Appropriately named sprint, eh? It makes me a little worried that our upcoming sprints are IMMORALITY and JUSTICE but May #2 is KING ARTHUR so here’s hoping.

The big news this sprint is we moved house! 😱 Alexis has started a sourdough culture he refers to only as “The Bred Möther”, and inspired by our current work on Exile, Sulochana has started an eternal feud with Big Ken whom she bites until I spray lemon at her.

I, meanwhile, bought a huge orange velvet sofa because I *laugh* in the face of my overdraft. No don’t go away Barclays Bank I need you

Anyway, Exile!

After a delay to the start of the beta (everyone will have keys today! SORRY!), Alexis asked people who live in fun places we don’t to tell us something about their city. If we use any of your anecdata we’ll give you a ‘special thanks’ mention in the credits.

Alexis has been working his butt off writing snippets for, by my count, forty-two cities, so Exile has turned into a sort of occult travel blog written by Carmen Sandiego.

“No reckoner is ever foolish enough to pass into the higher levels of the Mansus. To draw the attention of the true Long – or their masters – would invite annihilation. But my Foe certainly knew something of the invisible arts. Perhaps I should, too.”

More info on Exile details next time – when we’ve had some time in beta.

Now, I have a bit of merch news. Firstly: THE TAROT OF THE HOURS IS BACK IN STOCK! These aren’t hand-numbered, but otherwise they’re exactly the same as the original decks. If you missed out originally, now’s your chance!

One thing to note. The surge of orders last time threw me into disarray, so I’m going to cap stock to 200 decks at any one time. Don’t worry – we have 1,000 to sell! This is just to make sure I can post everyone’s deck in a timely fashion and not e.g. crumble under the pressure like a gingerbread girl in a kiln.

Meanwhile, our Iris pin (and, consequently, the Adept’s Bequest) are out of stock, but they’ll be back on the market in a month or so. In the meantime I’m announcing some NEW items!

Firstly, pins! Meet the Marinette, Hint, Lunatic and Maid pins, which may or may not experiment with different finishes like gold plating and GLITTER. I’ll sell them individually, in case you particularly identify with one of them, but they’ll also go into a six-pin bundle along with Iris and the glitter witch pin. Hold your breath for the Beach-Crow’s Treasures, coming ASAP.

Secondly, I’ve been thinking about things that might be nice during this stupid pandemic. And then I thought:

“Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.“ – E. M. Forster, Howards End

What Forster meant, of course, is when people are lonely in 2020 in a coronavirus lockdown we should all send each other postcards. Ideally glossy, outré postcards you can use to cast subtle judgement on recipients with the particular Hour you choose.

We’ll sell these as a collection of seven different postcards, randomly selected, which in no way will involve me spilling them all on the floor, smooshing them around and then picking up seven cards and tying them together with string. This is a professional operation.

The postcard bundle will go live next week, so watch this space!

Anyway, hope you’re all keeping safe. Not too long until Exile’s launch on Wednesday 27th May, so we’ll be back at the end of the month with lots more art, design and lore. ‘Til then, Believers!

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