Welcome to All of Our New Backers! Contest Winners! Box News!
about 5 years ago – Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 11:06:36 PM

Hey friends and Dawn of Madness family! First of all, a hearty "Hi there!" to all of our new backers who have joined us recently! We are so glad to have you with us! Welcome to the madhouse! 

We'll have some more info about the project for you in a little bit, but first let's take a look at our daily unlocks!

Today's Unlock: Mongrel Feral

Today we have unlocked Mongrel Feral at both the Core and Otherworld levels! He looks like such a friendly chap, don't you think?

Like his brother Bestial, Mongrel Feral has become what his soul always inwardly contained: a feral, wanton, animalistic nature that seeks first and foremost to cause others pain. Covered in sharp steel spears and spikes that serve almost as spines along his back (which used to be his front), Feral has caught a scent of blood and will not stop now until he rips his target to bloody tatters. Whose scent do you think it could be? Is it yours? You'll find out soon enough.

There's only one more daily unlock! Check back tomorrow to see the last one!

For Our New Backers

For our new backers, I wanted to give a bit of a rundown on Dawn of Madness and why it's a bit different from many of the other Kickstarter projects out there. First of all (and most obviously), it is a true horror experience that actively tries to creep you out through its character-focused, story-driven chapters. But second, this is a game that has been (and will continue to be) actively shaped by its community, tweaked and refined through feedback from the backers who are helping to bring it to life. There have already been some pretty big changes take place with the game, which was directly inspired by the feedback we received by our backers. Here are a few of the changes that have been implemented so far through the feedback of the Dawn of Madness community:

•  Redesigned and refined gameboard for greater in-game immersion.
•  Removal of Conscious Realm sheets for streamlined, less abstract gameplay and smaller game footprint on the tabletop.
•  Enlarged World Shard cards (from 57x88mm to 80x120mm) to better showcase the game's art and deepen the feeling of presence in the game.
•  12 more World Shards for each Wanderer, creating more variability between chapters and more immersion in-game as you truly explore each Wanderer's world.
•  Simplification and renaming of a variety of terms (including the removal of the Concept term for the five main symbols) for ease of play and for introducing new players to the game.
•  Burying the Resistance cards within the stories and opening them up to be used by every Wanderer rather than just the Central Wanderer, simultaneously removing the perception that one Wanderer is the only important one and making the Abomination an even more terrifying adversary in the early game.
•  Hiding the Malformations inside the stories and events rather than placing them on the board at the start of the chapter, making their appearance much more thematic and also making fighting the Abomination even more precarious.

Want to learn more about how the community has shaped this game? Check out the updates here, here, and here!

Now, this does mean that the videos of the demo version of the game that are currently available reflect an older version of the game (almost a rough draft, if you will.) Elements of those videos are still relevant, but also many things in them are not any longer. We will keep you updated and abreast of the newest developments as often as we can, showing you new videos and taking you inside the creative process as we work to bring this game, at last, to your tabletop. 

In short, with this project we're using Kickstarter as it was originally intended to be used: as a hotbed for creativity with communities coming together to craft something truly unique, rather than just a preorder store.

We are always open to feedback, and we listen. Having said that, we won't just automatically do something because popular opinion says we should, either: we will always do what's best for the game. But sometimes what's best for the game is your idea.

Hopefully that helped to answer some questions, but likely it also brought up some more. So feel free to ask!

The Storage Boxes

Speaking of feedback, we have finally come to a decision on the two big storage boxes. (Mostly.) We have decided not to launch the boxes during this campaign. There are two reasons for this: first, the response for them was good, but not overwhelming, and second, we don't want to further burden our backers with another add-on during the holiday season. You guys already have enough to worry about right now, without having to add storage boxes to your pledge as well. 

However, that doesn't mean that the storage boxes are done for good. If interest continues to build for them, then we will consider adding them in the pledge manager. So, keep bugging us and letting us know you want them, and maybe they'll show up a little further down the road, once Christmas and the holidays are behind us. 

Contest Winners

It's about time we selected some winners for our various contests! First, let's get to those three remaining art book winners. There were some truly incredible entries as to why people needed the art book. (Some of my absolute favorites were from Phil Blake, Jose Luis, and Johnny Cosmos. Though, having said that, Sebastien B and Bibo had some very solid reasons as well.) I feel horrible having to limit it to only one entry. But, in the end, I have to give it to Faizal Kadir. Congratulations, Faizal! Your "human baby figure eating rotting placenta" (yes, that really was in his post! LOL!) just won you a copy of the art book!

