Thanks for the support for Book 1 folks! If you can, even if you haven't bought it, you can jump on over to amazon and drop a rating or review, that helps a TON!
For BoD readers, it's coming, I swear. I stuffed up the status update (again) and need to fix it. At least I found the mistakes before I published it... for once!
Yessssss.
YESSSSSSSS!
Tier six perfection has been achieved. My form. My FINAL form. It has ...
2022-06-08 12:18:35 +0000 UTC View PostPaperback!
I don't know why but the option to buy Chrysalis Volume 1 on paperback just popped up in the amazon store.
Many people have asked about the possibility of paperback copies over the years, and I honestly didn't know if it would happen, but apparently it does? I dunno, but you can get it!
... I ordered mine... XD
2022-06-08 00:13:08 +0000 UTC View PostOh boyOh boyOh boyOh boyOh boyOh boyOh boyOh boyOh boyOh boy.
I know it isn't relevant to all of you, but Chrysalis Volume 1: The Antventure Begins is going live around the world over the next however many hours and I figured I should put an announcement post in!
Whoo!
If you like Chrysalis and want to see the new, edited and marvelous text, then feel free to check out the magnificent work that was done on the book here:
So close to 1000! I probably should have planned for something cool to happen when we get there...
Any ideas of a special event you'd like to see for the 1000th chapter? Flashback to Anthony when a human? Flash-forward? An entire chapter of Tiny scratching his backside?! Ideas, people!
It's hard to turn my thoughts away from Jim and his eventual fate, but I force my mind to shift onto other priorities. If anything, it's a relief to have him finall...
2022-06-07 04:43:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe justice of the Colony is possibly one way in which they are more alien to other sapient races than any other. What is important to them, what is not, where they are harsh, where they are lenient, it doesn't always make sense to the outsider. Some of their penalties could be considered unspeakably cruel in some circles, but the ants don't so much as twitch an antennae.
Their view on forced labour, a common enough practice in the Dungeon, is strangely reticent. Perhaps th...
2022-06-06 10:44:51 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Sarah woke, she felt a deep sense of peace. She remembered this feeling, from before, when the rage had burned itself out and she had collapsed, exhausted in a tunnel. When she woke, the fear and anger were blessedly muted, consumed. It wouldn’t last long. She would slowly rouse herself to find the signs of battle all around her, claw marks dug into the walls, remnants of Biomass hanging from the ceiling and no idea what had happened.
From there it was only a matter of time until...
2022-06-04 12:26:53 +0000 UTC View PostThat… was exhausting. Holy moly I'm tired.
I managed to break the stalemate, but it wasn't exactly the most subtle or efficient way to do it. This is why I leave the thinking to the Council. I nearly died, but hey, the problem has been solved!
The bruan'chii are more than happy to keep rolling the offensive forward. The poor dudes have been bottling up their aggression for so long, they're practically about to burst! Now that the big Mum has let them off the leash, the pent up r...
2022-06-03 11:52:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe appearance of the Blademasters on the field changed the situation dramatically. Grand Marshall Cicera considered the scene that spread before her with a pensive frown. Centurions had been hunted down in the confusion and chaos of the battlefield, disrupting the chain of command and leaving a quarter of the legionaries sent over the bridge blowing in the wind.
It was a deceitful, cowardly strategy that relied completely on the element of surprise and the unique abilities the Blademas...
2022-06-02 23:02:05 +0000 UTC View PostHere we go, the start of book two! Whoo!
It was minute, so tiny were it any smaller it couldn't be said to exist at all. A fleck of arcane energy that drifted on imperceptible paths until, suddenly, it winked out of existence. Or did it? No. There it is. A seemingly new speck, ever so imperceptibly larger than the previous had now appeared, but elsewhere. Was it the same one? Or had the old died to make way for the new, sacrificing itself for that sliver of growth?
<... 2022-06-01 11:12:20 +0000 UTC View PostNearly there!
Up amongst the roots of the Tree the fighting grew ever more intense. This close to the trunk, the mighty monster could exert more of its strength. Twisted roots as thick as buildings rumbled as they rose from the ground to reveal gnashing teeth, barbed vines and poison-spitting flowers that regrew almost as quickly as they were destroyed. Mana thundered through the tree so thickly that every Legionary could practically taste it.
The damned mon...
2022-05-31 23:13:03 +0000 UTC View PostBreathe.
In. Hold. Release. Hold.
Breathe.
