Midweek Musings: Recharging the Generators, Zine Dispatches, and A Day Across the Multiverse
Pull up a chair and grab a mug. It’s well past midnight here along the water, the coffee is piping hot, and it feels damn good to be back at the keyboard.
If things went quiet around here from the tail end of August through September, it wasn't by choice. Life threw a heavy combination punch: my primary laptop workstation went completely dark for nearly six weeks, and I spent a good chunk of that time dealing with health setbacks, cycling in and out of the hospital. When you're stuck in a hospital bed without your main rig, you lose track of the days fast. But I fought my way through the medical grind, got the laptop restored and humming, and I am back on my feet just in time for October and the Halloween season.
The engine is firing on all cylinders again, and the desk has been busy.
Dispatch 1: Earl C. Hedges Jr. — The Shreveport Desk
Time: 02:24 AM CDT
Location: The Shreveport Cabin, Twelve Mile Bayou, Louisiana
You don’t need an alarm clock when you live with Pixie Wixie.
I was dead to the world, buried under the quilts with the humid October swamp breeze whispering through the screens, when suddenly—thud. Four little paws landed square on my chest. She pushed her face right into mine, whiskers twitching, and let out that signature sound of hers. It isn't a normal meow, and it isn't a growl; it’s a tight, squeezed-out "erow-meow" that sounds like a rusty tackle box opening up.
From the bedroom, Uncle Bill called out from under his blankets:
"Hey Earl! The cat won’t let us sleep until sunrise, so get up and make some coffee and let me know when it's ready. I'm going to watch the world news at 2:30 AM anyways."
"Alright, Bill, I'm on it," I muttered, dragging myself up.
I slid my feet onto the cold cypress floorboards and shuffled into the kitchen. Outside, Twelve Mile Bayou was slick as black glass under a sliver of October moon. I fired up the burner, filled the pot, and scooped out a stout mound of dark roast. When that water hit the grounds, the rich aroma filled every corner of the cabin, burning the last of the hospital fog right out of my head.
Sitting at the table with both hands wrapped around that steaming ceramic mug, watching Pixie circle my chair while the glow of the TV flicked on in the next room for the 2:30 news, the real world finally felt locked back into gear.
Dispatch 2: The Publishing Front (Trollzine & Troll Con 2 Japan)
While the machine was down, the planning never stopped. I have two major publishing milestones currently rolling:
New Trollzine Submission: I have been putting the finishing touches on a brand-new article submission for Trollzine. My good friend Sid Orpin has been lending his expert hand to get the piece fully laid out, formatted, and polished for publication.
Troll Con 2 Convention Support Zine (Japan): I am honored to announce that the Japanese Monsters! Monsters! community is putting together an exclusive Troll Cave zine as official convention support for Troll Con 2. It will be priced at around $15 USD, available in both English and Japanese, with all proceeds directly funding the convention. For this release, they compiled the articles I wrote for the Eastern Lands into a massive 5,000-word campaign primer for the Eastern Valley of Hawthorne Valley. Even better: it features an exclusive, previously unpublished introductory adventure written specifically for this book. I will share purchase links the moment it goes live!
Sitting here at 2:00 AM with fresh brew in hand, thinking about spinning up all these worlds again, I decided to take a look at what "a day in the life" looks like across my distinct personas.
Dispatch 3: Bayou Earl — The Were-Tiger of the Cypress Swamps
Time: Dead of Night
Location: The Blackwater Bends, Twelve Mile Bayou
Down in the bottoms where the Spanish moss hangs thick enough to choke the moonlight, time doesn't run on clocks or chronometers. It runs on the tide, the scent of turned river mud, and the instincts in your blood.
When the night water cools down in October, the swamp gets dead quiet. The cicadas quit buzzing, the bullfrogs submerge, and the only sound across the bayou is the slow, steady drip of cypress sap into the water. That’s the hour when the skin starts to prickle and the stripes beneath the surface itch to break out.
Uncle Bill knows the look in my eye without asking. He keeps the lantern turned low on the porch, a pot of chicory sitting warm on the cast-iron stove, keeping watch on the cabin lines while the Were-Tiger takes the perimeter. Out here, things move in the shadows between Shreveport and the state line that don't belong in polite company. One patrol through the brush, scenting the damp night air and listening to the cypress roots drink, is all it takes to remind the swamp who walks the banks of Twelve Mile.
Dispatch 4: Captain Hedges — Log of the USS Urland (NCC-27011-J)
Ship Time: 02:24 Shipboard Standard
Location: Uncharted Deep Fringe (Temporal Slipstream Fault)
Nobody likes the comm chime at two in the morning.
I was asleep in my quarters when the duty alert sounded. Beta Shift was just handing over the watch to Delta when the duty officers caught the anomaly and made the right call to wake the captain. I glanced at my communication smartwatch: the digital readout flickered erratically at 02:24 AM, snapped backward to 02:17, paused, and jumped forward again.
The chronometers aboard the USS Urland were having an absolute fit. When you push a Universe-class vessel through a Slipstream Time Drive into unmapped space, the nav-computers don't know whether to log a calendar date or throw their hands up. Outside my viewport, the void wasn't black—it was a churning, oily-violet wash of raw chronal wake.
