Julius and Meredith, my dear friends,
I write to seek your guidance, for I am at the end of my wits.
The Wizard Order has escalated its operations within my borders and no longer bothers hiding. Their Sworn fanatics openly wear a feathered tattoo. Their members preach wizard supremacy in my border towns, luring ...
2022-04-13 17:26:08 +0000 UTC View Post“Watch the Funny Bone, the circus of undead! Don’t be afraid, they’re friendly!”
Ten children dressed in rags darted through the streets of Edge, preparing the ground for Jerry’s circus. People turned to look, and as they heard the funny music approach, their eyes widened and they dropped everything they were doing to ogle.
<...
The Wall of the Damned—or Damn Wall, as was commonly called—had been constructed with the terrain in mind. It mostly followed the plains of Escarbot’s northern border until their very center, where there lay a ravine that funneled large quantities of undead into a small part of the Wall.
Escarbot’s largest military force lay right ...
2022-04-13 17:24:59 +0000 UTC View PostNecromancy is inaccurately named.
The practitioners of that magic school often deal in corpses, ghosts, and icons of death, but this is not where their domain lies. A more accurate descriptor would be psychomancy, where ‘psycho’ is an elaborate word for soul.
Necromancers, or psychomancers, deal with the var...
2022-04-13 17:24:43 +0000 UTC View PostIn the Kingdom of Escarbot, not many villages had inns—but the particular settlement Jerry was currently in, located on a main road, begged to differ.
The Fat Boar inn was a stub of a building, short and square. It barely had room for three tables inside, but when the weather was nice, they would often place another two outside, on the c...
2022-04-13 17:24:15 +0000 UTC View Post“Come, everyone, come! Watch the Funny Bone, the one and only undead circus of the Three Kingdoms!”
Jerry stood on a crate and called out to the crowd, inviting them all to the performance. This random village they’d chanced upon was a medium-sized one, housing at least a hundred people, which meant a good potential profit.
Jer...
2022-04-13 17:23:56 +0000 UTC View PostManna, Desistos, Gaia, Pyros, and Hydra.
The five Primordials ruled over our world for millennia, each a nature spirit representing the apex of a branch of magic. They were immortal, invincible tyrants with no consideration for human life. To them, we were little more than toys. To us, they were Gods.
Until six ...
2022-04-13 17:23:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Jerry!” Soon after the villages disappeared, a shout came from the hill’s base as a rugged figure burst out of the trees. It was Derek, panting as if he’d run all the way here and still wearing the same bloodied clothes as before. He’d come from a different direction than the villagers; they had taken the long, clear way around, while...
2022-04-13 17:23:00 +0000 UTC View PostJerry’s tower had been vandalized.
The fence, arduously built over the winter, had been torn down in places. The wooden statue had been broken into two, lying on the hard ground, and Jerry’s shoemaking bench had also been destroyed. At least Shorty’s grave was undisturbed in the backyard, and the insides were seemingly safe as the do...
2022-04-13 17:20:33 +0000 UTC View Post“Ohhhhh…” With a drawn-out groan, Jerry’s eyelids fluttered open. He was cold, for a moment, incredibly cold, before the feeling receded and his body started working again.
“Master!” A joyous cry came from the side, followed by a chorus of happy, unintelligible sounds.
Jerry smiled. “Hello, everyone,” he said, turning...
2022-04-13 17:20:05 +0000 UTC View Post“I WILL FUCKING DESTROY YOU!” Jericho roared, his voice shaking the leaves with its supernatural intensity. He stood on top of the fallen tree, on top of his brother’s corpse, looking down on everyone.
Below him, everyone shared the same thought. He is immortal…
There was no way anyone could survive that unless they ...
2022-03-28 03:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe slow collapse of a gigantic tree was not a peaceful sight.
The behemoth was almost a hundred feet tall, towering over everything else in the forest. Its dark bark moaned and screamed as it titled, the tree’s own weight ripping part of its torn trunk apart, and then it fell.
The entire forest shook. The tree’s crown, long enta...
2022-03-24 18:45:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe moment Axehand threw off his cloak, grunted, and buried his axe-hand in the tree all the way to the forearm, many different things happened at once.
The surrounding guards froze at his white, skeletal bulk; then, two of them screamed and ran away, while others grabbed their weapons, roared, and attacked. Boney also took off his cloak a...
2022-03-24 18:44:38 +0000 UTC View PostThough the plan seemed far-fetched, it was their only option. By the time the sun began to set, all the details had been ironed out.
The ground team would be Axehand and Boney. The former was the core of the operation, while the latter would be in charge of tricking the guards into letting them in. If push came to shove, Boney was also qui...
2022-03-24 18:44:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe bandit hideout was not what it sounded like.
When someone hears about a hideout, they imagine a shack hidden in the shadows, a rundown basement, or, at best, an abandoned, dusty, barely-standing mansion.
What these bandits had was an entire array of treehouses nestled on dark-bark trees. Wooden platforms were constructed around t...
2022-03-24 18:44:06 +0000 UTC View Post“ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT!” Reymond raved. “RELEASE THEM! RELEASE THEM THIS INSTANT!”
