Hey folks! Got something fun for y'all to read this weekend. It's the brand new Illusionist Novel, written by my good buddy D.J. Bodden. The book goes live on Amazon next week, but you get a chance to check it out before anyone else. This is an excellent story and a great continuation of the series that y'all are going to love. Just click on the bookfunnel link below to download a free copy to your preferred reading device!
Love can make a man do terrible things...
2022-03-11 18:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Well folks, Shadowcroft year three is officially in the works. Aaron and I have finished with the outline and are nine chapters into the book. It's going to be more fun than ever! Really excited with the story we have planned--the cover art perfectly fits the tone of Year Three--and I think it's gonna be an absolute riot. Hope you all enjoy the heck out of it!
Chapter One
Logan Murray was the first to open the door into their new rooms in the Azure Dragon dorms. At first, ...
2022-03-10 20:54:39 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone. I know it's been quiet around here lately, which I feel terrible about. The end of the year is always so busy and this year has been busier than most. Wrapping up lots of projects and also dealing with an abnormal uptick in family health issues.
Thankfully, everyone is mostly on the mend and we're hoping things will settle down come 2022. I plan to do a full update at the beginning of the year with a list of things that are coming down the pipeline, but in the meantime, ...
2021-12-25 01:44:21 +0000 UTC
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Inga slept through the rest of finals and through the graduation ceremony itself.
Logan missed her, as he Marko and Treacle sat in the Golden Serpent Hall with the rest of the school. Everyone was giddy with the end of the year festivities.
Yullis Rockheart was the MC, and he was dressed in scarlet velvet, complete with a ruby-tipped cane. The rest of the faculty sat in their clan robes on gorgeous thrones, with a smiling Skip Shadowcroft in the center seat, a conjured spotlight b...
2021-09-13 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Logan, Marko, and Treacle were back in Shadowcroft’s office, only this time, they were there with the Threshing Turtle, Chadrigoth, and Professor Zantho, who had dark circles under her eyes. She’d been up for days, working on grades, proctoring finals, and trying to close out the end of the year. Another sleepless night was killing her. Dawn filled the stained-glass windows of Shadowcroft’s office. They’d put Inga’s cocoon in her room, and Tet was there, with the mothmancer, just in...
2021-09-10 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Logan was in trouble, but he wasn’t powerless by any stretch of the imagination.
One, he’d made it all the way into the inner sanctum. Two, Chadrigoth was still holding out, which was a small miracle. And, three, he had Tet-Akhat—one of the top dungeon cores at the academy—fighting in his corner. It wasn’t a perfect situation, though. Chadrigoth was probably hanging on by the skin of his teeth, Logan had only a fraction of Apothos left, and Tet had pushed herself right to the ...
2021-09-08 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Logan and Tet padded into the cavern-turned-circus zoo, with that mad organ music played by the Marko puppet doing its best to drive them insane.
For a second, Logan thought about creating a digestion pit, but there was no time. Instead, he summoned six of his waddlers, all fierce-faced and ready to die for the cause. This time, Logan conjured six Sunflower Pods, basketball sized yellowish balloons, filled with hyper-flammable gas. Strings made from fungal growths dangled from the pods....
2021-09-06 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Tet vaulted through the air using her Feline Agility, and slammed a shoulder into Logan’s side, throwing him out of the path of the explosion. Plaster dust hung in the air, which made the old-timey sign look even more eerie. The only reason why Steve could have electric lights was because of Treacle Glimmerhappy’s amazing crafting abilities.
Along with the carnival music, they could hear the rattle of what sounded like rollercoaster clacking around down there in the Sorrow Circus’...
2021-09-03 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Logan watched as Steve tossed his helm to one of the chitinous Calflings, who snatched it from the air with a writhing tentacle. “Hold that, you big, delicious octopus minotaur bug thing.” Steve turned and headed toward the first mirror, regarding his own reflection with great curiosity. Pretty soon, that curiosity would transform into an emotional cocktail of regret, horror, confusion, and frustration. The Shame Maze might look like a mirror maze a first, but it was so much more.
A...
2021-09-01 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Logan watched as Steve and his strike team considered the trap room.
The ornate puzzle box sat on a central pedestal that consisted of skulls carved out of the red stone. The skulls had been Chadrigoth’s idea. Logan missed Marko—he would’ve done something a bit more creative with the materials. But you worked with the tools at hand and Chadrigoth was nothing if not one giant tool.
Across the way was the door out, a massive gate of iron bars, locked with powerful magic connec...
