Once more into the breach, adventure fans! Episode 99 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast presents “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 4,” played on August 14, 2010! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Chris Tulach of the RPGA calls for your initiative roll.
• The Staging Area: I briefly summarize the campaign backstory (referring listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign), giving a more extensive summary of “Well Met in Markathesh” and parts 1–3 of “The Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
• The Weather Report: The guardians of the Shadowgate attempt to repel the PCs … violently.
• The Prop Shop: I describe the miniatures that I used to portray the Shadowgate’s guardians (see below for pictures). These minis are my Noble Knight picks of the episode.
• Dark Harbinger from the War Gods of Aegyptus line by Crocodile Games
• Asar Crypt Lord with Grisly Trophy from the War Gods of Aegyptus line by Crocodile Games
• Barrow Warden Mystic from the Dark Heaven line by Reaper Miniatures
• Sea Shanties: This episode features the following theme and background music, used by permission of the copyright holders:
• “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics
• “Firewalker” by Medwyn Goodall, from the album Tribal Nation, ©2005 MG Music

Apparently I haven’t downloaded the photos of the Shadowgate guardians from my digital camera yet. When I get a chance, I’ll put them right here.

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 4,” and that you’ll join us when the adventure concludes in “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 5″! I plan to publish part 5 after the weekend, in order to give the players a chance to record any shout-outs they wish to put into episode 100!

I forgot to mention this in the audio, but if you shop at DriveThruRPG between now and September 10 (my brother’s birthday), enter the coupon code DTRPGAugust2010BlogPCast to receive a 20% discount on all products from the following publishers:

• A Terrible Idea
• Aethereal Forge
• Bailey Records, including:
• Amazing Universe: The Superheroic Music EP
• Pulp City: The Soundtrack, Part 1
• Chronicles of Ramlar Official Soundtrack, Part 1
• Crucifiction Games
• Dream Pod 9
• Fantasy Games Unlimited, including classic Villains & Vigilantes rules and adventures
• Final Redoubt Press, including the Echoes of Heaven multi-system module series
• Gold Rush Games, including the San Angelo: City of Heroes sourcebook for Mutants & Masterminds
• Goodman Games, a fantastic publisher of 3.5e and 4e supplements and adventures, including:
• Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Level Up magazine
• The Critter Cache series
• GM Gems and PC Pearls
• And much more!
• Highmoon Games, including:
• Domains of Adventure systemless location descriptions
• Heroic Moments adventures for 4C
• No Other Gods, an adventure for Testament
• One Bad Egg‘s back catalog
• Morbid Games
• OtherWorld Creations, including Murder of Crows and other adventures for Call of Cthulhu
• Palladium Books
• Rogue Games, including Colonial Gothic
• RPG Objects
• Savage Mojo, including Gamescapes Story Maps
• Tricky Owlbear
• Vigilance Press, including the Wargames series for Mutants & Masterminds

Don’t miss out on this great offer!

Episode 98 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast is here, adventure fans, to present you with “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 3,” played and recorded on August 14, 2010! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Jeff Greiner, host of the Tome Show, calls for your initiative roll.
• The Staging Area: I briefly summarize the campaign backstory (referring listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign), giving a more extensive summary of “Well Met in Markathesh” and parts 1–2 of “The Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
• The Weather Report: The adventurers defeat Gnash and his crew, then turn their attention to the Shadowgate—ultimately summoning and provoking its undead guardians.
• The Prop Shop: I describe the prop that I used to allow the players to interact physically with the runic cubes, and announce the winner of the runic cubes contest. (Nathaniel, if you’re reading this, please contact me with your postal address so I can send your the prize!) Since solving the puzzle required the players to use the power of their minds, I make Psionic Power by Wizards of the Coast my Noble Knight pick of the episode.
• Sea Shanties: This episode features the following theme and background music, used by permission of the copyright holders:
• “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics
• “Desert Battle” by Erika Lieberman, ©2009 Sonic Legends
• “Spirit of the Rainbow Serpent” by Terry Oldfield, from the album Australia: Twilight of the Dreamtime, ©1994 by New World Music

Here are the PCs’ guess as to the Shadowgate runic cube sequence, along with the “key”:

The PCs’ guess	The correct sequence

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 3,” and that you’ll join us when the adventure continues in “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 4″!

