🐾 Day 8 – Chicken Bribes, Cat Crimes, and a Ring Reclaimed

📜 Episode Summary:

In today’s cozy episode of The Hearthlight Chronicles, our narrator strikes a bargain with a suspiciously smug cat, stumbles across a very lost (and very precious) item, and possibly solves a mystery without even trying. What begins with a trip to Mike’s Meats ends with the quiet return of a memory someone thought was gone forever.

Along the way:• Butcher banter with strong Nathan Fillion energy• A feline fence with a flair for the dramatic• And the simple, powerful magic of returning something to where it belongs• Today’s music: Burden by David Sanya. 🎧 Listen on SoundCloud.

🎲 Roll Result: 6 (Kindness) and 2 (+3) = 5. Partial success! “What does it symbolize in terms of kindness and connection? Why have they chosen you?”

Not every treasure is meant to be kept, but some gifts have a way of finding the right hands.

✨ XP Gained:

– 1 purring accomplice– 1 smile dusted off and gently returned

🎙️ The Hearthlight Chronicles – Day 7: One plant settled into soft soil, and a feather to remind you it mattered

🎲 Prompt:You walk into a hidden garden full of colourful flowers. What makes this place special to you?

🎲 Roll Result: Creativity (2) + Roll (3+1) = 4 – Partial Success“Can you name the flowers and animals? Are they regular species?”

🎧 Music: Mesmerized by Pi Teddy 🎧 Listen on SoundCloud.

🌿 Episode Summary:

Today’s entry takes us to a quiet, hidden garden at the edge of Hearthlight. Our narrator, still feeling the emotional echo of parting with the shared journal, finds himself drawn into an unexpected act of planting (and possibly, prophecy).

There’s a flower that isn’t quite a daffodil. A swing bench under a tree. And a bird that shouldn’t exist: the joyjay. Once invented for a game, now real enough to leave a feather behind.

This episode is about imagination, tenderness, and how sometimes, the world slips a little bit sideways to remind us that stories, like gardens, are meant to grow.

🪶 XP Gained:• 1 modest flower planted• 1 joyjay spotted, possibly real• 1 reminder that even invented magic matters when you choose to believe

🎙️ The Hearthlight Chronicles – Day 6: Journals, Journeys, and the Words We Leave Behind

🎲 Prompt:

A traveler passes through the village and leaves behind a journal. What do you do?

🎲 Roll Result: Kindness (5), Roll 2 (+3) = 7: Partial Success

“How does their story connect to your own life?”

🎧 Music: The Fragility of Life by Almost There → Listen on SoundCloud

📖 Episode Summary:

Today, our narrator finds more than sheep in the meadow. He discovers a well-worn journal left behind by a traveller who may (or may not) have been Hollis’s mystery passenger.

Within its pages: a century of stories. Lives lived, lessons learned, and pain quietly set to paper. As he reads, our narrator begins to see his own uncertainty mirrored in the ink. And when it’s his turn to write… he leaves behind five sentences, just in case a future version of himself needs to hear them.

This episode is a meditation on memory, connection, and the soft power of leaving something behind—not for answers, but for possibility.

🪙 XP Gained:

• 1 journal with a hundred hearts inside• 1 five-sentence echo• 1 reminder: the journey’s not about where you go, but what you carry with you

Exploration, Companionship, and the Game That Deserved Better Reviews

🗣 Episode Summary:

In this episode, I dive into Avowed, Obsidian’s surprisingly warm and slightly chaotic first-person RPG. It’s not Pillars of Eternity 3, and it’s definitely not Skyrim with friends. It's somewhere between those expectations, it carves out a space of its own.

From exploration joy and platonic party vibes to rage-inducing AI and the worst trolley problem side quest since Philosophy 101, I unpack why Avowed deserved more love, and why it still might earn yours.

