Roll, Ponder, and Play - Dramatized Solo Roleplay

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 26

Previously:
In our previous episode, Inside Greenhome, the above-ground ruined building built for the queens of old, Eilwen hears sounds of fighting above her. Rushing to investigate, she sees Seith's bloody and still form rolling down some stone steps towards her. He's alive but hurt and soon loses consciousness. She proceeds up the stairs and is ambushed by a savage varou who leaps out of her from the shadows. She avoids taking harm and sends two arrows into it before sending it to the ground and crushing its neck. After she defeats the varou, she finds a second dead varou lying atop her unconscious brother on the third floor of Greenhome in a ruined solarium. Eilwen tends to their wounds and brings Aron and Seith back to consciousness.  She hears their tale, how they fled into the mists and found this place and ambushed the varou that had pursued them here. Eilwen shares her own adventures since their parting.
While Aron and Seith rest, Eiwen investigates a half opened stone box that her brother was about to open when they were attacked by the varou. Eilwen opens it and inside finds a smaller iron box, and inside that, a jewel beyond imagination! A sapphire pendant on a silver chain edged in gold. On its reverse side, she sees a skaed rune, the binding rune she uses to call the shadows to her. It's worth is staggering and she fears what might happen if the others know she has it. She decides to keep it from them for the time being and surreptitiously adds it to her possessions. She wonders who left this treasure here and was it perhaps left here on purpose…just for her?
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 'Echos' 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).
- Deeply Emotional Orchestral Violin - L'Unico Che Amo (Pixabay.com)

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 27

Previously: 
In our previous episode, Eilwen investigates the ruined palace at Greenhome while Seith and Aron take their rest. She finds a cellar and beyond the cellar a prison--a prison where manacles where wrenched free from their mountings and the door burst asunder! She feels a darkness and evil emanating still from that prison and flees back to the ground floor. She begins to piece together that perhaps whatever was in the prison is where the fighting originated from that slew so many and caused the fall of Greenhome. This is confirmed when later, amidst the ruins of the palace's second floor, where books and scrolls lie crumbling in wet sodden heaps, she finds a secret room behind the moldering book case that has largely been preserved from the ravages of time and the elements. Therein she finds a scroll written with blocky runes that she is able to translate. And at the base of the scroll on its reverse side, beneath the signature, she also sees a skaed rune, the same binding rune she uses to call the shadows to her, the same rune she saw on the back of the amulet and the on her mother's black iron disks.
Eilwen discovers that the scroll was authored by none other than the very hand of Queen Morwen, one of her ancestors. Eilwen unfortunately does not discover the fate of what happened to the other half of the crown, but she does learn some history of her kin and the fate of Greenhome. From the record, Queen Morwen had come to these lands generations ago when Morwen was but a little girl. Morwen reveals that Nar Shiv, one of the Heralds of the Night, that caused her people to flee the destruction of their original homeland, despite its fear of water, accomplished what the rest of its demonic kind could not; for it somehow followed Morwen, her kin, and her people across the wide oceanic expanse and continued to hunt down the bloodline of queens here on these lands.
We learn that Morwen as an adult woman battled Nar Shiv, using runes of power to defend herself and wound the demonic Herald, causing it to flee, possibly to its stone house underground to heal and bide its time. Queen Morwen then fled the ruined Greenhome but where she went to, the records do not say. All this occurred generations ago, and Eilwen fears that this Nar Shiv may again be on the hunt for Queen Morwen's bloodline.
She takes the scroll and returns to the ruined solarium where Aron and Seith slumber in deep sleep. For a long time under the waxing silver light of the rising moon, Eilwen ponders on this place, what she learned, and of her connection to her mother and her ancestors here. As both the silver light and shadows below deepen in their respective qualities, in a near meditative trance, she feels a deep sense of connection within her to this place and to her family who has gone before, not just a connection to her immediate mother, Arwed and to her father, Cadfael, but a joining throughout time to all her ancestors who had gone before her and the roles each played in bringing her life to fruition in this here and now.
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 'Simulacra' 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).
- Slow Sad Epic Piano (Power of the Heart) by ashot_danielyan) - (Pixabay.com)

