I went to see Beaner this weekend before he heads off, back to North American and places where color has no u in it. We just kinda chilled out for the day. We went on a quest to find the island where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis took many a walk, and though we don’t know if we ever found it, we did find an absolutely amazing garden, filled with gigantic trees, and quiet glades. Then after a nice home made dinner we went out to explore the tavern history of Oxford. Our first stop was a place called the “Turf Tavern” build in the 15th century. This place has character—it oozes with it. The ceiling is lower than six feet and the tavern has a total of about 6 tables in three rooms each smaller than my dorm. But it also has two court yards, complete with ivy covered walls older than the US and pit fires to keep you warm when the beer just does not cut it. Then after deciding it was just too cold to sit outside we wandered into “the oldest tavern in Oxford”—the Bear, founded 1242! We decided that it was not in the original building, but the building it was in was significantly old enough to suffer from the same problems as the Turf, low ceilings and a sever lack of seating.
Anyway all this old buildings combined with walks through statue filled gardens and forest paths managed to bring out the DM in both J███████ and myself and we had decide to dive full force into map making and world building…