Muscle bound and draped in silk, a figure lounged over an austere stone throne, floating in a void only broken by dancing lights. He smiled. It was a jagged thing, like he had forgotten how congeniality worked. Like he had twisted boredom and frustration into a new shape. Forced them into a box that did not fit.
“Finally.” He savoured the words. Tasting each note on his tongue.
The boy had done it. He’d found out about Honours. The bai...
2024-10-02 20:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Kaius sat on the side of a hill, nestled in amongst the rows of myriad fungus that made up the extensive farms surrounding the underground city. After a few hours of walking, they’d noticed the gargantuan crystal suspended from the ceiling had begun to dim. An artificial ‘night’ had quickly set on. It was beautiful. A full quarter of the mushrooms in the farms lighting up with soft inner light. A riot of greens, blues, purples, and oranges.
Taking another bite of a stra...
2024-10-01 20:31:01 +0000 UTC
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*Ding! Significant Feat of Strength performed under Observation. You have been awarded an Honour: Born for Slaughter*
Kaius stared at the notification, his pain and exhaustion completely forgotten. Shock paralysed him, he could feel another notification blaring in the corner of his mind. Demanding his attention. He left it there, too absorbed in the one that hung in his vision.
This must have been what Porkchop was talking about. How...
2024-10-01 20:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Kaius circled the goblin champion at the summit of one of the slight hills that rolled over the fungal farms. Every few seconds it would test him, lunging forwards with a clumsy stab of its pike. Kaius would dance back, happy to take the time to let his ribs heal before he fully committed to an assault.
Behind him he could hear Porkchop in full blown battle with the dismounted goblins warg. Their extended tussle had moved to the base of the hill, after a particularly successf...
2024-09-29 08:02:17 +0000 UTC
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Kaius lay flat, the soft earth of the fungal farms dampening his clothes ever so slightly. Porkchop had hunkered down next to them. He peered over the peak of a soft rise in the fields, staring at the mounted goblin Champion that prowled a couple hundred long-strides away.
Their walk here had been uneventful. Only the dizzying array of mushrooms, and the odd goblin labourer had interrupted their journey.
Now he watched the Champion. Tried to learn as mu...
2024-09-29 08:01:30 +0000 UTC
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Lying down on the ledge that overlooked the Depths recreation of a lost dwarven city, Kaius focused his gaze on the creature that lounged at its highest heights. He had to know more. Eagle Eye had more to give, but his eyes already felt like he was trying to look through vinegar. The less that was said about his headache, the better.
It was a Guardian, he knew it. With how little success that they had had searching for the one in the Overgrown Caves&nbs...
2024-09-29 08:00:13 +0000 UTC
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The final goblin came at him with a feral squeal, swinging its rusted machete at him in a sloppy overhand blow. Kaius parried, A Father’s Gift knocking the short depths-born’s blade away with a clang. The goblin was left open. He followed through.
The point of Kaius’s sword punched right through its face with a spray of green blood.
*Ding! level 15 Goblin Outcast slain*
He sneered in disgust as th...
2024-09-29 07:58:50 +0000 UTC
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Kaius stopped fast at the threshold between the root-bound cave and the carved tunnel, staring at the notification that told him he had entered The Great Warren. Porkchop stepped up next to him, also pausing with a low growl as he saw his own version of the notion.
“Seems we have a decision to make.” Kaius said after he had had a moment to digest the information.
“Agreed.”
“Well.” Kaius said, walking to the...
2024-09-29 07:57:06 +0000 UTC
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Kaius rolled the ring around in his hand, staring at the light that bounced off its polished exterior. Resizing.. It was a minor enchantment. Usually used so that artificers wouldn’t have to waste their precious time on measuring clients for non commissioned pieces.
He honestly had no idea how far the enchantment could be pushed. If it was artisan made he wouldn’t even try, but items from the Depths tended to be a little stronger, and a lot more weird than those made by p...
2024-09-29 07:56:17 +0000 UTC
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*Ding! You have slain a Champion: Grimclaw Dreadbeast - level 27 Prowling Displacer! *
Kaius gasped, pain flooding back with a vengeance as the last of the Psychopathic Assault tonic left his system. The dregs of his health flooded free, vanishing in moments as it worked to heal the rents in his exterior flesh.
The Grimclaw was on top of him, pinning him to the ground. He stared at it with wide eyes. What the ...
