Curse of Radiance Chapter 3, Episode 5: A Warlord, a Cleric, and a Giant Sorceress Walk Into a Bar

Our three heroes reach the end of the dungeon: the tomb of Hob Kraven, a figure whose evil was so powerful he corrupted the order of paladins entombed with him. Will Torunn, Fennec, and Ildana be able to defeat his shambling undead form? And will they find out the last mystery of this divine prison?

This episode marks the end of the dungeon I created for this introductory adventure (but bear with me one more week, as we've still got one final episode to the prologue sequence). I know I complained about the pacing of this adventure a couple weeks ago but I'm pretty happy with how the dungeon turned out overall; there wasn't a ton of roleplaying from the players but I still think they were able to let each of their characters' personalities shine through exploration and combat. The end of this episode provides some much-needed lore and Faerun history (needed by me, not necessarily needed by anyone else) and helps tee up the last portion of this prologue sequence and set the players on their journey to Tilverton so the campaign can start.

Fun fact: "Hob Kraven" is entirely my own creation, and I came up with the name by scrolling through Facebook and looking for something I could use as inspiration for a name. I'm part of a Calvin & Hobbes meme group, so it caught my eye, and I turned "Hobbes Calvin" into "Hob Kraven". I think I'm pretty clever sometimes; whether this is one of those times is up for debate.

Anyway, I hope you're all having a better week than I am. (As bad of a mood as I was in last week, I got some terrible work-related news right after posting last week's blog entry so just remember, however bad things are, they can always get worse!)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3, Episode 5: Prologue - Unintended Consequences

RSS Feed Link

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Curse of Radiance is a member of the Uncharted North podcast network. For more of their shows, check them out at UnchartedNorth.ca! 

Curse of Radiance Chapter 3, Episode 4 - This Year Officially Sucks

Still in the flashback to their first adventure in Phlan, the heroes have located both keys they need to progress. But an encounter with the tomb's hungry shadows leaves them drained, and they're about to find out that they were woefully mistaken about the nature of this dungeon...

Folks, I need to take a moment and step away from the typical episode blog post. This has been a rough week for me, and really a rough whole year. Those of you who know me personally probably already know about all of this but I'm still working through it so please bear with me.

This week in particular started off really good, actually. Let's focus on that for a moment. After basically three years of production (the very first day I recorded an episode was 8/15/22) this week marks the final session of primary recording for this podcast. Scheduling has been a nightmare for the past six months or so- we had literally a three-month-gap between two episodes a little while ago- but I had this week off from work and had enough advance notice to make sure we had a few days everyone was available so we could finally knock out the last few encounters. It went great, and now I've got like six months to get these episodes edited. (I still need to get with each player individually to record an epilogue, but otherwise, the campaign is done. It still doesn't feel real.)

In addition to finishing the podcast, I had a really cool opportunity to record an interview with someone involved in the computer game that this campaign is based on! (It'll eventually go out on the Inter-Party Conflict podcast feed, so keep an eye out. It'll have its own blog post when it goes live.) So that was really exciting. I also got some friends over and played an in-person RPG off-mic, which I haven't done in years. So that was cool too.

But... it's not all good.

If you follow me on any other social media or if you've heard Inter-Party Conflict then you almost definitely know about my dog, Super Hans. He just celebrated his ninth birthday last month (which is pretty old for a great dane) but has spent most of this year battling some persistent health issues. We found out last year he was diabetic, he went blind in January with cataracts (although we were able to get him surgery to restore his sight in June, albeit at great cost and requiring a constant medication regimen to recover from), and we also learned in June that he most likely had some kind of sinus tumor that caused him long-lasting discomfort and breathing issues. But, of course, he's our boy, and we would do whatever it took to keep him happy and healthy.

Well, this week, he passed away. He started having seizures one night (likely due to the growth of the sinus tumor) and by the next morning they had gotten so bad we had no choice but to put him to sleep. It's been so difficult coming to terms with this in the days since- was there nothing else we could have done? How do you move on after losing something that was such a big part of your life for nearly a decade? How do I even walk around my house without expecting to see or hear him around every corner? And... how do I move on, without feeling like I'm turning my back on his memory?