But we still had two art books to select randomly from those who posted DoM art on social media! So congratulations, NEETocris and Walusitras (both Twitter names), you both just won a copy of the art book! Sorry I don't know your actual KS names, but let me know in the comments that it was you and we'll hook you up!

Next, we are overdue in selecting winners for our Facebook post sharing contest. So, let's remedy that! Congratulations to Jordan Rasmussen, Michael Brown, Scott McCarthy, Adam Segal, BJ Wood, and Scott Michelson! (All of these are Facebook names, by the way, not your KS names.) You just won an Otherworld pledge for Dawn of Madness! If you're currently backing the game, you can drop to $1 (or add any expansions you want to your total, etc.) Then, in the pledge manager, we'll give you a credit for the total cost of an Otherworld pledge. Once again, congratulations!

Okay, I'll be back with another update later today, and this time I mean it. (A bunch of other work got in the way yesterday, but today there will be another update!) Have a great rest of the day, and I'll talk to you again soon!

The Mongrels Arrive, and a Look at the Vivisections
about 5 years ago – Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 08:42:29 PM

Hi Wanderers! Welcome to another day of madness!

We're coming up on the final 48 hours for the campaign. Can you believe it? We still have some fun stuff for you before the end, though, so stay tuned! 

Speaking of staying tuned, I did another Live Stream today that was, once again, quite a bit of fun. We seem to creep a little longer in length with each one, but if you'd like to check it out you can watch it here: 

 The picture looks kind of evil, but I'm really mostly harmless. Honest.

I will be doing one more live stream while this campaign is live, starting Tuesday at 2pm PST and going through the end of the campaign! Come celebrate with me as we draw the campaign to a close!

Today's Unlock: Mongrel Bestial

Today we start our last three unlocks of the campaign: the Mongrels! The Mongrels are people whose outer appearance began to mimic what lay festering in their souls: unbridled ferocity and a nearly rabid viciousness. 

Mongrel Bestial fits into this mold pretty easily. The bestial, animalistic brutality in his nature corrupted his body, melding with razor-sharp shards of metal as he bent backward and mutated beyond recognition, becoming a slavering, savage beast hungry to rip and shred everyone in his path. Check him out! 

Deep Dive: The Vivisections

Recently I received a couple of comments saying, "Hey, Byron. What are these monsters?" Which made me think maybe I hadn't covered the Vivisections as well as they deserved. So, let's take a look at these three core game Terrors.

The Vivisesctions are Untethered Terrors, which I'm trying out as a way to distinguish between Terrors that are not tied to a Wanderer in lieu of calling them Distortions. (So then Patients, Symptoms, etc. would be Tethered Terrors. Let me know if you like this in the comments.) As such, they are playable in any chapter of the game. They are pretty big and pretty nasty, and in most cases they wear their guts like garters. Let's take a look at their bios!

Vivisection Viscera

“My essence pours from me; my entrails swim upon the ground. I am hollow, emptied, and so, so hungry. My ribs have become teeth, my hands filleting knives. I know no other thing except the hunger. The need to be filled. You will give me something to ease the emptiness, won’t you? You will help me. All I will take is a little bit. Just enough… to fill me up. Please… You must give it to me. Give it to me. Give it to me! GIVE IT TO ME!”

Vivisection Flayer

“Your flesh looks so lovely, stretched like it is across your bones. How I ache to liberate it from its constraints. To allow it to unfurl and twist and flap in pure freedom, unburdened by the structures that force it into definition. You need no longer be trapped by that conventional form. Look, I’ve already begun the work on myself. You see? There is nothing to fear. All I offer is a new way of being, completely separated from the constrictions that have required you to conform. You can be whoever you want. Or whatever you want. Be anything you desire! But you must come to me. Come, and present yourself to be flayed. Come now. Come now. No, where are you going? I said COME HERE NOW!”

