Roll, Ponder, and Play - Dramatized Solo Roleplay

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 16

Previously: 
In our previous episode, at the zenith of her despair, Eilwen draws strength by feeding her anger at those who would slay the innocent for their nefarious and dark magics. She and Aron and Kyffin manage to barely escape from Edris's clutches and those of his leather-winged minions by fleeing through a rusty trap door near their feet and nearly falling down a metal ladder into the dark subterranean depths beneath the ruined tower. Eilwen bars the trap door with Kyffin's spear, and they discover in the chambers beneath that Edris has been using foul magics to create aberrations. They suspect that one such abomination is what killed and drained the blood from the shriveled humanoid corpse they saw on the surface. Eilwen takes Edris's research, some yellowed parchments with diagrams, symbols, and an old book, and they flee into the tunnels. They discover that while it is warmer beneath the mountain of rock overhead, a labyrinthine network of tunnels awaits them.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 17

Previously:  
In our previous episode, Eilwen, Aron, and Kyffin venture into the dark subterranean ruins beneath the tower of the Husk, Edris, hoping to pass through to the other side of the mountains. They move through a huge rectangular-wrought chamber with large finely-crafted statutes carved into the pillars holding up the ceiling. The artistry is similar to what they found on the mask of the shriveled warrior on the surface and to the workmanship of the bridge where they hunted the birds. They surmise that this must be the handiwork of the elves, and at one time, one of their populations centers. But now it is a dark and dismal place, devoid of any wholesome life. They follow one of the main thoroughfares. After traveling long weary hours, they stop to camp amidst the rubble of a partially collapsed ornate archway. Eilwen, on watch, hears sounds of something moving in the dark. Unsure what it is she wakes her brother and has him start lighting a torch while she wakes Kyffin.
In the light of a torch, they see a monstrosity, a horror come to life. It's a huge bug-like creature, something like a giant centipede with a long body, a hard black carapace, sharp spear-like legs, and a head filled with razor-sharp teeth the size of daggers, surrounded by tentacles writhing with ill intent. They try to flee, and Kyffin is chased down, and overcome, gravely wounded and bleeding out. Eilwen wants to save him, but is physically detained by her brother, Aron, man handles her and pulls her back into the darkness, away from the macabre meal as Kyffin is consumed alive in the dying light of their fallen torch.
For the astute among you… I made yet another mistake last episode and forgot to drop my maximum momentum down by 1 because of her Shaken debility… Max momentum is usually 10, but it is affected by debilities, like Shaken, and so technically her momentum could not have exceeded 9 until Shaken is removed. I told you my previous mistake wouldn't be my last. But I don't feel too bad about it since she wasn't technically supposed to have taken Shaken anyway. So, when you hear maximum momentum of ten just be aware that that is incorrect. Anyway, I won't (and cannot) retcon this error, so this and future episodes with this mistake, stand as they are.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
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Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 18

Previously:
In our previous episode, Eilwen and Aron finally made their way through the large pile of rock and continued their journey through the subterranean depths. In one area, they found some strange blue-glowing water that would pass through living matter with little effect, but would affix itself to unliving matter such as stone or metal. Eilwen pulls out her sword and lets the dribbling glowing stream of magical water run over its iron blade, and the metal takes upon it a faint blue sheen, even when dried. The light is not as bright as a torch, but it is enough to see by. Aron, seeing it as unnatural, judges her foolish for dealing with things she does not understand and refuses to apply the same to his axe. They spend a night in a ruined home of an elven family and Eilwen finds two small figurines that of a man and a woman, both carved with delicate artistic skill. Putting them in her back, she notices bits of flaking shell and sees the dark sinuous head of the baby wyvern emerge from its egg. The little creature, soon free of its shell, takes to interacting with Eilwen.  As she plays with it, the small winged lizard, eats a share of their meat much to Aron's chagrin and Eilwen's delight. Resuming their journey, they find more elf skeletons, in the crumbling ruins and buildings on both sides of the street, wooden masks affixed to their faces, continuing onward at as the road narrows, they find another group of skeletons, these covering the road in front of them and they are contorted in horrific positions, and the horrid manner in which they perished can only be guessed at. Perhaps it was disease. This seems likely at what they encounter next as a smell of rot begins to permeate the road ahead of them. There, blocking the way they must go, they see strange fungal growths wheezing like diseased lungs clinging to walls. With timing and precision and with only some loss of supplies, they both make it through the narrow passage that stank of death and disease and they resume their journey. After long hours of travel, they see down one passageway a pinprick of light and smell a breath of fresh air. It is the exit! But before they can get to it, they see the creature that killed Kyffin blocking their way. It is not aware of them, being entirely focused on slaying and then slurping up the remains of a wolf or wild dog who had wandered into the tunnel. Eilwen using a wolf's howl manages to draw the creature into the wide  thoroughfare where Aron then uses a rock throw to send it skuttling away on its myriad legs in pursuit of the noise. Eiwen then calls the shadows down to mask their sight and sound and caressed in their writhing forms, the sibling finally, after days in the dark, emerge into the gray light of the Veiled Mountains.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 19