2021-08-30 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Logan worked quickly. Steve’s minions were working to get past the downed statue of Chadrigoth in the entry room, and they were making serious headway. Chadrigoth’s current dungeon layout was far too linear, which simply wouldn’t do. Using the raging surplus of Apothos he suddenly had access to, Logan added false corridors, twisting passageways, covered digestive pits, and bone-scythe pendulums. He quickly spawned and deployed a host of his own minions: Waddlers, basic Spore Wargs, more...
2021-08-27 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Logan couldn’t talk. Connecting to Chadrigoth wasn’t like connecting to Inga or even Tet. The abyss lord wasn’t just more powerful than him, he was worlds more powerful, and it wasn’t just his ranking, but rather the four knots he’d tied to optimize his core. Suddenly, Logan had access to Chadrigoth’s vast pool of Ignis and Umbra Apothos and he had to fight to keep from being swept away by the sheer current of it all. Being linked up with Chadrigoth was like being attache...
2021-08-25 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Chadrigoth felt the symbiotic spores wrap tightly around him like an Aldaleeran python.
Invisible microorganisms invaded and permeated his cells while delicate crystal caps erupted across his black pebbled skin, lending him not only access to Logan’s unorthodox power but also to a host of new senses he’d never had before. Immunity to poison, to blindness, to deafness. He could sense life floating in the air around him, a halo of spores that leant him a new extended perception of the...
2021-08-23 17:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Logan crept out of the archway and into the Null Arena. He didn’t have much time, since Steve’s minions—a weird mixture of Inga’s, Marko’s, and Treacle’s powers—were hot on his tail.
However, Logan had to be careful. Steve was a powerful opponent with lots of tricks up his sleeves and he had no idea what kind of nasty surprises the mannequin had filled the Null Arena with. The fungaloid stood on the stage of an auditorium. Red curtains hung open, the flood lights cast a bl...
2021-08-20 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Logan Murray toured the gloomy Winterdark Halls noting how many ingenious things they’d added to the cold, dark dungeon, which was far dryer than Logan would’ve preferred. Yes, it was better suited for his spores than the Bloodrock, but it still wasn’t ideal. Logan was made for bogs and forests, places filled with damp green things and rot. Deep under the Grimjour Peaks, it was too cold for anything to rot properly.
In some ways, the Winterdark Halls were just the cold version of ...
2021-08-18 17:01:04 +0000 UTC
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The night of his Offensive Dungeon Design class, Prince Chadrigoth of the Diabolus Diaboli, of the Eritreus Elite walked through the stone corridors of the Bloodrock. Yes, he knew exactly why the fungaloid and his crew of freaks were fixated the dungeon. It was a place of rock, fire, and power. Chambers of red rock, dusty bridges spanning craggy fissures, where burbling magma flowed like liquid Apothos. All in all, the abyss lord felt very home there, which put him in a very good mood. His pl...
2021-08-16 17:01:02 +0000 UTC
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“Can you believe all this stuff?” Dizzy asked, holding up a metal breastplate with silver filagree. The Keeper of the Forge hadn’t dropped any loot to speak of, other than a hefty Beast Core, but the Armory was near to bursting with goodies.
“Nope, I literally can’t believe it,” Arrow said, sprawled out on a pile of coins. He flapped his arms and legs, making snow angels in the pile of loot. “I always wanted to be Scrooge McDuck rich. Backstroke through a pile of gold.”<...
2021-08-09 16:01:03 +0000 UTC
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The orb of magic stopped above the central platform and immediately ballooned outward, turning into a jet-black cloud that filled most of the cavernous room. Ink began to fall, first in a spirt and then in a great torrent, drenching everything below. The magma toads shrieked as the inky rain sizzled against their fiery hides and even the Keeper seemed momentarily caught off guard. Two of the five frogs seized up on the spot and toppled over to one side, temporarily paralyzed. The ink pooled i...
2021-08-06 16:01:02 +0000 UTC
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“Alright,” Dizzy said from the front of the party. “This is it, a chance to redeem ourselves. We ready to do this or what?”
Sam glanced away from the hulking doors that stood guard over the Irondown Forge and double checked his gear for the hundredth time. His Papier Mache Armor was already in place and his Quill Wing Cloak hung down his back. Only one thing left to do now. He thrust a hand out, palm extended. He felt the connection to his Interspatial Library, buried in the voi...
