Vagabond Treehouse ~ [Fall 2025: World of Chains #1-3 (Wayward Bard) | The Perfect Run 1-3 (alternating)] Showing 2,451-2,500 of 2,527

[RachelG.]

Timelord Iain wrote: ""B32, the Architect of Despair", lol..."

I just got to this part, lol. I'm enjoying where this story could go and curious to see what happens in the course of the story. About 50% right now.

[Narilka]

I finished Dade County Death Cruise. I was on the right track :D (view spoiler)[Wrong person though. Hu was quite the mastrmind. So funny that the True Hands lady thought she was pulling all the strings. Also ironic that as much as True Hands hates the OP, they sure are OK using them to do their dirty work. Hypocrite much?

It's interesting that the only other dud we've met has also had an awesome, rare ability, even if he was using it as a complete creep. Perhaps other duds should be investigated to see if they also have some rare twist to their power so they aren't really duds.

I'm glad Kane is writing a 3rd book as that ending is very mysterous. Who did Gretch meet? Is it the progenitor of the OP like Hu theorized? I doubt it but you never know :) Hope it's not a long wait for the third book. (hide spoiler)]

Any idea if this is supposed to be a trilogy?

I'm going to take a day for podcasts and then move on to The Wayward Bard.

[Narilka]

Iain, you're right. The Gretch-as-Praetor chapter was hilarious :)

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Oh I can read Wayward Bard too... Gretch as Praetor is always a highlight of each book for me...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Decided to jump to Dade County Death Cruise before bed, after binging 28 episodes of Castle season 1-2 reaction vids...

Something I know I can finish and enjoy before bed...

I forgot how silly the start of the book felt, with the dog to the face and stuff...

I'm on the boat now...

[RachelG.]

I finished The Apocalypse is a Side Quest and enjoyed it but wasn't blown away by originality. I do think I will continue the series if it is still on KU.

I think I might join you two for The Wayward Bard.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Yea... I didn't feel like alot happened... MC was dragged along by plot, and so OP he just kinda took care of any problems super easily... I enjoy the world/premise, but it's nothing super amazing... also kinda short... compared to all the good value 20-30hr LitRPGs...

If you don't already own Wayward Bard, be sure to get the World in Chains omnibus, instead of the single book... both on KU with Whispersync, and the 3 book omnibus costs $5.60, where book 1 costs $4.93... I think Narilka picked it up for $4-$5 on sale, before I found and pointed out the omnibus...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

"Buff Prater Shape"...

Gretchen's dad is way too open with embarrassing life experiences...

[RachelG.]

Thanks for the omnibus info. All 5 are available on KU so I just borrowed the one to see if I like it or not.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Muy Thai!!!

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Gotta love a good double entendre... (view spoiler)[

Go down sticking it to your boss.
Did you go down, sticking it to your boss? (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Started Wayward Bard... chapters 1-2 take place in Denmark, and are the plot setup... alot of other LitRPGs would have started at chapter 3, in the online world / character creator...

It seems like this might be one of those VRMMOLitRPGs, with a bit of a secondary real world plot... looks like the MC pissed off some mobsters, and they follow him into the game...

[Narilka]

Yeah, I think the book blurb mentioned it's a VR MMO.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Rep grinding and charisma seems to be the focus... And bardic problem solving... Sometimes the music surprises me...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I had a day, today, ruining my afternoon sleep schedule ..

My AC bugged out a bit this morning, but I thought it was the usual stuff that's fixable with power cycling the breaker or turning it off for a bit... Only to realize my apartment was getting warmer with AC on vs off... So called landlord .. maintenance showed up like 20 minutes after I got to sleep, tested the temps coming out of vents and furnace and confirmed, played with breakers, figured out which AC unit out back went to my apartment and fiddled around for 2hrs... Several grocery bags got tangled in the fans and the compressor capacitor blew... Worked for 30 minutes and then the fan on outdoor AC completely died while he was doing some extra cleanup back there... Had to call it a day, and might have to replace the entire unit, and maybe some companion parts in my furnace in the next week, and in the meantime I have a window AC in my living room window now...

