From The Jackals To The Shepherds

The Woods:

The Map:

Dave – Taylor – Rowan – Frankie – Past

Help The Show On Patreon

Riverhouse Games Website

Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes

Subscribe via RSS!

Thank you for listening to this Riverhouse podcast. You can find more podcasts at RiverhouseGames.com as well as games and resources about queer & LGBT+ tabletop gaming. Thank you to the people backing the Riverhouse Games Patreon:

Nyssa MacKinnon, Jalyn Euteneier, Rohit Sodhia & GamersPlane.com, Alec Walker, VJ Brown, Paul Bennett, Amanda Coyle, Rob Abrazado, Tobie Abad, Patrick ‘The Tyrant of Boredom’ West, and Emmeline Duplois, THANK YOU! If you want to see your name in upcoming Riverhouse games or podcasts, you can set a small monthly subscription at Patreon.com/RiverhouseGames

Battlebards Tracks used:

Elven Dirge – Farewell – Score Music – Philippe Payet

Druid’s Grove – Vision Quest of the Bearheart – Score Music – Geronimo Snijtsheuvel

Transcription:

For a long time, we were at war with The Jackals. But now, we’ve driven them off, and we have this – a year of relative peace. One quiet year, with which to build our community up and learn once again how to work together. Come Winter, the Frost Shepherds will arrive and we might not survive the encounter. This is when the show will end. But we don’t know about that yet. What we know is that right now, in this moment, there is an opportunity to build something.

A week has passed. As Spring often does, the temperature has dipped and a short cold snap from the mountains brings a slight dusting of frost and snow to the community. We know enough after the first morning of frost to bring our potted gardens inside with us to avoid the most damage to their sensitive roots, but reaction is not as good as prevention, and many lose their gardens completely to the cold. The last of the seeds are distributed and gardens are started anew. The frost and snow on the ground cover the open clearing of the mining camp with a solid white coat every morning. We wake to see a pristine wonderland, sparkling in the morning sun and the crisp spring air. One morning, however, the wonderland shows signs of danger. Large footprints meander through the camp. These footprints are larger than ours, with a large central footpad and four smaller divots to depict toes and claws. The hunters among us point out that no four legged animal could have made these prints, they must have been left by something walking on two legs. Some adults begin to dust over the large tracks, but it’s too late. Ezekiel and his best friend, Yuen, catch a glimpse of the tracks in the snow. Ezekiel, spurred by his recurring nightmares, runs back into Eileen’s house and begins to cry. Yuen, however, is mesmerized by the large prints left by the pads. She walks slowly out to the community square as the adults brush away the prints. She finds one unblemished by brooms and overlooked in the bustle. She crouches down to get a better look and she reaches her hand out to the ground. The edge of the print is crisp from where the snow melted at the creature’s warmth and then froze in the night. She traces her fingers in awe over the toe prints, and feels the sharp divot in the ground left by the claws of the foot. A shout from the center breaks her out of this spell.

Ezekiel in his terror had run from the shack. His eyes blurry from tears, he stumbles to the edge of the clearing, and in their haste to cover the evidence of the beasts, we have let him out of our sight. As he approaches the woods, the darkness between the trees lights up with dozens of bright white eyes. A beast steps out from the woods. The large footpads left in the snow were only a ghost image of the paws that dig into the mud of the riverbank. Short fur covers the claws from sight except for a small glint of their razor edge. The fur slopes upwards to the beast’s two legs, lean and punctuated by taut tendons that rise to meaty and muscular legs. The beast’s torso hunches down but as it emerges, it stretched itself to its full height and throws back strong arms that end in wicked claws. It brays a terrible howl into the morning air, steam billowing from its dire snout as its breath condenses in the chill. Ezekiel stands frozen. From the shack, two strong individuals burst, each holding one of the ancient weapons uncovered from the rivers banks.

