Shows
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 60: Out of the RuinWhen the first settlers left Earth for Antarras, they did so with the understanding that they would never see Earth again. Either their mission would be a grand success, and they'd make a new life for themselves on those distant shores, or the trip—and the attempt to establish a new home in alien lands—would kill them. An equal mix of refugees and dreamers, none of them even bothered to imagine that their children, or their grandchildren, would see Earth again: they were, after all, fleeing a planet on fire, daring to explore the unknown because it felt safe...
2025-04-152h 11
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 59: In the Wrong HandsHellstone weaponry was always destined to be a matter of convergent evolution: with so powerful an energy source at their fingertips, and in such a volatile set of situations, the eventuality that someone tried to create a more powerful weapon was certain. The mystery was only a matter of who would get there first—and, of course, who would get to wield them. For the Company, Antarras was not only a source for hellstone, but it was also a testing ground, a safe place far from Earth to see just what these hellstone weapons could do. But for the pe...
2025-04-011h 56
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 58: Hellstone or High WaterCONTENT WARNINGS: discussions of body horror (1:15:00-1:17:00) While there was a contingent of separatists, among the first settlers of Antarras, the original missions to Antarras weren't launched with the idea of ever becoming fully independent from Earth. Enough uncertainties plagued the early missions that finding native alternatives to every single need could never have been high on the list of priorities: early efforts towards practical sustainability went into determining what familiar crops found functional homes in Antarran soil, and what available building materials could replace the temporary prefab structures brought over on those first ships. F...
2025-03-181h 57
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 57: Election DayThose first three months were, in some ways, the easiest. Even if it seemed like the world had fallen apart around us, at least the path was clear: to get through, at all costs. Pure survival. A straightforward goal with straightforward steps. Ensure the farms were undamaged, replant what seeds had been destroyed. Check the stability of the town and its buildings, rebuild anything that needed shoring up. Tend to the wounded. Bury the dead. One foot in front of the other, heads down all the way. It was only after that initial period of work, when we finally...
2025-03-042h 38
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 56: Aftermath, part 5This week, on Ruin's Gate: A choice of some consequence. GET YOUR "SAY OK TO THE CLOCK" SHIRT HERE: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-unexplored-places Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/unexploredcast Follow us on Tumblr: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/ Art by Ben Prevas Music by Andrew: https://andrewperricone.bandcamp.com/ Indigeneity Consultation by Wind: https://twitter.com/windjammah, https://qomrades.com/Transcripts: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/transcripts
2025-02-1834 min
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 55: Aftermath, part 4This week, on Ruin's Gate: Crossing bridges. GET YOUR "SAY OK TO THE CLOCK" SHIRT HERE: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-unexplored-places Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/unexploredcast Follow us on Tumblr: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/ Art by Ben Prevas Music by Andrew: https://andrewperricone.bandcamp.com/ Indigeneity Consultation by Wind: https://twitter.com/windjammah, https://qomrades.com/Transcripts: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/transcripts
2025-02-1124 min
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 54: Aftermath, part 3This week, on Ruin's Gate: Religious reform. GET YOUR "SAY OK TO THE CLOCK" SHIRT HERE: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-unexplored-places Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/unexploredcast Follow us on Tumblr: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/ Art by Ben Prevas Music by Andrew: https://andrewperricone.bandcamp.com/ Indigeneity Consultation by Wind: https://twitter.com/windjammah, https://qomrades.com/Transcripts: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/transcripts
2025-02-0444 min
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 53: Aftermath, part 2This week, on Ruin's Gate: A symbolic gesture. GET YOUR "SAY OK TO THE CLOCK" SHIRT HERE: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-unexplored-places Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/unexploredcast Follow us on Tumblr: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/ Art by Ben Prevas Music by Andrew: https://andrewperricone.bandcamp.com/ Indigeneity Consultation by Wind: https://twitter.com/windjammah, https://qomrades.com/Transcripts: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/transcripts
2025-01-2840 min
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 52: Aftermath, part 1This week, on Ruin's Gate: Rebuilding and building anew. GET YOUR "SAY OK TO THE CLOCK" SHIRT HERE: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-unexplored-places Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/unexploredcast Follow us on Tumblr: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/ Art by Ben Prevas Music by Andrew: https://andrewperricone.bandcamp.com/ Indigeneity Consultation by Wind: https://twitter.com/windjammah, https://qomrades.com/Transcripts: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/transcripts
2025-01-2149 min
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 51: The Last DaysThree major events anchor the history of human life on Antarras. The first, of course, is the discovery of hellstone by the original settlers. The second is the signing of the Ostenberg agreement, after the Battle of Swallow's Pass, when terms between those same settlers and the Company were negotiated into an unsteady but even, temporary peace. The final, almost four decades later, would be the events of that day in Bell's Landing—a day that changed everything we thought Antarras could, or couldn't, be. This week, on Ruin's Gate: The end is nigh. GET...
2025-01-072h 32
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 50: The Envoy's Promise, part 2Covenant is a game that, by design, is about making the best of the hand you've been dealt—making smart bets even in unlucky circumstances. As such, the game resonates with the spirit of the original settlers on Antarras who invented it: none of them had been dealt a very good hand at all in life, but the promise of the hard journey out here was that they might make something of themselves nevertheless. To this day, not only is Covenant the most popular card game on Antarras, but it's also, to many, an important symbol of the ethos of...
2024-12-241h 49
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 49: The Envoy's Promise, part 1One day, a fellow reporter and I were sitting in our office at the end of a long day, passing a flask of whiskey back and forth, and she asked me a question I'd never asked before, but I've never since forgotten: What, she asked, after a long swig, do you think was actually here before us? After a moment, she went on: there's water, here, and plants, and animals. Shelter's easy enough to find, and there's no shortage of oxygen. Seems silly to think we're the first people ever set foot on this big red rock, don't it?
2024-12-101h 43
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 48: From Below, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror (1:28:00), coercion (1:39:30) The… unfriendliness, shall we say, of hellstone's predisposition to spontaneously combusting upon transport in the early days of hellstone mining precipitated a whole host of research from all kinds. The second question—after, of course, how to safely mine the stuff—was how to safely move it, first to move it from the mines to the towns, and then how to move it from Antarras back to Earth where it could be traded and sold. Before the current refining process was finalized, there was a nonzero risk of the stuff setting off deadly...
