Stargazer_hfy

TQG 61

61. Adversary

I propped the small mirror from my inventory on the desk as I tried to get the last of the mud off of my face.  I had changed out of my filthy clothes and now stood in the cell the monk had assigned to me wearing only my smallclothes as I washed the filth from the night’s activities from my body with the help of a basin of water and a rag and a bar of soap.

I still had one stack of [Exhaustion] and [Weakness] from the poison, but my health had regenerated ba...

TQG 60

60. Shovel

“Wait, the hounds are still out there!” I protested as the monk began unbarring the door.

“I am aware,” he said patiently, and he continued on his course of action.  I analyzed him, and I saw that he was level fifty.  Since he was not a healer, perhaps he had a combat class which would be able to drive them off.

Immediately when the door was opened, one of the hounds leapt at him, its massive paws planting on his shoulders.  However, inste...

TQG 59

59. Motivation

I had come full circle.  My adventures had begun with going through a strange portal and ending up in an area where I didn’t know where I was or how to get home, and here I was again.  Except, of course, I had grown since then, and it was not my gullibility which I had fallen victim to.  I was also significantly more confident in my abilities to defend myself.  I was no longer a level one [Child], but a level twenty-eight [Spellblade].  And a ...

TQG 58

58. Lost

“Hey, so is it cool if I, like, edit that and post it on the forums?” Corinth asked just as we were returning to the foyer.  “That whole thing was epic!”

I froze.  “You were recording that?”

“Yeah!  I mean, of course I was!  That was like a super exclusive one time event which might shape the future of the story, right?  I--”

I abruptly punched Corinth in the mouth.  It only did five damage because I have no skil...

TQG 57

57. Fortitude

“So I guess you didn’t just grow taller,” Corinth said as we were shown into the parlor.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“Oh, just commenting that you seem to have a massive pair of balls,” the older boy commented.  “And from all the talk about you while you were in the lobby, I’m sort of under the impression that it’s a recent development.”

I frowned.  “I mean, I actually think their normal sized for a boy my age but I guess I w...

TQG 56

56. Protocol

The strange sensations of displacement and movement that accompanied fast-travel faded, and I found myself standing outside the market in the eastern districts.  I was promptly enveloped in a powerful protective shield cast by a high-level [Cleric] and surrounded by Tarisha, Marvin of Cincinnati, and Lloyd, the tank who had faced Gyudue with me.

“Stay back!  <Peasant’s Revenge> will Pee Kay anyone who approaches Lord Hail at this time!” Tarisha...

TQG 55

“What do you mean, you can’t read it?” I asked, my voice full of anguish and despair.

“I mean it might as well be written in ancient hieroglyphics,” Zimmer answered, still holding the parchment that I had spent ten minutes writing.  “I’d say Greek, but I actually know a little bit of Greek.  My grandparents are from Crete.  So that would make more sense than the language that you natives use when the system isn’t translating for you, and you know that it d...

New cover sketches (TQG)

Hey everyone, thanks for sticking around.  I just got permission to share with you all these sketches by the amazing artist who will be doing the cover for book 1. 

I have to make a decision by Friday.  If you see this before then, I'd love to hear your opinion.

Also, I'm feeling creative again, expect to see new chapters soon.

Updtate/news

Hey everyone.  I'm sorry that I've been a ghost.  I'm not dead, I just needed to get away from everything for a while.  The pressure of having TQG blow up like it did sort of got to me, and I needed a while to calm down.  That being said, neither The Quest Giver, nor Soldier of Fortune, are dead/dropped.  I plan on writing on both stories again soon.

Soldier of Fortune will have 2-3 chapters added before going on a longer hiatus, in which I plan on getting to a ...

Soldier of Fortune v2_18

Unoro sighed as the port came into sight.  He vowed to never, ever, leave the comfort of land again.  The Kastazee had been wonderful and welcoming to the captives, going so far as to sail them each to their original destinations after allowing them to recoup whatever they could from the pirates.  Given that the Kastazee always seemed to have the wind on their side, they were arriving in Shefdon ahead of schedule.  For some, their captivity had been a profitable encounter,...

