Alise and Theo stood on the road west of the square, looking over a plot of land next to the Adventurer’s Guild. They decided on the best place to plant the [Butcher’s Seed Core]. Being so near to the guild would make it easy for adventurers to drop off their carcases, also incentivizing the action. The woman destined to run the building, a ...
2023-05-05 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostHooray Friday is here again.
I have to get back to writing Newt and Demon soon, but not quite yet. So, no news about that. I almost have an ending for it, but I needed a breath so I could make sure it went the way I wanted. It has to set up the ending for book 4 perfectly, so it can't be rushed.
In other news, I got my new keyboard a...
2023-05-04 17:10:43 +0000 UTC View PostTheo woke the next morning feeling refreshed. Good experiments within the Dreamwalk, a new ability, and the waving away of cloudy thoughts found him eager to meet the day. Whatever happened, he was happy to face it with a smile. Experience gain from the night was good, but not enough to push anything over. The [Governance Core] was a sponge that...
2023-04-28 11:02:01 +0000 UTC View PostFenian agreed to stay the night in Broken Tusk. His Karatan needed to recharge, and that gave Theo enough time to complete the [Hallow Ground] order. The order was simple enough to fill, but there were experiments the alchemist had left on the shelf in favor of production. As he filled the last of the vials, night drawing closer by the moment, s...
2023-04-28 11:01:06 +0000 UTC View PostShafts of sunlight broke through Theo’s window, but that wasn’t the reason he woke from the Dreamwalk. Emerging from that ethereal realm was more like stepping from one room to the other, only to appear in his comfortable bed. Tresk scampered off to the lab before he had time to say anything, but he just laid there. Even with the increasingl...
2023-04-28 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostLast week was dominated by life events, so that's why there wasn't an update then.
So, first on the list of updates. My keyboard is dying. Yay! While my switches are rated for something like 50 million presses, some are just dying for no reason. Since I have a soldered board on this one, I'm just upgrading to a Q1 because why not?...
2023-04-27 17:36:26 +0000 UTC View PostTheo wasn’t surprised with the [Refined Dexterity Essence] he’d brewed. It was made from cultivated and aligned ingredients that had been distilled. It was almost the peak of his ability, missing twice the amount of cultivation and a few levels of alignment favor with Drogramath. But, as with all things related to Drogramath, establ...
2023-04-21 11:02:01 +0000 UTC View PostTheo woke the next morning to find Tresk cradling the egg in her arms. She had a rare look on her face, one of soft sympathy. While his companion cooed at the rocky egg, the alchemist considered what this new bond meant. It felt as though the Tara’hek had strengthened, but the core didn’t reflect that. It remained as it was, with no addition...
2023-04-21 11:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostAlise didn’t take the discovery of the egg well. Theo found an old satchel in Azrug’s crates, although he supposed those were Salire’s crates now, and nestled the egg inside. He created an open-topped glass cube with thick walls and padded it with spare cloth. His egg was now safely nestled in the satchel, protected by a cage of magical gl...
2023-04-21 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostShort update for this week.
3rd tier patrons got more advanced chapters, 6 releasing today. I'll have to update the tiers to reflect this, but I anticipate this happening again in the future.
The writing for N&D 3 is coming to a close. I'm taking my time with the ending, trying to set up the events of book 4 well in advance. I'm ...
2023-04-14 13:48:16 +0000 UTC View PostTresk remained in the harbor for as long as she could. When the sun crawled closer to the early afternoon, she was off. Theo watched her bound off, climbing the hills to the north. He couldn’t see her anymore, but he could feel her. With a rush, she was gone. Jumping through each shadow on the winding path to Rivers and Daub. She knew to keep ...
2023-04-14 11:05:01 +0000 UTC View PostTheo spent little of his time in the Dreamwalk working. He sat with Tresk, going over the events of the day. She retold the story of what happened in the town hall, presenting herself as the fearless hero that was ready to stab the Burning Eye to death. Even with their potent poisons, Sulvan would have swatted her like a fly. But he let her tell...
2023-04-14 11:04:01 +0000 UTC View PostZarali was the only one dressed up for the dinner. Khahar remained in his tattered loincloth. Alise had brought Nira as her guest, both of them wearing their simple clothes, and Tresk was still covered in mud. But Zarali wore a flowing purple gown with fine jewels hanging from her neck. She even did her hair, although Theo did not know how.
<... 2023-04-14 11:03:00 +0000 UTC View Post“Was that so hard?” Tresk asked.
“Hmmm? What?” Khahar asked.
Zan’kir was glued to the battlements of the wall. He shuddered as though he wanted to speak, but nothing came out. The absolute power Khahar held over his people was impressive, if not frightening. Theo had it in his mind that An’tal was Khahar from the start, b...
2023-04-14 11:02:01 +0000 UTC View PostXol’sa’s tower was strewn with what could only be described as junk. Since he arrived in Broken Tusk, bringing all his belongings, he’d only accumulated more. Every available shelf was full of devices, items, or trash. The wizard himself sat across from Theo, Zarali, and Tresk, taking part in the ongoing conversation. A magical fire crackl...
