WarbyPicus

Vol. 4 Chap. 78 A Flawless Plan

Truth had an unusual problem. Well, he thought it was unusual. It hadn’t ever come up for him before, but maybe he was underestimating the challenges faced by other people. He nodded to himself, as he wedged himself up into the corner of the wall and the ceiling, relying on his inhuman strength...

Vol. 4 Chap. 77 Violent Improvisation

I have so few mental gears left to slip. You wouldn’t think there would be any left still touching each other. But here we are. And there it goes.

Truth crouched like a gargoyle or a particularly malevolent pigeon or perhaps just an over-ambitious rat, on the metal gantry over th...

Vol. 4 Chap. 76 Awkward

Truth thought his refusal to shriek and fall off the gantry spoke well of him. Most people would have shrieked and fallen the three stories to the ground, he felt. A multistory tube of led curse tablets suddenly having a girl’s face and talking directly into your mind is inherently startling. B...

Vol. 4 Chap. 75 Upright Young Lady

It was an oddly quiet moment. The PMC soldiers were sharp and Level Three. The recording talismans, plural, covering the waiting room were pumping out Level Four Power. The Blessing   of the Silent Forest could handle it. He wasn’t leaking a speck of energy, and besides. If something ...

Newsletter for the Week of 2/16/24 AWAKENED MEMBERS, READ THIS AS IT CONCERNS YOU SPECIFICALLY

Only news edition: Hey everyone! I'm off for my long threatened vacation. I am leaving my frigid woods for somewhere decidedly more tropical. Gonna take a week with the family. Admire some fish. Spend quality time in a hammock and actually catch up on some reading. Maybe drag Sta...

Vol. 4 Chap. 74 Common as Muck

Truth snuck through the lowest level of the once secret, now besieged volcano lair with a loopy grin. All the blessings, the concealment magic, the specialist training, and what does it take to evade the world’s best mercs? Stand behind the door. They’ll never find you.

No trolls so far...

Vol. 4 Chap. 73 Alone in the House

There really should be a word for when you know you have never been someplace before, but when you go there, it all feels eerily familiar.

Truth walked silently down the long corridors. Brightly lit, clean, with enchanted windows showing views from various Starbrite resorts from ar...

Vol. 4 Chap. 72 Internal Volume of a Volcano

Truth was in. The heavy steel door had been reduced to molten slag by the blast. Still hot enough that his clothes started to charr and smoke just by being near it. Truth mitigated this by moving even faster. He went through the melted away top right corner of the vault door at a speed more commo...

Vol. 4 Chap 71 Up and In

It looked like the end of the world, and he had to wait. It wasn’t the end. It wasn’t even the end of the beginning.

The Jeon Army never thought it could win an open field battle, so they didn’t bother trying. They dug into the mountains and built bunkers in the forests, bastions wher...

Newsletter for the week of 2/9/24

Newsletter for the week of 2/9/24

Sorry about dropping off there. As you may have picked up, things are getting busy.

News: Vol 1, on sale right now over on Amazon. $2.99, go check it out! Audiobook for Vol.2 has finally reached me, and is completely screwing my focus...

Vol. 4 Chap. 70 Cascading Contingencies

Truth lay on a tree branch. It wasn’t very comfortable, but he wasn’t paying attention to that fact. He was just… there. Being there. He was playing the fool. He was being loud, and obviously provoking. He was relying on the terror and paranoia of others to trigger a proxy war. This was a l...

Vol. 4 Chap. 69 Nature and Nurture

On the way to the town of Boxiliu, a town of no particular importance to anyone outside the commercial slate production industry, Truth made a marvelous discovery. In addition to producing a rare reddish colored slate, Boxiliu had a zoo.

The zoo was a small, sad affair. A few dispirited loo...

Vol. 4 Chap. 68 Foreign Agitator

Truth snagged the Major’s cap and wallet on the way out the door. The cap went on his head, the wallet into the sack with the rest of the loot. He rushed down the hall. If he saw a policeman or internal security type, they got a needle to the head courtesy of Major Tsu’s needler and Graeme’...

Vol. 4 Chap. 67 The Innocent Have Nothing To Fear

Nilfu was, according to his now badly abused road atlas, a long way from the middle of nowhere, which is where he currently was. Or about a three hour run. Truth did some completely unnecessary stretching, and set off. Wasn’t going to get any closer if he stood around, and there sure wasn’t m...

Moderately Good News!

If you were waiting to buy an e-book copy of Slumrat Vol. 1, it is now on sale for $2.99 US on 'zon! The sale...

Vol. 4 Chap. 66 Thank You For Your Service

We need to speak Onis now. Right now.

The devastation was enormous. The picture kept cutting back and forth from the heaving seas of demonic insects and troop carriers rushing to the border. Mages setting up warded enchantment sites. Curse delivery systems, golem launchers, necroma...

For those of you still reading Vol. 2… sprint The book comes down at 10 PM today. Available on Kindle, KU, Audible and Paperback March 5. Thank you all for your support. I really couldn’t do it without you

-Warby

Vol. 4 Chap. 65 An "Old Friend" and a Little Whoopsie

Truth visualized Thrush’s summoning token. It was a little metal disk he had etched, quite deeply, with the imp’s binding. An utterly standard thing, notwithstanding the small refinements he had added from his time in Siphios. Thrush was an air imp. There was only so fancy a binding you could...

Vol. 4 Chap. 64 Bullied by Tigers

Truth counted amongst his bad habits an unreasonable insistence on trying to do everything himself. It was foolish, and worse, self destructive. He would kill himself trying to take down the research installation solo. It was therefore time to bring in some support. Those who were reliable, and t...

Vol. 4 Chap. 63 Do Something

It took a bit of arranging. Truth tied a half dozen chunks of meat to a log, then roped it to a particularly thick tree. Then quadruple lashed the tree to a protruding rock. He then launched small hunks of meat (he was running very low at this point and had to make do) tied to fist sized rocks, u...

Vol. 4 Chap. 62 Pork Chop

Truth clamped his will down on his legs, locking himself in place. He had started to bolt before his mind had even processed what he was seeing. The monster was an ambush hunter. Running would only reveal where he was. He had to be patient. He had to think. Despite every fiber of his being scream...

Vol. 4 Chap. 61 Woof Woof

Truth felt a creeping shortness of breath. He was in the middle of a forest, on the side of a mountain, and he felt claustrophobic. Trapped on his little island of rock in a sea of horrors. Watching the little creeping worm things wriggle along the side of the rock. Some starting to creep up the ...

Volume 2 Coming Down Friday, 2/2/24

This should have been in the newsletter but... well... I didn't look at my callender. I apologize for the comparatively short notice. On the other hand, as regular readers here, you are barrling towards the end of Vol. 3 so... quite a way from the end of Vol. 2. Now, you all know the drill at thi...

Newsletter For the Week of 1/26/24, Now With Pictures!

News- Gave myself a couple of days off early in the week. Felt good, but then force of habit kicked in and I started writing again. Funny how a little break can be so refreshing. Less funny how it forces you to pay attention to all the household maintenance you have been letting ...

Vol. 4 Chap. 60 Monsters of the Deep

Truth slipped back across the river well after dawn. If he was a paranoid sort, and he was, he would triple surveillance of the border crossing in the hours just before dawn, when things were at their darkest and minds at their least attentive. Truth slept a full night, had a solid breakfast of r...