Tag: writing

Five or So Questions with Epidiah Ravachol on Swords Without Master

Tell me about Swords Without Master. How excited are you?

I could almost throw up, I’m so excited. And wracked with fear. This project has been on my plate for almost four years now, and it’s come to mean a lot of things to me. It is one of the starting points for the journey that has led me to Worlds Without Master. So it’s quite fitting that it should be a part of the ezine.

By the time this interview is up on the web, Swords Without Master will probably be out and I’ll be feeling a whole different set of emotions. But right now I’m in the limbo between being done with my part of the game and awaiting its release. This is a tough place for me to be. I get real antsy and the brain starts cataloging the most annoying of all possible futures. I get in a lot of imaginary Internet fights during this time. History has shown that none of them actually come true, but a boy can dream.

But I am excited! I cannot wait to see what folks make of all the new stuff that’s available for the game since “The City of Fire & Coin.” And I’m eager to start working on the next step, even as I debate what that next step is. I have a trilogy of shorter games designed to teach the best practices for playing Swords Without Master that I may turn my attention to soon. Or I may indulge in my bestiary addiction and start putting together a Book of Perils for the game.

But there is no refreshing splash of cool water like writing fiction right after crossing a massive desert of game text. And I am secretly most excited about that.

Wolfspell was a huge hit. Tell me a little about your inspiration and design process. What made this cool game happen?

Wolfspell begins with the short story “One Winter’s Due.” The idea of two badass sisters who must transform themselves into wolves in order to fulfill conflicting oaths came to me at my own sister’s wedding. The story was an absolute pleasure to write, but long before I had finished it the game designer in me began lamenting that I “wasted” such a good premise on, of all things,fiction. What followed was a mighty battle of guilt and passive-aggression betwixt the two halves of Eppy until an uneasy peace accord was reached with the compromise that both got to use the premise.

It’s been a little bizarre since then. I’ve really enjoyed reading the play reports of Wolfspell. This is nothing new to me, and I often enjoy hearing what people are doing with my games. But since this one started as fiction first . . . it may be a bit like the difference between a composer hearing someone play their music and a musician hearing someone cover their song. Cool, but definitely a new experience that took a bit to get used to.

For those of us newer to your work, tell us about ‘The City of Fire & Coin.“

“The City of Fire & Coin” is a free preview adventure for Swords Without Master. You can download it here: http://dig1000holes.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/the-city-of-fire-coin/
It came out in June of 2012. It’s a bit of an experiment in game text. The whole thing is meant to be read out loud as you play your first game. So it presents the rules in a particular fashion modeled on how I teach the game when I run my demos, which, as it turns out, is very different from how rules are typically presented in a game text.

This method has its advantages and its disadvantages. You can open the PDF and start playing right away, without anyone in your group having read the rules before. And many have done so. But it does not make a particularly good reference book. The rules are arranged in the order you will need to learn them, not by associated concept. That plus having to read as if the rules were being read to you, make things a little difficult to look up. A bit like having to find the right spot to watch in an instructional video.

“The City of Fire & Coin” is meant to be part of a larger whole. The idea is that the eventual form Swords Without Master will take a number of different approaches to the rules, so people can pick and choose the ones that work for them.

There’s a lot more to the game what what’s in the preview, but it gives a really good look at the basics. “The City of Fire & Coin” contains just about all the rules you’ll find in the first half of the Swords Without Master text that appears in issue three of Worlds Without Master. And those are basically the only rules you should be using the first few times you play. Once you get a hang of the system, you can start adding some of the other stuff found in issue three.

What has been the biggest challenge of Swords Without Master?

I fell just a bit too in love with it. I can get caught up in big projects, in a recursion of revision, trying to hammer out one, giant, beautiful, perfect product. You can always add something to a project like that and it could go on forever.

Last year, when I put out Vast & Starlit and What is a Roleplaying Game?, both of which are about 500 words long, I had a bit of a crisis. The concept to execution times on those games were tiny. Especially compared to the four or so years I had been plugging away at Swords Without Master at that point. It started to seem a bit hopeless. Why the hell was I writing all these words for something that I’ve explained in 10 minutes? I honestly considered abandoning the project at that point.