2024-11-262h 01
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 47: From Below, part 1There had always been those who naively believed that hellstone could, in some way, in some novel form, actually be tamed—could be brought under control, made safer or more convenient, be "domesticated," as the case may be. And there have always been opponents to that idea. When Eleanor Greer invented the process that would later go on to be cemented as the standard process for refining hellstone for safe use and safe shipment, the President of the Mining Guild at the time, a man by the name of Arn Goldman, would, allegedly, tell anyone who would listen for mo...
2024-11-121h 53
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 46: Through New EyesCONTENT WARNINGS: body horror (eyes) [00:05:09, 00:26:00], references to cannibalism [1:54:50] Now, what's deceptive about a sleepy little town — which, though I've argued before that Ruin's Gate was far from, but for the sake of poetry, let's say the sentiment stands — is that, sleepy as they might seem, that doesn't mean there isn't always something going on under the surface. Trouble brewing out of sight. Pieces moving on chess boards in back rooms. Plans hatching, plots thickening, deals being made in the dark. And in Ruin's Gate, in those days, there was plenty of dark to go around. This we...
2024-10-292h 08
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 45: The Devil's Pilgrimage, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror (eyes) [2:01:00] Meanwhile, in the writings of Confessor Leviticus to her final congregants, this pilgrimage is characterized somewhat differently. She speaks of the pilgrimage not as a promise, or even as a journey, but as a kind of fortification, a taking up of arms. This should hardly be surprising: the visions granted to Leviticus by God were filled with this kind of martial imagery, and she seems to have seen herself as a kind of warrior or soldier, rather than a shepherd or a leader. But the idea stands, nevertheless. The pilgrimage isn't so m...
2024-10-152h 02
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 44: The Devil's Pilgrimage, part 1In The Early Saints of Antarras, Apostle Celéne Osgood—who would go on to later undertake her own pilgrimage and become Confessor Psalms, the noted Evangelist—writes of the sermon given by Confessor Joshua upon returning from their pilgrimage. The pathway, Confessor Joshua is said to have declaimed, is not holy because it is the precise pathway Confessor Genesis once took, but because of the footsteps of those who followed him. The act of commitment undertaken when an Apostle sets out on that path is simultaneously an act of contrition, of devotion, and of service—to the town or comm...
2024-10-011h 44
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 41: Delving Too Deep, part 3CONTENT WARNINGS: drug use (0:09:30) One can't help but wonder, thinking back on the early days of Antarras, just how and why the staple institutions ended up with the influence they did. Could it have turned out another way? Could, for instance, a different church have found purchase in the hearts and minds of the early settlers? Could a different corporation from Earth have gotten here first, before Creon Construction, Communications, and Co.? How different would life on Antarras have looked, if just one decision had been made differently, just one change in the way things w...
2024-08-202h 10
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 40: Delving Too Deep, part 2Funerary traditions on Antarras vary by town. The early settlers brought with them a range of belief systems, cultural traditions, and dispositions towards death, so in the earliest days, there were as many cremations as there were burials, and almost as many mourning practices as there were settlements cropping up on the planet's surface. Eventually, most of the planet settled into the same—or at least similar—general traditions, though there were some smaller settlements that held out against the planet-wide preference for cremation and kept well-tended cemeteries of their own dead nearby to town. But for most, superstition won...
2024-08-062h 02
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 39: Delving Too Deep, part 1 You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who was alive that doesn't remember the day the sun didn't rise. You'd be even harder pressed to find anyone who could agree on what to call it. The eclipse, the great cloud, the long, dark night. No one wanted to talk about it, when it happened, so no easy name ever came into common parlance. Everyone had their own way of thinking about the darkness outside, and locked alone and scared in their homes, they took to thinking of it however they might. This week, on Ruin's Gate: The search b...
2024-07-231h 44
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 38: Between Greatness and RuinWhat to do, with the truth? It's a question as complicated on Antarras as it was through the history of human civilization on Earth. What to do with the truth when it's more dangerous than a lie? When it presents a risk you might not be willing to take? Do we have a moral obligation to share the truth at all costs? To spare the feelings of those who might be hurt by it? To inform those who might not have otherwise known? Personally, I have always believed the latter: the truth at all costs. On a planet so...
2024-07-092h 08
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 37: The High GroundForgive an old reporter just a moment for a brief aside—a diversion from the story, sure, I'll grant you that, but one that I think it very much needs. Because the thing the stories like this about Antarras miss, sometimes, is that there weren't good guys and bad guys, not really. Heroes and villains are things of fairytales, of bedtime stories, and when stories about Antarras get told, they're all too often the fanciful sort. The kind made to convey a particular message. No one's immune to this, and I'm not saying I'm any better. But the thing th...
2024-06-251h 41
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 36: Settling the ScoreCONTENT WARNINGS: violence, discussions of death Though the original settlers did, for a time, use their own ships to ferry the hellstone they first found back to Earth, the Company's intercession soon shut down any private or personal spacecraft in the airspace over Antarras—at first through violence, and then, as their first major demand in the Ostenberg Agreement, as a matter of policy. When you really look at the maps, at the paperwork, the Company doesn't have jurisdiction over all that much land on the planet; what it has is the sky. Because when the people bu...
2024-06-111h 28
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 35: The Resurrection of Jasper Lonesome, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: desecration of corpses, body horror It isn't as if we ever properly understood death to begin with. Humanity's spent exactly as many years telling stories about what death means and what comes after as it has dying. Wars have been fought and kingdom's toppled over differences of opinion on the matter, and the mysteries that lie beyond that unknowable act are one of the first and most powerful of human fears. Some say the only thing about it we know for certain is that everything dies, but here on Antarras, even that seems like it...
2024-05-282h 01
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 34: The Resurrection of Jasper Lonesome, part 1CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror (1:34:35-1:35:00) Of course, back on Earth they told stories about dreams—prophetic ones, ones with deep significance and all kinds of meanings, dreams that revealed the deepest anxieties and worries that might plague the inner recesses of somebody's mind. On Antarras, though, there wasn't the luxury for that kind of thing. Dreams, on Antarras, some would say, were more vivid than those on Earth: darker, stranger, and yet all the more real. When they had meaning, which they almost always did, that meaning didn't come in metaphor. No teeth falling out, no moving as...