🧭 What’s Inside:

• Why judging Avowed like a traditional RPG misses the point• The quiet power of platonic party vibes• Exploration, environmental puzzles, and the joy of corner-checking• Combat that sings (once you unlearn Skyrim)• When moral complexity trips over its own boots

💬 Outro Quote:

“Sometimes, you don’t want to save the world. You just want to feel a little less alone in it.”

🎧 Like what you heard?

Subscribe for more storytelling deep dives, unreasonably passionate reviews, and the occasional flaming sword metaphor.

☕ Support the Show:

You can help keep the mic warm at https://ko-fi.com/parrydox

🔗 Tags:

#Avowed #RPGReview #ObsidianEntertainment #NarrativeGames #GameDesign #Podcast #GameCritique #WhyYouLikedThis

The Hearthlight Chronicles – Day 5: Mystery, Memory, and a Key That Isn’t Mine

Special thanks to The Hearthlight Chronicles’ creator, Henrique de Aguiar, for allowing me to use his game like this. You can find him on Bluesky, X, or Itch, or better yet, grab The Hearthlight Chronicles - it’s only $3.

🎲 Prompt:A local gives you a mysterious key and tells you it’s meant for you. What is your next step?

🎲 Roll Result: Kindness (6), Roll (4), Total: 7 – Full Success!Why were you chosen?

🎧 Music: Rebirth of Cool by DJ CAM & DJ CAM QUARTET. 🎧 Listen on Soundcloud.

🔑 Episode Summary:Today’s entry unlocks something quietly profound. A key and a long-lost invitation resurface, offering our narrator not an answer, but a question: what if memory itself is a gift meant to be passed on?

As Hearthlight continues to work its slow magic, this episode asks what it means to be chosen—not because you’re special, but because you’re willing. To carry something for someone else. To return a piece of their story, when they’re ready for it.

🪙 XP Gained:• 1 mysterious key• 1 invitation that knows where it belongs• 1 softly spoken quest to find what (or who) it unlocks

In this episode, Richard Parry (yep, that indie author with the back catalogue and the bruised dignity) unpacks the tangled mess of modern book piracy: why it happens, who actually benefits from it (hint: not the authors), and how Amazon is secretly clapping from the sidelines.

What starts as a rant about finding his books on LibGen turns into a deeper exploration of digital ownership, DRM nonsense, and why the system seems determined to punish both writers and readers. Expect spicy metaphors, sad stats, and a Facebook group that somehow managed to both pirate his work and ban him.

It’s funny. It’s furious. It’s painfully honest.

🔍 In This Episode:

• The crushing realisation of earning less than minimum wage for full-time creativity• Why “being pirated” isn’t flattering... it’s exhausting• Cory Doctorow’s take on piracy, and why it doesn’t hold up for indie authors• Valve’s “piracy is a service problem” theory and what books can learn from gaming• How Amazon benefits from piracy (and quietly encourages it)• The 18-copy launch that killed a career• Why LibGen isn’t the villain (but it sure ain’t Robin Hood either)

🧠 Key Quote:

“Maybe (just maybe) piracy isn’t the disease we need to cure. It’s the symptom we need to finally take seriously.”

📚 Mentioned:

• Valve Software’s approach to piracy• Cory Doctorow’s writing and philosophy• LibGen (Library Genesis)• Amazon’s DRM practices• The Empire’s Rogues from the Tyche series• That cursed Facebook warez group

👋 Call to Action:

If you enjoyed this episode and want indie authors to keep creating, the best way to help is buy a book, leave a review, or recommend it to a friend. Pirates can sail the high seas, but readers keep the ship afloat.

You can find Richard’s books (legally!) at https://www.parrydox.com (or ask for them at your library!).

🎙️ The Hearthlight Chronicles – Day 4: Coffee, a Cat in Charge, and Elementary Discoveries

Special thanks to The Hearthlight Chronicles’ creator, Henrique de Aguiar, for allowing me to use his game like this. You can find him on Bluesky, X, or Itch, or better yet, grab The Hearthlight Chronicles - it’s only $3.

