iraewriting

AA3 61 - Fallout III

Sebastian arrived early the next morning, early enough that Verdan was sure he’d set out at the crack of dawn, perhaps even slightly beforehand.

The Fwyn and Brecan had worked hard to create a temporary camp for the Kranjir, and their efforts had been both well-received and much admired.

The single doctor trying to keep everything together had been overjoyed at the prospect of getting the injured out and away from the elements.

A sentiment shared by everyone else, especial...

AA3 60 - Fallout II

To Verdan’s surprise, it wasn’t that bad. There was some awkwardness and difficulty, but that was to be expected when Gar’Dru could only speak to Hursk.

The Chosen had been a little apprehensive at first, but Ciaran made an effort to be accommodating, and the others followed suit. In some ways, it made Verdan feel a little relieved that it was Osran who’d gone to bring Sebastian.

Of all the Chosen who’d come, Osran seemed the most closed-minded.

Talking through th...

AA3 59 - Fallout I

Verdan and Barb made their way through the Darjee settlement, picking their way around the piles of corpses that had been thrown together.

It was a gruesome affair, and though Gwen’s storm had abated, the blood and rain had worked in concert to make the base of the hill a quagmire of sucking mud.

It was only the Darjee and Thrall bodies that were left here now, and Verdan knew that parties of strong Kranjir were carrying them to be burnt, but there seemed to be no end to them. 2024-05-16 09:14:55 +0000 UTC View Post

AA3 58 - Implications

Despite every effort Verdan made, every ounce of Aether that he flung into healing spells, people died.

The Chosen had all survived, though Jarn would have died without Verdan’s aid. The Witches had come through almost entirely unscathed as well, and so had Dirk, to Verdan’s relief.

Kai had lost his arm, but Verdan had gotten there soon enough to save it. For the most part, anyway. The Sorcerer would be struggling to use it for a while, but eventually, full use would return. 2024-05-13 20:58:52 +0000 UTC View Post

AA3 57 - Aftermath

“Ast,” Verdan rasped, thumping his staff into the ground as he blocked another flurry of abyssal darts from the doomed Bonecallers.

Only two were left of the original five, and even as Verdan blocked their attacks, the stone construct he’d created impaled one of them with its stone spear before stamping on its head.

“Thanr laif,” Verdan called out, waiting just long enough for the lance of flame to drill through the Bonecaller before spitting out the bl...

AA3 56 - Atonement V (Kai)

“Get back. Get the wounded away!” Kai shouted to the Kranjir still in the fight as he clashed with the Thrall once more, hissing in pain as it slipped past his guard and sliced into his thigh.

With every moment, this fight was getting worse. He needed to find a weakness, to find some sort of advantage.

“Jarn!” A horrified shout came as Anag rushed into the centre, joined by a dozen more thearns and Hedda.

“Everyone back!” Gwen called out, stepping to the fore and...

AA3 55 - Atonement IV (Kai)

The first few Thralls to attack the two of them died to Kai’s spear, and he quickly cleared enough space for Gwen to get to work.

The Gormagyr was moving swiftly despite its wounded leg, and Kai dared not leave it to its devices, which meant that they needed to start pushing that way.

Before Kai could start, a pair of larger Thralls moved into his path. Hairless with pale skin and three arms, the Thralls had plates of metal grafted onto their chests, protecting them.

At t...

AA3 54 - Atonement III (Kai)

The Darjee were concentrated around the outskirts of the hill, meaning that every step forward that Kai and the others took drove a wedge between the Darjee to their left and to their right.

While it was possible that they could go to the top of the hill and cut across, they didn’t seem willing to do so.

Jarn, Anag and their people were fully behind the push to the top, and the momentum of the charge was dragging the rest of the Kranjir with them.

From the corner of one e...

AA3 53 - Atonement II (Kai)

The information Macha had given them on the Darjee camp was both useful and lacking at the same time.

The Witch’s crows had flown high in the sky, giving her an unparalleled view of the area, but leaving them without many specifics. She’d since sent more crows in to try and gather more information, but the Darjee seemed to have some way to detect and destroy them.

Thankfully, the crows were some sort of magical creation of hers, so there was always more ready to be sent.

AA3 52 - Atonement I (Kai)

Kai impatiently watched the Kranjir hurriedly prepare for the upcoming attack on the Darjee camp.

