Edwin M. Griffiths

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 36

Alise didn’t take the discovery of the egg well. Theo found an old satchel in Azrug’s crates, although he supposed those were Salire’s crates now, and nestled the egg inside. He created an open-topped glass cube with thick walls and padded it with spare cloth. His egg was now safely nestled in the satchel, protected by a cage of magical glass. The alchemist felt a sense of warmth flowing from the egg, even as he entered the town hall to take his beating.

Aarok, Luras, Alise, and a...

Friday Updates (Week of 4-14-2023)

Short update for this week.

3rd tier patrons got more advanced chapters, 6 releasing today. I'll have to update the tiers to reflect this, but I anticipate this happening again in the future.

The writing for N&D 3 is coming to a close. I'm taking my time with the ending, trying to set up the events of book 4 well in advance. I'm at a point where book 1 & 2 feel more like a prologue than anything else. A honking big 300,000 word prologue lol.

Final length for book 3 s...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 35

Tresk remained in the harbor for as long as she could. When the sun crawled closer to the early afternoon, she was off. Theo watched her bound off, climbing the hills to the north. He couldn’t see her anymore, but he could feel her. With a rush, she was gone. Jumping through each shadow on the winding path to Rivers and Daub. She knew to keep him updated, and he needed to make a call.

The communication crystal Fenian gave to Theo was a strange thing. The more he learned about long-ran...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 34

Theo spent little of his time in the Dreamwalk working. He sat with Tresk, going over the events of the day. She retold the story of what happened in the town hall, presenting herself as the fearless hero that was ready to stab the Burning Eye to death. Even with their potent poisons, Sulvan would have swatted her like a fly. But he let her tell the story anyway. The alchemist was more concerned with the portent of death, and what that meant for the symbol Sulvan marked him with.

Khahar...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 33

Zarali was the only one dressed up for the dinner. Khahar remained in his tattered loincloth. Alise had brought Nira as her guest, both of them wearing their simple clothes, and Tresk was still covered in mud. But Zarali wore a flowing purple gown with fine jewels hanging from her neck. She even did her hair, although Theo did not know how.

“The guest of honor has arrived,” Khahar said, clapping once.

“About time,” Tresk said, huffing.

Someone, likely Alise, had rear...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 32

“Was that so hard?” Tresk asked.

“Hmmm? What?” Khahar asked.

Zan’kir was glued to the battlements of the wall. He shuddered as though he wanted to speak, but nothing came out. The absolute power Khahar held over his people was impressive, if not frightening. Theo had it in his mind that An’tal was Khahar from the start, but he couldn’t find a motive. If what Zarali said about him was true, why the hell would he row a boat across the ocean to visit Broken Tusk? Or was...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 31

Xol’sa’s tower was strewn with what could only be described as junk. Since he arrived in Broken Tusk, bringing all his belongings, he’d only accumulated more. Every available shelf was full of devices, items, or trash. The wizard himself sat across from Theo, Zarali, and Tresk, taking part in the ongoing conversation. A magical fire crackled in the room's corner, but it put off a pleasantly chilly wind instead of a hot one.

Theo swirled his mug of wine. It was whatever Xol’sa en...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 30

The garden golems were doing a fantastic job of harvesting random reagents and keeping the weeds at bay. They understood how to recharge themselves using the [Dimensional Storage Crate], and seemed to need no rest. Theo stood in his cluster of greenhouses, kneeling to issue more commands. His audience, 2 [Lesser Mud Golems], and 1 [Lesser Stone Golem], looked on with interest. He made them look like that, but it felt better than just giving orders to soulless creatures.

The mud golems w...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 29

Theo often wondered how he ran the town without support. He stood with Alise as the sun set over Broken Tusk, looking from the eastern wall. The bridge was done, a surprise to everyone, and they were planning for the harbor. She drew lines with her fingers, detailing how hard it was going to be to dig out so much bare earth, then fill in a portion of it with stonework. She talked him out of doing such a deep harbor, favoring only the depth he needed for boats not to run aground.

Tresk h...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 28

Theo was done with his greenhouses for the day. He made a list of things he could do for the rest of the day, finding himself falling into a familiar trap. He put too much on his own plate too often, drowning in work. Perhaps it was some self-imposed feature of the body he inhabited, preventing him from doing too much alchemy and out-leveling his [Tara’hek] core. Nothing would seem strange by now, not even something as a created fate.

It was easy to let those concerns fall away. With ...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 27

Alran’s sudden appearance in Broken Tusk sent shockwaves through the town. News traveled fast, even as the town grew larger. As Theo and Alran exited the town hall, the concept of an alliance was the only thing hanging on anyone’s lips. The alchemist gave a brief tour of the town and brought the Mercantile Chair to do business the way Broken Tuskers did. Atop the eastern wall, overlooking both the Elven Guardian and the nearly completed bridge.

