wardenraime

1144 - Tentative Negotiations

True to their word, the three wardens sent a relatively powerful group of mages to escort Leon to the main keep, where they would hold their negotiations.  The escorts were quiet, but at least showed no disrespect, while Leon brought Valeria, Gaius, and Anna with him to the meeting, trusting them to be the most politically savvy of his followers.

The keep was a labyrinthine construct...

1143 - Seventh Iron Order

The castle of the Seventh Iron Order was an imposing thing that loomed over the landscape around it.  It was an enormous construction made primarily of dull black stone, its largest tower reaching up into the lowest cloud layer.  Long bands of blackened steel ran lengthwise up the towers like buttresses, and surrounding the castle was a triple-layered curtain wall, each layer more tha...

1142 - Mountainfall

Without the power of the lance keeping the mountains aloft, the enormous landmasses began to plummet to the earth.  Kavad’s Lance itself shook terribly as the magic around it dissipated; the wind died down, the currents bridging the islands together were quelled, and the bolts of lightning that flashed about the dissolving clouds became rarer and rarer.

Leon, his eyes widening in a...

1141 - The Lance's Master

The map of the Far West is now up on my website. You can check it out here!

=)

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Wind fiercely battered him, threatening to pull him from the mountain and hurl him to the earth far below.  Leon was undaunted, however, even in the face of his previous slip.&nb...

1140 - Kavad's Lance VII

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It was the late evening when Leon’s party finally emerged from the clouds and laid their eyes upon the peak of Kavad’s Lance.  It had been...

1139 - Kavad's Lance VI

Leon stared at Grandin and Aladir, nonplussed in the wake of Grandin’s effective declaration that he and his brother were ready to climb Kavad’s Lance.  Aladir looked unsteady on his feet at best, and his aura was weak even for a first-tier mage.  There was little doubt in Leon’s mind that Aladir had been stronger before being petrified, which meant he’d suffered severe injuri...

1138 - Kavad's Lance V

Thoughts of the Wailing Dirge filled Leon’s mind as he led his people out of the maze, especially of the ‘Lord’ rune upon its forehead.  It had been ambiguous enough back then just what intent had been placed into that rune, but if another monster had it inscribed upon them…

Leon still wasn’t sure what to make of it.  Unlike with the Dirge, none of the reliefs and othe...

1137 - Kavad's Lance IV

For a short moment, silence fell upon the battlefield as the beast’s lifeblood soaked the soil of the floating island.  As it became clear the creature was dead, however, Leon’s people sprang back into action.

“See to him!” Leon shouted at Anna as he pointed at Grandin.  The guide looked barely conscious, the venom from the monster’s serpentine tail still evidently cou...

1136 - Kavad's Lance III

The wind lifting Leon raged around him, but not nearly enough to counter the inexorable pull of gravity.  Under normal conditions, the fall that Leon was threatened with was nothing to worry about, but given the demands of Kavad’s Lance, that being to never try to fly, he was far more concerned.  He didn’t fear death even if he fell to the ground, but he was not goin...

1135 - Kavad's Lance II

The forests that blanketed Kavad’s Lance weren’t quite like what Leon was used to.  They were narrow, broken, and rocky, though still grew quite thickly.  Animal and bird calls still filled the air, as did the clicking of giant insects that watched them from the shadows of more thick-canopied trees, but the forest itself was rather narrow, not even a quarter mile wide.  This ...

1134 - Kavad's Lance I

Leon’s blood sang at the prospect of not only an adventure on this mountain but also that of a good hunt.  Some mysterious monster that Grandin wanted dead, and then they could go straight to the top.

Hopefully, anyway.  Somehow, he doubted that this would be so easy…

Their climb began on the pavilion.  Kavad’s Lance floated hundreds of feet off the ground, but ...

1133 - Grandin

The morning soon came, but despite Pilos’ assurances, his promised guide hadn’t arrived.

“Wait just a little longer, King Leon, I’ll have him fetched,” Pilos promised.

Leon, already aware of how much time was passing—half of the time he had to return to Artorion had already been burned—was reluctant to give him extra time to find this guide, but without knowing enough ...

1132 - Lancefoot

Unlike the approach to Redspark, no welcoming parties came out to meet Leon’s group on their final approach to Lancefoot.  From what he could see from the air, no one even seemed to notice his party’s approach, which with the examples of the occasional ship, ark, and other party that appeared to be making its way to the city, wasn’t unusual.

Still, as Leon led the way in to lan...

1131 - Leaving Redspark

“What an unusual thing…” the Thunderbird said as she marveled in human form at the branch and seed of the Stormborn Oak in Leon’s soul realm.

Leon himself stood nearby, quietly contemplating his next move.  “It certainly is… unique…”

“It’s more than that,” the Thunderbird insisted.  “I’ve never seen something so close to the Iron Needle�...

1130 - Oaken Gratitude

Some distance was made between Leon’s party and the Stormborn Oak—he didn’t know just what hitting the thing with purple lightning meant to create thunder wood might do, so caution was warranted.  With Sasan right there, though, he didn’t think there would be much in the way of danger.

With some space and even a stone wall conjured by the giant in Leon’s party to protect th...

