ddwebb

17 - 2

“And you want my help?”  Natchua perched on the edge of the chair, tense with nervous energy.  Nothing in here should have been unnerving to Natchua of all people, but given everything else going on in her life right now it seemed fair for her to be congenitally on edge.  “I’ll be honest, Ravana, I assumed this whole alliance of Houses was something you proposed so you could have me as a stick to threaten people with.  And I don’t mind that, genuinely; I...

17 - 1

After tacking aimlessly back and forth across miles of barren terrain, the monster finally spotted a goal whose existence seemed to drive it into a rage.  Far out at the edge of its perception, at the very border of the Badlands, an old town huddled against the foothills of the Stalrange—mostly flat and practically invisible across such a distance except for its newest construction: the zeppelin dock, at which an airship was tied up, an unmissable target.

The necro-drake roared i...

A New Beginning

All right, I'm fully back and ready to launch into what's next.  I have three things to announce:

- Book 17 of The Gods are Bastards begins now.  I've been looking forward to this and working toward it for a long time now, and while I regret that it has to come as a result of another creative breakdown and at the expense of OVDT, returning to Tiraas feels like coming home.  I haven't been this excited about anything in the longest time.  The first chapter wi...

Results and next steps

Well, I wouldn't call that experiment a success.  I did not manage to finish the chapter; I made progress, managed to break through the initial block I had and get about half the chapter done, but at that point I hit real burnout and it started spiraling into a pretty bad depression so I'm pulling back before I kick off another whole-ass brain episode I don't need.  I got about half a chapter out of the day-long effort.

As I said last update, I have been feeling much ...

Returning soon

Hi everyone, it's the middle of July and I am reporting in as promised.

Progress has been very good.  I feel...honestly, pretty well recovered.  I'm fully recuperated from the exhaustion, the stress and emotional breakdowns I was experiencing have faded, and I have my energy and focus back.  I've been doing some writing over the last couple of weeks, and it's been going well.  So I consider myself recovered enough to resume work, and I'm anxious to do so as soon as p...

The Webb Report, 6/30/23

Hi everybody, it's now the end of the month and the end of the break period announced in my last post due to mental illness.  I'm here to update everyone on my progress and plans, as promised.

I'll go into more detail below but if you don't care for the fine print, the tl;dr is that I'm doing better but not really back up to condition yet.  I'm going to give it two more weeks and see how I'm doing at that point.  So, middle of July, I will give another update and either (...

Unplanned Major Hiatus

The Avenists, my highest tier and most appreciated backers, did not get their regular Tuesday update because I couldn't get the work done.  And this was after I had to extend my usual monthly writing break because I had the same problem the week before.  Today...  I woke up planning to announce another schedule skip, to pass through the update cycle as normal, but after trying all day to finish the chapter that was due days ago and failing to make any progress on it, I've had t...

4.47 In Which the Dark Lord Calls Upon the Goddess

I strode directly across the stand in center stage, close enough to the “performers” to see their glum, frightened expressions and address them without having to raise my voice.

“Excuse me!” blustered Mr. Smug, while his seven competitors hovered in the background, watching me upstage him with visible schadenfreude.  “Sir, please clear the area!  You are obstructing the view of the highborn.”

How interesting, this guy felt no need to defer to me.  Being ...

4.46 In Which the Dark Lord Sends Other People's Plans Awry

I hadn’t forgotten what I’d said to Aster back then.  The last the highborn had seen of the enigmatic Lord Seiji, he was vanishing into the dark of the forest right after confronting Archlord Caludon at Caer Ardyllen.  Now, it was from the forest that he suddenly reappeared, right on the outskirts of Clan Yldyllich’s holdings.  I emerged from the shadows beneath the skeletal winter khora and made a beeline across the cleared expanse of snow toward the guards standing watc...

Okay, I have to call it.

I hate this...

Okay, as the Avenists know, their chapter is late because I hit a really bad brain episode two days before it was due and hadn't pulled out of it in time to finish by the Friday deadline.  Since it had already been a couple of days, I figured (what with my usual rhythm of depressive episodes) that it would clear up and I could have it done in another day or two.

Since you're reading this, you probably know what happened.

I'm only just starting to pull thr...

