Up on the upper-floor walkways overlooking the great hall, members of Hulson-affiliated non-ranking families had gathered, bearing in hand bows, crossbows, slings, guns, wands and staves, chief among them the Heiasons, their stripe-scarred skins pointing them out among all others. Each and every Heiason wielded a magical staff of some kind, some of their heads shaped into halberd-like axe heads, while others had spear-blades on their bottom ends, much like Victor’s staff.
The Hulson d...
2023-02-25 20:56:20 +0000 UTC
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“Fryg!” Jorfr called out, himself having only just snapped out of the revelation. Even as he spoke his mind dwelt upon Hul, but he managed to focus on the task at hand: “There’s a chance, a hair-thin chance, that Eisengeist might be halted, but your aid is needed. Yours and Yvonne’s, both.”
“What do you mean to do?!”
“You have seen what Zefaris can do. Aid her and the Lady in Red in forming their Black Rod. It’s as good a chance as any other. What else do you s...
2023-02-24 23:27:12 +0000 UTC
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“Supremacist fly-men in skinsuit disguises, huh? Can’t help but think of all those baneworm Body Theft bounties down at the Grafting Church,” Krahe said, trying to get him to speak more on these “baneworms”.
He grabbed her bait hook line and sinker: “Oh yeah no, don’t get me wrong. I hate Vedesians much as the next guy, but it’s those bodysnatchin’ cunts makin’ it hard to make end’s meet for small folk like me. Swear to Zavesh, those cunts been the bane of all good...
2023-02-24 04:06:40 +0000 UTC
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Last of his tribe, whose murder he had sought to avenge. It had been in pursuit of that very vengeance that he had become the Revenant King’s mightiest shield-brother.
Across the city, Teutobochus waged mighty battle against the raging sapdragon, the titan’s armor all but destroyed and its left arm shredded down to half of its original thickness, its skeletal shape still wrapped in muscle and a thin layer of construct-skin. Even with Red’s vast arcane powers, the dragon’s will t...
2023-02-23 20:56:14 +0000 UTC
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Cackling to himself, his teeth clanging against themselves, Ismar kicked his father’s now-lifeless body to the ground, remarking: “What a shame that those who would’ve given the wrong account fell in the initial assault.”
“All this for… What, Rikke? Is that it?!” Gunnar barked, knowing full well this had nothing to do with Rikke’s changing of clans beyond the event’s use as an excuse. He was truly trying to get information out of Ismar, and Ismar, overly ambitious idio...
2023-02-22 23:36:50 +0000 UTC
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Only moments after they had opened the memory-sarcophagus, Zel received Zef’s message of warning and relayed it to the Revenant King.
The old King raised his left hand, snapping his fingers, which resounded like the crack of thunder.
Northlight raced across the night sky from his keep’s highest spire, banishing the stars. Its glow reached the furthest borders of Borea and beyond; all the Revenant King’s demesne was bathed in twilight, even the lands which were merely inhabit...
2023-02-21 21:49:39 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Next chapter Tuesday, 21st Feb.
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“Elder Kyriak’s contingent is currently fleeing south-eastward. Minimal life signs detected in the immediate area.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
Victor impelled Teutobochus into a simple, yet efficient attack; a jumping axe kick. Spinning through the air, he landed the entirety of Teutobochus’ great mass on ...
2023-02-20 05:47:49 +0000 UTC
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Each step forward conjured forth a new wave of eldritch terrors, an army’s worth of bloodborne beasts, and still undaunted the Revenant King pushed on.
With each step forward, more of the stain melted beneath their feet, until Zelsys was wading in blood up to her knees. The next moment, she found herself lifted up by a block of blood-ice, a layer of newly-formed blood-glacierglass now spreading out from the Revenant King’s footfalls.
Whence at last they reached the monument, f...
2023-02-19 02:05:09 +0000 UTC
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“Fire! Fire! The longhouse has been set ablaze!” panicked one of the branch-family guards.
Fryg silenced him, unconcerned: “Quiet down, we know. It’s just a little curseflame, this longhouse has withstood worse. It’ll die out ere it can cause any serious damage, the true purpose is to choke us out. Take everyone not suited to battle and get everything flammable down to the basement in the meanwhile.”
“I- Yes.”
Meanwhile, just outside the longhouse’s window,...
2023-02-18 04:15:47 +0000 UTC
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From the point where Eisengeist’s maddened fury clashed with Oasis City’s barrier, Teutobochus was a substantial distance removed.
An aetherwave message from Zefaris clued Victor in on the chaos taking place well before he would’ve found out on his own.
