With the last of the Glowcrest Emmets twitching in its death throes, I jogged over to retrieve Blisterbrand, plucking it from the dust with a satisfied smile. It had done its job well. I gave it a twirl, splashing fire and acid across the ground, just for fun, before I swiped it into storage.
... 2025-08-27 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe Ironclad Ravine greeted us like an old, scarred friend, and I smiled at the jagged outcrops of stone veined with metallic quartz. Once it had filled me with trepidation and radiated danger, but now it was a familiar and almost comforting sight. It brought back a lot of memories, some bad, but...
2025-08-25 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“By the anvil’s black sooted backside,” Pa cursed as I ducked underneath the doorway and into the smithy.
“Hey, Pa,” I said and grinned.
“You…bastard!” he said, staring up at me slack jawed.
“Is that Ash?” Ma asked from inside. “What’s going o...
2025-08-23 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostI stuck Traitor into the ground and sat down, wiping sweat and Quinta blood off my brow. The smell of burnt flesh was heavy in the air. I looked up over the temple roofs at the scarred wall where Quinta sacrifices were burning every few feet and lighting up the night sky. The bricks and mortar be...
2025-08-22 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe world was gone only to be replaced by pain. It was a roaring, white-hot inferno scouring me from the inside out kind of pain.
I knew I screamed, but I couldn’t hear it.
My body was no longer my own to control.
It was a crucible, and the Class Gem an unforgiving...
2025-08-21 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe air was ripe with the smell of burnt flesh. All across the golden sea of the Quinta army bonfires bellowed oily smoke.
Sacrifices to a dead God.
The poor bastards had stopped screaming a while ago, now they just crackled away, waiting for the Emperor to give the sign.
“Our...
2025-08-20 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe aroma of Knut’s pre-dawn bacon breakfast had nearly faded and I was in the middle of a delicious cup of tea, chatting with Eryn, Nabeeh, and Knut, when we heard a ruckus from upstairs.
“About time,” Nabeeh said, shaking her head in half-mocking criticism.
“Like fearf...
2025-08-19 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Midnights, it’s time to—”
I began ducking under the frame of the entrance to the club. A big mace slammed into my chest and broke apart. I looked down and saw Korvan holding the stump of his weapon both hands. The ogre swallowed.
“Nice one,” I said.
“Brazendan’s...
2025-08-18 15:00:23 +0000 UTC View PostAfter bidding Edwin and Pa goodbye, leaving the commander to negotiate with Ma, the greatest challenge he’d faced since the Hive Mind attacked during our duel with Serona, I headed towards the west side of Dawnwatch.
On the open plot of land west of the lumberyard, the Central Comma...
2025-08-17 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostI fell asleep for a few seconds. My jaw slipped off my knuckles, jerking me awake again. I looked up. The throne room was filled to the brink with people talking over each other while Seldon Wey Stoneford desperately tried to establish some semblance of order. My gaze wandered between the rows of...
2025-08-16 15:00:34 +0000 UTC View PostI held the door open to the Adventurer’s Guild for Eryn and then followed after her. The rest of my party, plus Edwin, followed me inside. Shay was there representing his party, and the council of three mages were representing, well, themselves.
Mara looked up from the resting area ...
2025-08-15 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostI rounded a corner and reeled Wolf in so I’d stay hidden and let out a long, calm breath as I took in the scene.
There was something strangely serene about the sight of orcs in battle with the First. The stretch of bridge leading to the White Castle offered barely a hundred soldiers to ba...
2025-08-14 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostI ran for the Steel Scrambler, a savage grin spreading across my face.
“Armor break.”
Roq glowed red.
“Lan!” Roq said. “Back off. Stay! Disengage! This is my kill to finish!”
“No!” Lan shouted. “Wa...
2025-08-13 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe Temple District almost looked like the Ashpit. Tents filled with wounded soldiers flapped in the strong wind that swept through the square. Sitting in the northernmost part of the city, Sankta Varath’s religious center served well as a base of operation and field hospital. Still, it saddene...
2025-08-12 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Slow it!” I called, watching the Steel Scrambler loom behind Wade, the bottom of its carapace was higher than the top of his head. It raised a claw to crush or snap the man in two, its six legs punching into the ground and shaking it with each step. “Death comes hungry,” Lan muttered. 2025-08-11 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
“Your Grace!” Seldon Wey Stoneford protested as he shot out of his chair. “Is this really necessary?”