Logically, he knew they were moving quickly and that not much time had passed since Macha had passed on the information she’d gathered with her crows, but that didn’t matter to his heart.

He’d been ready when they sallied out, ready to hunt down the twisted giant responsible for the Thralls attacking them, but it had fled too quickly.

Kai had been so close to abandoning th...

AA3 51 - Pressure III

The Thralls continued to attack as Kai organised the strike force, dozens of them coming at a time on an irregular basis.

Verdan didn’t believe that all of them were being made there and then by the corpses being retrieved; if the Gormagyr could make these Thralls with such speed, they could conquer the world.

No, he was confident that there was a greater force hidden in the trees and that the Gormagyr were working steadily to replenish it.

This was a battle of attrition ...

April and May

Hi All,

I'm going to be going on my first true holiday for about 10 years at the end of the month, so there won't be any chapters from the 28th to the 5th. Very excited and can't wait!

I lost a full day of work last week due to a save corrupting, so knocks on wood that may be the last bad luck I have for a while when it comes to my writing.

Dungeon Noble and Imperial Wizard 3 are due to finish in the next couple of months, DN will be going straight into book 2 and s...

AA3 50 - Pressure II

Verdan watched the ball of Malfease arc through the air towards them dispassionately. It was large and impressive, yes, but there was nothing to it beyond the intent to destroy and kill.

A single spell to break its integrity would shatter the projectile, but there was too much chance of it continuing forward in smaller amounts and injuring the town’s defenders, which was where Hedda and the sisters came in.

All three Hex Witches had been waiting for this moment since Gwen starte...

AA3 49 - Pressure I

Verdan rushed through Dunkirn with his companions at his back, following the flow of thearns as they raced to the walls.

A rumbling roar that almost seemed to shake the ground came from somewhere beyond the walls, shortly followed by two or three more as they echoed the first.

Whatever had made those sounds was big, that was for sure, and Verdan was suddenly very grateful for Gwen’s presence. After all, a strong blast of lightning was an attack for which very few creatures were ...

AA3 48 - Abnormal

Dirk and Benlen set about reinforcing the nearby patches of thearns and bringing some semblance of order to the battle while Verdan turned his attention to the Bonecaller.

The Darjee spellcaster had pulled back for the moment, but Verdan was under no illusion that it would last. It did, however, give him time to recover from the frenzied rate of casting he’d put himself through and to plan how to best protect the others.

The Bonecaster seemed to be a straightforward caster from ...

AA3 47 - Abnormal II

The Thrall was barely a dozen feet from Verdan when his spell took effect, the ground before him rising up to form a gigantic hand of compressed dirt that was the same size as the Thrall itself.

Arm-sized fingers of dirt and rock wrapped around the Thrall, stopping its charge dead and locking it in place. The abyssal energy within its bone charms sizzled in contact with Verdan’s Aether, but his spell animated the dirt rather than affected the Thrall directly.

It was only a sing...

AA3 46 - Abnormal I

Verdan waited a few moments before asking Barb about the implications of what had just happened. He could already see that the thearns of the two Chosen were paying more attention to his group.

“It’s more of the same from what we discussed about Benlen,” Barb said, her voice pitched low enough not to carry. “She only spoke directly to the two Chosen and you, after all.”

“Ah,” Verdan said, restraining the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Wizard Blacke!�...

AA3 45 - Leaders

“We’re coming with you,” Gwen said, fixing Verdan with a stern look that told him the matter wasn’t up for debate. “I’ll ask Beska and Arlai to stay here and keep watch, but the other three of us are coming.”

“I will come as well,” Kai said, Dirk chiming in a moment later as well that he’d come.

Verdan couldn’t help but let a small smile slip out as they all declared how they’d be coming with him. “Well, I won’t stop you, but just ...

AA3 44 - Contact

Verdan managed to get through all of the Mhorgain thearns without too much issue. Several of the worst cases left in the same awed state as Benlen, but most of them needed less dramatic healing.

Sebastian had made all the notes he needed and had confirmed each one with the person in question, so everything was ready for when the healing process was complete. 

“So, I got a report from Padraig about earlier,” Sebastian said once the two of them were al...

Chapters and March

Hi All,

Continuing the string of bad luck i've had recently, I was woken up in the wee hours of Wednesday by my freezer beeping to tell me it had died and I was about to have a bunch of defrosting stuff on my hands. That kind of ruined yesterday for finishing chapters, so they will be up this evening instead, and hopefully *knocks on wood* that is the last thing that breaks for at least a while.