Vivisection Prolapse

“It works its way up my throat like vomit, though I know it’s not. At least, not exclusively. I try to swallow it back down, but it refuses to be contained. I can feel my organs compressing, shifting, as they creep toward my mouth. I can’t hold them in any longer. All of the poison inside me – all of the anxiety, anger and darkness – crawls implacably upward, pressing everything else up along with them. They’re coming now, swelling my esophagus… I can’t contain it any longer –”
 

And here's one of their Terror cards, just because:

Under Flayer's name you can see the three spaces for his Domain Rifts, and below that are his existence and mental capacity values, as well as the number of memory fragments you would receive for killing him. Below that is a Passive ability that will always be in effect for him. Next, to the right, is his AI track. His top ability would trigger first if its conditions are met, then his second ability would trigger if the first one cannot be accomplished. (So if there is a Wanderer in his space, he would skip his first ability and go straight to his second one.) In addition, he has special abilities that would trigger whenever a Domination/Hand, Otherworld/Sphere or Awareness/Eye Domain Rift was in place on his card. (Yuck.) 

Often there would also be a third action available for a Terror to take, but Flayer has fairly simple needs in life: He is perfectly happy just eviscerating anything nearby that moves. (And he's pretty good at what he does, since he has the potential to inflict 4 damage every attack.)

Okay, that's it for this update, but I'm going to have another update for you later today to go over more cool stuff. Have a great day and talk to you again soon!

Getting to Know Lynas the Priest, and a Very Special Core Unlock
about 5 years ago – Sat, Dec 14, 2019 at 11:02:03 PM

Hey there! After covering some of Catherine Little's story yesterday, I thought it would be good to cover another of our core Wanderers: Lynas Gershwin, the priest.

Deep Dive: Lynas Gershwin

"My name is Lynas Gershwin. I have always been driven to find the truth, and to uphold it at any cost. So perhaps it is no surprise that my chosen profession is that of a priest. Some feel that God and the unseen realm are far from us, but I have always felt as if they were as close as my breath. How to arrive at them, though, has always been something that I have struggled with. In my quest to discover Truth, I became part of a group trying to ferret out and denounce heresies across America. It was on one of these excursions that I met Brother Matthias. 

Brother Matthias had been approached by an order who claimed to have a special revelation of the end of the current age and the advent of a glorious new one to come - a revelation he then experienced for himself. We confronted them, and that is when Brother Matthias shared with me his vision of Her Eminent Glory. His words spoke to me in a way that none other had before. Perhaps this was the way to Truth that I had always sought. 

So I embraced Matthias's order. Matthias took the title of Revelator and, through his words, we began the work of summoning Her Eminent Glory, and the magnificent new dawn she would reveal. It was strange, but I almost felt as if... I could feel her stirring inside of me. But the farther we went, the more I began to question our actions.  Even as I started to hear her voice whispering in my ear, I realized with mounting horror that the path I was on was not one of Truth, but of terror, fire, and blood. I began to try to stop what was happening, but it was already too late. And now... I find myself filled with a growing fear that we have condemned the world. That we have broken it beyond all repair. And I am terrified that there is no salvation from this horrific evil we have wrought. In fact, perhaps we have already received our punishment from the Almighty. Perhaps this place you and I are in now is Hell."

Lynas is a man consumed with the search for truth. That search has led him far and wide - and now, through a variety of circumstances, it has brought him to Brother Matthias, the Revelator of a strange new movement at work in the mid-US. This organization is focused around the unveiling of Her Eminent Glory, a being who will usher in a grand new era for humanity. Lynas's hunger for the otherworldly draws him into their midst, where he quickly becomes a priest of great power within the organization. 

Lynas begins to take part in the organization's rituals, and realizes that Eminent Glory will only arise through the purging flames of sacrifice. These sacrifices begin with animals, but quickly they move past that to people - specifically, the people who have resisted the movement's call. They are both a sacrifice and a purging punishment for unbelief.

As these rituals continue, Lynas starts to feel something stirring within him: a powerful force that is beginning to awaken. Before long, Lynas realizes that this being inside his mind and body is the incubating Eminent Glory herself. And then the Eminent Glory begins to speak to him. Her words chill Lynas to the core. He realizes the Eminent Glory is not coming to usher in a glorious new age for mankind, but is instead coming to purge the world with flame. She comes not to save, but to utterly destroy. And she plans to use Lynas as her vessel. 

Realizing his grievous mistake, Lynas begins to fight against both the cult he finds himself trapped inside, as well as against the growing evil swelling within him. But the flames are already coming. And Lynas may be much too late to do anything to stop them. 

Or at least that's one way the story could be told. Is it the truth, though? I suppose you'll just have to find out for yourself.

