Act Two of Five: And the King said unto the scurrying interlopers, Kneel before mine throne and let me know mine enemy.
Coming next on 15 August – Dear Renko & co (Vigil Backstage)
Programme notes
This production contains fantasy violence, drug use, sex references and authoritarian coercion.
Congratulations to all the winners of the first annual CRIT (Creator Recognition in TTRPG) Awards! Including:
Friend of the show Tib Winterfield’s award-winning newsletter, Loremasters
Award-winning Twitch channel Girls Run These Worlds, featuring friend of the show and past guest Fiona Howat as a regular game master
Luvvie alert! We simply must introduce you to Deck of Many Aces, an actual play Dungeons & Dragons podcast made by actual asexuals and aromantics! Follow four heroes as they adventure through a fantasy world on the cusp of a technological revolution, augmented by magic. Each character's fate is tied to one of the 22 cards in the Deck of Many Things, a D&D magical object based on a tarot deck.
Dramatis personae and other definitions
Gwynned: A former shieldmaiden of the triple goddess Morrigan. For the crime of saving a mortal man from the Morrigan’s cruel whim, the goddess exiled Gwyn to live as a duck, overlooked by mortals. Recently freed from the curse, Gwyn is negotiating a new relationship with her mistress.
Jinny Greenteeth: Proprietor of the Grove of Oddities, a tacky Sherrydown tourist attraction. In a past life, Jinny was branded a witch after a series of drownings in her Lancashire village.
Renko: A DoOm agent assigned to Sherrydown, furloughed since the office closed.
Harper: A US exchange student trying to sever her ties to the Shadow realm she sometimes enters through revolving doors.
Department of Omissions (DO, DoOm): The UK government department tasked with preventing harm to citizens from supernatural phenomena. Severely defunded under Tory austerity policies and currently prioritising major urban population centres.
Sherrydown, Brackshire: A historic English market town. One of the first towns to lose its DoOm office.
Omission effect: The rejection of certain beings and phenomena by long-term memory. Can be suppressed by concentration, mnemonic techniques, hypnosis, trauma, or the light of the full moon.
Credits
COMPERE: Matt Boothman
STARRING:
Natalie Winter as Gwynned, the Divine
Josh Yard as Jinny Greenteeth, the Spellslinger
Vikki as Renko, the Flake
Marta da Silva as Harper, the Searcher
ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands
MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst
SOUND DESIGN BY: Matt Boothman
SFX AND INCIDENTAL MUSIC INCLUDES: pigeons taking off by glaneur de sons on Freesound (CC BY 3.0); soaring clouds by bruce956 on Freesound (CC BY 4.0); and may include others made available to use without attribution.
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman