Hope is a strange thing. We cling to it, often when, by all rights, we have no reason to. Yet, even though we know it isn’t real, it remains a comfort. A light amidst the darkness, and one that we hope will light our way to salvation. It will not. Only death and destruction... 2024-03-10 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Ironshore was a bustling town, though its population was low enough that it often seemed a lot sleepier than it really was. Still, there were enough wary glances aimed at Elijah that his trip through the city felt claustrophobic in a way that had nothing to do with tight quarters. So, he was more...
2024-03-09 16:10:11 +0000 UTC View PostFor a long time, Elijah just floated in the cave. As he gently swayed back and forth with the weak current, he reveled in the feeling of his Body of Stone. He’d only progressed an hour or so ago, and yet, he could already feel more of a difference than he’d felt when he’d taken the first st...
2024-03-09 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostI didn’t know how to react when I thought I’d lost her forever. I knew nothing could have survived that explosion. It was too powerful. But then I heard her voice, and I saw her face. I was too shocked to wonder if she was still the girl I love.... 2024-03-09 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
The smell of lavender twisted in the air, fusing with the steam from the shower. Meanwhile, Elijah sang Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now as he scrubbed the dirt, muck, and salt from his body. It wasn’t his favorite song or anything – though he did have a soft spot for eighties p...
2024-03-08 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostCarmen wrenched the leaf spring of the vehicle free, then set it aside. The ends were still smoking from her use of Smolder, which she’d utilized to weaken the steel so she could pull it away from the car. She could have used Fracture, but it required a lot more ethera than Smolder, makin...
2024-03-08 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostLightning flashed as a deluge of rain fell upon the battlefield, yet Zeke was unconcerned with the weather. Nor did he pay attention to the muddy conditions that would make for treacherous footing. Instead, he stared at the solid sheet of mana that constituted Adontis’ vaunted Barrier.
...
2024-03-08 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a subdued group that left the tower behind and swam to the shore of Elijah’s island. For his part, he spoke little – only as much as absolutely necessary to ensure the others knew what he needed them to do – and what he did say was terse. Even with Kurik, who by all rights, had done ...
2024-03-07 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe smell of blooming flowers hung in the air, reminding Carmen that spring had well and truly arrived. In any other situation, she might have welcomed it. Indeed, even as a refugee who’d been banished to wilderness, she appreciated the warmer weather. However, it also highlighted a series of i...
2024-03-07 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostZeke remained at the edge of the crater for hours, just staring at the devastation he’d wrought. But he was far more concerned with the absence in his mind. He could scarcely remember a time when Eveline hadn’t been with him. Certainly, he knew that he’d not had her company throughout his e...
2024-03-07 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“How did we only get a C-Grade out of that?” Elijah complained, looking at the item he’d found in the silver reward box. It was a pair of boots, called Footpads of Silence. “It was flawless.”
“I’m just glad to be outta the water,” Kurik remarked, looking at his own set of fo...
2024-03-06 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostIrritation bordering on anger coursed through every facet of Elijah’s mind as he threw himself at the huge turtle. Its jagged-beaked head snapped out, its jaws clamping down on his hastily-raised arm. He’d used Iron Scales, but even then, he felt his bones creak under the enormous biting forc...
2024-03-06 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostI hate the things I’ve had to do. The lives I’ve ruined. The lies I have told. And for what? So when the time came, we would be abandoned to a fate none of us earned? The Templars were supposed to save us. And yet, we find ourselves in the same boat as everyone else on Ea... 2024-03-06 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
A cold wind swept across the open field, cutting through the warm spring air and heralding the storm to come. Thor glared at the horizon as if he could intimidate the weather into a delay. But as powerful as he had become, that was still impossible. Though who knew what the future would bring? Go...
2024-03-05 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostElijah knocked a thrown spear aside with his Crook of the Serpent Healer, then dove beneath the surface. The water wouldn’t completely mitigate the momentum of the missiles, but it would slow them down enough that his high Constitution could protect him properly. Once he was ten feet underwater...