Previously:  
In our previous episode, Eilwen and Aron finally made their way through the large pile of rock and continued their journey through the subterranean depths. In one area, they found some strange blue-glowing water that would pass through living matter with little effect, but would affix itself to unliving matter such as stone or metal. Eilwen pulls out her sword and lets the dribbling glowing stream of magical water run over its iron blade, and the metal takes upon it a faint blue sheen, even when dried. The light is not as bright as a torch, but it is enough to see by. Aron, seeing it as unnatural, judges her foolish for dealing with things she does not understand and refuses to apply the same to his axe.
They spend a night in a ruined home of an elven family and Eilwen finds two small figurines that of a man and a woman, both carved with delicate artistic skill. Putting them in her back, she notices bits of flaking shell and sees the dark sinuous head of the baby wyvern emerge from its egg. The little creature, soon free of its shell, takes to interacting with Eilwen.  As she plays with it, the small winged lizard, eats a share of their meat much to Aron's chagrin and Eilwen's delight.
Resuming their journey, they find more elf skeletons, in the crumbling ruins and buildings on both sides of the street, wooden masks affixed to their faces, continuing onward at as the road narrows, they find another group of skeletons, these covering the road in front of them and they are contorted in horrific positions, and the horrid manner in which they perished can only be guessed at. Perhaps it was disease. This seems likely at what they encounter next as a smell of rot begins to permeate the road ahead of them.
There, blocking the way they must go, they see strange fungal growths wheezing like diseased lungs clinging to walls. With timing and precision and with only some loss of supplies, they both make it through the narrow passage that stank of death and disease and they resume their journey.
After long hours of travel, they see down one passageway a pinprick of light and smell a breath of fresh air. It is the exit! But before they can get to it, they see the creature that killed Kyffin blocking their way. It is not aware of them, being entirely focused on slaying and then slurping up the remains of a wolf or wild dog who had wandered into the tunnel. Eilwen using a wolf's howl manages to draw the creature into the wide  thoroughfare where Aron then uses a rock throw to send it skuttling away on its myriad legs in pursuit of the noise. Eiwen then calls the shadows down to mask their sight and sound and caressed in their writhing forms, the sibling finally, after days in the dark, emerge into the gray light of the Veiled Mountains.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 20

Oct 7, 2025 - (I've reuploaded this file to capture some corrections.)Previously:
In our previous episode, Eilwen and her brother Aron make their way down out of the frozen heights of the Veiled Mountains into another mountainous region, much lower in elevation, known as the Tempest Hills. Still considered the highlands, these high golden alpine meadows are alive with bees and butterflies and birds and are framed with tall thick pines. The landscape seems rich with verdant life when compared against the sterile cold of her home region, the Veiled Mountains. Against this picturesque backdrop, they find the settlement of Redcrag.
Upon entering Redcrag, they see a black wolfshead and a black fang on a field of red--the banner of the Wolf Fang Clan--fluttering in the stiff breeze, and they see a dozen warriors laughing and drinking inside the local inn.
Needing rest and resupply, they decide to skip the inn and try their luck with a local. On the outskirts of the settlement, perhaps a half hour walk away to the south east, they secure lodging at the home of a red-bearded trapper and hunter, known as Seith. After bathing and resting and helping Seith with chores around the house for several days, their strength slowly begins to revive, and in many ways they are largely able to put the darkness of their path through the Veiled Mountains and its grim undercroft behind them.
They talk with Seith of the Elven city and learn that the locals call it "Grimstone" and that many believe it is haunted. Eilwen swears upon her still-glowing iron sword to eventually deal with the husk, Edris who has taken up residence there.
Seith reveals that he is no lover of Wolf Fang clan. They also learn some of the settlements and strongholds that Uzak's warbands have conquered, Redcrag being one of them. They further learn that a local Wolf Fang clan sympathizer, a cruel sniveling man and native to Redcrag who goes by the name of Mattox is in a position of leadership among the fifty or so Wolf Fang clan warriors who have taken up residence in Redcrag. He spends his time ratting on the folk of Redcrag. Mattox has in fact turned in Seith's own daughter, Kari, to the Wolf Fang clan, not to mention Mattox's own grandmother. Seith agrees to help Eilwen against Uzak if she can make Mattox pay for his crimes. Later that night, Eilwen and Aron talk of her plans and she convinces Aron to help her on some of the more immediate convincing him that they dovetail with her vow to become the Queen of the Ironlands. And one of these is finding more information about Uzak and his movements.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' and 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 21

