They all rushed into the safe room on the thirteenth floor. No one wanted to be outside in the blistering heat longer than necessary. They had heard stories of the desert floors, of course, but they had never seen a desert before. Such things existed on Bluemountain, of course, but not on their continent.
They ...
2025-12-15 23:08:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe Conclave of the Spectral Sword. That was the name of the group the dragon had given me. Not terrible, honestly. There were groups out there with names like the Hermetic Order of the Auric Aurora or the Society of the Phoenix Arisen, and other crazy shit like that. So, by that metric, the Conclave of the Spectral ...
2025-12-13 20:35:19 +0000 UTC View PostIt was impossible to change from one form to another without dropping back to my true form. Unlike with my [Shapeshifting], where I could move between disguises and my true form at will, the forms given by the [Ritual of the Beast] had to be undone before I could pick a new one. An annoying thing, and one that ...
2025-12-12 23:13:42 +0000 UTC View PostAs expected of someone in his position, Druxl was very happy to spill what information he thought would make him look more valuable to me. There were facilities on Thraxl Secunda to process the Systemite, and create System Foci, and there were even a couple finished pieces in the vault. After all, even if t...
2025-12-11 18:32:12 +0000 UTC View PostOnce my students had eaten breakfast and been set to their tasks for the day, I garbed myself in my Lich Queen armor, but kept my human guise, and summoned the visitors from the military to see what the problem was. When they arrived in my throne room, I saw that all four were wearing the dress uniforms of the Se...
2025-12-10 21:55:13 +0000 UTC View Post(Unwind Lounge, Government District, Ceres)
“I can’t believe he pulled it off,” Kitamura Ena, Japan’s Ambassador to Ceres, shook her head as she watched the TV playing the live broadcast of the signing ceremony. Sure, she could have been watching this in the embassy, but the Unwind Lounge was anothe...
2025-12-09 23:09:28 +0000 UTC View PostHowever, the champion did not attack straight away. “Well, well, well. You are the first group of adventurers from Bluemountain to make it this far in the dungeon. Most of the ones who have come here usually falter by the time they get to the Black Temple, and leave, in search of easier fare. They were too used to...
2025-12-09 00:16:33 +0000 UTC View PostKole Malone nodded as we stepped through the doors of the Redmond Towers hotel and casino. The troll who attended the needs of the resident dragon, Ivaeth, looked just like he had the last time they’d been here, with a slight grin on his overly large face. “Ah, Iceblade, and friends. The Lady is expecting...
2025-12-06 23:04:05 +0000 UTC View PostNaturally, the slaves I’d picked up from the bandits cleared me of any wrongdoing. I also managed to work a trade for the bard, selling him to the country of Bikar for 100 pp, a Tier 1 [Endless Camp Ration Box], and seven Tier 1 [Replenishing Skins], which would keep my new slaves fed and watered. The irony o...
2025-12-05 22:19:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Nemesis, hunt at will. It seems one of the lizards on the ground has grown a brain. Either that, or they are about to try and find some way to beg for their lives. Maybe both. Either way, it should be interesting.”
While Nemesis set about playing with the Gel-nak fleet, I turned my attention to Web ...
2025-12-04 22:00:28 +0000 UTC View PostTo the southwest of Hawai’i, between the Johnston Atoll and Tabuaeran Atoll, there was a line of seamounts that roughly followed one of the primary ley lines coursing across the planet. This ley line was the reason I picked this undersea range for the site of New Athelas. Not only would it provide access to r...
2025-12-03 21:22:28 +0000 UTC View PostIt wouldn’t be inappropriate to call the gathering before me an international conference. After all, there were official representatives from sixteen countries here, not including the Ceresan Empire. All of them were from countries that, before the Initialization, were routinely looked down upon by the major p...
2025-12-02 20:53:46 +0000 UTC View PostThe last of the fifteen Knight Slimes fell. It had been a hard fight, since the liquid metal bodies of the slimes meant that they were hard to injure with physical attacks, but they had a level of innate resistance to magic, as well. Still, with a full half of their party having attack magic, and the other ha...
2025-12-01 21:56:49 +0000 UTC View Post(Shadowmen In-Game OOC Forum, Seattle Section)
Reminder: This forum is for Out of Character (OOC) discussion only. Please direct in-character discussions (including business dealings and the like) to the appropriate in-world forums.
GreenGirl, Yolo, Scholar, DoReMi, RedFox, Rerun...
2025-11-29 19:17:21 +0000 UTC View Post“…And that was how we took down the Theocracy’s attempt to spread discord between Bikar and Dascora, with the aid of the Fastriders.”
The major looting was already done, thanks to the tools the Voice of the World offered, but finding clothes that would fit the former captives took time. Since I did...
