A year and half had passed since the Fool had left Alric one late summer’s morning. Nearly seven seasons since he’d fled his homeland to escape the Ravener’s return.
And those seven seasons had brought change, as time tends to.
But, there are many kinds of changes in the univers...
2022-10-08 21:20:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe blizzard had lifted by the time Alex and Claygon stepped outside into the cold night air.
But the storm had done its work.
Snow drifts rose high in the castle’s courtyard, laying thick on every roof and capping the inner wall in a rampart of white. They covered the signs of batt...
2022-10-08 00:09:46 +0000 UTC View PostClaygon had always been beautiful to Alex. A terror to be sure, but a beautiful terror, much like Theresa was. Every inch of the golem’s finely sculpted clay had always reminded Alex of the hours of love and care he and Selina had poured into crafting his body.
Claygon’s new frame had t...
2022-10-07 00:02:18 +0000 UTC View Post“Greetin’s friends!” Cedric took Alex and Isolde by the hand, pulling both to their feet. “We’re here t’turn the tide. We’ll be talkin’ later.”
Without another word, the Chosen of Uldar charged through what was left of the hordes of Ravener-spawn, unleashing a fireball—t...
2022-10-05 23:21:52 +0000 UTC View PostEuphoria!
Thundering cheers rising louder and louder.
Warriors, mages, all celebrating the enemy’s imminent end.
The invisible Ravener-spawn verged on defeat; its black blood stained the ground where it lay, unseen limbs stirred clouds of white and its fading cries rose and fe...
2022-10-04 21:18:20 +0000 UTC View PostMolten lines of power flowed and bubbled like lava running through cracks in the golem’s battered body. An unfamiliar mana drove into Alex’s senses and Claygon’s massive form seemed to ripple.
As he watched helplessly, old memories came drifting across time, seeming to echo through hi...
2022-10-01 22:06:54 +0000 UTC View Post"A little more," Alex whispered, sending a Wizard's Hand into a behemoth’s throat. The spell squeezed the vial, glass shattered, the monster began to stagger.
The hive-as-one lodged on its shoulder raised its hands, channelling mana until another Wizard's Hand dropped in its face, r...
2022-09-30 23:17:55 +0000 UTC View Post"And it's been just over ten minutes, by my reckoning," Watcher Shaw reported from the teleportation building. "According to the earth mages, these things managed to make dungeons and the like right below us, and they’ve been throwing around a lot of mana down there, breaching walls like they w...
2022-09-29 23:52:08 +0000 UTC View PostAlex lay against something hard and cold.
Actually, the cold seemed to be swirling all around. It bit into him, a deep pit of exhaustion was calling him to come drown in it. All he wanted to do was sleep...
...but he couldn't...
...he was...
What was he doing again?
...
2022-09-28 23:20:08 +0000 UTC View PostIt started with one.
When Theresa Lu left her family home in Alric, she took with her one of her great-grandfather's two swords. And with it, she’d fought a hive-queen, and silence-spiders in the Cave of the Traveller, and monsters in the Barrens of Kravernus with the sword in one hand, a...
2022-09-27 21:43:04 +0000 UTC View PostHarsh Ravener-spawn cries echoed through the force walls.
The excavation team were talking numbers to one another.
"Talk fast," the lead Watcher pushed.
"I have about half my mana left," an earth mage said.
"Same here," another echoed.
"Less for me," Prince Khalik re...
2022-09-24 23:56:27 +0000 UTC View PostThe behemoth towered above the snow covered terrain, growling and snapping like crumbling bone. The earth trembled with each heavy footfall while misting breath—like a fog cloud—froze in the air. Wide eyes sought a single target in the courtyard and suddenly blazed with recognition, lighting ...
2022-09-23 23:15:07 +0000 UTC View PostAlex, Claygon and Isolde shot away when the ground cracked. Rock whizzed by. With jaws clenched, Alex weaved through the barrage, praying to the Traveller that they would clear the pelting rocks.
Stone shards seemed to soar in every direction, but only dust reached them. He sent out a silen...
2022-09-22 23:55:46 +0000 UTC View Post"But the tunnels!" Alex’s voice rose. "I've have to get down there, my friends are—"
"Mr. Roth, we've already sent help to the excavation team," Watcher Shaw barked, not sparing the young wizard a glance as he strode through the raging blizzard, adjusting his scarf to shield his face. A...
2022-09-21 21:26:30 +0000 UTC View PostThe cave floor bucked and heaved beneath Theresa's feet like an angry stallion bent on throwing her to the ground. The sound of stone cracking through weakened walls groaned from every direction.
Earth mages scrambled and dwarves shouted warnings.