🎲 Prompt:

“You find a cozy nook in a local coffee shop. What does this space feel like?”

🎧 Today’s Music:

If You Think About It by Jasalsae → Listen on Soundcloud

🎲 Roll Result:

Curiosity (4), Roll (5), Total: 7 – Full Success!

📘 “What makes it unique and intriguing? What do they have?”

🐾 Episode Summary:

In today’s entry, our narrator stumbles (or is gently lured?) into a bookshop that might not exist in any conventional dimension. Inside: a coffee machine from another era, books that remember things, and a black-and-white cat who is absolutely in charge.

Hollis makes another cameo with maximum cryptic wisdom before vanishing—leaving behind a request to watch the store (but, crucially, not to let the cat out). What follows is a slow unraveling of Hearthlight’s literary heart, as our protagonist discovers a pair of very rare books and finally sits down to read Sherlock Holmes for the very first time… at the insistence of a highly judgmental feline.

🪴 Themes:

• The magic of stumbling into the right story at the right time

• Cozy spaces as doorways to unexpected purpose

• Cats as emotional support librarians

• Trust-based systems, both human and literary

• The quiet joy of finally starting a classic you’ve always meant to read

✨ XP Earned:

🧋 1 accidental librarian appointment

📖 1 canonical origin story unlocked

🐈 1 Austen-reading cat’s approval (barely)

Special thanks to The Hearthlight Chronicles’ creator, Henrique de Aguiar, for allowing me to use his game like this. You can find him on Bluesky, X, or Itch, or better yet, grab The Hearthlight Chronicles - it’s only $3.

Day 3: Oaks, Echoes, and the Ones Who Hear Them

Prompt: An ancient oak tree calls to our narrator, leading to an encounter with memory, grief, and the possibility that some messages really do find their way upward.

Roll Result: Kindness (5), Roll (3), Total 8 = Full Success

🎧 Music: Lo Fi Hip Hop by Serene Rhythms — Listen on SoundCloud

Themes:

• Climbing as catharsis• Grief whispered, not shouted• Trees that remember• Hollis, still keeping his secrets

Special thanks to The Hearthlight Chronicles’ creator, Henrique de Aguiar, for allowing me to use his game. You can get the game for only $3 and play along: https://hbocao.itch.io/the-hearthlight-chronicles

* Today’s music: Home by SwuM and Idealism. 🎧 Listen along on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/chillhopdotcom/sets/chillhop-beat-tapes-swum-x-idealism

* Today’s Prompt: “You take a walk through the village and meet a local. Who are they? And what do they share with you about life here?”

In today’s entry, our narrator wakes late, follows the scent of bacon, and sets out to explore the quiet hamlet of Hearthlight. Along the way, there’s a chance encounter with a very territorial chicken, a mysterious coin, and a young local with more on his heart than just ice cream.

It’s a day about small kindnesses, lost things, and the complicated ways we remember the people we’ve lost… or don’t.

Topics touched on:

• Cozy solo RPGs and the magic of slow mornings• Muffins as social currency• Kids who say the quiet parts out loud• Grief that shows up in unexpected conversations• The value of listening, even when you don’t have answers

Roll result: Critical Kindness. XP gained: 1 heartwarming assist, child-class, cookies and cream subclass.

Special thanks to The Hearthlight Chronicles’ creator, Henrique de Aguiar, for allowing me to use his game like this. You can find him on Bluesky, X, or Itch. Jump straight to the journal, or read on…

A couple of days ago, The Soloist covered 10 New Solo Games – from Lovecraftian Horror to European Fairytales. The one that caught my eye was The Hearthlight Chronicles, and considering it’s only $3, I had to buy it and play it. It’s a really long way to travel from Warlock, but it’s also what my soul needs about now.

I’m going to write my way through this for the next 28 days. To keep some mystery for myself going, I’m not reading ahead to future prompts, so this might get wildly unstuck 🤣 We’ll see if I write myself into a corner, hey?