Previously: 
Welcome to Episode 21 of the Queen of Shadows Podcast on Roll, Ponder, and Play! I'm Jared Hess, your friendly neighborhood game master, solo-player, author, and narrator. In our previous episode, as night falls in the settlement of Redcrag, Seith allows Eilwen to keep the baby wyvern, Scratch, in his shed prior to Eilwen, Aron, and Seith leaving to confront Mattox, a ne'er-do-well and local to Rockriver in the employ of Uzak and the Wolf Fang Clan.
Once the beast is settled with some meat inside the shed, they leave it to seek out their foe. They proceed to the inn and hear screaming and in the flickering light of lamp of fireplace, through an open second story window, they see young Erwin being tortured by Mattox. After some debate and planning, they agree to try and rescue the young man and at the same time question Mattox. Aron and Seith will steal the guards horses while Eilwen confronts Mattox. Eilwen calls upon the shadows to aid her and while they do come they only come for a moment to whisper unsettling words that someone had killed them before they rebound to their normal shapes under eves, trees, and rocks. Eilwen, somewhat shaken, proceeds to stealth across the inn's roof top hoping to swing in the through the window and surprise Mattox. But the man detects her as she lands inside. Mattox, far from being surprised, attacks her with the very implement of torture he used in Erwin, the glowing fire poker. After she is hit in the side, and a brief exchange ensues, she manages to disarm Mattox and subdue him, leaving him coughing and groaning on the floor bruised and hurt, but not seriously. The noise of her attack is somewhat masked by a commotion and the stables and the subsequent cacophony that ensures in the ground floor of the inn while the soldiers go to investigate. Eilwen frees Erwin, and he flees out the second story window. After questioning Mattox about Uzak and finding out that the Wolf Fang Clan's war plans are on a map on the table, Eilwen takes the map and clubs Mattox unconscious. After doing so, a dutiful guard knocks on the door to ask if all is well. Eilwen emulates the sniveling voice of Mattox and sends the guard away. Again, alone with Mattox she decides to send a message to Uzak by handing out justice to this torturer, Mattox. While still unconscious she cuts out his tongue, puts out his eyes, ruins his hands and leaves him a bleeding broken mess on the floor -- a queens justice. She flees the inn and returns to their rendezvous point near Seith's home, hoping that Aron and Seith are alright.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' and 'Emergent' and 'The Old Ones' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects and some music from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 22

Previously: 
In our previous episode, Eilwen, Aron, and Seith are reunited near Seith's home with Aron leading several horses. While Seith is gathering supplies for a departure from Redcrag, Aron reveals that they have little some time but not much if they are to stay ahead of their pursuers from the Wolf Fang Clan. By the light of moon and stars, they consult the Wolf Fang Clan's map that Eilwen took from Mattox's second story room in Redcrag's inn. Hoping to both lose their Wolf Fang Clan pursuers and avoid Uzak's south-marching warband, Eilwen asks about a diifferent route southward on the map that would take them between the high south-western bluffs known as the Gods Teeth and Eagle Point to the south east.
Seith reveals that no one has traveled that route in over a decade, that a darkness has slowly waxed slowly upon that land. As they pack their horses for their journey, he tells a tale he heard from an old trader, many years ago, a man known as Morys, one of the last to travel the road. Morys said that he and his wife often heard a woman's voice keening upon the wind as they took the north-south road that followed the river. Morys claimed that his wife was attacked and slain by some creature near the water, and when he ran to her aid, he found she had drowned and that her face and arms bore wound marks form human teeth and nails.
Eilwen decides to take this dark and broken road less traveled by and with baggage affixed and spare horses in tow they begin their southward journey. After traveling all night, as morning dawns cold and gray they find a rotted bridge, and crossing over to the other side, Eilwen spots where wagon some time ago had fallen off the bridge its tattered canvas snapping in the wind. She takes her horse down and investigates, but finds no survivors, no bones, and nothing of use, only thick mold and a sense brooding gloom.
Upon rejoining her companions up by the bridge, they hear a wolf's howl upon the wind. The noise throws the horses into a panic. The trio manage to calm their mounts and Seith's face blanches at the wolf call. For he alone recognizes it as not that of a mere wolf, but the wolf-like call belongs to the Varou, wolves that walk upright on two legs, vicious and brutal wolfmen, one of the old firstborn races upon the land. Then with sorrow etching his visage, he tell another sad tale, this one from his own history, how Varou attacked his homestead and wife and daughter, how he had to choose to protect either his daughter, Kari, or his wife, Alwena but that he could not save them both. He watched as Alwena was butchered slowly before his eyes.
While Seith admits that the Varou are intelligent and have a form of speech, he insists still that they are animals. With a dark hatred blazing in his eyes, he reveals how he has made it his business to learn all he could them and that he hunts and traps them. Eilwen and Aron learn that this man whom they thought was merely a sometimes hunter has hunted, captured, and tortured one of these Varou to death. Eilwen now sees Seith in a new light--a man who is in reality a very capable hunter and trapper and also one very capable of dark deeds.
The trio resume their journey and after several hours a tree-lashing storm hits the region. Soaked to the bone and at the height of the storm's fury, wishing they could find shelter, Seith insists they press on, for he notices that the slashes in the bark of a nearby tree on a field of old dried blood are signs that they are indeed passing through Varou territory. They travel all the rest of the day and into the night.
Finally, suffering from cold and wet from exposure, and next to a widening river threatening to overtake the road, Eilwen and Aron, finally manage to convince the driven Seith to find shelter.
Next to an escarpment of rock, they make a cold wet camp and pass a miserable shivering night with only their shared body warmth for heat. When morning dawns, it is warmer and a thick fog blankets the terrain. Midway through breakfast, they hear a horse scream followed by a very close howl.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' and 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects and some music from Pixabay (Pixabay.com)

