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February 27, 2025

Interview: Thorin Thompson's Blights of the Eastern Forest Soundtrack

Dungeon-synth jams for game night

Y’all ever use a soundtrack for game night? It’s hard to find something that fits right. That’s why I got a little curious when Thorin announced a soundtrack made specifically for his adventure Blights ov the Eastern Forest. The album is going to have a unique track for each of the main locations in the adventure. If that’s already got your attention, head on over the Kickstarter page. Otherwise keep on reading to learn a litte mroe about how Thorin made this thing happen.

This started out as a collab on Sky ov Crimson Flame + Blights ov the Eastern Forest, right? You had a cassette as a part of that project.

Yes, the dungeon synth albums were stretch goals for that project and we didn't make it far enough to hit the album for Blights ov the Eastern Forest. But you can't have one without the other right? So I have been determined to make that happen and hopefully there are enough supporters out there with goblin ears like myself that want to listen to the "unnatural synthesized sounds" of that evil festering forest!

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What is it about HDK & DUNJON MAGIK that drew you to their music?

I think I first discovered dungeon synth as a sub-genre when I was looking for music to write back in 2018 that wasn't just fantasy movie soundtracks and their ilk and inventaiably stumbled across HDK's profile on bandcamp. HDK are obviously one of the masters of dungeon-synth and nerds-to-boot! When I first reached out to them about the Sky ov Crimson Flame dungeon-synth album they were more than excited to help with that project and suggested DUNJON MAGIK as the band to compose. DUNJON MAGIK has a certain sound to them, they like to use a lot of sound effects to really involve that "dungeon crawling ascetic" and since they composed the music for the first album naturally I thought they should do the same for the new one.

I've commissioned one song before, King of Elfland's Daughter by Loot the Body, but I had incredibly limited involvement. How much collaboration was there?

For this album I sent HDK / DUNJON MAGIK a short synopsis for each track title (which correlates to one of the locations in the adventure book) detailing not only the story, but the feel I wanted to invoke. I also performed a little song for the track Jumbii-beyr Glen (I'm something of a skal you know!), of which I told them they didn't need to feature as it was complete and utter hubris on my part, but they accommodated me with a sample at the beginning of the track and maybe if you listen closely you'll find the hidden track in digital format! Other than that HDK likes to handle the overall layout and design of the cassettes of which I then approve.

I know you've got plans for a special project called Seekers ov Other Worlds. Anything special that you'd like to share about that?

So I did a silly thing back in 2017 or whenever the first printing of Sky ov Crimson Flame came out and teased a sequel adventure called Seeker ov the Other Worlds. At the time it was going to be an adventure no bigger than Sky, but as I began the writing process it began to grow and grow and grow until it has become this magnum opus of 120k+ words! When you play-tested it with me in 2020 at the first Cyclops Con I thought I was close to finishing, but it has grown and changed since then and now in 2025 I have finally completed it and have begun a new series of play-test sessions. What makes it so epic is in part because I wrote in Sky ov Crimson Flame that the necromancer split his soul into 5 Other Worlds, so obviously I have to write and flesh out 5 Other Worlds... It has been a daunting, but enjoyable task. The plan as of right now is to print the adventure as a boxset, something similar to DCC #100, with the campaign book, handouts, maps, die cut cardboard pieces and maybe some chaos dice! If people are interested in up-to-date news about this project I'm always posting something over at the Owl Knight Publishing discord.

What are you using, besides the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack on repeat, for game night?

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