Nivilack

A question

I'm curious, who is your guy's favorite character in SSIAW so far? Besides our main man Hoplite of course, unless he's the only character you like :)

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 19: Doubt

Lance watched as Michael retreated back toward the wagon, a hand braced against his growling stomach as he went. The sight would have been almost comedic on any other day, but with Hoplite having been reduced to this state, it couldn’t even draw a grin from her. She was still frustrated with Hoplite for what he had said to her earlier that day, but that didn’t mean she despised him. She drew no pleasure from seeing him broken like this, indeed it tore her guts out to see him babb...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 18: Shell-Shocked

“Sir…?” Michael asked, crouching down next to Hoplite, “What’s goin’ on?”

“I’m loyal.” Hoplite muttered, eyes wide as he stared ahead at nothing.

A cold shiver ran up his spine as he saw his childhood hero reduced to a shell-shocked mess. This wasn’t supposed to happen to a guy like Thirty-Seven, he was an invincible killing machine… but seein’ him like this? It was almost enough to make Michael wanna ball up n’ cry. He eased himself down beside Hoplite...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 17: Thirty Seconds in The Chair

The Unbound… Hoplite had learned about him from the Lore-Keeper, Mangwin, during their long talk at Muro’s death-day. A being that wielded the power of the Pillar Gods with none of their limitations… Mazeek had been described as being the most dangerous creature on Ahkoolis. Seeing him now, Hoplite could hardly bring himself to see him as a severe threat. Yet he knew that looks could be deceiving… and the Dragon himself had seemed eager to avoid conflict with him. That fact alone lent...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 16: The Dragon of The East

Hoplite’s face remained blank as his mind toiled to understand what he had done to upset Lance. Any living thing with a frontal lobe would have been able to see that she would have been a liability to him had she stayed… His focus would have been split between protecting her and defeating Tolak, and he wasn’t sure that he would’ve been able to keep her safe amongst the horde. There had been so many Fiends, an army of bodies that would have crushed her flat had he not told her the real...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 15: Kneel

Twindil sighed as she rounded the corner into the tunnel. She saw Lance already far ahead of her, quickly moving right past the wagon and further into the darkness. She would likely need some time to herself to cool down, just as Hoplite did. It had been strange, and admittedly a tad bit terrifying to hear the Outworlder lose his temper that way. He was normally cold and stiff, almost like a statue that had become animate. To hear that heat in his voice was deeply unsettling, it wasn’t the ...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter Fourteen: Silence

Lance and the others left his side, approaching the downed form of Tolak with Elum, Alistair, and Twindil. Were they going to try and seize those chains after all? The advantages of having them might prove beneficial to the squad… but it was risky to try and take something like that, what if it could spread the curse, or even worse, allow Kazon to directly control their minds? That would be sub-optimal to the completion of the mission. He thought of commanding them to leave the chains behin...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter Thirteen: The Chain's Chosen

Lance let out a relieved sigh as the mountainous figure of Halm retreated into the distance. Sane or not, she could not bring herself to feel safe around one of the accursed. Despite that, she found herself wishing that his journey would be relatively safe for him. Losing his mind, only to regain it before losing it again sounded like a horrible fate, and despite her feelings, she could not say that Halm would deserve such a thing. He had been a hero on a quest to vanquish Kazon, a noble goal...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 12: The Mouth of Zodd

"Wait!" The orc screamed again as Hoplite charged toward him, blade drawn and ready to skewer the now-peaceful Fiend.

Twindil rushed forward, stepping into Hoplites path with her features firmed. "Calm yourself and let me explain!" She shouted across the span between them, her voice echoing across the bridge.

Hoplite slowed his advance, coming to a hesitant stop yet not sheathing his knife. Once he was within a few paces of her, he stopped, though his helmet never turned away from...

Progress on the spin-off

Its looking really good right now, pretty pumped up to get this out there to you guys. I wanna get a cover commissioned for it before I publish it on any of the websites, but would you guys want to read the rough draft I have so far for it? It needs some polishing of course and I'm going to completely re-write the beginning, but I'm vibing with it so far and I wanna know if it vibes with you guys too. 