2024-05-141h 45
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 33: The Law in Bell's Landing, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: gore and descriptions of severe violence (0:35:37, 0:39:50) The paradox of hellstone has always been this: it's plentiful on Antarras but too valuable to keep; it's rare on Earth, where they have the resources to experiment. It's so useful as a power source that it gets used up faster than the time it would take to truly understand it. And so that little red miracle that saved the people who first fled to Antarras has remained far more of a mystery than the businessmen, the scientists, and the miners might like. Just what might hellstone be able t...
2024-04-301h 48
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 32: The Law in Bell's Landing, part 1Justice isn't a word that has much meaning on Antarras. At least, not in the long term. While each town might have been built up with its own best intentions, in the end practicality wins out over idealism every time. Any Company Marshal or local Sheriff makes the decision they think is best, and more often than not, what's best is resolving an issue expediently so that everyone can move on and get back to the harder work of living in a place like this: surviving. This week, on Ruin's Gate: A murder in the city.
2024-04-161h 48
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 31: A Town Called DoomCONTENT WARNINGS: body horror (0:27:00-0:30:00, 1:34:00), drug use (0:40:00-0:42:00) Scarcity has always been the name of the game on Antarras—our time on this planet has practically been defined by it. As much as the prospect of a new home among the stars seemed to offer the promise of opportunities beyond those limited few left on Earth to the early settlers, the surplus of opportunity on Antarras was always matched by a scarcity of other things: food, safety, answers. With each one, the people of Antarras made do; new ways to grow food, new ways to protect themselves. Hum...
2024-04-022h 25
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 30: The Dark Stampede, part 2Aside from the paths scouted between Antarras' sparse collection of towns, and the maps kept by the Miner's Guild, all too much of the planet remains unexplored. This reason is no small part of why the Buzzards do such good business: wander off just a hair in the wrong direction, and you might find yourself in unexpectedly dangerous terrain—and not just because of the landscape. In fact, early settlers passed down the firm belief that the planet was impossible to explore in full. Not because of its size—as the planet is, in reality, no larger than...
2024-03-191h 53
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 29: The Dark Stampede, part 1To attempt a taxonomy of the creatures the locals call hellbeasts would be a futile task: the monsters that made their way out of the Ruin had no rhyme nor reason, no morphological consistency nor internal sense. They had the form, from the start, of something out of nightmares, and warped from there, in all manner of ways. Any attempt at cataloging them, or classifying them, would end up in a far muddier understanding of the practical information at hand than just listening to the names people took to calling them and going from there. Not to mention, anyone...
2024-03-051h 57
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 28: Carrion Town, part 2Fear wasn't always the common denominator among the population of the newly-founded towns of Antarras. Maybe it was always something of a factor; maybe it could never have been totally absent from consideration. But when people talk about the early settlers these days, they focus too much on fear. The story is that they were scared, desperate people willing to try their hand at anything to escape the lives they were fleeing back on Earth. But those of us descended from them, or raised by them, or in community with those of them that still remain, know that fear...
2024-02-202h 11
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 27: Carrion Town, part 1The Company installed its de facto leaders shortly after the Agreement was signed. Company Marshals took up residence in each town, according to one of the many clauses that were debated at the time of the signing, and while their job was, technically, to represent the Company's interest in matters of disagreement, they fell easily into the more familiar position of a kind of unelected sheriff, promising to keep the townspeople safe and to keep wrongdoers in line. They made this transition with little to no comment from the emergent, makeshift forms of local government that had been in...
2024-02-061h 38
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 26: A Fire in the NightAfter the Ostenberg Agreement created a tenuous but stable peace between the Company and the original settlers, Antarras became a place that was surprisingly free from major conflict. Bandits and outlaws caused trouble occasionally, to be sure, and there's no denying the danger of living in such close proximity to a dangerous, alien wasteland. But when it came to larger scales, concord was the name of the game. Maybe it was how no one wanted to damage the fragile peace after so much conflict in those early years; maybe everyone knew that our real enemies were the monsters and...
2024-01-232h 06
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 25: Tools of the Trade, part 2The truth is, most of us don't want to know anything more about hellstone than what we already do—that it's dangerous, and that it's valuable. Whether or not you believe that ignorance is bliss, you can't rightly deny that there's something unfathomable happening with the stuff, be it at the atomic level or the ontological. There's a reason the first settlers, the first specters, dug it up out of the earth and called it "hellstone." Whatever they saw, whatever they found, whatever it did to them in those early days before we learned how to refine it, how to...
2024-01-091h 44
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 24: Tools of the Trade, part 1Strange stories, sometimes, circulate in quiet whispers about the work that goes on deep beneath the ground under the Manufactory. Necessary research, no doubt—after all, if it hadn't been for scientists like Greer experimenting with hellstone, this planet would be more of a graveyard than it already is. But "necessary" doesn't always mean something bears thinking about, and imaginations tend to run wild when given free rein to speculate about what happens where you aren't meant to see. Dark and dangerous experiments, some say. Twisted trials on grotesque specimen. I'd reckon, if pressed, that it's a wh...
2023-12-261h 51
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 23: The Bear, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: animal death, detailed description of injury to animals Did our presence here transform the natural landscape of Antarras? Did our footsteps change the ground we walked on, which had never before seen human feet? It would be naive to pretend it didn't, that's for certain. But it would be just as naive to imagine that we could ascertain the exact extent to which we altered that environment, just as it altered us in turn. There's no telling if the rivers would have started to run red in their own course, no knowing if t...
2023-12-121h 50
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 22: The Bear, part 1CONTENT WARNINGS: animal death, detailed description of injury to animals Wildlife on Antarras was puzzling to the first settlers, who had never known any animals besides those few they'd encountered on Earth, the rare ones left in the wake of a mass extinction on the planet they were running from. Aside from horses, which the settlers had brought with them, they found themselves face to face with creatures the likes of which they'd never seen, and not knowing precisely what else to call them, they gave them borrowed names. An animal what flew became a b...
2023-11-281h 44
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 21: Waiting Out the StormPeople always supposed it might be possible, that somebody lived out in the Ruin. In fact, I reckon most people assumed it had to be true. As dangerous and downright undesirable as it seemed, we'd made a home of Antarras out of a desire to find freedom and a chance at a better life, so why not the Ruin too? But the question was never taken all that seriously. Surely, anybody who chose to live out there would be a loner, a strange or lost soul, who probably wouldn't last long enough to make any trouble for anybody decent...
