“There’s a strange atmosphere in the market today.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing, Madam Geller.”
“Don’t try and placate me, Cerry, I’m worried. The Marshalls arrested three people just yesterday! I knew Mr Wisten from when I was little, he’s a pillar of the community. They rolled in and took him away without a word to anyone. His poor wife is much too old ...
2024-02-23 11:06:30 +0000 UTC View PostWhen the noise finally died down, Isaac pulled his hands from over his ears and slowly, very slowly, opened his eyes.
The first thing he felt… was relief that the roof hadn’t collapsed on top of him. A good start. Next came the relief that his legs hadn’t fallen off or been crushed, they were simply numb from the incessant shaking of the floor.
Wins all around. Isaa...
2024-02-21 09:55:21 +0000 UTC View PostThe boat fell back to the water with a bone-shuddering crash. Thankfully, the Abyssal Legion built their ships to withstand attacks from the powerful monsters who dwelt in the deep waters of the fourth. Commander Chyron estimated the vessel had been almost ten metres in the air before it fell.
Her legs shuddered and her knees creaked as they absorbed the force of her landing. R...
2024-02-21 05:36:12 +0000 UTC View PostLess of a cliff, but still a cliff. This is it for me today. My hands hurt!
Now, obviously the gravity well I created is pulling in the opposite direction from the black sun chewing up every piece of the planet it can get its little grubby hands on. However, it's not enough to counteract the force, not even remotely. Despite deploying the spell, the lake is still going cr...
2024-02-20 05:23:18 +0000 UTC View PostAnother cliff. At least one more chap today. Hoping to get to the resolution today.
The stone shatters down the middle, shards flying in all directions, then slowing, freezing, and reversing, as they are pulled back to the force of the spell which had sent them flying in the first place.
Now exposed to the air, the bomb makes itself known in the familiar, terr...
2024-02-20 02:04:58 +0000 UTC View PostWarning! This chapter ends on another cliff. Cause the hits keep coming and they don't coming and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming.
Saw people in the comments of the last chapter pointing out, quite validly, that there were too many cliffs, which is totally fair. Others pointed out that the cliffs wouldn'...
2024-02-20 00:15:50 +0000 UTC View PostOverhead, the enormous chunk of stone looms like the hammer of a fat and drunken god. Millions of tons? Billions of tons?
Who can say? I’m certainly not busting out the scales, that’s for sure!
My brains burn inside my head as they are pushed beyond the limits which exist past the first set of limits. Every mind-construct screams with effort, getting double, ...
2024-02-19 08:28:26 +0000 UTC View Post3500 words this one. Still got it.
We are closing in on the end of Volume 3 people! Whoo! Just like the first arc, it's going to take me two books to get through it, so don't expect anything too crazy to happen in the next few chapters. The climax of this arc will be at the end of book four.
How long had it been, since he had last laid eyes on these...
2024-02-19 04:49:46 +0000 UTC View PostSorry to keep you waiting BOD readers!
Been a busy week for me this week. My eldest son is heading off to University tomorrow (that's College for any American readers), and as you can imagine it's been a busy time, hanging out with the lad and trying to make sure he's prepared.
Second chapter won't be tomorrow, I'll be driving, but hopefully...
2024-02-16 04:14:26 +0000 UTC View PostThis is their secret plot? They want to drop a freaking mountain on my head?! Why waste all that time with subterfuge and the like when this was the plan all along?
I guess they wanted the brathians out of the way—the important ones, anyway. With Eran and her family gone, they figured they could go ahead and try to squash nearly ten thousand ants in one fell swoop. 2024-02-15 07:12:07 +0000 UTC View Post
“I’m hesitant about this, Commander,” Morrelia said, standing to attention next to her grizzled leader.
Chryon rose one brow before she turned back to stare at the unthinkable pillar that was Greystone.
“This is not a Legion action, Tribune,” the commander replied, thumbing at her chin in thought. “We don’t even know what they plan to do. Other than a vaguel...
2024-02-15 03:04:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Your brogue is beginning to show again.”
“T’aint nothin’ of tha sort.”
Isaac took a second, realised what he’d just said, and frowned.
“Told you so,” Cavalant said. “You’re too tense. Try to relax a little bit.”
And how exactly was he supposed to do that? The atmosphere in this chamber was so thick he could cut with his moustache. No b...
2024-02-15 01:58:45 +0000 UTC View PostGolgari society has long been divided in a caste structure based on profession. The outer circle, or the fourth, consists of those regular craftsmen and women, the farmers, the miners, the smiths and tailors and traders. No matter how high a level they reach, or what impressive feats they achieve, it is impossible for them to climb higher than the circle in which they live.<...
2024-02-13 07:00:46 +0000 UTC View Post“You want me to go inside the mountain?” Isaac asked, surprised.
He turned and gazed out over the open waters toward the Legion fleet. It didn’t look like they were moving at all. Perhaps they had no plans to head ashore at this stop?
He turned back to the Eran.
“I’m good,” he said, smiling broadly and knuckling his moustache. “I like it out here on th...
2024-02-12 03:27:35 +0000 UTC View Post[A training drill gone wrong! Of all the absurd claims to make! How dare they treat the Conglomerate this way? I’ll set an embargo on them, I’ll establish tariffs. They won’t be able to import a wheel of cheese when I’m done with them!]
Eran is seriously upset at the treatment she’s received from the golgari. She just returned to the fleet after heading ashor...