“No, see, they’re happy with this, right guys?”
The Billies nodded, causing bits of flesh to fall off their grievous wounds.
“NO!” yelled Reymond. “You monster, I’ll slaughter you, I’ll…”
He kept spouting threat...
2022-03-24 18:43:27 +0000 UTC View PostI was there during the Red Week.
We set hundreds of kilometers of forests on fire to keep the curse away from our land. We shot the animals and refugees with crossbows from afar, not daring to approach in fear of contracting the curse ourselves, forcing them to either fall to our bolts or get burned to death. Most chose the fo...
2022-03-24 18:42:56 +0000 UTC View PostThe sun crested the horizon, showering the world with life.
A lone, dark figure stood in front of a necromancer’s tower, bow in hand. The tower was already bustling with activity, with the undead arrayed in front of it cutting a stark contrast against the man’s still figure. He opened his mouth.
“Jerry!” he shouted, sending h...
2022-03-24 18:42:30 +0000 UTC View PostTom and Jerry stood atop the tower, gazing at the lands beyond. All across the mountain peaks and forests and valleys, the world sparkled, as if a mirror broken into a million pieces.
“The snow is melting,” stated Jerry.
“It is, master…” Boney sighed. “Our time is running out.”
“And the Billies have still not re...
2022-03-24 18:42:12 +0000 UTC View PostBut while the winter months passed timely, with all their joys and difficulties, Jerry still had the occasional guests over. Or rather, guest.
“Shit, man—” Derek slammed his cup against the table—“it’s freezing here!”
“The cold never bothered me anyway.” Jerry shrugged. “The fire should be roaring soon; give it a ...
2022-03-24 18:41:23 +0000 UTC View PostOf the many undead varieties, I find the skeletal ones most appealing. They are clean, easily reconstructible, and they do not smell hideously. But what they make up for in convenience, they lack in prowess.
Ghouls, the incarnations of those who died of starvation, are the exact opposite. While their grim sustenance is hard to...
2022-03-24 18:40:53 +0000 UTC View PostMayor Ashman welcomed Jerry into his house, heart pounding wildly.
Just what was the matter with those two?! Okay, necromancers were heavily distasteful, but they weren’t illegal! This one was even nice. Why did Murdock have to go and pick the hornet’s nest?
The truth is, he knew exactly why. Murdock, for all his power, could be ...
2022-03-24 18:40:26 +0000 UTC View PostWithin Murdock’s grand house, two naked bodies embraced each other. There were juices involved, sure, but this was decidedly not herbalism.
Jerry pulled his senses back to his own body.
“Boney!” he shouted, opening his eyes. “They’re fucking!”
“They’re fucking what?” asked the skeleton, surprised at his master...
2022-03-24 18:39:57 +0000 UTC View PostWhen the rain was past, Jerry ran outside to the moist forest. Water droplets hung from the edge of leaves and the air was filled by the scent of petrichor, one he particularly enjoyed. All through the forest, the animals hiding from the rain were now resurfacing, bringing life back to the wet green.
Jerry walked past the thick trees and s...
2022-03-24 18:38:26 +0000 UTC View PostSouls are the field of study that interests me the most, and at the same time, the one in which I know the least. Even this little, however, is enough to stand head and shoulders above most of my peers, as well as the bearded fools of Erland.
Through my studies, I have discovered that souls are immaterial, unfettered to the re...
2022-03-24 18:38:05 +0000 UTC View PostNot much is known about nature spirits.
They are separated into five elemental alignments, and it is these alignments that the schools of magic are based on: pyromancy, hydromancy, biomancy, photomancy, and, of course, necromancy. In this aspect, humanity has shamelessly copied nature, as we should.
Being physic...
2022-03-24 18:37:25 +0000 UTC View PostHeadless’ thrown head found Brad right in the chest. The man looked down. The head smiled. He screamed.
More screams kept coming from the forest. Through the treeline, bandits jumped out in panic, running away from something. Behind them, a massive tree branch appeared. Axehand easily held it aloft with both axes, wielding it like a giga...
2022-03-24 18:36:53 +0000 UTC View Post“Hey!” Derek swung his hut’s door open with a big smile. “I’m back!”
“Hey dad,” responded Holly. She was using a round rock to squash some herbs on the table, as Murdock had told her to. She was working. And she was whistling.
“You look mighty happy today,” said Derek, rejoicing. Since the Jerry incident,...
2022-03-24 18:36:00 +0000 UTC View PostBrad grumbled. When three men disappeared near that puny village, Pilpen, he’d assumed they’d run away. It was natural. What would a handful of villagers do to three hardened men? Feed them to death?
So he’d reported his suspicions to the big man, Jericho himself.
Now, the 12-man-strong task force they’d sent to this puny vil...
2022-03-24 18:35:38 +0000 UTC View PostAfter the soldiers were gone and the tea was drunk—or poured through one’s ribcage, in Boney’s case—Jerry went to sleep. He dreamt about being a cow and chewing on grass all day long while watching carriages pass by. He’d enjoy being a cow.
Come morning, he rose from bed, stretched, had some fruits and a cup of tea for breakfast...
2022-03-24 18:35:15 +0000 UTC View Post