The Ghost Blunderer
87 Ashan, arc 719

He had to admit, this whole business of Sand Flea was wearing on his patience. In his world, you helped those who were up against a foe beyond their capability. Sure, if they got stupid drunk and made an annoyance of themselves, they could be said to...

31 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | The Crags
The enraged swordsman swung his blade down at Balthazar and Balthazar blocked it with his rock-encased forearm. The blade scraped right off the stone gauntlet and then Balthazar slammed his other stone encased fist into the warrior's head. Without a...

31 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | Fools Run
The unarmed warrior ran at Balthazar without waiting for his companions who had both shifted to grip their sword with two hands in the wake of what Balthazar had done to their friend's sword. He wouldn't be able to do it again so easily, but they did not...

25th Trial, Ashan 719a
Bay of Yaralon
8th bell

Continued from here

He didn't often fight angry. Made you stupid. Muddled your judgement. Better the cold, precise butchery he usually employed than the blind, burning joy of battle-rage. He'd seen too many skilled fighters dull themselves...

31 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | Fool's Run, Withersfield
It was a fairly sunny trial and Balthazar set out from Hammer Gate. He wore his loose fitting white shirt and dark brown pants. He had boots with him but as usual he was carrying the boots in his left hand and walking bare foot. It was...

25th Trial, Ashan 719a
Bay of Yaralon
8th bell

Continued from here

Don't get close t'me. When the killin' starts. Just keep yer distance.

Those had been the last words Kilmain had heard Mister Thagoras speak. The little man had spat out a series of short, sharp orders before erecting...

Speech Thoughts

5th of Cylus 719

Like all Naer, Alora had a special fondness for the season of Cylus. And there was nothing quite like the Cylus' under the skies of Yaralon. The Moons shone bright, never overcast, allowing the full brightness of their surface to reflect upon the fields. It...

25th Trial, Ashan 719a
Bay of Yaralon
8th bell

Continued from here

He wasn't expecting the sharks. Huge and sleek and dead-eyed, gliding through the water with hideous grace. It was a mercy that he couldn't really see them while he was swimming for his life; the panic might have seized his...

27th of Ashan, Arc 719
Are you sure we're going the right way? Prae asked, studying the ground in front of them rather skeptically. He saw no prints or tracks, and honestly, couldn't find any sign of their quarry's passage at all. Admittedly, Bastard's Grove was not the best place for tracking,...

43 Ashan 719 | Balthazar Black | Yaralon
The sun rose for another trial and Balthazar walked out of Spear Gate and into the expanse outside of Yaralon as was becoming his habit. For this trial he had resolved to himself to do something different than before. He'd posted a few flyers around the...

Cylus 1st 719

Alora had heard the rumors, from a cycle or two back. A large shipment of grain had gone missing. Enough food to feed the city for an entire cycle. Many had gone hungry since, many more would go hungry. She heard all of that before she heard the description of the man who was...

25th Trial, Ashan 719a
Bay of Yaralon
8th bell

Black flag! Black flag off the port bow!

Shite.

Well, that fucks that plan, dunnit?

Captain Senter ground his teeth for a moment, but let no outward sign of nerves show. It was a hopeful strategy, after all. Built more unlikely luck than...

53rd of Ashan, Arc 719
When Praetorum had woken up that morning, he'd found himself particularly antsy, with an almost desperate need to move-flow-run. He'd run a few laps around his neighborhood, even taken a dive into the harbor, but none of it really alleviated that persistent itch in his...

Ashan 1st 719 Very early morning, still dark.

The open chasm of the quarry over which the two found themselves standing, sprawled out for many miles ahead of them. The Yari were certainly greedy for stone. Kisaik wasn't one to pry as to their purpose. Anyway their purpose was clear. They were...

Yaralon
78th Ashan, 719

Come on guys, turn out your pockets. Let's see what this morning's haul looks like.

Life was difficult when you were a street kid, especially in a city like Yaralon that practically built its culture around the concept of 'survival of the fittest'. Earning a living...

25 Ashan 719 | Azrael Blackfire | Bastard's Grove
He could feel his heart beating in his chest and his blood pumping through his body as he ran through the forest. He could hear the metal armor of his pursuers' clanking as they chased after him. Azrael threw his bow over his shoulder and tossed...

30th of Cylus, Arc 718
Come one! Come all! Come on down to the Moonshine Crawl!

The cry rang through the city, spreading like wildfire, signalling to moonshiners it was their time to, well, shine. As for those who intended to try for the title of Moontouched, this was the signal for them to...

80th of Zi'Da

The days were getting shorter, and the times leaner. Nevertheless, the Yari found a way to forge ahead. Theirs was a culture of absolutes. Celebrating and loving life, but simultaneously flirting with and often inviting death without ever mentioning it. The Yari were no strangers to...

65th of Ashan, Arc 719
Praetorum carefully lifted Sivan's front paw, searching the claws for damage. Just ahead of him, he could see the biqaj twins chattering away, signing rapidly to each other. After spending so much time with them, he'd picked up a few words, here and there; quite a lot of it...

25 Ashan 719 | Azrael Blackfire | Bastard's Grove
It was an unusually cold trial when Azrael set out on his way to Bastard's Grove. He wore a few pieces of leather armoring to protect himself but no real armor other than that. His bow and a quiver of arrows were slung across his back and Azrael's...

50th of Ashan, Arc 719
Right. The old woman sighed, peering down her spyglass at the distant goblin village. So this is how it's going to work, you lot.


Prae shared a glance with the mercenary at his side, a biqaj wielding a bow. The man simply shrugged. Taking on contracts like these, where a...

1 Ymiden 719 | Azrael Blackfire | Bastard's Grove
It had been a quiet night. Azrael had built a small camp in Bastard's Grove a few hundred feet away from a bloodwater pond because he had discovered- in quite an uncomfortable way- that the water was actually a wonderful source of nutrition. He'd...

8th of Ymiden, Arc 719
Nearly ten trials had passed, and Prae still wasn't used to the stares. Spirits weren't that uncommon in Yaralon, relatively speaking, but Prae had to admit, it wasn't everyday that one saw an ithecal with four of them winding around his body, or fluttering around his head—...

15th of Cylus

Kisaik was awoken from his dreaming, by a constant rumbling of the ground beneath him. He almost thought it must have been an Earthquake, but then when he felt the surface beneath him, it felt like... Sackcloth?

Chattering and high-pitched bird noises assaulted his ears, as his...

12 Ashan 719 | Azrael Blackfire | Inside a Fracture, Outside of Yaralon
Azrael shut the door to the keep and put his back to it. He could still hear his captors fighting the goblins just beyond the door and he could still see the fracture in the middle of the courtyard in his mind. It would be...