On the way back, Argrave consorted with each of the myriarchs, endeavoring to assess the sum total of Erlebnis’ presence. It was a somewhat cerebral task with Altan, Erlebnis’ faithful, among them. He had to act like he was acting that he wasn’t interested in how Erlebnis arrived. In realit...
2023-06-07 06:58:10 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave had been hearing reports from Anneliese about how the reignited battle looked. She called it many things—chaos, indiscriminate destruction. Looking upon it with his own two eyes, he could think of few adjectives beyond that. Aspects of dragons, great chasms in the earth, titans formed o...
2023-06-06 06:55:41 +0000 UTC View Post“All of that work to return without finishing?” Ganbaatar stepped to Argrave, concerned but with anger held tightly at bay.
Argrave watched the ship docked with knights and his cousin aboard, then looked to Ganbaatar. Behind, Moriatran and Artur moved off, speaking to each other as they...
2023-06-05 06:53:37 +0000 UTC View PostBefore Argrave stood his top ranks in this expedition—everyone who had some degree of authority. The three Veidimen officers, the Magisters, Mina and the Monticci family, and lastly his family, Orion and Anneliese. These were all people of proven trustworthiness and skill, and he needed precise...
2023-06-02 07:00:55 +0000 UTC View Post“Anneliese, please scout out where the elven gods watch the breach.” Argrave stared at Dimocles’ extended hand, not moving to shake it.
Anneliese was rattled enough she nearly sent her Starsparrow into the ward she’d conjured to block their conversation. After dispelling it, she let...
2023-06-01 06:57:13 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave, without ceremony or significant announcement, departed to do his duty. It remained a daunting task, but ever since he’d decided to play out that act in front of the centaurs he abandoned any notions of fruitful cooperation with them. He dealt with Sarikiz, not them, and he needed only ...
2023-05-31 06:57:07 +0000 UTC View Post“Now that I know what comes, all of this looks so small,” Onychinusa marveled, one of the emissaries of her Lord at her side as she witnessed the march of the elven gods. They stood above the canopies of the redwoods, removed from the conflict yet central to it all.
“Everything can lo...
2023-05-30 06:52:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe crux of this operation was simple. Retreat, to spread the attackers thin in their single-minded pursuit. Gather, to enable a swift and decisive advance to the enemy’s heart. And lastly, strike, aiming right for the heart.
And strike they did.
The battlefield descended into utter...
2023-05-29 06:55:45 +0000 UTC View PostThat which came from the breach in the northern forest dominated all sight. They filled the gap between every tree, a disorganized legion of monsters.
High up in the branches, a purple fleshy orb with eight white wings on its center and one eye on its front flapped up and down, sagging and ...
2023-05-26 06:58:12 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave walked up to where Anneliese and Orion already stood. Even now, Anneliese was scouting with her Starsparrow in the distant elven camps, keeping an eye on the situation that they might time things.
“Received word from the elves,” Anneliese began before he’d said anything at all...
2023-05-25 06:55:59 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave came upon Anneliese sitting in the roots of one of the giant redwoods, well concealed with several Veidimen on watch. She opened her eyes when he alighted on the ground, soaring from the trees as he did. A few heartbeats later, her Starsparrow took its place on her shoulder.
Orion a...
2023-05-24 06:56:50 +0000 UTC View Post“Are they gone?” one centaur asked, clutching his bloody and bent leg as he languished in the rubble.
“Yeah, they’re gone,” one of the older centaurs said, peering out overtop the pit of that human’s making.
A pyrrhic triumph spread in the centaurs, battered and defeated t...
2023-05-23 06:55:30 +0000 UTC View PostTo speak to a king was not to know a king… and to know a god was not to understand a god.
The emissaries of Erlebnis knew this fact well. Though an extension of His will and bound together in an inextricable network of individual cognizance, they could never claim to understand how their ...
2023-05-22 06:55:40 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave tried to talk with the centaurs for a long, long while. Their reply was rather consistent—namely, a barrage of arrows.
Despite Argrave’s restraint, they called him genocider, as they thought he came to kill their people in party with the elves. They called him defiler, as they...
2023-05-19 06:54:55 +0000 UTC View Post“You can hear them from here…” Argrave muttered, peering through the great Redwoods. Ganbaatar and a few other members of the Supreme Myriarch’s Kheshig had carried the royal pair up here, and now Anneliese and he crouched side by side. He watched with his eyes, while she watched with her...