That is, ultimately, why I decided to publish it in Worlds Without Master. To force myself to write a much smaller version of it–though it still turned out quite a bit larger than I had planned for–and to give myself a venue for future exploration. It turned out that last bit was the most important bit. As I was stumbling over my deadlines, it was helpful to remind myself that I don’t have to shove all my design into this one text. I could leave some ideas out for now and concentrate on the most important parts.

In the end, I shoved a lot into there anyway, but it was still tremendously helpful knowing I didn’t have to shove it all in there.

What did you enjoy most about creating Wolfspell – the mechanics, writing “One Winter’s Due,” both, something else?

That game fell together so easily. Or, at least, that’s how I remember it. I think there was a few early drafts that were just wrong, wrong, wrong. But when I hit on what I was doing, it just flew out. And the early playtest was pure joy.

Oh, but the best part was researching the wolves! What a lovely excuse to sit down and watch whatever I could find on the Internet about wolves.

Five or So Questions with Matthijs Holter on The Devil’s Cub

Today I have an interview with Matthijs Holter, creator of Archipelago, about his book “The Devil’s Cub” and it’s upcoming sequel.

Tell me a little bit about “The Devil’s Cub.” What’s the story?

The main character is a 150-year-old noaide – a Sami shaman. When she encounters the devil on a lonely forest road, she decides to seduce him – and becomes pregnant with his child. So the question is, what will she do with it? Her plan is to use it to gain more power, but will she manage to do that, and how? How will it change her?

What made you choose this time period and these folklore elements?

It’s set in the 1800s in Norway, which, at that time, was a place of contrasts and changes. A few families became extremely wealthy selling timber to warring countries, while most people were poor, often starving. The church tried to educate and civilize the population, but the population often didn’t give a shit – or, rather, they stuck with their traditions and beliefs. In the book, of course, most of those beliefs are true, and I get to play with a lot of half-forgotten elements from our history and folklore. Some are pretty horrible! There was something called the utbord, for instance, which is the spirit of an unchristened child; the image of an undead baby, buried somewhere in the forest, screaming… It’s pretty bad. And it says a lot of things about the culture at that time; about religion, about the expectations towards women, about how children were treated…

I wrote a game in this setting in 2004, “Draug”, and did a lot of research. Back then, I tried to be very historically correct; now I’m having fun with it, using history and superstition to make a great story.

You used some methods from gaming to help write the book. What were they and how did they help with the process?

The most important one was what Ron Edwards calls “Driving with bangs”. A bang is something that happens to a character that they have to do something about. Often you, as a player (or writer), don’t know what they will do until it happens. The situation that starts this whole book is a bang: “You’re pregnant with the devil. Now what?”

Another one was to use phrases from my own game, Archipelago. (It’s available for free on the internet). I didn’t do this very consciously, but at points I definitely thought to myself “More details!” or “That won’t be so easy!”

And then there’s what Vincent Baker calls “Play to find out what happens” – in this case, write to find out what happens. I didn’t plan ahead a lot; I was just curious to see where the story would go, and was often surprised at what the characters chose to do. There was a lot of laughing, shaking my head, and cursing in frustration as I saw their stories unfold.

Tell me about the sequel. What can I look forward to? When is it coming out?

I can’t tell you too much, of course, because that would spoil it! But we do see some major changes in the protagonist. She meets new dangers that are, in their way, much worse than the devil (“Better the devil you know” is an apt expression here). She also gets a new circle of friends – or, should I say, her first ever circle of friends, as she tends to be a loner. There are ghosts, unexpected sexual attractions, a huge fire and some pretty good parties. It’s a little like “Pride and Prejudice” with lesbian witches.

It’s coming out this spring – we’re editing it now!

What was the biggest challenge writing “The Devil’s Cub” and its sequel? Do you have any suggestions for how to deal with it for new writers?

The biggest challenge… Actually telling myself and the world that this was what I wanted to do, and then doing something about it. I took time off from work, dropped off the internet, didn’t see a lot of people for a while, and just wrote, wrote, wrote. And once I got that momentum going, getting up every day and knowing “Today I’m writing”, the book took on a life of its own.

My suggestions for new writers:

– Decide whether you want to make money or have fun. You’ll probably never make money from this, so have fun instead.

– If you want to write, you have to write. Read some, too. But mostly just write, write, write. Open your document and start typing words. If it’s crap, you can throw it away later, but while you’re writing, you can’t actually know if what you’ve written is great or terrible!

