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!

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Chapter 2, Episode 7: The Light on the Horizon

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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!

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Chapter 2, Episode 6: Dracandros the Mad

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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 5 - For More Info, Read Azure Bonds by Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak!

Alternate Alternate Title: How Much Canon Can We Fit Into One Episode?

In this week's episode, the party has a moment to recuperate after last episode's decisive battle, and Akabar Bel Akash exposits for a little while about the origin of their tattoos (for more info, read Azure Bonds by Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak!). After that, Ildana takes the opportunity to sleuth around the now-empty village- until an unexpected ally makes themselves known. This ally may be able to deliver the party directly to their destination- but is that what they truly want? Listen and find out!

This episode was both fun and not fun to make, because a large part of it involves just kind of... giving the PCs a lot of information that they may or may not care about. I think it turned out well in the end, but I feel like there may have been better ways of doing it; though I also think there may have been way, way worse ways of doing it too. (Fun fact: one of the players made it known to me that they were NOT too pleased with how this episode shook out. As the weeks go on, see if you can figure out which player!) But this was a necessary part of the story, especially for the podcast audience, so in the end I'm happy with the result. I wish I could have done a bit more with characters like Akabar and Silk (another fun fact: Silk is completely absent in the printed module, I cribbed her involvement from a cameo she has in the computer game) but hey, there's only so many hours in the day and there's more story to get to. Onward and upward!

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Chapter 2, Episode 5: The Enemy of My Enemy

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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 4 - Two Efreeti for the Price of One

(Whoops! Looks like this post is going out a couple days late. Many apologies.)

In this week's episode, the party has defeated one group of dark elves and liberated the townsfolk, but it seems more of the mercenaries are holed up inside the nearby barn. With the aid of a traveling merchant who has agreed to help the villagers, the party confronts these drow and their otherworldly commanders!

This was a fun episode to record, for a few reasons. First, whether it comes across in the finished episode or not, the battle was very tense and much more difficult than the players were expecting (but the rewards will be great, don't worry!). Another reason is the character of Akabar- for those not "in the know", Akabar bel Akash was one of the protagonists of the Azure Bonds novel (as well as the later book in the Finder's Stone trilogy, Song of the Saurials) and so it was nice to be able to include this cameo in the podcast. (Will he stick around long? Wait and find out!) Oh, and one other thing- this episode has the first mention of an artifact that many, many people are probably very familiar with!

I don't really have much else to say about this one, it's a fairly straightforward episode. Stay tuned for next week, when things get a little crazy!

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Chapter 2, Episode 4: Fire and Shadow

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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 3 - Dark Elves in the Sheets

Hello again, everyone! We're back once again, with another episode of Curse of Radiance!

In this week's episode, the party has traveled to the village of Hap to confront the Red Wizard Dracandros, one of the creators of their magical bonds. But it seems the village is overrun by dark elf mercenaries under the Red Wizard's employ! Can the party stop this menace without (too much) collateral damage? Listen and find out!

I don't really have a ton to add to this one- though I will mention that I think this is the shortest episode of the entire campaign. There's like two or three episodes that are just barely sub-1hr20m, but this one caps out at 1hr17m and I don't think any of the others go quite that low. But don't worry, there's still plenty of fun packed into that (ever-so-slightly-smallest) package!

Thanks for listening, and see you next week!

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Chapter 2, Episode 3: Drow in the Streets

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

And speaking of which, let me take this moment to congratulate them on completing their flagship podcast, Stemming the Tide! They are currently doing an AMA on Reddit, so go check that out right now!

Curse of Radiance Chapter 2, Episode 2 - Attack of the Intellectual Property

Here we are, another week, another episode! In this week's outing, the three cursed heroes- Torunn, Fennec, and Ildana- are beset upon by a pack of Displacer Beasts, until an unexpected threat cuts that encounter short. Once they have a chance to rest, however, Fennec is contacted by one of the long-term denizens of the Vale of Lost Voices, who shares a troubling past and an even troubling-er future.

Wanna know something? Displacer Beasts are my favorite DnD monster, and I think it's because I first encountered them in the computer game this campaign is based on. One of the difficulties of putting them in a Pathfinder 2e campaign, however, is that there are no official stats for Displacer Beasts in Pf2e- because Displacer Beasts are one of the monsters that are specifically held under copyright by Wizards of the Coast (along with Beholders, Mind Flayers, and some other iconics). So, I had to play with a bit of homebrew this episode, and... well, you'll see how well that turned out.

I think this is a fun episode, and I hope you all do too!

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Chapter 2, Episode 2: Monsters and Visions

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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 1 - On the Road Again

With one story arc down, the second has begun!

In this episode, the heroes Torunn, Fennec, and Ildana leave Tilverton and set out across the Dalelands to confront the next of the creators of their cursed tattoos- Dracandros the Crimson, a Red Wizard of Thay also known as Dracandros the Mad. Along the way they test out the limits of their curse, they argue about the dangers of their situation, and Torunn receives some advice from someone who lost a bet. And after all that... monsters still lurk in the shadows.

There's a lot of interesting information gained in this episode; when I started the campaign I was really excited to see how the players would take to experimenting with the tattoos and seeing just how they react to various things. So, we'll see how that progresses as the campaign goes on!

I hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 2, Episode 1: Testing and Doubting

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