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 23

Previously:  
In our previous episode, in the gray early-morning hours, during their breakfast, Eilwen, Aron, and Seith are ambushed by a group of Varou who used the thick fog to get in close and attack their camp. In the ensuing fight, as their horses are being slaughtered, Eilwen is wounded in the forearm, and due to the thick fog, and the chaos of battle, is separated from Aron and Seith. Failing to find either her brother or Seith and failing to gain the upper hand in her one-on-one combat, she turns and flees into the wilderness as her lone Varou, wolfman opponent, chases after her. Racing into the thick wet woods, heavy with last night's rain, she finds some berries and smears them on her to mask her scent and for the time being manages to lose her pursuer.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' and 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 24

Previously:
 In our previous episode, Eilwen having fled from the Varou assault on their campsite the day before, and having spent the night in the deep woods, spends the next day healing, hunting, resting, and recuperating. As she does so, Scratch, the little wyvern gets into her food, attacks her boot laces, attempts to fly, hunts bugs, climbs a tree and after leaping at Eilwen's face, takes a nap by her side. Eilwen also brings down a deer and harvests it meat. As darkness once more claims the land, she lights a fire and with Scratch in her lap, together they watch the sparks rise to join with the stars in the night sky as she again wrestles with her decision of flight that brought her into these woods and further away from her brother.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' and 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 25

Previously:
In our previous episode, when dawn comes, Eilwen and Scratch make their way back near the escarpment where their camp had been attacked two days before. Together, they arrive in the treeline and study the clearing where their camp had been. Amidst the din of cawing ravens and buzzing flies feasting on the fallen slaughtered horses, Eilwen finds that her brother, Aron, and Seith must have run into the woods, the same woods she had been in, just a different direction.
For hours she and scratch follow the tracks through the verdant woods, and eventually see that they lead to some old human ruins deep within the woods, crumbling stone buildings under towering trees. There are human boot prints and also signs of the Varou. Near the buildings on now overgrown grounds, she sees a scorched and broken stone pillar and translating the angular runes upon its face, she learns this place was once called 'Greenhome'. She also sees a faint golden elliptical carving nearly worn away and barely visible on the stone pillar. She and Scratch enter the large multi-level structure, searching for any sign of Seith or Aron. Scratch noisily chases a creature in the gloom and enjoys a tasty morsel of squirrel for his afternoon meal. Proceeding through the main rectangular structure, she sees a broken stone throne and surrounding it the skeletal remains of both human inhabitants and also the remains of a bonewalker, a bone horror similar to those they encountered on the slanted pillar in the subterranean lake, its forearm blade piercing the ribcage of one of the humans. Another of the human skeletons still wore the tattered remnants of what must've long ago been an ornate dress. Investigating the throne's back, she sees again the golden elliptical carving. And here, largely preserved  from the elements, she can make out that the device resembles the very circlet of gold she carries. She suspects that this Greenhome must have been an abode of sorts for the queens of old, her direct ancestors.
Websites:
https://rollponderandplay.podbean.com/
https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay
Ways to Show Support:
Join my patreon for free at https://patreon.com/rollponderandplay or as a paid subscriber and get additional content
Give the show a positive review
Share the show with others
Reach out to me and say hello
Attributions:
- 'The Long Dark' and 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Various tracks by Tabletop Audio ( https://tabletopaudio.com) - released under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. Minor modifications (fading/splitting) made to support this podcast format with written permission from the creator.
- Sound Effects from Pixabay (Pixabay.com).