2024-02-10 22:55:28 +0000 UTC View PostI’m not sure what I was expecting from the goglari when we showed up their mountain. A friendly reception? Certainly not. However, I really didn’t expect something like this.
Marzban roars something and the whole ship changes.
The boat rattles with brathian feet pounding on the wooden deck.
[There’s going to be a fight, let me down! I can kill them. K...
2024-02-10 04:54:34 +0000 UTC View PostTyron stood, grim-faced, as his skeletons went about their work. With the Freezing Curse applied, and the cloud of darkness constantly flowing from his cauldron, the field of battle was firmly to the advantage of his undead, and it showed.
Men and women were crying out, screaming and cursing, cut down by skeletal soldiers they couldn’t even see. A part of him burned with cold...
2024-02-08 08:53:58 +0000 UTC View PostFiletta eyed the slimy, dripping walls of the sewer with open disgust. She didn’t like it down here, yet such a convenient network of unpatrolled paths was simply too useful to be ignored. Tonight, she felt especially resentful, though that might have been residual distaste from her task for the night.
Carefully, she pushed that thought to the back of her mind. It wouldn’t ...
2024-02-07 09:46:07 +0000 UTC View PostOdren, the Father of Monsters, oldest and first amongst the Ancients, we beseech thee.
Grant us freedom from the prison that binds us.
Preserve us from the creations of your power.
Watch over and protect us with your omnipresent sight.
Save us from ourselves.
- Prayer of the Cult of Origin
Lost ...
2024-02-06 07:25:54 +0000 UTC View PostMy conversation with Rassan’tep is short, and soon I have to open up the way and slip back into the pavilion, head buzzing with what I’ve learned. This is the truth of the Ancients? They’ve had enough of Pangera and want to get the heck out?
Why? This place seems fine!
I mean, would I remove centipedes from the spawn pool for monsters? Yes, yes I would. And will. Ot...
2024-02-03 10:09:26 +0000 UTC View PostWE DROP BOMBS
[You’ve hinted that there are deep and powerful secrets or whatever. Things that Granin and his fellow worm-enthusiasts don’t want to tell me. Is that a fair statement?]
[A serviceable summation,] the ka’armodo nods. [The followers of Yarrum are more… conservative when it comes to spreading certain truths. Those of my order are known...
2024-02-03 09:06:48 +0000 UTC View PostHoly. Moly.
I freeze in shock and surprise for so long that the ants behind just start climbing up my legs and over my back. When they run into my antennae, I come back to myself and start moving again, still boggling at the ridiculous sight in front of me.
From our position, the road begins to slope down again, towards a… basin? Filled with… a desert? I guess? It’s...
2024-02-03 05:02:05 +0000 UTC View PostTyron looked down at the squirming rat in his hands. The thing was huge, as rats went, easily three or four times bigger than it should have been. By far the largest specimen he’d come across in his sojourns into the sewers.
It reeked of blood magick. A dangerous amount.
Whoever these bloodsuckers were, they appeared to be growing careless. This much might be enough to ...
2024-02-02 23:19:43 +0000 UTC View Post“I didn’t expect to see you here, of all people.”
Tyron leaned back from the lens he was looking through, putting his pliance down as he turned with a smile to greet the newcomer. Short, dressed in humble looking shirt and pants with an irritated scowl on her face, Master Willhem’s greatest apprentice looked much the same as she did the last time he’d seen he...
2024-02-01 20:09:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey there folks! Book five is out today! Whoo!
As always, I encourage you to head over and grab a copy if that's your thing.
If it's not, as always, I ask you to consider leaving a rating or review for the book as it MASSIVELY helps exposure via the algorithm.
Have a great day everyone!
[Me? Get you killed? Of course not!]
[Anthony… I’d ask what you think would happen to me if I were caught conversing with monsters in secret, but you probably didn’t think about it at all, did you?]
Guilty.
[I’m cutting the link.]
[Wait! Give me a couple of minutes to talk and I’ll prevent Isaac from running up to meet you.]
Silence on the othe...
2024-01-31 09:49:19 +0000 UTC View Post[It went well, possibly not as well as we could have hoped, but better than I expected.]
Eran paces around me in the pavilion as the Colony takes down their stalls and begins to pack away the goods once more. It’s a lot of effort, but ten thousand ants make short work of laborious tasks like these.
[Can you elaborate on that for me?] I ask and Cobalt, standing next to m...
2024-01-31 06:05:00 +0000 UTC View PostSo now I sit, in the centre of the pavilion, while all around me eager arkesh are trying to strike deals while ants are doing their best to display their works and show their skills.
It’s kind of interesting, this is my first chance to get a good look at the setsulah for a long, long time. Certainly this close up. They really are a bit of an odd people and I really can’t he...
2024-01-28 11:28:18 +0000 UTC View PostWe still aren’t allowed into the mountain, or even on it, really. The entire port city, which is still called Desert Basin, skirts the water, sticking to the flattest, outermost land on the island.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t built on sand though. Everything around here is sand. The lizards like what they like, I suppose.
When the time is right, the...
2024-01-27 05:43:52 +0000 UTC View Post[Look, buzz off, will you?]
[We will not. You must come and meet us.]
[I must, eh? What if I must have a nap? Did you think about that?]
[For the future of your people and ours, we urge you to listen.]
[Not now. Sheesh! There’s business to conduct. We’ll be here for a few days, take your time. No need to come battering o...
2024-01-26 11:51:35 +0000 UTC View Post