HankTheMoose

Short Story 1.3 - Familiar

Dzhorianath eyed the odd ball of fire warily. It just hung there in mid-air. Cautiously, she approached, dragging the food-thing she’d just killed behind her by its long tail. It was warm and bright. Pretty.

Plopping down directly underneath it, she sank a claw down into her dinner’s flank and slashed down. The creatures here were covered in hair, which tasted awful and tickled her throat. She dug her long fingers in and tugged back the skin, pulling it back to reveal tasty flesh. T...

Short Story 1.2 - Familiar

Dzhorianath inhaled the familiar scent of smoke, crouching behind a loose pile of dirty, stinky stuff that filled this place. Something was burning over there, and fire meant warmth. Carefully, she eased out from her hiding place and scuttled toward it.

This place was much colder than where she’d come from, and darker, too. It was uncomfortable for her, but it was still better than the other place. There was so much food here! Some of the larger food things had tried to attack her at ...

Underkeeper Short Story 1.1 : Familiar

Hi all, I'm going to be posting the short story that I wrote for the release of book 1 over the next week. It is, as the title suggests, the story of how Bernt found Jori.

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“Don’t let them rat men see you, alright?” Dayle said. “They’re clever little shits, and fast. Don’t want ‘em clearing the nest before we torch it.”

Bernt nodded dumbly, following the older Underkeeper down the street toward the southern edge of the Lower District. They didn�...

Arc 3 Epilogue/Interlude

Alright, sorry for the delay, still lots of stuff going on behind the scenes over here trying to manage a home sale, tons of apartment viewings in an insane market, driving long distances, you know. Fun stuff. Anyway, here is the epilogue! I'm going to start posting the short story for you guys in the coming days.

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“You attempted to alchemically infuse your flesh with arcane potential. But… you made no effort to tie it into your spirit in any way…” Conperion ...

3.53 A Friendly Face

The smell of hellfire filled the room as the demon king’s enormous face split, revealing a colossal maw filled with teeth all the way down. While his master’s appearance didn’t phase Nuros, the hellish light emanating Varamemnon’s eyes did, pressing down on him like a heavy weight.

He wished more than anything that he’d just killed that accursed imp when he’d had her in his hands beneath that worthless mortal city.

“K’thanizar mocks me with your failure and the wea...

3.52 Treachery

Aelos cast himself through the night toward the distant, telltale red-orange flicker of hellfire. He’d been following his tracker for days as he pressed ever further south into the Phoenix Reaches. A river of golden fire cut through the grassy plain in the far distance, bisecting the monotonous landscape.

The mistress had moved west, commandeering his hellhound and blindly assuming that the mortal would travel directly to his original goal. Aelos knew that he was expected to stay clos...

3.51 Zijeregh

“Did it really have to be here?” great one Ed grumbled at Jori, looking around at the hellfire-pitted walls and floor of the tiny cell. He nodded briefly at the others, who were crowded against the walls in anticipation of their arrival – Maladzhoth and Xoryath. She’d left most of the others outside the city. Getting a bunch of spawnling imps in here would have been too much work, and it wouldn’t help them much in the coming fight.

“Zijeregh serves Nuros here in the...

3.50 Side Effects

After checking to make sure that none of the bodies lying all around the confluence were still breathing, Bernt walked back to where the summoning circle had been to retrieve his bag. He was limping slightly. Now that the excitement of the fight was wearing off, Bernt realized that he hadn’t gotten away unscathed.

One of his ribs was definitely broken, and every breath felt like someone was shoving a knife into his ribs. Besides that, he’d managed to hurt his ankle somehow, and two ...

3.49 The Confluence 4

For a few seconds, the pressure built in Bernt’s head so much that he saw spots in his vision. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone. The pain disappeared with it, as if it had never been and the sand that had felt as though it were cooking his face just a moment before now felt nothing so much as pleasantly warm.

Something was moving inside his body, tickling uncomfortably as it progressed downward from the crown of his head. 

Bernt shuddered at the odd sensati...

3.48 The Confluence 3

Hey all, got an extra long one for you today.  It was a bit tricky to write and since we're starting the climax of book 3, I want to invite you guys to throw in any feedback about this particular section. Is it too abstruse? Does it hit?

Lastly, I'm adding a small section with the elemental's POV into the previous chapter as well. Comments on that are also welcome.

cheers!

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The unnatural entity crouched inside its bubble of impossible...

3.47 The Confluence 2

Hi all, I'm going to be driving across the country to Berlin next week to look at an apartment (I'm hopefully moving soon!), so posts next week are going to be irregular. I'm not sure how many chapters we'll get, but I'm just going to play it by ear.

Cheers!

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Bernt stared at the cracked stone, frozen in indecision. Could he fix it? If he kept everything aligned just right… maybe.

First, though, he had to get his defenses up. Gritting his tee...

3.46 The Confluence 1

Edit 3/7: remembered that Bernt is supposed to use a compatible material for the elemental summoning circle, so I added that into this chapter.

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Bernt trudged across the endless, grassy plain four days later, keeping his course due west toward the distant mountains. He could just barely make them out as shadows hidden in a distant haze on the horizon. How massive did they have to be, to be visible from such a distance?