– Use a treadmill. Write while walking. It’s great! You get flow, your brain gets oxygen and comes up with lots of ideas, you get a little exercise along the way. Amazing.

– Last, but not least: Get a good editor. I’m working with Lizzie Stark right now, and really enjoying that. Talk in person (or via Skype).

Thanks to Matthijs for a great interview!

Author’s web page: http://matthijsholter.wordpress.com/

Five or So Questions with Marshall Miller on The Warren

I interviewed Marshall Miller about his work on The Warren, as well as his Dungeon World Starters.

Tell me about The Warren.

The Warren is a tabletop roleplaying game about survival and community where players take on the role of rabbits. In the game, rabbits are faced with an imperiled warren and a naturalistic world – it’s up to them to figure out how to make the best of things. Longer term, the game leans toward generational play and focuses on the warren itself, gently pushing players to adopt new characters periodically. The game takes inspiration from Richard Adams’ book Watership Down and builds various Apocalypse World Engine (AWE) games, primarily Apocalypse World and Dungeon World. The Warren started out as a little 6-page hack called Lapins & Lairs that I released into the wilds last summer. After some playtests, retooling, and fleshing out, I’m releasing the expanded rules text into the wild for further playtesting and feedback. You can find the playtest materials here.

What motivated you to make the game? What made you choose Apocalypse World as the base for the game?

I think this feeling is pretty common: everyone and their brother read a book during grade school and yet there you are, years later, reading it for the first time. That’s what happened with me and Watership Down. When I got to the part where [spoiler] Fiver has his vision, it hit me – Fiver just opened his brain to the psychic maelstrom! [/spoiler]  As the story went on, I couldn’t stop seeing it through the lens of Apocalypse World. I remember this all really vividly because it was also the weekend that the Dungeon World launched on Kickstarter and my brain space was already steeping in AWE. I saw how Dungeon World was taking the idea of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and powering it with the apocalypse and reckoned it could be done with Bunnies & Burrows as well. The idea has been tugging at me ever since.

What techniques did you use to hack it?

Apocalypse World Engine games get a lot of play at conventions, so one of my goals was to make a game that focused on that one-shot format. The Warren features a single rabbit playbook that all the players use; however, each character picks a unique move for their rabbit. That means cutting straight to talking about who is taking which move and what that says about their rabbit. Tracking experience and making fronts are often skipped over in con games so I cut away the experience mechanism and reconfigured the front mechanism to be more like aspects (Fate) and monsters (Dungeon World). Also gone are the direct conflict moves like ‘hack and slash’ or ‘seize by force.’ Instead, players have moves for running away and braving things that scare them. Consequently, this is not a game where you tackle opposition head on – instead rabbits must be fast and clever. “Sex moves” from Apocalypse World were a good fit because, you know, bunnies are known for their prodigious reproductive rate. It was important to get the mating/birthing moves right – I hope I succeeded. Lastly, because this is a game about survival and community, I wanted to make it easy for characters to regularly die or step back to become staples of the community. I always liked the ‘retire to safety’ move in Apocalypse World so I brought it to the forefront and made it a move everyone had access to all the time. Interestingly, doing so also allows players to use it to sacrifice control of their character in dramatic ways – much like dashing the Jenga tower in Dread. Between the birthing and retiring moves, the game lends itself to generational play if you’re going to play more than one session.

What kind of players would like The Warren?

Thus far, the people who have expressed an interest in The Warren: 1) already play other Apocalypse World Engine games and are excited to see the system go in a new direction, 2) like Watership Down, Bunnies & Burrows, or animal games in general and are curious to see what all the fuss over AWE games is about, or 3) are looking for a game that they can play with their kids and… oh! look! bunnies! A big reason for expanding on the original hack was to clarify the animal genre to players who weren’t familiar with Watership Down and to better introduce the AWE to players who were new to the ‘system.’ I also included some alternatives to the sex moves to make it friendlier to younger audiences.

You’ve done some Dungeon World Adventure Starters. What’s your process for creating them?

