Gen Con Day 2: Mystery Doors, Barrel Beasts, And A Pissed-Off National Monument

Good morning folks. As is The Custom, this daily Gen Con missive is started in the morning and updated throughout the day. so let's get to it:

• Sniderman's Travel Tips: Hey folks. This your first time in a hotel? It is? OK, here's some friendly advice. You see that mysterious Door to Nowhere over against the far wall? The one that's deadbolted for some reason? Did you open it only to find ANOTHER door? Well, that's not a utility closet, nor is it the entrance to a secret underground bunker. That's a door to the other room next to yours. The cleaning staff may use it to move back and forth from room to room while straightening up, or friends rooming next to each other may open it up to allow free access back and forth. If you do not know the person in that next room though, DO NOT TRY TO OPEN THE MYSTERY DOOR AND FOR GOD'S SAKE DO NOT KNOCK. The guy in the next room who's trying to catch a power nap may have a heart attack waking up to "Intruder Noises" occurring within his room. And if it happens again, I'll explain this to you in person at 3 a.m. while I pound on that same door as hard as my fists will allow. Thank you. (Now that I got THAT Public Service Announcement out of the way...)
• Stopped by a Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up and saw a product called Blue Machine. It has pureed berries and other healthy stuff, so I gave it a go. It was like drinking a sweat sock, both in flavor and texture. Nasty.
• A chick in a leotard wearing cat ears and cat tail is sexycute. Conversely, a DUDE wearing a leotard and cat ears and cat tail is creepyweird.
• Am I the only one here NOT wearing a black T-shirt?
• Ok, just finished up my Mutant Future game "Gimme Shelter II: The Rushmore Salvage Job" and, although it seemed to start slowly, it picked up speed until it collided with the mother of all epic endings. Some scenes that occurred: Barter John the mutant bear merchant tasks the team with finding  his scout Joey Gills who hasn't returned from Black Hill where an Ancient monument is located; the team needs to retrieve a large sculptor's model of the Mount Rushmore monument; rock guys exploding up from underground, overturning their truck; Morty the Moose bull-charging a rock-guy, missing, and continuing to run; Burger King the gravity-manipulator dropping a truck on another rock-guy; Apollo the mutant chipmunk missing with FOUR grenades; Morty also drops a grenade, destroying the gift shop the model was housed in; Mount Rushmore comes to life and pulls itself out of the ground to give chase to Our Heroes; "The Brain" creates an illusion that Joey Gills destroyed the model, pissing off the Living Monument and causing the 400-foot-tall granite colossus to smash Joey Gills into a fine red paste. Next year? Barter John has a little mission to the ISS...
• Got a chance to play in a Labyrinth Lord game hosted by none other than Dylan, the Digital Orc. He ran the party through his Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz. I got to play my preferred class of "cleric," and we were sent to the northern hills to investigate why the favored beer brewed by the monks was "off." I'll be vague in this entry as the adventure is available for sale (so no spoilers here for future players!), but I'll just say that, if you decide to stab a Burpee, you should totally rethink that strategy! I had to leave the game at the appointed ending hour as I had other commitments, so I'd love to find out how the rest of the party fared against the "Barrel Beast"!
• I arrived later that evening at the Dead Games Society cocktail party. In fact, as I hammer out this final entry, I've only just gotten back to my room with 2 or 3 or perhaps 7 gin-and-tonics in my system. (I kinda lost count.) It was a great time hanging out with Michael and Colin and the rest of the gang in the hotel's Presidential Suite. Mike makes a mean Tom Collins, even if he has to occasionally make substitutions, like olive juice for the sour mix. I have about 9 hours before I need to run tomorrow's Mutant Future games, so I'm gonna go to bed and try to detox a bit. And here are some random pix taken during the day...

This amazing dragon balloon sculpture was about 7 feet tall. The photo really doesn't do it justice.

Cardhalla is yet again in full swing. Card houses (towers and villages actually) are built and, on the final day, loose change is thrown to bring it all down. All change is then donated to charity.