2023-11-141h 34
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 20: Bones of the Saint, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: description of body horror (1:10:34-1:13:25) The Confessors, of course, were more than just priests. Having received the word of God directly from the source on their pilgrimages, it wasn't uncommon to hear the faithful say that the Confessors held onto some small fraction of His omniscient revelation. If you were lucky enough to have a Confessor located in your home parish, you wouldn't only go to them for the sacrament, or for confession: you'd probably also go to them for advice. Their instinct guided directly by His hand, it was rare for a Confessor to...
2023-10-311h 54
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 19: Bones of the Saint, part 1It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that there is no limit to what the Company would do to keep its grip on Antarras tight, but that doesn't mean the average person really understands the depths of the Company's machinations. What's worse, where it used to be the case that one could tell a Company member a mile away, from their dress, their deportment, or their demeanor, the decision makers higher up quickly learned that most Antarrans were conditioned to keep mum around anyone with a whiff of the Company about them, and made a move to arrange...
2023-10-171h 43
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 18: The Disappearance of Chance Gladwish, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: discussion of auditory hallucinations I heard a story, once, from one of the original settlers, out in Swallow's Pass, about the first time she saw a ghost in the Ruin. The ghost of her father, dressed in his work clothes, standing in the distance, in the fog, and calling her name. She said it felt as real as anything she'd ever seen, chilled her to the bone, and while she'd never believed in ghosts before, she knew this had to be one. But, she said, the strangest part was, her father had died o...
2023-10-031h 30
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 17: The Disappearance of Chance Gladwish, part 1CONTENT WARNINGS: discussion of auditory hallucinations What is a ghost, anyway? It's a question the people of Antarras have had to ask more than once. Leaving aside the obvious, here, there's more to consider than one might think there'd be. Is a ghost a demon? A spirit? Is it something else? Problem is, on a planet that plays tricks on the mind, it isn't just a question of "how real are the ghosts?" It can also be a question more along the lines of, what do we mean when we say "real?" If something has e...
2023-09-191h 40
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 16: Behold, a White HorseCONTENT WARNINGS: drug use [1:01:42-1:03:22], brief depictions of body horror [1:28:18-1:34-13] People found all sorts of ways to cope with the uncertainty that came coupled with living somewhere as dangerous as the frontier. Some turned to drink, to gambling, to all the vices known to mankind, as could be expected. Some to violence, to stupor, to fantasy. Some, of course, turned to God and all his attendant mercies, to praying their rosaries and church on Sundays. And others still turned towards each other, to the workaday pleasures of tipping your hat as you pass someone on...
2023-09-051h 39
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 15: Shadows in the Dark, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: missing child, discussion of parental death and grief, blinding [48:30] If you take the word of the people who've made their names in Ruin's Gate—and usually, dear reader, I am just wise enough to remember to do that—then the thing you most need to survive out here isn't luck, or money, or knowing the right people. It's something else altogether. Take, for instance, a game of Covenant. Odds are, you're as likely to draw a hand of snakes as you are to end up with a pile of stones, but if you stop playing the...
2023-08-221h 41
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 14: Shadows in the Dark, part 1CONTENT WARNINGS: missing child, discussion of parental death and grief If nothing else, there's something to be said for the collective spirit of the frontier. On Earth, as those who come to Antarras tell it, it's every man for themself—and maybe that's part of the problem. But there's no surviving a place like the Ruin on your own, and we've got the graves of those who've tried to prove it. Instead, this town and the others like it were built through steadfastness and cooperation, and they prosper through the preservation of the very same. Say what yo...
2023-08-081h 41
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 13: The Curse of the Good Luck Mine, part 2Surprisingly little is known about the specific effects of unrefined hellstone, all things considered. It is, after all, the key to life on Antarras, the little red miracle that put our humble planet on the map. But no miracle is complete without its side effects, and though the miners swiftly got to work developing their specter suits to keep them safe from the obvious visible mutations prolonged contact caused, once that was dealt with, people sort of stopped asking questions. Whatever hellstone might be doing, to those who came into contact with it, was it worth removing the engine...
2023-07-252h 02
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 12: The Curse of the Good Luck Mine, part 1CONTENT WARNINGS: brief description of body horror [24:59-25:06, 55:03-55:09] "History" and "legend" are words that don't have a lot of meaning in a place like Antarras. The places where their definitions are distinct have a nasty tendency to blur. When history's as short as a generation or two, and fact is often stranger than fiction, it can be hard to tell the difference between the stories that get passed around and the ones that really happened. The thing that feels like hard-won truth is as likely to be made up as any old tall tale, and if...
2023-07-111h 42
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 11: Mutual AgreementsCONTENT WARNINGS: brief description of body horror [12:27-12:39] Small towns on Antarres have a tendency to stay small—at least, until they don't. The second a small town starts to grow, the process takes on a character I'd be tempted to call exponential: the moment people start to sense opportunity somewhere new, they have a tendency to go. So towns get bigger, better, and the more they do, the more people come. It's not always a bad thing. Big towns have their own charm, their own benefits. It's a matter of whether or not the sma...
2023-06-271h 42
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 10: A Demon in the Desert, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: body horror (31:21-31:55, 45:34-46:06, 56:55-56:57, 1:01:37-1:02:06, 1:03:46-1:04:17), graphic violence (50:39-51:08, 1:03:46-1:04:17), discussion of mercy killing (55:25-56:57) (13)And lo! the Angel said unto him, you Shall be henceforth known as Genesis, and you Shall be My Prophet, and I Shall show you a Great and Beautiful Promise. (14)And the Stone before his eyes did part and reveal unto him that Great and Beautiful Promise, that Genesis would deliver His message unto all he met, that beneath the Stone did lie a land of plenty. (15)And, leaving the mines, Genesis made his way to the nearest town...
2023-06-131h 30
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 09: A Demon in the Desert, part 1 CONTENT WARNINGS: detailed description of body horror [1:01:08-1:01:52, 1:18:34-1:21:13, 1:26:34-1:26:50] Faith has been important to the people of Antarres since they first set foot on the rocky red earth of their new home. Faith of all kinds—first, the abstract kind of faith, faith that they had what it took to survive the harsh environment of this new planet, that they would find something here to make it worth the trip. And then faith of a more concrete sort, as a humble preacher from one of the first ships followed a voice out into the Ruin and ca...