Dungeon Starters are one-sheet supplements for running the first session of a Dungeon World game that collect a bunch of thematically related imagery and mechanical tidbits for the GM to pull from. Around the time when the red book version of Dungeon World came out, I was wondering what a published adventure for Dungeon World might look like. It couldn’t dictate a story or series of events, it couldn’t fill in all the gaps, and it couldn’t make many assumptions because players would be contributing details too. The solution was to build Dungeon Starters around loaded questions for the GM to ask. The loaded questions convey both setting and situation details and ties the characters to them. From there, you can create a cloud of setting elements that relate to those questions (e.g. custom moves, items, spells, monsters, etc.). My best advice is: mashup two or more settings or story ideas you like to create something with a unique feel, don’t waste any chance to reinforce the theme or tone of the starter when creating elements, brainstorm more elements than you need and then pair them down so that only the most compelling and synergistic elements remain, and remember that you’re making a reusable document – maximize the number of different directions you could spur the fiction depending on what subset of elements you introduce to the fiction. I’ve got some more commentary on Dungeon Starters and a handful of examples here.

Are you working on any other projects? 

Doesn’t everyone have a half dozen game designs percolating in the back of their mind? Right now I’m really excited about the plethora of small games being published and the blossoming of various regional LARP scenes. I’m having fun dipping my toes into those waters. I also really enjoy helping other people to brainstorm, playtest, and develop their games – collaboration is the best!

My Three Things

John Adamus wrote about depression, and it really hit me. Content warning for talk about self-harm, suicide, and depression/mental illness.

http://writernextdoor.com/2014/02/02/the-writer-and-whats-important/

My three things? They change sometimes. But here’s the now. They’re a little similar to John’s, so my bad! But still.

Gaming. I really enjoy the community and the experience that surrounds and is gaming. I don’t think I could give up gaming even if I wanted to, it’s become such a huge part of me. I like making games, I like playing them, I like talking about them and reading about them. Games are a whole world for me.

Food. I love eating food. I don’t make it a lot (lack of energy, etc.) but when I do it’s normally fantastic. I really dig getting something new and interesting and trying it out, going out to expensive restaurants for the whole experience – food is life. It’s happiness. It’s sustenance. It never leaves me feeling lonely or judged or hungry.

Sex. This is kind of inappropriate or TMI or whatever, but I love sex. I love learning about it. I love reading Oh Joy, Sex Toy! I think toys and kink are awesome even if I don’t use them or participate in it. I love having sex, and talking about sex, and hearing stories about sex. I even like saying “sex!” It’s an expression of love, it’s fun, it’s a way to share intimacy, and it’s just emotion translated into physical action, and that’s awesome.

Five or So Questions with Mark Diaz Truman and Epidiah Ravachol

I interviewed Mark Diaz Truman about The Fate Codex, and Epidiah Ravachol about Worlds Without Master, both Patreon projects. 
First, Mark!

Tell us a little about The Fate Codex. What goals do you have for the project?

The Fate Codex is a mostly-monthly e-zine showcasing the Fate roleplaying system. Each month(ish), we’ll publish an e-zine that features new Fate Systems, Essays from Fate experts, Quick Start Adventures, and Short Fiction in the Fate style–all featuring new and experienced voices in the Fate Community.

My goals are diverse. I hope to bring in new folks to the system with a set of e-zines that are easy to pick up and play and to entertain experienced Fate players with Systems and Essays that expand what the system can do. I’m also hoping to feature new perspectives on Fate from a diverse set of creators!

Finally, I want to see people get paid for the great work they’re doing. Folks like Ryan Macklin, for example, are constantly pushing out new ideas to the Fate Community, but often as unpaid blog posts and community discussions. I don’t want to replace that work–these discussions are so valuable–but I think there’s clearly a hunger for polished pieces that present finished ideas.

What motivated you to create The Fate Codex?

Since the Fate Core Kickstarter blew up the interwebs in 2012/2013, Fate has been a big part of my gaming experience. I was lucky enough to write Timeworks for Fate Worlds, followed by work developing Wicked Fate and Do: Fate of the Flying Temple, and now Fate is a regular feature at my table. I love developing these bigger projects, but there’s also a lot of little stuff that I’m working

At the same time, I’m also an active member of the Fate Core Google+ Community, and I see so much interesting and different thinking coming through that group. Unfortunately, much of it is lost, pushed down the Community page and inaccessible to new folks. It’s like trying to drink from a firehouse of awesome sometimes!

It occurred to me that I could kill two birds with one stone by creating a venue for this kind of work (both my own and the work of others) that would be curated and polished. And when I saw Eppy’s Worlds Without Master Patreon campaign do so well the last few months, my brain slowly slowly slowly kicked over to thinking about some the work I do in Fate being a good fit for that system as well.

