Anyone having problems accessing chapters, please contact Patreon support. I've reached out to them and they gave me the super-helpful response of "for us to confirm that it's an issue on our end, we need to confirm it."
They suggested that anyone with this issue reach out so they can troubleshoot the issue and hopefully stop this from happening to anyone else. Well, they said troubleshoot. The 'hope this stops being an issue' part was me.
2023-02-03 10:11:36 +0000 UTC
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Sophie, Jason and Melody were in a blank room in Emir’s cloud palace. Carlos, Arabelle and Emir were watching through a wall only transparent from the outside. Even knowing that her mother was more unstable than ever, Sophie was astounded at how quickly Jason sent Melody into a frenzy. She had already attacked them once, Sophie deflecting her strikes harmlessly. Melody eventually calmed a little and went back to verbal assaults.
“It’s not going to work,” Jason told Sophie as he ...
2023-02-01 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Jason rejoined the team as they were passing by a worship square. The temples surrounding it were in better condition than most of the city's buildings, but not through any respect for the gods. The messengers had no compunction about defiling temples but their objective had been mass casualties by breaching the bunkers shielding the city populace. The bunkers were not situated near the worship squares, leaving them relatively intact, although no part of the city had gone entirely unscathed.<...
2023-01-30 22:40:01 +0000 UTC
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Bellory watched as the plant essence user restored the old tree that had once formed the bones of her tavern. She could rebuild it but it wouldn’t be the same, especially not with the directions from the city officials. It would be bigger than ever, much bigger, spreading across multiple trees. A large establishment for lots of people; part of the morale-building exercises for which the entertainment district had been tapped. A large-scale cafeteria through the day and a place they could fo...
2023-01-30 22:30:01 +0000 UTC
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They were seated on benches in a corner of a crowded city square, a sea of people flowing from building to building and street to street. The temples were abustle, Jason recognising the closest as churches for Trader and Healer. The buildings had the symbols of their gods emblazoned on the walls in place of signs.
“Jason,” Humphrey directed in his team leader voice. “You’ve worked with the recovery effort admin more than the rest of us because they used your cloud palace so much...
2023-01-30 22:20:01 +0000 UTC
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Comparing vehicles from Earth versus those from Pallimustus, each had its advantages. Magical vehicles could accomplish things that nothing from Earth could match, especially at the high end. No rock star's private jet or presidential aeroplane could compare to what the cloud flasks like Emir's and Jason's could do. There was also the issue of fuel, with spirit coins being far superior to anything Earth had regular access to, be it fossil fuels or renewable energy.
Earth vehicles, by co...
2023-01-30 22:10:01 +0000 UTC
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Jason couldn’t see an undamaged building in the village, but at least the damage was minor. They had suffered an unusual sequence of attacks, starting with hundreds of lesser monsters that the locals had fought off themselves with shovels, pitchforks and even the occasional weapon. Days later, bronze-rank adventurers fought off a second wave of creatures, this time hopping creatures akin to a lizard version of a wallaby.
Jason and his expansive aura senses had detected the third wave ...
2023-01-30 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Okay, so first thing, the "chapter" that went out today was my assistant not having done any scheduling in two months. It was an empty chapter with only a title.
Second, if anyone is looking for some behind-the-scenes content of the audiobooks, Heath Miller puts up recording sessions on his discord. He might use some rude words.
Finally, the chapters. The first one for the year goes up in less than hour of this post. Just a reminder, the new schedule is Mon-Wed-Fri until I decid...
2023-01-30 21:20:12 +0000 UTC
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Firstly, I didn't pick the name. It's me and two other blokes.
There will be a live event on the discord (Q&A event channel) where our superb audio narrator Heath Miller will be in discussion with two authors whose work he narrates. Me, obviously; it would be weird to host it on my discord and not have me show up. The other author will be Marc Mulero, whose *Shields of Strathmar* series is also narrated by Heath.
The event will be at 8pm US Eastern (noon Australian Eastern ti...
2022-12-13 00:52:04 +0000 UTC
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Here is what we have of book 10 thus far.