I forgot to mention this in the audio, but if you shop at DriveThruRPG between now and September 10 (my brother’s birthday), enter the coupon code DTRPGAugust2010BlogPCast to receive a 20% discount on all products from the following publishers:

• A Terrible Idea
• Aethereal Forge
• Bailey Records, including:
• Amazing Universe: The Superheroic Music EP
• Pulp City: The Soundtrack, Part 1
• Chronicles of Ramlar Official Soundtrack, Part 1
• Crucifiction Games
• Dream Pod 9
• Fantasy Games Unlimited, including classic Villains & Vigilantes rules and adventures
• Final Redoubt Press, including the Echoes of Heaven multi-system module series
• Gold Rush Games, including the San Angelo: City of Heroes sourcebook for Mutants & Masterminds
• Goodman Games, a fantastic publisher of 3.5e and 4e supplements and adventures, including:
• Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Level Up magazine
• The Critter Cache series
• GM Gems and PC Pearls
• And much more!
• Highmoon Games, including:
• Domains of Adventure systemless location descriptions
• Heroic Moments adventures for 4C
• No Other Gods, an adventure for Testament
• One Bad Egg‘s back catalog
• Morbid Games
• OtherWorld Creations, including Murder of Crows and other adventures for Call of Cthulhu
• Palladium Books
• Rogue Games, including Colonial Gothic
• RPG Objects
• Savage Mojo, including Gamescapes Story Maps
• Tricky Owlbear
• Vigilance Press, including the Wargames series for Mutants & Masterminds

Don’t miss out on this great offer!

Let the good times—and dice—roll, adventure fans! Episode 97 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast presents “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 2,” played and recorded on August 14, 2010! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Erika Lieberman of Sonic Legends calls for your initiative roll. You can hear Erika’s music in the background throughout this episode.
• The Staging Area: I briefly summarize the campaign backstory (referring listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign), giving a more extensive summary of “Well Met in Markathesh” and part 1 of “The Valley of the Shadow of Death.”
• The Weather Report: The combat between Gnash and the crew of the Broken Promise—which Gnash had previously commandeered—continues.
• The Prop Shop: I describe the miniatures I used to represent Gnash, Kuurog, and their allies, and confess to two rules errors. My Noble Knight picks of the episode are two miniatures from Reaper Miniatures’ Dark Heavens line: Gronk Spliteye, Bugbear Hero (whom I used to represent Gnash) and Skrug, Bugbear Shaman (the miniature I used for Kuurog). See pictures of my painted versions below.
• Sea Shanties: This episode features the following theme and background music, used by permission of the copyright holders:
• “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics
• “Desert Battle” by Erika Lieberman, ©2009 Sonic Legends

As best I can recall, here are the goblins and hobgoblins that I used to stage the fight:

And here are front and rear photos of Gnash and Kuurog:

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 2,” and that you’ll join us when the adventure continues in “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 3″!

I forgot to mention this in the audio, but if you shop at DriveThruRPG between now and September 10 (my brother’s birthday), enter the coupon code DTRPGAugust2010BlogPCast to receive a 20% discount on all products from the following publishers:

• A Terrible Idea
• Aethereal Forge
• Bailey Records
• Crucifiction Games
• Dream Pod 9
• Fantasy Games Unlimited
• Final Redoubt Press
• Gold Rush Games
• Goodman Games
• Highmoon Games
• Morbid Games
• OtherWorld Creations
• Palladium Books
• Rogue Games
• RPG Objects
• Savage Mojo
• Tricky Owlbear
• Vigilance Press

This is, in my opinion, absolutely the best lineup of publishers who have offered such discounts since the blog/podcast discount program began a few months ago. Don’t miss out on this great offer!

It’s an exciting day, adventure fans! This hasn’t happened since episode 1—in episode 95 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast, you’ll hear actual play published only a few days after the actual game session! Episode 95 presents part 1 of our adventure “The Valley of the Shadow of Death,” played and recorded on August 14, 2010! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Sean Patrick Fannon of DriveThruRPG calls for your initiative roll.
• The Staging Area: I briefly summarize the campaign backstory (referring listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign), giving a more extensive summary of “Well Met in Markathesh.”
• The Weather Report: The PCs attack Gnash and his companions in the shadow of the mysterious desert “gate.”
• The Prop Shop: I discuss my use of the following products to assemble the scenery on the table:
  • Grip liner
  • Wooden toy building blocks
  • e-Adventure Tiles: Desert Bluffs by SkeletonKey Games, mounted on foam board
  • The portal component from Sacrifical Portal by WorldWorks Games
  • Ancient army tent cardstock models by Billy Bones Workshop
  • Campground tiles from Dungeon Tiles: Ruins of the Wild by Wizards of the Coast
  • 3D wagon components from Dungeon Tiles: Desert of Athas, my Noble Knight pick of the episode

• Sea Shanties: This episode features the following theme and background music, used by permission of the copyright holders:
• “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics
• “Awakening the Seed Dreamer” by Terry Oldfield, from the Album Australia: Twilight of the Dreamtime, ©1994 New World Music
• “Desert Battle” by Erika Lieberman, ©2009 Sonic Legends

Here’s how the table looked when the players arrived for the session:

And here’s a photo illustrating how we show miniatures on mounts, using small bits of museum putty and 50mm miniatures bases:

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 1,” and that you’ll join us when the adventure continues in “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 2″!

