Cleve and Marina secure proper care for Mariah.

Our music is from Purple Planet Music. Visit them at purple-planet.com.

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Rhaessa and Heledd join Tric and Heppa in their investigation of necromancers underneath South Tower.

The exploration of the space under South Tower was heavily inspired by combat maps from the Battle for Wesnoth video game. Cave terrain frequently has mushroom tiles, mining cart tracks, and old fortifications. And if you see a big stretch of water, you can be pretty sure a Tentacle of the Deep is lurking in it to attack any of your units that get too close!

Our character art by Del Borovic and the map we refer to (by me!) can be found here.

Our music is sampled from Return to Wesnoth by Matthias Westlund (aka West), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, part of The Battle for Wesnoth Project. Visit them at wesnoth.org.

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With the help of a mysterious ranger, Mariah’s friends keep him out of harm’s way.

Rangers, in our game, are actually based on embassy guards. Some countries require their guards to all have a uniform appearance, even down to strict height limits. Inspiration really can come from anywhere.

Our music is from Purple Planet Music. Visit them at purple-planet.com.

Need context? Jump to the start of the series!

Tric catches up some with Kachen and gets to know the new server at the Parting Glass.

Note: This episode uses an adaptation of our Fight Night rules. Find them here.

In this episode, we finally get a scene that closely resembles our campaign artwork! When we commissioned the piece from Del Borovic the tableau was chosen simply to get a bunch of our major characters all together in a location that was important to us. It was six more months before I was able to orchestrate all the pieces coming together at the game table. The only inaccuracy is that Kachen has his staff in the illustration. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

Our character art by Del Borovic and the map we refer to (by me!) can be found here.

Our music is sampled from Return to Wesnoth by Matthias Westlund (aka West), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, part of The Battle for Wesnoth Project. Visit them at wesnoth.org.

Need context? Jump to the start of the series!

The briar beasts make their move to consume Mariah.

Note: The battle started in today's episode continues in next week's. From a writing standpoint, it made sense to combine Mariah's viewpoint into one scene, and the exterior viewpoint into another. So if you read this write-up, you'll get some spoilers for next episode and you'll also notice things from this episode are missing if Mariah didn't observe them.

Our music is from Purple Planet Music. Visit them at purple-planet.com.

Need context? Jump to the start of the series!

Tric recruits the white mage Rhaessa to help with whatever foul magics are afoot beneath South Tower.

In the Battle for Wesnoth video game, there are undead units whose attacks have the plague quality. Any unit killed by one of these rises again as a Walking Corpse—unless they were standing in a village when it happened. I’ve taken that video game mechanic and translated it into some more magical philosophy, to appease the constantly questioning Hepalonia.

Our character art by Del Borovic and the map we refer to (by me!) can be found here.

Our music is sampled from Return to Wesnoth by Matthias Westlund (aka West), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, part of The Battle for Wesnoth Project. Visit them at wesnoth.org.

Need context? Jump to the start of the series!

Mariah is finally reunited with his friends, but that doesn’t solve all his problems.

Our music is from Purple Planet Music. Visit them at purple-planet.com.

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Kachen shares a little of what he was up to over the summer.

In the Battle for Wesnoth video game, the only mainline unit with teleportation is the Silver Mage. They are able to move between villages that their side controls. In terms of the battle map, that means any villages flying their side’s flag. I’ve translated that mechanic into the bit of magical philosophy we encounter here: that for risk-free teleportation, one must travel between places of safety. The video game’s artwork for the staff of the Silver Mage is also what inspired the description of Kachen’s staff we gave the artist.

Our character art by Del Borovic and the map we refer to (by me!) can be found here.

Our music is sampled from Return to Wesnoth by Matthias Westlund (aka West), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, part of The Battle for Wesnoth Project. Visit them at wesnoth.org.

Need context? Jump to the start of the series!

All of Dr. Yerin Gupta’s plans come crashing down around her.

Our music is from Purple Planet Music. Visit them at purple-planet.com.

Need context? Jump to the start of the series!

Tric and Heppa deal with a late night intruder.

Our character art by Del Borovic and the map we refer to (by me!) can be found here.

Our music is sampled from Return to Wesnoth by Matthias Westlund (aka West), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, part of The Battle for Wesnoth Project. Visit them at wesnoth.org.

Need context? Jump to the start of the series!