As a week of ongoing memorial services came to a close, the adventuring community fell into a sober silence. The Adventure Society campus was quiet and, for the first time Jason had seen, largely occupied by adventurers who didnt come from the upper echelons of Greenstone society.
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2019-11-14 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostWhile a cabal of the citys most powerful plotted to get their hands on Thadwick Mercer and the other five, Thadwicks sister was on her familys boat with Jason. Jason and Cassandra were if the half-dozen Mercer family staff were discounted all alone on the open water. The vessel...
2019-11-13 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostIn the Adventure Society marshalling yard, a portal opened and people started stepping through. There were fourteen in total, each bearing a pin marking them as Adventure Society officials. The woman at the front looked to be of early middle age, with her hair unflatteringly pinned tightly...
2019-11-12 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostSophie brushed a hand over the first of the three awakening stones Clive and Jason had laid out on the bench.
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Item: [Awakening Stone of Focus] (unranked, uncommon)
An awakening stone containing an undistracted power. <...
2019-11-11 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostSophie and Belinda emerged from the side room, Sophie wearing a fresh outfit.
That was deeply unpleasant, Sophie said, still looking peaky.
I imagine Jason had it worse, Clive said. Hes an outworlder who came here before ever getting an essence.
Why does t...
2019-11-10 22:00:59 +0000 UTC View PostHere is the PDF bundle of last week's chapters, plus the updated bundle of all chapters currently released.
2019-11-10 13:15:33 +0000 UTC View PostIn the ritual room, Clive was rubbing his hands together.
Now for the good part, he said.
The good part? Belinda asked.
Jason has an ability that he shamelessly squanders, Clive said. He could be a one-man revolution in how we categorise powers but he refuse...
2019-11-07 22:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe Adventure Society campus became a continual series of memorial services. There were so many dead that group memorials were being held one after another. First came the largest groups, made up of the least influential adventurers who had passed. The memorials took place on the north sho...
2019-11-06 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostJason introduced Sophie and Belinda to his panel of seasoned adventurers. It turned out to be comprised of Emir and Clive, who they knew, plus a bald, dark-skinned man that they didnt. He was handsome, lithely muscled and carried himself with an air of straightforward competence. Even wi...
2019-11-05 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe arrival of the expedition was a mix of welcome, relief, commiseration and loss. Rufus and Gary waded into the chaos while Vincent headed for the administration building and the immense amount of work about to be dumped on him. Lacking anything else to do, Sophie trailed along behind Ja...
2019-11-04 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostElspeth Arella was in the family home she had spent very little time in, even as a child. Raised by her mother in secret, now the secret was finally out and she was free to come and go as she pleased. Those precious, clandestine visits to her father, Dorgan, were in the past; she could cas...
2019-11-04 13:25:29 +0000 UTC View PostAfter watching me flop about incompetently, my wonderful patron Al Rascala actually bundled the whole story (thus far) together. He has deftly demonstrated that my only functional skill is stringing words together. Please enjoy the fruits of his gracious efforts: The chapter 001-115 bundle (Al Ra...
2019-11-02 11:08:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe door to Arellas office opened itself as Jason approached and he walked right in. Sitting behind her desk, she made a gesture and the door closed behind him. He stood in front of the desk, looking around.
Youve changed the artwork.
Im surprised you showed your fa...
2019-10-31 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostJason walked through the halls of the cloud palace. Far from just white cloud-stuff, the walls, floors and ceilings were marked-out in sunset shades of rich blues, purples, oranges and golds. In some areas it was startlingly vibrant; in others, soft and subdued. Everything glowed with its ...
2019-10-30 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe cloud palace was not only the largest magic construction in Greenstone but also the most sophisticated. This was demonstrable in ways large and small, from its ability to take multiple forms to the amenities incorporated throughout the structure.
In Belinda and Sophies guest su...
