Cassius Lange

Riftside 3 - Chapter 23

With the last of the Glowcrest Emmets twitching in its death throes, I jogged over to retrieve Blisterbrand, plucking it from the dust with a satisfied smile. It had done its job well. I gave it a twirl, splashing fire and acid across the ground, just for fun, before I swiped it into storage.

“Tell me more about this colony, Roq. With what they spat on Knut, these could be what got our scouts,” I said, turning to where Eryn sat with Knut and Lan, waiting for the paralyzing toxin to ...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 22

The Ironclad Ravine greeted us like an old, scarred friend, and I smiled at the jagged outcrops of stone veined with metallic quartz. Once it had filled me with trepidation and radiated danger, but now it was a familiar and almost comforting sight. It brought back a lot of memories, some bad, but most good.

“Well, look at us,” Nabeeh said. “Out on our first standard hunt as a full party. Monsters could almost mistake us for an experienced and powerful party!”

I chuckled an...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 21

“By the anvil’s black sooted backside,” Pa cursed as I ducked underneath the doorway and into the smithy. 

“Hey, Pa,” I said and grinned.

“You…bastard!” he said, staring up at me slack jawed. 

“Is that Ash?” Ma asked from inside. “What’s going on out—“ She trailed off at the doorway when our eyes met. “What…what have you done!?”

I scratched the back of my head. 

“I broke through, ma. I’m level twenty.”

...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 39

I stuck Traitor into the ground and sat down, wiping sweat and Quinta blood off my brow. The smell of burnt flesh was heavy in the air. I looked up over the temple roofs at the scarred wall where Quinta sacrifices were burning every few feet and lighting up the night sky. The bricks and mortar behind which we hid were not ours anymore. Looming over the spirals of our temples and the rooftops of our homes, the wall was no longer a protector, but a threatening shadow beset by the enemy.  2025-08-22 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Riftside 3 - Chapter 20

The world was gone only to be replaced by pain. It was a roaring, white-hot inferno scouring me from the inside out kind of pain. 

I knew I screamed, but I couldn’t hear it.

My body was no longer my own to control. 

It was a crucible, and the Class Gem an unforgiving flame, melting me down to my very soul. 

From far away I felt myself thrash against the cold iron of the chains binding me fast to Knut’s reinforced bed. Vague sounds echoed from the wor...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 38

The air was ripe with the smell of burnt flesh. All across the golden sea of the Quinta army bonfires bellowed oily smoke.

Sacrifices to a dead God.

The poor bastards had stopped screaming a while ago, now they just crackled away, waiting for the Emperor to give the sign.

“Our God is dead. Those men burn for nothing,” Fey said, her voice subdued.

“Like they burned for something when he was alive,” Pearl grumbled just the thing that was on my mind, too. Fey didn...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 19

The aroma of Knut’s pre-dawn bacon breakfast had nearly faded and I was in the middle of a delicious cup of tea, chatting with Eryn, Nabeeh, and Knut, when we heard a ruckus from upstairs. 

“About time,” Nabeeh said, shaking her head in half-mocking criticism.

“Like fearful boy on morning of first battle,” Knut said. “Sleep late, rise late.”

The sound of stumbling footsteps towards the stairs announced the imminent arrival of our newest, and most volatile,...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 37

“Midnights, it’s time to—”

I began ducking under the frame of the entrance to the club. A big mace slammed into my chest and broke apart. I looked down and saw Korvan holding the stump of his weapon both hands. The ogre swallowed.

“Nice one,” I said.

“Brazendan’s fiery balls!” Tyfus snapped and shot up from his chair at the bar.

Tarnia did the same and both began channeling ice spells at the same time. Fey flung her tray and hit me square on the jaw. ...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 18

After bidding Edwin and Pa goodbye, leaving the commander to negotiate with Ma, the greatest challenge he’d faced since the Hive Mind attacked during our duel with Serona, I headed towards the west side of Dawnwatch. 

On the open plot of land west of the lumberyard, the Central Command caravan had drawn to a halt. It was no longer a train of wagons, but had turned into a sprawling and chaotic gathering. Guardsmen in dusty uniforms walked in pairs. Merchants hawked exotic goods fr...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 36

I fell asleep for a few seconds. My jaw slipped off my knuckles, jerking me awake again. I looked up. The throne room was filled to the brink with people talking over each other while Seldon Wey Stoneford desperately tried to establish some semblance of order. My gaze wandered between the rows of banks that led toward the throne. It was still covered in soot from when I entered.

