After sealing his compact with the elders of Three Fields, the atmosphere had turned raucous and celebratory. Beer flowed like water, and the deer that he and Porkchop had slain earlier in the day was brought out for a great roast.
Normally, that would have been excessive for a group of seven, but with their eighth being a greater meles, it was only just enough. Kaius tha...
2024-12-13 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThey sat there, on that lonely hill that held Father’s final rest, until the sun started to go down.
It was cathartic in many ways, even if it was painful. He’d been given a certainty in Father’s passing, where previously there had only been likelihoods. While that certainty did not bring him peace, nor did it release him from the burden of grief, there w...
2024-12-12 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a picturesque spot, his fathers final resting place.
Maybe a twenty minute walk from Three Fields, along one of the dirt trails that wound their way through the farms that flanked the village.
There was a hill there, one of many that graced the rolling grasslands and meadows of the frontier. It rose above the rest, but it was gentle. An easy walk o...
2024-12-11 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius slumped, leaning bodily against Porkchop as a wave of grief washed over him. He felt boneless, sapped of all energy.
Yet, it was almost a relief. To know. He’d suspected for so long, dreaded and ruminated on the ‘if’s and ‘maybe’s of it that to finally have it confirmed was like dropping a weight that he had held since falling from that cliff so long ago.<...
2024-12-10 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostAs soon as Kaius mentioned that he had become Observed by the system for consuming a Natural Treasure, the table erupted.
Each and every one started talking over each other, their responses ranging drastically. Sandor merely scoffed, rolling his eyes, while Eillish, Hurrin and Yanmi jumped to their feet, hammering him with questions. Illendra sat quietly, her jaw...
2024-12-09 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius stiffened slightly as he walked through the open door of the Stout Oak, though he did not break stride. He had a lot of memories in this place.
Of the leather wrapped benches and tables, nestled in cosy nooks that were recessed into one of the tavern’s walls. The tables buffed to a high shine, reflecting the candles that sat above despite being discoloured from ma...
2024-12-08 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius spun his old friend through the air, smiling in joy as he set her down on her feet. She didn’t let go.
Illendra clutched him like her grip was the only thing keeping him present. She buried her face into his armoured chest, uncaring about the jagged edges that must have dug their way into her skin.
“Where have you been, Kaius? I thought I lost ...
2024-12-07 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post*Ding! level 3 Red Deer slain - Experience Gained!*
*Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached class level 3!*
*+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!*
*Ding! Latent Glyph of Drakthar has reached level 4!*...
2024-12-06 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius craned upwards, squeezing Porkchop with his thighs so that he could rise to his full height. From his vantage point astride his brother’s back, he was just able to see through the gap in the trees ahead. There, perhaps a half dozen leagues to the north, he could make out the thin line of the cliffs that he had fallen from.
Beyond them, way off in t...
2024-12-05 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostSome time in the near past…
Ianmus shifted his grip on his staff. Though its surface was smooth and comfortable to hold, it was still a little knobbly, and after so much walking those little aches grew tiresome if he didnt adjust every now and then.
He looked back, seeing the great wall of short mountains that sealed of Mystral’s peninsula fr...
2024-12-04 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostOne moment Kaius was standing at the peak of a dwarven citadel deep below the earth, then the world shifted, blurring for a few mind-bending fractions of a second as he was torn along an impossible axis. Something moved within those depths, something large and curious, something that inspired a primal terror within him. Then he was snatched away.
His stom...
2024-12-03 18:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius lurched towards his brother, laying his hands on the dense and gore drenched fur that coated the meles’ thick muscle-bound form. He felt his brother's physique straining, fibres snapping as they pulled away from bones that shattered of their own violation.
Panic surged through him, his heart racing as he watched Porkchop undergo some sort of metamorphic ch...
2024-12-02 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostPorkchop left the den, following closely behind the Matriarch as she led the way through the deep forest. It was identical to how he remembered it. Tree trunks, thick enough that it would take a dozen of him lying end to end to match their thickness, were spread wide with their canopies shading all that lay beneath.
The air was charged with magic, each l...
2024-12-01 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostPorkchop groaned, stretching as he felt the cold stone of the dwarven city disappear from beneath his paws, replaced in an instant with the familiar grit of hard packed dirt. If not for Kaius’s warning of what to expect, the sudden transition would have no doubt startled him. As it was, he took the moment to feel the simple comfort of earth once more.
He breathe...
2024-11-30 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe first thing Kaius noticed was the thick layer of semi-dried gore that was sticking to his skin and gumming up the fine joints of his scalemail. The second was the smell, the foetid stench of stale battle.
He groaned, eyes opening as he sat up. He was back on the plateau, leaning up on the same stone plinth that he had sat next to before selecting his class.
P...