Maintenance spent another half hour to 1hr going to get that, Jerry rigging it in, sealing with tape, and then I had to figure out how to blackout curtain my window again with AC in it...

Hopefully it's resolved in the next few days/week, and I can sleep normally in the interim...

At least my apartment has dropped from 80F to 75F... It's been 90F out for the past week and it's gonna be 80-90F for at least another week...

[Narilka]

Oh man. That stinks. I have a hard time sleeping when it's too warm, never mind if it's too light in the room. Good luck.

[Nirkatze]

Yeah, ditto that... I will never live anywhere closer to the equator than 60 latitude if I can help it.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Nirkatze wrote: "Yeah, ditto that... I will never live anywhere closer to the equator than 60 latitude if I can help it."

I envy you in the summer, but not so much in the winter...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I turned my PC off for the day when I went to bed (I usually keep it running), since my apartment was hot and I didn't want PC adding to the heat... was also an opportunity to setup the new TV I bought to replace my current/old TV monitor, that might have been damaged in the apartment water leak a few years ago, because I'd only been using it a few months and it developed a darker burnout circle that wasn't working as well as the rest of the TV and I think was growing into a bit of a plus sign...

That turned into it's own debacle of setup, since the newer TV required an account to setup and I couldn't set one up on mobile for some reason without erroring on signup... and then when I started using the TV as a monitor at first, black text was appearing blue-tinted, no matter what I did to picture settings and calibration... that seems to have resolved itself since I went and finished account/tv setup, tho...

Also, BONUS, the newer TV has my Dropout.tv streaming service/app I like for game shows and D&D... got that setup along with youtube...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Re:AC: the stuff I learned about my AC issues yesterday leads me to think I've been living with subpar AC for awhile, and it just reached a breaking point yesterday, where it wasn't doing anything anymore...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Wayward Bard isn't gonna be a work read for me, given how sometimes the music pretty much jumpscares me out of nowhere... I just need to learn that basically any time the MC does Bard Stuff, we're gonna get music to go with it on audio... I think this is added by Soundbooth Theatre to make the audio authentic to the narrative...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Barring suddenly adding another 30 BRs to Spooktober / Cozy November (I doubt it), I'm looking forward to having a ton of freed up time to finish some of the books I read in this year, but didn't finish the whole series...

Biggest Offenders:

Battle Mage Farmer: Binged 1-3 and 4-6 in June, then #9 finale came out in July: Separation / Conservation / Culmination

Crow Investigation: Read 1-5 in July, because they're "similar to Jodi Taylor" according to Audible (not sure how true that is, but I enjoyed the story): The Shadow Wing / The Broken Cage / The Magpie Key / The Gilded Nest

Harbinger P.I: Read 1-8 this year, and need to finish 9-12: Night Hunt / Grave Night / Final Magic / Purgatory Blood

Solar Clipper: read a bunch of Nathan Lowell I hadn't read yet, and need to finish up the last couple: By Darkness Forged / School Days / Working Class / Hard Knocks

Grand Game: binged 1-4, need to get back to 5-8: Wolf in the Void / A Scion's Duty / Ancient Debts / The Lost Reclaimed

Re:Monarch: Read A Prince Out of Time in June/July, and I need to continue before I forget relevant timey-wimey stuff: Forgotten Sanctum / Whitefall

Also wouldn't hurt to make more time to continue solo reading the Osten Ard BR books I missed, Midnight Black new release I missed, and Demon World Boba Shop 2-5 (easy to toss in Cozy November)...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Re:Wayward Bard: I wonder if the nature of the VRMMO world will turn out to be more real than expected/explained... people think it's all procedurally generated AI...

[Ann-Marie]

I listened to the first Bard book today and I enjoyed it, him choosing to go into the game is different that the other Lit RPGs. (view spoiler)[I like that he decided to stay in the town and I hope the series is set there for the most part. (hide spoiler)]

[Ann-Marie]

@Iain that sucks your AC was acting up, I hate being hot, it is the worst!