2024-03-05 16:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostMana swirled all around him, but Zeke barely paid it any mind. Instead, he focused entirely on the task at hand, because anything less would result in disaster. He had created some complex skills before, but none of them came close to what he had planned for his latest creation.
Which was o...
2024-03-05 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostOkay, so I intended to do this yesterday, but I ended up going to see Dune 2 and completely forgot. So, you all get the weekly check-in a day late!
So, this past week was fun. I've been rolling on all three stories, and everything's been a blast to write. With...
2024-03-04 16:44:20 +0000 UTC View Post“Ye didn’t have to scare him so bad,” Kurik said, running a hand through his spiky hair. “He was just curious.”
“Curiosity killed the cat,” Elijah replied, having just shifted back to his human form.
“What cat?” Kurik asked.
Elijah sighed. “I always forget th...
2024-03-04 16:18:27 +0000 UTC View Post“He’s going to kill us,” said Nia, wringing her green, long-fingered hands as she stood on the dock. “He’s going to take us over there and sacrifice us for some sort of ritual, like he did with all those mercenaries from Black Sun.”
“If he wanted to kill us, he would have alre...
2024-03-04 16:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostZeke summoned a chair from his storage space, then settled down to think. A small contingent of kobolds had taken up in the keep nearest to the dungeon, and though most of that fortification had been destroyed, there were enough intact buildings to provide a base of operations for the area. So, a...
2024-03-04 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostElijah rowed across the strait, his strokes straining the integrity of the paddles as he crested one rolling wave after another. Normally, the strait was fairly calm, but as was the case far more often than not, a storm had rolled in overnight, and it had brought some rougher seas with it.
...
2024-03-03 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostElijah sat on his treehouse’s balcony, his feet on the banister as he cradled an earthenware mug his hands. The sun had barely risen, so there was still a slight nip in the air, but he’d decided to temporarily use the bearskin as a blanket. He raised the mug to his lips and slurped at the tea...
2024-03-03 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostTheoretically, there is no limit to what a powerful mystic can do. Despite studying it for centuries, we still don’t know everything about how Mist interacts with people. We can see the mechanics of that interaction easily enough, but there are so many things we can’t explain. In ...
2024-03-03 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostEven in the old world, badgers were fearsome creatures that no sane person would confront unless absolutely necessary. And since Earth had been transformed, they had grown even more terrifying – a fact of which Carmen was intimately aware, considering she was facing one such monster armed only ...
2024-03-02 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning dawned bright and cheerful, and Elijah rose to the sound of birdsong. For a few moments, he just lay in bed, enjoying the morning for the peace it represented. It would have been so easy to let himself get wrapped up in all the terrible things he’d seen and done. Yet, for all t...
2024-03-02 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostWe don’t really know where the Mist came from. Even those of us who claim to understand it are really just repeating something someone else told us. It has always been there, and it always will be.
Frederick Connoly
I leap...
2024-03-02 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostUpon arrival in his grove, the first thing Elijah did was to return to his treehouse and collect a few things he knew he would need. The hide, which he’d left there for the past few weeks, was the most important bit, but there was a sealed cask he’d gotten from Kurik that was equally necessar...
2024-03-01 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostElijah sat on the edge of the bed, trying desperately to get his thoughts in order. He had so many things to do, and it felt like the clock was ticking on his opportunity to do them. More than anything, though, he was eager to get back on the proverbial road. Now that he had a lead on where to fi...
2024-03-01 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe smell of burnt flesh, blood, and all sorts of odors Zeke didn’t want to contemplate filled the air as he stomped on the ground, sending a line of ragged devastation cutting across the battlefield to erupt into a huge gout of flame, earth, and corruption. It enveloped his opponent – the la...
2024-03-01 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe wide world spread out before Carmen, and all she could think of was the city she’d just left behind. However, as she clutched her son’s hand, she wouldn’t allow herself to look back. Even as she heard the guards of Easton chuckling and jeering, she refused to give them – or Roman – ...
2024-02-29 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post