2024-11-29 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostStill cloaked in a cowl dyed the colours of the forest, Kaius’s class guide had led him away from the split boulders that had held his class skill options. It was time for him to learn his first hymn for his new Drakthar rune.
His excitement made him impatient, and it was an exercise in will to match his guide's comfortable pace through the forest.
Than...
2024-11-28 20:30:15 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 124: Long Awaited Destiny pt. 7
The final split boulder was a large thing. He recognised it, a perfect duplicate of another further across the base of the slope. The same one Father had used to teach him runes.
The shifting glyph on the boulder's face made Father’s master runework look like a child's drawing. It was jagged and aggressive, imposs...
2024-11-27 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostAfter leaving the meadow that held the site of his class selection, Kaius and his guide had fallen into an easy silence. He appreciated that. As they walked through the giant old growth forest, working their way through the undergrowth, he started to feel at home.
It had been far, far, too long since he had been in the Sea, been graced by the radiant warmth of the sun,...
2024-11-26 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius rose from his soul-space with a gasp, his eyes snapping open to take in the dense ash canopy above. Warm sunlight filtered through the green leaves, comforting him with memories of home. He was still in his class selection.
He’d been told to expect that, but after all he experienced, it was hard to avoid feeling surprised.
His class construct, the...
2024-11-25 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostEnraptured by the sight of a potential future, Kaius focused intensely on the words that appeared before him as he focused on the carving embedded into the trunk of the last ash.
Runeblade Initiate:
Class - Tier I
Heroic
Relevant Feats:
Has slain ...
2024-11-24 20:31:00 +0000 UTC View PostKaius took in the status of his first option. It was easy to see why he had been offered it. Warsworn Rune-Acolyte looked to be a brutal class. He could see it suiting him well, something that would lean into the rush of battle. The sheer savage joy of throwing yourself in harm's way to claim victory.
It also…alarmed him. There were several ...
2024-11-24 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius stared at the aged clone across from him in bald faced shock. It wanted him to do what?! It couldn’t seriously be asking him to cull all classes lower than Heroic could it? That was utter insanity. While the rarity of your starting class was not the be all and end all, having a higher rarity class did drastically increase your chances of pursuing the so...
2024-11-23 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius gasped, sitting bolt upright like he had been hit by lightning. He whirled his head around, disoriented and confused. A moment ago he had been sitting on the summit of the dwarven city, confirming his class selection. Now, he was…somewhere.
Craning his head back and forth, he gasped as he realised that he was in the Sea. It was unmistakable. The rich scent of earth and ...
2024-11-22 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius drank in the stream of notifications. They were unlike any other communication from the system he had experienced before. They demanded his attention, soaked in layered meaning and context, refusing to allow him to misconstrue their words.
Mana would rise, and the low density regions that had sheltered the vast majority of settlements would be no more. Nowhe...
2024-11-21 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKaius sat frozen, locked in the chair. His heart pounded in his chest, every thump straining to push blood through his system, like his vital fluid had turned to treacle. He longed to turn his head, to check on Porkchop. He felt his bolstering support flowing through the bond, and sent his own across in turn.
He dared not reach out with anything resembling real speech. Not here...
2024-11-20 20:30:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe world quaked, foundational tenets of existence shivering. Kaius felt something deep and central to his being fall silent. For the first time in his life he couldn’t feel the omnipresent connection to the system, revealed to him only by its absence.
He gasped, heart skipping a beat as adrenaline dumped into him. He had no idea what was happening, but if it was eno...
2024-11-19 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius downed the healing tonic, feeling the alchemical heat bloom in his stomach as it bolstered his reserves of Health. Glass clinked on stone as he tossed the bottle to the side and readied his grip on A Father’s Gift.
That blow had nearly been the end of him, snapping bone and sending him to the ground hard. If Porkchop hadn’t dived in to...
2024-11-18 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostPorkchop watched through the corner of his eye as his bond-brother tore into the achilles of the ogre, working to further disable it. The Guardian didn’t take the assault without a fight, its massive leg kicking and flailing as it tried to shake them off. It clawed at the ground with its massive hands, Pushing itself up in an effort to sit up and gain some measure of defence against them.
... 2024-11-17 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostKaius’s heart caught in his throat as the Siege Ogre flew across the open space between them. There might have been a stone statue between them, but the Guardian cared little, it may as well have been made of straw for all that it slowed it. Stone shattered into dust.
Every quaking step may as well have taken it another league forward. Something that large should not have bee...
2024-11-16 20:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe ogre opened its tusk-ridden mouth wide and bellowed a cacophonous challenge. It stood in the middle of the carved plateau that made up the summit of the dwarven city, surrounded on all sides by a garden of lovingly carved statues.
Shimmering blue walls had sealed in the summit, linking the many columns that lined its edge. Kaius ignored the surprise barrier; it was al...
2024-11-15 20:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post