In. Hold. Release. Hold.
Slowly. Patience was required. The sharpest blade couldn't be forged in a day. The metal had to be unearthed, refined, smelted, shaped, heated and cooled over and over again until the final temper had been achieved. The perfect weapon was the work of the lifetime.
And so was Orrina.
She was the Legion's weapon, it's sharpest and most perfect. She had been forged over many years, placed in t...
2022-05-28 12:03:55 +0000 UTC View PostI should have mentioned, these events are set fifty years before Chrysalis takes place. Round about the time that Sarah arrives is the Dungeon. I'll put a note in the previous chapter to refer to this.
Fifty thousand Legionaries and a hundred thousand auxiliaries made up the army under the Grand Marshalls command. A mighty force than any in the Dungeon would fear to confront. In order to annihilate a powerful Mythic grade monster, this level of commitment wouldn't norma...
2022-05-27 12:20:36 +0000 UTC View PostWinners are grinners! We had our pole and you have two clear victors: Legion Vs Tree and The Immortals! Here is the first of those stories!
Edit:
Fifty years before Anthony arrives in the Dungeon.
Legionaries were known to obsess over the condition of their Abyssal armour. Fussing over the plates, burnishing the living stone, polishing the enchanted metal. All of these were important, vital components that ensured the proper...
2022-05-26 11:26:28 +0000 UTC View PostI think this'll do it for book 1. Whoo!
And it's nice to finally catch up on chapters, you're back to eight in front. Nice. Chrysalis coming later today.
Stiff and sore, Rufus limped out of the practice yard in pain, but satisfied. He massaged his right wrist a little after he returned his practice blade to the quartermaster and waited on the edge of the pit for a moment. Dozens of pairs of Swordsman filled the training area, kicking up the sand w...
2022-05-26 05:12:56 +0000 UTC View PostOne or two more chapters for book 1 and we are out.
With the light fading over the ruined farmstead, Tyron had the skeletons pull the cart up to the house and leave it against the north wall. After a quick stretch, he picked up Dove and headed inside and down into the cellar where he found an impatient Yor waiting.
"You're late," the vampire observed.
It was hard to look at her, dressed as she was in her simple farmers dress, without imagining what she looke...
2022-05-25 07:32:29 +0000 UTC View PostIt's Sunday in the states, so this counts as still five in one week...
:D
This is the fifth chapter of Chrysalis for last week, doesn't count toward the total for this one. Have a great day folks!
There is an element of madness to every mage who dares to tackle dimensional magic. I'm uncertain if this has to do with the mana required, the convoluted nature of the spells, or the fiendish difficulty, but for wha...
2022-05-23 05:16:57 +0000 UTC View PostTotal, overwhelming victory. Nothing more, nothing less.
By the time the Colony had swept in and around my solo attack, the bruan'chii had already broken through. It was simple to push the termites back, driving them out of the Mother Tree's island entirely. All they had left were the deep tunnels that curved under the lake between the mountains and it was there we needed to fortify. I spent a fair bit of time chatting to the Grove Keepers once the enemy began to withdraw, though I had ...
2022-05-22 11:02:32 +0000 UTC View PostYou're getting five Chrysalis this week if it kills me!
Rassan'tep looked reached out with his mind to sense the situation as closely as he could before he relaxed a scale. He was careful to let nothing show to his fellow ka'armodo as they stood together, directing the termite assault. He had nearly panicked, and feared he would need to intervene when the prospective ancient had sallied forth with such brazen confidence, rushing into the centre of their encirclement wit...
2022-05-19 11:37:30 +0000 UTC View PostWoodsedge had seen better days, of that Tyron was sure. He stood on the edge of the clearing, his ten skeletons formed in a loose ring around him as he gazed on what had once been a proud frontier town. The walls had sustained enormous damage during the break, large sections looked to have come down due to shaking rather than being knocked inwards by an impact. Not to say the rift-kin hadn't done their work, large holes had been punched into the wall in two...
2022-05-19 08:51:53 +0000 UTC View PostBy repeatedly firing smaller, more manageable gravity bombs I've been able to lock down one side of the assault so everyone else could concentrate on the other. Digging Sarah out is becoming a higher and higher priority at this point. Her roar, even buried under termites, is deafening. She must be causing absolute mayhem in there, but she can't last forever.
Unfortunately, enough time has passed for the enemy to burrow their way to our current position, so once again we are coming under...
