I mentioned earlier that I would need to go on a break after Chapter 20 to rebuild my backlog. While that break is still happening, Chapter 20 ran really long, so it got split up and no longer acts as a good stopping point. You'll get Chapter 21 in a few days on-schedule before I descend into the darkness of the writing mines, where all serial authors reside.
External Link for Chapter 20:
External Link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/cyex7/c44tn2cezysycrik
2023-10-10 23:52:16 +0000 UTC View PostExternal Link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/de6ht/rw674wij76d2uibt
2023-10-09 03:57:11 +0000 UTC View PostExternal link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/8cepp/faghro8qt8x9sbvy
2023-10-05 04:26:50 +0000 UTC View PostHoo boy. Imagine my surprise when I sign on tonight to post the next chapters and find that Patreon has changed a bunch of shit, including fucking with their HTML to the point where italics no longer work. Even with posts that were already posted.
Italics, as you probably understand by now, are slightly important for conveying certain aspects of a story. I do not want to post more chapters without italics. Current solution is to off-site host and include a link within Patreon posts, whi...
2023-10-05 03:48:33 +0000 UTC View PostExternal Link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/31qdx/mfanygatkbdhi0dz
2023-10-04 01:43:13 +0000 UTC View PostExternal Link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/2gmje/z937k352eb1om870
2023-10-02 04:06:28 +0000 UTC View PostExternal Link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/6qka1/rep3oj529y8ohn7k
2023-09-29 23:34:27 +0000 UTC View PostExternal Link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/d0uke/t031yuvr1yj9v5z8
2023-09-28 04:09:20 +0000 UTC View PostImportant Author's Note:
Patreon fucked with its HTML, so now all italics got erased. Might have to manually change them to unicode. In the meantime, I strongly recommend reading this chapter via either the attached pdf, or by viewing it at this external site:
https://justpaste.it/ls/d0uke/t031yuvr1yj9v5z8
Sorry for the inconvenience, everyone.
2023-09-25 03:35:58 +0000 UTC View PostAfter speaking with all of the suspects, Adam couldn’t shake off the distinct feeling that he may as well not have bothered. Despite taking his time each of them, he didn’t get much out of them aside from a word here or there – although he was still willing to take something over nothing.
Serena, the Master of Communications, had precious little to offer about the crime itself. The woman merely swore that she’d been in her room and hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. Sh...
External Link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/au73h/dft7dw7950r4r7xa
2023-09-21 04:06:31 +0000 UTC View PostAdam swept his eyes across the room, watching for unusual reactions. Unsurprisingly, he found none. Everyone present seemed intelligent enough to understand the implications of what he’d said. Now that Adam had declared his lordly intentions, this wouldn’t end without someone’s head rolling. And considering the grisly nature of these serial killings, they knew it could end with his death as well.
But it would end.
One way or another.
"I am going to speak wi...
External Link:
https://justpaste.it/ls/d8oz1/dubvgg672nqgsfgx
2023-09-18 04:05:51 +0000 UTC View PostThankfully, Ragnavi was smart enough to recognize that people needed time to cool off after her outburst. She sequestered herself elsewhere in The Village – alone – as everyone waited for the Dragonkin retinue to arrive.
Small comforts.
With the Village tour canceled, and Rob taking a well-deserved breather, he was left with little to do except review his Character Sheet in preparation for what was to come. Not just their foray into the Deadlands, but also his inevitable bat...
Inside his dream, Adam was awake.
The mysterious voice jolted him to awareness. A second later, he located its source – a strange gentleman, standing tall and seemingly unbothered by the heavy downpour falling on him. It’s raining, Adam noted absently, studying his hand. Water fell on him, so persistent that they were less like raindrops and more of a greasy mist. The liquid crawled around his skin, twisting, turning, then flickering out of existence as if painted over by ...
The street erupted in a line of dirt and cobblestone, as if a tornado had rushed straight down. Dozens of pitch-black tendrils – each over fifteen feet long – were whipping through the air in a blender of destruction. The Blight-creature had become a shifting mass with no discernible shape, nothing remaining of its original Elven likeness except for a mannequin-esque face lodged at the center.
Rob wasn't sure how it was moving so swiftly. There were no skittering legs or magical pr...
Not long after speaking with Ferrero, Adam got his chance to talk with Serena, the master of communications. However, this conversation was far more brusque and rushed than the previous one. It started when the heavily-cloaked woman suddenly approached him, holding one arm to the side as if brandishing a powerful weapon.
With a crow atop her shoulder.
“My lord, a moment?” Serena’s voice was raspy, low, and cracked intermittently as she spoke. He still couldn’t see her face...