Those to the north, to his right, were alr...

3.45 Demonic Pact

Bernt watched from behind the temperature barrier that closed off his small stone shelter as fire rained from the sky, bathing the landscape in light from above and below. It was the second time Bernt witnessed this phenomenon, but the first time he had such a great view. Seeing the unnatural clouds approach, he’d climbed this rocky slope before shaping this little cave directly in the hillside. The previously uneven and occasionally craggy landscape gave way here to an endless plain that s...

3.44 A New World

Zijeregh climbed out of the crack in front of her, emerging out into the light of day for the first time in days under the boughs of an ever-burning tree. She inhaled the hot air, letting it burn her nostrils. Her vessel’s skin burned slightly at the touch of direct sunlight and she had to squint to be able to see. The heat was the biggest problem, though. She would have to take her vessel out of this copse of trees quickly, or it would die.

Still, she preferred this to the Depths. Th...

3.43 The Phoenix Reaches

To Bernt’s relief, the storm clouds did not prove to be an example of the Phoenix Reaches’ infamous burning rain. Bernt had read something once about how mountains were supposed to make clouds and cause rainfall somehow, but he hadn’t expected to find an example of it here – none of the materials he’d read about this place had concerned themselves with natural weather.

The rumble of thunder accompanied him on his descent through the dense mist, and he soon found himself soaked...

3.42 The Sunset Range

It was late by the time Bernt finally stopped for the night, curling up in his bedroll in a somewhat sheltered spot between a few large boulders. He slept fitfully for a few hours, plagued by nightmares of the day’s events. It wasn’t the cultist ambush, the demons or the guard with the rock that plagued his dreams. No, it was Emata’s dead eyes, staring at him accusingly as he checked her pockets.

Bernt woke up feeling sick and exhausted in full darkness. But he couldn’t get back...

3.41 Another Way

Bernt moved more slowly after encountering the goat demon. He couldn’t afford to keep getting into surprise fights. Sure, his banefire spell gave him a powerful advantage against demons, but sooner or later he was going to stop getting lucky. He didn’t want to think about what might have happened if that goat thing had access to hellfire.

Then again, he’d survived the blast back by the carriage… but he’d had his thornskin amulet activated then. It was possible, maybe, that his...

Book 1 is Published!

Book 1 is now available on Kindle Unlimited and Audible! If you'd like a copy, you can get it here. Of course, as my loyal Patrons, your purchase is not necessary. If you want to read earlier parts of the story that have been stubbed off of here again, just PM me for a PDF.

Authors live and die based on hype and reviews! Those of you who are willing to help me out in this regard will get a small token of...

3.40 Wait Up

Bernt tasted blood in his mouth. His face burned, and something was pulling on his leg, dragging him across the ground. Rocks scraped across his back and head painfully – both had been scraped raw. He kicked weakly as he tried to blink his eyes open.

To his surprise, his captor lost his grip and stumbled forward with a curse.

It was a human – one of the guards from the cart. Before he could do anything else, though, the man shouted and came at him, planting a foot directly in ...

Character List

By request, I'm posting a running character list. This is not complete, well organized, or even terribly well labeled, but it's what I use myself to keep track of who's who as I'm writing. I'll be fixing/updating it in the future, but I didn't want to just have it in the To-Do pile for a month while ya'll wait. 

Bernt— Main Character, human mage, underkeeper and pyromancer

Jori— Imp, Class 2 demon from the 3rd Hell. Bernt’s best buddy.

Thurdred (Ed)— Ar...

3.39 A Rock and a Hard Place

Alright, let's get this party started.

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The valley continued to narrow as they progressed, and the land grew even drier. Tiny wisps of cloud passed by high overhead, but for the most part, the mountains kept this stretch of land as dead as the hells themselves.

The demons probably felt right at home here.

The road was old and rough here, though it had clearly been maintained. Someone had repaired the potholes, but they hadn’t bothered to bring proper ...

3.38 A Word of Advice

Bernt extended his spirit into the circle and braced himself for the disorienting sensation of being in two places at once. Jori, who didn’t have any prior warning, stumbled, nearly falling before she caught herself. She was running across the rocky landscape of the hells flanked by several other imps.

“Finally!” she cried, “What took you so long? I have news!”

“I heard.” Bernt said, keeping his voice low. There were a few people within earshot, but it was only Nirli...

3.37 A Critical Weakness

So... I know we just had an exposition chapter, which leads me to the question -- is this too much exposition? You guys have to tell me if this is too much exposition, alright?

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“And how, exactly, does the Mages’ Guild plan to permanently destroy any demons, never mind the ones specifically stalking us?” high priest Hannis asked, leaning out of the carriage’s window with a sneer. “Have they suddenly worked out magics that escape even ...

3.36 Magical Potential

Olly crouched in the door of his rickety shanty and poured himself a drink, bottle clinking a bit too hard against the small clay cup. The cheap liquor burned on the way down.

He was almost out.

He’d come to this cursed city to change his life. Why break his back on the farm every day when he could make a life for himself in the city? Instead, he broke his back every day hauling processed lumber at the sawmill. For coppers. It was a pauper’s wage, but it was all he co...