2022-05-17 10:42:56 +0000 UTC View PostThe city of Ironwall gained its name in the days following its founding. The first lord had been a skilled earth mage, capable of shifting and compressing metals to a high degree. Having made his fortune delving and being paid handsomely for his skills in fortification, he decided the time had come to put his money to good use. Together with the extended family, he put together an expedition and found a location on the frontier to establish his own independent city.
The stone here was r...
2022-05-16 08:49:46 +0000 UTC View PostHey there folks.
Super sorry about the lack of updates last week. I did mention I was unwell, but I may as well elaborate a little.
I actually threw my back out at the gym, which wasn't the most fun I've ever had. I have a bad back at the best of times (couple of bulging discs, good times) which left me scuttling about like a crab and not really able to sit for too long.
For extra comedic effect, my wife badly rolled her ankle and ended up on crutches a day later, so the two...
2022-05-15 23:12:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe Colony learned much from the ways of the surface people. We studied many industries that they had developed over hundreds, thousands of years. Agriculture, metalwork, fletching, administration, pottery, tea making, and many others. Some of the learnings were exceptionally valuable and proved to have a long lasting impact on us, whereas others were less useful. Nevertheless, the thirst for knowledge and understanding within the family was insatiable, any titbit that might help us in ou...
2022-05-13 10:42:48 +0000 UTC View PostSorry this is so late and sorry to any Chrysalis readers out there. I just can't seem to stop getting sick this year! T_T
I'll do my best to catch up.
"A Vampire?"
"It's hurtful that you haven't heard of us. We are the highest form of Undead. You're a Necromancer, aren't you?"
Yor narrowed her eyes as she challenged his lack of knowledge, but Tyron could only shrug helplessly. And continue to avert his eyes. 2022-05-11 11:37:20 +0000 UTC View Post
The Grove Keeper did not have a name, none the bruan'chii did. Not in the sense of the sapient races, or even the Colony, it would seem. They lacked many things that others had. No first or family name, no gender, no homeland, or indeed, any real history. They possessed no spoken language, little industry or cultural artifacts, no religion or relics or indeed anything that outsiders might think was essential to bind them together.
And yet, no people on Pangera where more united than the...
2022-05-09 05:09:05 +0000 UTC View PostTo battle against so many is a difficult thing to. Constantly on the move, even within such a tight space, I work my mandibles furiously. Chomp, chomp, chomp! Occasionally I mix in a Void Chomp to clear away space, each devastating bite is enough to disintegrate a dozen termites at once, more if they pack close enough.
If I could commit and go closer, I might defeat a hundred with a single chomp, but I would risk being surrounded and overwhelmed. I'm not willing to bury myself under an ...
2022-05-08 05:38:47 +0000 UTC View PostPOLL WINNERS!
Usually I can pick the winner, but I was quite surprised by the love for the Immortals. You want more Leeroy? You got more Leeroy!
Not to mention the love for the Mother Tree. Or was it love for the Legion? Or the Folk?! I don't know. At any rate, as the second place winner, you get this too! Whoo!
I'll slot the first one in after this current battle has ended. Look forward to it!
The heat continues to rise within the flash hardened shell that I'd created, to the point I create some ice just to cool us off. As an ant, I don't mind a bit of heat, but Sarah, even with her temperature regulating enchantments, can't handle this level. We are literally cooking as the twin fire-tornadoes roar throughout the tunnel outside.
If we're cooking in here, then I can only imagine what's happening to the termites outside.
Actually… I don't really want to imagine. That's...
2022-05-04 12:18:50 +0000 UTC View PostTricky chapter that I struggled with again. Let me know if I got anything wrong. New characters are always hard.
"You can't see? Such a shame."
Soft and musical, the voice that reached Tyron's ears was playful, feminine, and on a primal, instinctual level, terrifying.
"Dove?" Tyron called, his disquiet leaking into his tone, "what's going on?"
Unable to see what was happening, he tried to maintain his balance and make sure he didn't m...
2022-05-03 08:21:34 +0000 UTC View Post"Move quickly! Push! Don't leave a single termite alive!" Advant blasted her surroundings with pheromones, not that the ants needed much motivating.
They'd been bottled up by the enemy for too long, unable to be aggressive as the termites frustrated with seemingly endless hit and run attacks against their walls. Now, thanks to the Eldest, they were able to charge forward to their heart's content. In fact, the largest problem the leadership was having during the offensive was holding the...
2022-05-01 11:56:41 +0000 UTC View Post