2022-11-29 22:30:55 +0000 UTC
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I know that the chapters pausing for a good long while is not what everybody wants, which puts me in bit of an odd position. For all of you, the story has gone on hiatus, but for me, I've gone on holiday, which means that while you might find yourselves a little sad, I find myself quite happy.
For those of you coming to the game night, I look forward to meeting you all next week.
Just a quick reminder of the hiatus details:
- Chapters will resume in February.
<...
2022-11-29 22:30:08 +0000 UTC
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The giant, fleshy mass splashed into the roiling red pool at the bottom of the shaft. Jason winced at the sound which, even through the echo effect of the shaft, reminded him of messing up a dive and doing a painful belly flop.
“That was a weird sound,” Sophie said.
“Yep,” Jason agreed.
“It sounded exactly like when you hit a very fat man with a very large fish.”
Jason, Humphrey and Clive all turned to look at her.
“What?” she asked defensively. ...
2022-11-29 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Sophie and Humphrey made their way through the building affixed to the side of a cliff, arriving at a window wall with a gorgeous view of the rainforest below, stretching out to the distant coast. In front of the window was a huge mound of blankets. Humphrey yanked off the blankets one by one and tossed them aside as he dug his way through the pile. Finally, he revealed a dragon with rainbow-coloured iridescent scales. It was the size of a large dog and was asleep, hugging a full-sized plush ...
2022-11-28 22:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the lack of notice due to me being too tired to organise things properly. The book 8 chapters will be coming down this week in preparation for the book release on the 13th of December.
Remember to grab the PDF if you want it; I've attached it here so you don't need to hunt it up.
2022-11-28 05:54:54 +0000 UTC
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In a ghost town largely reclaimed by jungle, Jason and Allayeth watched Raelia open a portal and leave through it.
“She held up well,” Jason observed.
“She did,” Allayeth said. “It didn’t show in her body language at all. Do you think she was more scared of me or you?”
“I’m hoping you.”
Jason smiled but his expression was resigned.
“It's funny,” he said, his tone suggesting that it wasn't. “I used to work so hard to be scary. I don't do ...
2022-11-25 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Jason’s team had been expecting the emergence of elemental-infused messengers to accelerate the plans of Jes Fin Kaal. Instead, they heard nothing as they continued taking and fulfilling contracts, Shade picking up new ones as he delivered their reports. For the first time in a long time, the team were all together for some ordinary everyday adventuring.
Jason’s time on Earth, fighting in monster-filled proto-spaces and later, full-blown monster waves, had allowed him to reach the w...
2022-11-24 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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On the balcony of Jason’s treehouse, Vidal Ladiv was looking warily at the spherical device at the end of the pole he was holding.
“What exactly is this thing?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Travis said distractedly as he rummaged through a large box, absently tossing out crystals. “Just don’t let it get too close to you. I’ve almost certainly resolved the organic proximity combustion issue, but better safe than sorry.”
“What?”
Before Vidal ...
2022-11-23 22:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Allayeth went through the portal arch, leaving Jason’s soul realm. Jason and his companions all looked at one another.
“Do you think she bought it?” Belinda asked.
“Bought what?” Humphrey asked.
Sophie patted him on the arm.
“Don’t worry about it,” she told him.
“Don’t worry about what?”
“Belinda’s question,” Rufus said, “related to our ‘plucky group of adventurers caught up in something crazy’ routine. Essentially, whether...
2022-11-22 22:00:05 +0000 UTC
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There are a lot of details to get through with this post, so I'll try to be concise. My more typical ramblings can be found at the end.
Hiatus Period: December & January.
- Last chapter for 2022: November 30th, Australian time.
- First chapter for 2023: January 31st, Australian time.
Existing patrons will not be charged during the hiatus. The information I have from Patreon is that...
2022-11-21 22:05:01 +0000 UTC
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“We need to talk with my team,” Jason said to Allayeth. They were walking through an underground cavern lit by glowing fungus too bright and too convenient to be natural phosphorescence.
“Do they comprehend the magnitude of what this place means? Of what you are?”
“Their frame of reference is perhaps limited, for some of them. My mate Clive, maybe, and my friends that are priests probably understand the scope. Not many people have pushed their souls up against the will o...