In recompense for chapter shenanigans,i'll be doing a double release for both stories ...

AA3 43 - Duty

“Took you long enough to get here. I thought I was going to have to blow my way in,” Gwen said as Verdan and Kai met up with the Witches inside the gate.

The Storm Witch was clearly still angry about being refused entry; her hair was blowing slightly in a breeze that was localised around them. It was a familiar feeling, one that took Verdan right back to life before the war.

Seeing Gwen like this just underlined how much she’d changed. It was hard to lo...

AA3 42 - Dunkirn II

A few ideas were put up for consideration, but the main concern kept coming back to the potential for small groups of Darjee to completely bypass them. While that was expected to a certain degree, they needed to avoid it as much as possible.

“A pre-emptive assault is what we need,” Jarn declared. “Our scouts can determine where one of their forward camps has been set up, and I can destroy it with my thearns. That will draw their attention to us.”

“B...

AA3 41 - Dunkirn I

The expedition arrived at Dunkirn later that day, making it to the town with just a few hours of daylight left, much to the relief of everyone involved. 

While the Kranjir seemed more than ready to take the fight to the Darjee, no one wanted to experience a night raid on their camp or an ambush while travelling.

Sadly, it wasn’t as easy as simply arriving and walking in, as the town had to find room to house them all. Currently, Verdan and his companio...

AA3 40 - Flyby

The expedition set out smoothly after breakfast, making their way down the pass between the mountains. Unlike many of the other paths they’d taken so far, this one was marked with boundary stones and well cared for.

That precaution made sense when they got partway through, and Verdan saw that the pass was not the deepest point. There were quite a few deeper areas that would be easy to fall into, as well as shadowed paths that led down out of the light that made it past the ...

Update - Weekend from Hell

Hi All,

Just to let you know, i'm posting all the chapters now, bar the 2nd dungeon noble one, which will be tomorrow. I really tried to get it done for today, but unfortunately, my laptop died yesterday and i lost a full day of work that i had to redo.

I have a replacement now but i've had to cancel a bunch of stuff just to catch up with the deadline i set

Not been a great week, but hopefully next week will be better!

Hope you enjoy what i've put together!

J

Chapter Delay

Hi All,

Sorry for the short notice on this one, having some issues I need to sort. Rather than scramble to get it out later, I'm going to post 2 chapters for both stories on Sunday.

Some big changes are going on for me at the moment, but all that will be sorted by the end of next month, and then I'm going to start trying to increase the number of chapters on the upper tiers. More on that later on in march, though.

Sorry again for the issue with this one, it'll be up on Sunda...

AA3 39 - Expedition IV

“I thought it would be best if I came to speak with you myself,” Maeve said, taking a seat on the impromptu chair that Verdan had pointed out. “I understand that my presence here might be somewhat surprising.”

“I think that is a fair assumption,” Verdan said, the corner of his mouth twisting up slightly before he frowned and leaned forward to speak more softly. “How is your mother?”

“She is in fine form, the best she’s been in months, in f...

AA3 38 - Expedition III

The expedition set off somewhat ponderously at first, but that was to be expected with so many people who weren’t used to working together.

Eventually, though, they did get moving and started heading southeast through the chain of mountains known as the Steps of Govannon.

Dunkirn lay on the far side of the Steps and was down at their southern edge, so they would make their way through a pass that lay partway in between and then cut down the far side of the ...

AA3 37 - Expedition II

Verdan put aside his musing on the origin and role of the Keepers to consider if he could replicate the effect that Benlen had described.

The closest he could come with the Words he knew was a biting cold, but that didn’t seem to be what was being described.

“I’m sorry, that’s not an effect that I can create,” Verdan said after a few moments of thought.

“Very well, then using a similar magic to Clan Thrain would be acceptable,” ...

AA3 36 - Expedition I

Benlen froze for a moment before nodding ever so slightly with a strained expression. “Thank you for your offer. I will be able to bring a dozen other thearns with me. When and where shall we meet you?”

“Come tomorrow, first thing in the morning,” Kai said, giving Benlen directions to the inn they were staying at. “We will begin training and assessing how to act then. Do you need equipment or anything in the meantime?”

Benlen frowned and straighte...