HankTheMoose

2.32 Clean-Up Duty

“Sir, don’t you think this is too much?” Josie asked, putting the note down on Radast’s desk. “You’re framing her as a cute, friendly neighborhood mascot. She’s a hellfire-throwing demon who seems to have just barely discovered the concept of empathy. I don’t want to downplay that achievement, but I think we have to keep the story realistic enough for people to swallow. I mean, she still harvests the soul residues from any of the dead she can get her hands on. There are rumors...

2.31 Sorcery

“I just don’t know what to do.” Torvald complained. “We’re fighting a powerful enemy here, but I’m still just a guy with a sword. I don’t understand why I haven’t gotten a calling!”

Bernt shrugged noncommittally. “I don’t really know anything about the gods, Torvald. Can’t you just ask the priests? They can talk to them directly, right?”

They’d been assigned to haul supplies down from the surface and the two of them were hauling a heavily laden cart thr...

2.30 Light Reading

My editor has been on top of things, so, surprise! We are officially 6 posts ahead now! Cheers.

Bernt felt worn out as he climbed the steps in the Mages’ Guild toward Pollock’s office. The day had been uneventful – he’d had a light assignment on patrol in the Crafting Quarter with Torvald. There was a pickpocket in the morning and a vandalism incident in the afternoon, but Torvald handled both before Bernt could even get involved.

No, his exhaustion was in ...

2.29 Experiments

“I don’t think it’s normal.” Jori said, staring at Bernt’s arm. She was squatting on Bernt’s table, the result of one of his most recent stone shaping exercises. It was mostly round and level, which made it a great success as far as Bernt was concerned, even if the supporting legs weren’t all the same thickness yet. He could work on it later, maybe.

The imp poked a finger at his arm and leaned back, as if expecting it to burst into flame. Nothing happened.

Bernt frow...

2.28 Playing With Fire

Bernt watched as a glowing thread of his spirit slowly wormed its way out of his open palm in a loop, curling a little as it emerged.

Carefully, he tried to push more of the damaged channel out, but it didn’t work quite as well as it had the first time he’d done it. Instead of going where he pushed the mana inside, it bent awkwardly and wavered in the air.

Once the bit of thread was under the influence of the rune circle, however, things got easier. It was designed for manipul...

2.27 A New Flame

Pollock peered at the spellform over the top of his glasses, shuffling around the rune circle slowly as he examined it.

“Well. I don’t know that it’ll work quite yet. But it won’t blow up in your face. That’s a fairly good start. I think you have a talent for this sort of thing, one that you should cultivate, given the opportunity. Why don’t you give it a try?”

Bernt frowned. “I haven’t memorized it. I can’t just cast it.”

“Really?” Pollock asked in...

2.26 A Bad Day

Bernt activated his thornskin amulet as something large and furry bowled into him. They hadn’t made it to the breach in time, and now the enemy was in the tunnels. Kustov shouted something, but Bernt couldn’t understand him. He was too distracted by the large, heavy creature pinning him to the ground.

It didn’t hurt very much, thanks to his protective charm, but he couldn’t move.

He squirmed, only realizing a second later that this was the exact kind of situation that he�...

2.25 Family Reunion

Surprise! Double feature today, which very briefly brings us up to 5 advance chapters. At least until the release in a couple of hours. Enjoy!

Jori broke through the circle of incapacitated underkeepers and flung a handful of hellfire at the dwarf, who was still on the ground, emitting a sort of wheezing groan.

The other mortals were all out of the fight for the moment as far as she could see, though she was sure that Josie herself would be right behind her. Withou...

2.24 A Demon on Patrol Duty

Bernt closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples. On the page in front of him was a vastly simplified spellform that he’d cobbled together from examining Jori’s blood. The first thing Pollock had tasked him with was choosing the best base for his new hellfire-based derivative spell.

At first, Bernt had assumed that the pure hellfire would work best – it was a rawer form, less complicated. But, as it turned out, Jori’s blood had a few important advantages. While it was essentially...

2.23 Treatment Plan

“That seems like a needlessly restrictive solution.” Josie said, shaking her head. “Why don’t you just use your other hand to cast? Why haven’t you been doing that this whole time?”

They were sitting in the Underkeepers’ break room over a cup of tea as Bernt caught her up on what had happened since she noticed his spiritual injury.