Lynas's Terrors: The Penitents

PENITENT PURGATORY

“You said, if we just paid our penance for our misplaced worship, that our sins would be forgiven. You told us that, if we just made obeisance to Her Eminent Glory, then everything would be made right. But now we’re in chains. We’re trapped, and we can’t get out. Is this purgatory? Are we paying penance still? Or is this something worse? Did you lie to us, Priest? Did you misguide us? Are we doomed to Hell along with you? Please… Please, you must help us. You must free us from this walking nightmare. Please. Please! WHY WON’T YOU DO ANYTHING, PRIEST?”

PENITENT FLAGELLANT

“We beat ourselves over and over, flagellating ourselves for our sins. But no matter how many stripes we apply to our body, no matter how many times we bruise our flesh or make ourselves bleed, it’s never enough. Will we ever be free of this Hell? Will you ever tell us it’s okay? Or maybe the truth is that you’re impotent, Priest. That we’re not suffering for our sins anymore, but for yours. Is that it? Perhaps we’ve been beaten enough. Maybe… Maybe it’s your turn now. What do you think of that? Will that finally please Her Eminent Glory?”

PENITENT FORSAKEN

“You left us. You abandoned us to the flames and the dogma and the despair. And we thank you for it, because now we realize the truth. We have been forsaken. By you, Priest, by the Revelator, by Her Eminent Glory. Tell us, did you only ever want us for our flesh? Or did you want us for our souls? Not that it makes any difference. In either case, we were only ever sacrifices to you and your kind. Only ever something to be devoted to destruction. But now we’re free. Our chains are broken.  Tell us, shall we free you as well, Priest? We feel… it’s only fair.”

Today's Daily Unlocks: The Written Rift Box, and a Core Box Storage Insert!

Today the focus of our daily unlocks is going to shift. Normally the most exciting unlock is at the Otherworld level as we reveal Anita's chapter. And, while today is still very exciting for her (we are unlocking her chapter's beautiful box! And it means that Anita's expansion is completely unlocked), it is not the true star of today's unlocks.

There has been speculation for quite some time about what that strange black box with a question mark in it was in the daily unlocks. Well, today we finally get to tell you. Drum roll please...

It's a specially designed storage insert for the core game!

Yep. You heard that right. We're pulling out all the stops for this insert, too. It will introduce a unique, organized storage solution within the core box itself. Each Wanderer's components will get an individual storage box that can be placed inside the insert when they're in a campaign, complete with plastic trays inside each box to help keep things neat and tidy. These boxes (along with the other compartments in the insert) will help to optimize the setup process for the game, as well as the breakdown. And what's more, this insert will also include save slots to utilize between chapters in the campaign. So, you will be able to pack the full game away, then pull it back out a week (or more) later and know exactly where you left off. 

This storage solution can hold all the cards with sleeves.

This insert is something we are incredibly excited about, and we hope you will be, too. Our goal is that this insert will make setting up and taking down a game so easy that setup is the last thing on your mind when you decide to play a game of Dawn of Madness.

Now, this will not fit all components for all eight Wanderers at one time (though each Wanderer will have their own box to fit in it for when they are being played in a campaign.) This is not necessarily a substitute for the component storage box and the miniatures storage box that we've been voting on (which, if you want, you can still vote on right here  by leaving a comment - we're getting closer to the minimum quantity of interest we would need to make them a reality), but, regardless of if we get those boxes or not, this will make the core box not just another box, but a tool to aid your gameplay.

Live Stream Today!

To make up for lost time (and broken streams), we're going to do one more live stream before the campaign ends, and it will be today at around 1pm PST! The link will be on the campaign page before I go live, so come join me and let's hang out! (It'll be on YouTube again this time. My hopes for having both YouTube and Facebook running simultaneously continue to diminish with each stream...) Can't make it tomorrow? No worries! We'll also be live streaming for the end of the campaign on Tuesday, probably starting at 2pm PST!

Okay, that's it for this update! See you guys on the live stream, and talk to you again soon! 

Social Update, Anita's Book, and Metal Sentience Tokens
about 5 years ago – Fri, Dec 13, 2019 at 11:11:44 PM

Hey guys! I hope you had a great day. We've got some cool stuff today, so let's get going! (Also, if you're wanting some more story stuff and a deeper look into one of the Wanderers, be sure to check out the update I posted a few hours ago right here.)

