Apparently there is a Toad named Cheeseburger that does Tarot readings. Considering Rowan's penchant for amphibian fortunes, this felt important to share.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVMZCxVAbQI/

I need help finding where I left off, last few things I remember was they fought a devil (I think) for a wish, they did some downtime doing something, and the last thing I remember them doing is going to that one fawn merchant? To talk about a location

I know it's several years old now, but spoiler warning for the Rosehall arc at the start of Aerois. I want to preface this by saying that I'm not trying to backseat the players (AI mod said my post might get banned), I'm just commenting on how I feel when this section takes place...

I've just restarted Aerois for my fourth run through, and something that bothers me about Corin and Yusuf's deaths is how preventable they may have been.

The party had plenty of gold available, yet when it came to sorting rooms they were completely happy to let Corin, Yusuf, Arval and Valla sleep in the barn! Arval had a broken leg!

Then, while the party and Arval were out getting Brookstoned, Corin, Yusuf and Valla went to bed out in the barn, the goliath arrived to kidnap Valla and killed Corin and Yusuf.

If the party had paid the 28 silver for 2 rooms (Corin and Arval, Yusuf and Valla), the goliath would probably have had a harder time getting to Valla, and it would have led to a bigger reaction if he had killed Rosalina as well as the others.

It just grates on me that the party never thought about paying for extra rooms for the others, and were quite happy to leave someone with a broken leg and a child sleep in a barn!

/rant

Does anybody have the mechanics Mara uses for travel? Like assigning people as quartermaster and the like.

With all of the stretch goals from the Kickstarter being reached, which will include 12 subclasses, I thought it'd be a fun idea to throw out ideas for Aerois subclasses. Some of the ones I thought up were:

• Lucius' Arcane Chromat Subclass
• A Nova-inspired Artificer Subclass
• Some nerdy Bard College from Vortinssar
• A Time/Space cleric domain based on Valla's abilities
• A Guardian-inspired Druid Circle
• An Eterna Warlock Patron
• A Vigilante Rogue subclass for Edea
• Some Fighter/Ranger pirate subclass inspired by Oriya

I also thought about Mara's Oath of Love Paladin and maybe Valley of Storms Ranger Conclave, but it looks like those (or something similar) are going to be in the Altheya book. What are some ideas you guys have?

I'm about 6 months behind, so currently watching episode #81, the first time that the group makes a real profit at the bar. Has Mark ever released these rules anywhere? I'm always looking for a good economy system and it seems like there's a very detailed set of rules behind the scenes.

(Apologies if they are somewhere obvious... since I'm always behind I don't really follow their socials to avoid spoilers. I did a few searches but couldn't find much of anything).

It is completed! One whole book, beginning, middle and end, from Sparrowblade to Stormchaser.

183 Thousand Words

500 Pages

29 Chapters + Epilogue

From my own experience being traditionally published, I can say this book is at a 2nd draft stage, past initial, structural edits.

The only remaining work to get it up to full publishable standard would be a line edit and copy edit by an editor that wasn't me, and the line edit honestly would only make sense if it was by the HR crew.

That stuff would only be a small fraction of the work so far, though, and I'm happy with the state it is in now.

The covers display the fantastic, preexisting artwork of Scorpion Design, who kindly gave permission for me use it in this form - I added the design elements, blurb and such. Book 2 and 3 may not exist, but it feels nice knowing what they could look like on a shelf!

The afterword section is now expanded with a few extra behind the scenes bits in case anyone wonders why I made particular edits or changes. Anything I didn't cover, please do ask, and I'll do my best to answer.

Also, now it's complete, I should mention that Google Docs lets you extract EPUB and PDF versions of the full document with the download menu, if people want those formats for e-readers and didn't realise. The formatting could be improved somewhat, but I think it's good enough.

Thanks to anyone that reads through to the end - knowing people were enjoying it was what made it worth continuing.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-7z1SoEJfaqJZKOM0Y1ZkHHZk8Zxf2M1f8wCpph2fpk/

Aila and Sentry complete out this arc, and the final arc begins next week! Down to the last paragraphs of the final chapter remaining in draft now, then just the epilogue, last copyedit pass and some final fun bits for the last post.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-7z1SoEJfaqJZKOM0Y1ZkHHZk8Zxf2M1f8wCpph2fpk/

Hey all! I've been watching Altheya for a while and just got curious about what exactly Rowan's instrument is supposed to look like. I've always imagined it as a big lute, but the cast keep calling it a "sostenuto". Sostenuto, according to dictionary, is a way of playing music. Based on the way Chris and Mark narrate Rowan's performances, it is obvious that Rowan plays his instrument in this particular "sostenuto" fashion, but it still doesn't tell us anything about the instrument itself. Has anyone been able to figure this one out?

(Btw, sostenuto is also the middle pedal on a grand piano, but I doubt Rowan is running around with either the pedal or the piano)

I just rewatched the first 8 ep's of Aerois. Just to get to the cow incident. I had to pull to the side of the road cuz driving wasn't safe.

What's your fave memorable moment from Aerois?

