March 4, 2026 Update
30 days ago
– Wed, Mar 04, 2026 at 04:43:45 PM
So many wins!
#1 - I survived this 3-week super flu while also finding out I’ve been breathing in mold for the last 2 months which is why I've been sick for so long. (just in the shower) So the mold is gone, and I’m finally better after initially getting sick from awful toxins in an Arizona Hilton Garden Inn and then catching the holiday flu back in early December. I never thought I could get as sick as I have these last few weeks (we’re talking not able to see or even play Baldur’s Gate) I’d gone to the doctors so many times and thought my body was falling apart… but I’m doing so much better now! (not really able to walk much yet) but … Full steam ahead!
#2 - Chapters 1-8 out of 10 are complete and Anthony is doing really beautiful edits, working his way through the chapters one by one! When will his layer be complete? I don’t know but he works fast and I would never pressure him and his expertise.
After these edits, we do a final round of proofing and then layout!
I had to rewrite Chapter 7 almost completely, made Chapter 8 twice as long, and might need to make it longer because of the nature of the adventure. Currently I am almost finished doing a rewrite of Chapter 9 and have laid out the backbone of Chapter 10.
One thing that is a major difference is that I’ve merged Sidequest 9 into Chapter 9 and moved Act 3 of Chapter 9 into Chapter 10. I’m sure none of this makes sense, but it’s a big win. One of the hardest parts of a campaign is bringing it all together to make sense in the end… and making an ending this big, beautiful culmination of everything the adventurers have worked for takes extra care.
Updates
Sidequest 5
This sidequest is written by Nerdarchy! It’s … cool. lol, how can I put this… It’s so well written and unique and edgy. I really can’t wait to hear what you all think about this sidequest. I remember they told me how much research they did on the subject when they wrote it. And now, you can see their awesomeness!
The PDF is uploaded to the Google Drive for backers.
I’ve actually redacted (;P) some of this side quest because there are some spoilers. The redactions will be removed once the book is put together.
Merchandise
This part isn’t as cool as the previous paragraphs. I’m not sure exactly what is happening but one of the items they should have, they can’t seem to find… or at least they only have 6 of them, but not 200+ of them. The warehouse also hasn’t responded to my emails about shipping estimates for those who want to purchase shipping again or for the other products I’ve asked about. I am continuing to receive the monthly bill on the warehouse so we shall see what comes up from this over the course of the next month. The previous years’ warehouse fees are paid in full and I’m working with others to bring this to fruition.
Discord
I started recalibrating the discord servers so those who are on Gilding Light will soon see that it is now a mental health platform. And Satine’s Quest Discord is where Sirens conversations will be had. I initially wanted to have this up and running by mid February, but getting so sick I wasn’t able to rally the energy for more than writing Sirens. Please let me know if you are interested in joining either Discord server.
That’s all I have for now, as long as I don’t get this sick again, Chapters 9 & 10 WILL be finished by April.
And now I go rest.
Have a great week, everyone.
Love and Life,
Satine
*Artwork by David Granjo
Sidequest 4 Upload
2 months ago
– Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 10:59:47 AM
Happy end of January 2026. This month flew by! Luckily, I am set up here in my new forever home, and although I’ve been sick for 3 weeks with whatever this cold is, I’m in the writing flow!
AND, here are some updates!
Sidequest 4!
I bring to you this month’s Side Quest: #4: From the Pan into the Fire! (Uploaded to the Backer Google Drive) This adventure is written by Alex Kammer of Gamehole Con in Madison, Wisconsin. He was a dear friend back when we did this Kickstarter. He’s SUCH a genuine, great guy, and his convention is one of my top 3 favorite conventions in the world. Gamehole Con has the energy of a big convention but the number of people you'd expect from a hometown convention. TONS of game designers and super fans attend, and we all hang out and get our nerd on like back in the old days. New kids and grognards alike all get along to do what we love: Gaming. It was one of the first conventions I attended where I felt respected, back in an era when women were not allowed in or were chased out of many conventions. Yeah, it wasn’t that long ago! Seriously, 10 years ago.
This side quest may give away some spoilers from Quest #4. I tried to edit some of the introduction to be a little more vague and to make it playable outside the game. The point of this heist has to do with the Pure Ke’Sava Tonic, so if you are not familiar with it, here are some specs (details of the compound and history can be found in the Sirens: Battle of the Bards Quest Master Material):
Pure Ke’Sava Tonic
The benefits of consuming Ke’Sava Tonic include: providing the effects of a long rest while also granting one of four possible additional effects at random by rolling 1d4, or at the GM’s discretion. The 4 effects are:
* Spell Attack & Save DC increase by 1d4 for 24 hours.
