D.J. Rintoul

Re: Butterfly 3-34. Out of the Frying Pan

Adon had created his semi-humanoid form without a particular human model in mind.

He had allowed his imagination to run away with him a bit, made himself conventionally attractive, but kept some inhuman traits. He had given himself pointed ears, for instance, because he thought that was appropriate for a nonhuman in a fantastical world.

And he had the option of having or not having wings in his humanoid form.

So, when he began thinking about how best to counter an extremely ...

Re: Butterfly 3-33. In the Frying Pan

As Adon stared out into the burnt orange gloom of the third level, he took in all the details he could and continued formulating his game plan.

He could see a small oval of the space around the entrance, which appeared to come out at ground level on the new floor. At least Adon could not see any sudden drop in elevation, only a wall roughly ten feet away and the ceiling and floor in between.

Assuming that the oval in his view was representative, this level appeared much smaller in...

Re: Butterfly 3-32. So Many Cooks in the Kitchen

“I am a passionate person,” William continued. “I have no doubt you can understand that, having spent some time around me—witnessed my high spirits in the brief period of our acquaintanceship thus far. So, yes. Yes, I am s-sor-ry.” The last word came out stuttered and broken up into more syllables than felt natural, as if William was dabbling in a foreign language that he was not fluent in and did not know quite how that one was pronounced.

Adon wondered if William had ever ne...

Re: Butterfly 3-31. The Firestarter

“Same butterfly you’ve been talking to,” Adon replied, grinning, completely unperturbed by Frederick’s aggressive stance.

I can’t believe that came out so confidently!

In his own mind, he pumped his fist—though his body remained still aside from some slight trembling under the strain of holding everything together and perfectly controlling every cell.

“Right, I remember my brother had asked before if you, um, noble creature could shapeshift,” Frederi...

Re: Butterfly 3-30. Transformational Learning

The shadows partially shielded the approaching figure’s face from view, but Adon was familiar enough with his gait to recognize exactly who was walking toward them without even needing to look directly at his head.

Frederick, Adon sent. Good to see you.

It was for lack of anything else to say. He had no idea why the young lord was approaching them. Frederick’s mind was blank as to his intentions, but he did carry a satchel at his side that Adon did not recall...

Re: Butterfly 3-29. In Transition

Adon watched as the female knights carried Rosslyn further down into the tunnel.

Then he, the other arthropods, the young lords, and the rest of the knights followed after. He took one last, long look into level two, but the dust cloud that had been kicked up had still not quite settled. Nothing had moved through the air and disturbed the cloud, either. The griffins had apparently fallen back, though Adon had no direct line of sight.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting to see a...

Ruthless V5Ch32-The Spirit of a Place

After giving Luna her pep talk, James used his Fisher King powers.

His physical body was boring, so why not leave it behind for a little while? His spirit floated above the Kingdom, watching all that was done on his lands and in his name.

After a time, James was able to reflect on what he saw and decide that it was good.

The Mages under the direction of the construction head, Steve, were already working on building a great wall that would protect the core of the Fisher Kingd...

Ruthless V5Ch31-Snake Hunt

Luna blinked awake.

“Did I sleep?” she asked groggily.

Her eyes focused on the two figures who stood over her, Dave and one of the Healers.

“You did,” the Healer replied. “But only for a little while.”

“You resisted completely until the battle was over,” Dave added.

Luna quickly lifted her left and right heads and swiveled them to scan the environment. She verified that no enemies were present, only her wolfpack and a handful of human guards.

Ruthless V5Ch30-Go It Alone

The morning light that fell across James and Mina’s bare skin woke him.

He could feel his body absorbing solar energy and using that to boost his recovery speed, even if ever so slightly.

Experimentally, he sent an order to his lower extremities.

Wiggle, big toe… Come on…

After a second, he perceived a twitch. Then a slightly stronger one. The movements were small and extremely weak, but a key stage of his recovery had clearly begun.

A slow smile s...

Ruthless V5Ch29-War for the Land of Rattlesnakes Conclusion

Luna closed the gap almost instantaneously, but she had time to send a telepathic message to her pack.

Do not engage unless attacked by the enemy army, she sent. Remember that we are here for a stalling operation.

What are you doing, then? questioned one of the young wolves.

This is different, Luna thought but did not send. This is personal.

She ignored the chatter of the wolfpack via telepathy from then on, as the dist...