Also, I am collabing on this project with my wife in google docs (She writes as ...

New SSIAW spin-off coming

Hey guys, sorry I couldn't get that third chapter out, I just can't get it done right yet, not until I write the first chapter of this spin-off idea I've had in my head. I asked the folks on Royalroad if they'd be interested in reading stories about other Hoplites in other fantasy worlds, and the idea seems to have been received well. I really want to get the this down on paper, what do you all think?

3rd chapter coming out today (Hopefully)

I said at the beginning of the month that there'd be three chapters, and I wanna deliver on that, but if the chapter doesn't feel done then it'll take a tad longer, we'll see what happens just letting you all know

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 11: Onslaught

Twindil cursed as she rushed into the tunnel, the ravening horde in hot pursuit. There had to be hundreds of the accursed creatures out there, if not more. She turned her head to see Michael still standing there, a blank expression on his face as he stared at the looming darkness ahead. She turned on her heel, rushing past the others to reach him. She may not have known him all too well, but Twindil wasn’t about to allow the Outworlder to suffer a fate worse than death. When she was about h...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter Ten: Scarred

The Fiends tore a path forward, snarling and rabid, ready to tear into his flesh for a chance at easing their pains. As the tidal wave of flesh moved forth, Hoplite’s perception of time slowed, allowing him to consider his options. He could fall back to get a better position, holing up inside the rest stop along with the others.

If he did that however, it would be more difficult to finish off Tolak, the mutant would be able to sit outside the tunnel comfortably while his minions whitt...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter Nine: Dragon's Curiosity

The Dragon of The East stared down at the looming horde of Fiends, a sneer forming on his face as his slitted golden eyes glared down upon the mass of putrid purple flesh. Invisible to all forms of detection, Legolanthas floated downward, closer to this ‘Scarless’ creature. Aside from the curse, the man didn’t look extraordinary. A lean warrior's build and a plain face, nothing of note aside from the chains bound to his forearms. Tolak was certainly not the same ‘Scarless’ Legolanth...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter Eight: Scarless

Four days of travel was wearing Hoplite thin. The days were gruesomely slow; his objectives seemed to never come closer to completion, despite their rapid pace. Already they had covered over half the span of the Fiendbridge, yet he still hadn’t picked up on a single radio signal. Perhaps his comrades had landed further inland? Yes that had to be it-

“So then I said to him,” Michael guffawed, “I said you can’t make a sandwich with only meat! Ya gotta have two nice squishy buns ...

No charge for this month

Yeah so I've paused the billing for this month so none of you will be charged. I'm sorry that I couldn't deliver on the two chapters. I'm going to try and fix that next month but I think I need to take a short break from SSIAW to work on other projects. I think I burnt myself out on SSIAW trying to finish it last year, so a break might be just what I need to get back into it. I will not charge anyone until I deliver on my two chapters a month, I refuse to take your money until I uphold my end...

A few changes (Again)

Alright, so having chapters be that length is way more of a pain then I realized, gonna go back to how I used to do it, i.e just publishing them when I think they're done. Also, and this is more important I think, I'm going to be turning off donations if I can't deliver on two chapters a month. I didn't know this was even a feature until recently, but you can temporarily turn off donations for the month if you want. I'm going to be doing this if I can't give you guys what I promised.

So...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 7: Fiendside Chat

Lance stared up at Hoplite in shock, trying to keep her eyes from moistening. She could not allow herself to cry right now, or he’d think that he had scared her. Yet his insistence that he was little more than an object, a tool for this ‘Eighth Arm’ strained her nerves. How could his own nation treat him in such a way? According to Michael, Hoplite was considered a hero amongst his people, the Ternans… so why did the man himself think he was a mere object? How could he have b...

SSIAW: The Fiendwood: Chapter 6: A Tool, Nothing More

“Thirty-seven!” Twenty-five shouted, barely dodging his massive fist, “It was all a lie, we’re not serving the pinnacle of man!”

“You aren’t serving as you should.” Hoplite said coldly, “A broken tool is useless, if I can’t bring you back for re-indoctrination, then I will neutralize you.”