It's been tough. The whole year has been so stressful, with all of his health issues and my own stresses at work. Releasing this podcast has simultaneously been an escape from the stresses of my life, and also a source of more of that stress as I panic over the last-minute revisions and quality checks I require of myself now that it's gone out to the public. I love this podcast with so much of my being but damned if it hasn't been a massive, massive burden I've willingly taken on.

Anyway.

This week marks the end of an era in several different ways, and I sincerely hope that the coming weeks will allow me the time to rest and recover.

Thank you all for listening, and reading, and I hope you enjoy this week's episode.

And if you have any pets, please go give them an extra hug today. And tomorrow.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3, Episode 4: Prologue - Shadows

RSS Feed Link

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Curse of Radiance is a member of the Uncharted North podcast network. For more of their shows, check them out at UnchartedNorth.ca! 

Curse of Radiance Chapter 3, Episode 3 - Torunn Hates the Sewers

It's another Flashback episode!

In this week's Curse of Radiance, the party continues on through the ancient crypt beneath the Cracked Crown tavern in Phlan. They've got an ominous riddle instructing them along their way, and have to wade through waist-deep muck in order to find the Guardian's Guardian in their search for two keys needed to get through the dungeon. Can they find what they're looking for, or are they going to face the long shadow of defeat?

I mentioned in the disclaimer at the start of this episode that I learned an important lesson about dungeon crawls when making these episodes; another lesson that goes hand-in-hand just has to do with pacing. I'm not going to give myself too much crap since this was my first real outing into the Actual Play space, but the pacing of this adventure leaves a LOT to be desired. (When I first wrote this adventure, I really expected it to be over in one session, two tops. It ended up being four sessions just for the dungeon, let alone the aftermath.) So if nothing else I hope listeners might be able to see how different this adventure is from what the podcast will eventually become; I really learned to pace things better as we went. Or, at least, that's what I hope people will think!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one, because we've got a couple more like it coming up!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3, Episode 3: Prologue - Bones

RSS Feed Link

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Curse of Radiance is a member of the Uncharted North podcast network. For more of their shows, check them out at UnchartedNorth.ca! 

Curse of Radiance Chapter 3, Episode 2 - Titles Be Damned

We're taking a brief detour, back to the beginning: when the three adventurers met, before being branded with cursed tattoos, in a town called Phlan. Come join Torunn, Fennec, and Ildana as they delve into an unearthed crypt and receive ominous warnings of the dangers lurking behind every corner!

It's already explained in the disclaimer at the beginning of the episode, but in case you haven't listened yet, I'll briefly explain it here: this episode (the next five episodes, actually) is a little bit of a diversion from the plot. These next few episodes were actually recorded before the podcast began (before the party woke up in Tilverton with five unwanted tattoos), as a little test/practice before we got into the campaign proper. It's mostly unrelated from the story so far, but now that I've found a good opportunity to slot these episodes into the main plot of the show, expect elements from these to show up later on!

It definitely felt risky including these episodes in the main show (especially when placed after a plot-significant cliffhanger like at the end of last week's episode) but I think it'll pay off in the end. So please bear with me, stick with us for a few more episodes, and soon enough the party will be right back on track and you'll all be better for it!

Oh, one more thing: this episode marks the unveiling of what was originally going to be the theme music for the whole podcast- a piano rendition of the title music from the computer game Curse of the Azure Bonds (as well as its predecessor, Pool of Radiance). We didn't use this music at first because we weren't sure who owned the rights and obviously hadn't gotten permission to use it- but there have been some recent developments on that front (expect some sort of related announcement in future weeks)! The music as you're hearing it was arranged and performed by Jay's sister Erin, based on the original music composed by Dave Warhol. (Some day I'll get around to finishing the music credits page on here, so expect some links whenever that day comes.) We're using this new (old?) theme music for these five prologue episodes, but expect the music to return to the regular theme after that.