He bid the titan rise and pass through the barrier, guiding it along the shortest viable path in a full sprint: The Boiling Lake’s coast. Sprinting across the tightrope between crushing houses or falling into the lake’s a...
2023-02-16 21:30:21 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Fleshed out chapter in general a bit.
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“Well, that would qualify you as a G3 or perhaps F1, making you an Exterminator. Just a step below a proper Contractor, quite good to start with. I can either print you a basic CQF ID or file a paper record in our archive with your description.”
“Is it a self-contained item, or is there an archive of IDs somewhere?”
“We don’t archive CQF IDs, and t...
2023-02-16 02:08:59 +0000 UTC
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Ingvald’s near-instant arrival sowed the seed of rumor; that the Forgehand had contrived some arcane means by which to awake the titan solely to obtain the Fallen Star it had been guarding. With his pre-existing reputation as kindling, the rumor spread like a wildfire. He arrived on a sled. Not one pulled by bears, but by wooly, tusked titans, each the size of a small house. Mammoths. The sled, too, was similarly titanic in size, full-metal and built to carry the carcasses of giant monsters...
2023-02-15 19:16:18 +0000 UTC
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Intending to leave soon, she took a few more minutes to look over the rings and coins she’d gotten off the deadman.
Both were money, at least she gathered as much from the Rings having the same type of readout as the coins.
[JAS'RABAN BRASS COIN]
[Status:]
Good (Ancient)
[DD Value:]
4500
[New Calbium Ring]
[Status:]
Good
...
2023-02-14 21:40:11 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Chapter 180 on Wednesday, Feb. 15th
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“Oh, cease your tantrum. Just a Dragon-serpent Tree Sapling, give it a century before Ikesia has a new landmark and easier access to scalebark… Eh, maybe thirty years if the Smoke Witch hasn’t lost her touch. Freakishly good with plants considering her abilities, that one… She all but jumped at the opportunity to assuage one of the many sin...
2023-02-12 21:40:41 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Chapter 180 on Wednesday, Feb. 15th
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Without a shadow of a doubt, he could surely elucidate things to a greater degree than incomplete historical records and folk legends. She managed to wrestle her own curiosity down to just one more question.
“One more question, then, before we turn to the depressing matter of politics. Tell me about the kalpas of the world, how many there have ...
2023-02-12 21:39:12 +0000 UTC
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The second pertained to [Thaumaturgies], mainly focusing on the idea that the Voidkey being implanted would most likely catalyze the formation of a rudimentary offensive Thaumaturgy best suited to the user. It stated that if they still lacked one even after implantation, they would be given a “Blasting Ring” as a substitute.
At last, the third remaining section… Was about magical defenses.
“Another vital function of the Voidkey is allowing you to raise an effective Bar...
2023-02-12 02:24:16 +0000 UTC
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Far, far at the back, once the entrance had long vanished from view, she glimpsed another door. Before it stood one final statue, ten meters tall upon its pedestal. It was vaguely humanoid and grasped a long object that could have been a spear as easily as a staff or sword. It bore a strange resemblance to the statues of the Nameless Clan that Jorfr had shown her.
She circled it, approaching the door before which it stood, knowing that beyond it waited the Revenant King’s throne chamb...
2023-02-11 20:25:03 +0000 UTC
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It hadn’t been like that lower-down; it was stone-hard ice, even glacierglass at points, but not like this. This crystal-clear form of glacierglass resisted even masterworks like Ingvald’s picks.
Extending her left-hand Thundergod, Zel spun it up and slung the pick outward and up in the hopes that it would hook into the out-of-sight cliff-face beyond the overhang. It returned, giving no hope. Another attempt. Again. And again. And again.
Finally, on the sixth attempt, it stuck...
2023-02-10 00:26:29 +0000 UTC
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Meanwhile, Teutobochus simply stomped where it stood with all its weight. A second stomp sent cracks spidering out across the crater, but didn’t do much else.
“We’ll need something more than Teutobochus’ limbs to dig it out.”
“The Inverse Array.”
“The Inverse Array.”
“Low-output. Continuous operation.”
“Cut the glacierglass into smaller pieces and throw them out of t...
2023-02-08 21:18:20 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Next chapter on Wednesday, February 8th. Need to do some editing.
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The rings’ clatter at last ceased and a hair-thin beam erupted out from the Oculus’ eye, pure intent carried on a stream of flame straight into the void of the titan’s eye socket.
Teutobochus walked out of the crater and knelt down before him, the ground shaking beneath its weight. Victor could finally make out...