It was unfortunate that he’d been disarmed, twenty-five had always been proficient at taking an enemy's weapon from them… Yet only in that did twenty-five have an advan...

SSIAW soon, hopefully before the end of this month

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I am definitely working on the next chapter at this moment. Currently sitting at 3000 words but I want the chapter to be 7000 as I said in my earlier post. As a result of that, its gonna take me a bit longer to put these chapters out than normal but I'm sure you'll appreciate the longer chapters

Savage Mage: First Year: Prologue

Lietta Mariane Hertfort sat back in her chair, tucking some of her stray blonde hair behind her ear as she waited for her name to be called. The class was crammed full of new students, each wearing a gold-trimmed blue robe. The standard uniform for first years at Skolaris. Not a single seat was left unoccupied… all save for one. The seat directly to her left was empty. How could someone ...

Bigger chapters from now on.

I've come to realize something in my writing process recently, I really, really like making huge long chapters. It does take me a really long time, but I feel like I can convey a lot more this way. I'm gonna be shooting for 7,000 to 10,000 word chapters from now on, with the occasional shorter chapter here and there for levity, but expect this to be the standard from now on.

Trapped in the Crossroads: The Island: Chapter Four: Walkin' in the Jungle

Sam continued to stare out at his surroundings for what felt like an hour, feeling uneasy as he did so. The endless jungle and towering mountain in the distance intimidated him, and he found himself praying to the good Lord to get him out of this mess. Sure, he had done a lot of bad things in his time… a LOT of bad things, but nothing so bad that it would warrant this kind of divine punishment, right? He shook his head, God didn’t put him here, it was that stupid satanic cloud. A...

Chapter Five: Thawing

Hoplite considered his options as he stared down at Kid’ka. Should he disarm him before he had the chance to swing his blade? The man wasn’t readying to fight just yet from the look of it, his hand was still well away from the hilt of his sword… He must have been waiting for Hoplite’s reply. He supposed that he could just refuse the challenge, and he would need to. Tomah was a fight to the death, from Hoplite’s understanding, so why did Kid’ka want to die? There was no way that he...

I'm finally getting back to SSIAW!

Good news guys, the burnout is gone and I'm writing chapter five for Fiendwood right now! It seemed all I needed was a short break after all. My goal for chapter five is to have it out by Sunday, but we'll see how that goes, I may make it extra long because of this long hiatus, we'll see. Writing something else for a bit definitely helped too, and my writing style has improved for it I think. Thank you for your patience!

Trapped in the Crossroads: The Island: Chapter Three: The Other

Sam continued to walk, his shoulders slumped and feet dragging, their weight matching his leaden eyelids. The sun was just now peeking over the lip of the horizon, illuminating the darkened sky. Sam had not been able to sleep after last night's events, intense paranoia kept him from slumber. By now he should have found a bend in the beach… But it only continued on. Was this Cuba? This felt more like walking the shores of a small country… Yet, the idea of this being Cuba didn’t seem to t...

Trapped in the Crossroads: The Island: Chapter Two: A Savage Encounter

Sam let out a loud belch as he finished the last coconut that he'd knocked down from the surrounding trees. His back lay pressed against the trunk of the tree furthest from the jungle, his stomach full to bursting with both coconut water and the fruit's meat. Was a coconut even a fruit? Was it technically a nut? He’d heard that cashews come from a fruit, but most people still consider them to be nuts. Difficult questions for a difficult food. It would probably give him the runs later, but S...

Cover for Trapped in the Crossroads: The Island

Got this cover done for the story, I think it looks great! Thanks to JohnnyBoyDraws for making this. He has a webcomic called Dungeons and Disasters if you enjoy this artstyle, link here: https://www.dndcomic.com/

Trapped in the Crossroads: The Island: Chapter One

Chapter One: Stranded

Sam’s eyes slowly opened as consciousness came back to him, seeing that the sky had become a crystal clear blue. He grit his teeth as he sat up from the white sand beneath him, coming face to face with the ocean. The sun hung high, the morning light warming his salt-smelling skin and soaked orange jumpsuit. He coughed as he struggled to stand, chest aching and limbs feeling leaden as he finally managed to rise from the ground. His knees near...