1129 - Sasan

The werewolf had returned to human form in less than a minute thanks to the enchantment carved into his flesh by Sasan.  Leon stared in amazement, hardly able to believe what was before his eyes.

Sasan’s runes were still fully legible even with the change in body size and the blood that now seeped from them, and as the mysterious but eminently powerful mage withdrew his hand from t...

1128 - Stormborn Oak

“You sure about bringin’ that thing with us?” Davin asked Leon apprehensively as they moved through the forest with the werewolf in tow.  Restrained though it was by Valeria, Leon couldn’t blame anyone for being nervous about it—if the werewolf got loose and managed to bite any of them, the possibility of being infected was high.

Leon glanced back at the creature, a frown l...

1127 - Redspark Forest III

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Trudging through the Redspark Forest was quite calming for Leon.  The forest atmosphere, the storm above filling him with power, and the se...

1126 - Redspark Forest II

The ape-centipede thing, which the weaker guide had called a ‘black hunter’, screeched as Leon summoned silver-blue lightning and struck it repeatedly.  Befitting a creature that called the Redspark Forest home, his lightning wasn’t as effective as Leon had hoped, but it still blasted the creature out of the branches.

As it fell, Anna moved next, drawing a glass tube filled wit...

1125 - Redspark Forest I

The outskirts of the Redspark Forest were quite peaceful.  Wind poured in from the storm deep in the interior, but with so many trees in the way, it was little more than a pleasant breeze closer to town.

Leon led the push further in.  Fortunately, though he had a pair of guides from the town courtesy of Yurkij, he didn’t have much need of them yet—so many pilgrims had come a...

1124 - Redspark

“This is a beautiful town,” Valeria said admiringly as Watcher Yurkij escorted them over the roofs and squares of Redspark.

“Your words are much appreciated, Queen Valeria,” Yurkij pleasantly replied.  “However, I must correct you on one thing: we are a city, not a town, per a charter we were granted by Strategos Vellaris.”

“My mistake,” Valeria respond...

1123 - Future Course

The Stormborn Oak.

The name of Leon’s next destination enticed him greatly, even if he had yet to perceive it in any way.  He wished he’d picked Jamshid’s brain about it more before he’d left Shatufan, but he was already pressed for time as it was.  The forest in which the Stormborn Oak could be found was several days away at the fastest pace his group could make, which ...

1122 - Simmering Shatufan

Shatufan buzzed with nervous energy after Jamshid made his address.  He focused on the ‘failures’ of Manuchehr and the need to ‘aid our neighbors to the south in their defense of the Storm Lands’, but if he was expecting celebrations in the streets, he was left sorely disappointed.  Instead, most people stayed indoors, only leaving the places they’d taken shelter during Leon...

1121 - Direct Action

From within his soul realm, Leon meditated, Iron Pride slowly spinning just above his hand.  He’d met with Jamshid’s friends, all of whom turned out to be important and ambitious men within the city’s force of guards or bureaucracy.

It seemed like all of them were down for what he and Jamshid suggested, which struck him as a bit odd, but since it was all to his benefit, he deci...

1120 - Jamshid

While he’d not expected the full support of Shatufan, Leon was still disappointed by the results of Jamshid’s initial attempts to support him.  Jamshid, however, attempted to mitigate this failure by telling Leon that many of the Azadan were not so much opposed to him as they were afraid of the Ocean Lords and that they still valued the storm crystal he could provide.

“Worry no...

1119 - Shatufan

On their final approach to Shatufan, Leon had a choice to make.  It was a large, walled city, and its long curtain walls were heavily enchanted.  Despite that, he could punch through those enchantments if he wanted to and fly over the walls.  However, that might be seen as a provocation and could cost him the resources and support he needed.

On the other hand, landing and a...

1118 - War of Establishment in Stasis

Over two days, Terris’ forces grew more and more in the south.  Hundreds of arks flew over the coast and dozens of enormous creatures swam in the wall of water further into the sea.  Such power was not something that Leon could fight against; it was simply too much.  It seemed like all the power a Despot could command had been called up by Terris.  Leon wouldn’t have bee...

1117 - War of Establishment XIV

I did a little more work on the map I showed off not long ago. There are a few places that still need names, but the geography for this region is done. Download link at the bottom of the chapter!

=)

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The arrival of Terris’ reinforcements immediately soured the hopeful, if still somewhat dour, mood in Leon’s meeting room.  No one stopped for long to ponder...

1116 - War of Establishment XIII

The image of himself in the mirror was one fully healed.  His arm was burn-free and covered in fresh skin, and though his fingers remained a little stiff, Leon had regained full mobility in the entire limb.

The healers couldn’t stay long after finishing up with him since there were many more wounded after the latest assault on the valley by the Ocean forces, but Leon made sure to t...

1115 - War of Establishment XII

The pain that Leon felt from his burned arm grew worse and worse as he led his group back through the misty veil.  Anastasios and Eva met him partway to the southern Talon, but by then, he was hardly able to return their greetings—it was all he could do to pretend that everything was fine while he worked out a way to hide his grievous arm injury.

Naturally, the others were concerne...