Zachary Olson Presents SAGAS OF THE SUNLESS REACH
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zacharyolson.bsky.social
Zachary Olson Presents SAGAS OF THE SUNLESS REACH
@zacharyolson.bsky.social
350 followers 1.9K following 140 posts
He/Him | Writer where words are read, cast at ftlcast.com, music at iambugbear.bandcamp.com. Listen to @sunlessreach.bsky.social
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zacharyolson.bsky.social
Several months of adventuring in the Dolmenwood(using Fantasy AGE 2e as our rules system) has led to a battle for the town of Prigwort, using FAGE's Mass Battle system. Very excited to see how things go and if my players can manage to save it from destruction.
A screenshot of a map of Prigwort from our VTT, showing a pair of Mass Battle Cards for the Prigwort Protectorate and the Crookhorn Assault Force, each of which collects their forces, specialists, and statistics.
November 27, 2025 at 10:11 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Had a lovely surprise waiting for me when I got home from work tonight! @bonedustpress.bsky.social @mythjae.bsky.social
The paperback of The Traitor & The Wretch, by Jasmine Walls and Rowan MacColl. The book has reflective silver embossing over an illustrated depiction of the two titular protagonists.
September 30, 2025 at 5:19 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Exterminators coming back again, had to unpack my bookshelves AGAIN, Lord alive
So many books and other stuff stacked on top of a bare metal bedframe
September 14, 2025 at 11:01 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Two weeks later and finally got my other shelf put together. This is a little more eclectic, except for the Pathfinder Hyperfocus Zone and the Discworld shelf.
A photograph of a bookshelf laden with books. On the lower shelves are Pathfinder modules, sourcebooks, and various other RPG books. Above that are a smattering of graphic novels and paperbacks, with a shelf dedicated to Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
August 14, 2025 at 1:41 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
(this collection, for the record)
A collection of Pathfinder 2e rulebooks, adventure modules, and Adventure Path volumes. It is almost every adventure and rulebook released since Strength of Thousands and the 2e remaster.
August 1, 2025 at 9:21 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Had to move my bookshelves recently due to exterminators coming in, so I had a chance to re-shuffle some of my game books when I put them back
A bookshelf full of enough TTRPG rulebooks that I gave up counting for this alt-text. There's a bunch of them on there.
August 1, 2025 at 7:01 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
this one was really interesting, so impressive to take such wild swings straight out the gate
a screenshot of Final Fantasy 2, showing 13 hours on the play clock, 4 million gil accrued, and that the main character Firion ended the game with 9999 HP. The achievement list for Final Fantasy 2, showing that I unlocked all achievements for it.
July 29, 2025 at 5:35 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
sorted
The pause menu from the Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy 1, showing my final party at level 99 each, with 999999 Gil. A screenshot of the Steam achievement list for Final Fantasy 1, showing I unlocked 24/24 achievements.
July 25, 2025 at 5:12 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
fuck you fuck you fuck you
A screenshot from the Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy 1. It shows the bestiary entry for the extremely rare encounter Warmech, showing that it has been defeated once.
July 25, 2025 at 4:59 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
My Wednesday group and I played a three and a half-session game of @lamemage.com's Microscope to flesh out the setting of our first, extremely beloved Masks campaign as we prepare to return for a new superhero game. We maybe did more design-by-committee than is allowed, but we had a hell of a time.
A screenshot of a Roll20 screen of our Microscope game. It is covered with dozens of tightly-typed index cards describing numerous events in a superheroic setting. Many of them are too small to read at this resolution.
May 10, 2025 at 5:15 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Had meant to wait a week or two before adding this to the thread, and then three months passed!

LIKE NO OTHER BEAST, my first story for Magic the Gathering. Behold, a land like no other, and the prince who would defend it: magic.wizards.com/en/news/magi...
An excerpt from "Like No Other Beast." It reads: Khrad stalked through the underbrush, following the creature's trail. It had no tracks, as such—only the two deep grooves that continued without step or stop, curving when faced with sturdy trees it could not trample. Here and there the prince found bits of viscous tar. An ooze had been through here—but oozes did not leave such rigid trails. What manner of beast was this? The rumble came again. Closer this time. Khrad and Grazak broke into a sprint, mantling over fallen trees. The creature's roar drew nearer. With it came other sounds. A reedy, snarling voice cried out, "Faster, damn you! Faster!"
April 28, 2025 at 9:48 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
This wizard is so confident he's gonna kill this guy, he had a Superbowl party about it.