2023-05-301h 28
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 08: On the Train to Perchance, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: description of body horror [29:30-29:55] Now the problem the specters faced, now that they'd found a use for the strange red stones they'd dug up out the earth on Antarres, was figuring out how to transport it. Raw hellstone, turns out, wasn't just injurious to man, but mighty unreliable when it came to traveling far distances. It had a tendency, to put it mildly, of taking off the fingers of anyone who happened to be carrying it. And putting it on a ship back to Earth, where even the slightest disturbance to the careful alchemy...
2023-05-161h 35
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 07: On the Train to Perchance, part 1After the Ostenberg Agreement was signed, there was still the unsettled question of under whose purview the refining and transport of hellstone would fall. The Miner's Guild thought it ought to be their job, given that they were the ones responsible for handling the raw material; the Company thought that, seeing as how no hellstone was getting off the planet without their help, it should fall to them instead. So the Manufactory, originally a loose collective of refinery owners more interested in taking advantage of the problem than in any kind of personal loyalty, stepped in to fill the...
2023-05-021h 42
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 06: First LandingCONTENT WARNINGS: discussion of drugs (opiates, inhaled) [0:09:30-00:10:40] In the years that would follow First Landing, when wave after wave of settlers made their way to Antarras at the new-found promise of work and wealth that came with the first few hellstone shipments, some of the details were lost. Before the Company, no one cared all that much about keeping records, and no one looked all that hard beyond the narrow purview of their own self-interest. But in those early days, something special happened: as the first impermanent attempts at infrastructure were laid, as ground w...
2023-04-181h 37
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 05: The Fires of Jericho, part 2CONTENT WARNINGS: description of body horror [throughout], detailed description of body horror [0:09:55-0:10:15, 0:56:25-0:58:05, 1:02:55-1:04:23], discussion of debilitating injury, discussion and depiction of drug use (inhaled, opiate) [1:17:20-1:19:00] It may seem surprising, how commonplace the demons of Antarras became, to the people who decided to make it their home. Incomprehensible beings made up of nothing but pure terror itself, aberrations to the degree that so much as catching a glimpse of one in the distance was enough to make you question everything you'd ever been taught about the existence of anything even resembling a God. B...
2023-04-041h 28
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 04: The Fires of Jericho, part 1CONTENT WARNINGS: earthquakes, discussion of reactions to natural disaster [0:50:42-0:52:46], detailed description of body horror [1:29:12-end] More than anything, what the Gate had going for it by the end was just that: the gate, a constructed visualization of what was, ultimately, a rather ephemeral boundary between "safety" and "danger," the kind of danger the people who built that gate knew of all too well after watching their unfortunate neighbors in Jericho succumb to the horrors of the Ruin. It was the gate that kept people feeling secure enough not to turn tail and run straight back to t...
2023-03-211h 32
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 03: Honest AnswersCONTENT WARNINGS: brief discussion of drugs (opiates, inhaled) [0:55:02-0:55:58], brief description of body horror [1:10:09-1:10:22] Civilization has a habit of springing up in the unlikeliest of places, and Ruin's Gate is no exception to that. Like flowers growing up through cracks in the concrete back on Earth, as the poets say, life sure does find a way. Against the harshest of wastelands, people made some place worth living. Not without its faults, its fights, its frictions, but nowhere really is, in the end. Like any frontier town, it has its banal charms, its creature comforts, it...
2023-03-071h 26
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 02: Into the Ruin, part 2Now, there are all sorts of reasons people took to calling it the Ruin. Folk etymologies vary from "ruined land" to "land that will ruin you" to everything in between. An open wound cut across the surface of Antarras, and hellstone pouring out of it like blood. The frontier, the uncivilized space between towns, is dangerous on Antarras, teeming with beasts and outlaws and all manner of troubles. But the Ruin is, far as anyone can tell, where the demons come from: the hellhounds, the monsters, the shadows of something stranger on the horizon. Even the specters w...
2023-02-211h 56
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 01: Into the Ruin, part 1Once upon a time I might have poetically chosen to call Ruin's Gate a "sleepy little town." Hardly a town at all, in fact: a pilgrimage site and a few places for the specters to eat and drink and stay on their way to and from the hellstone mines. Not the sort of place you'd want to raise a family, and not the sort of place you'd be eager to write home about if you were struck with the misfortune of visiting. But power is as power does, and thanks to the machinations of a small handful o...
2023-02-071h 32
The Unexplored PlacesRuin's Gate 00: Hell's FortuneJoin us this week for character and posse creation for Ruin's Gate, in A Fistful of Darkness by Stefan Struck, a hack of Blades in the Dark by John Harper. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/unexploredcast Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/unexploredcast Follow us on Tumblr: https://unexploredcast.tumblr.com/ Art by Ben PrevasMusic by Andrew: https://andrewperricone.bandcamp.com/ Indigeneity Consultation by Wind: https://twitter.com/windjammah, https://qomrades.com/
2023-01-242h 15
QomradesBonus: Ultra Gold ReviewHappy New Year! One more thing before we finish the year off~ feat. Jack (@toyourstations on twitter toyourstations.itch.io on itch and twitch.tv/toyourstations), Jenny (@hereticpride), Vince (@windjammah and https://www.twitch.tv/windjamm), Lily (@Lillianapolis and https://lillianapolis.itch.io/) and song (@multihattedfate) You can find the show on Twitter at @qomrades at our site at https://qomrades.com/ and newly on tumblr at qomradespodcast Transcript Here!
2023-01-0106 min
QomradesGuns and Repression Part 2Guns and Repression Content Warnings: chain smoking, implied drug (cannabis) use, human sacrifice, necromancy, improper gun storage, mind control, holding a gun to a pc's head, death by falling down stairs This week on Qomrades... The One Night Engagement of Damage Done! How will our crew handle this witchuation? What happens when we stop repressing? Well... I only know one way to find out! Transcript by Song Hosted by Jack (@toyourstations on twitter toyourstations.itch.io on itch and twitch.tv/toyourstations) (Follow them! Help them get Affilliate they're so close!)
2022-11-241h 18
QomradesGuns and Repression Part 1Guns and Repression Content Warnings: human sacrifice, guns, smoking near gas pumps, cops/acab, description of a corpse, sigils in blood/blood writing, chain smoking, mind reading This week in Halloween... The debut of the new Qomrades cast including Lily and Song and special guest Christine Prevas investigate a little town with a lot of gas, and a lot of heart and, well, not as much blood as there could've been. Transcript by Song Hosted by Jack (@toyourstations on twitter toyourstations.itch.io on itch and twitch.tv/toyourstations) (Follow them! Hel...