Channel Update - Nov 2025

Hi friends, I wanted to give a brief channel update. First of all, I'm going to be taking a hiatus from publishing weekly until the new year. Posting weekly is a tremendous time commitment, and with the approaching busy schedules associated the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, I frankly need a break, and don't want to risk burning out. I do intend to continue to release episodes next year, but I doubt I'll stick to the weekly release schedule I've been trying to do since the inception of Roll, Ponder, and Play. I know for some of you, that may be a bummer to hear, but at the end of the day, it's a hobby (and only one of many), and it's certainly not what I do to make my living (alas that would be something amazing). I also intend to continue to work on recording and editing off and on over the holiday season. And if the fancy strikes me, I might post some smaller one-offs of something or other, but don't hold your breath.
Secondly, if you're missing my voice terribly, I invite you to check out a sibling podcast channel I just started yesterday, called 'Pray, Ponder, and Search' (even if you don't miss my voice I hope you check it out). Its stated goal is to share the truth and light and love of Jesus Christ one word at a time. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and God has been prompting me for some time to be more bold in sharing what I believe, and this is one way I feel I can do that. Admittedly, the content of a Christian podcast is not as glitzy and fun as an RPG-fueled audio drama, but I promise you that God has a plan for His children and that truths therein are infinitely more rewarding… And I use that word 'infinitely' intentionally and literally.
What I do here at 'Roll, Ponder, and Play' is a passing hobby and mostly just for fun and a way to share my voice with family and friends after I've gone the way of all the earth. But it too will eventually crumble and fade to nothingness. What I share on 'Pray, Ponder, and Search' however includes eternal truths and principles that bring true and lasting happiness and peace. Such things are sorely needed in today's ailing society.
With all that said, let me wish you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving and a very Merry Christmas! And I want to thank all of you for making my show a part of your lives!
Feel free to reach out any time and share your thoughts. I really do love getting listener feedback. Thank you again, and until we meet again, may all your dice rolls ever bring you success!
Attributions:- 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) - released under CC-BY 4.0.

Queen of Shadows Podcast - Episode 28

Previously:  
In our previous episode, Eilwen calls the shadows to her, pulls one of them into her amulet which activates something. The amulet flares a bright sapphire glow before settling on a steady dim light. And in the amulet's swimming depths, she focuses on the shadow and sees… a series of three visions:
In the first vision, Eilwen becomes a child, the princess Morwen, in fact. She is in the old world, and she  is witness to the murder of Morwen's mother at the hands of Medrynn the Black, who took the half crown and fled, chased by the queen's guards. Then a man with a gentle touch and gentle voice picks her up and urges flight and calls her his queen, and she sees the Heralds of Night attack her people as they flees to the boats together.
In the second vision, Eilwen becomes the adult and beautiful queen Morwen in her prime, sitting in power and majesty on her throne in Greenhome in the Ironlands. There she battles the Herald Nar Shiv and the Herald's summoned bonewalker. Many guards are slaughtered as they come between Nar Shiv and his prey, buying Morwen time to activate her wards. She use her powers, wrought of rune magic, to protect herself and eventually to trap Nar Shiv, causing him to flee, retreating upon a black mist.
In the third vision, Eilwen becomes the wizened Queen Morwen, replete with years. She interacts with the innocent child, Arwed, her granddaughter, Eilwen's own future mother. Morwen reveals that she and her line are still hunted by Nar Shiv, and she commands Freern, Arwed's caretaker, a warrior woman with red hair, to take Arwed to a place of safety where she will not be found. That the line of Queens will be through her. Freern is further ordered to teach Arwed the ways of their people and to teach her the runes. Freern is given the black iron discs of power. Eilwen returns to herself and wonders at seeing her own mother, an innocent child and what twisting roads she may have traveled.
[As we begin this episode, Eilwen's stats are Edge 2, Heart 1, Iron 1, Shadow 3, Wits 2Current Assets: Archer (initial box), Cutthroat (initial box), Shadow-walk (initial box)]Current Statuses: Supply 5/5, Spirit 3/5, Health 5/5, Momentum 7/10Current Debilities: NoneFailure Track: 5/24Current Unspent XP: 3
Before we begin this episode, I wanted to revisit her quest milestones. The writings she saw and the vision she had in the last episode fulfill some milestones on her background vow to find the other half of the crown and become queen by her getting more information. Plus, she has the name of a concrete person who originally took the crown. Together, I think that’s worth two milestones. So her background vow is now 5/40 -- and remember, every four ticks translates to one filled box on a progress chart. So, she still has a ways to go here. I think this also fulfills a milestone in her vow to learn more about her mother now 2/10).
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 'Simulacra' 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).