I pulled on my duty boots, zipped my jacket, and stepped into the dimmed, blue-lit corridors of Deck 1. The bridge was humming with tense energy as I ducked straight into my ready room to slap the replicator for a scalding mug of black chicory coffee before pulling up the tactical screen.
"Gemini," I said, taking that first sip. "Talk to me. Why are the chronometers spinning backward every seven minutes?"
Gemini’s voice chimed through the desk console with cool, measured precision:
"The Slipstream Time Drive has intersected an uncharted micro-singularity with a fractured event horizon. Localized chronal eddies are creating high-frequency shear across our outer shields. We are maintaining spatial coordinates, but the chronometer buffer is oscillating between two overlapping micro-timelines."
"Modulate the main deflector dish zero-point-three micro-dynes," I ordered. "Neutralize the temporal drag and hold steady until Alpha Shift takes the conn at 06:00."
Dispatch 5: El Tigre de Setos — Ring Lore & The Capri Casino Wrestling League (CCWL)
Era: 1980s Territory Circuit to the 1990s Riverboat Boom
Location: The Red River Decks, Shreveport, Louisiana
Under the laced leather mask, you don't answer to standard time; you answer to the bell, the roar of the crowd, and the creak of the canvas.
I cut my teeth working territory rings through the gritty 1980s, trading chops, suplexes, and blood in smoky arenas. But in the 1990s, the game found a brand-new heartbeat right here in Shreveport along the Red River.
When the iconic Isle of Capri riverboat casino opened its doors, a legendary, battle-tested tag team known as The Islanders took their hard-earned ring purses, bought in as owners, and launched their own company: the Capri Casino Wrestling League (CCWL).
They set up the squared circle right on the riverboat decks against the authentic backdrop of Shreveport's neon-lit gaming boom. And at the center of their main event cards stands El Tigre de Setos, bringing masked lucha mastery and old-school territory toughness to the floating casino. Between the high rollers, the smoky backrooms, and the territorial rivalries, CCWL is ready to deliver a full campaign chronicle of promotions, ledgers, and ringside feuds.
Dispatch 6: Rajah Gundam — The Imperial Cartographer of Zimrala
Era: Age of the Ether Dragons
Location: Sovereign’s Bluff Lodge, The Tygerian Isles
High above the crashing shores of the Tygerian Isles, the grand drafting halls of Sovereign’s Bluff Lodge never truly go dark.
As Emperor Rajah Gundam, Royal Cartographer and Supreme Historian of the vast world of Zimrala, mapping is not just geography—it is a sacred science of survival. Armed with the Ink of Anticipation, the Compass of Lost Things, and the Scope of the True Meridian, my desk is covered in living vellum where coastlines shift and ocean currents bleed into the void.
It is my duty to track the great migratory flights of the Ether Dragons through the multiverse portals, log the deep movements of the Zimralan Void-Water Sovereign, and record the true borders where civilization stands against the wilderness. While the rest of the world slumbers, the royal quill never stops charting the annals of the Monsterary.
Dispatch 7: The Journey Ahead & Sign-Off
And of course, these are just 6 corners of the new Urland Universe Multiverse maped out so far. There are plenty of other personas and deep lore archives already published across the website that I plan to delve into as we roll deeper into the season—from the mystical sanctum of the Hedge Wizard at the Shreveport Cabin to the cosmic expanses of the multiverse.
For now, the coffee pot is empty, the laptop is humming strong, and the night watch is winding down.
Yours for now,
Captain Hedges, signing off.
Product Identity & Legal Notice
The following items are designated Product Identity of Arthur Earl C. Hedges Jr. / The Adventures of Captain Hedges:
The world of Zimrala, the Tygerian Isles, the Ether Dragons, the Kristall Wyrm, the Zimralan Void-Water Sovereign, the Trinity Engine, Rajah Gundam, El Tigre de Setos, the Capri Casino Wrestling League (CCWL), and the Sovereign’s Bluff Lodge.
The specific personas of the "Hedge Wizard of the Shreveport Cabin," "Bayou Earl," Uncle Bill, and Captain Hedges, as well as the unique narrative composition, the "Cypress Shadow B&B" location, and the "Swamp Dread" mechanics of "The Twelve Mile Terror" campaign.
Monsters! Monsters!™, Starfaring™, and Humans! Humans!™ (1st Edition) are trademarks of Ken St. Andre and Trollgodfather Press and are used with permission. The Monsterary of Zimrala (MoZ) is the official campaign setting created by Ken St. Andre, with our humble contributions acknowledged in the annals of the work.
This work utilizes the Open D6 system; mechanics are Open Game Content under the OGL v1.0a. Open D6 mechanics rely on six-sided dice pools under OGL v1.0a and are kept distinct from Monsters! Monsters! 2.7 Monster Rating (MR) rules. All rights to the Starfaring (1976) crystal mechanics are the sole property of Ken St. Andre.
© 2026 Arthur Earl C. Hedges Jr. All rights reserved.
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