2022-10-311h 07
QomradesMork Borg Halloween: Part TwoMORK BORG CONTENT WARNINGS: Hannibal TV show-esque body horror, Hallucinogenics, undead characters, multiple mentions of teeth, mentions of burning flesh, human candles, vomiting, dead animals, spiders, sewage, drowning This Week in Halloween... The Qomrades continue on their pursuit of the Troll King's treasure (and/or life). Join us and find out how they fare! And remember to check out The Unexplored Places for another excellent podcast! Hosted by Jack (@toyourstations and itch.io) Featuring Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber), Julianna ([not found]), Jenny (@hereticpride), and Vince (@Windjammah), and special guest Christ...
2021-11-2759 min
QomradesMork Borg Halloween: Part OneMORK BORG CONTENT WARNINGS: Hannibal TV show-esque body horror, Hallucinogenics, undead characters, multiple mentions of teeth, mentions of burning flesh, human candles, dead animals, spiders, sewage, drowning This Week in Halloween... The Qomrades are joined by special guest Christine Prevas in the pursuit of the Troll King's treasure (and/or life). Join us and find out how they fare! And remember to check out The Unexplored Places for another excellent podcast! Hosted by Jack (@toyourstations and itch.io) Featuring Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber), Julianna ([not found]), Jenny (@hereticpride), and...
2021-11-041h 29
QomradesHaven 13: DoorsThis Week on Haven, the crew gets ready for the party in their own ways Hosted by Vince (@Windjammah) Featuring Jack (@toyourstations and itch.io) as Max, Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber) as Aurelia, Julianna ([not found]) as Wren, and Jenny (@hereticpride) as Orion Produced by Vince You can find the show (@Qomrades) on Twitter or at Qomrades.com Music composed by Peter Silk (@kestrelpi) with Hannah Lever (@_anewlow) on Trombone Text by Vince Cover Art by Hannah Culbert, freelance illustrator, on social media @T...
2021-10-2141 minQomradesHaven 12: Invitations[Oral Record of Haven Urban Legend #51: Eyes] My mama told me this one and if you knew her you'd understand. She once lectured me about my nonsense for avoiding cracks 'cause I figured why risk breaking her back even if the other kids were lying to me? Anyway, I remember it was getting colder out because I was wearing my ratty hoodie she kept begging me to throw out. I was riding my bike against the sun and the sun whooped my ass. No contest, I was halfway home by the time the streetlights came o...
2021-10-0734 minQomradesHaven 11: Delphine's Favorite BenchContent Warnings: Mentions of bodies, mentions of death at 33:25 [A bookmark found between well worn pages in a public place] Amelie, We believe that you would be an excellent candidate. We cannot give you details in writing, but we would be happy to discuss it further in person. Write your answer in the space provided and leave this bookmark here on the table. Do not try to take it with you, you will lose it. A blank space will be taken as a negative. See you soon. [Bookmark discarded o...
2021-09-231h 07QomradesHaven 10: The Country Home[A Note on File P-3156] Normally we don't recover pieces this personal, but this journal seems to contain quite a bit of classified information. Again, still below our protocols, but the owner had recently gotten in touch with a Collector and, well, my sentimentality can't take precedence. [End Note] This week on Haven Max takes Aurelia on a "playdate" Hosted by Vince (@Windjammah) Featuring Jack (@toyourstations and itch.io) as Max, Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber) as Aurelia, Julianna ([not found]) as Wren, and Jenny (@hereticpride) as Orion ...
2021-09-0952 minQomradesQuick AnnouncementThere's no episode this week. Instead, please take a moment and consider donating to the victims of Hurricane Ida. Here are a few links to some places where you can do that There is a donation page run by Imagine Water Works for local relief and recovery efforts. Imagine water works is led by leaders who are "Native, Creole, queer, trans, and deeply connected to our community." Here is an organization called Southern Solidarity, led by a Black, Queer woman. They're anti-imperialist abolitionists who provide supplies to unhoused people within New Orleans. And here is a page from a...
2021-08-3101 min
QomradesBuilding Heresy: Part TwoContent Warnings: lots of politicking, backstabbing, heavy discussions of colonization, violence, violence against politicians, threats against politicians, break-ins, murder, poisoning, discussions of empire, threatening of loved ones, discussions of guns, protests, armed insurrections, assassination attempts This week on Qomrades, we finish a game by Jack Blair as we start to work out season 3! Hosted by Jack (@toyourstations and you can find this game and the others Jack makes at toyourstations.itch.io/) Featuring Vince (@Windjammah), Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber), Julianna ([not found]), and Jenny (@hereticpride) Produced by Vince Y...
2021-08-201h 14
QomradesBuilding Heresy: Part OneContent Warnings: lots of politicking, backstabbing, heavy discussions of colonization, violence, violence against politicians, threats against politicians, break-ins, murder, poisoning, discussions of empire, threatening of loved ones, discussions of guns, protests, armed insurrections, assassination attempts This week on Qomrades, we play a game by Jack Blair as we start to work out season 3! Hosted by Jack (@toyourstations and you can find this game and the others Jack makes at toyourstations.itch.io/) Featuring Vince (@Windjammah), Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber), Julianna ([not found]), and Jenny (@hereticpride) Produced by Vince Y...
2021-08-061h 03
Party of One Podcast291 - Space Legs with Jack BlairSpace is way bigger than you think. And yet still, in spite of that, sometimes you just... run into an asteroid.And that's when the day gets really stressful.SPACE LEGS: https://toyourstations.itch.io/space-legsQOMRADES PODCAST: https://twitter.com/qomradesFOLLOW JACK ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/toyourstationsWant to support the show? Support these causes! https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#ALL MY FANTASY CHILDREN: http://www.allmyfantasychildren.com/PARTY OF ONE DISCORD: https://discordapp.com/invite/SxpQKmKSUPPORT JEFF ON PATREON: www...
2021-07-231h 20
QomradesHarmony 07: Of Worms and MotorcyclesThis week on Harmony we meet some local fauna and break out the mechanic goggles Hosted by Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber) Featuring Jack (@toyourstations and itch.io) as Cain, Julianna ([not found]) as Adam, Jenny (@hereticpride) as Noah, and Vince (@Windjammah) as Joseph Produced by Vince You can find the show (@Qomrades) on Twitter or at Qomrades.com Text by Vince Cover Art by Rowan! Note: Rowan has changed their name after this recording Thank you to Noel Shiri for the u...