2023-05-18 06:56:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe Supreme Myriarch stared ahead at giants moving through the trees, trampling the overgrown roots of the Bloodwoods beneath their feet as though they were common twigs and not the redwoods comprising their homeland. From this far away, they almost seemed like normal-sized elves walking in one o...
2023-05-17 06:56:14 +0000 UTC View Post“God damn it all… proxies, parables, metaphors, rituals—why can’t these damned gods just talk straight?” Argrave bit at his knuckle, stewing on what Anneliese had reported.
“Because then we would know what they intend to do. That might make their plans a little more difficult to...
2023-05-16 06:58:47 +0000 UTC View Post“Should we meet with this man?” Anneliese asked, staring out across the sea of grass. “Who is Dimocles, even? You seemed to have knowledge of this name.”
“One of the player characters,” Argrave said shortly.
“Ah,” Anneliese nodded. “Then maybe we…” she stopped, t...
2023-05-15 06:58:14 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave woke up early the next morning. He’d slept very soundly—it was one of those sleeps where it felt like he’d just blinked and the next day came. He stirred to his feet and woke up feeling fresh and pure. He stared at his hands and wiggled his fingers, each of them leaving behind a sli...
2023-05-12 06:56:09 +0000 UTC View Post“This is our favor,” Chiteng said, holding a silver coin out.
Argrave took it, examining it. It looked old and battered, more like something out of an archaeological dig site than something actually used as currency. Even the image was barely discernible as a face. Perhaps it was someth...
2023-05-11 06:57:09 +0000 UTC View PostArtur sat in the dank and smelly altar, where the iron and rot of the blood pooling on the floor pervaded every inch of this place. He had refused to follow Argrave into the other realm not once, but twice. He didn’t think the king judged him for that fact, but it still weighed as his mind. He ...
2023-05-10 06:56:39 +0000 UTC View PostThey walked through the verdant palace that marked the elven gods’ meeting area, following just behind the red-robed woman. This place was clearly a collaborative effort—the stones were beige and pleasant, the place was overgrown with greenery likely furnished by the god of agriculture, and i...
2023-05-09 06:56:49 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave rode back on the ivory whale for the island where the rest of his companions resided. He was ferrying back and forth often enough it felt like a waste of time, somewhat… but then, this would be the last time they’d step on its back, he supposed.
“Argrave… I want you to know ...
2023-05-08 06:57:04 +0000 UTC View Post“Are you talking about the god’s blessing within me?” Argrave asked with a firm voice—he was proud of himself for staying steady given the walls themselves were shaking.
“You admit, then, that you have the favor of another god,” Chiteng’s red eyes narrowed somewhat.
“N...
2023-05-05 06:56:56 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave stared at his hand as they drifted across the sea. Not his first or second, but his third hand. There was one small benefit to active ascensions over passive ascensions—the effects were immediate. Anneliese had needed to wait a few days, but Argrave already saw the fruits of his labor b...
2023-05-04 06:55:24 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave laughed enough that it seemed like everything was okay. But with blood pouring from his body in waves every time he threw his head against the wall, and his clearly involuntarily grunts and shouts of pain, Nikoletta could tell that everything was the opposite of okay. What he did...
2023-05-03 06:57:46 +0000 UTC View Post“I was surprised when you contacted me,” said a tall blonde man, a steel helmet depicting a boar resting in the crook of his arm. The rest of his equipment was laid out before him, polished and ready. All that remained was putting it on.
“Surprised I could, or surprised I would?” Du...
2023-05-02 06:55:49 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Argrave finished demanding cooperation from Chiteng, he felt a little lightheaded from the rush that brought on. He managed not to do anything foolish or embarrassing in the wake of that, though he furiously replayed what he’d said in his head to make sure he’d said nothing overtly disre...
2023-05-01 06:55:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe lone call of the whale had been a haunting thing from the shore alone, but as Argrave and Orion sailed out deep into the open sea that call of theirs became more numerous. A faint red mist shielded one from seeing too far, so the harrowing noise of distant foghorns penetrated the bloody ocean...
2023-04-28 06:56:06 +0000 UTC View PostArgrave waded through the thick, viscous blood flooding the underground altar. He’d thought going through the wetlands of northwestern Vasquer had been torturous, but to walk through heavy red blood was far more unpleasant. Fortunately, the source was not too far from them.
Ahead, there w...
2023-04-27 06:55:44 +0000 UTC View Post