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!
HBM144: Keeping A Place
HBM143: Laughing Rats and Dawn Rituals
HBM142: The Vastness of the Universe
HBM141: Filthy Riches
Season 9 = February 17th
HBM Continues as an Independent Podcast
HBM140: The New Black Wall Street
HBM139: Acceptable Pains
HBM138: Did Neanderthals Bury their Dead?
HBM137: Superhappiness
HBM136: Jacob's Lost Biography
HBM135: Dying Well
HBM134: Questionable Hobbies of the Socially Isolated
HBM133: Prey of Worms
HBM132: Moral Enhancement
HBM131: A Cure for Carsickness
HBM130: Mother Pigeon / Sister Marta
HBM129: The Underearthlings
HBM128: Seeing Auras
HBM127: QALYs
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