Eileen watches as her lovers storm towards the Beast. The one in the lead, a hefty gardener named Gerrard, sprints to Ezekiel as the second, a tall hunter named Jules shouts and taunts the beast. Gerrard grabs Ezekiel and gives him a shove back toward the community square, but as he does this the beast knocks Jules to the side and grabs Gerrard by the back of his tunic. Eileen gasps in shock as the beast, with one arm, throws Gerrard across the river and into the dark forest. Breaking tree branches and inhuman screams echo through the woods. Taking advantage of the beast’s distraction, Jules strikes up with their sword and gashes the beast along its leg. Snarling, it looks down at Jules in rage and plunges its claws into their chest, before scooping their body up and sprinting back into the woods.

Stunned and silent, we stand. Ezekiel sobs sitting at the edge of the shack. One of us asks,

“Do we go in after them?”

“You saw what they did! There’s no way we’d be safe in those woods. We have to stay here where we have each other.”

“It happened so quick, it was so strong. There’s no hope for Gerrard or Jules and there would be no hope for us.”

“The only thing we can do is make sure we’re safe here so it doesn’t happen again.”

“You can’t stand there and say that! Gerrard and Jules loved me and they loved Zeke. We owe it to them to – to at least bury them.”

Thank you for joining us for the third episode of From The Jackals To The Shepherds. If you like this show please give us a rating on iTunes, tell a friend, or share us on social media. As always the intro for the show was read by Dave Lapru, who is also our mapkeeper. You can find Dave on twitter at plantbird, and I’m at leviathan files. Additional voices for this episode were provided by the aforementioned Dave, as well as Rowan MacKeough who is At Elder Unikirin, Frankie Garza who is At Frankie Extra, and Past who is at Dromedary. Please consider supporting the show on Patreon at patreon dot com slash Riverhouse Games. Music for this episode was provided by Battlebards dot com. Until next week, I hope your week goes well.

The Woods:

The Map:

Dave – Taylor

Help The Show On Patreon

Riverhouse Games Website

Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes

Subscribe via RSS!

Thank you for listening to this Riverhouse podcast. You can find more podcasts at RiverhouseGames.com as well as games and resources about queer & LGBT+ tabletop gaming. Thank you to the people backing the Riverhouse Games Patreon:

Nyssa MacKinnon, Jalyn Euteneier, Rohit Sodhia & GamersPlane.com, Alec Walker, VJ Brown, Paul Bennett, Amanda Coyle, Rob Abrazado, Tobie Abad, Patrick ‘The Tyrant of Boredom’ West, and Emmeline Duplois, THANK YOU! If you want to see your name in upcoming Riverhouse games or podcasts, you can set a small monthly subscription at Patreon.com/RiverhouseGames

Battlebards Tracks used:

Elven Dirge – Farewell – Score Music – Philippe Payet

Elven Village – Ascending The Vail – Score Music – Kevin MacLeod

Transcription:

For a long time, we were at war with The Jackals. But now, we’ve driven them off, and we have this – a year of relative peace. One quiet year, with which to build our community up and learn once again how to work together. Come Winter, the Frost Shepherds will arrive and we might not survive the encounter. This is when the show will end. But we don’t know about that yet. What we know is that right now, in this moment, there is an opportunity to build something.

A week has passed. Two weeks into our new lives and we have begun to think of this place as a new home. The town center flourishes despite being hastily thrown together. The sun shines down on the community and its warmth energizes us. Intermittent rainstorms shower the mining camp and the water starts to soak into the earth. The riverbank remains muddy and soft, but the water up towards the camp was frozen and lumpy following the harsh winter of war. Now, however, with the spring rains the earth begins to open. Small sprigs of green weeds poke their way through the frozen earth and leaf litter that coats the ground. These meager sprouts remind us of our homes in the city. Collectively the community remembers the ceremonial gardens kept in nearly every home. Husbandry and care of these gardens represented the nurturing spirit of our cities, and offered moments of reflection and quiet as we cared for our own personal green spaces. The war against the Jackals broke down this routine and growing gardens often fell to the wayside in the struggle to survive. Window planters gave way to iron bars, and a healing green was replaced with gunmetal gray. The stillness of the camp in spring gives us an opportunity to bring back this practice. Clay from the river is gathered by the children who play at its banks, and the communal fireplace in the center of the camp becomes a kiln to produce earthenware pots. In our haste to leave the city, many resources were left behind, including massive seed banks. However, heirloom seeds were often kept by community elders and these small pockets of seeds soon are planted in pots of hope. After mere days the seeds begin to shoot up small searching shoots and the community gathers around them to coo and caw over the promise of growth.