2019-10-29 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostWhile the search for answers continued in the astral space, the support camp was suddenly swarmed with bronze-rankers Danielle and Thalia deemed insufficiently reliable to participate. There was also a pair of silver-rankers, one of whom was named Gloria Phael. She had no interest in runni...
2019-10-28 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostMost of the ill-fated expedition was extracted back through the aperture that had been their entry point. On the other side was a recovery camp, ready and waiting. Only silver rankers and bronze-rankers stayed in the astral space, and not all of them.
Every member of the new, streaml...
2019-10-27 22:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostEmir and his people had already left the city by the time Jason and the others arrived. They were travelling over the desert on sand skimmers, although the desert was more rocks than sand. Once they reached the aperture to the astral space, they could use the tracking stones they brought w...
2019-10-24 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe retreat was going worse than Danielle had hoped, but better than she feared. The iron rankers had been pulled back behind the bronze and silver-rankers holding the line. Luckily, the other side had only a few essence users, their number made up mostly of constructs. The artificial crea...
2019-10-23 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostEmir Bahadirs cloud palace was a sprawling, monstrous edifice. Floating just offshore on the north side of the Island, it was fully exposed to the waves and currents, yet remained as immovable as solid ground. The entire structure was made from cloud, dyed in colours of blue, purple, ora...
2019-10-22 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe expedition was going Island by Island, searching for traces of what was disrupting the astral space. They made their first discovery on the third island; a five-sided column, about as tall as a person and covered in magical engravings. One of the adventurers, who was also a member of t...
2019-10-21 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostJorys kitchen table was covered in magical diagrams, with Belinda taking Clive through how they worked.
Obviously, the lock is impervious to ordinary intrusion, she explained. I re-sequenced the magical bursts into an irregular pattern. It doesnt throw-off any individual el...
2019-10-20 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostSophie woke up. Unfamiliar ceiling, something around her neck. She moved and there was a clink of chains as she realised her wrists and feet were manacled. Her body was under a soft, thin sheet. Memories came rushing back as her head cleared. The chase. Getting clear, only to feel the poison eati...
2019-10-17 22:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostThis is bad, Jory said, pacing back and forth. Thats what theyve been doing? Ripping off the rich and powerful?
Jory, Jason and Donal were in one of Jorys treatment rooms, with an unconscious Sophie on the treatment table. She was mostly covered in a sheet, except for h...
2019-10-16 22:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostSophie vaulted a wall from one private residence into another, sprinting across the grounds. She did this twice more, avoiding public streets and the people on them. Finally, she ducked into a large brick shed full of landscaping supplies.
***
Jason chased after Sophie, relying...
2019-10-15 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostIn Old City, the wealthiest area was the canal district. Once the home of aristocratic power, migration to the Island left it open for those who ruled Old City with money and power. It was strictly neutral territory for the Big Three, due to a preponderance of Island interests based around...
2019-10-14 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostJason and Clive made their way to the northern side of the Adventure Society campus, which occupied much of the western side of the Islands north shore. They passed a grey, stone tower that Jason now recognised as the prison tower. The Society was only allowed to hold prisoners taken as ...
2019-10-13 22:00:59 +0000 UTC View PostDanielle Geller and Thalia Mercer looked at the water pouring out of the astral space aperture. It was within a crevice in a rocky outcropping but was itself a free-floating circle of shimmering blue. The water streamed out of the aperture, the source of a small creek they were currently s...
2019-10-10 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostDean Tuckell was part of a team of adventurers that arrived in a village in the delta. The team was a makeshift one put together for a road contract, patrolling a fixed route through the delta and beyond under the supervision of a bronze-ranker. The others were unhappy to be on punishment ...
2019-10-09 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe Adventure Society campus was a sea of chaos as the grand expedition prepared to depart. With the Ustei detained in the marshalling yard and being prepared to move, the adventurers were gathering in front of the main administration building. Neither space was designed for that many peop...
2019-10-08 22:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post