2023-04-14 11:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe garden golems were doing a fantastic job of harvesting random reagents and keeping the weeds at bay. They understood how to recharge themselves using the [Dimensional Storage Crate], and seemed to need no rest. Theo stood in his cluster of greenhouses, kneeling to issue more commands. His audience, 2 [Lesser Mud Golems], and 1 [Lesser Stone ...
2023-04-14 11:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostTheo often wondered how he ran the town without support. He stood with Alise as the sun set over Broken Tusk, looking from the eastern wall. The bridge was done, a surprise to everyone, and they were planning for the harbor. She drew lines with her fingers, detailing how hard it was going to be to dig out so much bare earth, then fill in a porti...
2023-04-07 11:02:01 +0000 UTC View PostTheo was done with his greenhouses for the day. He made a list of things he could do for the rest of the day, finding himself falling into a familiar trap. He put too much on his own plate too often, drowning in work. Perhaps it was some self-imposed feature of the body he inhabited, preventing him from doing too much alchemy and out-leveling hi...
2023-04-07 11:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostAlran’s sudden appearance in Broken Tusk sent shockwaves through the town. News traveled fast, even as the town grew larger. As Theo and Alran exited the town hall, the concept of an alliance was the only thing hanging on anyone’s lips. The alchemist gave a brief tour of the town and brought the Mercantile Chair to do business the way Broken...
2023-04-07 11:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostPhew, alright... Busy week. Really busy week. I think I'm still ahead of where I need to be, but you know. The hardest part about writing a book is ending it. Even if I know the ending to Book 3.
From a novel perspective, I know that this book lines up with what I want. I would like for it to be 70 chapters, but I'm not really sur...
2023-04-06 17:35:42 +0000 UTC View PostTheo did his best to avoid the wine served at the feast. Xam had imported a watered berry wine from Rivers and Daub. While it was likely not strong enough to affect a Half-Ogre, even by the barrel full, he still shied away from it. The celebrations carried deep into the night, even after the golems melted into mush, but the alchemist and his fri...
2023-03-31 11:02:59 +0000 UTC View PostA thin thread of willpower stretched between Theo and the [Lesser Mud Golem]. It was a strange mix between a foreign will and his own, not battling for dominance, but working together to make the thing functional. There wasn’t an attribute for willpower, though. The alchemist knew, through instinct or logical deduction, that the quantity and c...
2023-03-31 11:02:00 +0000 UTC View PostXam served a feast on the night of the 58th day of the Season of Blooms. The Dying of the Blooms festival was the signal that the season was over, but there were still a few weeks left in the season. Theo sat, no longer flanked by his cadre of adventurers, with Tresk, Zarali, Xol’sa, and the new shopkeeper Salire. They ate through each meal, s...
2023-03-31 11:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostWoohoo. Friday.
So, I went through my schedule and realized I'm gonna die. Not literally, but figuratively if I try to release 2 stories at a time. I know I can post a story and put it on hiatus, but I don't wanna. Which means I'm shelving the fishing story for now. In a perfect world, I could write 2.5 months of chapters every month. Whic...
2023-03-30 13:52:26 +0000 UTC View PostBroken Tusk was bustling by the time Theo made it to the center of town. It had been long enough since Theo made his way to the general housing area, and he was eager to see what kind of town planning skills Alise had. The population tracker on his mayor screen increased at a steady rate, signaling the reality of migration. His leather gloves we...
2023-03-24 11:02:01 +0000 UTC View PostTheo enjoyed his soak in the pool for as long as he could. He wasn’t as eager to get into the Dreamwalk as he was in the past, owing to his ever-growing cores. [Drogramath Herbalism Core] was at level 15, [Drogramath Alchemy Core] at level 16, with his [Tara’hek Core] at 17. His [Governance Core] hit 12 during the day, but it wasn’t enough...
2023-03-24 11:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostTresk’s efforts to help with gardening and alchemy should have been dangerous. Theo’s instincts, and the many warnings on skills related to essences, held that to be true. But she worked with the garden with no troubles, even performing several reactions of her own to create potions. It was proof enough for him that their skills bled through...
2023-03-24 11:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostComing back to write the Newt and Demon after being away from it for a month has been fun. I found it effortless to pick it back up again. The vibe is very steady, so I'm not really worrying about deviating from some tone I set before. "All alchemy, all the time" was the tag line.
I think that's pretty interesting, from a writing perspecti...
2023-03-23 17:00:34 +0000 UTC View PostTheo wasn’t surprised where Tresk wanted to spend her time in the Dreamwalk. While she soaked in the bathhouse, not content with the few hours they had in the waking world, the alchemist worked on leveling his cores. Both alchemy and herbalism would roll over when he woke up, he could already feel it, then his personal level would level up to ...
2023-03-17 11:02:01 +0000 UTC View PostTheo returned to his lab, dodging the crowd that formed to marvel at the new town hall. He had a sense that his stills were done cooking, and his reserve tanks were full of [Refined Healing Essence]. In his mind, he always considered a good run to have at least 1,000 units of any essence. With the expansion on his garden, he could make one full ...
2023-03-17 11:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post