First of all, I just discovered we are number 10 on Rolling Solo's 25 Best Kickstarters of 2019! So that's pretty cool! What's even cooler is that this is actually a list voted on by his community. I'm guessing some of you voted for us in that, so thank you! You can check out the video here (we show up around 24:11, but it should be all geared up for you below):

Now let's move on to the Daily Unlocks!

Anita's Book of Stories

At last, the writer finally gets her book! They say that books are portals into other worlds. Think that will be true of this one? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Today we unlocked 8 new Finale Encounter cards at the Core level (2 for each of the 4 core Wanderers), and Anita's story book The Written Rift at the Otherworld level. We're drawing close to the end of Anita's unlocks! Just a few things more to go! (Of course, we're also coming up on the end of the campaign, so I suppose that makes sense. =) 

Social Stretch Goal Update!

I've been pretty quiet on the social stretch goals the last couple of days, but it's about time we dove back in to all of the madness and see where we're at! Did we unlock the Tutorial Chapter? Let's find out!

First, we have our second man-eating plant, courtesy of Dan/fiendishsnowman: 

We also have our SECOND mashed potato monster from Kai!!

And our THIRD from Anthony!

We also have a bunch more haikus!

• My eyes see within
• And within there's flesh and blood
• Blind to the real world

- John @portalmasterr

• I've run and run, but
• The Cosmos is always close.
• Fear the Numina.

• Reaching for the light,
• I clutch my hand, all in vain -
• My sanity's gone.

- NEETocris

In your mind they wait
Your deepest fears without shape
They seek something more

- Dean

• Travelled through old gate
• Witnessed horrendous visions
• Lost my consciousness

- Juha Takalo

• She wanders the field…
• sowing the meat in the soil.
• Horror takes root…slash!

- Mr. E52s

• I deserve the book
• For my haiku is so poor
• It is a horror.

- Zoltán Déry

• Strange plains before
• Eerie lights parting the fog
• Abo is behind me?

- Foxwhisperer

• Roll all the dice now, please.
• See all those pretty colors.
• Puzzle piece don't fit.

- C

• Now I know horror
• In-Laws are coming to stay
• For eternity

- Liquid Limn

We also have several more horror short stories! Here's one from Dean:

Ana Valez - The Orphan

Her mind had been ripped to pieces. It had taken an agonizingly long time to finally gather enough scrapes of consciousness to really be called a person. At least, that's what she thought she was, this young girl, with dark eyes, dark short hair and at her side a small hand sewn bear, cut from a patterned cloth, it's mouth a smile of stitches, his name was Mr. Fiddler. This young child, whisked away from the Nightingale Orphanage, to meet a brighter future, promised to her by the headmistress, Loralie Wagner. All it had taken was a few whispers, little observations about her fellow wards. Life in the orphanage was tough.

And now she was here. It looked much the room were she'd slept, a long row of beds lined along the walls, hers tucked away in the corner. Across from her slept Emma, a newcomer by Ana's standards, with red hair and her eyes always puffed up and red from constantly sniveling, even in the dead of night, until she was taken away. Mr. Fiddler had been hers once but now it was Ana's. She had been taken away a few weeks ago, but Ana could see a sobbing figure in that bed, a tuft of red hair peeking over the covers. Then she heard a soft thud behind her. She turned to find a huge stuffed bear that towered over her, it looked to be a cruel facsimile of Mr. Fiddler himself, with it's dark stitches and patterned body, but it was twisted, and from a large rip in his stomach burst stuffing intertwined with other objects that looked almost like hands and socks, and it's mouth bore the remains of stitches that one fastened it closed but had been cut to reveal a face that grinned hungrily with a maw of sharp and serrated teeth, and upon it's shoulder sat a little girl. She was very doll like, all stitched together, and yet she looked very similar somehow, with her dark hair and dark porcelain eyes, her fingers pointed right at the bed where the girl cried. It seemed the big bear was still hungry.

I had several more story entries, too, but for two reasons I have separated them into a Google Doc. The first one by Hayabusa is in there because it's a little bit long. There are also two by Cristiano, which I have put in there because they are GRAPHIC. (And if I'm saying something is graphic, it's a pretty fair bet they are. LOL!)  Having said that, I still wanted everyone to get a chance to check out their hard work, even if not in this specific update. Want to read those stories? Then click here!

So. The question that I'm sure everyone is wondering: have we beaten our last social stretch goal?