2024-09-29 07:55:33 +0000 UTC
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Kaius gasped. Trying and failing to force his shattered body to take in a breath. Every one sent shuddering spasms through the musculature of his trunk. Each one heightened his agony. Brushed muscles pulling on the shattered remnants of his sternum.
He couldn’t breathe.
Trying again, he found his gasp catching in his throat. Lungs refused to inflate. He had to clear the blood.
Health burned. Flooding free from h...
2024-09-29 07:54:38 +0000 UTC
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The guardian prowled around the base of the tree that stood sentinel over the surrounding woods. Despite its thick limbs and stocky chest, it leapt from root to root with lithe agility. Kaius and Porkchop watched the champion from behind the relative safety of a bulging root, a little ways into the edge of the treeline.
“This place is way too open,” Kaius whispered. “No way we are going to get the drop on it.”
“You’re right. We will have to st...
2024-09-29 07:53:43 +0000 UTC
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Yellow light spilled out from around a bend in the tunnel ahead. It was a welcome reprieve from the washed out drudgery that was Low Light Vision. It also meant a cavern, and he had yet to see one that hadn’t been swarming with depths-born. He placed his hand on A Father’s Gift, feeling the supple leather of its grip.
“Something’s up ahead.” Kaius called back to Porkchop. He got a growl of acknowledgement in response. He knew there was no way his f...
2024-09-29 07:52:41 +0000 UTC
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Kaius trudged through a cave of shattered rock and spearing roots, Porkchop following close behind. It was dark, far darker than the grove had been. The cave moss that had provided them comforting light had grown sparse as they pushed deeper into the tunnels, leaving just enough light for him to use Low Light Vision to see by.
They’d left the grove weeks ago, pushing deep into the many twisting tunnels that had splintered off from the oversized cavern...
2024-09-29 07:51:40 +0000 UTC
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*Ding! Sense Illusion has reached level 20!
Kaius gasped in relief, rubbing his eyes. He’d been staring at floating illusions for hours. Long enough that Porkchop had woken from his nap and was now watching him curiously from the church. His friend had seemed fascinated with the process of scrawling runes and the resulting effects they produced.
At least, he had the first few times. Kaius sent a contemptuous sco...
2024-09-29 07:50:12 +0000 UTC
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Kaius crouched over a wide wooden board outside of the church. He’d broken down one of the splintered pews and made a small pile of the flattest and smoothest sections of wood.He had a need for them. The next two skills he planned to acquire, Sense Illusion and Sense Mana, were both tricky things.
Father had had plans for how they could work on them. Kaius remembered their last trip to Elmhollow, another of the villages they visited on occasion....
2024-09-29 07:49:32 +0000 UTC
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His hands ran over the blade. A Father’s Gift. A fitting name. A weapon that would be with him always, matching his pace step by step. A strangling wave of emotion surged up through him. Excitement. Gratitude. Grief. His throat quivered, eyelids scrunching shut as they threatened to spill over.
“Kaius?” He heard Porkchop move. A second later a heavy weight settled on his shoulder. “You okay?”
He turned, burying his fa...
2024-09-29 07:45:43 +0000 UTC
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Kaius stared at the sarcophagus. Its sculpted golden lid still hovered next to its open interior, displaying a robed figure identical to the Tomblord he had just slain with Porkchop. After his battle with the Champion he expected his just rewards. Considering the rest of the room was stark and empty, that left only one spot.
He set off towards the grave, his friend padded alongside him, curious about what Kaius was so excited for.
“What is loot?”
2024-09-29 07:44:56 +0000 UTC
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Kaius descended the wide blocky stairs that lead deeper into the mausoleum that had laid at the centre of the glade. Each step was just a little too tall, a little too wide, to walk down comfortably. Their faces were carved in deep reliefs. Yet more scenes of death and slaughter like those that were engraved on the exterior wall.
Kaius itched to race down the stairs. The rewards that each Champion protected were another potential edge he would have in his inevit...
2024-09-29 07:44:09 +0000 UTC
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Kaius stared at the dead howler that was pulling itself along the ground towards him. It gnashed its teeth, jaw clacking with each snap. A wretched thing, just a single arm, half a ribcage, and a head. No Health burned in an attempt to seal its injuries.
Undead didn’t have any. They also didn’t need it. They just kept going until you destroyed whatever was the locus of their animating magics. In most cases, the head.
It reached out with its arm, cl...
