we passed, cries of "Ni!" rang out.

Flames of War section: "Ni!"
Todd, answering: "Ni!"

Battletech: "Ni!"
Todd: "Ni!"

Mage Knight: "Ni!"
Todd: "Ni!"

Mechwarrior: "Ni!"
Todd: "Ni"

So, we decided to leave Rupert alone to concentrate, and beat a hasty retreat back to the exhibit hall, where the shouts of "Ni!" would be drowned out by background noise or maybe the Wizards booth sound display.

We split up again, and I shopped for dice, another tradition. I almost bought a set of magnetic noise-makers the guys at Crystal Caste were selling--toss them in the air, they magnetize and make loud, vibrating, clicking and clacking sounds, great fun, though I suspect the booths nearby were happy when they finally sold out of the little buggers on Sunday. It was during this part of the afternoon that the wacky and surreal things started to happen...

First I met Phil Athans, editor of the Realms of the Dragons II anthology. I introduced myself to thank him for publishing my writing. I was nervous, but he was very nice and easy to talk to. He said it was the best part of his job, making the call to tell someone they were going to be published, and that he loved finding new writers. It was a great experience that I expected would end there, but he asked me to come back to the booth later so he could introduce me to Peter Archer.

I encountered Jeff and Todd--"Ni!"--again later in the afternoon, and we wandered around together for a while, got books signed by Tracy and Laura (Todd posing for more photos) and somehow ended up back at the Wizards booth to discuss our next move and evening plans. Here's Gen Con again, in a nutshell: I'm talking to the six foot, bearded Knight ("Ni!" from random people walking by) in front of the gigantic, blue, twenty-sided dice at the Wizards booth when Phil Athans comes over and says, completely unfazed by the antlers, "Come and meet some people."

So I go, and get introduced to Peter Archer and Ed Greenwood and Mary Elizabeth Allen and Bob Salvatore's wife, Diane (Salvatore was signing behind us with an immense line of people stretching around the corner of the booth) and Keith Baker, all of whom were hanging out in the author's area of the Wizards booth--a comfy, living room-style nook sandwiched between the WWII camp and the gothic church. Peter Archer asked me how the book was going and gave me some good advice on completing the first draft. I was extremely proud of myself later for not melting into a puddle of nerves and goo, but it was a near thing.

When I left the booth, it was after 4:00, and I had just enough time to get over to the Goodman Games booth to meet author Harley Stroh, and fail to hook up with Ed Gentry and crew again. I was sure I'd catch them at the signing, but I did get to meet Harley, who was, it turned out, exactly as I'd pictured him from message boards and blogs. It was truly a pleasure talking to him. He must have sensed that I hadn't yet reached my limit of twilight zone moments for the day, because he introduced me to Dave Arneson, who'd done a signing earlier for the booth, and we somehow ended up discussing True Dungeon. When I asked Dave if he'd made it to the final room of the dungeon we'd played and sweated through the night before, he replied, "Oh, yeah," as if it was all in a day's work. =)

After the signing, I met up with Tim back at the PJCC booth and went with him to buy dice and pick up more terrain for the Flames of War WWII game he and Jeff were stocking up for. We made it back to the box with just enough time to get ready to make our 5:30 reservation at P.F. Changs, the Mecca of Chinese restaurants in Indy and pretty much everywhere else outside of China. If you go, the chicken lettuce wraps and Kung Pao scallops are not to be missed. On the way to the restaurant, we got a taste of the insanity going on outside the convention center in the form of gamers mixed with pre-season football fans, as the Indianapolis Colts vs. (yep) the Chicago Bears rolled in to the RCA Dome in a mass of traffic and humanity. The best place to witness this spectacle was the safety of the sky bridges, trust me.

Later, full of noodles and scallops and already looking ahead to our 11:30 run through True Dungeon part 2, we headed back to the box for some down time before Jeff and I headed out to check out the Ed Greenwood roast at the Embassy Suites. Unfortunately, the room was packed, thus eliminating my last possibility to track down Ed Gentry and Co. short of wanted posters. Thwarted, Jeff and I consoled ourselves with cookies from the mall food court and a trip back to the auction, where I was yet again forced to surrender my 31/2" by 5" purse to the bag check guy in order to get into the store. The most interesting part of the trip was an auction of a rare piece of game material given out at a past Gen Con, a book for a line that was never supported after the convention, so no more were ever produced. We hung around to watch it sell easily for the reserve price of $300.00, then I picked my jaw up off the floor and we left.

Back at the box, the atmosphere was highly charged as we prepared for True Dungeon, part 2. Coming off our big win from the night before and the prospect of doing the Battle Beneath Castle Greyhawk on hardcore mode had us all on edge, and the walk over to the Marriott resembled more of a battle march. We wanted to win. We met up with Rupert in the Marriott lobby and after a late start, entered the dungeon...

And it didn't go well...

Actually, that's not completely true. (Begin possible spoilers for TD) We started out strong, especially in combat. The Battle Beneath had considerably more of that than the previous adventure, and our fighters absolutely dominated, ripping apart every monster we came in contact with. This was fortunate, since, as a bard, my character had the ability to sing to give players bonuses in combat...except this year, unlike last, the DM actually forced me to sing (me, Jaleigh, who does NOT sing) for the entire fight in order to grant this ability. I did it for one room only, despite Rupert's promise to teach me some good Australian songs. ;) In the end, our battle skills, combined with healing when needed got everyone through the dungeon, which culminated in a chessboard puzzle room that confounded us and a riddle in the final room that completely threw us for a loop. We had no idea how to solve it, so one by one we perished in our attempt to save Greyhawk, and walked out of the dungeon at 2:00 a.m. badgeless and thoroughly demoralized. The situation called for desperate measures, we needed something...something comforting, something bolstering....we needed pizza. Back to J.K.'s, and it was pepperoni pizzas and sodas all around at 3:00 in the morning while we discussed our great victory and our subsequent agonizing defeat.

Back at the box, we stumbled into bed, but continued to discuss everything from the puzzles, the combat, the DMs and the overall event until, exhausted, we fell asleep.

Go to Sunday