Thanks for listening, and please let us know what you think!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3, Episode 2: Prologue - Ghouls

RSS Feed Link

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Curse of Radiance is a member of the Uncharted North podcast network. For more of their shows, check them out at UnchartedNorth.ca! 

Curse of Radiance Chapter 3, Episode 1 - Gabe Does a Passable Accent

And a new chapter begins!

In this week's episode, the party leaves Battledale on their way to their next destination. But along the way, they take a detour towards Shadowdale- a town famous for the adventurers that frequent it, as well as the Archmage Elminster, whom the party hopes to entreat for aid dealing with their cursed tattoos. Once there they stay at a colorful inn and learn about an artifact of Lathander- but then a ghost and a goatherd point Fennec towards an unlikely reunion with someone from his past, and it seems the plot has begun to thicken...

This was an interesting episode to make, and listening back to it (a year and a half after it was recorded) I'm impressed with all of the little details and easter eggs I managed to sneak in here, both referencing other things in Forgotten Realms lore as well as other things that are coming up later in the campaign. (There's even a tiny easter egg I hid in here that ties back to a previous iteration of this campaign, that we recorded three years ago and then scrapped before I started over with the current group of players, that I don't think anybody will ever notice. But it's there for me.) 

This episode is likely to be a bit confusing for listeners (which will... hopefully start to make sense as the next few episodes roll out) but I knew that going in. I'll explain a bit more next week.

Anyway, thanks for listening, and we'll see how it goes!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3, Episode 1: The Old Skull Inn

RSS Feed Link

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Curse of Radiance is a member of the Uncharted North podcast network. For more of their shows, check them out at UnchartedNorth.ca! 

Curse of Radiance Chapter 2, Episode 7 - Good Adventurers Use Every Part of the Dragon

Hello everybody!

In this week's episode of Curse of Radiance, the party has defeated Dracandros the Mad and removed the second of their tattoos. But this curse is still weighing heavily on Torunn, who seeks help from the local priest Mumford & Sons Mumfrey Mimly for guidance. Fennec studies the remnants of Dracandros' destroyed helmet, as well as the mad wizard's journals. Ildana gets a sweet cloak. And, most importantly, they all level up!

This was a fun episode to make, and utilized some things we hadn't done before (like Torunn's dream sequence). One thing I really liked about this campaign is that the players were really in control of where they went for each story arc- and of course, they always went in the direction I didn't expect them to. But that's D&D for you!

Thanks for listening, and see you next week!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2, Episode 7: The Light on the Horizon

RSS Feed Link

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Curse of Radiance is a member of the Uncharted North podcast network. For more of their shows, check them out at UnchartedNorth.ca! 

Curse of Radiance Chapter 2, Episode 6 - Dracandros of the Crimson

We're back again, with another episode of Curse of Radiance! This time, we start off with a confrontation that will end either with the party instigating a war with dragonkind and dooming the Dalelands, or with Dracandros the Red Wizard lying dead on the top of his tower. Which one will it be? If you don't know how stories work, you'll have to listen to the episode to find out!

This whole story arc was kind of difficult to plan out. As-written, it seems like it just can't (or at least shouldn't) work. The events leading up to this point were basically written as just "Go through this dungeon, fight these encounters. Then go through this next dungeon, fight these other encounters. Go through this other dungeon, fight some more encounters" which isn't really very fun. Then, there's the fact that no matter what level the PCs are, the ending confrontation just doesn't seem believable: the party ends up on the top of this tower, and they're literally surrounded by dragons. How is that supposed to go? Is there a universe where any DM would actually run that like a straight battle? (The computer game technically allowed it, if you do everything wrong, but the fight was basically unwinnable, because obviously it was.) So in my case, the best solution I found was to have everyone treat Dracandros like the madman he was, and basically acknowledge in-canon that he's an idiot with a dumb plan. Because the alternative just doesn't work in a game like DnD or Pathfinder.

Anyway, I think there's a lot of fun stuff in this episode, and I hope you all enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2, Episode 6: Dracandros the Mad

RSS Feed Link

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Curse of Radiance is a member of the Uncharted North podcast network. For more of their shows, check them out at UnchartedNorth.ca!