2022-11-21 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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As Jason and Allayeth continued to meander through his garden estate, Allayeth had the chance to see much more of it. In the manicured gardens that didn’t tower over them, she could see the looming pagoda at the centre of the estate. A network of small creeks flowed through everything, notable for the fact that they weren’t filled with water but with unadulterated mana drawn from the astral.
“Have you considered opening a spirit coin farm here?” she asked.
“I have it on ...
2022-11-18 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Jason and Allayeth continued to meander through the garden of Jason’s spiritual estate.
“This realm is in a constant state of change,” Jason explained. “At first, it was a metaphor. A mindscape I could enter while meditating. I found it after my first direct encounter with the Builder — I’m assuming you’ve read my Adventure Society records.”
“Yes, although they left me with more questions than answers.”
“Perhaps you’ll get some of them. Some day. As I...
2022-11-17 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Jason’s team were preparing to leave his soul realm when Jason went dead still.
“Jason?” Gary asked, prompting everyone else to look at him.
“What’s wrong?” Humphrey asked.
“Allayeth has been staring at the portal the whole time we’ve been in here. She just got up and walked through it.”
The group all looked at the nearby portal arch.
“I opened another portal in the gardens,” Jason said. “Stay here.”
“Would you like us to…” H...
2022-11-16 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Jason and his companions were sitting at a large round table, nibbling at refreshments.
“There’s no escaping the fact that Clive’s actions will cause us trouble,” Humphrey said. “That being said, we are under no obligation to hand over the fruits of our labour to the Adventure Society just because they assume they can take them. But it does complicate our interactions with them when we’re meant to be part of a major expedition soon. One with significant political ramificatio...
2022-11-15 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Jason and his team were not the only ones to capture some of the elemental messengers, although they were the ones to catch the most. Clive and Farrah's ritual cages were able to contain almost fifty of them, although the constructs would not last forever. The Adventure Society was sending containment vehicles in their direction, but in the meantime, all of the prisoners were being watched.
The cloud that had been choking the sky was now gone. The diamond-ranker, Charist, had created an...
2022-11-14 22:00:07 +0000 UTC
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TL;DR: I'm deciding between more, longer hiatuses or reducing the chapter release schedule to 3-per-week and coming back in January instead of February.
In my lengthy post where I announced I was taking December and January off, a big part of the response was that I should consider reducing the release schedule. This is something that I've been resistant to, but one thing that has been pointed out is that because I have such a hectic schedule I've been burning out ...
2022-11-14 00:05:20 +0000 UTC
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The mushroom cloud of dust and ash covered a huge area, and all around it, teams of adventurers were clashing with the messengers altered by elemental power. One of the first things Jason had done on coming into contact with one was to touch his hand to it briefly.
-------
Converted Messenger (ash, silver rank)
- Messenger abilities suppressed.
- Able to conjure ash bombs.
----...
2022-11-11 22:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Summoned familiars occupied parts of their summoner when not manifested. Colin occupied Jason’s blood, Shade his shadow and Gordon his aura. Clive’s familiar, Onslow, became a magical tattoo on Clive’s abdomen that he could tap into for elemental power.
Clive, like Jason, favoured practical combat robes, with his lighter colour preferences that made him a Jedi to Jason’s Sith. Onslow’s tattoo lit up, visible through the robes, transforming into energy that passed harmlessly th...
2022-11-10 22:00:05 +0000 UTC
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In a section of rainforest characterised by tall but intermittent trees rising above the canopy, Jason’s cloud palace had taken the form of treehouses connected by rope bridges. The balcony of the largest treehouse has a sequence of hammocks hanging out over the jungle canopy below and most of the team were laying back, lazing and napping in the mid-morning sun. The missing members were Clive, Rufus, Sophie and Humphrey.
“Are they ever going to come out?” Taika asked, laying back ...
2022-11-09 22:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Like Jason, Emir had reclaimed his cloud palace as new buildings were swiftly fabricated in their place. As the area once used to hold visiting adventurer vehicles was being reclaimed by the city as they expanded their refugee and rehousing infrastructure, Emir had joined other adventurers in settling his vehicle outside the city walls. He chose a spot to the south not far from where the river emerged from the city, far enough from anything else that he could let it sprawl. The cloud palace t...
2022-11-08 22:00:05 +0000 UTC
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