4.45 In Which the Dark Lord's Plans Go Awry

Because nothing could ever go smoothly, we got a last minute warning through Gizmit’s network, who thankfully knew to send important messages straight to North Watch via the tunnels in the spymaster’s absence.  Giz herself was just about to head out with Naz on their rumor-sniffing tour of the outlying villages when a frantic goblin rushed out of the tunnel access, yelling for her and waving a sheet of paper overhead.

Gizmit read over the report in a few quick movements of her ...

Bonus 16: In Which the Hero Picks the Wrong Place to Put His Foot Down

“We can afford drinks and fried wedges!  It was a successful quest, we should celebrate!”

“Just because we have enough money to buy something doesn’t mean we can afford it.”

“That is the literal definition of the word!” Flaethwyn retorted, narrowing her eyes.  “Maidhlur with the garden keys.”

“The fox at harvest time,” Pashilyn retorted without hesitation.

At that, Flaethwyn looked actually offended.  “That is a ...

4.44 In Which the Dark Lord Doesn't Get to Be the Center of Attention

After that, I could at least scratch “spend the night in a haunted house” off my bucket list.

Caer Gwylhaithe didn’t have actual ghosts, but it definitely had that vibe.  I was shown to a guest room by a giant undead spider, which returned several minutes later to offer me a complimentary bowl of mashed-up maggots and worms.  I politely declined.  Come to think of it, this seemed to be the overall theme of my stupid isekai adventure.  The goddesses were clearly...

May '23 AMA

Ani-mam asks:

"I've always loved how lively your characters and dialogue are, are any of your characters based on/inspired by real people you know, or do your character concepts come from other sources? (IE Other literature, television, pulled-straight-from-the-depths-of-your-psyche-fully-formed)"

I've definitely never based a character on a real person; even were that not legally hazardous I'd find the idea creepy in the extreme.  I know a lot of au...

It's always something

Gonna be a small schedule interruption.

For those who haven't been following the unfolding saga on discord, I had to take my cat back to the emergency vet, so that's how I spent all of Tuesday from 3AM to dinner time, which is how long it took to get the final verdict. To summarize, she is okay, just going to need a little special care from now on, and I am out almost $2K with all said and done.  Just a few months ago that would've been a disaster, but thanks to very kind reader su...

4.43 In Which the Dark Lord Doesn't Make the Rules

“You summoned me, Dark Lord?”

The great hall was a lot busier now, with my people slowly spreading through the place, taking stock under strict orders not to touch any of Khariss’s personal possessions or alchemical equipment, or mess with the spiders.  Scary as the spiders were, their shy demeanor tended to defuse a lot of the tension their appearance caused.  We’d returned from our chat in the parlor to find Nazralind trying to pet one.

Now, Rath Kadora had jus...

4.42 In Which the Dark Lord Courts Death

Khariss insisted on bringing along a single emotional support necrospider, or at least so I assume its function was as the thing immediately scuttled into one corner of the small parlor to which it had guided us, folded all its legs under itself and hunkered down trying to look as small as possible.  It’s pretty funny how eight glowing green eyes are suddenly way less terrifying than they should be when you can see the nervousness in them.

The vampire folded herself into a large ...

May '23 AMA question post, Izarite edition

One question per person per month, please.  A maximum of five from this tier will be chosen and answered in one week.

4.41 In Which the Dark Lord Comes Back With a Warrant

I got a nice little glimpse into who among my support team had the best poker face.  Very little, as I couldn’t turn around to see which of them were gasping or making strangled noises, but I knew Aster would be taking notes.  Me, I focused on the eight beady eyes that had appeared above a pair of big fuzzy mandibles, set low to the floor and at a steep angle as the giant spider peeked nervously through the crack.

“Good afternoon,” I said in my politest tone, bo...

The Missing Months

Content warning for mental illness.

And I cringe at having to say that, yet again, but here we are.  I genuinely do hate how much of my communication is talking about that; I hate feeling like a whiner or like I'm bumming people out when my entire job is literally to entertain people.  But, it's definitely not going to stop anytime soon, and maybe that's not so terrible.  I started talking openly about depression and related struggles out of simple professionalis...