I shifted in my seat trying to figure out where to put my tail. I had it curled under me at first, but that j...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 17

I held the door open to the Adventurer’s Guild for Eryn and then followed after her. The rest of my party, plus Edwin, followed me inside. Shay was there representing his party, and the council of three mages were representing, well, themselves. 

Mara looked up from the resting area as the floorboards groaned under our weight and nodded at me.

“Hey, Madeleine,” I said to the friendly giant who waved at us from her desk. “Would you let Harold know we’re back?”

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 35

I rounded a corner and reeled Wolf in so I’d stay hidden and let out a long, calm breath as I took in the scene.

There was something strangely serene about the sight of orcs in battle with the First. The stretch of bridge leading to the White Castle offered barely a hundred soldiers to bash each other’s skulls in. The silver of the First held on fiercely against the vicious, black-plated orcs of the Seven Tips. Priests and mages stood behind the Steelheart soldiers casting spells an...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 16

I ran for the Steel Scrambler, a savage grin spreading across my face.

“Armor break.”

Roq glowed red. 

“Lan!” Roq said. “Back off. Stay! Disengage! This is my kill to finish!”

“No!” Lan shouted. “Wait!”

With its claw busy trying to right itself, I leapt up onto its upturned underbelly. There was the circle of five holes from my steelhusk spears. 

I brought Roq down with a migh...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 34

The Temple District almost looked like the Ashpit. Tents filled with wounded soldiers flapped in the strong wind that swept through the square. Sitting in the northernmost part of the city, Sankta Varath’s religious center served well as a base of operation and field hospital. Still, it saddened me to see it in that state. It was one thing to war around the countryside, it was another to have it at home.

The atmosphere was grim. As it always was behind the lines of a siege. But what m...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 15

“Slow it!” I called, watching the Steel Scrambler loom behind Wade, the bottom of its carapace was higher than the top of his head. It raised a claw to crush or snap the man in two, its six legs punching into the ground and shaking it with each step. “Death comes hungry,” Lan muttered.

“I’m always hungry,” Roq said.

“Forge Anchor.”

Roq glowed and I slammed him into the ground as Eryn used her ‘Snipe’ and I heard Predat...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 33

“Your Grace!” Seldon Wey Stoneford protested as he shot out of his chair. “Is this really necessary?”

“Sit your ass down, Voice!” the King snapped and Seldon planted his rear back into his chair.

“Blackmouth, finish him!”

Our dear and wise king was fuming. Spittle came raining out his mouth as he gave the command. The nobles had no idea what had come over their ruler, Seldon certainly didn’t and his frozen Queen had already left the place. I knew why, thoug...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 14

A stiff wind knifed through the gaps in the unfinished stone rampart of the keep, stealing warmth from my coat and making my eyes water.

Below, Dawnwatch was an expanding ring of flickering torchlight. At first glance it seemed a bastion against the encroaching dark of the plains around us, but we knew better. It was the alien green glow of the Branchway Rift at its heart which it protected the world from.

Eryn’s silhouette was beautiful where she stood leaning against the cold ...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 32

They called him Old Silver and he was meaner than a troll’s fart. He was a knight and a major in the King’s First Army, second only to Stein himself.

He stood among a hundred or so soldiers and army mages guarding the entrance to the outer circle of the White Palace and had no intention of letting me in.

“You don’t look like you just want to talk, Frank Midnight,” he said. His white beard and hair covered a scar-rich face, a crooked nose, and deeply set green eyes.

Riftside 3 - Chapter 13

“So, tell us about yourself,” I said, smiling at Lan as best I could across our dining room table. I’d tried chatting with her as we made our way over from Sentinel Station after the attack was beaten back, but she’d refused to engage. 

And she still did, deciding to remain silent almost the entire time. 

The water mage sat at our table like a storm cloud refusing to break, her amber hair a curtain hiding her face. She hadn’t even touched the tea Eryn placed in...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 31

Tyfus slept in nothing but his loincloth on the top of the stairs. A snot bubble rose and fell as he snored away. I rubbed my eyes and yawned, stretched, and took in a deep breath to take it all in. It had been a while since I slept last time in my own room, especially having gone through most of the morning and day. Dusk was already approaching.

I nudged him with my foot.

