Mariah, Cleve, and Takuto head out on a recovery job for Data Haven.

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

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Tric and Heppa learn about a previous Manu expedition to the Sandy Wastes. Then they round out their Dunefolk education by attending a morning of Dune School.

The Dune School scene in this episode is based on the experiences of some of my childhood friends. I’m not close enough to my forebears' cultural heritage to have attended any myself, being a fourth generation American. But I had friends who spent weekend mornings at Polish school or Hebrew school or Chinese school, learning the associated languages and traditions. I drew on stories of those experiences to design the Dune School scene, and I populated it with bits and pieces of lore discussed on the Battle for Wesnoth forums.

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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Takuto makes his case for going on the next trip out of Data Haven.

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

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Tric and Heppa spend time in Dan’Tonk’s Dunefolk quarter meeting with the glassmaker, the weaver, and the falconer/scribe.

The Luminary Council and Paragon Council, as presented in this episode, had their origins in a discussion of potential Dunefolk politics on the Battle for Wesnoth forums (https://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=52367). I took some of those ideas and spun them out into what you see in our campaign. This session was played in July of 2021. In the time since, the Luminary became an actual unit with the release of Battle for Wesnoth version 1.16. It’s a level 3 unit, the pinnacle of the Herbalist line and the strongest Dunefolk healing unit. In our game world, however, a Luminary is a sufficiently advanced artisan, a leader in one of the scientific disciplines. Similarly, the Paragon is now an actual unit—a powerful level 4 fighting unit separate from any of the other unit lines.

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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Roze shares information gleaned from the network node job.

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

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A travel montage gets Tric and Heppa from the Wesnoth capital Weldyn to its largest city, Dan’Tonk.

If you listen to as much folk music as I do, you may recognize the name Lily the Pink. I heard it on an album from the Irish Rovers. I don’t consider it a fabulous song, but it was the perfect source for a spur-of-the-moment charlatan NPC. I thought it was particularly apt because two major streams of magic in Wesnoth are white and red, and pink is a combination of those two.

This arc contains spoilers for the Battle for Wesnoth campaign Liberty. There are also references to Eastern Invasion and to Crin of Crenlyn, a User-Made Content campaign.

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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Mariah spends time in the medical center while Cleve helps Tenoch with expedition equipment.

Tenoch’s rover is a direct copy of the Alpha Centauri video game rover. It does look something like a futuristic, more aerodynamic jeep that’s fully sealed. For Mariah and Cleve it means faster and safer transportation through the wilderness. As anyone who’s owned a car can relate, however, a vehicle can come with its own set of troubles.

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

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Tric and Heppa enjoy a spooky nighttime ghost tour of the battlefields around Weldyn.

The Battle for Wesnoth mainline campaign Eastern Invasion can end one of two ways: a giant battlefield or a private duel. I decided to make both versions of Scenario 17 true as far as the history of our tabletop campaign is concerned. I use details from those in the ghost tour. Many of the units from the video game also fed into those descriptions, such as Paladin, Mage of the Light, Shadow, and Nightgaunt—the latter two are the scarecrow-like members of the Ghost line.

Note: The audio for this episode also includes events that really belong with the start of the next arc, so their write-up will be released with that.

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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Mariah and Cleve return to Data Haven along with Corazon, Dr. Citali, and their prizes.

The discussion of what’s edible and how to process different foods is lightly inspired by the Alpha Centauri video game. In that, xenofungus tiles only produce food and other benefits after extensive research—except for the faction that inspired our Stepdaughters of Chiron. In our game, the characters have to work out what changes to the environment (or to themselves) they need to make. Finding that balance and blending is an ongoing theme of the campaign.

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

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Tric and Heppa share a meal with Alric’s parents and learn more about the Manu clan.

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!