2021-07-151h 03
QomradesHarmony 06: Too Blessed to Be StressedContent Warnings for kidnapping and the use of hostages This week on Qomrades the robots find themselves in a high tech complex with armed guards. Well, one could say they were born to it. Find out what happens next! Hosted by Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber) Featuring Jack (@toyourstations and itch.io) as Cain, Julianna ([not found]) as Adam, Jenny (@hereticpride) as Noah, and Vince (@Windjammah) as Joseph Produced by Vince You can find the show (@Qomrades) on Twitter or at Qomrades.com Text by Vince
2021-07-0150 min
QomradesHarmony 05: Everything is NumbersContent Warnings for off-screen kidnapping and coercion ZIVAL BAO TOURS Don't you want to see what's out there? Don't you want a little adventure in the hands of an expert tour guide? Come see the Oil River! Contact Zival Bao today! (Please Take One) This Week on Harmony—The robot family finds themselves in the midst of a musical mystery! Hosted by Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber) Featuring Jack (@toyourstations and itch.io) as Cain, Julianna ([not found]) as Adam, Jenny (@hereticpride) as Noah, and...
2021-06-171h 07
QomradesHarmony 04: Noah, Check the VibesContent Warnings: Capitalism, Kidnapping This week on Harmony the babies investigate a kidnapping and the Qomrades confront capitalism. Hosted by Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber) Featuring Jack (@toyourstations and itch.io) as Cain, Julianna ([not found]) as Adam, Jenny (@hereticpride) as Noah, and Vince (@Windjammah) as Joseph Produced by Vince You can find the show (@Qomrades) on Twitter or at Qomrades.com Text by Vince Cover Art by Rowan! Note: Rowan has changed their name after this recording Thank you to...
2021-06-031h 25
QomradesTold by StarlightThis week on Qomrades we play a one-shot of Told by Starlight by the One True Ryan Khan (@theonetruek on Twitter) Come with us, gaze up at the sky and remember. Hosted by Jack (@toyourstations) Featuring Vince (@Windjammah), Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber), Julianna ([not found]), and Jenny (@hereticpride) Produced by Vince You can find the show (@Qomrades) on Twitter or at Qomrades.com Music composed by Vince Text by Vince Cover Art by Vince VINCE: look sometimes y...
2021-05-201h 26QomradesHaven 09 - Unlikely UnionsContent Warnings: Blood, Blood Consumption, focus on capitalism [A conversation between two guards on an encrypted line] G1: You ever have one of those days? G2: Jerry, it's late. JERRY: I know, it's important. G2: Okay, fine. Yeah, what kind of days, man JERRY: Like, you're not doing too hot, right, you've got some unexpected bills, you get a flat tire, then, at the end of your night, you see something right before you clock out that's gonna make your day a whole lot longer? G...
2021-05-0653 minQomradesHaven 08 - A Storm of MasksContent Warnings: 29:32 - Significant Injury, discussions of violence throughout, mention of death [A Text Message that Would Not Send] You remember that deli we ate at last week? I went there and it's gone. Not like "we moved" not "closed" it was a goddamn furniture store. And I... god. What did I eat? I keep trying to remember my order, but I can't. It was... fuck. Okay, tell me you remember? [Message Failed to Send. Try again?] This week on Haven we join Aurelia, Orion, and Wren as they deal with a...
2021-04-2255 minQomradesHaven 07 - Do buildings move?[A letter delivered by the Lost Connections without address - postage paid] Edaro, Do you know what’s going on in this city? I can’t help feeling like everything is moving outside of my peripherals. I attempted to scry today, which you know is an art I have never had love for, but all I saw was bone and ash. What does that mean? Well, the problem, as ever it is with scrying, is that this could mean about fifty different things. The city on literal fire, the bones of my enemies, bones of my f...
2021-04-0841 minQomradesHaven 06 - Do I have a kitchen?Content Warnings: Significant injury mention early on, intense medical attention mention early on [A conversation in a bar, forgotten by morning] PATRON 1: Cut the bullshit, Frank. FRANK: I’m telling you I saw it! P1: Frank, shut up! FRANK: What, you just want these bloodsuckers running around our city? We have to get the word out. P1: Okay, let me ask you a question. Say you’re right. I’m not saying you are, but for a hypothetical, like. Say you witnessed a murder by a powerful, supernat...
2021-03-2558 min
QomradesFor The QueenContent Warnings: War, Assassinations, Poison Brave Susan Fair I once dreamed a dream Of times near and far Of Brave Susan, Fair And the times she did spar With those unworthy And full of their pride But each fell in turn Her blade ne’er broke stride Draw near, but take care! I have a new verse Speak nought near the castle Lest fates turn for worse An arrow most deadly Sailed to the Queen And Susan like li...
2021-03-111h 40
QomradesHarmony 03: I'm a Criminal TooContent Warnings: Drug mention, Drug Use 0:46:30-0:51:00, Anti-Vaxxish Rhetoric (from an evil NPC) 1:24:00-1:28:00 [A Family Groupchat] MOM: I can't believe Borage is graduating (again haha kidding I love you son!!) GRANDMA: I'm so proud of him! Not many people can say they've collected four masters! COUSIN 1: Not sure most people try... AUNT: Comfrey, don't you start! This is your cousin's big day! AUNT 2: Besides, we're still waiting on someone to graduate, we may as well get our practice in COMFREY: Mom! GRANDMA: Be nice to one of m...
2021-02-261h 43
QomradesHarmony 02: Emotional Support FaradayContent Warnings: Guns, Being Shot, Manipulative Parenting, Ambiguous Death Review of Delicate Delights Cake Store, by Anon: 4 stars. "Wow! I'm new to this planet, but you all take Mothers' Day seriously, huh? I ordered a cake for my mom, to be delivered to her place on Mothers' day, in the afternoon (she's not really a breakfast in bed person) because I couldn't be there myself and apparently the delivery person was from the store itself, not a delivery company, and they really went above and beyond. Mom didn't catch their name but if you delivered...
