Vevic leaned back in her chair and set her feet on the railing as she watched her minions mill about the courtyard. It was late evening and her day was finished, which meant she had the rest of the evening to conjure a bit of wine and relax on the balcony with one of the many dusty tomes that had been left in the castle library. Tonight’s book was The Annotated History of the Fortress Rum...
2023-11-14 18:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a flash of light, the sound of fire, and a short scream before the charred carcass came tumbling down the steps. Another one, Vevic frowned at the dead goblin as it bounced off the last step and roll to a stop. She turned to the cowering crowd of lackeys behind her. This expedition is becoming expensive.
She was finally taking the time to explore Rumadrane’s ...
2023-11-13 18:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostJust as Lefty tabbed out of his character sheet, Feathers waddled up beside him. With a flap of his wings, the duck hopped up, perched itself atop a rock, and began to preen himself.
“So does the duck, like, level up as well? Or no?” Calista asked.
Feathers paused to quack and returned to his preening.
“He says he already did,” Lefty replied.
“Alright then,” ...
2023-11-10 18:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostLefty walked over and kicked one of the centipede’s legs. The limb twitched and spasmed. Somewhere inside this thing its brain synapses are still firing. The thought made him uncomfortable and when his eyes met Grumner’s and he could see the dwarf was thinking the same.
“You think it’s still alive?” Grumner asked.
Lefty looked back down at the leg, “I don’t kn...
2023-11-09 18:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostLefty had a notification. A blinking panel in the corner of his vision was informing him he had leveled up. He only needed to access his H.U.D to activate the process. This was probably the most important thing that had happened to him since he had arrived here on Wraath, as wizards were notoriously underpowered at the lower levels and any kind of advancement meant a positive step toward his pr...
2023-11-08 18:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe moment the fae woman disappeared, the sound of the clicking legs returned. As Calista listened to the monster’s many legs travel over the rocks, she ripped her sword free and turned to face the sound. Beside her, Grumner readied his axe, Cat’s Eye held his short sword, Lefty gripped his staff, and Feathers hopped up onto the mage’s shoulder. The clicks and clacks traveled right to lef...
2023-11-07 18:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt was mid-day when Lefty pulled up short. Lefty noticed it first and tugged the back of Grumner’s cloak and soon the entire party had stopped and were looking to see what had caused the wizard to halt.
“What was that?” Lefty asked.
“What was what?” Calista asked.
“That sound. Did you hear it?” the wizard asked.
She replied, “No, what did it sound like?...
2023-11-06 18:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning they traveled east as the hills became sharper and more rocky. Mountains that had once loomed in the distance now looked down on them with ominous foreboding. Clouds and mist covered their peaks. Once, Calista thought she spotted something winged and dark as it passed between the clouds but when she pointed it out to the others it disappeared into the mist.
Around evening...
2023-11-03 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe secret passage, Cat’s Eye claimed, was through a hidden door located near the northwest guard tower. From there, they would have access to a number of secret doors that led in and out of the fortress of Rumadrane. This, he said, was the privileged information of a veteran smuggler who had spent most of his life working his way in and out of various secure locations on business.
The ...
2023-11-02 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post“Is this the weapon you were talking about?”
Himbo held the wand up to the sky as if to inspect it. It was a small, silver thing with a gold inlay along its handle. Dillard didn’t know if the wand did anything. She had only been looking for a bit of leverage in a tight spot and had decided to make due with what was at hand, but now that she could see the thing, she didn’t want Him...
2023-11-01 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“How wonderful to meet such a noble knight out here in the wilderness. You must be so very brave,” Dillard cooed.
The paladin had the gall to look bashful, “Ah, say nothing about it gentle lady. Tell me, what tragedy befell your intrepid caravan?”
Dillard gestured to the bodies lying on the ground, “We were attacked by bandits. My friends and I killed as many of them as we...
2023-10-31 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostDillard had briefly considered running after the merchant. Killing him would have been even more fun than killing his guards had been. She would have been able to take her time for one. For another, his terror in her catching up to him and taking him apart bit for bit would have been very, very satisfying. The trouble was, she had chosen rogue as her class and as a rogue, she didn’t have any ...
2023-10-30 17:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostAackzor the Bleak wasn’t sure what he was looking at. Dressed in a white shift dress and black knee high boots, the young woman stood before him with the confidence of a conqueror even though she had the stature of a teen aged girl. She was slight, pale with dark hair, had a pretty face, was unarmed, and had two deep, all-black eyes that stared into your being like a demon ready to eat your s...
2023-10-27 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe goblin’s name was Cat’s Eye and when he finally crawled out from under the bridge and presented himself to the party, Grumner smashed him in the face, knocked him cold, and took his whistle. Calista then offered to slit the little monster’s throat, but the dwarf said it would be better if they interrogated him first. So it was that they bound and gagged Cat’s Eye before Grumner thre...
2023-10-26 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostGrumner had missed. As the dwarf grumbled and cursed, Calista knocked another arrow and took aim while beside her, Lefty stepped forward and began muttering an incantation. Inhale, exhale slowly, aim, and loose. However, in the time it took her to loose her arrow, the goblin had slipped beneath the bridge and so her arrow landed harmlessly in the grass. Beside her, Lefty cut his spell short. 2023-10-25 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Cat’s Eye had been a goblin marauder all of three days.
You see, three days ago he had been plying his trade on the roads between Harva and Hilltop when he had been stopped on the road by a gang of bandits. Goblin bandits. Fortunately for him, he was a goblin and not something else and so they had simply robbed him and forced him to join their little band as a slave. In a matter of minu...