* The player may concentrate on up to two spells at once for 1 hour.
* The effects of the haste spell for 1 minute (applied once the party starts their performance).
* The player gains 4d8 temp HP.
We created this because the whole Sirens: Battle of the Bards campaign is meant to be played like the TV show 24. All 20 adventures take place over a 10-day music festival and competition. Actually, 9 days as the Grand Invocation is on day 10. That means there is VERY LITTLE time for long rests. In order for all of this to work, we developed tonics and elixirs used by the citizens of Salvata to help them stay up for days on end. Fantasy Red Bull and fantasy Aderall, amongst other things.
If you don’t like to play with intoxicants, then you can stay up and acquire the usual exhaustion levels and burn through your resources. However, we have designed this adventure with specific long rests in mind. One of my favorite parts of gaming is being able to play and understand resource management without knowing when I might get that long rest. And if you’ve ever watched Sirens of the Realms, you’ll see that the characters BARELY long rested. This is good old-fashioned gaming!
Sirens: Battle of the Bards is not a Politically Correct bubble gum kind of game. There are tons of playful light moments balanced with really dark, twisted ones. Your character can get high at a smoke shop, hallucinate at a tea shop, and party all night like rock stars. OR, you can play it more straightforwardly and avoid any of those things. The key is that the choices are there for you to play the kind of game you want, and we’ve incorporated elements to help you push your boundaries.
I think D&D got away from the dark and dangerous when they came out with stuff like Wild Beyond the Witchlight. In my opinion, it was way too childish for me; however, it is a great way to get new young players into the game. Sirens: Battle of the Bards is not that game UNLESS you run it that way. (I do like the new Baldur’s Gate 3 video game… they REALLY push things to the edge)
YOU CAN ALTER SIRENS: BATTLE OF THE BARDS HOWEVER YOU LIKE. If you want to take the intoxicants away, do it. If you want to add your own, do it. These books… ALL campaigns you purchase from anywhere can be altered to fit your style of play. THAT is the magic of TTRPGs. Make it your own. We wrote this book because this is how we like to play.
MERCH
It has taken me a bit to coordinate all the merchandise, as some items were missing from the warehouse. I’ve since given the warehouse the addresses of the backers who wish to pay for shipping of the items the warehouse has again, and I'm waiting on the warehouse’s response so I can send the shipping price. I’ve tracked down some of the missing items and need to order more Campaign Coins, since only a few ended up in the warehouse, and I have no idea where the rest are. I did pick up an extra job for March and April to pay for some of the extra merchandise, so that feels good.
BOOK PRINTERS
I’ve been researching new options for printing the book. So far, I have found 2 fairly decent print-on-demand options for the Sirens: Battle of the Bards hardcover. I’ll be focusing on getting those out to backers first. I’m still on the lookout for printers for the Special Edition Foil cover. Hopefully I can find someone who does the foil and can also do the box set with the Game Master screen, but that print run is a ways out. That will be phase 2.
VTTs
I still have no idea who worked on the VTT assets. I may have to send a lawyer to contact Jamison to get the VTT art and maps that have already been paid for. I’d prefer not to. If any of you out there know who worked on them or are the people who did, please email
[email protected]. I’d love to connect and see if we can work together to get the artwork so I can turn the campaign into VTT, as we had promised, and as people have paid for. The artwork and tokens have already been paid for… they’re out there somewhere…
That’s all the updates I have. Today I start on Quest 3 edits, so hopefully I can get that to Anthony the Editor by Thursday or Friday. I see he’s been working on the edits for Quest 1 & 2. It’s so awesome to see him clean everything up and make it shine! If you are looking for an editor, I’m happy to connect you to him. He’s the best editor I’ve ever worked with, and I’d love to see him work on other fun stuff! He’s got a great portfolio I can send over.
Hope you all can find time to play while the world is burning around us.
Love and Life
Satine~
2 of 10 chapters sent to Editor!
2 months ago
– Wed, Jan 21, 2026 at 08:27:02 PM
WOW! I gotta say, the real heavy lifting came with the story reorganization, cleanup, and pot holes getting filled.
I have sent Chapter 1 (30 pages) & Chapter 2 (49 pages) to the Editor! At this rate, I'm hoping Chapter 3 is out the door to Anthony the Editor by next week, when I send you all Side Quest 4!