Welcome back, adventure fans! Episode 94 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast presents part 4 of our adventure “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 4,” played and recorded on May 15, 2010! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Samuel Dillon (DMSamuel on Twitter) of the RPG Musings blog and the 4 Geeks 4e podcast calls for your initiative roll.
• The Staging Area: I briefly summarize the campaign backstory, giving more attention to “Keeping the Promise” and the first three parts of “Well Met in Markathesh.” As usual, I also refer new listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign.
• The Weather Report: Zebith and Lithian conclude their initial conversation with Father Murphy, and invite him to dinner aboard the Broken Promise for further conversation before they head back into the Taworri Desert.
• The Prop Shop: I make Wizards of the Coast’s recent hardback, the Demonomicon, my pick of the episode.
• Sea Shanties: This episode features “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics. All tracks were used by permission of the copyright holders.

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 4,” and that you’ll join us when the campaign continues in “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, Part 1″!

I fell behind, adventure fans—but I didn’t fall overboard! I had intended to publish this podcast on August 12 or 13, 2010, but I ended up spending extra time preparing for the August 14 play session instead of working with the podcast files. I trust we’ll catch up easily. Episode 94 continues our adventure in “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 3,” played and recorded on May 15, 2010! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Aeryn “Blackdirge” Rudel of Blackdirge Publishing and Goodman Games is responsible for some of the best third-party 4e material out there—and on this episode he calls for your initiative roll.
• The Staging Area: I briefly summarize the campaign backstory, giving more attention to “Keeping the Promise” and the first two parts of “Well Met in Markathesh.” As usual, I also refer new listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign.
• The Weather Report: The PCs haggle with outfitter Godfrey “Captain” Morgan, Tyria visits city hall, and Zebith and Lithian take a remedial course in D&D 4e cosmology at the local temple of Ioun.
• The Prop Shop: I identify the Paizo Face Cards used for major NPCs in this play segment, and peel back the curtain for a look at some of the inspiration behind Father Murphy. My Noble Knight pick of the episode is Harrowing Halls, a Dungeon Tiles set by Wizards of the Coast.
• Sea Shanties: This episode features “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics. All tracks were used by permission of the copyright holders.

Here’s a look at the Paizo Face Cards I mentioned in the Prop Shop:

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 3,” and that you’ll join us when the adventure continues in “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 4″!

Ahoy there, adventure fans! The latest adventure—and I really mean that this time—of the crew of the Broken Promisecontinues in “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 2,” played and recorded on May 15, 2010 and presented in episode 93 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast! Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Mike Shea of the Sly Flourish blog, who tweets daily D&D tips and recently published a book full of good advice for DMs, calls for your initiative roll.
• The Staging Area: I briefly summarize the campaign backstory, giving more attention to “Keeping the Promise” and “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 1.” As usual, I also refer new listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign.
• The Weather Report: The PCs finish their interrogation of the goblinoid pirates, and Tyria arranges for their disposition. Meanwhile, Zebith and S3rv0 pay a visit to the Markathesh library.
• The Prop Shop: I describe my use of Paizo publishing’s Face Cards: Friends & Foes to represent notable NPCs. Since the Vorpal Network’s sponsor for August, Noble Knight, doesn’t list this item in its current catalog, I make Paizo’s GameMastery Map Pack: Town my Noble Knight pick of the episode. In the audio, I failed to mention that the librarian, Astrid Tepeora, owes her first name to the character Astrid Farnsworth on the television show Fringe, played by Jasika Nicole.
• Sea Shanties: This episode features “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics. All tracks were used by permission of the copyright holders.

Here’s a look at the Paizo Face Cards I mentioned in the Prop Shop:

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 2,” and that you’ll join us when the adventure continues in “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 3″!

