Aliandra
Another spectral troll rose beside the altar, but right then the air rippled and the witch doctor returned from his spiritual jaunt. His appearance was eclipsed by a stunning flash of light and explosive hellfire as Calen appeared, landing what must have been a stupendous Ambush on Mok’freja.
“Take care of the specter,” Ali sent to her witch doctor. “And then try hexing Mok’freja,” she added, as the idea popped into her head. But ...
2025-03-12 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Aliandra
There Mok’freja sat, wearing robes of blue and white shimmering fabric, surveying the array of trolls before her. They had all been partially frozen, locked in permanent uncomfortable positions of prostration or obeisance before her, like a horrifying parody of a royal court. And before them all stood a majestic altar of black ice; malice and death mana rolling out from it to suck the life from the forced supplicants. Despite the ground being frozen solid, the Spectral Wrai...
2025-03-11 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Why bother with pitiful sparks of fire or the feeble whispers of wind, when ice can freeze time itself? All other magic trembles before the onslaught of cold, for only ice commands the power to stop, preserve, and conquer eternally.
- Kryostria [The Frozen Scourge], Elder Frost Dragon.
Aliandra
Ali hovered above the snowy ground, looking down at the spectral trolls and shivered, drawing her robes tighter around her neck and hugging her body to keep the icy...
2025-03-10 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is part 2 of 2.
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Aliandra
Ali’s mind roamed around her dungeon, taking in all the details. The subtle comfort provided by the structured arcane mana woven through by the vibrant threads of living nature mana soothed her, even viewed from afar. The bats roosting on the cavern roof and among the branches of the Lirasian Oaks, the tiny soaring Glitter Dragonets. Somehow, along the way, her horror at being a dungeon had melted an...
2025-03-09 14:05:01 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is 1 of 2.
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Gara
Gara crept up behind Sabri, wondering just how she had managed to get roped into this crazy endeavor. The humans had a dungeon right underneath their town, and now she was crawling around in it with a bunch of them, trying to avoid traps, giant bats, and oversized Timber Wolves.
“This way,” Malise whispered, appearing suddenly from the shadows and startling her again. The strange Catkin seemed to enjo...
2025-03-09 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Malika
They followed the main road that wound its way lazily through the jungle, a path that Calen thought would lead all the way up the mountain through the heart of the Temple of Aman Rak. It was growing chillier again – the air had a bite to it that was quite out of place in the otherwise humid jungle. Frost was beginning to form in the small, shadowed nooks and crannies between roots and the lee of several of the larger trees. It didn’t take much to guess what wa...
2025-03-07 15:00:23 +0000 UTC
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Malika
Ice magic. Malika frowned, quietly listening to Ali and Calen discuss the abilities and skills of these new trolls. They had been quite easy to kill once she had closed the distance, but actually getting there had proven exceptionally frustrating and difficult. Calen had assessed them as a glass-cannon build, but, in her opinion, their skills were much better described as control magic. Or, at least, anti-melee.
They had filled the battlefield with ice and snow, ...
2025-03-06 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Aliandra
Ali turned at the sound of a soft swooshing noise, like something soft passing close by her ears, and out of the snow, streams of gracefully arcing, delicate slivers of ice accelerated towards them traveling with such speed that the ice and snow in the air twisted in the vortices of their passage. Ali summoned her barrier, glowing a bright, sparkling gold against the dismal blizzard, and arranged her minions into a defensive formation.
One stream of ice bolts punched in...
2025-03-04 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Unlike fire, which tends to be pure damage, ice affinity magic requires some subtlety to wield. For the aspiring mage, ice affinity has a high damage potential, but it contains strong elements of battlefield control simply by nature of the affinity itself. But it is not as high damage as a pure fire build. It is the nature of the affinities that leads Ice Mages to look down on Fire Mages as boorish, low-brow, and lacking in versatility, while the Fire Mages view the ice mages as arrogant,...
2025-03-03 15:00:14 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double release today. This is part 2 of 2.
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Sabri
Sabri walked alongside Belmar as they returned to the guild. Ever since the Kobold warrior fight, she viewed him as one of her closest friends, and it had been good to finally get him for an hour to do some leveling in the dungeon. Still, she was looking forward to one of the guild couches and getting off her aching feet.