What benefit does the Patreon model provide for you, as a creator?

More than anything else, it gives me a budget to bring in great people. Magpie Games is lucky enough to have some cash on hand from our work on our previous Kickstarters, but it’s tough to estimate demand for something like a mostly-monthly e-zine. Knowing that I’ve got over 250 subscribers who are excited to get their copy of The Fate Codex through Patreon means that I can hire great people to produce great pieces for future issues. We’re already talking about Issues 3 and 4, and I’m excited to be able to pay people for that work right now instead of waiting for several months’ worth of revenue to come in before we can start planning Issue 2.

What is the biggest challenge to creating and distributing an e-zine like The Fate Codex through Patreon?

One of the biggest challenges is getting a regular flow of content. There’s a lot of good stuff out there, but gathering up great pieces, editing them, and laying them out on a regular basis is tough. I’m thankful that Patreon structures the payment system so that I don’t have to think much about how much content to produce, but staying on top of it all is a big job. Luckily, I’ve been doing these kinds of projects for the last few years, so I’ve got some experience herding game designers.

What are you looking forward to the most with the project?

Right now? Our first issue! We’re deep into writing, editing, and laying out our first issue, and I can’t wait to show the Fate community what we’ve put together. It’s exciting stuff.

I know that down the road I’m also really excited about the potential to bring new voices to the table–especially folks that haven’t had a chance to show off what they can do in Fate. It’s a wonderful system, and I want to bring in new voices that will take the system to interesting places. In many ways, I think The Fate Codex could be a wonderful place for new designers to get started with Fate–it’s small enough to give folks a chance to try new things and big enough to have a real audience for good work.

—
Thanks to Mark for the interview! Make sure to check out The Fate Codex, which will soon feature a short story by yours truly!

———————–

Next, Epidiah!

Tell us a little about Worlds Without Master. What’s it all about?

Worlds Without Master is an ezine of sword & sorcery fiction and games. It’s as much about sword & sorcery as it is about that intersection between fiction and gaming. I want the reader to feel as if they’ve been shown the paths to a myriad of worlds for them to explore in whatever way they wish.

What motivated you to create Worlds Without Master?

It’s been in my head for a while now, and perhaps even longer. Sword and sorcery was the genre of my youth that I abandoned for several decades for many reasons, some very much misguided. About four or five years ago, I began the used-book store hunt for Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stuff. I remembered really enjoying his books when I read them as a teen and wondered if they held up. They did. And what’s more, the parts of them that struck a chord with teenage Eppy read as delicious satire to adult Eppy. I began to find new things about the genre that I missed back then, but now captivated me.

This set me on the path towards making the Swords Without Master game. While struggling through the forging of this game, all these proto-stories kept welling up from within, always to be cast into the future. Once this game was published, I promised myself that I would set pen to paper and finally write these things out. I just needed to get this game published first. But I wanted the physical object of the game to be something I did not have the power to create just yet. So everything kept being pushed into tomorrow.

In the summer of 2013 I started to look for places to submit my stories and a surprising number of ezines were only offering free copies as compensation for my work. As my frustration with this was on the rise, I became aware of Patreon and it all sort of tumbled out from there.

What benefit does the Patreon model provide for you, as a creator?

So many benefits! It allows me to write the stories I want to write, hire folks to edit and proofread those stories, dream of artists I want to see illustrate those stories, pay those artist to do just that and then distribute those stories to an audience who is not only eager to receive them, but will pay me for them!

By only charging the patrons when an issue is released, Patreon has relieved me of a lot of the pressure to release on unrealistic schedule.

By letting me know roughly how much money will come in after an issue is released, Patreon eviscerated 90% of the risk involved in publishing.

The traditional publishing model has evolved a number of vestigial organs that now exist only to second-guess what the audience wants. Patreon surgically removes these obstructive organs and puts me in direct communication with my audience. This closer relationship with the audience is a powerful motivator. You can look at your Patreon page, see how many people are eager for you to create, and more importantly, know their names. This is a different relationship than before, and it’s one I intend to explore further.

What is the biggest challenge to creating and distributing an e-zine like Worlds Without Master through Patreon?

