[Here’s your core, little guy. Sheesh, this thing is about the same size as you.]
The master rolled the mythic core up to Invidia using one foreleg, letting it rest on the chamber floor right in front of him. The demon looked down at the spherical gem, seeing the powerful flows of mana within and around it.
He wanted it.
[I know, I know, almost all of your body is stuffed into a pocket dimension, I get it. Even so, it’s going to hurt like heck when yo...
2023-11-02 05:54:01 +0000 UTC
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[Alright then, who’s going next?] I ask the gang.
Invidia watches the others, and the second Tiny’s arm goes up, his does too.
[Me,] Tiny says simply.
[Meeeeee,] Invidia hisses. [I wantssss it.]
I wish I could roll my eyes.
[You only want it because he wants it,] I point at Tiny with one leg. [Don’t try and trick me, you waited until somebody else put their hand up before you nominated yourself.]
[It isssss my nature
2023-11-01 07:37:40 +0000 UTC
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Sarah settled herself down, anxiety bubbling away in her chest. Was she sure this was the right thing to do? Was she really? Ever present, the fear in the back of her mind slowly crept forward as she worried and fretted about the transformation she was about to undertake. What would happen if she lost control again? Was she really strong enough to maintain her grip on herself?
Calm down, Sarah, she told herself, you’re doing so much better than before, and you’...
2023-11-01 04:40:17 +0000 UTC
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[Right, who’s going first?]
Sarah, Invidia, Tiny and Crinis are all lined up in a large cavern outside the room where the three golgari have situated themselves. After a day of rest, feasting and contemplation, it’s time for them to have a conversation, make their final preparations, and evolve to tier seven. Granin and the others are ready to receive them, we just need to work out the order.
Of course, nobody puts their hand, paw or tentacle up.
Sigh.
[...
2023-10-31 06:42:03 +0000 UTC
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Trenan tried not to feel intimidated in the presence of the Necromancer. Without his armour, he didn’t look nearly as large, but with so many undead, watching silently, it was unnerving being in his presence.
“W—we wanted to see what was happening after the… the spell.”
Fucking hell. Don’t stumble over your words like a damned weakling.
If the mage noticed, he didn’t say anything, rather, he nodded his head in understanding.
“I was t...
2023-10-28 05:49:51 +0000 UTC
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In the aftermath of the ritual, Tyron focused on recovering his breath as he massaged his aching hands. His throat felt raw, and his reserves of magick almost completely drained. The bitter tang of arcane crystal would linger on his tongue for a day or two, he’d definitely taken too much. He leaned to the side and spat the last of the mage candy onto the ground. There’d be a lot of pain later, but Tyron was confident he’d erred on the right side of his limitations.
Befo...
2023-10-27 06:27:58 +0000 UTC
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When the mana starts to drop, it drops fast. One second I’m up to my eyeballs in the stuff, absolutely drowning in energy, the next it’s receding so quickly I feel like I’m going to get swept down a stratum if I don’t hold onto the ground.
So. That’s it? Just like that?
Hanging from the top of my tunnel, I feel relieved and a bit… disappointed? Look, I’m not asking for the Legion to come knocking on the Colony’s door every wave, but I kind of expected so...
2023-10-24 05:19:15 +0000 UTC
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The wave approaches its climax and usually at this point the Colony would be complete overwhelmed with literally thousands of monsters spawning and rushing at our territory, but for some reason things are a little more relaxed this time around.
For one, fifth stratum monsters aren’t coming up and trying to melt our faces off and terraform the tunnels with comically toxic goop, which is nice. I mean, we still get them spawning, but that’s not as much of a problem. Then the...
2023-10-24 01:49:44 +0000 UTC
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At this point, I’m not sure how I manage to still be shocked at the effect of the empowered Void Chomp. The fact that it all happens right in front of my face is a little unnerving, and I’m not ashamed to say I’m still not used to it.
Nevertheless, the screaming void appears, my jaws close with shattering, calamitous sound. Black jaws of pure energy form, crashing down a dozen metres from the front of my face. The orb… seems unimpressed.
The entire cloud evaporates, the li...
2023-10-23 10:17:57 +0000 UTC
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Well, what the heck is this, then?
After another week of battling against the rising tide of the wave, it’s kind of nice to see something new, the monotony was really starting to get to me.
I mean, I’ve been hanging out in this tunnel, quite literally, for so long that I’m starting to think of getting some furniture installed. A bed, perhaps a nice chair to lay my admittedly massive frame on, a table for snacks at the very least.
I don’t believe I was much...