In the woods the growling has grown more frequent. The children playing by the riverbank come home with stories of movement in the trees. Some stories are dismissed as playground imagination, but Ezekiel suffers harsh nightmares of figures walking between the trees. Now playdates are chaperoned. And even some adults return to the camp reporting movement and sounds from the dark and sickly woods. The spring melt from the mountains has raised the river’s banks and the floodwaters widen the divide between the community and the threats that lurk in the dark. The floodwaters bring a new discovery as well. A chunk of mossy earth is dislodged by the water, and a trove of ancient artifacts are exposed to the chill spring air. We gather what we can before it is swept downstream, and carefully unwrap the moldy canvas. Those watching recoil from what was kept within: a leather strap binding several rusted swords and axes together. We had left our weapons in the city, as we had left our dead. Violence was a tool used against the Jackals, and left a dangerous taste in our mouths. A timid voice suggests keeping the weapons to defend against the creatures that live in the woods. Drach, the community’s mechanic, wordlessly walks toward the table where the weapons lay. He unhooks his hammer from his belt and tosses it on the table with a dead clunk, then walks out of the shack. The hammer lays on the bleached wood. The head of the hammer is dented and uneven. The leather of the handle is worn and well held. The wooden shaft of the hammer spans between the two and as it connects to the head, the wood is stained brown with the blood of jackals.

A week passes.

Thank you for joining us for the third episode of From The Jackals To The Shepherds. If you like this show please give us a rating on iTunes, tell a friend, or share us on social media. As always the intro for the show was read by Dave Lapru, who has also started keeping our map for the community. You can find Dave on twitter at plantbird, and I’m at leviathan files. Please consider supporting the show on Patreon at patreon dot com slash Riverhouse Games. Music for this episode was provided by Battlebards dot com. Until next week, I hope your week goes well.

The Woods:

The Map:

Dave – Aaron

Help The Show On Patreon

Riverhouse Games Website

Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes

Subscribe via RSS!

Thank you for listening to this Riverhouse podcast. You can find more podcasts at RiverhouseGames.com as well as games and resources about queer & LGBT+ tabletop gaming. Thank you to the people backing the Riverhouse Games Patreon:

Nyssa MacKinnon, Jalyn Euteneier, Rohit Sodhia & GamersPlane.com, Alec Walker, VJ Brown, Paul Bennett, Amanda Coyle, Rob Abrazado, Tobie Abad, Patrick ‘The Tyrant of Boredom’ West, and Emmeline Duplois, THANK YOU! If you want to see your name in upcoming Riverhouse games or podcasts, you can set a small monthly subscription at Patreon.com/RiverhouseGames

Battlebards Tracks used:

Elven Dirge – Farewell – Score Music – Philippe Payet

The Woods:

The Map:

Dave – Amy – Rowan

Help The Show On Patreon

Riverhouse Games Website

Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes (5 star reviews read on air!)

Subscribe via RSS!

Thank you for listening to this Riverhouse podcast. You can find more podcasts at RiverhouseGames.com as well as games and resources about queer & LGBT+ tabletop gaming. Thank you to the people backing the Riverhouse Games Patreon:

Nyssa MacKinnon, Jalyn Euteneier, Rohit Sodhia & GamersPlane.com, VJ Brown, Paul Bennett, Amanda Coyle, Rob Abrazado, Tobie Abad, Patrick ‘The Tyrant of Boredom’ West, and Emmeline Duplois, THANK YOU! If you want to see your name in upcoming Riverhouse games or podcasts, you can set a small monthly subscription at Patreon.com/RiverhouseGames

Battlebards Tracks used:

Underground Lake City – Whispers of the World Below the World – Score Music – Marko Gugic

Elven Dirge – Farewell – Score Music – Philippe Payet