James A. Hunter

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 48

Forty-Eight – Now Hiring

The shop was bustling with activity, even though I was hearing more and more rumors about Aspirants poking around the various doorways scattered about the floors. It didn’t seem to be stopping anyone from venturing into the storefront—not yet anyway—but that could change if the Aspirants managed to blockade all of the doors in and out. Although I could move the doorway anchors once every twenty-four hours, exiting through any of...

MudMan Re-Release

Hey everyone, James Hunter here. We're dusting off an oldie but a goodie. I wrote MudMan in early 2016, back before I'd even started dabbling in LiRPG. It's dark, gritty urban fantasy with a whole lot of blood, gore, and action. We took this book down several years ago for a fresh round of edits and then... we'll, we just sort of forgot about it. I got caught up with so many other projects that this just ended up on the backburner.

Finally, all these years later, we're releasing it. A...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 47

Forty-Seven – The Prize Booth

The prize booth was exactly what it sounded like.

There was a long, glass fronted cabinet filled with smaller, less valuable trinkets, while the bigger high-ticket items hung on the wall, grouped by price. Perched on top of the counters were small, computerized kiosks with colorful touchscreens and ticket eaters.

Just Scan your Hand to Begin! The pixelated screen flashed.

My Spelunker’s Sixth Sense did...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 46

Forty-Six – Fun and Games

The four of us spent the next nine hours grinding through murder game after murder game, each more interesting and bat-shit crazy than the last. We started with Whack-A-Mole, which cost a Gold Loot Token to play. The price tag seemed awful steep, especially considering what kind of badass shit a Gold Loot Token could buy in the Gashapon machines, but Jakob hadn’t lead me astray so far, so I decided to trust him.

Whack-A-Mole ended up ...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 45

Forty-Five – Jungle Gym Jamboree

Stepping into Funtine Frank’s Jungle Gym Jamboree was like plunging into another dimension entirely.

This place wasn’t a simple mall arcade, like the place Croc and I had raided on the third floor. Nope. The Jamboree was a neon-drenched city that was like the bastard love child of Chuck E. Cheese and a traveling carnival. A vast ocean of arcade games stretched out for as far as I could see. Videogames, pinball, basketball sho...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 44

Forty-Four – Mana Displacement Effect 

It took us the better part of a day to get to the Funtime Frank's Jungle Gym Jamboree—though between Jakob, Temperance, and Unerring Arrow, I’d never had an easier or more stress-free trip. Temperance seemed to intuitively know every inch of the seventh floor, even though that was impossible given its sheer scope, and as a level 25, Jakob could swat down anything that looked at us funny.

Well, not anything, anythin...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 43

Forty-Three – Gear Up

The plan was simple, elegant, and as insane as it was ballsy.

Head over to Funtime Frank’s Jungle Gym Jamboree and grind the lesser blight infected Dwellers who lurked within, until eventually we were strong enough to take on Frank and his animatronic jamboree posse. I had my reservations. Croc and I had visited one of the Loot Arcades on the third floor, and though I wouldn’t want to fuck around with the Mobile Murder Muncher, it didn�...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 42

Forty-Two – The Assignment

“Obviously, I don’t want to contract cancer- rabies or whatever in the fuck Blight actually is,” I said. “But I’m willing to listen if you think there’s a way I can strike a deal with the Hold.”

I briefly considered the golden Seal of the Researcher tucked away in my storage space. I was pretty sure that if I showed up at the gates and flashed that bad boy, the Howlers would welcome me in with arms opened wide. But that w...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 41

Forty-One – Old History

I lounged in the breakroom across the cheap, circular table from Temperance the Murder bunny.

The gentle hum of voices drifted in through the open Employee’s Only door, accompanied by the squeak and scuff of distant feet. The store was busy with the hustle and bustle of new customers. We had fresh meat from the Lobby as well as a handful of Veteran Delvers, who’d trickled in from other floors. Half of our cots were currently rented ou...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 12 - Livestream Mic Drop

The Ravenous Slender Essence was already up in the Soul Index and ready to go, but Clay didn’t trigger it. He couldn’t afford to throw away his one shot at breaking free of this attack just because he’d been too hasty.

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. The thought flashed through his mind as he scanned the Index.

Finally, he found what he wanted—the Incant Essence of an Aberrational Zealot.