[RachelG.]

Here's hoping the AC gets fixed fast. Having a hot house is no fun.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I was given a window AC to tide me over... I think it'll run up my power bill faster, but at least it keeps me cool short term...

[Narilka]

The Wayward Bard through ch 9. It's a bit slow to start but picking up some steam as our MC figures out the world. I really like the addition of violin playing during the bard performance. (view spoiler)[It's funny how the guy's plan is to rob several million Euros from bad guys and hide out in a VRMMO for a couple years. I kind of expect this to catch up with him but not for a couple books.

I also had a feeling that END would be important to a bard. Not for his line of reasoning but if he'd planned to drink and debauch, he'd want to last longer ;)

I like that "crafting" profession he picked up. (hide spoiler)]

@Iain, your question in post 2473 - that's what I think, that it will be more real than people assume.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Woo... totally agree... the town shares their myths/legends, at some point, and I think it potentially reinforces my theory...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I went down to my landlord's management office today and got an update on my maintenance order... since it's projected to rain a bunch in the next week, and I wasn't confident in the waterproof nature of the window AC temporarily installed to tide me over...

Was happy and surprised to learn my new AC is being installed in the next 48hrs, removing my worries...

The plan is to remove the old AC today, and install the new AC tomorrow... probably done in 2 parts so they can also deal with other smaller emergency maintenance requests, as needed... I think he said it would take 2 people 4-5hrs to do it all in one go, when I was asking questions on Tuesday, about the various potential solutions...

This is my current setup: (view spoiler)[



The window, with the aluminum HVAC tape visible...



Me jerry-rigging washcloths, kitchen towels, and athletic shirts into blackout curtains while keeping the AC functional...
(hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

That sliver of light really likes to target me, while I'm trying to sleep midday...

[RachelG.]

I am on chapter 13 (about 40%) in to The Wayward Bard and really enjoying it. Do you think you would want to leave your body at some facility for a couple years and go into a virtual world? I'm not sure that I could trust anyone to keep me alive and safe.

[Narilka]

Timelord Iain wrote: "I went down to my landlord's management office today and got an update on my maintenance order... since it's projected to rain a bunch in the next week, and I wasn't confident in the waterproof nat..."

I can see why you'd be concerned that set up wouldn't block rain lol

[Narilka]

RachelG. wrote: "I am on chapter 13 (about 40%) in to The Wayward Bard and really enjoying it. Do you think you would want to leave your body at some facility for a couple years and go into a virtual world? I'm not..."

Nope. I like the VR set up from something like Ready Player One better than what they are doing in Wayward Bard. Give me a system I can enter and leave myself whenever I want.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

This VR with muscle stimulation reminds me of Archemi Online, or whatever that one that starts with Apathy is called...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I have all the luck... Maintenance came back out to fiddle with AC because another apartment had a similar problem and he realized he requires the fan backward and it also turned off after 10 minutes... Tried fixing wiring here and it didn't solve it, so now he's gonna try a new fan engine tomorrow...

In the meantime, while here, I realized that my bathroom ceiling was leaking while he was here dealing with AC... Now there's 2 open maintenance requests... Upstairs neighbor's AC drain clogged... Talk about timing... Caught it early at least, since they woke me up to fiddle with AC testing...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Now it's bucket and dehumidifier in the bathroom time, until it dries, then they get to tear out ceiling and try and insulated better to avoid happening again... Been 2 years since this happened... New AC drain system was supposed to fix this, it used to happen alot more often honestly, but still annoying...

Back to bed... At least I got 3-4hrs of sleep before being woken up by door knocks this time instead of 20 minutes the other day...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

The only upside is how early I caught it this time around, because they woke me up and it dripped on my arm... Punctured paint with knife and maybe 1 cup of water poured out then it's been a drip, even after puncturing drywall with a screwdriver, to drain anything above... Usually this happens when I'm sleeping or not noticing because of audiobooks, and it's had enough time to soak the ceiling drywall until it starts sagging and falls down, with a bucket of water above... I have way too much experience with this, but I'm a "never move unless I have to" type of person... Lived here 10 years, lived previous place 6 years except for swapping apartments for a bedroom instead of studio.after the first 2 years...

