Spindlewheel Stories

How is your loyalty earned? It is of course demanded often, a coveted and valuable thing to many. And it can be lent, or faked, or retracted, a temporary boost or slight in a long line of alliances. But when you offer it for keeps, when its strength outweighs the memory and obligation of any other, what price has been paid for it? Stability, perhaps? Perhaps it is something you expect in return, tit for tat, giving as good as you get. Perhaps you draw it to you like a light in the darkness, like a blade, perhaps you coax it with blood and bone. Maybe the reward for your loyalty is just the impulse to reach out when you hear your wavering name cried out in the dark; maybe, when you are faced with the terrible and inevitable, your loyalty is paid for by the name that leaps from your throat. Find MEET ME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR AT DAWN and the other Spindlewheel Microgames on itch.io here. Follow Kavita on twitter @yrgirlkv, find Songs for the Dusk at https://yrgirlkv.itch.io/songsforthedusk, and on twitter @songsforthedusk. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://teacabbage.com/spindlewheel.

What makes a legend? The iconic Jolly Roger long outlasts its captain. The history books cherry pick the notorious and the bombastic to remember from a vast trade of mercenary sailors. But the kraken and her sisters still haunt the waters below, still weave their bodies around the edges of the map. The pirates of the golden age inspire story and song, and are kept alive as long as their names are uttered and flags flown. Long after, there will still be creatures feasting among their shipwrecks whose slow heartbeats are unbothered by siren's silence. Which, then, has the true heft of legend: the heroes of tangled shanties, or the wordless reign of primordial tooth and coil? Find MEET ME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR AT DAWN and the other Spindlewheel Microgames on itch.io here. Follow Frizz on twitter @Frizzoid, find fen art at https://raycarterillustration.co.uk, and listen to Duneiversity here. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://teacabbage.com/spindlewheel.

Where do you place your faith? When hard numbers err and machine gods falter, when their prophecies speak to the untenable, you might put your trust in the knowable fallacies of the human heart. When legacy and traditions are tried and found oppressive, hegemonic, poisonous down to the roots, you might hesitate to bear any coat of arms but your own hide. But a thin skin can barely protect its owner, much less their friends; and a mortal moral compass won't guide you through the long dark. When a body becomes more than a metaphor; when theory becomes material; When someone tells you who they are, will you listen, or will you place your faith in them, nonetheless? Find MEET ME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR AT DAWN and the other Spindlewheel Microgames on itch.io here. Follow Riley on twitter @RevRyeBread; find Interstitial on https://linksmithgames.com; find RPG Design Friends here or on your podcatcher of choice. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://teacabbage.com/spindlewheel.

How is power measured? If you bring down the moon, can you call yourself stronger than someone who quells a generational fear? If the magic in your heart commands the sea with a gesture, are you worthy of more respect than someone with nothing but luck and guile on their side to pull the tides ashore? Who is the source of influence: the face all eyes watch and the voice all ears hear, or the hands wrangling pullies and favors in the shadow cast by the spotlight? If all the world is a stage, then whose word will you trust: the actor, with their hand raised, or the voice in the crowd, screaming "Fire"? Find MEET ME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR AT DAWN and the other Spindlewheel Microgames on itch.io here. Follow Paul on twitter @pauly3_d. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://teacabbage.com/spindlewheel.

What has more value: companionship, or clout? All things being equal, or ceteris paribus as they'd say, far above the worries of hunger and war, when your biggest concern is impressing your contemporaries and grading undergrads, and you find yourself with either the esteem of your institution at your back or the steady presence of a friend at your side, but not both: is it worth throwing away what you have, just for the chance to grasp at what you need? Perhaps instead, you could merely dismantle that good faith, carving piece by piece until you've fleeced your reputation so thoroughly there's nothing to return to and nowhere to go but forward--onward and upward--to your prize. So, what'll it be: a title, or a friend? Find MEET ME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR AT DAWN and the other Spindlewheel Microgames on itch.io here. Follow Takuma on twitter @Takuma_Okada_. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://teacabbage.com/spindlewheel.

