Growing up, Jeff Emtman had a hard time balancing his piety for the One God with his piety for the Gnomish lord Berwyn. Generally, he deferred to the latter, though he lost favor eventually with both.
Jeff’s scoutmaster, a retired surgeon with a habit of collecting unusual boats, was always trying to get Jeff outside, away from the computer where he spent most of his free time playing a game where he tried to save the world from corruption and evil.
Ancient Domains of Mystery (more commonly called “ADOM”) is an massive roguelike game that’s inspired heavily by Dungeons and Dragons. Developer Thomas Biskup released the first version of it in 1994.
Jeff, a gnomish wizard of status, is susceptible to corruptive background radiation. Once pure, his breath became ever more sulphurous, thorns that sprouted from his hands, etc. And he failed in his quest to save the world.
The Surgeon invited Jeff to join him for kayaking on the Naches River of Washington State. The river holds a small irrigation dam that the two must navigate--the Surgeon with ease, and Jeff with no small amount of existential, religious struggle.
The “burning hands” spell in this episode comes from a Esperanto-language reading of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, released as public domain audiobook by Librivox. The excerpt used can be translated to “...and the chain was bound around the arm.”
Producer: Jeff Emtman
Editor: Jeff Emtman
Music: Serocell, The Black Spot, AHEE, Circling Lights ← New music!
HBM158: An Illusion
HBM157: The Raw Whatever
HBM156: Heavy Load-Bearing Body
The HBM Art Exchange is Back!
HBM155: Ghosts Aliens Burritos
HBM154: Ancient Roman Recipes
The Straight and Narrow
HBM153: Klänge from Berlin
HBM152: Dirt Becomes You
HBM151: Blowgun Time Warp
Season 10 is Coming!
Leaving Spotify
HBM150: Cold Water
HBM149: The Daily Blast [Neutrinowatch]
So What Exactly is Episode 149?
HBM148: Early Attempts at Summoning Dream Beings
HBM147: Chasing Tardigrades
Theodora is @hypo_inspo
HBM146: Theodora
HBM145: The Juice Library
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