There is a deluge coming. At the moment, I’m holding back a liquid wall of fiction, games and art. A flood of sword & sorcery that wants to sweep across the land and alter the landscape forever. I’ve got amazing works from talent writers, artists and designers pushing and shoving at me. And I want to set them loose. But I have until the Patron Horde is huge enough to take them head-on. So at the moment, each issue is the merest trickle of what this ezine can be. The biggest challenge is waiting that out.

What would you say is your biggest achievement with Worlds Without Master?

“One Winter’s Due,” my story in the second issue. Before that, it was “Strange Bireme.” With a little luck, each story will be a slightly bigger achievement than the last.

—
Thanks, Epidiah, for the interview! Keep an eye out for Worlds Without Master on Patreon!

Five or So Questions with Martin Ralya on New Game Day

I interviewed Martin Ralya from Gnome Stew about New Game Day, upcoming on February 2, 2014, as well as Gnome Stew and Engine Publishing. Today’s Five or So is a special edition to give people time to plan for the holiday!

Tell me a little bit about Gnome Stew, and about this new holiday you’re starting, New Game Day. Why should I be excited?

Gnome Stew is a system-neutral, multi-author GMing blog that’s been running since 2008, with over 2,400 articles (all free). We’ve had almost 2,000,000 visitors to date.

New Game Day is my attempt to jump-start a gaming holiday in the vein of GM’s Day (March 4): a free annual event for tabletop gamers worldwide, dedicated to playing new RPGs and board games.

You should be excited about it for lots of reasons: it’s fun to play new games, and even more fun to share them with friends; it’s fun to celebrate our hobby with shared events like this one; and because playing new games expands your horizons in good ways.

It was one of those ideas that hit me and wouldn’t let go until I’d done something about it. It seemed so simple that I was surprised not to find it out there already. So I put together a website, hired my friend Darren Hardy to create a logo for it, and now I’m trying to get the word out.

What goals do you have with this New Game Day?

New Game Day happens on 2/2 (yes, it’s also Groundhog Day — and, this year, Super Bowl Sunday), and the idea is that folks will get together to play new RPGs and board games, or just one or the other, and share their love of games.

Who should be interested in the New Game Day?

Anyone who plays tabletop RPGs and board games (including wargames, card games, etc.). There’s a lot of overlap between those two hobbies, but if you don’t already do both New Game Day is a great excuse to try the other one. And if you do already play both kinds of game regularly, take it as a challenge instead: Play something outside your comfort zone, or see how many games you can play in one day.

Gnome Stew is also sponsoring a giveaway to celebrate New Game Day, with over $300 in prizes just for dropping by to tell us what you play on 2/2 (Click here for the giveaway!).

Tell me a little about your work with Engine Publishing. What’s new and upcoming?

I started Engine Publishing in 2009, and I’ve worked with the authors of Gnome Stew, as well as other talented folks, to produce a book a year since 2010: Eureka, Masks, Never Unprepared, and Odyssey.

Our fifth book, also a system-neutral resource for GMs, is currently in editing. I’m not ready to talk about it yet, save to say that it’s different than the first four but should appeal to the same audience.

What big plans does Gnome Stew have for 2014?

We’re going to be hiring a couple of new gnomes (authors) to replace Patrick Benson and Kurt Schneider, who left the site in 2013. We have a conference call and a bit of discussion between us and posting that announcement, but it should happen sometime next month.

Apart from that, we’re going to keep doing what we’ve enjoyed doing so much for the past six years: writing about GMing, talking about GMing with our readers, collaborating on Engine Publishing books and other projects, and featuring articles by our readers.

The Song of My People


The leather wraps scraped across the callouses on Lilylen’s palms as she twisted the wraps around her hands. She tied them tightly. The wraps served as good protection from the wooden sticks she picked up and spun through her fingers. It was time to go, and she was nearly ready.


Lilylen stared out from the window of the holding, counting the rows of soldiers. There were near a hundred, armored and standing at the ready. Those were her chosen enemies. Chosen, yes, because there were so many different men to fight, so many threats to her home and in this case, her soul. The lord in command of these soldiers was a dark mage who had stolen the souls of his soldiers to bring himself more power. Lord Niccen, ruler of the city of Donwyn, what he called himself.


Untrue, though. She stood in the halls of Donwyn now, ready to protect it from his army of soulless men. If her side lost, then he would take over and hold the small city under thrall. This was not what she wanted. Donwyn was not her home now, but it had been for many years. She had no home, and her family had all aged away and left for the northern lights. Still, she wished to protect Donwyn, and her magic was strong.