EDWARD FISH'S FOLLY, a short little yarn in Swords and Sorcery Magazine. swordsandsorcerymagazine.com/edward-fishs...
An excerpt from "Edward Fish's Folly." It reads: The solitary law that binds Gran Marche’s thieves is this: only filch what you can flip. It is a law in truth more pragmatic than moral, for even in Gran Marche–which straddles the Turquoise and Citrine Seas, bobbing in the Lowan Bayou’s outer edge, where it is said that anything can be found and anyone can be lost, for the right price, of course–there yet exist trinkets too hot to handle. But it wouldn’t be Gran Marche if people didn’t try.
April 28, 2025 at 9:31 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
My Wednesday gaming group is finally circling back to a new big superhero campaign, FIVE YEARS after starting our very first Masks campaign. To ease back into it and make sure we're using the right system, we've elected to test a few in in-universe oneshots. Obviously, I had to make a roadmap.
A list of titles with subtitles below them, each referring to an adventure in this prequel miniseries.
April 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Got a lightning bolt of inspiration on the way to work
Is [Blank] this campaign's Revolver Ocelot?
March 23, 2025 at 7:59 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
We grow, we grow, we grow
A screenshot of an Xbox achievement for the video game Avowed. It reads: "Avowed. Complete Avowed on any difficulty. Only 3.28% of gamers unlocked this. Unlocked 3/2/2025"
March 3, 2025 at 2:42 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
A poorly photoshopped Pikmin with Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad's face on it, color-matched to his skin tone instead of a normal Pikmin color
January 18, 2025 at 9:29 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Just finished a playthrough of Skald: Against the Black Priory after hearing about it from a @rangedtouch.bsky.social video from way back. Really neat game, some very fun systems, though the tactical layer is such that I kind of just bulldozed through the last few sections. 8.5-9 overall, 7-ish end.
A screenshot from the win screen of Skald: Against the Black Priory, detailing that the player character completed the game as a Level 20 Officer in 56 days.
January 7, 2025 at 4:04 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Do I dare?
a screenshot of a steam library page for Kentucky Route Zero. The page says it was last played on February 19th, 2014 for 48 minutes, which is an enormous amount of time ago.
December 25, 2024 at 6:28 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
See you, choom.
A screenshot of a Steam library page for Cyberpunk 2077, showing that I played 72 hours and got 28/57 achievements. A screenshot from the Star ending of Cyberpunk 2077, showing my V and Panam leaning against each other as they ride out into a future full of possibility. A screenshot of my Steam library, where I've selected the "Uninstall" option for Cyberpunk 2077.
December 24, 2024 at 8:18 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Proof that at least one other person has read my work--out loud, at that!

SUNDAYS WITH POP-POP, a fun little cosmic horror family yarn narrated by the lovely folks at @drabblecast.bsky.social

www.drabblecast.org/2024/11/28/d...
An excerpt from "Sundays With Pop-Pop." It reads: Pop-Pop’s cabin lay on unincorporated land just across the county line. Calling it a cabin is a bit of a misnomer; really, it’s a mansion. An anemic, bootstrapped, sprawling one, but a mansion nonetheless. A winding gravel path welded it to State Route 336 like a taxidermied limb. Getting from the property’s edge to the house itself was nearly twenty minutes on its own–the path was made of hairpin turns. The kind of place that radiated “get the fuck away.” Fit the man himself, I guess.
December 2, 2024 at 1:47 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
day fucking one
an order confirmation receipt for the shirt in the quoted post
November 27, 2024 at 9:54 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
A tale about the sort of things we force ourselves to live through, part of Dark Matter's THE OFF SEASON.

WHAT WASHES UP IN ARIZONA, 2.4k words of terse, conversational prose that I'm quite proud of. darkmattermagazine.shop/products/dar...
An excerpt from WHAT WASHES UP IN ARIZONA. It reads: USED TO BE this joke. Stop me if you’ve heard it. “If you believe that, I’ve got some beachfront property in Arizona to sell you.” I’ve been dredging off the Grand Canyon Coast for quite a while now, and folks still find it in themselves to laugh. Ain’t no one owns property out here.
November 11, 2024 at 7:55 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
It's unseasonably warm in Chicago today, which means it's the perfect weather to read my story in THE OFF SEASON, edited by the wonderful @marissavu.bsky.social and available wherever books are sold. Ask yourself: can you really call this living?
An excerpt from What Washes Up In Arizona. It reads: LORELEI DIDN’T ASK too many questions when I climbed back on the Treasure. She stayed quiet for a while as the sun kept on its climbing. For a minute, I really did forget she was there. Too focused on heading north toward Marble Canyon. Hoped to make it before noon. Otherwise, the shimmer’d get too close to see the shore. Couldn’t sail like that. Around eleven, Lorelei spoke up again. Asked if I’d heard those rumors. That things fell from the sky sometimes, full of toxic chemicals and cosmic radiation. That they leaked where they lay. Made the land around them fallow. I told her sure. I’d even come across a few. Those low-Earthorbit habitats couldn’t fling their runoff into space. Couldn’t slip our gravity. So, they dumped it onto us. She asked me if it bothered me. If I was scared of getting sick. I thought of Matt. Staring out into the haze. Stepping off the bow. I told her we were sick already. The cover for the Off Season: an anthology of coastal new weird.
October 30, 2024 at 12:48 AM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
This one just dropped recently, but I wrote it ages ago. Some things take some time to find homes.

LAIR OF THE BODEGA WARLOCK. 4k-ish words of rowdy urban fantasy, featuring a character I hope you'll see much more of. t.co/M4QXromozE
The opening paragraphs of Lair of the Bodega Warlock. It reads: RIVERA’S BODEGA CROUCHED on the corner of Halberd and Squire, moody and bright like a surly macaw—or a poison dart frog. The snow that thickly blanketed the borough stopped short at the sidewalk outside—a paltry charm, the owner would say, to ensure for his customers a positive experience. Crisp bag pennants papered the window, a cellophane mosaic broken by intermittent cigarette ads and a handwritten sign reminding passersby that they could get a free hex with every hundred dollars spent. But nobody passed by Rivera’s that day. Kieran Quick had come to call.
October 16, 2024 at 6:41 PM
zacharyolson.bsky.social
Wrote the first drafts of this as part of a writing competition, and it wouldn't leave my mind until it was out in the world.

THE COASTER QUEEN RIDES AGAIN, available in MAKE YOUR PRESENCE KNOWN. 2k words of empathetic exorcism.
t.co/X12IKeAXMg
The opening text of The Coaster Queen Rides Again. It reads: People like to think they understand ghosts. They tell their spooky stories, scaring each other with tales of Bloody Mary, of the Vanishing Hitchhiker, of La Llorona and The Lady in Black and the Ghost of Christmas Past. But no one talks about the ghosts of normal people.
October 16, 2024 at 6:40 PM