2023-10-22 05:00:58 +0000 UTC
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The art, first mastered by the sophos, those unfortunate and criminally ignored peoples, of creating and raising ‘pets’ is generally underutilised on Pangera, as a rule.
Naturally, there are certain cultures and societies who make great use of pets and the various Classes and Skills that aid such a build. However, these examples, I will attempt to prove, are the exceptions that prove the rule. There should be far more pet based delvers than there are, currently, and I h...
2023-10-21 07:53:53 +0000 UTC
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“Something strange is happening,” Zluth said, his voice burbling as if rising from the depths of a particularly thick bog.
“Oh?” Shozzl replied, not particularly interested.
Zluth continued to operate the array with his numerous, spindly limbs as he leaned closer to the readout.
“Many of our monsters are being lost under D-6. Too many.”
“Which mountain is D-6 again?”
“It’s next to D-5.”
“I know it’s next to D-5,...
2023-10-20 08:11:12 +0000 UTC
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“Wuff, wuff, wuff.”
I don’t know why, but these new pets the shapers have designed seem to have such a positive outlook on life. There’s a gleam of simple joy in their eyes as they wibble and wobble about the place, soaking up vile goop and emitting their mist.
After evolving, they’re a bit bigger, but not by as much as I expected. It makes sense on reflection, what would they need Might for? Or toughness? They have one job, and all their evolutionary energy c...
2023-10-20 05:09:00 +0000 UTC
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Tyron didn’t need Dove’s prodding to ensure he was fully prepared to cast this absurdly complex ritual, but that didn’t seem to stop the skeleton-trapped soul. He nitpicked about everything, questioning the young mage three times about every little detail. Was the circle correct? Was it actually correct? How stable were the components used to draw it? Did he realise that drawing the circle with your finger in dust is a fucking stupid idea? Had he double checked his notes and ir...
2023-10-17 05:19:23 +0000 UTC
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Here, didn't want to leave you hanging too much. Early bod this week.
“Fucking… shit!”
No matter what he tried, Dove was unable to get the Unseen to acknowledge him. He performed the status ritual over and over again, but nothing happened.
He pressed his hand, his skeletal hand, to the paper and enacted the ritual, but where once he would have felt the blood flow from his finger and onto the page, now he felt nothing. He didn't have blood, t...
2023-10-16 08:22:26 +0000 UTC
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There was something refreshing about being on his own again. The city was filled with distractions, noises, and concerns. He had to wear many faces, be many things to many different people. Until he had stepped away from it all to make this trip, Tyron hadn’t truly realised how exhausted of it all he was.
Pulling so many strings at once was a difficult feat, and he found himself glad to be able to put them all down, untangle the knots in his mind.
“Are you going to ...
2023-10-14 10:58:06 +0000 UTC
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“You stupid bronze pieces of shit! Kneel before me!”
“We are kneeling, you fucking donkey!”
“Silence!” Dove roared. “I will not tolerate this disrespect. I am your new Master, and you will obey my commands!”
The onyx skeleton pointed a bony finger at the four captives, glaring down at their kneeling figures with contempt burning in his burning, purple eyes.
“I was almost a gold ranked slayer,” he boasted, slapping himself on the ...
2023-10-14 03:59:34 +0000 UTC
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After Solant returns and the news spreads of the results, there’s a mixed response amongst the Colony. Most of the generals, including Sloan and Victor, are concerned and cautious at the aggravated response of the slugs. So far, these are by a long stretch the most difficult to kill monsters the Colony has encountered.
The rate of attrition is downright awful. Soldiers, scouts and generals are on a constant rotation, recovering from awful burns to their mandibles. Mages are...
2023-10-09 03:21:36 +0000 UTC
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It turns out, monsters from the fifth didn't much like it when you took their slime away. An hour after first deploying the ‘Wuffers’ as the ants had begun to call them, much to the annoyance of the core shapers, they saw for the first time how the slugs would react when they saw someone messing with their precious goop.
How could Solant describe it? They went absolutely, one-hundred percent, without exception, gonzo crazy.
A fat, toad monster hopped around the corn...
2023-10-09 00:14:52 +0000 UTC
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“We aim to advance in ten minutes. Make sure your squads are ready.”
They had spent a week preparing for this expedition, training, theorising, testing. Bella and Ellie had worked overtime, stretching their knowledge of monster anatomy to the very limits, studying the cores of fifth stratum monsters with intense focus.
Solant’s broodmates acknowledged her instructions and rushed off to carry out her word, only Leonidant remaining behind.
“How confident are...