“What are you doing here, gnome?”

He opened one crusty eye.

“Tarnia kicked me out of my roo...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 12

After the funeral, the adventurers and scavengers had retreated to the Timberline, and after everyone had gathered, it felt like a wounded beast.

The usual boisterous lifeblood of the tavern had been replaced by a low, mournful murmur. What usually smelled like a home away from home, now stank of spilled ale, wet wool, and grief. A lot of negative emotions that did nothing to help those who survived.

One of the casualties of the Hive Mind’s attack had been Johan’s chef, and th...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 30

A small crowd had gathered beneath Castelian’s impaled body. Worried murmurs coursed between the onlookers as I approached. I made a point to just ride past them but I couldn’t avoid overhearing the hushed words of ‘God Slayer’ and ‘Castelian’ killer’.

I knew the story would soon reach every corner of the city so I hurried towards the White Palace before it would complicate an already complicated situation. I had no idea what I would tell the King, to be honest. I made a p...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 11

My boots click-clacked on top of First Steel as I slowly walked the circle with Mara in silence. She’d insisted we head up there to continue our conversation , to give space for Enar to get back on his feet and return to his family, but I knew it was because she wanted to sound me out by herself. She could still shut me up if needed. 

I didn’t think she would. Mara was in too deep now, and she knew that she needed me, and I was going to push that for everything it was worth.&nb...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 29

Castelian’s mansion sat atop a small hill among a dozen other villas and luxury buildings. Nestled in the Glade where the rich and powerful lived, his black, almost fortress-like home stuck out like a sore thumb against the other mostly inviting places of Sankta Varath’s nobility and merchant class.

It was only by divine providence that no catapult had razed the black mansion with its pointy towers and sharp angles. I was genenerally surprised how little the Glade had been touched&n...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 28

The Magister’s Bridge was the demarcation line between the King’s forces and Nergat’s new Green Tide. Armed soldiers stood at both ends of the large stone bridge that crossed the Darvas River. On the other side was the Glade, one of the richest parts of town, while the orcs guarded what was once home to the Borough’s Kids. A dilapidated part of Sankta Varath that somehow managed to improve by being bombarded with Quinta trebuchets.

I saw the glinting armor of the First Army sold...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 10

Enar’s shriek tore through the room and with it a chill fell over us as mana erupted from within him. Mara’s axe was already halfway up when Roq yelled.

“HALT!” 

The command boomed through my mind and everyone but Mara stumbled as they hissed in pain. 

“By my kingly wings, woman, cease! The adventurer lives!” Roq said. “Why are you so eager to take lives? Madness!”

As if on cue, Enar’s screa...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 27

We stood in the back yard in heavy silence around Snowdog’s grave. Well, as silent as a city under siege could be. The sun was casting long shadows across the trees and plants of our garden. It was never as lush and plentiful as it was that day. Opius had done wonders with anything that could bloom and grow, bushes, and different vines that now spread their long green fingers over the bathhouse and even the side of the club.

“I know I’m supposed to give a eulogy of sorts,” I sai...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 9

“Well?” Mara asked. She held her axe loosely, but with a promise of finality. 

Ours, Enars? Maybe even both?

My mind raced as I tried to come up with a quick response.

“My soul weapon,” I said, the words tumbling out. “He’s… an expert in what he calls soul forging.”

Katherine’s head snapped towards me. 

“Soul weapon? You have a soul weapon? Since when? Why haven’t I seen it around?”

“What is soul forging?” Mara demanded...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 26

Sankta Varath was a mess. A chowder of a city with greedy, angry, frustrated people of maddened minds. With dirty, chaotic streets where peddlers and ruffians, thieves and tricksters, murderers and beggars found their home. It was a city of immeasurable luxury, a hellhole of poverty and crime, it was all of this and more before the war.

But now?

There was nothing but desperation and fear in the faces of my people. So many buildings, homes, and workshops were just smoking ruins. Th...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 8

Enar’s scream was not the sound of a man in pain. It was the sound of a soul being unmade, a raw, high-pitched shriek that clawed at the air in the room and set my teeth on edge. 

He arched against the bed, his body a taut bow of agony, muscles straining against the chains we’d prepared. For a moment, I thought they were about to snap. Had I looked the same going through my first breakthrough?

“Hold him down!” Eryn shouted.

I grabbed Enar’s free hand as it las...