Leering skulls, purple light burning in their hollow sockets and black mist rising from their bones, the skeletons were a fearsome and unnerving sight. Elinon suppressed the urge to physically recoil from their grim visage, his discipline not allowing such a thing.
Blades smoking with dark magick and plates of armour formed of human bones, every skeleton was a unique horror, a twisting of all that was good and right in the world. Conviction, ever unwavering in the hearts of the G...
2025-11-25 00:40:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
How were we supposed to know they would turn on us? After so long, fighting side by side, building up our communities together. We trusted them. They trusted us.
Even though they told me why, I still can’t wrap my head around it. It’s madness. The whole world is mad.
- Excerpt from the private notes of a lost brathian Satrap.
Nice to be back in the nest once more. A chance to stretch my legs and catch up on a little sleep, always welcome...
2025-11-25 00:33:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
Sometimes, a monster needs to be taken care of. This is a universal truth for everyone who makes their life in the Dungeon. By their very nature, monsters are territorial and eternally hungry for growth and power. Eventually, one will rise above the pack, stand head and shoulders over the others and establish its own place in the winding tunnels. And, on occasion, that place runs a little too close to the territory of a city or kingdom, creating problems, endangering lives, threate...
2025-11-25 00:22:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
“A wise investment,” Merchant nodded sagely, her glasses glinting in the dim light of the ship's stateroom. She gathered up the documents from the table in her front claws, stacking them neatly before placing them in her satchel. “The delvers of Green Mountain are a force to be reckoned with, who could possibly place a price on such exceptional and dedicated servants of their home city?”
It was difficult to say this without sounding sarcastic, given the fact the Colony had swept...
2025-11-21 01:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
Just how much magick did the damned Necromancer have access to? Fire roared into the sky once more, arcing high overhead before plummeting down to vanish into the darkness. Plumes of golden flames burst from the miasma, able to be heard even from kilometres away and searing into the eyes of all who saw them. Even so, Elinon could pay no attention to the bombardment of Foxbridge. Overhead, a wailing scream like the howl of the damned drowned out almost all sound as another skull-shaped ...
2025-11-20 01:00:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
Green Mountain is both more, and less impressive than I thought it might be. I mean, it’s hard for these places to not be impressive, given the way they're built on the slopes of mountains so large they literally hold up the roof of the stratum.
Combine that with the ambient mana of the fourth, being filled with life, light and water, looking at just about anything creates a jaw-dropping view.
Having said all that, the city on this particular mountain is clearl...
2025-11-20 01:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Turns out that word has leaked from Green Mountain that we are taking delvers alive as much as we can. As a result, this lot were happy to throw in the fight after witnessing the power of the singularity up close and personal. With the majority of their preparations destroyed and their ambush obviously discovered, they had no confidence going ahead with the attack, leading to the rather pathetic scene I witnessed afterwards.
Well, it’s fine I suppose, it wasn’t like I was all excite...
2025-11-19 01:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
Once again, the remote town of Foxbridge was enshrouded in a thick miasma of darkness, blocking all sight of the horrors within. Mage Captain Elinon, gathered with his regiment at the rear of the gleaming formation, had no fear of the shadows that concealed their foe; his fear was reserved for something else entirely.
To his left and right stood his trusted officers, Mage Attendant Melissa Bertram and Mage Attendant Petyr, both of them tall and clear-eyed, ready for the conflict ...
2025-11-18 01:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Singularity is a heck of a spell, if I do say so myself. Earned for reaching the next rank of gravity mana speciality, it’s definitely one of my personal favourites and packs a heck of a punch. To offset that absurd damage potential is the mind-cracking difficulty in casting the lousy thing.
Not only is the pattern more complex than a sculpture carved from jelly, it’s just plain hard to hold the mana in place.
To create the disaster beam of doom that comes out of the singulari...
2025-11-18 01:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
[Master, the nameless have found something. A large ambush. Hundreds of delvers have gathered and laid traps for you. Would you like me to reach out and destroy the FILTH?]
[Uh, no, that’s quite alright. Just let me know where they are and I can take care of the rest.]
[... Fine.]
I mean, I suppose I could let Crinis loose, but that would involve unleashing horrors beyond imagining upon my foes. I don’t think there would ever be peace between the Colony and its ...
