M.J. Markgraf

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 61

Norman popped out of the teleporter near the ooraki village with Grobert and Noorani beside him. Eugene had elected to remain behind to defend the city if need be. Not that the other greykin likely needed defending. The gron were more than capable of defending themselves with just their basic strength which was nearly three times that of a normal human. And that was before you factored in any callings they might have.

As it turns out, the undead retained all of their skills and memories...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 60

ooraki = oo-rock-e

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After cleaning up most of the mess left behind by the unknown attackers, Norman really had nothing to do but sit and stew. Nobody he had asked knew who these purple-skinned humans were, let alone where they came from.

Although Norman could make a guess based on what he knew about the zone. North was Grothlosburg so that was out, the Gron wouldn’t tolerate people like that in their city. With the fog lands portion of the deadlands wrapping aro...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 59

Seven men dismounted their horses, tying them up in a small grove of trees beyond the view of the small village in the gentle valley below. More men would have been preferred for this mission but their order was only now beginning to recover after so many hundreds of years of stagnating.

It meant they couldn’t just ride into the village killing as they went, they needed to remain unseen until it was too late for the villagers to stop them. Their sole task was to cleanse the land of th...

The day has finally arrived!

New cover art is done, let me know what you think.

Billing changes

I have switched to the subscription billing instead of the first of the month billing. If you are already paid up, nothing changes unless you unsub and resub.

What does this mean for new members? It means if you subscribe in the middle of the month, you have until that date the next month before you are charged again instead of being charged on the 1st which was unfair for those that missed that date.

Sneak peek at the cover art.

This is still an WIP sketch. And no, I didn't draw it, I wish I was that talented.

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 2

Norman slicked back his unruly shoulder-length hair, catching a glimpse of the original brown color above the fading black dye. He sighed, hair dye wasn’t exactly a high-priority item when it took everything he earned just to make ends meet. He breathed into his hand, trying to see if his breath stunk, and winced.

He shouldn’t have eaten that garlic bread for lunch.

Setting down the brain-filled cooler, he dug around in his loose short pockets. He was glad to finally be out of...

Norman the Necromancer Chapter 1

Norman let out a loud yawn, rubbing his tired eyes before slapping the wet mop down on the floor to continue mopping the already spotless hallway.

His boss had called him the night before and told him to be here bright and early. Norman was annoyed at having to be up so early but he needed the money. If it wasn’t for bills, he would have told his boss to shove this where the sun doesn’t shine. Or at least that’s what he dreamed about doing. He wouldn’t actually do that, he reall...

Upcoming News!

Nope, I'm not dead and I haven't fallen off the edge of the world. I wanted to have content ready for September first... but getting back into the swing of writing was more of a challenge than I thought. So I decided not to charge for September but I will be releasing new content in the next few weeks.

First of all, I would like to thank those that stuck around. 

If you were a fan of Kingdom of Rust, I'm going to have to disappoint you. I will not be continuing that story. I ...

Summer Break

Not something I wanted to do but I have decided I am going to be taking the summer off from writing. My normal work stress has got me not wanting to write and the uptake of the story has been pretty lackluster which hasn't helped matters much. 

I have turned off billing for June so if you stick around you won't be charged. I will do that for July and August as well. If you leave and come back though, Patreon will charge you, I can't change that unless I turn off my tiers and I don'...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 40

The trip was rather uneventful until we started getting closer to the northern territories. It started slow, with a few people here and there, looking down on their luck. They didn’t even spare us a glance as they walked past, pulling carts piled with items. The people looked defeated.

Eventually, that trickle of humanity turned into a steady stream of wagons or just people on foot, heading where I wasn’t sure.

Thea managed to stop one of the carts. “What's going on?” she ...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 39

“You ready?” Master Thea asked as she stood in the doorway to my room.

“Almost,” I sighed. I was stuffing the last of my gear in my bag, the same bag that I had gotten from my father and that survived the rigors of the ancestral city. It had a few more scratches from those adventures but it was still intact.

“Why such a sad face? You couldn’t ask for a better traveling companion.”

I stopped and looked up from my packing. She had a wide grin on her face and I ga...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 38

Clack! Clack! Clack!

“Good job, Laris,” I said as I ducked his next strike. “You’ve improved quite a bit these last few months.”

“Still not enough,” he panted, “I still can’t hit you.”

I laughed, “well, that’s because I improved as well.”

It was true, the flighty man that he had been when I first came to the tower was gone. He had driven himself to improve after losing Matteos in that horrible mission to stop the Father-tainted monsters from s...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 37

And we're back!!! I just wanted to thank you all for your patience while I rested and recuperated from the writathon. It was needed. But now we are back to our weekly double posts. Hope you enjoy.

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Getting out and enjoying the festivities had been just the thing everyone needed to relax and put the past few weeks behind us. The smiles on everyone's faces as we walked back home said more than any words could.

I spent the next day stu...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 36

We were allowed a week to rest and recuperate after returning to the tower.

Nobody had attacked the estate in our absence, although, I heard the maids whispering about people seen watching the house. Anyone foolish enough to attack the residence of the Chosen deserved what they got but it just added to the fact that there were not enough Chosen to go around.

After spending the week coming to grips with everything that happened, the funeral for Matteos was held in the courtyard. I ...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 35

What greeted us was a group of humans, they appeared from down the street after only a few short minutes. But they didn’t rush us. Their dead red eyes stared at us, the group slowly splitting down the middle as a small figure of a cat made its way through to the front.

Instantly I tensed as I saw the unmistakable green growth on the creature's back, it was the source. A fucking cat had caused all of this death and destruction. But it wasn’t sprinting at us mindlessly. Its eyes flick...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 34

We only rode for another hour, encountering multiple groups of corrupted monsters and even one man that was jerking around and mumbling to himself. I recognized the signs of the madness, it seemed like this man had been exposed days ago.