If the fair winds hold, mateys, we’ll reach convergence before the next Stormhaven campaign game session on August 14, 2010:

• Well Met in Markathesh (2 more episodes)
• The Valley of the Shadow of Death (tentative title; to be played on August 14, 2010)

In episode 86 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast, the adventurers noticed a strange structure in the desert—a structure that resembled a large stone hoop standing perpendicular to the ground. I used a printable model from WorldWorks, slightly modified, to represent this structure:

In the face of the structure, the PCs beheld eight runes:

Please note that the directions don’t actually correspond to directions on the campaign map; they are just for convenience in referring to the different runes. If the vertical stone circle were a clock, due north would be 12:00. Upon closer inspection, the PCs noticed that the grooves around three of the runes—the ones whose positions are annotated in yellow text on the picture—were shallower than the ones around the other runes—the ones with positions annotated in orange. This suggested to the PCs that five of the runes might actually be inscribed on blocks that could be removed and repositioned, but the PCs did not investigate further at that time. At the end of episode 95, however, the PCs returned to the mysterious structure. On Saturday, August 14, 2010, the players and I will gather to find out what happens when the PCs confront Gnash near the stone structure, and what the PCs can learn about the structure.

In the course of that adventure, I expect the PCs to learn that the five sets of deep grooves do indicate precisely that those runes are carved on blocks that can be removed from the structure. Those blocks are actually cubes with runes inscribed on each face. The shallow-grooved runes are actually carved into the face of the structure itself and can’t be removed or reoriented. I’ve randomly assigned the cubes numbers from 1 through 5, and I’ve arbitrarily numbered the sides 1 through 6. Here are the cubes and their runes:

Cube	Sides 1–3	Sides 4–6
1
2
3
4
5

In the actual game session, the PCs will have the opportunity to make “get a clue” checks, drawing on their various knowledge skills. For you, however, this is a “real-life” skill challenge, with no dice. Can you put the cubes in order? The first person outside of my local gaming group to leave a comment here detailing the solution—with all blocks positioned and oriented properly—will win a set of five custom-made Litko Aerosystems action point tokens (slightly smaller than the samples shown here; note that the prizes are five identical red gear-shaped action point tokens, not including the other tokens depicted). Please limit yourself to one entry. I will not respond to any comments on this post until our game session on August 14, 2010 has concluded.

Ahoy there, adventure fans! It’s time again to join the crew of the Broken Promise—now once again in control of their ship—on the Icosahedrophilia podcast! In this episode, we present “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 1,” played and recorded on May 15, 2010. Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Tracy Hurley of SarahDarkmagic.com and the DM Roundtable podcast calls for your initiative roll.
• The Staging Area: I briefly review the most recent developments in our story, tracing the PCs’ trip into Markathesh, their discovery of the commandeered Broken Promise, and their retaking of the ship. As usual, I also refer new listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode for a more detailed history of the campaign.
• The Weather Report: The PCs’ reunion with the NPCs among the Broken Promise crew brings the sad news of Sturm’s death. Thereafter, the PCs interrogate Crunglutch, Fecar, and Pog, seeking information about Gnash’s plans.
• The Prop Shop: I remind listeners that Crunglutch, Fecar, and Pog first appeared in the D&D 3.5e supplement Exemplars of Evil, which Wizards of the Coast updated with 4e stat blocks via the D&D Compendium (and which was my pick of the episode for episode 89). This leads into my Noble Knight pick for this episode, Elder Evils, a similar product that WotC published near the end of the 3.5e run and updated to 4e stats via the Compendium.
• Sea Shanties: This episode features “Racing the Wind” and “Gallows Jig” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics. All tracks were used by permission of the copyright holders.

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 1,” and that you’ll join us when the adventure continues in “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 2″!

I have more to say about this …

Trim your sails, adventure fans, for the thrill ride known as episode 91 of the Icosahedrophilia podcast! In this episode, we present “Keeping the Promise, Part 5,” played and recorded on April 24, 2010. Please listen now or subscribe via iTunes, Zune, or plain old RSS. This episode features the following segments:

• Weighing Anchor: Ethan Parker of the Gamer’s Haven podcast calls for your initiative roll.
• The Staging Area: I briefly review the most recent developments in our story, and refer new listeners to the “Story Thus Far” recap episode.
• The Weather Report: The PCs continue to battle goblinoid pirates for control of the Broken Promise.
• The Prop Shop: I give a shout-out to gamers attending GenCon and confess my D&D completist obsession. This leads into my Noble Knight pick of the episode, WotC’s new Orcus, Prince of Undeath gargantuan miniature.
• Sea Shanties: This episode features “Racing the Wind,” “Gallows Jig,” and “High Seas” from the album Phantoms of the High Seas by Nox Arcana, ©2006 Monolith Graphics. All tracks were used by permission of the copyright holders.

I hope that you enjoy(ed) listening to “Keeping the Promise, Part 5,” and that you’ll join us when the campaign continues in “Well Met in Markathesh, Part 1″!

I have more to say about this …