Crossing open fields that were gradually shifting into light woods, Kaius walked with his team. His eyes roved over the various clusters of trees that dominated the flat horizon, searching their depths for any sign of beasts that might challenge them.
While there were plenty of t...
2025-01-12 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostBlinking rapidly to clear the blinding afterimage that cut across his vision like a streak of white paint, Kaius looked back to where the corpse of the bramble ball had fallen. No longer hidden by the overwhelming brilliance of Ianmus’s working, he got a good look at the destruction his friendâ...
2025-01-11 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius drew his blade in a moment, smokey crystal edges catching the light. His eyes snapped to the source of the voice, seeing the lead caravan guard staring off to the right of the caravan.
What had caught the man's attention was immediately evident. Some twisted entity, ...
2025-01-10 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe next few days were a flurry of activity. Right after leaving the guild they returned to the Dusty Stables for a quick visit, getting Ianmus set up in a far smaller room on the same floor he was in. Ianmus, the lucky bastard, only had to pay three copper a night for the pleasure, thanks to bot...
2025-01-09 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostGetting Ianmus a membership to the guild had been even easier than Kaius had thought it would be.
When they’d entered the guild hall, he’d spotted Ro flitting around in the workers section behind the counter, directing people to and fro. Leaning on the powers of his hei...
2025-01-08 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostLeaving the artificer’s shop Kaius made his way through Deadacre with Porkchop glued close to his side. It was interesting to watch how the general populace of the wider city’s reaction to them had changed now that they were not fully suited up in their armour.
He suppo...
2025-01-07 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius let out a sigh of satisfaction, patting his stomach as he walked down the street with Porkchop at his side. He’d decided that Hensch must be a mage, because it was only by actual magic that the food could be that good.
Literally, in the case of how invigorating the mornin...
2025-01-06 20:30:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe stairs leading to the entrance to the Dusty Stables were wide things that tracked up the side of the building, shading the various pens that were set into the building at street level.
A sign hung over their rise, showing off not just the name of the establishment and i...
2025-01-05 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostStill sitting in the silence room where he had undergone his interview, Kaius stared at the copper emblem in his hand, before looking back to Ro with a slight frown on his face.
“How does it work? I know the emblems are supposed to be representative of our identity and a...
2025-01-04 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostSitting at the table with the truthstone in a room enchanted with silence, Ro—the Guild receptionist—smiled at him and waved at the other chair.
“Chop chop, we don’t have all day.” she teased.
Kaius sighed and walked over to the offered chair, Porkchop ...
2025-01-03 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius let out a low groan, bent over with his head throbbing like he’d just been smacked upside the head with a blacksmith’s hammer. As soon as the pressure of a dozen different analyse skills pressing his Mask faded, so too did the pain and discomfort.
Raw indignation floode...
2025-01-02 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs Kaius crossed through the gates to Deadacre, the sounds of the city washed over him. The heavy background buzz of chatter and thumping boots, the clack of carts rolling over uneven cobble, and the odd cutting bark of a laugh or crying babe.
Overwhelming, sure, but also f...
2025-01-01 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostDespite the sheer volume of people lining up outside of the city gates, the queue moved surprisingly quickly. It seemed that Deadacre had developed a well built mechanism for efficiently dealing with the dispossessed and weary travellers that had begun to flock to the safety of their walls.
The grass started to die about a league from Deadacre. First it grew pallid and limp, a few tough patches holding on desperately to life while they eked out a meagre existence in rock hard cracked dirt.
It took maybe fifteen paces before even that was gone. A stark demarcation, o...
2024-12-30 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostAfter spending the rest of the day working with Ianmus and Porkchop on Masking, Kaius had gotten better at the strange focus-intensive skill. Somewhat. It was still ruinously fatiguing to falsify his class identifier, though that had gotten a little easier as he grew more familiar w...
2024-12-29 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostWaking early the next morning with the rising sun, Kaius had set about breaking the fast of their little troupe with a hearty meal of fried potatoes and bacon. Despite everything that had happened, he could see the appeal that artisan classes held to many. In another life, being a cook might have...
2024-12-28 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius breathed deep, clenching his fist and concealing the new sigil that was splayed across his palm. Sitting up from his brother's side, he grasped A Father’s Gift by the hilt and lifted it up. Firelight danced across its surface, shimmering like oil across the waves of d...
2024-12-27 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius laid his hands on the flat of the blade, feeling the cold chill of the inscribed steel. Breathing deep, he emptied his mind, allowing himself to come to a slow calm.
In tune with his senses, he felt the world.
Chill steel, the weight of his...
2024-12-26 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius gasped as he chose Initiate’s Glyphic Bladerite, the system's formless power slipping into the confines of his soul space. His soul shone resplendent in his mind's eye, even while his physical ones stayed open, drinking in the green fields of the plains.
With dei...
2024-12-25 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius hooted in delight as he saw the notification that his next class skill was available for selection. It amplified the rush, the slowly retreating joy that he always felt as he proved himself the superior fighter and was rewarded for it.
Unfortunately, he’d have to wa...
2024-12-24 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe irontusk taking its eyes off his brother to stare at him with wariness proved to be folly. Insistent on keeping as much of the beast's attention on him as possible, Porkchop plunged his claws into the irontusk’s shoulder, tearing a chunk out of its hide.
A loud rumbling cry...
2024-12-23 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius stood in his saddle, absorbing the shock of Porkchop’s bounding leaps by crouching slightly with every impact.
His eyes were trained firmly on the irontusk, watching and waiting for the moment it would notice them with its dulled senses. Explosive anticipation thrum...
2024-12-22 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostWith a new companion in tow, they crossed the frontier. As they crossed the rolling, rock-studded, hills that made up the lowlands of the distant mountains, Kaius found that the terror birds had become…something of a local nuisance.
While they were rare before, whatever ...
2024-12-21 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIanmus sat on a rounded stone, his hands propped on his knees as he watched the delver-scion work. Kaius, he had said his name was. After the human and his beastly companion had finished the flock, he’d offered a chance to talk.
It was hard not to feel like their short walk thr...
2024-12-20 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostStanding in a field of cooling corpses, Kaius gave the strange mage a friendly wave. He was still a good ways off, up the hill and far away from the front lines.
Even if the man hadn’t fled when he suggested, he’d done his best, and had moved exactly where a back...
2024-12-19 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostIanmus was having a really bad day. He knew he should have turned back when the system had updated, or at least headed to one of the semi-maintained roads that connected Mystral with the rest of the continent.
In his defence, the idea of seeing all of the variant ev...
2024-12-18 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostHeavily spiced meat cut into thick strips sizzled as Kaius dropped it into his lard-greased Traveller’s Pan, the heady aroma of cumin filling the air. It was one of the few spices he did know from his stock, and a powerful enough one that it should do plenty to cover the ...
2024-12-17 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius dashed towards the second hunter that had tried to harass him, bliss and satisfaction pulsing with every beat of his heart.
Even with the regenerative power of its Health and the power of its beastly body, the longfang was in a bad way. Scorched fur revealed b...
2024-12-16 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostAstride Porkchop’s back, Kaius took in the rolling hills of the frontier. It was a gorgeous environment, shining with bright green grasses that stretched as far as the eye could see. Rocky outcroppings broke up the landscape, jutting out of the earth every which way.
Most were ...
2024-12-15 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius sat on the floor of his room in the Stout oak, a veritable cornucopia of items and artefacts arrayed on the ground before him. Porkchop lay across, staring at them all in dismay.
They’d had a fast paced, but pleasant few days. It had been a rush of meeting with the variou...
2024-12-14 20:30:00 +0000 UTC View Post