2024-09-29 07:42:27 +0000 UTC
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After dealing with the swarm of dead howlers, Kaius and Porkchop pushed further into the maze, more than happy to get away from the rotten blood and viscera they had left behind. They stopped, sitting down on the dark stone pathway to lick their wounds and rest.
“You got the skill?” Porkchop asked.
“Yeah,” Kaius nodded, chewing on a piece of jerky. “I’m gonna check it out in a second. Next is Mental Visualisation, Then...
2024-09-29 07:41:16 +0000 UTC
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Kaius watched the brambles that lined the path of the maze with suspicion. Waiting to see if they would lash out in violence once again. He crept forward, getting closer to the spot where he had cut into the branches. Tense. Ready to leap back at the slightest sign of movement.
Nothing, the bramble was as still as it had been the rest of their journey.
Sighing in relief, Kaius looked back and found Porkchop staring at the patch of hedge with wide eyes.
...
2024-09-29 07:39:30 +0000 UTC
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Kaius poked his head out, watching the four undead carefully. Three were garbed in tabards and chain armour, half-helms capping their heads. On their chests was an emblem of a crow pecking at a corpse. They were almost identical to the two undead he had fought around a similar camp over a month ago.
Swords in hand, they strutted around the camp in a mockery of discipline. Their remaining companion was different, standing eerily still as it hovered at the edge of the burnt out...
2024-09-29 07:38:26 +0000 UTC
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Kaius quaked where he sat, his skin growing increasingly clammy. The strain on his mind from holding four skills, from linking them with the light of his soul, was immense. It weighed heavily upon him.
He had to fight to keep his awareness from drifting to the blaring light of his legacy skills. They beckoned to him, inviting him in to survey their potent depths. It was a trap. They wouldn’t synchronise, weren’t right for what he was trying to create.
...
2024-09-29 07:37:38 +0000 UTC
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A month. A whole bloody month. More than a month, in actuality. Kaius was sure that his bruises had bruises, Health or no. A whole damn month of being Porkchop’s chew toy. Tossed around the graveyard like a sack of flour. He never seemed to run out of energy. Never seemed to get tired of having the upper hand.
Hells! Kaius was pretty sure that the fact he was so totally out outmatched made the whole thing more ...
2024-09-29 07:36:02 +0000 UTC
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Standing in the graveyard in front of the church, Kaius held his sheath in both hands like a sword. It was just as well made and enchanted like the blade itself, so it could more than stand up to the abuse of a spar.
Porkchop stood across from him, the massive badger-like creature almost bouncing from foot to foot with excitement. Together they had managed to clear a large section of headstones. Porkchop had used his digging claws to uproot the slabs of stone, while Kaius hea...
2024-09-29 07:34:22 +0000 UTC
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Kaius sat on the cavern floor, jagged rocks digging into his back. The natural stone made a poor backrest, but his chain vest saved him from the worst of discomfort. He’d moved over from the entrance to the portal room, shifting to the side so as to not block the meles from an exit.
He was, after all, trying to convince it he was friendly. So far it had gone okay.
The greater beast sat across the cavern from him. Thin pools of stagnant water and th...
2024-09-29 07:33:33 +0000 UTC
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The sound of crashing water echoed out across the cavern, petering off slowly as the residual noises slowly faded. Faint, but unmistakable, Kaius heard a squeak of panic, almost drowned out by the noise of water crashing against stone. His head snapped towards the source of the sound.
It had come from up the slope, directly from the cave which led to the entrance portal that had teleported him into the depths. Whatever had triggered it definitely hadn’t been a person....
2024-09-29 07:32:08 +0000 UTC
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The figure paced over an endless void. Too-fine silk robes billowed in a non existent wind, pressing close to his body. With every step, a thin stone platform appeared beneath his feat. Vanishing as soon as his naked feet lost contact.
Swirling lights surrounded him. Dancing through the air in a silent symphony of movement. They trailed after him like a cloud.
He hadn’t felt this constrained in far too long. It was easy to languish in im...
2024-09-29 07:29:33 +0000 UTC
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Kaius sat in shock, the jagged stone that dug uncomfortably into his back entirely forgotten. What did it mean that he was an Observed? That shouldn’t have been possible. It was a children's tale!
The evidence hung there, the notification staying stable in his vision as he tried to burn a hole through it with his gaze. He knew that he had a lot to learn about the Great Depths, after all, every time he tried to cajole his father for more information he’d just...
2024-09-29 07:27:26 +0000 UTC
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