Ruthless V5Ch28-War for the Land of Rattlesnakes Part 4

Part of the plan was that only the wolves would enter the Ruler’s territory at first.

This would force the Ruler to consider the situation carefully while conserving resources. If the hydra focused too much on trying to kill off the wolfpack, she might deplete too much power that would be needed to defeat the larger army on her border.

Sure enough, although Luna raced forward with her central nose uncovered by the small gas masks she and her allies had been given, using her sens...

Ruthless V5Ch27-War for the Land of Rattlesnakes Part 3

The healing process for Romulus took hours.

The Healers tried healing magic and Purification at first, but his body seemed resistant to healing. They slowed down after half an hour of that seemed to have produced little change in his condition. An examination showed that some of his flesh was simply dead, and his heartbeat remained ragged and weak, his body unable to properly recover with what was effectively rotting meat attached to it. Then they had to cut away the dead flesh before t...

Re: Butterfly 3-28. The First Collapse

Through the blinding light, Adon could see nothing.

There was a cataclysmic sound accompanying the ray, however, and that told him more. The sound was one of stone crumbling and falling.

Adon reached out with Telepathy and inhabited the visual frame of the closest person to him—Rosslyn. After so much experience using Telepathy, the effort to gather more information from another’s mind was almost a reflex to him. The effect was as though he had suddenly possessed her body. ...

Ruthless V5Ch26-War for the Land of Rattlesnakes Part 2

Luna raced.

Her body was flooded with adrenaline, and every nerve vibrated with tension. This was what she was made for. Running through the open ground, her pack at her back, her mate beside her.

One of Luna’s heads turned to look at Romulus—and caught him doing the same back to her in turn. They exchanged toothy grins, then both turned to face forward once more. Despite running around the perimeter of the enemy’s territory, each knew that the situation they were in was dan...

Re: Butterfly 3-27. The Level Two Exit

After the knights had healed their most pressing wounds—including one older knight very appreciative of having been graced by the mystic butterfly—they climbed down the cliffside. The pace was not leisurely—everyone was far too aware of the absent monsters and the danger of flooding for that—but it was more relaxed than it would have been if they were being harassed by monsters the whole way down.

The rest of the descent down the cliff face was much less eventful than the start ...

Re: Butterfly 3-26. Success?

Those things are quick, Adon thought as the strix skated by Rosslyn, slashing at her with its claws.

When she spun and kicked the bird before Adon could ready his mana ball to fire, he decided that he needed to get off of her and take advantage of being airborne. This fight was happening on his turf, in a sense. He had wings, just like the monsters. And he needed to use them to take his proper place in this fight.

Adon flapped once and took off from Rosslyn’s shoulder, ...

Re: Butterfly 3-25. First Blood

“Well done, Adon,” Rosslyn said.

In her mind, she added, I should have known you were busy conducting interspecies diplomacy again.

He had been gone so long in the second level that William had broached the idea the butterfly might have been killed or captured—an idea that Rosslyn had rejected, naturally.

“If it works,” William added, frowning and raising an eyebrow.

“It could reduce our bloody work for this floor by quite a lot,” Frederick said,...

Ruthless V5Ch25-War for the Land of Rattlesnakes Part 1

After the presence of the King had dissipated, the war between the Royal Fisher Army and the reptiles began in earnest.

“All humans into spear formation!” Dave ordered. “Goblins and scouts, hang back behind the tip of the spear. Wolf pack, protect the flanks!”

No one argued with him. Despite the fact that they had all seen the freakish reptiles that they would be fighting, there were no naysayers in this large mass of people. The thousands of troops Dave had with him simpl...

Re: Butterfly 3-24. Alliance

Adon recalled his own experiences as a monster in a previous incarnation.

He had been concerned with survival things, too, though he’d had no young, since that was another forever alone incarnation. But he had not had any particular enmity for humans or other sentient races. He had eaten other monsters to survive—just like these griffins and even the rather crueler strixes. Whereas he had only gone and attacked that village of horned humanoids because he had received s...

Re: Butterfly 3-23. The Flood

As water gushed forth from the waterfall, Adon looked, fascinated, back and forth between the source of the flow, at ceiling height, and the ground level, where the overflow was flooding the canyon.

There were so many questions running through his mind at this sudden turn of events.

Is this something that happens periodically in level two, or is it something that the dungeon triggered just now? Something that our side triggered? If it happens periodically, how is...