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The day after Christmas, Ryoka woke up in a quiet village where the houses were still partly submerged by snow. She got up and after eating a communal breakfast with the villagers, began to say her goodbyes. “Are you sure you won’t stay, Miss Ryoka? There’s hardly a road to follow, and the snow hasn’t […]

And then…it was Christmas. Erin was up before dawn again, rubbing at her eyes. She hauled water, helped Lyonette finish cleaning the room—and got food ready. That was what it was. Food. Erin mechanically created and seasoned a fatty soup with sausage, mushroom, vegetable extract, flour, garlic, a hard-boiled egg…all added to a rye flour […]

Two days before Christmas, Ryoka stared up at a Frost Faerie and wondered how it had come to this. “Come on, Ivolethe. Please?”   “Nae. I won’t do it!”   Ivolethe folded her arms and glared at Ryoka and Laken. The Frost Faerie hovered outside of the Runner’s Guild as Laken and Ryoka stood and […]

When Ryoka left the Mage’s Guild she found Reynold waiting for her. The young woman was not surprised; she let the [Butler] fall into step beside her as she walked slowly down the street. Reynold was not smiling. Not that he was usually beaming; but he normally carried himself with professional impartiality. Right now he […]

She didn’t want to walk up the hill to her inn. No—it wasn’t that. Erin didn’t want to walk up the hill to her inn and go inside. Or…no, it was more like she didn’t want to walk up the hill to her inn, go inside, and then have to feed and deal with another […]

The word that travelled north was brief, but noteworthy. Amid the surge and ebb of tensions among the city-states and local aristocracy, it stood out. Around the city of Liscor that marked the sole safe passage between the northern and southern parts of Izril, news was seldom good. The Goblin Lord was only the most […]

“Tomorrow, then. Or sooner if I can get a hold of the Horns of Hammerad by mage spell.” “Very well. Please confine your visiting hours between dawn and sunset.” That seemed like a fairly easy request, so Ryoka nodded to Hedault as she and Reynold left his house. She supposed that without clocks, appointments were […]

Day 49   My name is Laken Godart. I am blind. Also, I’m trapped in another world where reality seems to conform to the rules of some kind of game. I could be a victim of some kind of elaborate prank or test, or a social experiment. I could see myself being an easy target […]

In the city of Esthelm there was a slime. It oozed along the ground, leaving a trail as it went. It was a slime, a round little pebble of liquid with no real defining features besides its dark greenish brown insides, which pulsated as it moved. But it was a slime, and as of such […]

It was still dark, still quiet, when the door of the inn opened. It was not night. But it was not day either. This was the brief moment before dawn, the quietest, most empty time. The sun had not risen, but the sky was no longer quite as black. The door to the inn slowly […]

Erin Solstice had returned. That phrase meant little to most people living in or around Liscor. The vast majority of Drakes, Gnolls, and newly arrived Humans did not know this young woman. They would not have cared about her returning if they did. But it was curious that in a city that housed over ten […]

The half-Elf walked off into the darkness, leaving Wistram behind. After a moment, Pisces stepped off the ship as well. He looked back towards the ocean where Wistram could no longer be seen, but where he knew it lay. Then he turned and was gone too.   The story ended. Ceria looked up from the […]

Her name was Cognita. That was what she told the people she met. Her name was Cognita. She had once been shaped and given life by Archmage Zelkyr, the greatest expert in Golem creation of his era. Perhaps ever. Because Cognita was a Truestone Golem. The word itself was a symbol of her authority. Truestone […]

On a controversial report published by one of the foremost [Emissaries], Trixal Therest in the year 2 EL.R, he listed Wistram as one of the most powerful factions in the world. Trixal’s report was issued to one of the Great Companies of Baleros who had hired him to write the primer, but it soon became […]

Of the many wonders of the world, the isle of Wistram and the academy of mages which rests upon it is not, in fact, one of the greatest. It is not the oldest relic of the past, not by far. The tall, dark citadel of stone does not shine with the colors of a thousand […]

Wistram was a world unto itself, with a different set of rules, a different kind of people. And yes, Ceria thought to herself as she cautiously opened her door, a different sense of time. This early in the morning the hallway was empty. Seemingly empty. But Ceria knew better than to step out incautiously. She […]

The stone halls were dark at night in Wistram. True, the mage-lights provided decent illumination, but the magics that controlled them dimmed the intensity of light that each floating orb of light or eternally burning torch gave off. Many mages didn’t care to wander outside of the thick walls that made up the citadel that […]

Where did the magic come from? It came from the air around her, the hard wooden desk she sat at, and herself. It flowed through her blood, ran through her hair—it was in her. Ceria reached into her inner self and found magic there. With each breath she took, with each pump of her heart, […]

This is what she heard in the silence of the night.   [Tactician Level 16!]   [Conditions Met: Leader → Chieftain Class!] [Chieftain Level 15!] [Class Consolidation: Scavenger removed.] [Class Consolidation: Tinkerer removed.] [Skill – Tribe: Fleet Foot obtained!] [Skill – Lesser Tinkering obtained!]   It was like thunder in her mind. The words thundered in […]

Some days Erin woke up with a smile on her face. She yawned, sat up, and felt the quiet of the morning wash over her. It wasn’t like how she lived back on Earth, back home. There Erin needed alarm clocks to get up, and the instant she was awake she had a phone to […]

The mountain was silent when Garen found Tremborag. The Hobgoblin had to pass by patrols of warriors who moved in grim silence, weapons drawn and ready for a fight. But their attentiveness was in vain. The battle was long over. It had been over before Garen had been awoken, and what he was seeing now […]

Sometimes, in the silence of her own mind, Rags knew why her kind was so despised across the world. Privately, she could acknowledge the bitter truth. Goblins were weak. They didn’t level as much as other races—because they were cowards, too. They lived hand-to-mouth, eating their own dead, fighting each other over scraps. The strongest […]

When she woke up, it was like any ordinary day. But Mrsha knew it was special because she could smell the crepes. She liked crepes. They were hot and chewy, and sometimes burned when Lyonette made them. Other times they were still runny, but they were always good because they came with honey. The small […]

When he was young, he had always dreamed of walking among other races. But now all he dreamed about was death and fire. The Goblin King burned city after city to the ground, damning the screaming inhabitants by death and fire. Across the ocean, his Goblin Lords led similar crusades, pillaging, slaughtering. There was only […]

That night, Erin had a nightmare. It started, as nightmares sometimes do, happily. Erin was dreaming she was back in her inn, with Mrsha and Selys and even Lyonette. She was watching Ryoka put on a play of Hamlet and chasing Lyonette around with a sword, trying to kill her because she was a [Princess]. […]