Indie Metal Monday, Some Scary Nature, and a Status Update

Apologies for the lack of scary nature stuff this past Friday. So here's a bunch of content to play catchup! I've said before that I should write these up in advance so I can publish them on a set schedule, but I enjoy the "day of" crunch too much, even if it can lead to missed deadlines when the inspiration fairy doesn't show up.

If you're in need of scary nature stuff this video of a parasitic nematode that emerged from the corpse of a spider. Warning... it could easily be considered to be "a bit much", but click on this link if you want to say "WHOA HOLY SHIT!" a few times.

Interestingly, many of these parasitic worms appear to encourage their hosts to commit suicide so they can spread. Infected ants will waggle dance in front of birds, rats will charge cats, and kobolds will walk up to adventurers for hugs and cuddles. It's pretty bad.

Progress on Hot Springs Island continues at a pretty decent clip. We've been especially focused on the bestiary portion of the field guide. Striving to find that magical balance that makes the content evocative. Once we get them polished up some more we'll start posting them around, so keep watching this space if you want to learn more about Vyderac, Coppermane Prowlers and Crabs large enough to crush a ship.

We got some fresh art for the plants of Hot Springs, so I'll be scheduling a bit of rehash for the blog to show off the plant descriptions with the art. If you'd like to check out the previously posted descriptions you can read about the plants of the Swordfish Islands here (Part I and Part II).

We're about 40% done with getting our various dungeon maps into Dungeonographer. This should allow us to quickly scale and print them, as well as work up our own tile sets to make them super sexy. That's the plan at least!

Norska!

Cerberus Norska Tshirt design by Martin Ontiveros

Finally... it's Monday. So get inspired with some Indie Metal goodness from Norska. These guys wrote some songs, recorded them, and now play them at rock shows. Their vocals are a little more gutteral than I typically like, but they work with the music well and aren't set to the "ear rape" volume level that some sludgy doom groups go for. I've had the tracks "They Mostly Come at Night" and "Cholera" practically running on repeat over this weekend while porting maps into Dungeonographer. It's just a damn pleasant mix of chill and intensity.

I'm also a big fan of t-shirts and these guys have a badass one you can pick up for $15. Give 'em a listen!