Author: Jason St-Cyr
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Breakfast is good | A Thora Silentblade tale
Glancing around the room Thora knew that they had a lot of work ahead of them. Carrying the bandit’s body up the stairs and flopping it down next to the old man’s body was the easy step, now the hard stuff was going to begin. This room was apparently filled…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 4 (Part 2)
Building a Reputation In the second part of chapter 4 of the Thora Silentblade series, the gang find a dangerous puzzle between them and the villagers rightful belongings. Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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Coming Home | Corruption of Lani
The smell of burnt wood filled the afternoon air all around them. After the long night, it wasn’t hard for most to sleep through the day, even with the sound of cleanup work happening all around them. It was Tanthalas who was awake first, his pack shaking and rocking, back…
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7 Years of working with a great team
It was 7 years ago today I published a “new job” article as I launched myself on a new path in my career. I joined the vision that Pieter Brinkman had and over the years that evolved into the #DevRel crew at #Sitecore today! Back then I joined Tamas Varga,…
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Displaying Hit Point trackers in Foundry VTT maps
In most scenarios, you as the Game Master want to keep the enemy hit points hidden from the players. Sometimes, though, you have a situation where they need to have an idea of progress against a total. In my case, I am planning a scene where the players are defending…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 4 (Part 1)
Building a Reputation In the first part of chapter 4 of the Thora Silentblade series, Thora and the gang begin the search of the Ranch House, finding more than they expected! Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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As Cold as Ice | A Thora Silentblade tale
Thora stretched out their arms as the morning sun began to shed its first rays upon the sky. Today was the big day in Pitted Dusk, the day to recapture the predators that had been loosed the night before. After the triumph at the challenges the day before, Thora had…
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SUGCON Europe 2024 – Day Two
Day two of SUGCON did not disappoint with so many breakouts that there is no way to cover all of them! A few sessions had some nice photos from them so I’ve tried to collect these together here along with notes from what I could tell was being shared. You…
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SUGCON Europe 2024 – Day One
Once again I had to enjoy a SUGCON from the comforts of home, but thanks to a few folks sharing photos I got to feel a little bit of the excitement of the event. I’ve gathered together some photos and notes from the community during Day One of SUGCON in…
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Using Subtitle Edit to create amazing audio to text SRT transcripts
Subtitle Edit is a free and open source tool that does a WHOLE lot of things, but the key piece it is doing for me in my workflow is transcribing audio to text so that I can get SRT transcripts with very little editing required. The accuracy on this has…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 3 (Part 3)
The Ranch House In the final part of chapter 3 of the Thora Silentblade series, Thora and the gang infiltrate the Ranch House on a mission of revenge. The target? Cavendish! Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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And the people bowed and prayed | Corruption of Lani
The glowing red light coming out from under the door was made all the more menacing by the sound of the multiple voices chanting in some strange language. Echo steeled herself for what was about to come as Thegman placed himself in front of the doorway. Already they had found…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 3 (Part 2)
The Ranch House In the second part of chapter 3 of the Thora Silentblade series, Thora attempts to break into the Ranch House without raising the alarm. Things do not go as planned! Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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Always bet on Bard | A Thora Silentblade tale
They were about four days from Wilted Gulch when the scenery on their path started to shift. The desert behind them was giving way to an arid expanse that featured more vegetation than they had been seeing up until now. There was a smell in the air that Thora couldn’t…
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How the other half lives | A Tale from the Borderlands
Always read the paperwork New-U Investigation log, Day Two, evening entry. These days are getting loooooong. Just returned back from the Jakobs headquarters to meet up with the crew at the Siren and share notes. Zoe was again at the top of her game getting into those JMA computers and…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 3 (Part 1)
The Ranch House In the first part of chapter 3 of the Thora Silentblade series, the crew arrive at the Ranch House of the Cavendish gang, hoping to ambush some slumbering thugs but they find a surprise guest instead! Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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The Gangs of Port Laroche | A Tale from the Borderlands
Finally some clues. New-U Investigation log, Day Two. The search began in the personnel files we got from Dubois. Mostly Hyperion files in here, which means not much I can find on the Jakobs folks themselves. It does seem like we have found our weak point: Gavin Orland. Apparently this…
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The space between the words: tackling generative AI email messages
I started this as a reply to a LinkedIn post by Deane Barker that got me thinking. Then I started it as a separate LinkedIn post because it was getting too long. Now here I am writing a full article because I can’t keep my character count in check! (Perhaps…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 2 (Part 4)