2025-11-28 22:08:40 +0000 UTC View Post(Command Nest, Gel-nak Imperial Navy Ship Claw of the Vengeful Emperor, Thraxl System, Gel-Nak Empire)
Fleet High Commander Urlosk of the Thraxl Defense Fleet cursed his rotten fortunes. At one point, he had been Fleet High Commander of the Imperial Fleet, the fleet that guarded the Emperor himself w...
2025-11-27 18:34:51 +0000 UTC View Post(Magical World Disharmony Server, General Chat)
UsualSuspect, manoutoftime, muon, MewTwo, Avariel, Chummer, Golddigger, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, MacD, Inquisitor, OrangeQueen, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, BabyShark, Lichwatcher, Not_the_Face!, TheLichQueen, Scholar, Sa...
2025-11-26 14:50:42 +0000 UTC View Post(Imperial Palace, Ceres)
Talia Skinner led the way into the residential wing of the palace. For once, they a night to themselves, and they had some of their sister-slaves back from abroad. And that meant one thing: Girls Night.
“So, how did you get Master to agree to this?” asked Gloria, the Ma...
2025-11-25 22:02:13 +0000 UTC View PostDanyll gasped as she stepped through the portal, and looked up at the scene around her. “It looks almost like the Grand Arena in Mssera, capital of the Msserine Kingdom back on Bluemountain!”
Rhys looked around at what he knew was the twelfth floor of the dungeon, but looked like an outdoo...
2025-11-24 21:47:33 +0000 UTC View Post(MetaTech Virtual Headquarters, Shadowmen Control Room)
Demi Turner breathed out slowly. “All right, continued rollout of the Brotherhood plotlines look to be going as expected. Have the AIs pinned down where the eventual locus point will be? We’re goint to need to do some preliminary work on that, ...
2025-11-22 18:18:44 +0000 UTC View Post“Start collecting heads,” I told my pets. “I’ll see about the slaves in the loot table.”
As they set to work, I made sure to shift back into my ‘human’ form. Didn’t want to show off too much, too soon. Opening the door greeted me with the stench of unwashed bodies. Sure enough, there were eig...
2025-11-21 12:54:05 +0000 UTC View Post(Srusk Spaceport, Srusk 3, Srusk System)
White Bear and Venom (still wasn’t going to try and pronounce the Russian names) were waiting for me as I stepped out of the Rhuk’s doors, and onto the spaceport tarmac. The spaceport had certainly changed over the week that had passed since we opened t...
2025-11-20 21:45:51 +0000 UTC View PostIt was 15:30 Ceres Time when the call came through. Well, that meant it was only 12:30 EST in Washington DC, where the call was coming from, but time zones were fun like that. Especially when one decided to set your time zone as UTC -2, which was only shared year-round by a few islands in the South Atlantic. Gi...
2025-11-18 21:48:25 +0000 UTC View PostRhys Lunaleaf staggered slightly as he stepped through the portal. It was late on the third day of their delve into Lord Kuronoth’s dungeon, and the fourth day since they came to Earth, and he was already very glad that they had spent that extra day gathering information and preparing supplies. Without that kno...
2025-11-17 21:31:49 +0000 UTC View PostIn the end, all four of the extra technomancers decided to take their chances in the Barrens. The human man was from Detroit, and the Troll woman was from Chicago, so they were confident in their ability to find friends in the area. Ork woman went with the troll. Dwarf man was from Toronto, which also wasn’t to...
2025-11-15 14:42:08 +0000 UTC View PostSadly, Tibby the ranger lookout was a lot less of a threat when there was an invisible Planar Huntress stabbing her from behind with a Forceblade. The ghostly weapon stabbed through her spine, and possibly her heart, as well. The only sound she made was a soft gasp, before she began choking on blood as I kicked her...
2025-11-14 22:28:20 +0000 UTC View Post(Capes & Cowls Forum, General Chat)
Message of the Day: Remember, Capes & Cowls is ‘neutral ground’. Keep it civil, and if you try to track someone through our site, it will not end well for you.
Speedy, AngelEyes, Jester, Freedom, Aegis, Stars, Emerald, Snowflake, MagicGurl, RedHot, Schola...
2025-11-13 21:29:48 +0000 UTC View PostAn hour later, my apprentices had returned from their various errands. The four who had helped in stripping the skeleton of its flesh suit were looking much better, instead of appearing as though they’d stepped out of a horror movie. All six of them, though, had slightly queasy expressions on their ...
2025-11-13 00:05:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe debrief went on for some time. After all, there were three major battles for us to go over, dissecting and analyzing the decisions and tactics that had gone into those battles. As promised, there was no talk of blame, because even where things had gone sideways, we were pushing into new ground. This was a learni...
2025-11-11 22:33:09 +0000 UTC View PostPeter Franks was calm as he led the group of Atlanteans to the two-story building that was the Adventurers Guild office here in Swamptown. The building wasn’t really anything special. Cement slab, cinder block walls, basic roof. It did have enchantments to keep wind and rain off it, though, as well as gener...
2025-11-11 00:50:37 +0000 UTC View Post