I attended the wake and funeral over the last two days. They were a real testament to the amount of people that were touched by Josh's life. People came in from all over the country to honor his memory. With a constant long line out the door of the funeral home during the 3 hour wake, we knew that Josh was really loved.
The services the next day include the prayer service as well as his family getting up and talking about their lost son and brother. At the end the Navy preformed their duties, and Josh recieved a 21 Gun send off, and the playing of taps. That broke everyone in the house to tears, even the biggest strongest toughest guy there.
Both nights we gathered at a friends house to tell stories about Josh, and to comfort each other. I thought I knew alot of tales about him, but he did so much, and was friends with so many, that thenumber of stories that were told shocked me.
Josh was like a little brother to me, that goofy little kid that always had such high aspriation and hopes. He taught me to believe in the goodness of others, and that things were never as glum as they might seem. So I'm trying to remember that now, but its damn hard.
I started RPing with Josh when we were in Middle or High School, I can't remember exactly when. We'd spend countless hours in his garage during the summer, or over at my house, or up at Brennor's house late into the night. We played D&D pretty much exclusively, but almost never did we play in any prepublished. Josh always wants to make the worlds, and craft the story, even if he hardly did DM. His one favorite adventure however was Dragon Mountain, he loved that Red Dragon Infirana.
I remember his favorite character, Cyan. He was a 25th level Paladin when it was all over, with a Gold Dragon mount named Asperansul. I think I might even still have the character sheets for them... Anyhow, by the time Cyan had reached this level no one would DM for him as he would just walk through hordes of enemies and it became increasingly hard to DM for a character like that. Eventually Cyan polymorphed into Palamon, many of the same traits seemed to follow the chracters. Josh always loved the Knight in Shining Armor, and I think he lived his own life by that code. He was kind hearted, generous later in life with money (once he could aford more than Mac & Cheese), but always generous with his time and happiness. I rarely remember him playing the bad guy, in game or out of games. In our longest running campaign, known as Cardolin (that included, me as DM, Brennor, Cohobin, Shinling, and Josh and his brother Nate) he once again played the good guy, Erik Connor, a 'scotish-like' Ranger this time who was a savior of his defeated people and liked his Bronze Plate Mail and slapping evil mages around.
We started MUSHing together, I owned the computer, and he paid for the Netscape Online services back when we had a 2400baud external modem that Brennor's mom let us have. We played on Elendor MUSH, and while he joined Gondor, he started in Moria with me as one of the goofiest Uruk-Hai you'd ever seen. After Moria we rarely RPed together on Elendor simply because of cultural distance, but we soon discovered Shadowrift.
A founding admin of Shadowrift, along with me, Brennor, TetNak and his brother Kellinan (Nate) and others, we were able to once again build a world together. He was the knight, and built Durnalis, a prefect combination and so very Josh. For years we work and played on Shadowrift, which would eventually be abandoned for an attempt at a Italian Ren MUSH, but we came back and Akarian Dawn was born. Those were the wanning days of MUSHes but we built and played and worked and continued to enjoy Josh's company. When I can manage it, I'll find those RP logs and put them up here.
He also played Legend of the Five Rings, both RP and CCG. A fan of the Dragon Clan, and the Lady Hitomi, he and the samurai honor went hand and hand, and he went so far as to take some Japanesse language classes in school so he would really know his stuff for the games. He never did buy any cards, but always used mine, and I gladly let him. I gladly wound again if possible.
Palamon moved with us all here, and began at once to craft his next world, Durnalia, the same ideals as Durnalis. His game setting here can be found at:
https://brennor.dyndns.org/rpg/Forums/v ... /f=42.html
It never managed to turn into an active game, his duties in the Navy and in life kept him terribly busy. I hope that I can do him the honor of starting up that setting and we can once again wander around and play in one of Josh's worlds.
He is my friend, and he'll never stop being that. I miss you, you goofy paladin bastard. I expect you to have a really great game setting ready for me when we see each other again.
Picture Tribute Site for Josh:
http://flickr.com/photos/mario_valenta/ ... 81/?page=2
Vardaen/Raughir/Morcarag/Cil/Saurgoth