2023-10-08 21:00:28 +0000 UTC
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Tyron watched carefully as the magister struggled to resist the influence of his mind. It was a desperate battle, will against will as they fought for supremacy.
Over the years, Tyron had become unfortunately skilled at this practice. Yor had called on him numerous times, and Tyron had been forced to manipulate several individuals establishing his identity as Lukas Almsfield. However, this was a form of combat the Magisters were well versed in.
Grimacing, saliva running...
2023-10-07 07:54:18 +0000 UTC
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No matter what he did, the cold always managed to find Poranus Hean. It crept under his door frame now matter how he covered the gaps. It swirled down his neck, no matter how tightly he wound his scarf. Despite the thick, woollen gloves that he wore, his fingers still shook with it.
In all his life, from downtown in Havercroft as a youth, living above his mother’s dress shop, to his first post in the north, the magister had never experienced such a persistent and insidious ...
2023-10-06 04:36:51 +0000 UTC
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I swear I lose HP when I bite into the thing. I take damage! That’s how toxic these creatures are?! I defeat it using the power of a collapsed star and then roast the Biomass with the concentrated heat of a dragon’s breath, and still, it's so poisonous my mouth stings with pain when I consume it!
I’m really starting to hate the monsters from the fifth. Like… really hate them. Everyone was all like ‘oh, the demons from the third ar...
2023-10-05 07:44:20 +0000 UTC
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Ah, the empowered gravity bomb, infused with the overflowing Will of the Colony via my trusty Altar. Would there ever be a time I didn’t threaten my own life when using this stupid ability?!
The bomb rips through the air, sucking in all the air around it, creating a horrendous wind as the air races to fill in the void. My antennae flap wildly as I realise just what I’ve done and scramble to get my precious diamond carapace to safety.
Six legs scramble, scra...
2023-10-05 04:27:47 +0000 UTC
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The Krath. What can be said of the vicious nightmare creatures of the fifth that hasn’t been said already. The earliest records are confused; so close to the Rending, much was lost in the frantic expansion down into the Dungeon. The Empire of Stone and the Chal were amongst the first to settle at this depth, but progression stalled like it had run into a brick wall. The fifth was incompatible with life in almost every conceivable way, even the air was poisonous to breathe.
2023-10-02 05:16:59 +0000 UTC
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Solant watched the battle unfold from amongst the very thick of it. Close enough to the front that her own mandibles had seen their fair share of action, she looked into the jaws of the enemy and directed the fighting from amongst the thick of it.
“Burn and slide,” she ordered.
“BURN AND SLIDE!” roared the troops around her.
Instantly, powerful blue flames erupted, igniting the air in front of the line. Monsters cried out in the heat, but the flames contin...
2023-10-01 06:42:10 +0000 UTC
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“This is disturbing news, Eldest,” Sloan and Victor don’t look pleased with what I have to say.
“Apparently, this is going on everywhere in the stratum right now, but as monsters, we are especially vulnerable.”
The two generals nod as they ponder this issue. The idea of having a hostile monster group raising a corrupted Colony to fight against us is certainly not a welcome one.
“We will take every precaution to prevent someone from being taken, and imp...
2023-09-30 06:50:23 +0000 UTC
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“It feels so damn good to be out of that cold,” Tyron huffed as he shrugged his shoulders and wiggled his toes. His extremities tingled as the blood flow returned.
“I’ve got no idea what you’re complaining about,” Dove replied. “I feel… nothing. I’m numb and dead on the inside.”
“And the outside,” the Necromancer grunted. “I didn’t remember the other side of that rift being that freezing the last time I went through. Did Yor do something to k...
2023-09-28 08:35:36 +0000 UTC
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Trenan braced his shield tight against his flank as he drew back his hammer. Unheeding the danger, the rift-kin, a ‘frost-ghoul’ as the slayers had taken to calling them, lunged forward, claws and teeth of ice coming for him. At the last moment, he stepped in, stuffing the attack with his shield and knocking the monster off balance.
The claws scratched at him, but without weight and power behind them, all they could do was scratch his armour. As soon as space opened up, h...
2023-09-27 07:11:05 +0000 UTC
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As he watched his minions sort themselves into neat ranks, Tyron felt a surge of pride at what he had accomplished. The skeletons moved smoothly, with balance and strength. Despite having such a large group on the move, he was more than capable of supplying the magick required, proving his efforts in enchantment were paying immense dividends.
Particularly here.
As a mage, he was sensitive to arcane energy, and the way it filled this place was… disturbing. Magick swell...
2023-09-26 06:54:32 +0000 UTC
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