2021-02-111h 26
QomradesHarmony 01: Fish are causing chaos (in the compound)Content Warnings: Manipulative Parenting mentions — Dayglow Robbins' Sails Plus Rental Agency Feedback: One Day Ago:Three-Stars TunaHaterUnionRep: Hey! Before I get started, I just wanted to let everyone know that Erin at the front desk did a great job! My problems, as usual lay in the sea. See, there I was with a nice schooner, out for what I thought would be a relaxing trip. You know what it wasn't? That's right! It wasn't relaxing at all! There were FISH out there and look, I know! I know fish are...
2021-01-281h 08
QomradesHarmony 0: There's many reasons to love a chameleonIntroducing The Cast: Harmony - Any Pronouns, usually They/Them and She/Her - mediation robot designed to survive any deal and make sure the negotiations go Mother’s way. Cain - he/him - The youngest robot, designed as a robotic soldier, with medical and tactical training Noah - he/they - Designed as an archivist robot, Noah has found interests and fixations beyond his programming and continues to seek out more knowledge. Adam - he/they - The oldest robot, the first of the siblings and arguably the most le...
2021-01-142h 34
QomradesOh Maker Pt 2 - We're All Just Really Interested In ThisContent Warnings: protests (1:08:27-1:11:03), mention of violence against protestor (1:09:10-1:09:35), bees, discussion of mental illness, manipulative parenting "And yet, what would it mean if we could see the stars? Not just as distant objects of terrestrial fancy nor the objects of poets' burning hearts, but as real and as tangible as the sun in our very own sky? What sorts of dreams might we dream if suddenly we could reach as far as distant solar systems as easily as one might drive from Denver to Phoenix? What, dear readers, would we do if our dreams came true?"
2020-12-241h 17
QomradesOh Maker Pt 1 - Have you considered Bees?Content Warnings: bees, discussion of mental illness, manipulative parenting "The 21st century saw the western honeybee Apis Mellifera approach the brink of extinction time and time again. Through the dedication of scientists and others with a professional stake in their pollination tasks, they were preserved however. What those teams didn't expect perhaps, was the impact the way these bees shared information would have on our understanding of computing..." An Excerpt from Waggle Dancing Connectivity: A study of mid 21st Century computing inspired by the natural world Featuring Jack (@toyourstations) as a Robot, Rowan...
2020-12-101h 24QomradesHaven 05: Blood, Iron, and Faerie MagicContent Warnings: Significant Violence, Injury, Guns, and Knives [A passage from Night Calls] And so it is that many wizards find their way to power, by spells so stale and rigid that to compare them to actual magic is to compare a painting with the piece of fruit it depicts. One bastion of magical power I have had very little opportunity to study, however, is that which is held by the Fae. It is an old magic, the kind of raw stuff that makes textbooks tremble and remember that they have some other p...
2020-11-2640 minQomradesHaven 04: Motive and OpportunityContent Warnings: Vampire feeding, blood mentions, genre typical violence, dangerous driving. [One side of a phone call on an unmonitored line] Tell me what you saw and I'll believe you. Why? Because no one else will. I don't mean that as a threat, just. Listen to me. Everyone in this sorority is familiar with what you're going through. You're safe here. As safe as a bunch of women with weapons against the supernatural can make you, at any rate. No matter what you've seen, no matter what brought you here, well. Yo...
2020-11-1248 minQomradesHalloween Special: Vampire Frat PartyContent Warnings: Alcohol Consumption, Drunkenness [A Snippet of a Phone Call] SPEAKER 1: God, I am so excited for this! The guys from the new frat are going to be there and I have a crush on basically all of them and- SPEAKER 2, crosstalk: And I heard TOD is coming too [Pause] SPEAKER 1: What did you say? SPEAKER 2: TOD, you know, the guys that run the blood drive? SPEAKER 1: I know who- [Pause, a deep breath] I know who TOD is, why are they coming?
2020-10-311h 50QomradesHaven 03: The Scene of the CrimeContent Warnings: Dead Bodies, Death, Insensitivity to trauma [An unsent letter, crumpled and used for kindling in a pyre] To the Estate of Xavier Winslow III, Though we walk the night and feel no cold, a darker night has fallen. Our blood may slow the clock, but never stop its chime. Our brother Thaddeus Montgomery Winslow IV has begun his final hunt and we will drink our fill for the darker nights to come. We will be having a small gathering far from the city lights. We would be pleased if...
2020-10-2244 minQomradesHaven 02: French Fries, Tree, StoplightContent Warning: Mentions of Violence/Murder [A notice, burned to ashes by a cigarette lighter] -and this is a call to action. There is a threat looming on the horizon. It's unclear who these people are, but you can be damn sure we'll find out. We need your group in Haven, now. There'll be a few others we call in, but you? Well. You've been the most reliable. You'll be paid well, we assure you. For now, be on the lookout for any suspicious characters. You probably won't find them carrying w...
2020-10-0856 minQomradesHaven 01: Batter Up Y'all[Half of a phone call, unrecorded but filed nevertheless] It started with a banging. BANG one two BANG three four BANG. And I remember this sense of dread in my heart, the sense that something was going terribly wrong. Oh sure, it could've been a raccoon. Should have been a raccoon, even. But when I got up to check I found this card slipped through the mail slot on my door. No, no this doesn't feel like a prank to me. I'm calling her in. Maybe this time she can keep us safe. ...
2020-09-2452 minQomradesHaven 00: The Debts We OweContent Warning for mention of the Pandemic and Protests 1:03-4:48 And now for some proper introductions! Listen as we discover who Maximilien De La Roche, Aurelia Ida Moreau, Wren, and Orion are and just how indebted they are to the world and one another. Hosted by Vince (@Windjammah) Featuring Jack (@toyourstations) as Max, Rowan (@ceardannan and @pom_and_fiber) as Aurelia, Julianna ([not found]) as Wren, and Jenny (@hereticpride) as Orion Produced by Vince You can find the show (@Qomrades) on Twitter or at Qomrades.com Mu...
2020-09-171h 23QomradesWelcome to HavenHaven is a free land for those beyond the mundane. It's a place where you can run to lose your scent amid the tantalizing food and where you can drop your worries in the bayou never to be found again. At least, that's what the city would have you believe. In truth, these promises are all ad-space. But even a rigged game can be won. There are hundreds of these games all across the city, people with a bit of power and a lot of pride trying to get theirs and people with desperate hands trying to ge...
2020-09-1002 min