Well, we have received a number of haikus. Not all of them were scary (which was a requirement), but many of them were. And, technically, we are now over twenty by quite a bit, so I will count the not-so-scary haikus as two-to-one. And that means... 

We have officially unlocked the Tutorial Chapter for Dawn of Madness! WOOHOOOOO! Thank you so much to everyone who helped us do this! This has been a ton of fun, and I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing your creativity at work. =D 

Will we have more social stretch goals, since we still have several more encounters we could complete? I don't know. LOL! I'll talk with the team, and if we can come up with something cool then maybe we can shoot for another social goal in the last couple of days. =) (And, if you haven't seen me feature your stuff from social media, let me know. I don't think I'm seeing all the stuff that people are posting for some reason - Dean's entries I had to hunt down, for instance.)

Now, we've also recently been running a contest to give away several copies of the art book, and today I wanted to announce our first two winners! Congratulations, Anthony Caryl and Sam Adams! You guys both just won a copy of the art book! (Sorry, I'm not sure what your KS names are.)

Having said that, there are still two more copies to give away through social posts, and one more to give away from comments on the art book update! So, if you would like to enter for a chance to win a copy of the art book, go to this update, share the pictures in there on social media (2 more copies are up for grabs this way), or write an awesome and persuasive comment as to why we should choose you to win it (1 copy is up for grabs this way), and maybe you'll be our next winner!

Metal Sentience Tokens

Conversely from the last add-ons we offered, here is an add-on I have heard next to no one ask for (at least specifically.) But I think that, when you see them, you will agree that they are awesome - and potentially extremely useful. 

Allow me to reveal the metal Sentience tokens. These tokens will replace the cubes in the core game, adding some flair to your dashboards. In addition, it is my hope that these can solve much of the issue for our colorblind players, allowing you to easily make out each different kind of Sentience. Unfortunately we couldn't include these as stretch goals or an unlock as these things are stinking expensive to make (on many websites comparable products are running for $60-80), but we've set the price of them as low as we can to hopefully ensure that everyone who needs or wants them can grab them.  So let's take a look at them:

You may have some questions from looking at the picture up above. One might be, why are they shiny like glass if they're metal? Well, the reason is that they start off with a metal base that the image is printed onto, and then they are coated by a clear resin/epoxy/glue to increase their durability and to also give them a really nice, almost gem-like quality. 

The second question you may ask is, why two different price points/quantity levels? Well, once again, we wanted this to be accessible to as many people as possible. So, for $25 you will get 80 tokens, which is as many as you will need for 90% of situations in the game, and for $35 you'll get 120 tokens, which is enough for all situations in the game. So, 90% of the time, the $25 set will be plenty. But, if you want to make sure you're covered for those really extreme 10% circumstances, you can also upgrade to the $35 pack if you so choose.

And the third question you may ask would be, where the heck did those icons come from?! Well, throughout the campaign I've made no bones about the fact that I've never really been a fan of the "five senses" Sentience icons, and that I considered them WIP icons. Don't get me wrong, they look good, but to me they never really represented what Sentience was supposed to be about. (In addition, at very small sizes it can be VERY tricky to make some of the old icons out. Particularly the green thumbprint and the yellow nose.) So, these are our current stab at Sentience icons. They will be much easier to make out at small sizes, and they remove the misleading/inaccurate idea of the five senses. Are these for sure the icons that will ship with the game? No. But in my opinion they're a big step in the right direction. 

We'll have more on Sentience in the future as we work on names for the five different types. There have been some really good thoughts on that already (and you can certainly add your vote to the mix by going to this update), so we'll try to get to that either before the end of the campaign or not long after. 

Also, another reminder that we are still considering what to do about storage boxes, so, if you want them, be sure to go let us know in the comments of this update here. We still haven't met what we feel is the minimum level of interest for us to promise to do the boxes, so make your voice known if it's something you want. Last of all, if you are Italian and want an Italian translation, we are still running our poll here about that, and we need to hear from you soon. (We need a bunch more of you before we can make this a reality.)

Okay, that's it for this update! Talk to you all again very soon!

Getting to Know Catherine Little
about 5 years ago – Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 11:27:50 PM

Hi everyone. Today I wanted to take you into the mind of one of our more deranged characters: the farmer, Catherine Little. Enjoy. =) 

 Deep Dive: Catherine Little

"My name is Catherine Little. Before you get any big ideas, though, let me just stop you right there. People have mocked me all my life, calling me 'Little Catherine' or the like. There is nothing I hate more than someone looking down on me or treating me as inferior, and I won’t take it lightly coming from you, either.