2025-11-17 01:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello all!
Hope everyone has been well! I know that's not a guarantee with so much unpleasantness all over the place but at least here I can endeavor to keep things light. Unless I'm posting bod, things get dark over there.
Apologies for no post today, I spent the weekend down in Tasmania visiting friends (mostly authors :O) and having a jolly good time. I've returned from travel as I always do: exhausted and sleep deprived, so I've decided to take a break from posting this week a...
2025-11-10 08:36:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
The nameless one wasn’t used to being out in the tunnels in this way. Some of her sisters, those who served as soldiers and scouts during their hours in the light, were doubtless more comfortable in these environs, but the nameless one had not emerged from the shadows for many weeks now. Perhaps her identity among the waking had been completely lost at this point, an ant gone missing, ruled off the page and written down as lost. Or perhaps it was all too clear to her family just where she s...
2025-11-07 01:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Merigold didn’t especially want to be part of the discussions around the table in general Crow’s tent, but as the representative of the Imperial Court and head of the Special Administration, she was obligated to be. As always, Honoured Stennis stood by her shoulder, an imposing and indomitable presence, silent and staring, his face a mask.
On the table, the general and his officers discussed quietly, moving small ribbons around on the map they had created. Each of the officers held ...
2025-11-06 01:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Ah, if it isn’t my favourite resident of Green Mountain. So nice to see you again, Ms Alice. Or is it Mrs?”
Once again, in the boat, greeted by obsequious, yet somehow mocking brathian merchants, here to meet this infuriating creature.
“I am married,” she replied stiffly, taking her seat.
“Oh, how wonderful. I must say, as a terrifying and frightful monster,” Merchant chuckled, “limiting personal relationships such as those are beyond my understandi...
2025-11-06 01:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Frederick felt like his heart had locked solid in his chest. Every nerve in his body screamed in terror as the giant beast loomed over him. With such overwhelming power, he could feel the monster’s might within every cell.
Against something like this, there could be no victory and he’d been a fool to even entertain the possibility. This wasn’t work for delvers, they needed to get the army, or the Legion if they wanted to fight this beast!
Then he noticed the monster’s legs...
2025-11-05 01:00:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
The delver economy is an interesting case study in and of itself, since there are so many possible revenue streams and an inexhaustible demand for their services.
To start with: cores. Cores are, in many ways, the item more than any other that makes Pangera turn. Needed for any and all enchanted items, they are a fundamental fact of life for nearly every person who lives in the Dungeon. Used to make light, heating, cooling, cooking, freezing food, reinforcing walls and ceil...
2025-11-04 01:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Tyron was furious. More than furious, he was incandescent with rage. Were he not occupied with the coming battle, he would have been kicking and spitting, lashing out to try and find a way to vent his anger.
Of course, it was difficult to fully find an avenue to direct his fury since it was largely directed at himself.
After what he had done to Filetta’s soul, the visions of the Unseen had descended on him, and much of what he had thought and supposed about the power of S...
2025-11-03 06:43:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
[Oho! Almost got me there!]
[Wow! Nice try!]
[You’ll get there one day, champ! I believe in you!]
[If you fully believed in yourself, you would have got me there. That’s motivation for next time!]
There’s something about messing with these delvers that I just don’t seem to get tired of. Look at them dance! Look at them wail in despair as I yoink them up into the air!
Gweheheheheh.
My submarine efforts have been rewarded yet again with another ambush...
2025-11-03 01:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
A sighting of the Necromancer didn’t interest General Crow as much as she thought it might have.
“We were already fairly sure he was in there,” he told her, brows raised as he and his officers continued to pore over maps of the region and debate strategy. “Go and get some sleep. We’ll have more to say in the morning. I’m not sending my men out there at night, so nothing is going to happen until the sun is back in the sky.”
“Very well, General. I will s...
2025-10-31 02:38:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Merigold was never happy when she was summoned by General Rasmus Crow. A competent and incorruptible soldier of the Empire he might be, and she didn’t believe he held any ill will towards her, regardless of what might be happening in the imperial court, but he was still a daunting presence. For someone who had spent her life in the capital, in schools and academies, and then working within the administration bureau, the gold ranked general was an intimidating figure, a polished fight...