When you die, what hand will guide you from your body? Let's make the assumption that there is something beyond this flimsy world. Let's assume whatever life or afterlife awaits you, you will meet it fully deserved. Now, the psychopomp who leads you there: what are they owed? A gold coin for the trip across the river of course, prayers and well-wishes granted to you by whoever saw fit to have you buried with honor and rites. But let's say you weren't buried; that you didn't die with honor; that there is no one to pray for you or to speak your name. What road remains if nothing follows you but your terror, and when your guide stretches out their bony hand it's all you have to give? Find MEET ME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR AT DAWN and the other Spindlewheel Microgames on itch.io here. Follow Ruby on twitter @IronSparkSyris. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://tinyurl.com/spindlewheel-openbeta. Sound production by Evan Swamy.

What does a town need? Why raise a mansion no one lives in? Why fit a jail door with a lock that shines? What landed gentry goes to seed that does not rot the roots? Speak as soft as you want, but if you carry a gun, people expect you to use it. The same goes for wealth, and reputation, and fear. Why push for a future that no one wants? Why fight for a nostalgia that has left you dry? There's enough of both to warrant a stampede and a gut wound. What does a town need? Not roads, or street lights, or train stations. Just a pair of fools scared enough to build walls while it burns. (Content warning: gun violence, body horror) Find MEET ME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR AT DAWN and the other Spindlewheel Microgames on itch.io here. Yadelah exists, but not where you can find him. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://tinyurl.com/spindlewheel-openbeta.

Did I know THIS was going to happen? Not in so many words, no. But did I see this coming? I’ll put it this way: unlike some people, I know where the right place, and when the right time, will be. So, yes, when the two of them found me, I was right where I needed to be. They threw around earnest promises of a brighter day, and there wasn't a single tell, not a note out of place that said Bartholomew Lacks was lying to me. Well, except that their mouth was open. Something about her, though. She didn't say a word the entire time. Didn't need to. Some people fill a room just by standing in it. So, I gave her what she wanted. And I got the hell out of the way. The track "Golden Threads in Mist" is by Michael Boykin. Find him on twitter @MeAndAmpersand. Find the track "Kimaera" here. Follow Kavi on twitter @yrgirlkv. Find Songs for the Dusk on itch.io here. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://tinyurl.com/spindlewheel-openbeta.

Previously... Osedax Roseus, pirate-without-a-ship, enlists the help of old friend Somniosidae and sea-witch And the Queen Bore Upon Her Shoulders Thousands of Chittering Insects, Vindictive Servants of Light and Life (or [Vindication]) to free their friend Village Crumbled Under Leviathan's Weight, Serpentine and [Victorious] from the hivemind trance of the prison guards at the edge of the oceanic trench. Part 2 of 2. The track "Golden Threads in Mist" is by Michael Boykin. Find him on twitter @MeAndAmpersand. Beam Saber: https://beamsaber.libsyn.com/ and https://www.twitch.tv/you_dont_meet_in_an_inn Follow Ray on twitter @rayraythegaygay. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://tinyurl.com/spindlewheel-openbeta.

On a clear day you can see it from the city limits: a silhouette through the sea snow, perched on the very edge of an oceanic trench. But... that’s all you can see, really. The maelstrom between here and there keeps curious minds from confirming their theories, and there are lots of those to go around. From mer-kind gone feral and acidic to a secret technology kept at safe distance in case it malfunctions and erupts, to the idea that the worst criminals in the ocean thrive in that shadow, far from the sensibilities of society. That last one might have some merit; the only thing we know for sure about that place is that no one goes there with a willing heart and a cogent mind. But on a clear day... you really can’t help but wonder. What sort of things happen in the shadow of the Diver? Part 1 of 2. The track "Golden Threads in Mist" is by Michael Boykin. Find him on twitter @MeAndAmpersand. Pyura Chilensis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyura_chilensis Solo Spindlewheel game: https://twitter.com/teacabbage/status/910785529418887168 Follow Ray on twitter @rayraythegaygay. Follow Sasha on twitter @sasha_reneau. Follow Spindlewheel's development @teacabbage. Check out the open beta at https://tinyurl.com/spindlewheel-openbeta.