4.40 In Which the Dark Lord Returns

“We’re just about set,” Aster reported as soon as I rejoined her on the ground, without waiting to be asked.  “The engineers are even more efficient than I anticipated, so the defensive barricades are fully in place now.  Reinforcements in the tunnel are prepared to move forward and hold this position once the rest of us advance.  We can stand here and keep whittling at them as long as you wish, but we’re ready to move on your command, Lord Seiji.”

I nodded, t...

April break week

I usually do this the last week of the month, so tonight's update would've been the last one before break, but I'm taking it one update early this time.  This month and the last have been a downward spiral in terms of my mental health and today I'm in real bad shape, to the point I'm having trouble functioning at all, much less doing anything productive or creative.  The next chapter is an exciting one I've looked forward to and am still unable to focus enough to actually get it wri...

4.39 In Which the Dark Lord Reflects on the Eve of Battle

It was a bit of a hike.

For once, Sneppit’s amazing efficiency had harmed rather than helped; she had very wisely focused reconstruction efforts on the tunnels under the Fflyr territory we mostly needed to move around in, so there wasn’t a convenient tram line that took us all the way to the zombie village, at least not yet.  Ironic that our transportation network let me down right when I needed to move the largest assemblage of troops I’d ever deployed into the field, but th...

4.38 In Which the Dark Lord Sets Up His Pieces

“Are you quite sure you comprehend what you are asking?” Lady Elidred inquired of me in deadly calm.

“I was present when the Archlord laid out his idiotic scheme,” I said.  “Yes, I understand the enforcement methods, and I am prepared to completely obviate them in your case—which, rest assured, is a boon I am offering only to Clan Yviredh out of every Clan I mean to pressure, by every means at my disposal, to comply with my resistance.  If you don’t comp...

4.37 In Which the Dark Lord Has Issues with the Women in His Life

It was a start.

There were more arrangements to be made, of course, but having gotten the necessary balls rolling, and since I now had the unbelievable luxury of competent subordinates to whom I could delegate details, I indulged in some time to actually recover from my deep forest adventure.  A full bath would wait, but I did manage to get thoroughly clean before dinner, which I then spent with the kids, surrounded by the cheerful noise of the mess hall.  Junko wasn’t ordin...

4.36 In Which the Dark Lord Weaves a Tangled Web

Nothing like a week spent trudging through the snow to make you appreciate an actual transportation system.  Barely an hour after my meeting with the squirrels, I was back in North Watch, sitting at my conference table with a cup of steaming blood tea and my command staff assembled.  God, I loved goblins.  Especially their trams.

Zhylvren and Vylkher were also impressed by the trams, as well as Kzidnak in general as we passed through.  A bit less so by Ydleth, who ha...

4.35 In Which the Dark Lord Barks Up the Right Tree

Noble households were usually swarming with functionaries, guards, and attendants of various kinds, but Aster and I made it the entire way down the corridor, through the big grandiose entry hall Fflyr liked so much, and out into the bracing winter air before we encountered anyone, these being the two Clansguard stationed flanking the manor’s front doors.  It was almost as if the nearby lowborn had just observed something going on that they wanted to be nowhere in the vicinity of.

oops

just accidentally published the Avenist chapter for all patrons.

I corrected it but I'm pretty sure the whole thing is in all the notification emails...

Oh, well.  Nothing I can do about it now.  I guess y'all get a freebie this time.

4.34 In Which the Dark Lord Hurts Some Feelings

Suddenly, Archlord Caludon rose from his chair and crossed the distance before us in two long, decisive strides, bringing himself to stand precariously on the very lip of the stage upon which we sat.  The shift in his demeanor was as absolute as it was abrupt.  Everything changed; his posture, body language, facial expression.  It was like an entirely different person had slipped into his skin, a charismatic and outgoing man who bore no resemblance to the elf who’d been loung...

4.33 In Which the Dark Lord Keeps Up with the Aelthwyns

“Lhadron, you are remiss,” Caludon stated, arching an eyebrow.  “Here stands our guest of honor, deprived of introduction in violation of all rules of civilized hospitality.”

“Ah, then you are quite done monopolizing his attention?” Lhadron countered evenly, raising himself a notch in my estimation.  I wouldn’t blame a guy for playing it safe with a viper like Caludon in his house, but the Highlord had a spine.  Then again, maybe the truth of the situation l...