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She ran back. Back, towards the city where her friends were. Perhaps they were her friends or maybe it was just a word. But they called to her. And so she ran.   —-   [Innkeeper Level 18!] [Skill – Immunity: Alcohol obtained!] [Skill – Quick Recovery obtained!]   Erin didn’t know that she’d slept. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

“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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Erin sat with Rags and stared at a mage in her inn. Scattered around the trio was a mess of empty dishes, remnants of a large breakfast. Ryoka sat in a small room in the Adventurer’s Guild in Esthelm and waited as the half-Elven mage got ready in front of her. They were separated by […]

Ryoka sat in an inn and munched on her potatoes and stewed meat. She felt guilty about it, but the dinner menu hadn’t exactly been diverse with options and she was hungry. Still, she felt guilty. Her plate was about 80% potato and 20% meat. And it wasn’t great meat at that. The potatoes actually […]

“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 went out of 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 […]

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 […]