His hands didn’t move, but he felt his mind stretching as if it were...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 40

Forty – The Odd Couple

The burning blue shield vanished in an eyeblink and suddenly there was a bowie knife clutched in the Cendral’s hand. Jakob gave the blade a quick twirl, then drove it through Mohawk’s palm, pinning his hand to the floor.

“If you want to keep the rest of your body parts,” Jakob said cooly, “you should just lay there and play dead.”

Mohawk grunted weakly and made no further move to retaliate.

Despite their size differ...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 39

Thirty-Nine – Knight in Scaly Armor

My health was critically low and though I’d regained about eight points of Mana during the tussle, that wasn’t even enough to fire off a single Drain-O Bolt. The Sterilization Field vanished but the golden protection granted by the Slammer of Shielding still had almost an entire minute left before it zeroed out. Not that I could stay in there that long. Croc was doing its best to hold down the fort against the three Brawlers—w...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 11 - Kicking the Hornet’s Nest

“Stop them!” Merciful Shepherd roared, letting the half-strangled Joe drop to the dirt, choking and holding a throat covered in livid bruises.

Half the guards attacking Alex split off to take on the oncoming horde of released prisoners. Multicolored flashes of magic lit up the night, mainly focused on the DCU. Looking like somebody’d just hocked a loogie in their milkshakes, the superheroes backpedaled, trying to put enough distance between themselves and their attackers to counte...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 38

Thirty-Eight – Killing Blow

Croc and I needed a game plan before barreling in there like reckless morons.

I mean, we were morons for not just running away, but we could try to avoid being reckless. As my Dad always used to tell me growing up, if you’re going to do something stupid, try to be smart about it. I did a quick cursory scan of each of the five members and got a baseline level for each of ’em.

Four of the five were Archetypal...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 37

Thirty-Seven – The Red Hands

Early on the third day of what was beginning to feel like a doomed quest to nowhere, Croc and I blundered into a large school locker room, filled with rows of lockers, slick, mildew-covered tiled floors, and wooden benches that had probably endured more psychological trauma than I could ever even begin to imagine. Just thinking of all the wrinkly nutsacks those benches had witnessed gave me full body chills.

The gentle pitter patter ...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 10 - Outnumbered

A hundred times during weapons training at the dojo, Alex had warned her students about the “dog with a bone” trap—that instinctual urge to get into a tug-of-war with your opponent over a weapon—and she’d sworn to herself a hundred times that she would never get caught by it. But the second Wildflame looped her Lariat around the thurible, human instinct won out, and Alex yanked back, trying to regain control of what was basically a neutralized weapon.

From the corner of her ey...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 9 - Soul Overload

Clay stopped outside the unmarked door the squidhorse guard had taken him to just hours ago. Switching over to his Reptilian Infrared Detection, he scanned the interior. Two hostiles inside—the standard red body temp of a human and the green-yellow of an Inconceivable Cosmic Security Officer. This door was locked, too, and this time Clay didn’t have a passive-aggressive anemone to convince the staffers inside to open it.

While he took a second to think about his next move, Clay used...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 36

Thirty-Six – Goosey Goosey Gander

After looting the corpses, I planted my VIP Doorway Anchor and popped into the store to distribute my five new Enhancement Points and swap around some Relics. The Doodles dropped a variety of Common and Uncommon Shards, but each one carried a Common-grade Relic called Doodle Buddy, which served as a summoning spell, which allowed the user to conjure a level 4 Doodle. The minion would exist for ten minutes, or until th...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 8 - A Dark Moment for the DCU

“Ow!” Joe cupped his bleeding face in his hands. He turned huge, shocked eyes on the Dark Sentinel. “What the hell, guy?”

But Alex had already figured it out. She reset her feet, holding the combination kusarigama-thurible at the ready.

She’d been stupid not to use that helicopter distraction to reload the Mossberg, but it was too late now. Wildflame had her Flaming Lariat lazily wheeling by her side. Crawley flanked her, his tattooed hands open at his side and ready to ...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 7 - Hostile Takeover

“This way,” Shifty said, waving for Clay and the others to follow him up the steel stairs to the ground floor. “First door on our right.”

The tower’s curved hall was deserted, but when they came to the door marked Control Room, it was locked and they could hear muffled voices inside.

“Any idea how many guards are usually manning this thing?” Griff asked.

Shifty grinned sheepishly. “Less than a thousand, more than zero?”