2023-09-07 19:30:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe Village was exactly as Rob remembered it. Once-bustling streets were empty and quiet. Buildings lay crumbling, like they'd been abandoned for decades, the result of unchecked Corruption degradation. Distant memories of the Elves that used to live there – many of them now dead – were swept away by a cold breeze. Rob shivered from the chill, and even that seemed out of place, as if showing signs that he was alive felt incongruent to the time-capsule stillness of the hollow Village laid ...
2023-09-06 23:09:41 +0000 UTC View PostTwo Days Later
The teleportation energies faded around them.
Rob stumbled for a moment, yet only a moment. He was well-accustomed to the aftereffects of teleportation magic. His allies...less so. A cacophony of unhappy groans serenaded him, and several pairs of eyes glared at him accusingly, as if asking why he was never affected too badly by this.
Sorry, but as a good friend once said – I'm just built different. Rob put on an apologet...
“You’re the detective,” Adam said, after a long pause. “You tell me. What do you think happened to those missing people?”
Valeria tapped her lips with her index finger, then looked upwards in a parody of deep thought. “My lord, my lord...how could a humble peasant such as myself know what you do not?”
“Skip the dance, Puppet,” Solara cut in. She crossed her arms and let out a disdainful sound. “Unless you want us to believe you’re dumb enough to re...
<"The man you’re trying to reach is unavailable right now. Please, leave a message and – okay I can’t do this bit. You can hear me, right?">
Rob's legs trembled as he leaned his back against the alley wall, letting himself gradually slide down into a sitting position. All the strength in his muscles had been sapped by hearing the voice that was unambiguously, indisputably, Jason.
<"I swear..."> muttered the voice that was undeniably, incontrov...
“How much of that was an act back there?” Adam asked Solara once they were alone in their cabin. “The constant insulting of Dragon Puppets, I mean.”
Solara didn’t immediately respond. Instead, she closed the latch of their door, then began to walk around the cabin, seemingly checking for any abnormalities on the wooden walls.
Her investigative march only paused twice. Once at the sole window in the room, a large panel behind the bed that occasionally showed the night s...
The next few days were spent on last-minute preparations. While it would've been nice to stick around the capital city for a bit longer, help rebuild its fractured government, the Blight wasn't inclined to wait for them to unfuck Elnaril's handiwork. They'd just have to trust that the remaining coalition members, Celiane, and Zephial would right the ship before it sank.
Rob was actually looking forward to what that crew could accomplish. With Riardin's Rangers, Sylpeiros, and a dozen o...
Detective.
That single word was enough to momentarily send Adam into a state of shock, although only just for a moment. So what if she’s lying about her profession? he reasoned. I didn’t come here on a casual visit – I came here expecting tricks, treachery, and backstabbing. This is par for the course.
With that in mind, there was still a chance the woman actually was a scholar of some kind. A person with a Detective Talent didn’t nece...
Author's Note:
Chapters 4, 6, and 7 all ended up much longer than average, so I split this one to give myself and the backlog more breathing room.
--
Riardin's Rangers went looking for Meyneth and Vul'to as soon as they got back to the capital city. Diplomacy met up with them on the way, immediately asking for details about everything that happened. After a short search, they found the two sitting in an abandoned, isolated building, Mey...
2023-08-24 04:11:10 +0000 UTC View PostLevel 92.
Level. Ninety. Two.
WHAT. THE. FUCK?
All sense of noble propriety was flung from Ragnavi's mind. She could only stare in utter disbelief as her worldview was forcibly altered into something fundamentally different. The Human was here, and he was Level 92.
And worse – he was smiling. Not externally, but Ragnavi was distressingly familiar with that subtle, smug twitching at the corner of his lips. She'd seen it far too many times on the faces of ...
Two things left to do before leaving to meet with the Dragon Puppets.
Adam wasn’t sure if he trusted Solara or if he trusted his paintings – but either way, the result was the same: he’d confirmed her support. She was, for the moment, extremely unlikely to betray him. It was a solid piece of information to base future decisions on.
However, Solara’s support wasn’t the only factor that mattered. Even if she was on board with everything, her father was st...
2023-08-19 05:16:47 +0000 UTC View PostSo my cover art guy came back with some sketches for a possible Book 6 cover art. Wanted to ask you guys which version you thought looked the best. Here's the framing possibilities they gave:
Some things to note:
1....
2023-08-17 03:15:16 +0000 UTC View PostThere are few worse sensations in the world than feeling rage – pure, unbridled apoplectic rage – and having no outlet for it.
Rob produced a longsword from Spatial Storage. He held it in his left hand, knuckles turning white as he clenched, imagining that his fingers were tightening around a divine throat. The desire to take that sword and drive it into an acceptable target was staggering. It consumed him, filling his mind with visions of the gods chopped into tiny little...
