If I had to describe Dakkan in two words, “surprisingly resilient” wouldn’t necessarily make the top of my list, but I suppose it’s more than applicable here. And hey, the fact he’s still going strong after what happened at Deltrada? Maybe it’s not that far off the mark after all.

I sent out an update to Kickstarter backers the other day letting everyone know that we’ve got the prints and bookmarks sorted out (and I just received a shipping update this morning letting me know they’re en route to Make That Thing). The bookplate is going to finalized this weekend and will be printed up, then mailed to myself and Rachel for hand-signing. The last major element to sort out is the book itself, and I’ve got an email out to PrintNinja for an update (which I should have within the next few days, hopefully).

All in all, all the gears are turning for us hopefully not missing out initial “February 2019” estimate on the Kickstarter tiers. I’ll let you all know here and in another Kickstarter update when I know more.

I missed this bit of personal news last week and the week prior, but I’ve been helping on a new initiative at ArenaNet to tell more stories with our Guild Wars 2 characters outside of the game itself. The first manifestation of this is in a trilogy of Twine stories I’m writing that take place after our fifth episode in Living World Season 4. This first story, told from the perspective of charr warrior Rytlock Brimstone, features an original piece of art by our own Jerome Jacinto.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/january-29-2019/

It’s pretty cool, but also features major spoilers for episode 5 of season 4, so if you’re planning on playing it, maybe wait a bit :)

For guest art this week, we’re welcoming the return of Jakub, who sent us some wonderful fan art all the way from Poland! Check it out:

To paraphrase Jakub’s description of the piece: a young lutren mother spins thread on a beach near Lutra proper, her young daughter nearby. The older son, head filled with stories of derring do, sneaks up from behind to save the damsel in distress–in this particular case, his younger sister’s doll.

Thank you so much for the artwork, Jakub! It really is fantastic and we’re really happy you decided to submit it to us to share with the community.

If any reader out there has any Western Deep-related piece of art or prose that you’d like us to share with the community at large in one of our page posts, feel free to drop us a line at hello@westerndeep.net!