Fresh lurches forward, her hand clutching the front of her chest, as the heavy burning sensation courses through her throat. The thick, tarry liquid oozing down to her gut feels like it’s setting her insides on fire. It takes everything she has in her not to start coughing and spluttering and retching everywhere. The taste is… indistinct. It simply tastes like you would expect a shot of bla...
2021-03-11 11:25:35 +0000 UTC View PostPLACHBRGHHHTTTTHHHH-
That’s the sound I make as I slide across the dirt, as my face slams into the soft sands and my legs lift up behind me into the air, as I careen towards a sliding halt, my head and neck buried beneath the hot sands. That last crunch wasn’t from me biting her. It was from me biting it. Wiping out. By which I mean, something pulled me down and I crashed i...
2021-03-11 09:24:35 +0000 UTC View PostFresh stands in the large market square of the entryway plaza, feeling the sun land on her back together with the occasional glance of a curious passerby. She fidgets, somewhat nervously, wishing that she had at least a scarf or something to cover her bare shoulders. Even if it was a warm, bright day. This was a huge difference for her in comparison with the old jeans or baggy, frame-obscuring ...
2021-03-10 11:20:36 +0000 UTC View Post“SCRIIIIIIIE-“ screams a voice out in the confusion, as we slam into the sand dunes and roll downward, wrestling and biting each other. I’m not built to fight in this body, being a ‘pseudo healer’ of sorts. My form is made up out of a physically condensed magic, but I have no blood. Which is good, because I’m sure I would be bleeding a lot otherwise. The harpy has razor sharp talons...
2021-03-10 08:44:18 +0000 UTC View PostPen shifts, her mind slowly returns to wakefulness as she feels a deep ache throbbing in her body, which has finally begun to heal, even if only a little. Her eyes open slowly, staring at the many buzzing lights that are shining out just before her face. Had she had any dreams, they were gone now, vanished into nothingness. She stretches out as far as she can, yawning and rubbing her eyes. Ever...
2021-03-09 17:59:21 +0000 UTC View PostDaylight shines with rich intensity, as Fresh steps out of the dungeon with her singed mushroom cap in hand, feeling much better than when she had entered inside of it the night before. It takes a second for her eyes to adjust, but then as they do, she sees the familiar sight of the bustling city during the early day. Adventurers of all manner and type hustle around her, moving in and out of th...
2021-03-09 13:16:27 +0000 UTC View PostThe wastes stretch on for a great distance, heat comes down from the ceiling of the dungeon above, radiating downward as if emitted from glowing metal coils. There is no distinct source of light, yet everything is oddly bright in the sweltering, orange heat. The air below me, just above the many dunes and mounds of desert sands, shifts and wavers as there is some disturbance above it. I watch m...
2021-03-09 08:11:26 +0000 UTC View PostPatreon formatting options are garbage. You literally can't set text colors. So none of these 'screens' look like they are meant to. Just assume they are colorful while I go cry haha
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Fresh lets out a small burp, turning her head away, before taking another bite of the steaming, giant mushroom that had been sitting over the make-shift...
2021-03-08 17:35:29 +0000 UTC View PostThe growl of her stomach is the first sensation that Fresh feels, as wakefulness returns to her stiff body, which has drifted in and out of sleep all night long. It appears to be daytime now. She can’t see any of the people on the other side, but the aura of the foggy city, visible behind the dungeon barrier, is brighter now; as if the morning sun were rising on the other side. Fresh stretche...
2021-03-08 17:22:56 +0000 UTC View Post“Where am I?”
Everything is black. A menu appears.
“Oh… I died?” she says, confused and disappointed, before her voice grows quiet for a time, as she realizes her situation. “Oh. So… is this it? Am I… Am I dead-dead?”
She sighs. ...
2021-03-08 17:13:13 +0000 UTC View PostTango walks down towards the tunnel that they had entered from, his heavy steps ringing out against the stones as he looks at the place around them. What happened here while he was gone? While he was gone…? He repeats the question in his mind.
The giant looks at his hands as he walks forward, the hydro-mechanical pistons in the joints of his body hissing with each step that h...
2021-03-08 13:27:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe many winding streets of the city all blur together into a vivid collage of colors, sounds and smells. Wooden booths and bright decorative banners dot the many ways which are filled with high-spirited people moving about in all directions. The streets of the city are flush and flowing with life, as if they were part of a nurturing river. Winded, sweaty but determined, she breaches the final ...
2021-03-08 08:02:37 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s not here.
How many times have I looked now? Six? Seven? I rise to my feet, the coins that were once in one large pile are scattered around the breadth of the entire room. There is the occasional trinket and bauble here and there, but no ring. No thief. She’s not in the coins. I scratch my head. What an odd thought, why would she be in the coins?
I look around. I ...
2021-03-08 07:57:06 +0000 UTC View PostHallow. Sanctified are the blessed who spill blood, consecrated is this holy ground void of doubt, hallow are these cries that are so far away but reach me, oh so susurrant. Do you hear them too? The whispers? The voices? They all cry out quiet shouts from so far away, they all make the same noise with the many different tones of voice. They all resonate into a reverberating hum that flows with...
2021-03-07 07:57:03 +0000 UTC View PostHer pace slows as her chest aches and burns from this next short dash, hurting as she reaches the stone construction of the giant gate. Placing a hand on it, she leans forward, more than winded already. Apparently still not recovered from having to sprint just a moment ago. Was she always this shaky on her legs? Her eyes rise up and she takes a deep breath, stepping through the shade of the lar...