To Catch a Cavendish In this final part of chapter 2 of the Thora Silentblade series, the crew gather to come up with a plan… a plan for revenge! Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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Release the Kraken! | A Tale from the Borderlands
That’s a smart fish There are so many files here to dig through, but at least they seem detailed enough. It’s hard to think that right now Penny and I would be digging through a bunch of reports with the crew after what went down last night. I had just…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 2 (Part 3)
To Catch a Cavendish In this third part of chapter 2 of the Thora Silentblade series, the mysterious meeting in Wilted Gulch becomes a death trap for the would-be adventurers! Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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Beware the siren’s call | A Thora Silentblade tale
Once again, Thora checked the bandages to see how things were healing. The armour had held up, but the dwarf had not fared quite as well. It was becoming a regular habit at this point to settle down for the evening and check to make sure how all of the…
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Generating a LinkedIn Learning horror story with Microsoft Copilot
As part of keeping up with tech as it comes out, I decided to take some LinkedIn Learning courses on generative AI. During a particular course covering the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot, I asked it to generate a horror story about LinkedIn Learning, and this thing is absolute gold! 🤣😂Somehow,…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 2 (Part 2)
To Catch a Cavendish In this second part of chapter 2 of the Thora Silentblade series, Thora finds themselves in Andy Deen’s Waterin’ Hole, the location of a special meeting calling for all adventurers to gather. Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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Beneath the ruins | The Corruption of Lani
The group moved on in silence after finding Echo’s friend lying in the hall. It was clear that Ikan had given his life to save the little halfling that now accompanied them. Echo was quiet and following the others, but slowly growing more tense. You could sense the tension in…
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Thora Silentblade audiobook in Podcast format!
I have finally entered my middle-aged cishet white male stereotype: I have a podcast! Thanks to a great suggestion from a follower on Mastodon, I decided to figure out how to create a podcast for those audiobook episodes I’m working on. Now, I’ll be able to publish to Spotify, Apple…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 2 (Part 1)
To Catch a Cavendish In this first part of chapter 2 of the Thora Silentblade series, Thora makes their way across the world of Rhime in search of adventure and arrives in the desert town of Wilted Gulch. Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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Whistle while you work | A Thora Silentblade tale
It was almost an hour later when Thora finally came around, a crick in the neck forming from the awkward sleeping position in the chair. Stretching out, the dwarf looked around the shelter to find most of the others quietly chatting or similarly taking a moment to sleep. It was…
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Guess who’s coming for dinner | A Tale from the Borderlands
Slightly overprepared This place is a little cramped, but it’s nice to be resting someplace that isn’t on a ship for once. While I’m not used to the smell of the Kraken yards yet, it sure beats the industrial scent of refined air being pumped through your quarters for the…
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Audiobook: Thora Silentblade – Chapter 1
New Beginnings In this first chapter of the Thora Silentblade series, Thora considers what has led them to this point and preps to find a new home. Written and narrated by Jason St-Cyr
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Coming soon: Thora Silentblade audiobook!
Time to try something different! I’ve been doing a lot of writing and I want to find a way to bring that to my video channels, so I’ll be making audiobook recordings of chapters from my Thora Silentblade story available on YouTube and TikTok! Full Video Transcript I’ve been having…
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A village in flames | The Corruption of Lani
The mist-like rain continued to fall upon the lantern-lit roadway. The encounter with the mob on the road had been brief and now the weather-soaked heroes looked around at the unconscious figures lying at their feet. What could have caused this rabble to attack like that? Clearly something unnatural was…
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Video: What is Initiative?
Who’s up first? Rolling for Initiative is an iconic D&D moment that you hear mentioned a lot, but when you’re new to the table you might not know why people are doing this. Full Video Transcript Hey friends, welcome to the table. Today I want you to roll for initiative!…
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The siren goes WoOo WoOo WoOo | A Tale from the Borderlands
Totally inconspicuous The sound of waves splashing against a hard wall can be heard in the background. I can see it from here, just out of range for target practice, but close enough to keep an eye on things through the scope. The local Jakob’s outpost. Heavily guarded, likely full…
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Hunting the hunters | A Thora Silentblade tale
The large bonfire burning in the center of the room cast a dancing glow, eerily flickering across a massive trail of blood spread across the floor. In the distance, Thora was sure they heard the sounds of feet running, but it might have just been the adrenaline pumping from the…
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Video: What is Min-Maxing?