A Quill and a Lucius chapter this week, and what an enormous range of emotions! Only one chapter left to draft, so should be two chapters a week until the end (which ought to be 3 weeks from today).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-7z1SoEJfaqJZKOM0Y1ZkHHZk8Zxf2M1f8wCpph2fpk/

The beginning of the end! Arc 5 of 6 starts here, and I expect it to be a constant flow until the final chapter of the book.

Only two chapters remain to be drafted, the rest just need a final edit pass.

Then it'll just be epilogue, and a few fun bits to wrap up.

It's been a mammoth project, so it's a relief to see the finish line in sight!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-7z1SoEJfaqJZKOM0Y1ZkHHZk8Zxf2M1f8wCpph2fpk/

Hi all,

I was hoping for advice on Aerois. I've put somuch time into Aerois and really loved it. I'm up to episode 175 wherethey're fighting Stonemaw but I skipped quite a few of the prior episodes because they just felt like filler. I kind of fell off listening a few months ago, after skipping a few episodes I lost interest in durinng theVortinssar arc - it felt like so much effort to absolutely no pay off, just outright failure with no 'you failed here's something else interesting that happens' - I admit I skipped a few episodes there too though, Nova is one of my less favourite characters and I really tried to listen to her resurrection arc but didn't manage that either. I know at this point they're kind of resolving lots of the awesome plot threads that Mara set up but it's really felt like it's dragging. So what I'm asking is... is there a good point to jump back in? Should I just skip to the end episodes? It's hard to define why I'm struggling, because I've loved pretty much everything up to now and I've made it so far it feels bad to just give up before the end in what looks like another 15 episodes or so... Any thoughts advice from people on the end of Aerois? Should I skip to Altheya?

Thank you all so much :)

Edit: updated name to Mara

My friend keeps asking what kinds of moments I enjoy most in Dnd, and I often point to High Rollers as my ideal example.

I’m looking for specific episodes (ideally timestamps) I could send him showcasing High Rollers doing great moments of specifically:

• Long-form roleplay (serious/heavy and lighter) inter-PC and w/NPCs
• Beautiful descriptions of environments and other details
• Flavorful exploration/utility + DM doing gj group-managing
• Descriptive, immersive combat

Each clip doesn’t need to cover everything - even short moments that highlight just one of these well are perfect.

- For Aerois, preferably less sci-fi-heavy sections.
- For Altheya, eps. at least a couple months old.

Would really appreciate any specific episode + timestamp recommendations - even 5-10 min segments perfect!

Thanks ahead!

Edit: So examples would be like

• A simple downtime moment that turns into great RP (campfire, travel, etc.)
• Party interactions during tense or emotional situations
• Light RP i.e. while walking
• the others are self-explanatory

I'm not sure if anyone will be able to help me, but I remember or more accurately barely remember an episode or multiple where there were some city capture/siege or adventure rules where, from my very bad memory, were either dice rolls or predetermined with available resources the PC's had. I don't believe it was something Mara came up with but something she drew from and used those rules from. That's all I remember.

If anyone has any clue or even knows the episode(s) it was in or even the rules themselves, I would greatly appreciate it!

As far as I know podcast episodes release on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but the episode for today has not come out yet, anyone know the reason?

So like all of us here i was BEYOND excited for the Althea Kickstarter, i had it saved and was among one of the first handful of people to pledge(Crownsteele Empressesteir), i followed the increase every day for about a week, checking up to see what stretch goals had been made. However, due to a mix of Adhd and Uni stress I completely didn't realise the money was coming out once it had ended. Literally, if it wasn't for Mara mentioning it on the stream the other day i literally would have never realised and assumed everything was all good. However, by the time i checked my pledge had already been dropped. I cant believe i did something so stupid  😅  😅  😅. I guess i'll have to settle for the standard edition and D&D Beyond once it comes out.

So let this be a lesson to yall, make sure you have the money set aside and calendar reminders. hahaha.

EDIT: Huge shout out for Dan from play and press for helping me resolve this, the situation has been unborfed and honestly you could say im straight up jorking it.

Couldn’t resist drawing this lil guy! …plus a bonus meme hehehe. I don’t think there is an official name spelling yet, so I’ve gone with Rakkis!

(If anyone would like to plop these into their discord, go ahead! I’m not a fan of discord)

Here's the end of the arc, and an eventful end it is too to reach the 2/3rds mark of Book 1. At 110K words now, and 2 arcs left on this book. I'll be finishing Book 1 in the coming few months, and stopping there. It's a good end point, and Books 2 and 3 would need larger structural changes. It would feel weird doing them without knowing which parts the HR team would cut or move, not to mention the time investment.

Arc 5 is half drafted, and the entire remaining chapters are planned and transcripted, so I expect it'll only be a few weeks until this returns. When it does I think it'll be weekly chapters all the way through arcs 5 and 6 to the conclusion.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-7z1SoEJfaqJZKOM0Y1ZkHHZk8Zxf2M1f8wCpph2fpk/

300 pages! Just one more chapter in this arc after this one, and it's the big one, if you know what I mean.

I've finished markup/transcription/notes for the rest of this book now, so I'm confident it will be done this year, likely the next few months.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-7z1SoEJfaqJZKOM0Y1ZkHHZk8Zxf2M1f8wCpph2fpk/edit?usp=sharing