I grew up on my family’s farmstead. My parents were tough, but fair. They had to be tough. This work’s not for the weak, and if you don’t live accordingly it’ll eat you alive. I prided myself on being able to do anything as well as any boy – or any man for that matter – and I could tangle with the best of them. I dealt with the animals and slaughtered the meat just like everyone else, but I always preferred green things. I could undoubtedly be said to have a 'green thumb.'

Speaking of plants, I added a new member to my family not too long ago: I call her Audrey. Maybe it sounds strange to name a plant, but she’s as real of a friend to me as any person. She whispered to me about wondrous things: About the new life I would have, and how I would finally get what I deserve. But then… Things changed again. This place seems darker now, somehow. Scarier. But it doesn't matter. It'll never matter. Whatever's here will be cut down, just like everything else has up 'til now. The Wild is coming, and I am its vengeance. "

Catherine has always felt closer to plants than to real people, and she has been accused of living a bit too much in her own head at times. So, when her newest plant began to speak to her, it was not that big of a surprise. The things it showed her, though, and what it promised, were far more surprising. It revealed a way for her to get back at those who she felt had wronged her for so long. To show those who had looked down at her precisely who they were messing with. Catherine would become the sword of the Wild, and she would spread its message - and its vengeance - to all around her. 

At the same time that Catherine was executing the Wild's will, though, another force was rising from the slurry: red, strong, and beating. The Meat both fascinated and terrified Catherine. At once she felt equally drawn to it and repulsed. The Wild called on her to stop this butcher. To end its growing will before the renascence it had planned could come to fruition. 

As the two raging forces spread across Catherine's hometown, the townsfolk began to change. Some were overwhelmed by the Wild, and some by the Meat. These twin infections spread like wildfire, corrupting and transforming all that stumbled into their way, warping their victims' bodies with the symptoms of their particular disease.

And through it all, as both forces converged on her, Catherine continued to change into something... else. Something that was no longer human. And she grew closer... and closer... to breaking through into some other place. A dark place made not of plants and growing things, but of mind and terror. An Otherworld of feverish nightmares. 

...Or at least that's one way to see what happened. Though I guess we never did quite get to the forest of teeth or the caves full of arcane symbols and strange power...

The Symptoms

Symptom Bile

“The plants came like a plague of vines, changing and ensnaring all that they touched. Perhaps I should have been alarmed at the way they grew, but they were so beautiful. I couldn’t help but spread them. I gave them to friends. I gave them to family. I gave them to my enemies. I didn’t realize how they were affecting me – changing me – until it was too late. But, even if I had known, would I have stopped? No, probably not. After all, I wasn’t just doing it for the plants: I was doing it for her. For Catherine. I always did have a sweet spot for her. They always say that love is blind, and maybe they’re right. I did this for you, Catherine. For us. I lo – I lov – Huuaagggh!”

Symptom Contagion

“I always preferred meat to plants. After all, why would someone choose to eat a plain salad when they could have a lovely, juicy, bloody steak? Mm, just the thought of the flesh ripping in my mouth, of the juices dribbling down my chin, it’s enough to make me start salivating. I think that the love of meat can be contagious, like a virus for your senses. It’s just enough to reach out and grab you sometimes. To make you want. To shake you with hunger. The meat can change you, too. It has certainly changed me. I feel its power pulsing through my veins as if it were still alive, wriggling in my stomach, a conscious, vibrant thing that wants out. Oh, dear. It’s coming now.”

Symptom Sputum

“I feel two powers at work in my body, and they are tearing me apart. They seem locked in a war with each other, and what’s left of me is caught in the middle. I feel the slithering of the growing plants, and the festering of the bloody meat. It’s… horrible… to have this battle raging within me. They are drawn to each other, you see, but they also seek to eradicate one another. I must get them out of me. I must purge myself of them before there’s nothing of me left inside. I… Uh… No. It’s too late – GAH! They rip, they tear – They’re reshaping me into something else – I’m pulling apart! Th-they’re both coming at the same time! PLEASE! STOP! No – hurgh! Blauhl! Blaaaalgh!”

Well that's it for this little look into Catherine's story! I hope you've enjoyed it! =D We'll be back with our normal update in a few hours. Talk to you then!