Welcome to the Mapness - Erylian Extra March 2021 Edition
Where did February go? I mean, I know it is the shortest month, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there! It’s got important things in it, like my birthday! And yet, there was no monthly newsletter for February. I want to say I kept meaning to write something, but I think it ultimately didn’t happen because at the start of my break, I was just taking the time off to recharge a bit. So you’re kinda getting two months in one here, and this is quite the read. We’ve got podcast updates, streaming updates, mead updates, and a huge map making update this month!
PODCAST
An Emotional Encounter - Mieveht Story - Episode 10 [Remastered]
Having returned to The Den with Cassien's daughter, completing their job, the group has a meeting with him to learn about events going forward. Emotions run high as the group learns more than they expected about the Nailo family. Unfortunately, Cassien has to break some disappointing news to them, they can no longer stay in The Den. After conversing with each other and with Cassien, they decided to stick together and set their sights on the region of Khaerynthia, close to Chalul's home.
This episode concludes the first arc of the Mieveht Story.
Since this did not get a spot in a previous newsletter, I might as well slide it in here. Before my creative break, I did get the finale of Arc 1 of the Mieveht Story remastered and out for release. This was one of our longest episodes, but ended up following the same course of the remaster project of being cut down 30-50%. I am interested to see what happens to this ratio as I move into the next arc of the show.
Erylian Epic Remaster When?
There has been no audio editing this month, but I am starting to miss the work. I plan to get back into remastering Arc 1 of the Erylian Epic in April. Depending on how things go, I do not think there will be a release, but next month will come with an update on how things are coming along.
Streaming
Ending AinE Community Choice Nights
I feel bad about having to close this, but it was something we decided to try this year, and things just did not go as we had hoped. It was great in getting Chantalle, Caitlin, and I to play different games, our initial goal was to create more community engagement with it. Unfortunately, that part fell flat. People who voted for multiplayer games did not join us in playing them more often than not, and no one was hanging out in streams to watch us play the game they voted for either. We have some other ideas floating around for mixing our games up more though. And remember, we do multiplayer games on Wednesdays, if you have a game you would like to see us play or join us in, hop into our Discord and let us know!
Damian the DM Reaches Affiliate!
This was a sub-note in the last newsletter, but things have settled now, so I am happy to get out there that I have reached affiliate on Twitch. After years of streaming, I never though I would get to this point, and I still barely know what I am doing as an affiliate. Mostly, things are how they were before, but if you want to support me, you can! I do have something I plan to do for subs and bits, but I have ran into some issues since a PC update that have pulled me away from it. Let’s just say, if you’ve been around since Extra Life, you have an idea at what is coming up.
Real Life
Adventures in Alerylia
I’ve got a mead update for you all! We actually have our first mead in bottles. Well, not the first mead, which is weird. We were actually able to bottle the Pomegranate-Hibiscus mead just last night. Literally the last mead I started, is the first going into bottles. I’m still new to this and do not understand the science behind it. But it was the only batch that had a small enough change in gravity to call done, even though it is ending up the highest gravity of them all. I have some theories that something went wrong and the yeast did not ferment right, because the gravity reading says there is still a lot of sugar to turn into alcohol. Everything else is moving to a stage where we will check the gravity every week until it is ready to go into bottles, but I need more bottles! We got 8, 5oz bottles, which was over half of the bottles we got initially. For anyone curious, we are bottling this in 5oz Korken’s from Ikea.
A few other updates to go along with the album below. Back in February, we actually had our first tasting of the first batches, the Nord and Honninbrew. They were good then, they are still good now, but based on our readings last night, they still need more time before we bottle. I am also going to be doing the next batches of Mead with some different yeasts, trying to find what I like the best and gets the ABV where I want it. The first batches were made using Safale S-04, this was mostly because the recipe I started with just said “ale yeast”. Since then, I have learned a bit more about brewing from a local micro homebrewing store that has become my go-to for brewing supplies. On their recommendation I am doing my next couple brews with wine yeast. I have also been following the /r/mead reddit community and become a subscriber to City Steading Mead and More. Also, the Blackbriar mead tried to escape and I had to change out the airlock for what is called a blow off tube.
Speaking of new brews. I plan to start a few more half gals today. I am getting into the experimentation phase now that I at least know enough to know I am not making vinegar. I do not know if all 3 will be started today, but here’s the base list of the 3 brew ideas I have stuff for. The first is a coffee mead that will use a base of cold brew coffee for its liquid. The plan is to toss in some vanilla bean in secondary fermentation. The second is a chocolate mead. Everything I have read suggests that this mead needs to start of as a traditional water, yeast, and honey with the chocolate added in secondary. So in secondary for this, I will be throwing in some cacao nibs and cocoa powder. This one is supposed to need a long time to age before the flavors open up, so you might not hear much about it until next year. Lastly, the pomegranate-hibiscus that we were able to bottle last night had quite a flavor change that we are not sure how we feel about. We are hoping to like it more after it can bottle age for a bit, but I still have pomegranate juice so I am thinking of starting off with the pomegranate juice and in secondary adding in some cacao nibs for a chocolate-pomegranate mead. I sure hope this cacao nib thing goes okay cause I’m putting a lot of faith in getting it right…
Damian the DM - Cartographer
You’ve made it all the way down here and you find yourself wondering, Why is this titled ‘Welcome to the Mapness’? I actually didn’t think I would have so much to say about things in the last two months until I start looking back and seeing what all I have done. But for me, most of March itself was all about map making. I was put in touch with an indie TTRPG publisher, Troll Lord Games, and have actually been brought on as a freelance map maker for them. I have already done one completed map for them that will be appearing in a future adventure of theirs. Due to the nature of this being commission work for a commercial product, I cannot make these maps available for free download like I do with the personal maps I make, however, I am allowed to share a couple lower res levels to show off the work I did. I had a super accelerated timeline on this map but was still really happy with how it turned out in the end, as were Troll Lord Games, and I have already been asked to do more work for them in the future.
Working for Troll Lord Games really kickstarted my want to do more maps that people can use for their own games. Along with that, DungeonFog ran a contest that wrapped up a week after I finished their Temple map, so I jumped right into my next mapping project. Long time listeners of the show would recognize The Den as being a fairly important location in the Mieveht Story. The hand sketched version of this map is one of my oldest map projects and I decided it is time to start digitizing some of these old maps. These images are still in the later Work in Progress phase, as I was not able to get things exactly where I wanted before I had to submit the map for the DungeonFog contest, but I wanted to share the progress and give a tease at the next map that will be available for free through our website.
Patrons have already been given some ideas and options for upcoming maps that I will work on. I plan to do at least one personal map per quarter this year, which will be released for free. I would like to do more, but between the work I am doing for the show, and the work I am taking on for Troll Lord Games, I do not want to commit to too much extra work. That said, if you would like to support me and what I do, you can become an Adventures in Erylia Patron, Subscribe to me on Twitch, drop some bits, or even just share the content that I make with your friends and on social media. I have a passion for the podcast that we make and the work I am getting into in the TTRPG space.