Erin woke up with a big smile on her face. Actually, she woke up and went back to sleep several times before the sunlight got too bright to ignore. But when she eventually got up and ate breakfast, she got around to the big smile. It came when she was eating more blue fruit and […]
Archives
1.06
A giant insect stood in the doorway. It had large, black, bulbous eyes like a bug, no pupils, just tiny facets reflecting the light, a dark brown chitinous body, almost black, and a pair of swords at its sides. A giant shell like a beetle or turtle’s covered its back, and the entire effect made […]
1.05
Erin woke up with her back against the inn’s front door. Her neck was aching, and her hand was burning. It was morning. “Ow.” She held her hand. It was hurting— “Feels like it’s worse than yesterday. Which is probably my imagination.” She sat, cradling her hand for a full minute. Then she remembered why […]
1.04
Erin woke up suddenly. Her hand was burning. Though her head felt like fog, she couldn’t fall back asleep. Instead, Erin just sat and cradled her hand again. She couldn’t move it or the pain would get worse, but sleeping or relaxing were beyond her as well. She could only sit in agony. Bit by […]
1.03
The next morning, the young woman sat in a chair and pondered. It seemed stupid. No, it was stupid. But there could be only one explanation. “When you level in dreams, you level in real life?” Erin thought about that for a moment. “Huh.” She sat in the chair for a few more minutes. Those […]
1.02
The fruit in her hands was blue, probably a fruit, and pretty large. Erin had seen monster apples before in stores, the weirdly expensive ones that were three times as big as their smaller cousins. That was about the size of the blue fruit. Her stomach rumbled just looking at it. Erin raised the fruit […]
1.01
The inn was dark. That was because the world was dark, at least for the moment. Two moons hung in the sky, one light blue, the other pale green. But their soft light was obscured by a shifting layer of clouds overhead. However, despite the late hour, one figure moved restlessly around the room. A […]
1.00
The inn was dark and empty when the traveller arrived. It appeared suddenly, rising above the gentle hills and valleys of autumnal grass that blew in the wind, green, orange, and even purple in places. The rolling plains were deceptive from afar. At first the many hills and divots seemed gentle, mere waves along a […]
Foreword
I have left another note at the end of Volume 1, but I feel I should preface the rewrites by explaining what’s changed. Seven years ago, I wrote The Wandering Inn’s first volume and had no idea it would be successful, or even read by more than a dozen people. I had hopes—but the first […]
1.44
March 1, 2017
She knew when the first skeleton cut her that she was going to die. Erin stared down at the open skin on her arm and wondered if she could push the two red halves together. She raised the frying pan and hit the skeleton with all her strength. It fell down. Erin kicked it until […]
1.43
February 25, 2017
Why do the dead try to kill the living? Is it hatred? Do they seek to defile the living, to drag them into the same unending torment of their lives? Do they envy those who still draw breath? Or is it a greater mystery? Do the undead simply want others to join them, to add […]
1.42
February 22, 2017
Erin sat in her inn, staring at the table. She didn’t have anything better to do. Normally she served customers, chatted, or played chess, but she couldn’t today. They were all gone. Pawn had left for the city with the other Workers, promising to come back tomorrow. He—still couldn’t move right. But the other Workers […]
1.02 H
February 19, 2017
“What about this room?” “Empty.” Sostrom shook his head as he walked out of another dark room, his staff glowing. Calruz stomped out behind him, growling irately. Ceria tried not to scowl at her friend, but it was hard. “Not a thing?” “You can see for yourself.” Sostrom pointed into the dark room and shook […]
1.01 H
February 15, 2017
The dead charged out of the darkness in an unending tide of desiccated corpses. Their ruined flesh and glowing eyes in hollow sockets flickered in the torch and magelight. Zombies ran, crawled or shuffled in a wave of discolored skin, but they weren’t alone. More undead had appeared: skeletons that sprang at the nearest adventurers […]
1.00 H
February 12, 2017
On the day of the expedition all the members of the Horns of Hammerad woke and trooped downstairs to breakfast in silence. Erin, the cheerful innkeeper had provided breakfast—eggs and bacon. Ceria sat at one of the tables, blinking and poking at the wobbling yellow yolk of one of her poached eggs. She was still […]
1.41
February 7, 2017
“Fire! Put out the fire!” Of all the ways to wake up, hearing that shouted from below still beat being stabbed in the chest. But the Horns of Hammerad were still out of bed and racing downstairs within seconds of hearing it. A cloud of black smoke billowed out of the kitchen as Erin stumbled […]
1.13 R
February 5, 2017
On the first day she saw the Goblins. It was as she ran through the grasslands around Liscor, the Flood Plains which were a barrier to armies and passage in the spring and empty in the short winter on this continent. She stopped when she crested the hill and saw them fighting in the small […]
1.40
January 31, 2017
Erin woke up to the noise that defined her life. The sounds of chess. It was a soft sound, most of the time—one she’d learned in all of its subtleties. Chess sounded different. The board mattered, for one thing. Erin usually played with wooden pieces—the ones from the DGT electronic chess board manufacturing line. It […]
1.39
January 29, 2017
Ceria woke up first. It was an unconscious act on the part of her body that her mind wanted no part of. As the first rays of dawn hit her she opened her eyes and sat up in her bed. It was too early. And despite her early rising, Ceria was not a morning person. […]
1.38
January 25, 2017
“I am individual. I am Antinium.” That was the first whisper Erin heard out of Pawn. He sat, no longer bleeding in the inn as she wrapped a bandage around his severed stumps. The healing potions the adventurers had used had stopped the bleeding, but there was no way to restore lost limbs. And his […]
1.37
January 22, 2017
Erin dreamt of swords flashing, of cannonballs exploding around her, and of blood. Rivers of blood. Klbkch stood in front of Erin and asked if she was ready. She looked at him as he bled in her arms. His mandibles opened and he rasped into her ear. “I obey my Queen.” She shook her head. […]
1.36
January 18, 2017
When Erin woke up the next day, her eyes were tired and she was full of bleh. Bleh being her word for her mood. “Bleh.” Tor paused and stared at her. Erin blinked at the walking skeleton with blue flames in its eyes and made weak shooing motions until it went away. She didn’t feel […]
1.12 R
January 15, 2017
When Garia arrived in Esthelm just before midday, she saw the commotion outside the Adventurer’s Guild before she’d even dropped off her delivery. Sugar. Several bags of it – enough for a huge rush order in one of the bakeries in town. The heavy, sticky delivery had messed up the inside Garia’s pack. She’d have […]
1.11 R
January 11, 2017
The five people sat around a table and studied each other carefully. They were all warriors, and all but one of them was human. And while some of them were friends with each other, they weren’t here to socialize. This was business, and right now they were all arguing about one thing. The first to […]
1.35
January 8, 2017
When Krshia came round she did it dramatically. Gnolls weren’t as—as civilized as other races. But of course that was the wrong thing for Erin to think. It was more that Gnolls still lived in close proximity to monsters, even more so than Drakes did. They had to be ready to defend themselves in case […]