That's 2 game chapters out of 10! And it's only the third week of January!
Here is a recap of what parts of the book you have received in PDF forms (475 pages so far) from the SBB Backer Drive if you are a backer:
Player's Material: 69 pages
Player Material Overview
Cooperation While Performing
Everyone’s An Artist
Salvatan Character Backgrounds
Siren of the Realm
Salvatan Artist
Salvatan City Council Employee
Salvatan Promoter of the Arts
Salvata Salvation Revolutionary
Salvatan Stoneweaver Apprentice
The Salvatan Bard Class
Class Features
Salvatan Arts
Spellcasting
Aura of Inspiration
Bardic Profession
Ability Score Improvement / Mastery
Expressions
Bardic Profession Subclasses
Anatomatechnic
Geotechnic
Invotechnic
Kismet
Orthotechnic
Prestidigitator
Pyrotechnic
Requiest
Rhetoritechnic
Wordsmith
Setting Material: 66 pages
Setting Material Overview
History of Salvata
Districts
District 1 - Procen
District 2 - Aureum
District 3 - Eernity
District 4 - Historium
District 5 - Viridian
District 6 - Luminarium
District 7 - Vision Heights
District 8 - HighGlory
District 9 - Elysian
District 10 - The Capstone
Quest Master Material: 224 pages
Intro to Quest Master Material
Explanation of sections
The Grand Invocation
Ke’Sava
● Factions (in progress)
Salvata Salvation
Vlahnya Um’Vairar
Emerald Cabal
The Herald
Calrath
##Spoiler info
Agents and Muses
Quest Master Setting Material
District 1 - Procen
District 2 - Aureum
District 3 - Eernity
District 4 - Historium
District 5 - Viridian
District 6 - Luminarium
District 7 - Vision Heights
District 8 - HighGlory
District 9 - Elysian
District 10 - The Capstone
● How to Run This Campaign (in progress)
Session Zero: 24 pages
Sidequest 1: 22 pages
Sidequest 2: 30 pages
Sidequest 3: 40 pages
That's all the update I have for today. I was just so excited that I had to share this with you all before I headed to bed tonight.
A quick thought before I sign off:
Don't let anyone tell you what you can or can't do. Even if the task seems daunting and it takes ... 5 years... keep at it. Every page is one step closer to the last. Eventually, you will get there and have fun while you're at it.
Love and life,
Satine
Session Zero Release!
3 months ago
– Thu, Jan 08, 2026 at 12:59:54 PM
2 New UPDATES to share!
- Newest upload in the Sirens Backer Files 2025 Google Doc:
"Sirens BOTB - Campaign Material - Session Zero Jan82026"
After chatting with a few folks about the Session Zero, Anthony and I decided to move forward with releasing it! It's the new year and I've been having a blast hearing about all of your new adventure plans. It just makes sense to not sit on this chapter.
The Sirens: Battle of the Bards Session Zero is my baby! I've grown and crafted it for 10 years now, running it at conventions, comic book stores, events, and home games.
When I originally planned to release this Session Zero on DMsGuild, I tried to work with a couple of writers, but they didn't seem to understand precisely what I was trying to do. It's a quick 20-40 min improvisational team-building exercise, not a 2-hour adventure. It is designed using stage acting elements from my years as an actress, and psychology to encourage cooperation through fast paced desision making. No idea is a stupid idea, and the more creative and elaborate, the more bonding.
It wasn't until we did the Kickstarter that I found the perfect team to help write my crafted Session Zero system: Theo and Grady of The Gallant Goblin. If you haven't seen their work, go check them out. They are creative powerhouses and two of my favorite TTRPG gaming writers. Their work is clean, concise, and easy to understand. I hope they run a "How to write TTRPGs" course because they are truly masters of the craft.
They not only were able to translate everything in my brain as I tried to explain every aspect, but they make it easy to understand and implement.
If you are running convention games this year, I highly recommend using the basics of this Session Zero at the start. I've seen strangers form lasting connections and new friendships because of this easy 20-minute exercise.
- All systems are GO on the updated Sirens: Battle of the Bards campaign story!
Anthony the Editor and I went through each chapter and sidequest, and organized, clarified, sorted, and stripped the story. It is now ready to be pieced back together! I was worried I would have to do major rewrites, but by removing one NPC, I was able to make room to include more of the Sirens of the Realms characters into the Rebellion storyline. This way, the players get to interact with the actual Sirens even more. Brig Hellclaw, Feylore, Girasol, Shadow, and Xaris will be fully alive in this campaign. I'm even considering revealing their character sheets as Stat Blocks to make them playable in this game.