2021-08-04 16:01:02 +0000 UTC
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The next morning, Logan got Treacle up early for their normal routine of working on their core in the morning. The minotaur was game, as happy as Logan had ever seen him. The night before had been rough. After their meeting with Shadowcroft, Inga had just wanted to go to bed, no planning, no scheming, no reading. Just bed. Logan and Treacle had followed suit.
As expected, Marko had gone with Steve to Vralkag. He seemed to still be there. While Marko had gotten less wild, he still someti...
2021-08-03 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Sam worked for the next six hours magically infusing ink and chicken vellum, inscribing scrolls, prepping quills, and meticulously binding books. Thanks to hitting the Master Rank as a Bookbinder, he was ten-fold faster, but there were just so many things to do. He worked until his hand cramped, and his fingers bled from countless needle pokes. Until his back screamed and his legs were numb from the stool beneath him. Finally, when his stomach was grumbling in protest and his eyes were wateri...
2021-08-02 16:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Sam stood in front of the double doors that let into the Irondown Library, arms folded across his chest.
“And you’re sure we can just take them?” Sam asked, stealing a glance at Bill, floating at his side. “Aren’t they sort of attached to the dungeon?”
“Sure. Technically they’re a part of the dungeon, but who cares?” the book said. “I mean, the dungeon belongs to us. More or less. Besides, where exactly did you think we were going to get all the materi...
2021-07-30 16:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Logan sat in a bench outside of Shadowcroft’s office with the rest of the Terrible Twelfth. The waiting room was dark, with a long bench crafted from dark mahogany and a bright red velvet cushion. The rest of the place was wood paneling and shadows.
Logan and Treacle sat together. Inga was doing some last minute reading, preparing their case, while Marko was messing around with his lute, strumming out demonic chords softly enough that they all weren’t driven insane by his music. Ste...
2021-07-29 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Sam took a position near his core, legs straight, and brought his hands together, right hand curled into a fist that rested against his left palm. Bill took a position directly across from him and mirror the pose. They looked like two Judo opponents squaring off before a bout. Though Bill was normally flippant and easy going, he looked serious as a heart attack right now, worry lines etched into his face.
Bill knew what was at stake here and knew what would happen if things went sideway...
2021-07-28 16:01:04 +0000 UTC
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The next night, Logan and the Terrible Twelfth had created the perfect trap for Melvin in the Submerged Hell.
Logan had bonded with the rest of his cohort, so that they would be able to communicated instantaneously and at a distance. He and Inga had taken over the dungeon. Both their gems floated above the inner sanctum’s pedestal. They’d reduced the number of water features dramatically, and now little murky streams flowed where there were once torrents. They kept a few thin waterf...
2021-07-27 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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“Hey girl,” Sam said, trying to sound soothing as he crept toward the egg at the center of the nest. “It’s just me. Sam. We know each other. We’re buddies. Feel that?” He asked, stroking her feathers with his hand back in the real world. “That’s just me.”
The reptilian mega-chicken clucked suspiciously but made no move to stop him. He stole another few inches closer, extending a hand toward the egg. Now that… That she didn’t care for. Not one bit. She hunched forwa...
2021-07-26 16:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Jan Wick Saves the Cat
...
2021-07-24 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Fingers of purple and gold were peaking up over the horizon by the time Sam and Bill got back to the Irondown burrows. They swung by the barracks and found the beds full with snoozing bodies, all except for Kai. That guy was a rockstar of self-discipline and not even a long night of hard partying would keep him from his morning yoga routine. Sam hadn’t slept a wink and though his body insisted he pass out face down on his bunk without so much as taking off his boots, his brain was too excit...
2021-07-23 16:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Logan and the gang spent the next ten days on pins and needles. It wasn’t clear if Rockheart had actually talked to Chadrigoth or not. It wasn’t like anything changed as far as that situation was concerned. Chadrigoth ignored him, but there, the feeling was mutual.
Melvin did a lot of ignoring as well. He now spent all of his time with the First Cohort, which seemed to tickle the abyss lord, Jimi Magmarty, and Lady Elesiel. It was like they had won the dork in a socially awkward con...
2021-07-22 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Velkan guided Sam and Bill away from the warmth of the firelight and the festivities of the night. Sam wasn’t at all surprised when the taciturn wolfman brought them past the O’Baba’s long house and to the carved fox totems that connected to the Wolfman marketplace.
“Ha! I knew it,” Bill crowed. “Told you this place was some kind of Interspatial Library. I mean, I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly—mostly because I don’t have fingers—but how could it not be. Amirig...
2021-07-21 16:01:03 +0000 UTC
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