Without a healer, their group had stagnated, falling behind as the others outp...
2025-03-02 15:05:01 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is part 1 of 2.
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Aliandra
“Come, Clarence,” Ali said, walking a little way out of their camp to confront the barrier that barred their way higher up the mountain. “I want your help deciphering this.”
The Eldritch Tome riffled his pages in excitement and took off, chasing her, swooping around her head as she approached the extensive magical construct. With one particularly exuberant dive, Clarence collided with the...
2025-03-02 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is part 2 of 2.
Somehow we passed a million words without me noticing! I just got the achievement on RR, which means we passed the milestone more than two months ago here on Patreon.
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Aliandra
“Don’t get dirty, Clarence,” Ali said absently as she summoned a barrier beneath the corpse of Kir’vella and levitated her into the air. The ground was still stained and muddy, but it was now clear of broken and c...
2025-02-27 15:05:01 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is part 1 of 2
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Sure, ya can go farm dungeons for items. Heck, it’s exciting, I know. If yer good, ya might even turn a profit. But, after you’ve killed a thousand bosses and still haven’t found what ya need, you will learn that a skilled crafter is worth their weight in gold.
- Bragni Doomhammer [The Hammer of Justice], Dwarven King of Dal’mohra.
Calen
Calen found himself sitting ...
2025-02-27 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is part 2 of 2.
As of today, Patreon has reached 25 chapters ahead. I plan on continuing to expand on this over the coming weeks.
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Aliandra
Ali and Malika entered the small camp Calen and Mato had constructed with the wiry leatherworker in tow to find the rescued Trolls sitting around quietly, most seeming shell-shocked. In true Mato fashion, he had whipped up something that smelled heavenly for them to eat and was alread...
2025-02-25 15:05:00 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is part 1 of 2.
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Aliandra
Ali stood just beyond the outer limits of the pulsing death magic aura, studying the Bone Altar in what she was referring to as the Temple of Contagion in her head. With the hard-won death of Kir’vella, the ceaseless hurricane of bats had stopped, allowing the late afternoon sun to shine through into the clearing. The gentle, nurturing touch of Mato’s aura welling up from his oak leaves and branche...
2025-02-25 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter again. This is part 2 of 2.
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Malika
Not good, Malika thought, staring at the continuous stream of bats pouring from the cave, darkening the skies with their black-and-red wings. While she could get up there and hit them using Divine Step, she had no area damage capabilities and knew she would be ineffective against so many monsters, getting herself more in the way than anything.
But it was the Blood ...
2025-02-23 15:05:01 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter again. This is part 1 of 2.
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Aliandra
They slogged on through the dense, muggy jungle for the better part of the rest of the day, and, by the time the trail opened out into a broad clearing nestled up against the rocky cliffs of the mountainside, Ali was thoroughly sick of all the incessant buzzing insects and their insatiable hunger for Fae blood.
Variant: Vampiric Nightwing added to Imprint: B...
2025-02-23 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is part 2 of 2.
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Calen
Calen stalked down the jungle path, taking full advantage of the shadowy light created by the dense canopy of vines and branches overhead to help maintain his stealth. He kept his tread light and quiet, having no desire to repeat his experience of being caught alone by a witch doctor and turned into a frog. Ridiculously embarrassing. In the branches overhead, he caught a flicker of g...
2025-02-20 15:05:00 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Double chapter today. This is part 1 of 2.
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Mato
You have been cursed with Spirit Banishment.
The air about Mato shimmered suddenly, and everything shifted to gray as he was banished to the Spirit Realm.
Here we go. I hope they can control the trolls without me, he thought, using his shapeshifted guild ring to summon one of the fried ghost mushrooms he had prepared,...
2025-02-20 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Aliandra
“This is a good spot to stop for a bit,” Calen said, gesturing around at the small clearing where they had battled with the witch doctor. There was even a nice fallen tree trunk on one side that looked comfortable, so Ali took a seat to relax a bit. Maybe she could tell her brain to stop hopping as well?
“Let me get a fire going,” Mato said, producing some dry kindling and branches from his storage and beginning his cooking rituals wi...
2025-02-18 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Thaldorien: It’s real then?