Optimizing your character Are you new to D&D? Min-maxing might be something you want to skip for now. Focus on the basics and learn the system, then start learning how to optimize your character. Full Video Transcript Hey everybody, welcome to the table. Today I wanna talk about min-maxing. You…
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A Sign of Darkness | The Corruption of Lani
High in the air, the dark outline of the drake was fading out of sight and most of the townsfolk had returned to their day. Gathering up their things, and the engineer’s remains, the group travelled with Krynth back to Valor’s Rest to regroup with Thegman. The dwarf had not…
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The Miner’s Gambit | A Thora Silentblade tale
Silence settled upon the cave as the screaming goblin’s body fell to the ground. Thora’s eyes scanned the rafters of the chamber they were in, looking for an ambush or signs of more danger. Everything was quiet as the group spread out and investigated the cave system. While the others…
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A deadly headache | A Tale from the Borderlands
This one might take more than some whiskey As Penny lies in the medbay, once again out cold, I am reminded of something that my old man used to say: “There are two types of people: the ones in pain, and the dead.” I can only hope Penny keeps being…
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Building a reputation | A Thora Silentblade tale
The ranch house was actually very nice to walk through, Thora considered, especially now that there wasn’t an immediate need to confront an entire band of thugs, ruffians, and bandits. The library upstairs was particularly intriguing! There didn’t seem to be any sort of organization, or method, to the collection,…
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A boy and his drake | The Corruption of Lani
The enormous corpse of the spider blocked their path forward and it took both dwarves to push it aside to free access to the gateway. Thegman gagged, and then quickly held his breath, as his arm pushed too hard in the wrong place and wound up shoulder-deep inside the thorax…
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Betrayal and honour | A Tale from the Borderlands
Watching from the sidelines As I start this log, I’m not even sure what to say. The last few hours have been crazier than two starved skags fighting over rakk scraps. The slug… is gone! It’s hard to even wrap my head around it, it happened so fast. But I’m…
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Into the Spider’s Den | The Corruption of Lani
Lying in the darkness of the path ahead of them was a shape. From this distance, the torch light could not reach it well, making it hard to make out details. It was small, a humanoid of some kind, but not much more could be determined in the shades of…
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Her name was Shelly | A Tale from the Borderlands
Saying goodbye to the crew It was always going to happen someday. It’s only been a few weeks since we ticked off Hyperion by stealing their ship in the Wonderlands, but I feel somewhat attached to this giant space bucket now. The ship crew switched allegiances easily enough, credits made…
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The Ranch House | A Thora Silentblade tale
It was nearly full dark by the time they reached the outskirts of the ranch. The clouds shifted across the face of the moon, cutting the little light from the sky above. Out here, there were so many stars to take in you could spend a lifetime counting ’em and…
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The Great Gibson | A Tale from the Borderlands
Memories may be beautiful and yet… (Penny’s voice loudly in the background) “What are you doing? Are you doing that ECHO log thing again? You gotta put that thing down. I’m right here, you know” (Jax’s voice can be heard, a little muffled as if turned away from the ECHO…
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Beginnings | The Corruption of Lani
One by one, the guards brought the arrivals to the great council hall. The building was old, far older than would have been expected based on the rather modern city outside the windows. The port city of Denn was a popular trading hub in the north west, right on the…
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How can you test out if a DevRel career is the right fit for you?
Sometimes, you just aren’t sure if a career is right for you. Do you really want to be a developer advocate or a dev community manager? Is that going to be a fulfilling full-time job for you? There are a few things you can do to try it out before…
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Video: Creating a D&D character
Use a character builder to get started faster Are you new to D&D? You might want to try out the character creation flow through a builder tool to get a quick guide to help you. Full Video Transcript Welcome to the table. Today I want to talk about character creation,…
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To catch a Cavendish | A Thora Silentblade tale
Over the past several weeks Thora had been making the way from the Sakhar mountains through several towns along the main roads, heading south and west, with no particular direction in mind. It was so strange to have the sun in the sky, blindingly bright, all day long. The first…
St-Cyr Thoughts 