Animals didn’t seem to resist the Father’s taint like humans could. There was no sign of them being addled or acting out of sorts, they were either just normal creatures or tainted. Thankfully the tainted ones we're drawn to human activity like moth...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 33

Holton was shameless as he sidled his horse next to mine as we rode toward the east.

“So, out and about again. Missed the action didn’t you,” he chuckled. “I wonder just how far you’ve taken your gift since last we met. Gravity was it?” he asked.

I didn’t answer, ignoring the man’s probing questions.

“No, not gravity,” he said, rubbing his chin in thought as he ignored my silence. “Oh, maybe the twins got ya, nothing like a threesome,” he burst out in...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 32

My thoughts were proven correct less than an hour later.

The servants were tasked to gather everyone in the house. Which consisted of only Master Estos, Master Thea, Master Mgumba, and the initiates.

“I would have hoped we had more masters around but we cannot wait,” Master Mgumba spoke with authority. “In normal times, we would not involve you initiates but we received a dire report from the north.”

That got mutters of concern from the initiates before Master Mgumba...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 31

Not much changed over the intervening weeks since I had come to the tower. Once a week, I would spend a day in the tower meditating. With not much luck I might add. At least that little flame of energy that powered my gift had returned after four days. It was still a small flickering candle of a feeling but it was there. With its return, I had hoped to feel something of my surroundings that might point me to what my gift entailed but I didn’t feel drawn to anything, or averse to anything. M...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 30: Interlude

Gabrielle tapped her finger on the desk in irritation at that man that sat across from it. Each strike of her finger elicited a loud crack from the stone top.

“Where have you been,” she asked pointedly.

“Recovering,” Holton said with a shrug.

Her finger stopped as it descended again. Not because she wasn’t still mad but because the lip of the desk cracked off. Holton looked at the broken bit of desk and sat up straighter. “ELABORATE,” she demanded slowly, makin...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 29

“What… what! You want me to teach swordsmanship?”

“Ah, yes, that’s the word I was looking for. It’s been so long that I forgot. And why not?” Master asked in return.

“I’m hardly qualified to teach people, let alone teach anyone how to use a sword properly. Teach- I mean Holton would be the first to tell you that.”

“Bah,” Master waved dismissively. “I don’t expect you to teach them how to be a master swordsman, just how to defend themselves in a pi...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 28

“Ah, initiate Bakus, good, now that you are here we can get started. Sorry for pulling you away from your meditation,” Master Mgumba said, waving me to a seat in the library.

The other initiates were also in attendance and I took the last free seat.

“Today we will be discussing latent abilities.”

“Master…”

“Yes, Rebekah?”

“Didn’t we already go over this subject last year?”

“We did, you are correct. But since we have a new member wi...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 27

The tower was something to behold. Made from the same white stone that the ancestors so loved to craft their marvels out of. It had seen better days and large sections on the sides were patched by stone of a similar color to the cliffsides. A thought occurred to me that the alcove with the stone circle was probably where the stone had come from.

A part of my mind realized that the original Mgumba Duwun may have been the one to repair the tower. It made sense given what I knew. We steppe...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 26

After dinner, I followed Lurian to the house armory.

“You won’t be allowed in here without a master or me in attendance,” he stated firmly as he unlocked the thick wooden door.

The room wasn’t much to speak of, looking like a pantry with its shelves stripped and replaced by racks of all sorts of weapons and armor. When I saw that more than a few were made out of metal, my jaw dropped. The wealth contained in this room alone was staggering.

“Now you see why we requi...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 25

It was hard to put into words just how good it felt slipping my filthy body into the steaming water of the tub. I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of satisfaction. I scrubbed probably longer than I should of as there was a knock at the door.

“Bakus, it’s Rycan. Please finish up shortly and get dressed, my master wishes to speak with you and it isn’t good to keep him waiting too long.”

Looking at my hands, I realized they had shriveled up and turned into raisins. I sighed...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 24

In the few days I had been traveling with this group of Chosen, I had learned more about Chosen and the culture of the Orders than during my month with my former teacher Holton. Assuming that was the same man.

What I learned wasn’t very flattering for the Order as a whole. Infighting was sparse but it did occur between the groups with differing philosophical ideologies. When I tried to learn more about it the three clammed up or avoided answering the question by trying to redirect my ...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 23

Lost in my own thoughts, I only caught brief portions of the conversations between the three Chosen. The black-skinned, tall, bald man tried getting my attention a few times but I was in no condition to respond.

“He’s in shock,” I heard the other man say. Although, I didn’t agree with his reasoning for my condition, being the eight men attacking me.

That was barely a blip on my mind as I tried to deny the fact that I killed the one person in this world I truly cared about....

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 22

There was a bit of remorse on my part for having killed four men but I was starting to see my former mentor's point of view. Which gave me pause. The man seemed extremely jaded at life in the short time I knew him and I didn’t want to end up like that.

Even though I felt bad about what occurred, I still did the gruesome work of slicing off the ears and tucking them into a dirty leather sack I pulled off of the dead leader’s body. The fight had been quick and brutal but left a lot of...

Kingdom of Rust Chapter 21

All of this travel had made me hungry so I stopped in at the first restaurant I found. I promptly walked right back out when I saw their prices. With a sigh, I spent the next hour looking for a place I could afford.

“Maybe this is why he liked those rundown-looking places,” I mumbled, remembering the bar that my former mentor had taken me to. It wasn’t that I wanted to eat at a place like that – I was equally as likely to get sick as get a good meal – but I couldn’t afford a...