Shadow of the Demon (D&D 5e) - Session/Episode 0

Welcome my friends to the post-Christmas days of early January (if you’re in the northern hemisphere, anyway), though where I live it is very atypically rainy and wet, where usually the ground would be frozen solid with snow. In any case, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year celebration! I was going to record this episode earlier, but I’ve been sick, and my voice is finally starting to recover. If it sounds a little extra low, that is why.
Before jumping back into my usual Queen of Shadows podcast, I wanted to record a few one-off episodes from my “Shadow of the Demon” solo D&D 5e campaign I started back in December of 2019. (Maps and full transcript for this session 0 are available on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/shadow-of-demon-147261567
Attributions:
- 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley (www.scottbuckley.com.au) released under CC-BY 4.0.
- 'Between Adventures' track 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.

Shadow of the Demon (D&D 5e) - Episode 1

Previously:
In our previous episode we did a session zero, showcased the previous three adventures our party had been on, bringing them from level 1 up to the lofty level of level 4. We introduced our characters and did some Craewan kingdom building, and then rolled up some details about our upcoming adventure.
Attributions:
- 'Emergent' and 'Simulacra' 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 by Pixabay (Pixabay.com).
 

Shadow of the Demon (D&D 5e) - Episode 2

Previously:
In the previous episode, it remains winter, and the party travels to the town of Inolulen. It is crammed full to the rafters with refugees and there is no room in the inn, unless you are Renchant and are able to wave about copious amounts of coin for yourself and speak in stirring tones. Which he does, and he secures himself a well-furnished room, one with a bath, a fireplace, and luxurious white carpet. After a bath and massage, while he enjoys his solitude reading a book by the fireplace and sipping his mulled wine, a commotion attracts his attention and out the window overlooking the back of the inn, he sees a young woman grabbed and taken against her will into an alleyway. It is Tatanya, the very same young woman who gave him his back massage earlier in the evening. Slightly drunk he climbs out the window and chases after her. After a battle with several bandits and their leader, he rescues the girl. Our mage is nearly killed in the battle, and he believes an extra massage is fair recompense for his pains. Grateful to be alive, she agrees and returns with him to his room.
Attributions:
- 'Emergent' and '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 by Pixabay (Pixabay.com).

Shadow of the Demon (D&D 5e) - Episode 3

Previously:
In our previous episode, back at the inn, in Renchant’s room, Renchant and Tatyana enjoy an evening together. Renchant gets his massage and tries to seduce the young woman; he offers her a job to come with him to the south. He succeeds in convincing her to come, but she turns the tables on him. She recognizes her prospects are small in this town filled with refugees. And with war on the horizon and many uncertainties, she believes a connection with Renchant is actually for the best, but on her terms. She says she’ll come on one condition, if there’s a promise of marriage. Marriage was not in Renchants deck of cards, yet she somehow wrangles an engagement out of the half-drunk mage. She also reveals that her father is an estranged knight of the realm, Sir Collin Bolstead, and as the frantic mage wonders what just happened, she makes him promise her that he won’t run away in the middle of the night, that they are engaged, after all. Let’s find out what befalls Master Renchant, mage and hero. Has he met his greatest threat yet or found his dearest treasure in the form of Tatyana (or Tatanya)?
 
Attributions:
- 'Emergent' and '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 by Pixabay (Pixabay.com)
- "Serious Dark Sorrow" by Ashot_Danielyan from Pixabay (Pixabay.com)