Bernt sighed. “The strain doesn’t really come from channeling the mana out of my hand – at least not the worst of it, unless I lose...

2.22 Expert Opinion

As he turned off of the main tunnel thoroughfare and into the smaller one that made up his street, Bernt was struck by just how different the Undercity felt compared to the surface. There were goblin children here, playing in the street while their parents sat out in front of their doors and gossiped.

Down the street a bit, a gray-haired goblin directed traffic away from a hole in the road, where two more had opened one of the septic tanks that made up the Undercity’s more labor-inten...

2.21 Catching up with a Friend

Bernt left the Mages’ Guild with a spring in his step, taking a left toward the Gateside Market. He still had something to take care of beffore he headed home.

Things were finally moving along – with his new guild membership, he could finally get his next investiture, and with access to Pollock and the library, he should be able to do something about his arm. Moreover, the ancient magister was a master pyromancer and a wizard. There was no telling what he might be able to learn from...

2.20 Magister Pollock

“I hope you actually have something for me.” Iriala said as Bernt entered her office. “My receptionist seems to think you’re just trying to go over his head.”

Bernt shifted uncomfortably. “Uh. no. I mean, It's not just that, I do have something for you.”

The archmage raised an eyebrow at him mildly, but Bernt suddenly felt as though he were in danger and he rushed to continue.

“I was on defense duty with Josie today and I learned something that ...

2.19 Banefire

“Three, two, one, now!” Kustov barked, backing away from the fist-sized hole he’d been making in what looked like a random spot in the tunnel connecting the Undercity to Halfbridge proper.

Bernt stepped forward and activated a new spellform that he’d been working on for the past two weeks – ever since the duergar had begun sending tunneling crews. He’d spent a lot of time trying to come up with a good name for it, and finally settled on Banefire. Jori and Josie had both insi...

2.18 Hostilities

Aand here's the second one for the day! I'm back home and updates will now be returning to their regularly scheduled programming. Cheers!

By the time they returned, Bernt had made up his mind to tell Ed what he’d seen. So, while the others left to catch a good night’s sleep while they could, he stayed for a little while to seek out his boss. The archmage was probably the only one who could do anything with the information anyway.

“Hmm.” Ed grunted, leaning ...

2.17 Patrol

The news spread through the city like wildfire. Bernt led the group back down toward the Undercity, leaving the mostly full cart parked at the side of the street for later. The incinerator was located outside the walls anyway, and it was safe to assume that the gates would be locked down for a while at least.

Besides, this was an emergency.

As they passed through the Lower District and into the Crafter’s District, lines were beginning to form at shops. More and more people hurri...

2.16 Siege

Hi all, this still hasn't all been edited, so keep in mind RR might deviate slightly, but I didn't want to make you guys wait any longer. Cheers!

Iriala kept her face carefully neutral as Radast gave the count an over-embellished bow and nodded graciously to the assembled leaders of the various guilds, the temples and the military.

He was enjoying this far too much – it wasn’t appropriate considering the circumstances.

The warlock’s shadow, she noticed,...

2.15 A New Recruit

Nirlig, as it turned out, was a true people person. Bernt thought he’d done reasonably well, getting to know the names of a few of the newbies and helping Lin, the matronly goblin witch, to heat her tea the previous morning.

But Bernt was apparently an amateur when it came to socializing. The gregarious goblin knew practically everyone. As they entered the Underkeepers' headquarters he saw and greeted the door guard, a dwarf that Bernt couldn’t remember seeing before, by na...

2.14 New Neighbors

Bernt woke to a quiet whimpering noise. It was mostly dark, with just a bit of light coming in through one of the open windows. He blinked and rubbed at his eyes, trying to get his bearings.

He was in his new house, in the Undercity. The light was from the tunnel’s illumination. 

The sound came again, and Bernt quickly cast a torch spell to give him some light. Jori was curled up on her bed – Bernt had managed to shape a rough stone bench with a slight depression in the m...

2.13 Interrogation

Getting the dwarf out of the Paladins’ Hall discreetly was difficult, but they managed. They had to – the paladins likely would have objected to a demon, a solicitor, and a suspected warlock apprehending another enemy warlock in their basement. Once they were out, they simply walked the dwarf out of the Temple District while Jori followed more discreetly below the street level. 