2021-03-06 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Put me back, PUT ME BACK! I fight against the surge of the thrashing tide that carries me up higher, as I vanish from my body, as I become no more. As I float. Limbo. Darkness. I twist and I writhe and I squirm, but I have no body. The shapeless blob of ethereal mass that I am wiggles and writhes ...
2021-03-06 08:11:58 +0000 UTC View Post*BAKAAAAAAW*
Her eyes shoot open at the sudden sound, as her body jostles awake. Everything is bright, too bright, and her hand flies up to shield her surprised gaze as she yelps. Feeling the sensation of a free-fall for just the briefest second, her torso falls back behind herself, her legs seemingly locked into where she is sitting, as the inside of her knees presses...
2021-03-05 19:13:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe metal of my boots lashes out like the striking of the swords on a chaotic battlefield, as I run in a frenzy, I can hear it. I can feel it, it’s coming. It’s already here! I round the corner, just barely missing the row of wires next to me as I run, following the tight edges of the dungeon-floor, as I speed to escape its clutches.
“Wh-wh-wh-what’s the ma-ma-matter?...
2021-03-05 11:45:16 +0000 UTC View Post“I hate myself.”
The girl lays in her bed, huddled tightly together into a ball, her hands fidgeting with a single coin that had been laying there. The drab curtains, drawn tightly shut over the windows, obscure the bright morning daylight, causing the room to be lost in a nigh-complete darkness; save for the blinking of a single red LED in the distant corner. The air in th...
2021-03-04 18:57:06 +0000 UTC View PostPen isn’t sure what exactly the noise is that she makes, even as she becomes aware of it leaving her mouth. It’s like a sigh, but higher pitched, as she stares at the little empty sachet. Her body feels warm. Her insides feel so warm. The water that felt as if it were burning her, was now simply hot, but comfortably so. The air above is still freezing however and she does her best to keep h...
2021-03-04 12:45:53 +0000 UTC View PostAll the wires run around the room here, convalescing into a central node, all of them coming together into one humming mass in the center that sinks away beneath the stone floors. Sitting all around the circle are bodies. They look like skeletons, but an old, leathered flesh still clings to their frames. They are robed like the purple robed cultists. The buzzing wires run through the gaps of th...
2021-03-04 07:22:54 +0000 UTC View Posthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W1P7AvV17w
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Together we walk down the dark stone corridors that are filled with deep shadows, their casted silhouettes interrupted only by the pulsating electrical glow...
2021-03-03 08:20:19 +0000 UTC View PostPen hears something whir above her from the bauble in-between her sobs. They begin to move, as Tango walks a few steps towards the side. Neither of them say anything. The heat of the space encapsulates her no-longer numb body, bringing an unwelcome sensation of feelings to the raw skin of her feet and mangled legs, that dripped now anew with fresh blood, which seeps down the seat and towards th...
2021-03-02 19:42:18 +0000 UTC View Post“We should check out the inside of the shack, maybe they left something behind,” says Tango. Pen gazes at the screen, looking into the windows of the building, at the tiny door. She realizes something.
“You can’t fit through the door,” says the girl.
“Yeah, you’ll have to check it out alone,” responds Tango rather emotionlessly.
Just ahead, near the end of the branch where the thick wood meets the wall, I see an opening. It seems obvious. Too obvious to be the secret stairs, it was literally a straight-forward path from one end of the floor to the next. Are these really them?
But then I realize, as my gaze drifts down below, that yeah, these are probably them. The war below rages on. It looks like so ...
2021-03-02 08:17:22 +0000 UTC View PostSomething thunks against my chest and I look down to the elf who clears her throat with an ‘ahem’. I take a deep breath, metaphorically speaking, and calm myself down. I like fighting, okay? Soon I stop shaking and she turns to the side and points down the length of the giant branch that we’re standing on, that reaches all the way across the floor, towering through the sky above the battl...
2021-03-01 07:49:19 +0000 UTC View PostFirst Patreon advance chapter for this story! If you haven't read this story yet, you can find the first >11< chapters on RoyalRoad / Scribblehub, which I would recommend, because the 'Early release' ones here are very outdated and don't have the menus.
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The howling of the snowstorm outside was becoming louder and louder to Pen’s sensiti...
2021-02-28 19:24:47 +0000 UTC View PostClank, clank, clank. That’s the only sound I hear. The clanking of my metal boots as I walk up the stone staircase that, unusually, seems to be winding in an upward spiral, as if we were ascending a great tower. Clank, clank, clank. I listen to the sound of my hollow boots, to the sound of my skittering, as I climb up the way. I feel light. The weight in my arms is insignificant. The weight o...
2021-02-28 09:59:05 +0000 UTC View PostI think she’s mad, honestly. My dislocated head sits on the ground laying sidewards, as I watch the tiny elf beat my poor body senseless. Ah. Did she see the carrying thing? Her head snaps towards me, her eyes wide with rabid fury.
Yeah, she saw the carrying thing.
With a final kick, she knocks my defenseless body over. The hollow armor rattles, as it topples...
2021-02-27 07:14:29 +0000 UTC View PostLeather boots slap out in the darkness, striking against the stones; the noise diverging from that of the thousand little legs that are followed by a thousand more, as the thing that skitters laughs in the ink. I feel my arms grow light, as the burden that I carried removes itself from my grip, as the body of the thief that I had clutched so tightly simply vanishes. All I feel is a little tingl...
2021-02-26 08:11:09 +0000 UTC View Post