Archives

“Awaken, Human.” I’ve listened to my share of alarm clocks over the years. When I was a kid, my parents gave me an old-fashioned one* that I had to wind up constantly or it wouldn’t go off. First chance I got, I switched it out for a digital alarm and then my iPhone.   *Vintage, […]

[Innkeeper Level 12!]   Someday, Erin was going to hear that annoying message in her head and jump off a cliff. But at least she’d gotten eight solid hours of sleep afterwards. Blearily, Erin got up and wondered if she leveled because of the skeleton. Something to do with the skeleton? Did [Innkeepers] level up […]

Erin left her inn three times over the course of the next two days. The first time she went out, she visited Selys, and the two had a long chat—lecture, really—about not going out and fighting monsters alone. Then they visited a bathhouse, helped Erin pick out more clothing, and went to see the ruins. […]

I slow down after about twenty minutes of sprinting. Not because I don’t feel like running faster, but I know I’ve got a long way to go. So I reduce my pace from record-breaking speed to a sustainable jog. A bit faster than normal, but I can’t help it. I’ve got the music. Currently, I’m […]

Running is a peculiar thing. And it’s one of the few things I’m qualified to talk about in any world. For me, running is as close to living as anything I do. I’ve studied it, practiced it, and made it mine. I can’t claim anything else like that. But if running is pure, life is […]

Erin walked down the street, and she felt like sighing. No—she felt like her entire existence was a long, slow sigh. She was tired. Tired and weary in her very bones. But more than that, she was just disappointed. And that was the worst feeling of all. Humans. She’d missed them. Really, she had. She’d […]

At first, the laden cart rumbling through the northern city gates attracted little attention. This late in the day, the traffic going in and out had thinned, but there was nothing odd about two passengers sitting on the back of the cart while a Drake [Farmer] brought his merchandise into market. The expression on the […]

When they removed the bandage from Ryoka’s leg, the other adventurers flinched back. All except for Ceria and Calruz, that was. Ryoka stared down into the bloody, ripped mess of skin and once again was profoundly grateful for the numbing magic they’d put on her leg. Gerial looked pale as he gathered up the bandages. […]

Once, she’d broken her arm. When it had happened, Ryoka hadn’t even felt the pain—it was just the shock of it that hurt. Only when she’d dragged herself from underneath the motorcycle and waited for the ambulance did she feel the pain. It hurt. But oddly, the worst part hadn’t been the pain. Now, if […]

After a few days, Erin concluded that she had three types of customers. The first type were the Antinium, namely Pawn and the Workers. He brought them every day or every other day as soon as the sun touched the tops of the mountains in the southwest. The sun rose and fell in the same […]

As soon as she slammed the door shut, Ryoka collapsed against her bed. Static seemed to crawl over her eyes, and roaring filled her ears. Pain. It was coming back. She would have lain there forever, but the pain made her move. There was only one relief. Ryoka staggered over to a chest at the […]

Ow. Fuck. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ouch. Ow. It hurts worse than that. It hurts…more than anything I’ve ever felt. Like someone’s tearing off my leg, like I want to remove it myself or scream. The cute words—they’re there so I don’t scream. I didn’t know it could hurt so much. I’ve broken bones—this—this is […]

Erin sat on a grassy hilltop and played a game of chess. It made life easier. When she was playing, she could forget about life. She could forget about suffering. It didn’t end such things. Chess was an escape. If you were bleeding or crying, it couldn’t help. Playing chess would bring no one back. […]

Silence. Erin walked in it. It was the numbing static in her head. It was the sound of tears falling in her heart. It was everything. She walked in the darkness. Short, narrow walls of dirt enclosed her. She followed a massive shape as it led her through the tunnels. Her arms were breaking, her […]

They were called Workers. It was more than a name. It was their purpose, their role in life. In the Hive. Worker.  That job included many things. They were hammers to build new tunnels and structures for the Drakes and Gnolls in the city. A butcher to separate meat from bone, or a sweeper to […]

Some days, he, Klbkchhezeim, hated Liscor. Hated Liscor and Izril and every miserable species his people had failed to kill in their first war upon this continent. And he wondered when the third war would begin and thought of killing them all. It was no longer as easy as it would have been. He was […]

They called her the Deadly Flower Blooming in the North. Which was…a mouthful of a title. After her first meeting with Magnolia Reinhart, Ryoka Griffin had asked who, exactly, she was. ‘Head of the Reinhart Family,’ was her answer. Which begged the question what that meant. The Reinharts were one of the Five Families. Well, […]

The Ruins of Albez sit at the heart of what had once been a magical kingdom. Or perhaps a community of mages. Or an ancient citadel of—you know what? It doesn’t matter. There’s almost nothing left anymore to tell a visitor what it had been. Once, this hillside of collapsed dirt and dug-out structures was […]

The Hive was always dark. Always secluded from the light of the surface above. Even in the grandest chamber, where the two spoke—it was so dim as to disconcert every species but theirs. Neither one minded. They had lived underground for ages before ever bothering to reach the surface. In the subterranean passages and the […]

Evening fell across the world at the same time. It was already dark in Liscor in an inn where a young woman was knocking on a table. That was because the mountains that sheltered her inn were obscuring the fading light. But far south and to the west, upon another continent, another land—the dry air […]

“Baking soda.” Krshia shook her head. Once more, she stood at her shop counter, this time sharpening a knife with a whetstone as a product demo. She was selling whetstones and knives. She seemed very familiar with both; there wasn’t much chance she would cut herself as she applied more water to the whetstone. Erin hadn’t […]

Click.  A single sound in the darkness. The sound was of two mandibles snapping together. Long pincers, like those of tiny ants, but scaled up for a body slightly shorter than most Humans, Drakes, and Gnolls. The mandibles were a last-ditch weapon; they were meant to lacerate and tear, but they were really for breaking […]

A shifting, glowing mass of green and black insects covered the bottom half of a table and pieces of bloody cloth. Erin looked at the countless bugs that had entered her inn and wondered whether screaming would attract their attention. Probably. They were huge, black bugs that vaguely resembled fireflies. Except these Acid Flies were […]

The inn. A place for questing adventurers, drinking, solace, and even temporary, messy love. Or just lust. In any good tavern, you can find at least one mysterious figure in the shadows ready to spout off cryptic messages of doom. No pub worthy of the name wouldn’t have the potential for indiscriminate violence simmering in […]

Every head in the Runner’s Guild turned as the door opened. It was a conditioned response; those who ran were either quick to notice things or they were dead. Unlike adventurers, Runners didn’t slay monsters, but there were requests posted that weren’t average letter deliveries. Emergency rush jobs, dangerous assignments all went there, and naturally, […]