2025-10-31 02:37:47 +0000 UTC
View Post
Of all the organisations separate from the free cities, kingdoms, empires, trade federations and territorial associations in the Dungeon, the most well-known and impactful is the Abyssal Legion.
Almost as ubiquitous is the Church of the Path. Its origins are lost to time, though the Church itself claims to have arisen during the Rending. To some, it seems absurd that a faith based around the Dungeon as a proving ground and test of spirit could arise while that same Du...
2025-10-31 01:00:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
“What are those fools doing out there?” Frederick demanded. “If any of you are planning some sort of hairbrained, idiotic assault, you better tell me right now so I can kick you in the face!”
Before him stood the heads of every team who remained in this section of the Dungeon, but all they gave him were shamefaced looks and sideways glances. Except for Shamus, who raised his hand.
Frederick felt a moment of despair. Even Shamus was planning some idiocy?
<...
2025-10-30 01:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
It wasn’t easy for Merchant to get in touch with people from the Church of the Path. It wasn’t easy for Merchant to find someone willing to admit that such a person even existed on Green Mountain.
Which was so obviously absurd, with them having an entire cathedral dedicated to the faith in there, that she honestly respected their dogged refusal to speak.
Of course, that didn’t mean it was impossible. What Merchant knew, better than anyone else in the Colony, was what m...
2025-10-29 01:00:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Another negotiation with these ants. They were relentless, Alice had to give them that. Diplomats, as if monsters having diplomats wasn’t an utterly absurd notion, had been sending daily messages via their brathian merchant contacts despite being rebuffed every time. Green Mountain had, with some reluctance, rejected their price, and that was that.
Hunting monsters was the right of every delver across Pangera, and the ruling council of the Mountain had no intention of selling th...
2025-10-28 01:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Just… what is going on here?
The ant in front of me is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Fancy-looking clothing, gold jewelry, glasses. It’s not over the top, but it’s enough to create an image of affluence and sophistication that… unless I’m mistaken… an ant simply does not need.
“What’s your deal?” I ask this strange little creature.
“My deal? I have so many of those. We can talk about them one at a time if you want, or, if you prefe...
2025-10-27 01:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
So much happening in the world of Chrysalis right now, my head is spinning!
Again. WIP.
The merch guild, who are working on the Chrysalis line, are giving me basically total control on this stuff, so if something here is bugging you (heh), then let me know I can veto. We've already made a ton of changes to get to this point and we are in a much better, more accurate state than when we started.
Crinis plush is also in the works, but is going through a redesign, can't show it ...
2025-10-24 06:20:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Eldest, do you really intend to sell the delvers back to Green Mountain?”
“Of course, why wouldn’t I?”
Sloan seems to have reservations about my strategy.
“Won’t they just come back again?”
After putting up with the priests for a few weeks? Probably not.
“If they do, it’s good,” I say.
“Why would it be good?” the general replies, obviously confused.
“Because then we can capture them again,” I point out. “Which me...
2025-10-24 01:00:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
The first thing Tyron felt when he opened his eyes was a rush of anxiety. Had the Empire come as he slept? Was the horde intact?
After a few moments to gather himself, he was reassured. Not only was the horde intact, it was larger and more powerful than it had ever been.
It had been a mistake for the Empire to leave the western province abandoned like this after killing so many. If this was the number of skeletons Tyron could assemble in a relatively rural place like Foxbri...
2025-10-23 05:24:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
What should I do? Should I cook him? Slowly roast this priest while turning him over a spit? Or boiling? Boiling is good! The flavour of evil and corruption will permeate the water and we can use it to poison the wells at Green Mountain. Oh, I haven’t felt this… this alive since the traitorous worm was captured!
I’m… I’m so free!
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
[Anthony! This is a Priest of the Path! You need to stop prodding him with your antenna!]
...
2025-10-23 01:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
I’m sure they expected me to retaliate, but I’m not sure they expected something like this.
My chomp sucks in the gathered dust, eliminating the cloud and revealing the scrambling delvers in front of me. They’ve got a bit of space, and a shield up by the looks of things. Hopefully, it’ll be enough.
BOOM!
The forming sphere of light shatters between my jaws and the explosion sends a shockwave rolling outwards.
And, for a change, I’m totally f...
2025-10-22 01:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