"These walls’ll fail!" An elder dwa...
2022-09-20 15:20:00 +0000 UTC View Post"Hold on, slow down for a couple of heartbeats!" Gwyllain cried, waving his basket of honeyed acorns about like he was fending off a swarm of enraged bees.
The blue caps—each crackling and flaring with blinding blue light, raced around Gwyllain, yapping like excitable fox kits.
"You...
2022-09-20 15:19:55 +0000 UTC View PostIn the starkness of a tunnel beneath the research castle, the petrifier prepared its attack.
It loomed above a growing horde of monsters within a vast chamber shrouded in darkness, and pressed into the walls on either side of it, were the dungeon cores granted by its master. And they shudde...
2022-09-20 15:19:52 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone, I just want to thank you all so so much!
Today is the day!
It’s my great pleasure (and rapidly rising shock/panic) to announce the launch of my debut published novel Mark of the Fool Book 1, available now through Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited, Paperba...
2022-09-20 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post"Mr. Roth! Mr. Roth! Miss. London! Miss. London!" a magically augmented voice boomed over the castle grounds. "Professor Jules requests you attend her office in the keep!"
"Well, that's me," Alex said, leaning down to kiss Theresa. "Have fun in the mines, honey."
She rolled her eyes a...
2022-09-17 14:26:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe Hunters led their commander through the mounting snow, slipping between bare branches and frost-slicked trunks. In the distance, a line of eyes flashed yellow. A pack of wolves stalked through the cold, guarding a kill that stained the white red.
They eyed the Hunters warily, sniffing t...
2022-09-16 23:28:41 +0000 UTC View Post“…what the hells was that?” Hart asked. “It felt like someone just walked over my grave. I saw all this fire and a great, big fight. Did you guys see that?”
The Sage muttered an incantation, conjuring a huge forceball to light the cavern.
“Yeah,” Cedric said. “I saw so...
2022-09-15 21:30:25 +0000 UTC View PostI like the idea of ‘everybody wins’ if you can get that, Alexander Roth had once said.
The Thameish wizard had been sitting beside the fire talking with Drestra in the Generasians’ encampment, and the Sage had hinted at the troubles Lord Aenflynn was bringing. She’d sought ...
2022-09-15 00:34:13 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Lord Aenflynn stepped into the mortal world, reality seemed to buckle beneath the weight of his being.
The air and earth around him shimmered and distorted like water forced into a sphere. Dead foliage breathed life again, bursting with vibrant summer blooms under his feet only to with...
2022-09-13 21:50:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello everybody! Remember when I said I had a small surprise? Well, here it is! NGL,I am SUPER excited about this!
My publisher and I teamed up to create real life versions of the charm-pendants that Baelin gives to those he recognizes as his apprentices, like those he gave to the First Ye...
“I don’t think we need Aenflynn’s swords,” Merzhin said disapprovingly. “And I am getting a little tired of being left behind, my companions.”
Drestra froze in the middle of shouldering her pack.
‘Not now,’ she thought.
“Oi, Merzhin,” Cedric said. “Leave it...
2022-09-10 23:43:57 +0000 UTC View Post“And then she said ‘only then will you know what you need to know’!” Theresa moaned, her hands pressed to her face.
“Okay, what in all hells does that mean?” Alex asked from off to her left. She heard the page of a book turn, the thunder of Claygon’s massive feet acro...
2022-09-09 22:03:18 +0000 UTC View PostNot now. Or perhaps ever.
Those words burned in Theresa’s mind and spirit, freezing her heart. She took another deep breath as a thousand thoughts collided in her brain.
‘Have I been wasting my time, was I just holding onto old sentiment meanwhile monsters couldn’t care...
2022-09-08 22:53:31 +0000 UTC View Post“Great-grandfather…why the hells didn’t you make an instruction book?” Theresa sighed, lying on the grass and turning her sword blades above her head.
The huntress examined them for what seemed like the thousandth time, turning them, inspecting how they shone in the sunlight, runnin...
2022-09-07 23:46:10 +0000 UTC View PostAt last, it was complete.
Deep within the Ravener, a new monster had at last spawned. Weeks of fear bled from every corner of Thameland to feed the storm of dark crafting, and still the process was longer and more drawn out than in the past. Many cycles had passed since the Ravener had last...
2022-09-06 23:19:56 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright,” the prince said, slamming his cup of wine down on the table. “I tire of this dancing around the bush. No more shall I walk on eggshells over this.”
The entire table paused mid-feast, their eyes wandering to Khalik as he sat tall in his chair and squared his shoulders as t...
2022-09-04 00:14:08 +0000 UTC View Post