Beginning of the End?

Thursday's session of Exalted featured our first character deaths in all of the 19 sessions so far. Unfortunate circumstances and bad luck snowballed into a fight that began while nearly everyone was wounded, low on resources, and/or not prepared for combat. The truly bad part is that we didn't finish the fight that session, either. With 2 characters dead, one unconscious, and two seriously wounded, it's entirely possible that everyone will be killed next session, which throws a serious wrench in the plot. The players are taking it well, though. While no one was happy to see their characters die, they seem interested in new concepts for replacement characters, and at least they went out in style.

Stalked by deer?

Driving home from gaming tonight, I came around the corner to note that there were some lightly colored objects at the edge of my vision that kind of looked like a profile of a giraffe. Since I don't remember seeing that arrangement before, I wondered if something might be in the road, and slowed down. This is fortunate. When I got a little closer, I discovered that there was a large deer standing in the road, facing me, almost as if it was waiting for me. I think it registered first as a giraffe-like profile because there was a light colored telephone pole lined up behind its head, and they sort of blended together in the dim light. I came to a complete stop, since the deer didn't seem inclined to move. Finally, after we stared at each other for a moment or two, it turned away and walked calmly off the road, and I resumed driving.

This is the second time this has happened to me - had an adult male deer standing in the road apparently waiting for me. The other time was a couple of years ago, on my street. I've also had other deer just run out in front of the car, but both of these were different in that they were just standing there, and didn't panic at all. Both eventually just went on their way. Curious.