“I was surprised to see a new bridge...

Friday Updates (Week of 4-7-2023)

Phew, alright... Busy week. Really busy week. I think I'm still ahead of where I need to be, but you know. The hardest part about writing a book is ending it. Even if I know the ending to Book 3.

From a novel perspective, I know that this book lines up with what I want. I would like for it to be 70 chapters, but I'm not really sure. Honestly, the more mechanics get introduced, the longer it takes to get to any one plot point. Book 3 is just one big build to a single plot point,...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 26

Theo did his best to avoid the wine served at the feast. Xam had imported a watered berry wine from Rivers and Daub. While it was likely not strong enough to affect a Half-Ogre, even by the barrel full, he still shied away from it. The celebrations carried deep into the night, even after the golems melted into mush, but the alchemist and his friends retreated to the bathhouse long before that. Luras joined them this time, taking full advantage of the private bath.

“Your private room i...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 25

A thin thread of willpower stretched between Theo and the [Lesser Mud Golem]. It was a strange mix between a foreign will and his own, not battling for dominance, but working together to make the thing functional. There wasn’t an attribute for willpower, though. The alchemist knew, through instinct or logical deduction, that the quantity and complexity of the constructs he commanded was limited by that factor. Sheer will.

“Great, you made a mud monster,” Bal said, edging away from...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 24

Xam served a feast on the night of the 58th day of the Season of Blooms. The Dying of the Blooms festival was the signal that the season was over, but there were still a few weeks left in the season. Theo sat, no longer flanked by his cadre of adventurers, with Tresk, Zarali, Xol’sa, and the new shopkeeper Salire. They ate through each meal, stuffing themselves with a starter of Pozwa omelets, moving on to a dish of wolf meat curry over Zee flatbread, and finishing it with pastries that exp...

Friday Updates (3-31-2023)

Woohoo. Friday.

So, I went through my schedule and realized I'm gonna die. Not literally, but figuratively if I try to release 2 stories at a time. I know I can post a story and put it on hiatus, but I don't wanna. Which means I'm shelving the fishing story for now. In a perfect world, I could write 2.5 months of chapters every month. Which would put me ahead. I could alternate between stories, and always have enough chapters to post on both RR and Patreon.

But the world isn't per...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 23

Broken Tusk was bustling by the time Theo made it to the center of town. It had been long enough since Theo made his way to the general housing area, and he was eager to see what kind of town planning skills Alise had. The population tracker on his mayor screen increased at a steady rate, signaling the reality of migration. His leather gloves were still dirty from digging in his garden and the strange loam-soil of the mushroom cave. While the truffles showed promise for rapid growth, they had...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 22

Theo enjoyed his soak in the pool for as long as he could. He wasn’t as eager to get into the Dreamwalk as he was in the past, owing to his ever-growing cores. [Drogramath Herbalism Core] was at level 15, [Drogramath Alchemy Core] at level 16, with his [Tara’hek Core] at 17. His [Governance Core] hit 12 during the day, but it wasn’t enough to tip his personal level over to 15. It was on the edge, but not there yet. During his soak, he took time to inspect his cores, making a mental note...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 21

Tresk’s efforts to help with gardening and alchemy should have been dangerous. Theo’s instincts, and the many warnings on skills related to essences, held that to be true. But she worked with the garden with no troubles, even performing several reactions of her own to create potions. It was proof enough for him that their skills bled through to each other, or she was incredibly lucky.

Theo had a big decision to make, though. His plans for the day included checking in on the miners a...

Friday Updates (Week of 3-24-2023)

Coming back to write the Newt and Demon after being away from it for a month has been fun. I found it effortless to pick it back up again. The vibe is very steady, so I'm not really worrying about deviating from some tone I set before. "All alchemy, all the time" was the tag line.

I think that's pretty interesting, from a writing perspective. Usually my characters move around so much readers don't get to know a place. N&D takes place exclusively in Broken Tusk, so that's kind of a t...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 20

Theo wasn’t surprised where Tresk wanted to spend her time in the Dreamwalk. While she soaked in the bathhouse, not content with the few hours they had in the waking world, the alchemist worked on leveling his cores. Both alchemy and herbalism would roll over when he woke up, he could already feel it, then his personal level would level up to 14. One more level, and he could start serious work on the idea of constructs.

Zarali knit together a few pieces of information for him. The man...

The Newt and Demon - Book 3 Chapter 19

Theo returned to his lab, dodging the crowd that formed to marvel at the new town hall. He had a sense that his stills were done cooking, and his reserve tanks were full of [Refined Healing Essence]. In his mind, he always considered a good run to have at least 1,000 units of any essence. With the expansion on his garden, he could make one full run, and half of another with a different reagent. While he considered which plant was the most valuable to cultivate, excluding the small patch of [M...