The Penumbra Podcast

Two giants bearing broken swords Stood by a river’s bend Whose water fell straight down to Hell: They battled at World’s End. Welcome to the Penumbra, dear Traveler. We hope you enjoy your journey. (Trigger warnings can be found at the bottom of this episode description.) Want Penumbra shirts, posters, and pins? We have a merch store! https://store.dftba.com/collections/the-penumbra-podcast We&#39...

ERROR. ERROR. IF TOWER.DAMAGE == CRITICAL THEN THEN THEN ERROR: NO PROTOCOL FOUND. SCANNING USER.JUNOSTEEL.MEMORIES() FOR SUGGESTED PROTOCOL SCANNING... SCANNING... (Trigger warnings can be found at the bottom of this episode description.) On staff at the Penumbra: Kat Buckingham -- Head of Merchandise and Outreach Alice Chuang -- Head of Design Sophie Kaner -- Co-creator, Head of Episode Developm...

Welcome home, Juno Steel. (Trigger warnings can be found at the bottom of this episode description.) On staff at the Penumbra: Kat Buckingham -- Head of Merchandise and Outreach Alice Chuang -- Head of Design Sophie Kaner -- Co-creator, Head of Episode Development, Director, Sound designer Noah Simes -- Production manager Kevin Vibert -- Co-creator, Head of Operations, Lead writer Ryan Vibert -- C...

A blow of the hunting-horn. A battlecry. Boots that crash through snow and ice, the crackling of open flame, the bellow of an ancient, timeless beast of the frozen tundra. They call him Old Cinder, the Frozen King of Flame. And this is just another New Year's celebration in the Southern Frosts. Welcome to the Penumbra, dear Travelers. We hope you enjoy your journey. (Trigger warnings can be fo...

The creatures which thrive at the end of the world are enough to make even the bravest knight's skin crawl. Massive slugs of sentient slime and nightmare-guards to a fortress beneath a sea where nothing survives walk the halls that lead to Fort Terminus, and passing them will be no small feat. Yet our heroes trudge on. On separate paths they draw closer and closer to the heart of this palace o...

Two paths wind beneath Judge Helicoid's monstrous courtroom: two paths containing different players in this game, different tricks and traps and treacheries. All they share is this: A destination. Fort Terminus, the prison at the end of the world. Welcome to the Penumbra, dear Travelers. We hope you enjoy your journey. (Trigger warnings can be found at the bottom of this episode description.)...

Give up control. That's what the thing that looks like Mick says to do. And in a year like the one Juno Steel has had, with the past, present, and city of the future all out to get him... why not? In a world where control can be torn from you so easily, so constantly... why not just give in, let that thing plug you in to its monstrous chip, and give everything you have away to it? So why not,...

Our final voting contest for US listeners opens on Election Day, November 6! All three of our contests will remain open until the end of the day on November 8, and you are encouraged to submit entries to all of them. Entries can be sent to vote@thepenumbrapodcast.com. For more information, visit http://www.thepenumbrapodcast.com/vote. For early and ad-free episodes, production scripts, commentary...

Ramses O'Flaherty has been a busy man in recent days. A brand new way of life doesn't build itself, after all -- and before you can ever build it, you'll have to tear down the old life getting in everyone's way. As Juno and Rita come up from the sewers they can see, immediately, that Ramses has succeeded in the latter goal. Oldtown is gone. It's never coming back. And in its pl...

Legends say that far north of the Second Citadel, close to the Northern edge of the world itself, lives the Spiral Sage. They say he is a powerful being, a sacred warrior for human good who controls time and the wilderness itself. They say he is a great hero. And he'd better be, because the number of creatures who need saving keeps on rising. First Lord Arum, then Rilla and Sir Caroline, and t...

Far, far to the north of the Second Citadel lies the Terminus, a sacred or magical ocean (depending on who you ask), a place of power where world-changing things happen... and where monsters bicker for order and entertainment. Sir Caroline and Rilla are deep in monster country, now: deep enough that the human tales of this land are fuzzy and indistinct. They've wandered into the land of beasts...

Down in the sewers, home seems like a distant memory. It's even more distant for Detective Steel now, because even aboveground home doesn't feel like home anymore. Hyperion City has changed. Even its sewers have changed, and the things that crawl in those sewers. And at the bottom of it all is Ramses Takano, or should we say Jack O'Flaherty, or should we say any number of names that on...