The prisoner, who seemed to be completely under the control of some kind of demon, was surprisingly ...

2.12 Pursuit

“We need to find him, now!” Fiora insisted to the exasperated guard officer. “He might be carrying an alchemical device like the other one, there’s no way to know – and no telling how much damage it could do if it was used in the wrong spot.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” the officer said through a long-suffering sigh. “But we have strict jurisdictional boundaries. I can’t just let you run around fighting and arresting people up here. I’ve passed your report along al...

2.11 Fire

Bernt slowly made his way down from the Upper District, sore and exhausted from a late afternoon sparring session with Therion. The other mage said he was getting better, but Bernt wasn’t sure that was true, not judging by the beating he took every time. He was trying to think of new and creative ways to apply cantrips in a fight when he saw a massive plume of fire rise in the distance.

It came from the crafter’s district, and that just couldn’t be a good sign. He couldn’t be en...

2.10 Infiltrators

Hi all, I spent most of the day at the hospital due to a medical emergency in the family. This might slow me down a bit on the writing in the next week, but we'll have to see. Enjoy!

Jori waved to the guard as she made her way back down into the Undercity – it was one of the ones that Bernt had introduced her to, but she couldn’t remember his name. He waved back.

Today was a good day. People were finally getting a little friendlier, or they were getting used to...

2.9 Meeting with an Archmage

“I would hire a professional if I were you.” Kustov said with a shrug. “There’s really no way around it. An improperly installed door is a nightmare – the kind of minor nuisance that will ruin your peace of mind just a little more every day. Don’t worry too much about the cost. You can save on the furniture if you practice your stone shaping to make most of it yourself – tables, shelves, a stove, a broad bench along a wall for a bed as long as you pad it properly. Maybe some dec...

2.8 Moving In

Sorry for the late post, I'm aiming to get the next one up today as well -- it's been written for some time, I'm just waiting on my editor for it. Enjoy!

The new complex was massive – at least compared to their old headquarters. It made sense, since there was no way that nearly forty people could operate out of the tiny facilities that they’d had before. This, though, was sized for at least three times as many people, probably closer to one hundred fifty, and there w...

2.7 The Undercity

Bernt was still cramming the last bits of soggy, soup-drenched bread into his mouth when they arrived at the breach. Uh. Former breach. Sometime in the past week, the place had been transformed – probably by Kustov or maybe even Janus. It was a lot of stonework.

What had previously been little more than a sloped hole in the street, leading down to a tunnel that had been torn into the sewers below, was now a semi-circular set of broad steps that led down to an imposing-lo...

2.6 Follow Up

Bernt sat in his room at the Minotaur’s Head and read the letter again – the pertinent part, not the introductory word salad. Someone had slid it under his door and he’d found it when he got up this morning. It was written on expensive parchment, adorned at the top with the elaborate crest of the Solicitors.

It was just as vague and unhelpful as the first time he’d read it. 

“The threat posed by the rogue warlock in question has been neutralized. No further demonic ...

2.5 Skinwalker

The monstrous beaver creature barreled toward them like a runaway horse. Conjuring fire here was a bad idea. But he wasn’t fast enough with anything else. Clearing the incendiary influence of his investiture out of a spell on the fly would take too long.

Deciding to take the risk, Bernt raised his pyromancer’s wand to cast. Or, he tried to. The moment he moved, he was pushed into the clammy, reeking wall by Josie as she squeezed around him in the narrow tunnel and plan...

2.4 Warlock Underkeeper

Bernt shuffled into the Underkeepers’ headquarters early the next morning, still trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes as Jori skipped along behind him. The little demon didn’t need to sleep very much, and her chipper attitude always grated on him in the mornings. It was one of the reasons he didn’t like getting up early in the first place. But over the past month he’d gotten into the habit of showing up shortly after dawn, like most of the others. He needed the later afternoon hour...

2.3 Paperwork

Bernt visualized the spellform in his mind, tracing it in the air from memory for the first time with a finger. He kept his eyes closed, both to help him concentrate and to keep himself from peeking at the scroll in his lap.

He was sitting outside the gates, at his favorite studying spot down by the river. Jori was doing what she called “training exercises” with her “intern” – a small kobold named Gnugg that she’d taken under her wing after finding him in the dungeon last mo...