The darkness suffocates you, heavy blanket pressing down on you. Your lantern flickers – threatening to go out any moment. All you have is the song in your heart and the clothes on your back. The road is long, winding, dark, twisted, lightless, lifeless…

Listen! Listen close now. The distant howl of the hounds of Hades, the whistle of the train carrying wayward souls to hell – it cuts through you like a cold wind, sending shivers down your spine. The shadows creep in, as does doubt. Does someone like you really belong in a place like this? Can you really make it through the underground and get what your heart most desires.

This project has been on the backburner for a long while now, but the first part of it is finally out! In Through the Underground, the first release in the Acheron Suite anthology of games, you take a heroic journey through Hades in order to get your heart's deepest wishes.

The game is for 1-4 players, with an option for a 5th player to join in a facilitator role. It uses tarot cards to play, though there are a few suggestions how to make do with just a deck of normal playing cards. Pulling from roguelike card games, solitaires, and Greek myth, Through the Underground allows you to tell a touching and exciting story about a journey into the underworld.

The Acheron Suite is an anthology series of games largely inspired by the hit musical Hadestown by Anais Mitchell. There are going to be new games released in the series every now and then, since August and I have plenty of ideas for them and will work on them when we can.