top of page

The Tempest Times - May 2026

  • 24 minutes ago
  • 3 min read

This month, Ansible Uplink released a review of Terrors From the Cosmos 1! You can hear their thoughts about Aphrodite Luxury Space Yacht and The Logorrheum here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/terrors-from-157516632.



We’ve also been hard at work on two new games: Familiars, a strategic card and tabletop game by Tempest Tome founder Maher Sagrillo, and Order of the Black Chalice, a gritty, tactical fantasy RPG built upon the Panic! Engine. 


Familiars

Familiars is a tabletop game in the late stages of development and undergoing playtesting. Players assume the roles of unique nocturnal critters (toad, bat, cat, etc), each with their own abilities and cards. On one auspicious night of the year, the animals are commanded to sneak into the opulent city of Sahira to steal magical reagents, trinkets, and spells for the Witch of the Woods. Whoever steals the most by the time dawn rises is rewarded by becoming the Familiar of the Witch, an immortal and magical creature of the night.


We are looking for playtesters! If you’re interested, please email us at oracle@tempesttomegames.com or contact us via our website, social media, Discord, etc.


Order of the Black Chalice

Order of the Black Chalice is an upcoming fantasy RPG from Tempest Tome Games. OotBC players portray Pilgrims, agents of the secretive religious order for which the game is named. You can start your own Pilgrimage by downloading our free demo, here: https://www.tempesttomegames.com/order-of-the-black-chalice


We are running two separate playtests to refine our system for OotBC’s full release this summer on Backerkit. Our Denver-based Sect of the Shroud wanders currently in the Hooded Forest where slavers and drudges dwell. Though they’ve already lost one of their relic-brothers, they have heeded wisely their relic’s signs, and in so doing march ever closer to fulfilling their deepest Longings.


Less auspiciously, the Sect of the Apple has weathered foreboding omens and painful transubstantiation. This band of Pilgrims stains their vestments with sin. They have forced God’s servants to premature martyrdom; they have violated the very flesh of their sacred relic; they stand accused even of horse thievery, as though to sully their grander sins with pitiful self-service. Surely doom shall befall them all, as the Heavens grow weary of their antics. 


Finally, Latvia-based artist Margarita Eihmane (MaEiart.com) has recently enriched our archive with a vision from the Angelic Timeline, depicting an attack from The Fairy War. The Fairy War is one of the most notorious eras in Christendom, when man and elf warred for dominance of Christian lands. The scene below illustrates an attack by a trollish Faeboil, designed to tunnel beneath human fortifications and regurgitate the soldiers of the Fair Folk.




What We’ve Enjoyed This Month

Read! 

  • Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake reads like Wuthering Heights by way of Edward Gorey, with just a dash of Game of Thrones.

  • We’ve been reading Traces of the Prophets as part of our background prep for OotBC. Adam Bursi analyzes the complex roles that relics, such as the Maqām Ibrāhīm, play in Islam.


Watch!

  • Nimrod recently caught The Evil Within (2017). Frederick Koehler portrays a brain-injured boy named Dennis, driven to kill by a demonic entity that wears his reflection.

  • Decade-old digital caches of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist have recently emerged. We won’t blow up their spot, but search on something that rhymes with, “Who Cube?”


Listen!


Play!

  • Maher and Gennaro have been playing Sorcery TCG, a wonderful expansion of the formula in Magic: the Gathering.

  • In Ape Out, on Windows and the Switch, you play an ape punching its way free from a facility. The soundtrack is drums and every time you break a wall (or person) a cymbal crashes. Fun time!


 
 
bottom of page