Where is everybody? That's the question that dogs Juno Steel now. He has bigger things to handle, he knows. Loose ends to tie up, old betrayals to pay back, and a mysterious mayor to reckon with. But even while city-sized mysteries weigh him down, the one that concerns him most is much closer to home... and while he tries to solve his disappearing act, all he has to keep him company is the tal...

Well, the boy-knights have definitely learned one thing about Nymphs: Nymphs LOVE Sport. And at first, the boys loved Sport too... until it became clear that this was less throw-the-ball-around-with-your-friends-and-rivals and more blood sport. Twists and turns wait behind every rule of this violent game, and one such twist is just in the distance... where the sound of great wooden wheels signals...

What's more knightly than rescuing a Damsel? Doing it better than all the other knights, of course... especially if those other knights are really, really annoying. Sir Marc and Sir Damien do not like each other at all. Each is extremely important to the other's favorite person, and neither understands it in the least. So when a glade of beautiful forest-women offers to watch these men man...

He tunes the radio, sorts through static for answers. Only questions, clean and clear: can one child really ruin the lives of his entire family? A ghost-sound, like a voice; then, gone. Why did he have to stay with her? Who was that at the door, all those years ago? Did his life, her life, Juno's life... did they all have to end this way? No port in the static storm. But then, distant, a sound...

"You did it in one day. One choice. When you let him in, when you let the hero rob us blind without taking a thing." That's how Sarah Steel justified the murder of Benzaiten Steel, twenty-one years ago. But the day she was referring to was even older: fifteen years before that. A motive a long, long time in the making. But what does that mean? How could one four-year-old child ruin thr...

Today we journey within. Within the sands of Mars, to the clinic of Hanataba; within the Theia Spectrum and its labyrinthine connections; within the mind; within the past itself. Try to throw away the past if you like, Juno Steel, but it lies within. And you can't lose your past without losing yourself... can you, little monster? Welcome to the Penumbra, dear Traveler. We hope you enjoy your j...

Subject: the Keep of Titan's Blooms. Symptoms: spreading petrification; irritability; musical inclinations. Suggested treatment: cooperation with its master, Lord Arum, a creature who would scoff at the idea of tracking symptoms in the first place, a lizard whose scaly mind is ever-absorbed in suspicion, self-preservation, and ego. Side effects may include: sleep loss; injury; frustration; ent...

Deep in the Swamp of Titan's Blooms stands a towering plant with no equal in the Second Citadel. It is in parts tree, fern, beanstalk, and a single gigantic flower -- and it is the Keep from which Lord Arum watches over his Swamp. No human has ever seen the labyrinthine interior of this Keep until today. When Rilla awakens in the Keep she will come face-to-face with things she'd never drea...

People bury a great deal beneath these Martian sands: bodies and secrets and even entire cities. But some things refuse to stay buried long – like the past. Those we thought lost, hoped lost, but never gone for good. Buddy Aurinko is learning that lesson the hard way. Her buried past has a face and a name, and though all Buddy wants is to forget, her past does not seem content to be forgotten. Wel...

I do suggest you reconsider this particular destination, Traveler. Most places on Mars are dangerous, but the desert holds threats no human can survive. Radiation beats down from above, subterranean predators rumble below, and before you lies nothing but sand and heat and time. And behind you… do you see that growing shadow in the distance, Traveler? It is always there. And depending on how you pl...

It's December 24th, and you know what that means: it's Mista Steel's birthday, and it's up to Rita to make it the best birthday ever in a star-studded special that includes both of Juno's friends and some people who are lukewarm about him. Can Rita put together the ultimate birthday party in thirty minutes? Maybe! Is Juno's birthday really on the 24th? This episode is not c...

Sophie and Kevin are assembled by special guest star and elected guru of our Tumblr fandom to answer questions about how these stories are written, their perspective on diverse perspectives within the show, whether Sophie is a visionary, whether you're allowed to cry at your own show, how this show has made them better people, queerness, mental illness, and whether Sophie is allowed to call he...

Sophie and Kevin gather around the festive nondenominational tree to unwrap some exciting announcements. Includes info on the start of the next half-season, merch updates, a midseason Q&A, a special surprise, what Sophie and Kevin are thankful for, and how you can help us for free, right now! Gobble, gobble. Vote for us in the AudioVerse awards here: http://www.audioverseawards.net/site/vote/...