This week’s guest is New Zealand writer, artist, musician and game designer Darcy Perry. We talk about his Ennie nominated RPG DuckQuest, his work as a sculptor & painter at Star Hat Miniatures, playing blues music, contributing to the revised and expanded edition of Petty Gods (ORC), and co-authoring Quack Keep (Fifth Wall Games & Miniatures) with famed artist and game designer Jennell Jaquays.
Revisit our review of DuckQuest in Mad Dungeon episode SQ 035.
A summer breeze carries a citrus smell from the massive fruit tree in the center of the room. There’s no ceiling revealing a night sky filled with stars. Hummingbirds, squirrels and doves flutter and frolic amongst the simian trolls who catch and feed moranges to their master Citrol. Some swing from the branches by their tails, while others sanitize the room with buckets, mops and cleaning supplies. A hideous little squirrel, wearing a cute acorn hat, is at a small workbench barbarically ripping open moranges and cramming them into spray bottles. Plucked feathers and juice-like-gore are everywhere. Each spray bottle of divine citrus cleans on a godly level and if sprayed directly in the face, causes someone to forget the last hour, but they’ll feel refreshed. It cleans the slate. There’s a bucket of butterfly nets that give you advantage to catch the fruit.
Citrol the Orang-a-Tang: He was born a glowing star troll, but was cursed to be the tree of memory and thought. The moranges grow from his boughs. He knows which person each fruit is linked to. He bleeds delicious juice, turns to stone in sunlight, and is hyper-intelligent from his millenia of being this tree. He has the face of an orangutan-troll in the center of the tree trunk and small, nubby arms to eat his own fruit. He speaks openly and honestly about what he is and what can do.
Moranges: Peeling this feathered fruit reveals meat of glowing, shimmering stars. When picked, wings sprout and they soar around the room. You have to catch it to eat it, earning the right to consume the memories of the multiverse. Eat the fruit and gain +1 on an intelligence stat for 24 hours, and learn the memories of one person. If you know the right fruit, you can learn who loves you, wants you dead, or what the creature in the next room is up to.
A glass container with a lid and three buttons to control the speed is hidden away in the corner, the juicing machine. If you mix more than one morange and drink the juice, the history of your world changes. It’s only different for the person who imbibed, for everyone else, the world has always been like this. Roll 1d8: 1) toy land, 2) sombrero land, 3) 1920s gothic horror, 4) weird wild west, 5) space land, 6) wrestler world, 7) everyone has a pet dinosaur 8) everyone has an extra appendage.
Art: Tiger Wizard Words: Steve Albertson
Story by: Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, Darcy Perry
Appendix N: Odin’s ravens Hugin and Munin, Troll Hunter, Alway Sunny in Philadelphia (pay the troll toll), the Quidditch snitch from Harry Potter, Guardians of the Galaxy, Stargate, Ken St. Andre, Bible (Genesis), Pulp Fiction, Snow White, Shakespeare, Cinderella.
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This episode is sponsored by Exalted Funeral, and we talk about Folk Arcana, written and illustrated by Johnny Bloozit. This is a system-independent book of witchcraft magic items, with a focus on storytelling possibilities, rather than tactical combat effects. Guaranteed to add a dash of narrative spice to your table.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Come find us at Gen Con 2023 on Aug. 3-6. We’ll be sharing a table with Brain Colon’s Creature Curation.
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Epic Levels is hosting a Best Dwarf Drawing Contest! The winners will be selected by our host of celebrity judges, all accomplished Dwarf Drawing champs! David Hoskins, Erol Otus, and Tiger Wizard!
We chatted about doing this on our Old-School Essentials episode, and so, we’re really doing it! The contest will be open for submissions through August 17th 2023. You may submit a Dwarf you’ve already drawn, or draw a new one. You must be the author and owner of the Dwarf Drawing, and be okay with us sharing it along with your name on our social media. You can submit any kind of Dwarf you like. Warhammer mohawk Dwarves, Gimli’s, Silly named Snow White Dwarves, Heck! Even Dark Sun Mul (Dwarf Human Hybrid) will be acceptable!
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We’ll all be partying at Dragon Con in Atlanta Aug 31 – Sep 4 . Dragon Warrior will be running games.
Sat 9:00 AM – Old School Essentials: Mad Dungeon Rooms
Sun 1:00 PM – Old School Essentials: Mad Dungeon Rooms
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We’ll be podcasting live at Gamehole Con in Madison on Oct. 19th- 24th. Dragon Warrior will be running games. Sign ups are now available. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 10:00 AM CST – Old School Essentials: Mad Dungeon Rooms
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Our physical adventure map for The Heal World is now available for purchase at Exalted Funeral, with art from our guest Brian Colon of Vast Grimm. This is the true story – of you visiting a planet that’s also a living god – trapped in a time loop – working together to stop a violent demagogue from committing deicide – to find out what happens when people stop being polite – and start getting healed: The Heal World. BUY IT HERE.
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Thanks for listening to Season Two of the Epic Levels Mad Dungeon podcast, where D&D hip hop group Epic Levels and a guest create a system-neutral, playable dungeon room using improv, comedy, and lifetimes wasted on roleplaying games.
You can support us via Patreon for early episode releases, bonus map content, extra art, access to our discord server, and lots of other exclusive goodies.
Get nerd merch and stay up to date with socials: HERE
Mad Dungeon is hosted by Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, and produced by Zach Cowan.
Theme song by Epic Levels and beat by Mason Grant.
© 2023 Epic Levels. All characters in this adventure–even those based on real people–are entirely fictional.