“Helpful,” Herman ...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 35

Thirty-Five – The School Zone

Hammer firmly in hand, Croc and I slipped out of the dilapidated classroom and into an equally rundown hallway with green walls, so pale they were almost white. Rows of rusty lockers adorned the wall to the right, a few of them closed, while most hung open at odd angles, concealing pools of shadow within. Anything could’ve been hiding in those things and my Spelunker’s Sixth Sense quickly light up, highlighting several of the lockers ...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 6 - Here Comes the Cavalry

Clay jumped when the klaxons started going off. He had hoped his Beguiling Whisper had gotten out, but so long had passed since he sent the message that he was starting to wonder. Either it had worked and Alex and Joe were on their way in or this was one hell of a coincidence.

Boots and clicking chitinous feet thundered by on the ground level of the tower.

“Surround the tower.” Clay recognized the voice of the Big Pharma scientist. “Protecting the research is the number one ...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 5 - Breaking and Entering

“…and that, dear viewers, is the tale of how Lumberjack Joe and the Jaeger squad defeated yet another menace to wasteland society while he was drinking his juice in the IZ,” Joe concluded.

Alex checked her shotgun, then Clay’s Wyrd West revolver, making sure for the hundredth time they were both loaded and ready to go. When the signal came, there wouldn’t be time to dick around looking for ammo or body armor or tying boots. All the prep work needed to be done now, not later. 2023-09-19 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 34

Thirty-Four – The Seventh Floor

“You know, I like that Jakob,” Croc said as we exited through the sliding glass doors by the front register.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” I replied. “You like everyone.”

“That is true and a fair point, but this time I really feel it. Like the warmth I feel in my belly after eating someone. It just feels right, you know?”

“Having never eaten anyone, I do not know. But I’ll take your word for it.�...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 4 - Hostile Work Environment

Clay caught Griff’s sharp one-eyed gaze. They hadn’t planned for a cell full of people, but if they were going to get out of this prison, they would need everybody in their cell on board. Or at least not actively working against them.

“What if I told you we were breaking out of this place?” Clay asked the bark-covered tree druid.

Shifty yelped a laugh. “I’d say you’re too dumb to know better.”

“What if we told you we ain’t the only ones working on it?” ...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 3 - Fun Time with War Crimes

“I can’t believe our stream isn’t blowing up,” Joe grumbled, face lit with the gray-blue glow of his suit’s arm screen. “I filled in all the keyword slots—big government conspiracy revealed, cool squad saves the day, David and Goliath fight of the century… We’ve only got one viewer, and I think it’s a bot.”

Alex dug through Clay’s rucksack for his rangefinder. “It’s not like two people sitting around watching nothing happen is super compelling.”

Joe�...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 33

Thirty-Three – R & R

I handed over a duffel bag worth of Elixirs to Jakob and he headed off to one of the tents in the back—compliments of the house—for a peaceful night of rest and relaxation, while I spent the next few hours sorting through the enormous pile of Relics he had unceremoniously dumped onto the front counter.

As expected, most of them were complete garbage, fit only for sacrificing.

Elevator Music conjured elevator mu...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 2 - Supermax Conglomerated

The passenger window in the seat in front of Clay whirred open, letting in sand and hot air and one sweaty, pissed-off Triple S agent.

“What the hell, man?” he snapped, plopping into his seat. “Just gonna fucking leave me back there?”

“I said ‘abort,’” the jerk in the driver seat said. “If you don’t move your ass, that’s on you.”

Clay snorted. “You Triple S guys have some great teamwork.”

“Hey, fuck you.” Johnny-Run-Lately twisted around...

Backrooms: Delvers and Dwellers - Chapter 32

UPDATE FROM JAMES: Hey everyone. I am SOOOOOO sorry for the irrgular posts. DragonCon messed me up good and I thought I'd be able to get some writing done, but nope. Not one word. But I'm back home, feeling great, and super excited with where the story is headed. Expect regular posting to resume. And on that note, hope you enjoy this chapter!

Thirty-Two – Shop Keeper

Our first customer was a brand-new Delver named Taylor, who’d wandered into...

Wasteland Warlords Episode 5: Chapter 1 - A Truly Terrible Plan

“I can’t believe I let you idiots talk me into this,” Alex said, shaking her head. “I look like a doofus.”

“You’re the only one of us who could fit into Rhett’s clothes.” Clay leaned over the back of the dune buggy seat to give his wife a nudge with his shoulder. Not obvious enough to ruin the illusion that he was a prisoner, but hopefully reassuring for her. “Besides, skater girl looks pretty cute on you.”

“This isn’t going to fool anybody. One, Rhett di...