She adorned herself with her armor now. Silver tips on her pointed ears, twisted and pierced through the skin, were enchanted to protect her from the raucous sounds of battle and hone her hearing. She pulled on a chain shirt and belted it with a leather strap that shone bright when she cinched it – her protection spell activating and spreading over her body in a shield. Finally, she raised her only weapon: her drum.


The drum was a gift from her mother on the day of her turning. Her mother had promised her the moon, and true to her promise, the large drum was made with the whitest of leathers stretched tight and it played the deepest rumbling. Her turning was a celebration of her sixteenth anniversary of birth, and marked the day her magic came true.


Now was no time for reminiscing, though.


Lilylen joined the warriors below in the great hall who all were armored and ready after enjoying midnight feast. There was a small party of adventurers standing in the center of the hall. Her companions were the fighters Dor and Leaf, the magician Wend, and trickster Fig. They had come with her to Donwyn, excited for the prospect of battle and as true friends. She would owe them everything if they won this battle. She raised her voice loud.


“Friends!” She clapped Dor on the shoulder. “It is time for the cries of battle and the victory! Let us feast our eyes now that we have feasted our bellies, and take down Lord Niccen and his thralls!”


Her words were met with a roar of approval from the crowd. Some warriors banged swords against shields in echoing clangs while they shouted and she cheered back at them.


“That’s the spirit, my good men and women! Join me now on the field!”


The warriors began to pour out of the hall, taking their places on walls and near gates. The battle was not long off, and Lilylen’s blood began to rush in her ears.


“Dor, Leaf, Wend, Fig – you are all my companions through battle again.”


“Lilylen, we fight for you as much for glory.” Dor’s eyes were bright behind her raggedy bangs. “Once we finish this, we will go back to the road and beyond.”


Fig slipped something sneakily into Lilylen’s hand. She looked down to see a small jeweled dagger, sheathed in shadow. She looked at Fig, raising one eyebrow in question. Fig just smiled and crossed his fingers.


“To war, to win!”


—


The adventurers made their way to the head of the warrior’s ranks, and Lilylen called for the gates to be opened. There was a loud creaking and clamoring as the large double gates opened, revealing the battlefield ahead. The warriors and Lilylen’s companions poured out onto the field, readying for the first light of dawn.


The sun rose slow and lazily, peeking through behind the holding and shining light on the thralls. Lilylen spun her drumsticks and rolled them on the drum, creating a deep, low rumble. A light mist fell down from the sky and settled over her fellows, providing cover from the soldiers and putting a protective shield around her fellows. The thrum thrum thrum echoed across the grass, and with that, the soldiers lurched forward, the warriors began to run, and they reached each other in a glorious crash.


The warriors had the strength of their heart and home pulsing through them, and all who heard the sound of Lilylen’s drum were given more power to resist their enemies. She strode forward, slowly, between the fighting, ducking and dodging while Dor and Leaf cleared her path. She had one responsibility only: to get to Niccen.


Dor and Leaf before her ran into the broken ranks of soldiers. The soldiers were technically powerful – precise in movement – but they lacked the intuitive skills of the warriors and adventurers, which failed them. In essence, they were strong only in numbers, just landscape to trample.


Wend walked behind her, casting bolts of mana into the surrounding crowds of soldiers and calling down fire from the sky. Fig was nowhere to be seen, but that was best. His tricks were not to be noticed until they had already been done.


They were nearly through the soldiers, pushing through while the warriors battled against the twice-strong army. At the back of the ranks was Niccen, not even fearful enough to be on a horse, standing proudly as though he were untouchable. He caught Lilylen’s gaze and there was no emotion in his eyes but sneering cruelty. She quickened her pace, leaving Wend behind unknowingly.


She was pressing forward and focused on Niccen, continuing to drum the slow rumble, when she felt a sudden sharp pain in her back. Her breath caught, she felt something within her go empty, and she struggled to breathe. She looked around behind her only to see Fig jump out from behind a soldier and land on another man – a man holding the jeweled dagger she had been carrying. Fig slashed the man’s throat with one sharp swipe, then he collected the dagger and returned it to Lilylen’s pocket.


