Ok, now it’s time to see what Valery and her new companions do after their first fight together. They agreed to join up and they found a quest on the quest board. Will things go according to plan for these newbies?

The Story

Split into 3 audio files this time because I had to take a few breaks to deal with some bread I was baking. The audio is much better. I have to think about what I might do to get it that extra mile over.

2025 was the year I leveled up my TTRPG skills (no pun intended). It started off with my participation in New Game Master Month in February. Kobold Press was a sponsor and had a coupon for the core books so I moved off the free rules and onto the main, published rules. I consumed lots of TTRPG content on YouTube, reddit, and enworld - lots of it focused on being a better GM or a more creative GM. This may have come out already if I published the other end of year blog posts before this one, but TTRPGs ended up eating up a lot of free time and reducing the time I spent on reading, video games, and programming as the year progressed.

Between the two choices for this week’s trial, I went with Grimrot Slinktail, the Ratling Plaguebringer. I liked his story about collecting others’ trash and using it to build himself up.

Story

15 Jan

I am doing my job as a torturer in the dungeons when I hear the sound of battle. The castle is under siege. The dungeon keeper comes in and tells me to leave the torture behind. I must find the Dark Overlord or the High Mage.

We have begun our second Tales of the Valiant home game campaign. Since everyone was trying out new classes they’d never played before, I decided to do a Session 0 scenario (something I learned about in the last few months). That is, “everyone” knows about session 0 to set expectations, see how the characters know each other, etc - but this is using session 0 as a way to try out the characters and be able to change things up without penalty.

Story

12 Jan

I run and dodge through the chaos of the battlefield. As I charge forward a goblin stumbles in my periphery. I have a split second to attack his attacker. I slam into him and send him crashing into the goblin’s blade. (+1 minion)

As I continue on, the battlefield is crazy. I need to find a safe path through the wreckage. I slip and crash into a catapult. (-1 HP)

The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding by Jeff Grubb, Janna Silverstein, Chris Pramas, Steven Winter, Wolfgang Baur, Jonathan Roberts, and others.

This book is a well-written collection of essays about world-building. While the main focus is around fantasy TTRPGs, the advice is also applicable to novel-writing or game design of any type. In fact, many of the essays call out that their advice is useful in those other domains. Everyone invited to write an essay is an industry veteran and there are a few of them written by Wolfgang Baur (CEO of Kobold Press) that reveal the philosophy of his design, especially as it pertains to his Midgard setting.

This review contains spoilers. To read it with spoilers blanked out see my review on The StoryGraph or Goodreads

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire

The more entries I read in the Wayward Children series, the more intrigued I get. This book takes us back to Nancy - our original protagonist and our introduction to the world of the Wayward Children. Back when I read the first book, I thought each book would be a standalone book about a kid or kids who experienced a portal fantasy and ended up back in the real world. Instead McGuire gave us an intricate web of books. They go forward, backwards, and sideways in time. Sometimes they are prequels to the original book and other times they move the overall story along. Death is not a constant and, apparently with this book, neither is getting to stay in your door if/one you are re-admitted. The plots are getting very entwined and it’s getting more and more essential to have read (and remembered) the old ones to get the full understanding of what’s going on. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just different from where the series seemed to start out.

I chose to go with Kargoth Stormcleaver, Orc Battlemaster. It was a tough choice, but I liked the idea of the guy who looks like a brute, but actually hones his mind.

Story

8 Jan

I fight along with many goblins. The little ones around me are fierce, one should not underestimate them. The wall falls and arrows rain upon us. I use my training and naturally avoid the arrows. They are as harmful to me as the rain itself.

Since we choose a new character on 8 Jan, I chose to have this post cover my remaining days as Severin Mortis.

Story

Day 05

My master the high mage directs me to prepare the spell for the Overlord. He explains that the Soul Crystal was imbued with power by devouring souls when the Dark Overlord activated it. Now we will reverse the operation and give that power to the Dark Lord. My master is perhaps a bit nastier to me than usual because I betrayed him in front of the Dark Lord. I assume he has not tried to kill me because we are both necessary for the spell.

Gameplay

As the city bells go off, the heroes arrive at the town square. They see a rare sight - elven folk - surrounded by the Ironguard and an unruly crowd forming. The town hasn’t seen elves in decades and is scared this might be an invasion. Tris stops the riot and calms the townfolk. She speaks with the elves and finds out that they are under attack by giant spiders. Their pact not to harm forest life means they can’t do anything about this. The group agrees to help the elves.