Val’korr: The Spirit Realm? Of course it’s real, boy. Are we a little slow today?
Thaldorien: Careful, old Troll. Your third-tier ‘cantankerous’ skill is showing.
Val’korr: Pfft. Someone has to keep you whelps in line. What? Did you think Artur was going to do it?
Thaldorien: Waiter, another coffee for my grumpy friend.
Val’korr: A cup of that Elvish tea might work better.
Thaldorien: So, the souls ...
2025-02-16 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Hop, hop, little frog. You won’t escape my pot.
- Aman Rak Witchdoctor
Aliandra
Ali pulled out her rune notes, intending to take a little study time while Mato whipped up something for breakfast before they broke camp and headed deeper into the jungle in search of answers for what had befallen Aman Rak. But right as she started to get stuck in, comparing the transcription of Kir’mogan’s tattoos to a few of the more intractable rune...
2025-02-13 15:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The troll race is broad and ancient, and their magic spans the entire constellation of affinities with few exceptions, however, within a given tribe or kingdom, most individuals inherit only a few signature affinities, generally following their potent bloodlines. This gives rise to a strong cultural identity that fractures the race into small kingdoms or tribes all sharing the same bloodline and similar magic.
Across the entire race, there is a consistent theme that relates to the ...
2025-02-11 15:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Eternity bends to those who dare to claim it.
- Nevyn Eld, The Blind Lich.
Mato
Mato quietly set himself to the chore of tidying up camp after dinner, making sure everything was properly arranged without disturbing Ali’s studies. He set aside a bowl of stew for whenever she decided to rejoin them in the real world and then ventured a short way into the mossy trees to practice his Herb Gathering skill on several interesting plants he ha...
2025-02-09 15:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The authority structure within a Troll tribe or kingdom is based on an absolute hierarchy of power, with the Tol standing at the top of the chain. Challenges to the status quo are rare, and often fatal, with the loser usually being killed by the winner to eliminate future threats. The complexity stems from the fact that trolls recognize multiple kinds of power: age, wisdom, magical prowess, affinity with the Spirit Realm, crafting, and physical combat skills. In Troll culture, might makes...
2025-02-06 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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If your opponent is mighty, do not stand in the way of her fist.
- Kamari Ren, Ahn Khen Elder, legendary master and inheritor of the Ninefold Way: Fists of Coherent Integrity.
Calen
Calen darted along the path, dodging the patches of brilliant sunshine that had begun filtering through the dense jungle canopy. His stealth skills worked in the light, but they were better in shadows. He scanned the overgrowth, ignoring the indus...
2025-02-04 15:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Aliandra
That went a lot better, Ali thought – more than half sarcastically – as she surveyed the devastation strewn across the pathway and spilling over the shattered grim totems into the jungle itself. The group of trolls had waited until they passed, somehow concealing themselves from her mana sight and Calen’s sharp eyes, and then sprung their trap from behind, right when they had engaged with a wandering handful of zombies shambling down the path.
2025-02-02 15:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Malika
Malika carefully tied the garishly painted Jambeau behind her calves, pulling firmly on the sturdy straps and laces to secure them to her smaller legs. It was not that her legs were particularly small, but she was no match for the seven- or eight-foot-tall troll warriors they had faced. At least the leather-and-bone greaves had been designed to be adjustable. She stored the Pathfinder boots Calen had bought – she would decide what to do with those later. It was j...
2025-01-30 15:00:06 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Bonus chapter! :)
It was a year ago today that I posted the first chapter of this story on Royal Road. It's been such an incredible experience for me, while simultaneously growing and stretching my skills. Thank you all for being part of the journey - without you all there is no story!
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Tala
Tala ignored the curious stares from the various Town Watch guards lounging around the lobby and took a deep breath to compose herself. ...
2025-01-29 15:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Troll culture has remained essentially unchanged for the entirety of recorded history. To an outsider, their culture may appear brutal, tribal, and primitive – authority is established through violence and domination, individuals adorn themselves with warpaint and tattoos and live in rustic huts in the wilds. However, Troll society possesses an overwhelming richness of history, magic, and tradition. The most important factors driving their culture’s extraordinary stability are the fac...
2025-01-28 15:00:10 +0000 UTC
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