A group of five friends get together for a summer camping trip. But this isn't an ordinary camping trip - they're going to the same place they went on last year's trip... a trip that involved horror, sorrow, and dread.
"These are the Sagas of Sundry, I am Mr. Wren, and this... is DREAD."
—Mr. Wren, "Season One: Dread"
"These are the Sagas of Sundry, I am Mr. Wren, and there will be... MADNESS."
—Mr. Wren, "Season Two: Madness"
Sagas of Sundry is a horror tabletop gaming-based web series hosted by Geek & Sundry on their Project Alpha channel. What began as a one-shot published by "Geek and Sundry" for their International Tabletop Day 2017 stream is now a full show, picking up where the events of the previous one-shot left off. The show uses the RPG system of Dread, a horror-based role-playing system where major actions are accomplished or failed by pulling a giant block from a Jenga tower. Should it fall, you fail.
The first series follows five friends who come together one year after a horrifying summer camping trip changed their lives forever. They come together in the same spot as last year to prove their own beliefs about what happened last year. But it seems something is still amiss at the spot where they all met last.
The second series, Sagas of Sundrey: Madness, is unrelated to the first but uses the same system and is similarly horror-based, this time set in a creepy apartment complex.
The Dread cast is as follows:
- Ivan Van Norman as the Storyteller.
- Satine Phoenix as Sat, The Leader who brought everyone back together.
- Taliesin Jaffe as Kayden, the punk stoner who keeps to himself.
- Amy Vorpahl as Darby, Raina's ex-girlfriend who in the words of others had a "freak-out", and is now closely following the mysteries that haunted the group one year ago.
- Amy Dallen as Raina, an aspiring artist who is worried about her ex-girlfriend's seemingly deteriorating mental state during their time apart.
- Matthew Mercer as Tanner, the shy photographer with a grudge against Kayden.
- And Darin De Paul as ''Mr. Wren''.
The Madness cast is as follows:
- Ivan Van Norman as the Storyteller.
- Liam O'Brien as Emmett Markham, a playwright.
- Xander Jeanneret as Fenly Emerson, a sweet artist with a troubled romantic history.
- Marisha Ray as Abigail Persimmon, a young woman with a Dark and Troubled Past.
- Jeremy Walker as Jude Marley, a hotelier.
- Erika Ishii as Selina Tsukiyama, a hacker struggling with mental illness.
Season One provides examples of:
- Agent Mulder: While most of the group believes that what happened to them last summer was real, Darby especially committed herself to researching the mysteries behind it.
- Agent Scully: Tanner staunchly believes everything that happened the previous year was Kayden drugging them as a joke.
- Apocalyptic Log: The mysterious letters the group keep finding.
- Bittersweet Ending: Everyone makes it out alive except for Tanner, and the final desperate act by Sat and the others to bring him back banishes the goat demon, but fails to bring him back.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: Mr. Wren.
- Hell Is That Noise: MOOOM!!!
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Sat has been longing to reconnect with everyone again since they all left.
- Jerkass: Kayden, who in his own words considers pressuring people into doing things they don't want to do "half (his) point."
- The Leader: Sat considers herself this.
- Mind Screw: Horrific hallucinations and mistrust abound.
- Perky Goth: Sat, moreso in the previous year than the story proper.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: A common dynamic between the group, who have grown less and less trustworthy of each other since their encounter last year.
Season Two provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: The backstories of about half the cast end up falling under this definition. To be specific:
- In Emmett's opinion his abandonment of Sam led to her overdose.
- Jude saw his friend (Jordan) die as a child and never told anyone or attempted to help.
- Abigail doesn't remember the circumstances of her leaving home, but she's fairly certain she shot and killed her father in a violent rage.
- Alien Sky: The cast keeps having visions of a purple sky. It turns out to be the home dimension of the Watcher.
- And This Is for...: Jude says it as he destroys the amulet, finally ending the Watcher's terror for good.
- Anyone Can Die: Everyone except Selina in fact.
- Badass Boast: Emmett has a good boast in the final episode, when the Storyteller reminds him of the cultists downstairs.Emmett: Well some or all of them are about to have a REALLY bad day.
- Berserk Button: The landlord doesn't want anyone touching the walls.
- Abigail doesn't take kindly to being called a "bad actor."
- Big Bad: The Watcher
- The Big Damn Kiss: Selina to Emmett in the final episode.
- Bizarrchitecture: Soon the Alien Sky and the sand begin seeping into the apartment and doors begin leading to it.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Selina admits to being a hacker and running Black Hat Operations Fenly assumes she means she's selling hats.
- Crowbar Combatant: The crowbar is the first weapon they find. Jude uses it to subdue a cultist before stabbing him with the sand creature's tooth.
- Dark Secret: Everyone.
- The Dragon: The female cultist is the most prominent.
- Hell Is That Noise: The low moan of the purple sky dimension.
- Hellevator: The elevator of the apartment, of course.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Sam appeared to be this when she was alive.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Fenly's reason for the rooftop party in episode 1.
- Improvised Weapon: Once things start getting dangerous the group divvies up the weapons, Abigail getting the cultist's gun, Jude the alien tooth, Emmett the crowbar, and Selina the sledgehammer.
- The Lost Lenore: Sam seems to be something close to this to Emmett. Tragically Emmett becomes this to Selina at the very end.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: None of the cast are precisely friends with each other (Abigail and Jude have hooked up, but aren't serious), and all are severely damaged psychologically.
- Sanity Slippage: The whole cast is going through it before the show even begins, and it's only getting worse...
- Space Is Cold: Fenly dies in this fashion.
- Secretly Wealthy: As explained on Erika's own twitch stream rather than the show itself, Selina.
- Two Girls to a Team: Selina and Abigail.
To Be Continued...