2023-10-24 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostAt dawn, they returned to the camp where they found the dire bear had thrown a party for himself and used Kevin’s body parts as decoration. Every tent had been ransacked, just as every pack had been raided for their rations. Bits of bread littered the ground. The dried fruit and tack had been consumed. Even one of their water skins was torn. Then there was Lefty’s pack that had been ripped ...
2023-10-23 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostDogmoore’s axe flashed again in the firelight, felling the nearest warrior, while Thalias loosed his arrow into the belly of a goblin bowman. Calista, for her part, stepped over so she was back to back with the dwarf Gumner, who had drawn a long sword with his free hand. Parrying a short sword, she punched her attacker with her free hand and as he stagger back, she rammed her blade into his n...
2023-10-20 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostLefty awoke to the duck pecking his face. He scrambled against his bedroll as he tried to brush Feathers off him, but before he could cry out a webbed foot covered his mouth. Then he heard it. Something was moving outside. Lefty froze as Feathers gave him a stern look, hopped off his chest, and waddled over to the front of the tent. As the duck leaned his head out, Lefty heard how large the int...
2023-10-20 05:08:05 +0000 UTC View PostThey managed to reach the next hilltop by nightfall. It was not a decision easily made, for while Grumner had observed that a high vantage point would be to their tactical benefit with wolves about, Kevin had protested under the grounds that if forced to summit another hill, he would be too tired to do anything. The argument might have gone on much longer had they not been interrupted by anothe...
2023-10-20 05:07:23 +0000 UTC View PostA downpour met them at the top of the cliff. Though it had been raining steadily before, it now increased suddenly, as though someone had just reached up and turned on the shower. The only member of the party who was pleased about this was Feathers, who took the opportunity to hunt along the creek bed for snails and water bugs before Grumner led them off the path and away into the woods.
...
2023-10-20 05:06:34 +0000 UTC View PostVevic’s heels echoed down the hallway as she walked with the girl Cordelia by her side. Vevic knew that the next hour would go a long way to determining just how the rest of her rule here at Reave would go. Challenges had arisen and needed to be faced. Her goblins had concerns and she needed to address them, one way or another.
One way, of course, would be to simply do as others before ...
2023-10-20 05:05:50 +0000 UTC View PostDillard was confused.
She wasn’t sure what she was doing here. Oh, she had understood the Attendant perfectly well, even if she had wanted to flay the skin off the arrogant little bitch the entire time she had been speaking. This was Wraath. It was real. She was here as a real person acting as a player in a real game world that was full of real people she could do anything she wanted to...
2023-10-20 05:04:09 +0000 UTC View PostThey returned to Captain Padral and accepted the quest. Grumner managed to negotiate some additional gear. Grappling hooks, ropes, tents, ponchos, and climbing tools were all in order. Then Lefty squeezed Captain Padral for a heavy crossbow, an pair of extra swords, and a proper map.
Next, they gathered at the gazebo to discuss their plans. There, Grumner distributed the gear and then unf...
2023-10-20 05:03:26 +0000 UTC View PostThey left the captain at the gazebo and made their way down a slope where a stream ran through the fortress. Here, Grumner, Lefty, and Calista huddled together beneath a tree as Feathers waddled along the shoreline in search of bugs.
Lefty was uncomfortable with the mood of the party. Grumner, who he did not know, seemed to agree with him about ditching the quests for somewhere safer. Cal...
2023-10-20 05:01:54 +0000 UTC View PostA short while later, the captain appeared with two far more mundane guardsmen in tow. He was a fit and trim man somewhere in his late 30’s or early 40’s with dark hair and a five o’clock shadow and the kind of face that might have put him on the cover of a romance novel. As he sat down across from them, he folded his arms and put his feet up on the table as he twirled his thumbs and studi...
2023-10-20 04:58:17 +0000 UTC View PostAs the two guardsmen then meandered down the walkway, Calista could hear them trading barbs as they rounded the corner. Watching them go, Lefty’s voice took on a satisfied tone, “Well, I really showed them, didn’t I?”
It was in this moment that a number of unimpressed quacks came from the vicinity of Calista’s feet and she looked down to see the duck standing next to a puddle. 2023-10-20 04:46:07 +0000 UTC View Post
A shiver of fear ran down Calista’s spine. An Imperial officer looking to speak with adventurers could really only mean one thing: a quest. And given the nature of the environment outside the fort, the quest was likely to be very, very dangerous. She had just started wondering how she might avoid talking to the captain when she spotted a man in blue robes walking past a far window. Two soldie...
2023-10-20 04:45:23 +0000 UTC View PostThey laid Thalias with the other corpses. The soldiers had gathered the dead and dying on a platform along the outer wall. Calista and Grumner carried the dead half-elf over there where they set him on an empty blanket. Both Calista and Grumner stayed for a moment as they looked down on their dead friend. They were here now in a game world where, in a past life, they had visited presumably to h...
2023-10-20 04:44:45 +0000 UTC View PostShortly after they lost view of the village, shock and blood loss carried Lefty into unconsciousness. When he awoke, the night was crisp and cool and everything around him was covered in a layer of thick fog. The spring current was carrying them so swiftly the oarsmen had little to do except steer the raft. Through the fog, Lefty could see the shadow of another boat floating some thirty yards a...
2023-10-20 04:44:04 +0000 UTC View Post