More or less on a whim, I picked up the Baldur’s Gate II Collection yesterday–I couldn’t remember if I’d played it or not. Starting up, the first room was familiar, and nothing afterwards, leading me to believe that I must’ve abandoned it very quickly. But it’s all good, because this is exactly the sort of thing I was in the mood for–mad stat juggling, item swapping, milk-run subquest goodness.

I love subquests. I fight my way out of the city trying to get to the ancestral keep of the mage/thief NPC who needs my help, only to trip over a poisoned idiot, whom I must then run back into the city to deliver, in a district that triggers my OTHER NPC’s subquest to chat with some thief guild dude. As we go, I see fights breaking out around me, practically waving little flags that say “SUBQUEST GOING BEGGING HERE! COME INTERFERE!” It’s a beautiful thing. I am in Milkrun City.

Also picked up “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” and “Wee Free Men” by Pratchett, both of which are keeping me further entertained. So life is pretty good.

I don’t actually have that much work at the moment–just finished up my last set of illos for Hogshead’s next sourcebook, and while they’ll give me pretty much as much work as I can hack, they haven’t dropped the next load on me yet. So I’m down to a few personal commissions. A month ago, it would be time to panic, but since James is getting paid again, and the Summer Of Subsistence appears to have ended, (nothin’ quite like having to live on a freelance art income to reduce you to a twitchy shadow of your former self!) I feel justified in taking a week or so to muck about with originals and “Digger” and so forth. After that, I’ll either get back on the mailing wagon, or else the work will have rushed in to fill the void, as seems to frequently happen. But I’ll deal with that when it comes.