“Be more careful!” He shouted, and the noise rang in her ears as she gasped for air. She began to lose her footing. Fig’s eyes widened and he placed his hands on her back, whispering an incantation. She felt her heartbeat pumping throughout her body, and slowly felt the pain ease and the air fill her lungs again. The battle pressed in close to them, and there were soldiers moving to attack. Lilylen braced herself.


Suddenly, a clap of thunder sounded and lightning struck, spreading through the bodies of the soldiers, turning them into crisp wastes. Lilylen sighed in relief and doubled her speed, trying to make up for lost time. She reached Niccen quickly.


He didn’t even move. She stood ten feet away from him and all he did was stand there, unafraid, undaunted. She gritted her teeth, and began to pound her drum faster, harder. She opened her mouth, and the sound from inside her was a deep bellow.


“Long we fight and long we live,
we do not fear the dark.
Strong we are and never gone,
we do not fear the burning light.
Hold back the night,
the night so cold.


We fight so long,
long will we live.”


She sang it again and again, her voice becoming louder and louder. Niccen stood there, quietly at first, then laughing. He did not notice the red light growing behind him, growing larger with each drumbeat.


“This is your plan?” He yelled above the drumming. “Sing me to death?”


Niccen moved his hands, muttering an incantation she couldn’t quite catch, even with her unique hearing. There were corpses around her from the battle, and they slowly raised themselves to their feet. Her breath caught in her throat, straining her voice. She found her voice again as she spun around with her drum, changing the beat and singing faster as she slammed bodily into the undead monsters surrounding her. They pressed in on her, grabbing at her clothes and scratching her face. Her heart was pounding in her head. She knew she didn’t have much longer until she would lose control, so she stopped moving and planted her feet. The song was sung.


Lilylen’s voice stopped mid-verse, and she banged on the drum three times in succession, and from behind Niccen appeared a giant, red, translucent dragon. The dragon was massive, a full-sized red dragon with a long crest on it’s head. Its flesh was nothing more than red light, the body of a spirit of vengeance. Niccen turned in response to its roar, and Lilylen imagined that his eyes grew wide. The dragon devoured him in one bite, and inside the dragon Niccen tumbled into its stomach. Lilylen felt elation welling up inside her, until there was a loud pop and Niccen disappeared. She spun around in panic, running into the corpses crowding around her who toppled over, the incantation controlling them no longer held.


“Fig! Dor! Leaf! Wend!” She called for her companions, who were fending off the soldiers. “He’s gone!”


None could hear her. In that moment, she felt a gust of wind burst against her side and tear through the leather of her drum. She gasped and turned to face Niccen, who was spinning a whirlwind. The wind blew so hard that it wrested the drum from her hands and took the air from her lungs. She felt as though her very soul was being pulled from her, but she staggered towards him, her face contorted with rage.


Blood boiling and rage overtaking her, her muscles grew and flexed, and her eyes tightened as the irises turned to bright red. She felt the dagger in her pocket and pulled it out, pressing her body against the whirlwind, her rage strength allowing her to resist it’s power. She screamed and bellowed at Niccen, at the wind, at everything that was in her way of tearing the mage apart.


“I will eat your soul!” Niccen cried out, and now she could hear the fear. She would always hear the fear when her rage rose within her. She breached the wall of wind and watched him tumble backwards. The look of terror on his face was all she needed to see. She tackled him and stabbed the dagger into his heart, twisting and wrenching it. The shadow of the blade spread out through his skin in a spiderweb, blackness filling his veins. She watched until the light left his eyes, hearing the crunch of cartilage and bone beneath her weight.


Soon, she felt the blood draining from her face. Her muscles weakened, and she staggered, falling to the ground beside Niccen’s blood-covered corpse. Around her, the thralls fell down, slowly but surely being overtaken by death.


She felt weightless as Dor and Leaf picked her up and carried her off the field. The warriors crowded around as she was taken to the hall. As she drifted off into weary rest, she heard the song of her people. The depth of their voices. The love in their hearts.


“For life! For victory! For Donwyn!”





THOUGHTY LOGO © JOHN W. SHELDON 2013. USED WITH PERMISSION. UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
ALL CONTENT WITHIN THIS BLOG AND ANY OF THE ALTERNATE SITES LINKED ARE SUBJECT TO FAIR USE UNDER U.S. COPYRIGHT LAWS. THE OPINIONS AND CONCLUSIONS WITHIN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO REPRESENT ANY CORPORATION OR OTHER ENTITY.