TQG 54

54. Traps

“It’s a trap,” Malkios declared.

“Obviously,” Tarisha agreed.  “The question is whether to spring it or avoid it.  Daemon, your thoughts on the matter?”

“I’m afraid I’m not adept enough in the politics of the Natives to be confident in an answer either way.  My counsel would be to speak with someone who is,” the vice guild leader said.  “For the moment, is it possible to delay?”

I sighed.  “I’ll write a...

TQG 53

It's kind of heavy on the info dump, but here you go.  It's going live on RR tomorrow.

53. Reunions

The door crashed open, and the sound of it slamming against the wall waking me.  I lifted my head off the desk, a piece of parchment stuck to my face that I quickly pulled off.  When I looked up, I saw Malkios storming over to me, a strange expression on his bearded face.  Well placed instinct had me immediately searching for whatever act I might have performed...

Bipolar disorder sucks.

I've had a rough couple of days.  I've been off of work, trying not to go into the hospital due to manic symptoms again.  Unfortunately this means that everything I write is crap atm.  It's the stress building up, but hopefully I'll be better soon.  Writing is important to me and it sucks to not be able to do what I love.  And it also sucks to not have anything for you guys to read.  But I'm improving, and hopefully I'll have some more chapters this weekend.

TQG 52. Alive

52. Alive

I returned to the world in the temple of Thedum in Zhesa city.  Specifically in the rectory, appearing in a swirl of white motes of light right in front of a young novice, who screamed out “Oh I’m sorry Thedum, I didn’t mean it!” when I appeared.

“I’m not Thedum,” I told him.

“Where did you come from?” the novice demanded.  “This place is sacred, Traveler’s can’t just--”

“I’m not a traveler, I’m Earl Hail Jeoran,”...

Update

Just checking in and holy crap have a lot of people joined.  Nice to see you all, I'm glad that you enjoy my writing enough to support me.

I had a zoom meeting with Podium today.  I think it went fairly well.  Their editorial team is apparently going to look at the story and possibly give me an offer for The Quest Giver.  Man, I only came up with that story in February, lol.

Anyway, I've been doing a bit of editing and stuff.  I'll try to get some new chap...

TQG 51

Note: So I know I said I'd be working on SoF this weekend but after a week of editing and getting contacted by podium I can't stop thinking of TQG.  So here's chapter 1 of the next book.

51. Goodbye

I spent six weeks in the lobby.  I had a number of reasons for doing so, but the biggest reason was simply that, as I understood it, once I left the lobby I would never see my grandfather as my grandfather again.

Whatever Thomas the administrator might have...

I’ve been contacted by podium publishing

Holy crap. They want to make TQG into an audiobook. 

editing/working

Just letting everyone know I'm alive.  I'm currently editing the manuscript of TQG book one, which I have decided to put on KDP.  The paperback will release first because I really want to have one in my hand.

Eventually I'll be putting it on KU, but I want to ride out being on rising stars and/or get a ways into book 2 before I do that.

Yes, TQG book 2 is going to be a thing

Sorry if that wasn't clear from my last post.  I have some ideas already and they're sort of gestating in the background at the moment, I need some time for them to crystalize, and I need to do some planning.  If you're worried about me abandoning TQG for SoF because I'm going to write a few SoF chapters, just remember that 4-8 chapters is like ... a weekend for me.

I was always planning to take a break after I completed TQG book 1.  I literally wrote a complete novel in ...

So...three novels down.

With chapter 50 complete of The Quest Giver, I am officially calling it a completed novel.

Man, I need to start publishing this stuff.

Not quite sure what I'll do with myself next.  I plan to write 5-10 new chapters of Soldier of Fortune, but I'm also looking at editing all three of my completed novels and possibly putting some of them on KDP.

TQG 50. Gideon

Gideon was having a very bad day.  He had begged out of being a part of the big reward ceremony for closing the raid by signing up to lecture a bunch of kids about the realities and pitfalls of professional gaming, only to have everything go to hell while he was away.  Now he was stuck in an emergency meeting to deal with the aftermath.

