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!
HBM049: Sam's Japan Tapes
HBM048: Barrie's Mental Tempest
HBM047: Peacocks Without Tails
HBM046: Crooked Skirts
HBM045: Deep Stealth Mode (How To Be A Girl)
HBM044: Distant Warfare
Lying in a Stranger's Grave
HBM043: Last Chance To Evacuate Earth
HBM042: Deers
HBM041: Crossing the River, Feeling Watched
Fear of Silence
Forty Monster Bites
HBM040: The Reformation Bible Puritan Baptist Church
HBM039: A Goddamn Missionary
HBM038: Do Crows Mourn Their Dead?
HBM037: Uncertain Death
HBM036: Throw It In The Ocean
HBM035: Spirits of the Past
HBM034: The Grandmother and The Vine Of The Dead
HBM033: What One Does
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