Blogs are once again in vogue, and that works for me. I started this blog before I created a hobby Instagram account, and I'm happy to return here. I've had a love-hate relationship with Instagram, and often, I don't actually care if anyone is reading what I write or seeing what I work on. Most of the time, it's just the act of creation that means something to me. At this current moment in time I'm in between houses and don't have all of my hobby stuff, so a place to write and post ideas is a great cathartic exercise. I'm also coming to the end of the 2nd annual One Page Game Jam, which has been getting a great response just like last year - but once that's done, I think it will be time to delete IG off my phone again. Having a place where I can potentially reach some of my friends (even in this belaboured form) helps me feel like I'm still connected to the zeitgeist. So, this is just a little post to kick things off. I've got a few ideas for p
Barak Thingaz (The Forest Gate in Khazalid) is a fortress built south of the Black Mountains and Karak Hirn, in the land of the border princes. For dwarfs, it is a very strange place. Many aspects of dwarfen life and culture that do not normally mix can be found to inhabit this holdfast. In the first place, the fort is not built into a mountain - it is built around a stone tower in the middle of a dark forest, with stout palisade walls of massive timbers. Dwarfs are not normally known as forest creatures, but these dwarfs have found some advantages to living away from the mountains. The hold was founded and is currently led by an engineer named Ogam Oathkeeper, who was forced out of Karak Hirn for his dangerous engineering experiments. The king of that hold feared Ogam would explode the entire mountain on accident and exiled him to practice his engineering away from the ancient dwarf lands. Around his engineering workshop a variety of industries sprang up. A distillery and brewery we