Worse, the meeting was in real time, since many of the investors and backers of his guild were unwilling or unable to log into even the lobby ...

TQG 49. Lewis

“Lewis, it is time for you to awaken,” the digital voice said kindly.  “You have reached your destination.”

Lewis grunted sat up in the car, looking around.  In The Gates of Tirniki, he was known as Laurant Basak.  Not widely known; he hadn’t been playing very long.  And if he was being honest, he was merely average.  A decent [Archer], planning on becoming a [Ranger] at some point, but there were millions more skilled than he.

His only ...

48. Alternatives

I had the sensation of disembodiment, of displacement.  Of moving without moving.  It was similar to fast travel, yet different.  When the sensation faded, I was back in my body, back in my childhood room in the castle, wardrobe and all.  I frowned and looked around, thinking, perhaps for just a moment, that it had all been a dream.

But I wasn’t in a child’s body any longer.

“Status screen,” I said.

 [Blue Boxes]

…

Zero health. ...

TQG 47. The Bane of Zhesa Castle

After avenging my grandfather and giving him his funeral blessing, I was exhausted.  I collapsed into the mobile throne which had been placed upon the stage for the ceremony, uncaring that I was violating protocol quite severely.  The people who would have cared about such things had fled from the violence immediately upon my grandfather’s death.

“What happens now, Thedum?” I asked.

“I have made you into a worldboss.  For the next few hours, at least,” he ...

TQG 46. The Vengeance of Thedum

“Thedum, no!  Send me back!” I pleaded to the white nothingness.

“If I send you back as you are, you will simply die,” the sad benevolence said.  “I will not consign you to that fate.”

“I have to save him!  Grandfather, he, he—you have to save him Thedum!”

“I am sorry, young one.  This was inevitable from the day the Gates of TirNiki opened.  Scenario forty-six has been activated, and there is nothing I could do to prevent it,” ...

TQG 45. Disaster

“She’s better off being a rogue than an assassin anyway,” Tarisha said, demonstrating the next sequence.

I tried to copy her, spinning and leaping and losing my balance.  I landed wrong and fell on my bottom, losing one health.  I simply laughed at my failure.  “I think she’s better off too, but that’s because I hate assassins.  Why do you think she’s better off?”

“Among other reasons, the natives have negative reactions to assassins that they...

44. Rebuilding

I walked through the empty caverns that had once been the [Gemos Caverns] dungeon, Tarisha and the party of players who had first rescued me from becoming a kebab for goblins following close behind.  The cave structure remained unchanged from before I had reclaimed the dungeon core, with the faint bioluminescent moss illuminating our way.  I still cast spark a handful of times to light the path, as without the glow of the crystals that were the weak point of the Gemos golems the cav...

Status update

So I work night shift the next several days and likely won't be posting many chapters.  I am however still on track to keep up with Royal Road updates for the foreseeable future.  TQG book 1 will soon be completed.

I am expecting TQG book 1 to end up at around 50 chapters depending on how the words flow.  I have the basic idea for TQG book 2, and just need some time to flesh it out.

Once TQG book 1 is completed, you can expect 5-8 more chapters of SoF.  Possibl...

TQG 43. Aftermath

The popular item of this boss was another vanity pet; a miniature wardrobe according to the item description.  The argument about its distribution was fierce.  Finally it was decided that Father would hold onto it until a guild meeting could be held to determine its fate.  The second most popular item was a [Wardrobe Key], a large skeleton key shaped amulet with impressive bonus dexterity.  And, for some reason, there was a pair of [Blue Royal Undergarments] as well.  ...

TQG 42. Wardrobe

The keep was filled with Living Statues dressed in livery and pomp.  Some of them resembled the courtiers and servants who had once walked these halls, while others had faces that were simply blank stone.  The raid sliced through them like they were made of cheese, quickly clearing the ground floor.  Within the throne room, we encountered a living statue dressed in my grandfather’s robes who hid behind a wall of force and summoned endless waves of adds.  There seemed to ...