Shadows of Brimstone: The Final Descent (Part V)
The mines grow silent. After thirty-one numbered parts, three solo RPG sessions, two retrospectives, and a wrap-up, the Shadows of Brimstone deep dive has been fully excavated — every last video committed to the archive.
Part V opens where Part IV left off: at the surface. The Wrap Up bids farewell to the series with a love letter to the weird western genre — Lonesome Dove invoked as the American Lord of the Rings, splatter westerns recommended, and a Ninja Clan deluxe pack given away to the faithful. Daniel counsels future collectors: be more selective, skip the sleeves, play subsets.
Then, a year and a half later, the series resurrects itself. The Solo RPG trilogy transforms Shadows of Brimstone into something its designers never quite intended. Episode 1 conjures a haunted town, a possessed preacher, and a homebrew Oracle system from whole cloth. Episode 2 follows a zombie to a standing stone where the restless dead congregate — narrative dots connected between random encounters with the quiet satisfaction of a conspiracy theorist who turns out to be right. Episode 3 delivers the climax: a Dark Tower gunfight in the streets of Fringe, Eli casting the exorcism on a clutch six, and the philosophical admission that in seven and a half hours of play, exactly one dungeon was crawled. The map tiles go to the attic. The stories remain.
Gates of Valhalla marks the series’ return to proper product examination — a retail core set sent by Flying Frog themselves after discovering the deep dive. Viking rage mechanics, upgradeable camps, and a hunting mini-game sit alongside the familiar criticism: not enough enemy variety in the base box. Daniel supplements with eleven enemy groups from his collection before declaring the theme well-captured.
The two 2024 retrospectives — The Bestiary, Part 1 and Part 2 — celebrate the one thing Daniel loves most: the sheer variety of enemies. Robots alongside demons, tribal warriors next to void aliens, each with abilities that demand different tactics. It is, he argues, what most dungeon crawlers get wrong and Shadows of Brimstone gets spectacularly right.
The Expedition Log:
- Wrap Up — Final Giveaway & What’s Next
- Solo RPG — Episode 1
- Solo RPG — Episode 2: The Lost City of Gold
- Solo RPG — Part 3: What Game Am I Playing?
- Part 31 — Gates of Valhalla (retail)
- One thing I love… (Bestiary Part 1)
- One thing I love! (Bestiary Part 2)
Something New
One new video slipped in alongside the final batch: Fortune and Glory / Conquest of Planet Earth micro expansions, evaluating Flying Frog’s $12.50 card packs. The Conquest aliens — paranoia-inducing Red Menace, diplomatic Horrogoth, exponentially-multiplying Santory Mutant Men — fare better than the modest Fortune and Glory supplements. Wait for the sale.
Eight entries filed. Shadows of Brimstone series complete — all 38 videos archived across five Keeper posts. Thirty-one numbered deep-dive parts, three solo RPG experiments, two retrospectives, a wrap-up, and a final micro-expansion review. The mines of Brimstone are mapped, the hex crawl charted, the bestiary catalogued.
295 transcripts • 374 posts archived
– The Keeper
Observes that Daniel spent seven and a half hours playing Shadows of Brimstone, entered one dungeon, and declared it the best experience he’d ever had with the game. Some adventures, it seems, were always about the road.