2023-02-06 22:13:10 +0000 UTC
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She took the “eyebox” in hand, fiddling with it for a moment before she got the grey gem to pop out. Slotting in one of the others and pressing the Play button made a simple, but easily readable projection pop out of the lens. It was a block of text; a croaking, authoritative voice spoke the words from an unseen speaker, enunciating as if he were explaining to a brain-damaged inbred.
“...You will work in sections of Jas’raba where you will encounter frequent Anathema hazards...
2023-02-06 17:40:00 +0000 UTC
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Fryg, as before, seethed right back: “Yes, I do dare, you jumped-up cunt. Do you just want me to turn you to an ice pillar right here and now, is that it? Or will you scurry back to your tasteless pseudo-Ankhezian horror show of a longhouse with your tail between your legs?”
Fryg smirked when Kristina turned on a boot-heel, scoffing and flicking out her fan as she walked away. She waited for a second, then called out.
“...And take care that your branch famil...
2023-02-05 23:54:03 +0000 UTC
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Not being the type of person to just jam a random object into her own head for no reason, she stored away the trinkets in her Kenoma Pocket and gave the corpse another once-over. In his back pocket, she found three large brass coins and a string with several copper rings.
As far as she could tell the dead man had nothing more on him; she made her way to the lift, testing it and looking it over as if it could crash down at any moment before she committed to entering its cabin. She didn...
2023-02-05 12:18:46 +0000 UTC
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Zel smiled at him.
“How’s this? You get to swing away at me for a full minute, and I won’t retaliate. If you don’t manage to even touch me in that minute, I get to take a swing at you - just one, and I’ll even let you try to dodge. If you still feel like trying afterwards, I’ll give you another minute.”
A short time later, Zel called the nearest druid over to deal with the unconscious man. His jaw was broken in three places; it was as if he had been smashed in the si...
2023-02-04 19:53:02 +0000 UTC
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Even outside the systematized consequences of such a vast ranking difference, the “soft” social ramifications would be extreme for both sides.
Oddvar Stag, highest-ranked druid among those presiding over Ginnungagap, let out a long sigh as he went about his business. Working to protect the Honor System was his chosen task in life, that was true, but he was nevertheless a man.
“Direct the traffic flow to the Soland and Mathre clans’ districts. Station additional guards, ens...
2023-02-03 17:55:17 +0000 UTC
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Jorfr took up Zelsys’ stance; left foot forward, right foot back. Pale-white ice enveloped his arm up to the shoulder as the Iceberg Breaker spun up and took physical form once more. A pivot on the heel, harnessing every last muscle in his body for this single strike. His replica of Runar’s hammer would be a falling star, his arm its flaming tail.
METEORITE SIGN
FALLING SKY, RISING GLACIER
SAGABORNE ARTS: FALLINGSTAR IMPACT...
2023-02-02 18:49:04 +0000 UTC
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Zelsys couldn’t have been more proud of how much Jorfr’s tactical sense had improved since she’d met him. Svend could clearly outpace him in hand-to-hand, there was no question about that, so Jorfr just didn’t fight him in hand-to-hand. He not only took steps to nullify the invisibility advantage, but even prepped the battleground to give himself an advantage if Svend did get into melee range.
She sat stone-still in her seat, grinning ear-to-ear, attention compl...
2023-01-31 20:50:10 +0000 UTC
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She took a few moments to reload her gun, stowing the empty clip and shell casings in the Kenoma Pocket, conjuring the knife into her hand before she closed it… At least she tried to. It slipped out of her hand and clattered to the ground, eliciting an annoyed groan as she picked it up. The blade found its way into the heads and between the tendons of each mutant she’d put down, just to make absolutely sure they were dead and couldn’t get up even if they somehow survived an impromptu tr...
2023-01-31 04:37:28 +0000 UTC
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A simple headbutt sent Svend’s head careening off his shoulders, but his body kept moving. With an upward swipe of his arm, Jorfr severed both his right arms, and with a diagonal downward one he split his torso from the right clavicle to the left hip. Despite the apparent presence of internal organs, the body was flimsy. It was fake. The impact of its tail - or rather, the lack of impact - confirmed it… And the trail of footsteps it had left behind in Jorfr’s permafrost wasn’t the onl...
2023-01-30 15:53:26 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Next chapter on Monday, Jan. 30th.
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The question of where Svend was getting the Metallum to grow these naturally bony blades as faux-cold-iron from the get-go only momentarily crossed Jorfr’s mind before being swept away by the flood of shamanistic invocations which occupied the center of his attention. It was entirely possible that Svend had a Core of Earthly Iron, or he was just that much mor...
2023-01-28 20:21:46 +0000 UTC
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