That gives you +5 STR, +5 INT, and +5 WIS to all checks made to use a letterpress.

Or design a typeface. Just as long as you’re wearing your paper hat, that is.

In the event of seducing the ladies (all of them) it gives a +5 to charisma as well.

I am, of course referring to Eric Gill, designer of important typefaces, sculptor, and ladies man.

Well, hello ladies.

I’ve had to summon him lately, regardless of the fact that Conjuration is not my school of magic. After including the penalties from casting outside of my school of magic, I still managed to summon the spirit of Eric Gill long enough to solve a few of my printing problems.

As you’ve probably guessed, I’ve been working in my print shop here at Holliday Island. That and I’ve been jonesing for Pathfinder. To keep myself sharp on both fronts, I’ve been thinking about every step in the printing process as the checks I would have to make in Pathfinder.

I was going to break it down into step by step instructions with the corresponding checks, but decided against it. You got the point already.

So, after years of owning my little Kelsey Excelsior, and months of the shop being semi-operational, I put ink to the press for the first time a few days ago. And it was a disaster.

I got chipboard cut down to postcard size on Thursday and having acquired a few linoleum blocks from a local craft store, I decided to try to print a solid block of color for a background. I wasn’t excepting much, just a small confirmation from the Universe or the SpiritWorld or wherever that I could do this. Wherever I was asking for confirmation kindly responded with a middle finger.

My prints look like mottled shit.

I wracked my brain for hours as to why the prints looked terrible. I adjusted the packing on the platen. I added a bit of make-ready to the back of the block to make it a bit taller.

Nothing worked.

It was then that I turned to summoning Eric Gill. And that seemed to do the trick. Eric Gill granted me, through my magic paper hat, the wisdom to realize that the linoleum block, itself, is shit. I set a straight edge on it and, sure enough, I could see light under it. The damned block’s surface is all wibbly wobbly. And by wibbly wobbly, I mean not uniformly type-high. That’s what I get for buying bluelight special linoleum blocks.

So, how I go about solving that problem, I haven’t the faintest clue. For starters, I should probably get better linoleum.

My next attempt will be printing with type. Screw the background for now. I just want to print something that doesn’t look like butt. Especially since I have to clean up all of that mess regardless of whether or not my prints turn out.

After a successful weekend of doing stuff that I wanted to do, I get to go back to doing stuff that I have to do. Back to work on the Jeep. Back to working out. Back to the drawing board.

On a brighter note, Der Staples does have a handful of nice Moleskine notebooks on clearance for $5 each. I got a couple yesterday. Because I don’t have enough notebooks collecting dust in my office.

And on that note, I’m off to it. Wish me luck.

See ya’ tomorrow.

More soon. ~SC