“Sit your ass down, Voice!” the King snapped and Seldon planted his rear back into his chair.
“Blackmouth, finish him!”
Our dear and wise king was fuming. Spittl...
2025-08-10 11:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostA stiff wind knifed through the gaps in the unfinished stone rampart of the keep, stealing warmth from my coat and making my eyes water.
Below, Dawnwatch was an expanding ring of flickering torchlight. At first glance it seemed a bastion against the encroaching dark of the plains around us,...
2025-08-09 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThey called him Old Silver and he was meaner than a troll’s fart. He was a knight and a major in the King’s First Army, second only to Stein himself.
He stood among a hundred or so soldiers and army mages guarding the entrance to the outer circle of the White Palace and had no intention...
2025-08-08 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post“So, tell us about yourself,” I said, smiling at Lan as best I could across our dining room table. I’d tried chatting with her as we made our way over from Sentinel Station after the attack was beaten back, but she’d refused to engage.
And she still did, deciding to remain sil...
2025-08-07 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostTyfus slept in nothing but his loincloth on the top of the stairs. A snot bubble rose and fell as he snored away. I rubbed my eyes and yawned, stretched, and took in a deep breath to take it all in. It had been a while since I slept last time in my own room, especially having gone through most of...
2025-08-06 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAfter the funeral, the adventurers and scavengers had retreated to the Timberline, and after everyone had gathered, it felt like a wounded beast.
The usual boisterous lifeblood of the tavern had been replaced by a low, mournful murmur. What usually smelled like a home away from home, now st...
2025-08-05 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA small crowd had gathered beneath Castelian’s impaled body. Worried murmurs coursed between the onlookers as I approached. I made a point to just ride past them but I couldn’t avoid overhearing the hushed words of ‘God Slayer’ and ‘Castelian’ killer’.
I knew the story would s...
2025-08-04 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy boots click-clacked on top of First Steel as I slowly walked the circle with Mara in silence. She’d insisted we head up there to continue our conversation , to give space for Enar to get back on his feet and return to his family, but I knew it was because she wanted to sound me out by hersel...
2025-08-03 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostCastelian’s mansion sat atop a small hill among a dozen other villas and luxury buildings. Nestled in the Glade where the rich and powerful lived, his black, almost fortress-like home stuck out like a sore thumb against the other mostly inviting places of Sankta Varath’s nobility and merchant...
2025-08-02 11:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe Magister’s Bridge was the demarcation line between the King’s forces and Nergat’s new Green Tide. Armed soldiers stood at both ends of the large stone bridge that crossed the Darvas River. On the other side was the Glade, one of the richest parts of town, while the orcs guarded what was...
2025-07-31 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostEnar’s shriek tore through the room and with it a chill fell over us as mana erupted from within him. Mara’s axe was already halfway up when Roq yelled.
“HALT!”
The command boomed through my mind and everyone but Mara stumbled as they hissed in pain.&nbs...
2025-07-30 10:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostWe stood in the back yard in heavy silence around Snowdog’s grave. Well, as silent as a city under siege could be. The sun was casting long shadows across the trees and plants of our garden. It was never as lush and plentiful as it was that day. Opius had done wonders with anything that could b...
2025-07-29 11:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Well?” Mara asked. She held her axe loosely, but with a promise of finality.
Ours, Enars? Maybe even both?
My mind raced as I tried to come up with a quick response.
“My soul weapon,” I said, the words tumbling out. “He’s… an expert in what he calls soul for...
2025-07-28 10:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostSankta Varath was a mess. A chowder of a city with greedy, angry, frustrated people of maddened minds. With dirty, chaotic streets where peddlers and ruffians, thieves and tricksters, murderers and beggars found their home. It was a city of immeasurable luxury, a hellhole of poverty and crime, it...
2025-07-27 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostEnar’s scream was not the sound of a man in pain. It was the sound of a soul being unmade, a raw, high-pitched shriek that clawed at the air in the room and set my teeth on edge.
He arched against the bed, his body a taut bow of agony, muscles straining against the chains we’d pre...
2025-07-26 10:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post