Episode 31 – Tarragon Songsteel and the Underwater Maze

Writing Alchemy Episode 31 Summary

Meet Tarragon Songsteel the orc bard in this character introduction episode of Unfamiliar Heroes. Tarragon is a student at the celebrated Adventurers Academy, and right now they are studying creative problem-solving. Join them for a surreal training exercise where they attempt to retrieve an orb from a mysterious underwater maze.

This character introduction is preparation for The Owlbear Reintroduction Program, a game where the characters participate in a project that is reestablishing owlbears in wilderness areas where the owlbear populations have been previously wiped out. Of course, this is not as simple as it sounds, because owlbears are large, ferocious, magical predators. This improvised, tabletop adventure was created with the Magic Goes Awry role-playing system!

Unfamiliar Heroes is a new podcast series where people with disabilities, chronic illnesses, or diverse minds use tabletop role-playing games to together create stories that center disabled, sick, and mentally diverse characters. In its core values this project centers the experiences of people living at the intersections of oppression. Unfamiliar Heroes is part of the Writing Alchemy Podcast.

Game System: Magic Goes Awry

Storyteller: Fay Onyx

Player: Robin

This illustration depicts three characters, each from a different genre of story, and each with a disability. On the left is a black gnome archer riding in a chariot pulled by a large brown dog. The chariot has a chair in it so that they can sit instead of stand. In the middle is a Latina woman manipulating a tech device on her wrist as she begins to go invisible. She is wearing an air filtering mask of the type that people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity sometimes wear. On the right is a white muscular superhero wearing a very gay, blue superhero outfit. He has lightning crackling between his two hands, which are shaped atypically. This beautiful work of art was created the amazing Rose Adare!

Episode Transcript

In order to make these transcripts as accessible as possible, each one is produced in four formats: as an online post for access convenience, in a word document with a low vision friendly font (Veranda), in a pdf with a dyslexia friendly font (OpenDyslexic), and a l