One big area of cleanup: Don't let anyone tell you it's ok to have one single NPC info dump/exposition or take agency away from the players. You'll probably never get a chance to read what was removed, but maybe you will. Maybe I'll include it as an example of what not to do in one of my Storytelling courses. I'm just so glad it wasn't released back a few years ago. The entire adventure would have been eaten alive. So... this is one of many blessings in disguise.
Where are we at? I'm aiming to complete 1 chapter every other week and send it to Anthony for editing. I won't be releasing the individual chapters as they are finished. I WILL still release 1 sidequest each month, and the next is Side Quest 4. When the 9 adventures are finished, I'll write chapter 10 and the 3 or 4 endings.
Will we playtest this? I'm not sure yet. I've playtested the first 6 chapters already a few times and have received notes about them. I may just have the teams who were signed up to review the Player, Setting, and Quest Master Materials read through them. That will be decided closer to the release. For now, based on the flexibility of this campaign, my instincts are saying to just have readers for notes.
Man, it feels good to have a big update like this. As we've been working on Sirens: Battle of the Bards, I've been able to remember all of the good times that we've had since Sirens of the Realms was developed in 2017 for Dungeons and Dragons. So much laughter, so many emotional moments. Both on and off camera. And although the Kickstarter went up in flames after the cancellation, there are far more good memories attached to Sirens. No one can take those away. Nothing can rewrite the genuine moments of amazingness, moments you'll probably never know of.
I remember one person on the video production team complaining about my Sirens, and I stood up for my girls. I said "I hired these amazing over-the-top Divas! There are no actors like them in the space, and I am so lucky and grateful to have a place for them at the table. I want them to bring it! I want their Attitude and Extraness and I will never ask them to be anything other than they are."
I've never told that story before. Those are the kinds of words said behind the scenes. The words said to protect, not for showing off on social media. So much happened behind the scenes. Sure there was some drama, it's show business and LA runs on the fumes of drama queens. ... But I stood up for them, no matter what. And I want to honor the Sirens in this adventure.
Where can you find the Session Zero? If you are a backer, you can download it from Backerkit. There will also be an email update (I believe). For those of you who have the Google Drive link, you can find it uploaded there.
For those of you who still want to purchase the Sirens: Battle of the Bards book, I will not/can't ethically charge you for the book right now (Thank you to those who have asked), BUT, I can sell you the PDF. Just send me a message at [email protected] and we wil get you sorted out with access to the Google Drive. Once the book gets printed and published, you'll be able to pay the difference to get a hard copy of the book.
Have a lovely day/night, everyone, wherever you are. I truly hope 2026 is kinder to each and every one of you.
Love and life,
Satine
2026! Sidequest 3 upload!
3 months ago
– Fri, Jan 02, 2026 at 11:48:18 AM
Ah yes, the holidays have finally settled down and it's time for another Backer Update! Here is the Sidequest 3 adventure! Written by Monica Valentinelli and Felicia Rosenfeld.
(This PDF has been uploaded to the Google Doc "Siren's Backer Files" and is a download in backerkit.)
This adventure hints at a key element in Act 3 that is definitely a spoiler for the overall adventure. Details on the element is in the Quest Master Materials PDF.
The sidequests are written to be run in between adventures (this one between chapters 3 & 4) or as a stand alone one-shot... OR, you can run your adventurers through the sidequest series only. You are the Quest Master and have agency to take pieces of all of this and play them as you wish.
And since this was started a few years ago, it's using the old-fashioned 5e rules. I haven't read the updated rules (and am not planning to any time soon). Feel free to run these as is or with your own updated elements.
One of the parts of the Sirens: BOTB Campaign Materials I was going to release with the campaign itself is the Session Zero. My question to you is: Would you like me to release the Session Zero as a separate PDF? Would you like to run your adventurers through this first or as a prologue to your game now? That element is complete and may help with any game you may be starting in the new year.
Leave your vote in the comments below. I can edit and format this sooner than later and upload to the google drive and backerkit.
Anthony the Editor and I have scheduled a meeting for next week to catch up since the holidays were very family oriented (at least for me), so I'll have more updates for you about the campaign itself in the coming week.
Happy 2026 everyone! Here's to hoping it's significantly different than 2025.
Love and life,
Satine <3
