Season One Epilogue(ish)

In the season one finale of Death Save, Vares and crew had a showdown with his dad. But just what Vares's dad was doing, and how he was doing it, never really came out. Turge threw a dog and any bad-guy monologue was cut off. Here's the rundown.

 

Arden (Vares's dad's name, in case you missed it) was never a good guy. He cut out on his one when Vares was just a little McHalf-Elven. Arden didn't get any nicer from there. He spent the intervening years looking for some way to show the world what a powerful wizard he was. Around the time Vares was learning the magics that would end up binding him to a great old one (and destroy the Goldpetal estates in the process) Arden finally began to formalize a plan to take over the world.

 

Step 1: Tear Down the Wall

The planar divisions of the world were pretty strong, so Arden began by weakening them. He did this just about the time Vares cast his summoning. This also resulted in old gods who had been walled off from reality by the church, reaching though the veil to find new followers. See: Castor Stone and The Sealer of the Guilty.

 

Step 2: Build an Army

While he was pretty tough as wizards go, no single character in a D&D game is going to be able to take on the world. So Arden used the weakened veil to draw forth beings from other planes and worlds. He then bound their essence into a rune stone. Each of these stones could be used to provide a humanoid with powers associated with the being whose essence it contained. A combination of promises and threats and magical charms got him subjects who, through the use of these stones, formed his army.

 

Step 3: Raise Hell!

 

Vares, Castor, and Turge caught Arden during the execution of Step 3. When they destroyed him the controls he had put in place to maintain all of the magics listed above were destroyed as well. The runestones were rendered (mostly) inert, the planar weakening was (mostly) repaired, and flow of power from this plane to others was (mostly) cut off. Any monsters or whatnot that had previously crossed the threshold are still in the world, making it a (mostly) more dangerous place in the aftermath.

Dwonk

As a part of the contest we had back in September we asked listeners to give us content that we could include in the game. @PaladinToday threw us a beauty. When I knew how I was going to incorporate his idea I reached out to Isaac Milner, who's been drawring some awesome stuff for inclusion on the blog and as episode art. I reached out a bit too late to have it coincide with the season finale release, but he still came through with an awesome depiction of the (still un-named) dwarf monk. Behold its glory!

Tavern Talk 2

We talk, tavern-ly, of where-to-for-s and art thou-s. Only less fancifully. Having finished up Season One of Death Save, we look at what we thought of the thing, and where it might go from here. Hopefully there's something of interest in there for listeners.

Episode art by Isaac Milner

Background sounds by Tabletop Audio

Theme song is Hemispheres by Silent Partner

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Episode 15

The season finale of Death Save! Wizards sling spells, a dad gets discovered, and a drunken dwarf finally makes an appearance!

Thanks to everyone that tunes in to our show. We have a blast recording it and it's gratifying to know that somewhere out there, someone is listening. We'll have another episode of Tavern Talk up in a week or so where we talk about where we're headed from here.

Background sounds by Tabletop Audio

Theme song by Hemispheres by Silent Partner

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Episode 14

Back from hiatus! What starts as a struggle with two guards turns into something much more explosive. Witness Turge wildly windmill while wielding two weapons! See Castor succumb suddenly to serious searing pain! Amaze at Vares arcane acts of alacrity!

Episode art via Wikimedia Commons.

Background sounds by Tabletop Audio

Theme song by Hemispheres by Silent Partner

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Mind the Gap

Many apologies, Death Save listeners. Life has intervened and there's no episode this week. Instead, enjoy this scan of my notes for the inaugural adventure. Canny listeners should be able to spot the inconsistencies between what I wrote beforehand and what I had to improvise at the table. Cheers, nerds!

-Daniel

Spooky Halloween Special part 3



Merrick's Monster Hunters by Isaac Milner

Part three, and the finale, of our Spooky Halloween Special. Will our heroes prevail over the sinister Sempstress? Probably. But will they emerge unscathed??

This adventure is an adaptation of the Dungeon Crawl Classics 2016 Halloween module Sinister Sutures of the Sempstress by Michael Curtis.

Also, many thanks to Dan Mulkerin of the Smash Fiction podcast for guesting as the Southern Skald.

Episode art by Isaac Milner.

Background sounds by Tabletop Audio

Theme song by Hemispheres by Silent Partner

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