From The Jackals To The Shepherds 04: Seven of Hearts

The Woods: The Map: Dave – Taylor – Rowan – Frankie – Past Help The Show On Patreon Riverhouse Games Website Twitter Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe via RSS! Riverhouse Games Thanks You! Thank you for listening to this Riverhouse podcast. You can find more podcasts at RiverhouseGames.com as well as games and resources about queer & LGBT+ … Continue reading From The Jackals To The Shepherds 04: Seven of Hearts

The Woods:

The Map:

Dave – Taylor – Rowan – Frankie – Past

Help The Show On Patreon

Riverhouse Games Website

Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes

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Thank you for listening to this Riverhouse podcast. You can find more podcasts at RiverhouseGames.com as well as games and resources about queer & LGBT+ tabletop gaming. Thank you to the people backing the Riverhouse Games Patreon:

Nyssa MacKinnon, Jalyn Euteneier, Rohit Sodhia & GamersPlane.com, Alec Walker, VJ Brown, Paul Bennett, Amanda Coyle, Rob Abrazado, Tobie Abad, Patrick ‘The Tyrant of Boredom’ West, and Emmeline Duplois, THANK YOU! If you want to see your name in upcoming Riverhouse games or podcasts, you can set a small monthly subscription at Patreon.com/RiverhouseGames

Battlebards Tracks used:

Elven Dirge – Farewell – Score Music – Philippe Payet

Druid’s Grove – Vision Quest of the Bearheart – Score Music – Geronimo Snijtsheuvel

Transcription:

For a long time, we were at war with The Jackals. But now, we’ve driven them off, and we have this – a year of relative peace. One quiet year, with which to build our community up and learn once again how to work together. Come Winter, the Frost Shepherds will arrive and we might not survive the encounter. This is when the show will end. But we don’t know about that yet. What we know is that right now, in this moment, there is an opportunity to build something.

A week has passed. As Spring often does, the temperature has dipped and a short cold snap from the mountains brings a slight dusting of frost and snow to the community. We know enough after the first morning of frost to bring our potted gardens inside with us to avoid the most damage to their sensitive roots, but reaction is not as good as prevention, and many lose their gardens completely to the cold. The last of the seeds are distributed and gardens are started anew. The frost and snow on the ground cover the open clearing of the mining camp with a solid white coat every morning. We wake to see a pristine wonderland, sparkling in the morning sun and the crisp spring air. One morning, however, the wonderland shows signs of danger. Large footprints meander through the camp. These footprints are larger than ours, with a large central footpad and four smaller divots to depict toes and claws. The hunters among us point out that no four legged animal could have made these prints, they must have been left by something walking on two legs. Some adults begin to dust over the large tracks, but it’s too late. Ezekiel and his best friend, Yuen, catch a glimpse of the tracks in the snow. Ezekiel, spurred by his recurring nightmares, runs back into Eileen’s house and begins to cry. Yuen, however, is mesmerized by the large prints left by the pads. She walks slowly out to the community square as the adults brush away the prints. She finds one unblemished by brooms and overlooked in the bustle. She crouches down to get a better look and she reaches her hand out to the ground. The edge of the print is crisp from where the snow melted at the creature’s warmth and then froze in the night. She traces her fingers in awe over the toe prints, and feels the sharp divot in the ground left by the claws of the foot. A shout from the center breaks her out of this spell.

Ezekiel in his terror had run from the shack. His eyes blurry from tears, he stumbles to the edge of the clearing, and in their haste to cover the evidence of the beasts, we have let him out of our sight. As he approaches the woods, the darkness between the trees lights up with dozens of bright white eyes. A beast steps out from the woods. The large footpads left in the snow were only a ghost image of the paws that dig into the mud of the riverbank. Short fur covers the claws from sight except for a small glint of their razor edge. The fur slopes upwards to the beast’s two legs, lean and punctuated by taut tendons that rise to meaty and muscular legs. The beast’s torso hunches down but as it emerges, it stretched itself to its full height and throws back strong arms that end in wicked claws. It brays a terrible howl into the morning air, steam billowing from its dire snout as its breath condenses in the chill. Ezekiel stands frozen. From the shack, two strong individuals burst, each holding one of the ancient weapons uncovered from the rivers banks.

Eileen watches as her lovers storm towards the Beast. The one in the lead, a hefty gardener named Gerrard, sprints to Ezekiel as the second, a tall hunter named Jules shouts and taunts the beast. Gerrard grabs Ezekiel and gives him a shove back toward the community square, but as he does this the beast knocks Jules to the side and grabs Gerrard by the back of his tunic. Eileen gasps in shock as the beast, with one arm, throws Gerrard across the river and into the dark forest. Breaking tree branches and inhuman screams echo through the woods. Taking advantage of the beast’s distraction, Jules strikes up with their sword and gashes the beast along its leg. Snarling, it looks down at Jules in rage and plunges its claws into their chest, before scooping their body up and sprinting back into the woods.

Stunned and silent, we stand. Ezekiel sobs sitting at the edge of the shack. One of us asks,

“Do we go in after them?”

“You saw what they did! There’s no way we’d be safe in those woods. We have to stay here where we have each other.”

“It happened so quick, it was so strong. There’s no hope for Gerrard or Jules and there would be no hope for us.”

“The only thing we can do is make sure we’re safe here so it doesn’t happen again.”

“You can’t stand there and say that! Gerrard and Jules loved me and they loved Zeke. We owe it to them to – to at least bury them.”

Thank you for joining us for the third episode of From The Jackals To The Shepherds. If you like this show please give us a rating on iTunes, tell a friend, or share us on social media. As always the intro for the show was read by Dave Lapru, who is also our mapkeeper. You can find Dave on twitter at plantbird, and I’m at leviathan files. Additional voices for this episode were provided by the aforementioned Dave, as well as Rowan MacKeough who is At Elder Unikirin, Frankie Garza who is At Frankie Extra, and Past who is at Dromedary. Please consider supporting the show on Patreon at patreon dot com slash Riverhouse Games. Music for this episode was provided by Battlebards dot com. Until next week, I hope your week goes well.