I think when I moved in, the senior maintenance guy was the rookie and now he's in charge of the new new guy...

[Narilka]

My goodness, that's a lot of AC problems. Didn't you have a flooding issue not long back where they moved you out of your apartment for a month so they could fix it?

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

That was 2 years ago when neighbor fell asleep and overflowed bathtub...

Good news this time tho... Looks like drip stopped and dehumidifier is doing its job... There's almost no water in buckets/tubs setup to catch leaking water...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

But yea, 2-3 different AC problems relating to me here in a few days... Strange for my building, less so for my landlord... Landlord has 500 units (apartment buildings and homes) spread around town...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Narilka wrote: "RachelG. wrote: "I am on chapter 13 (about 40%) in to The Wayward Bard and really enjoying it. Do you think you would want to leave your body at some facility for a couple years and go into a virtu..."

I think the Awaken Online system is slightly better (that's the Apathy series I was trying to remember the other day)...

Similar VR MMOLitRPG system... able to enter and leave more often... but also takes advantage of the processing power of the human brain / dream time / etc, and allows for time dilation, so like 3-7 game days pass for every real world day... lets you do alot of reading / gaming, and alot less comparative school work as part of daily/weekly life...

And that muscle massager/electrode thing is like cheating at weight loss / muscle gain... then again, in a VR MMORPG, you kind of have to be in half-decent shape, I'd think, to survive...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

AC Chronicles continue... Fan motor replaced, still problems... Maintenance unexpectedly killed power to my apartment (uninterrupted power supply works I guess), because fuse box in apartment doesn't seem to kill power to AC out back... Had to flip main breaker to take out and confirm 1 of 2 outdoor fuses is dead... Gone to hardware store to replace fuses ... Got about 2hrs of sleep before he showed up 15m ago... 5.5 more hours before I get up for work... What a week, 3 days out of 4 interrupted, and next week probably won't be much better when they come to fiddle with dried bathroom ceiling...

[Narilka]

I hope this is it for the year. You seem to have enough apartment problems to last you a while.

[Narilka]

The Wayward Bard half way through Ch 13 (view spoiler)[So much for Daniel's plan to not adventure and need to do any fighting. That didn't last long lol

I'm getting tired of all the stats. I hope that smooths out once the MC is more familiar with the world.

I'm also finding that since players can just respawn, I'm less concerned over his choices or any supposed danger. Perhaps that will change too as the story progresses. (hide spoiler)]

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Yea, I had a good stretch of smooth sailing... Last year the heating element in my oven went out on Thanksgiving week...

Been 2 years since any serious water issues...

Looks like AC is unfixable by maintenance today... Seems to be an incoming voltage issue... Maintenance needs to call the power company out to mess with it... Plan is to talk to supervisor then probably call power company... I'm with the window AC for the weekend and I will get a voicemail update by noon Monday, most likely... Maintenance tech made a note and promise on my work order...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

Yea... Respawn is pretty uncommon in LitRPGs compared to gaming... The item durability seems to be the main deterrent here... So the further into the series we get, the bigger the risk of severe penalties if items are lost/destroyed (happened once here)

I agree that stats in these types of books I don't tend to care about much... Tend to start skipping them when they get obnoxiously long... Once series I was reading it got to be like the last hour of each book, and occasional updates in the middle that were 30+ minute chapters...

[Narilka]

Item durability/loss isn't a big deterrent to me when I play games so it's no surprise that I'm underwhelmed by it in book form lol

I think I might DNF a series that has 30+ minutes of stats.

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

I think item durability is less of an issue in gaming than it would be in this series... Monsters are gonna find him eventually I'm sure... Spawn camping could/would be an issue...

[Timelord Iain, Tech Support]

PVP griefing