Hey there, backers! We’re back with another update for ya!

We all had a busy weekend so this one is a few days later than planned, but hey, here we are!

Ian has been continuing his quest of implementing all the playtester feedback and updating our files. By the end of today (Monday) he will have wrapped up the 1100+ pieces of feedback given to us by the community so far. We will have all of Act 2 repackaged with the updated files and resubmitted to our playtesters for review by tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. We’ll be submitting the files to update our TTS mod for Act 2 as well.

The feedback we’ve been getting is phenomenal and Act 2 is looking sick!

The Collector is still being updated, but we will have the entire product submitted for playtester feedback and for TTS by the middle of this week.

Again, if you’d like access to our files for playtesting feedback, and access to our TTS mod, please join our Discord channel!

Brooklynn and Kris are tag-teaming the dev work on Act 3 to get everything ready for playtesting ASAP. Since the Adventure Book is not linear, they are bouncing between chapters.

Act 3 continues the Unintentional Malum trilogy from Chapters 9 through 11. Our goal is to get Chapter 9 up for playtesting by next week and by then, we’ll be pretty close to finishing the dev work on Chapter 10 as well.

So, long story short, we're still moving along with progress and moving the dial closer to completion every day.

We’re still planning on running our last and final preorder on October 1st. It will run until November 5th.

Once concluded, the plan is to start production in November.

Act 2 +3 and Pirates are the two products that require the most playtesting and dev work. We’re moving as fast as we can to get these products completed but there is concern that by November, these products will still be premature for production. We’d hate to rush into production on these products after all this time and deliver something that hasn’t been fully playtested. With such a late delivery, we want to get you the best possible product in the end.

So by the end of the preorder, we’ll see where we’re at with community feedback. Regardless, of where we're at, we’ll be going into production with everything that is ready and keep everyone up to date with the polishing progress of Act 2, 3, and Pirates of Elenia.

And just to be clear, if you are not ordering any new products on this preorder, you won’t be charged shipping again. You'll only be charged shipping on anything new you decide to order.

We're super excited to get this moving!

...Ok, now, into the content!

Not every existence ends with death. For some, the bonds of service are simply too great, the duty too strong. They have work left undone and will linger until it is complete. Rest will not come yet. Perhaps it never will. Even in Middara, some mortals flock willingly to this state, volunteering themselves for an eternal vigil. Eternal Life does not guarantee eternal survival, after all. Others may end up brought back to this state against their will, victims of profane magic or just bad luck.

Regardless of how they got there, these poor souls discover that death was not the release they believed. Even beyond the veil, their labor continues, until they’re finally released.

What I wouldn’t give for another day...

The story of Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 2 + 3 will lead our Adventurers into conflict with some of these people, or at least the creatures they became. Where would otherworld fantasy be without a few zombies?

Middara is not a monolith. Its nations are the result of portals scattered all across Earth, giving rise to daughter civilizations with cultural bonds to their home. These diverse peoples’ focus on different disciplines, leading some to create outcomes that others would find horrifying.

Throughout the first Act of Unintentional Malum, we’ve only seen Elenia itself, a single cultural lens made familiar by its connection to the Seattle portal that populates it. But on the scale of all Middara, Elenia is a small and relatively insignificant country. Their neighbors are much larger, much older, and wield magics that no recent arrival from Earth can comprehend.

I’ve forgotten more than you ever knew.

Brahma’s magical scholars were already old when the first seeds of the Renaissance bloomed in Europe. Across its vast history, they discovered many magics. Some became new disciplines, strengthening the rule of the empire. One such was a secret of restoring life to the dead.

These dark scholars hadn’t stolen the true fire of God—if they had, all of Middara would be transformed anew, as radically as the realm’s inherent agelessness already has. No, the “life” these victims are granted is false. The body rots, the mind is bound into whatever narrow constraints were worked into the magic. They’re not truly alive, but also not free to die.

We represent this condition with a new tag for some of our monsters, Undead.

When a Combatant with the UNDEAD tag is Defeated, place a Reanimation token on the space(s) it occupied. At the end of the next Round, if this token is still on the board, remove this token from the board and Spawn a new Combatant of the same type that placed this Combatant token. 

To life, to life, I’ll bring them!

That’s right—Undead enemies don’t stay down! Defeating an undead combatant once isn’t enough to knock them out of the fight. The strange power that moves their limbs will flow back in to rejuvenate and restore any damage you might inflict, no matter how severe. Leaving their body where it falls is only an invitation for their swift return, returned to full strength.

In game, you’ll place a Reanimation Token on the board wherever an Undead enemy is defeated, and put another token on that Combatant’s card.

When the Adventurers face adversaries like these, they’ll have to be careful to reach the corpses before their reanimation can take place. If they don’t, then at the end of the next round, the token will be removed and the same type of combatant you already defeated will return to fight!

This also means that if you want to get your hands on some tasty loot, you’ll have to put a stake in the heart of the undead, not just batter them down once. But on the plus side, a dead body doesn’t put up much of a fight. Any attack action will permanently destroy the undead, without any need for a roll. You just need to be able to get there!

My work is not yet complete.

When creating Middara, we weren’t aiming to translate some stereotypical creature 1-1 into the game. Every creature is something unique. At the new tiers we see in Act 2 and Act 3, every new combatant is a terrifying threat in its own right. Simple zombies would not do.

These eternal watchers volunteered to remain forever at sacred sites, and will battle viciously against any who dare enter. If you have no choice but to go up against them, prepare for a real fight!

To start, these brutal combatants are immune to most effects. Only fire will touch her, and the brief stunning effect of paralysis. Aside from her ability to return from death, the next thing you’re likely to notice is the ability to gain Berserk, another of our new effects. Though only one Combatant on the board can have this effect, it’s still devastating—granting two turns to act in the round instead of one. I know you’ll want to make that Volunteer a priority target as soon as that step triggers!

When fighting, the Jiangshi Volunteer attacks rapidly and brutally, spreading poisonous bile around the battlefield from her gigantic syringe. After that, she’s not likely to linger in one place for long, but will leap across the battlefield, making her difficult to trap in one location for long!

These enemies represent one of the many unique threats waiting for the Adventurers in Act 2 and 3. It would be far better if they could simply be avoided, but alas. Sometimes violence is the only answer that keeps your friends alive.

The Jiangshi Volunteer aren’t alone among the Undead waiting for you in the story of Unintentional Malum—but I’m sure you understand our hesitance to say more. It’s more fun to leave the discovery to your group, when you turn the next page of the Adventure Book and realize the horrors waiting for you.

We can’t wait to hear your stories of terror in our Discord! Believe me when I say, the Jiangshi Volunteer isn’t even close to the worst thing facing Nightingale and her friends in the days ahead.

Welcome to Haltus, where immortality meets ideology in a clash of civilizations. On one side, we have the Empire of Brahma, a bastion of tradition and religious orthodoxy. On the other, the rebellious Kingdom of Elenia, fueled by magical innovation and radical ideas. As portals bridge Earth and Middara, cultures collide, and disciplines deemed demonic by some are embraced as tools of progress by others. This conflict can only ferment for so long before it boils over into bloody war.

Dive into the Codex here !

In our next update, we'll be digging into the mechanics of a new type of encounter coming in Unintentional Malum: Stealth!

Why bother fighting overwhelming odds when you can sneak in through the back door and be out before they even knew what you took?

The Codex will begin its Deep Dive into the Advancement, the physical and mental transformation that comes to every human who travels to Middara. What fate awaits you when you step through the Portal? Join us, and see for yourself!

You can also expect more news on the preorder and our development progress for the week!