Trying to keep the output up while editing is ongoing. Hope you are all well out there!
The mages have achieved a strange dichotomy that can largely be attributed to the identities of the Council members who came to lead them. The two not only differ in the magics that they choose to employ, but als...
2022-07-18 06:45:02 +0000 UTC View PostDig, dig, dig, dig, DIG, DIG, DIG!
The mountain shakes beneath us as a catastrophic BOOM rips through the nest and the temperature skyrockets again. The tunnel opening behind us glows brightly before the first hint of lava is seen.
[Invidia! Block it off, quick!]
Another BOOM shakes the stone around...
2022-07-17 12:21:34 +0000 UTC View PostWe warred for survival. That was our driving motivation for so long that when we eventually reached the point that survival wasn’t threatened, we almost didn’t know how to act. We had established enough power, enough allies, that the forces who sought to exterminate us were unwilling to pay the cost, and thus secured ...
2022-07-14 11:35:45 +0000 UTC View PostTwenty skeletons. That was the following that Tyron had managed to create after his desperate struggles to master his Necromancer class. He was proud of what he’d achieved. He didn’t want to be boastful, but he felt certain that under his circumstances, most would struggle to do what he had done, or learn what he had lear...
2022-07-13 10:54:09 +0000 UTC View PostBig ‘ol chunk of mass, surrounded by many more, smaller chunks o mass. Huge amounts of toing and froing. It has to be the queen’s chamber. There’s not way the termites would allow egg production to cease, not even during a crisis. Especially during a crisis.
How is a social insect supposed to overcome its...
2022-07-12 07:11:28 +0000 UTC View PostDown in the darkness we plunge. It’s strange. Normally this kind of environment would be so familiar, so welcoming to me, it’s a social insect nest after all, but it just… doesn’t. Instead, it feels alien, and twisted from everything it should be.
There are no comforting pheromones of my family spread across the...
2022-07-11 10:07:35 +0000 UTC View PostIt is difficult to say how the Colony’s attitude to the pets raised by the eldest came to be what it is today. There was always a level of respect afforded to them, naturally, they were allies and assistants to the Eldest, and therefore allies to all of us. Some of the dignity and power of the most august ant, the first...
2022-07-10 07:06:01 +0000 UTC View PostAnother one today I hope.
Overhead, the rock face of an entire mountain rushed down to meet them, the roar of tearing stone deafening to all in the mouth of the nest. Advant looked up, her mandibles set in grim determination. What happened next wasn’t up to her, but she would believe in her sisters. 2022-07-09 05:02:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Just a quick update about the health situation with the family. Lot's of people have made very kind comments and I've read and appreciated them all.
The kids are fine and dandy now, no more covid, no more symptoms, living the high life. Somehow my wife and I managed not to catch it, which was a minor miracle. Despite me...
2022-07-08 05:34:11 +0000 UTC View PostSloan watched the fighting from the backlines, though she desperately wished she could surge forward to battle alongside her siblings. As the general in charge of the field, she couldn’t afford to be so selfish, but with the hated nemesis of the Colony so close, it was hard to hold herself back.
Her mandibles itched t...
2022-07-06 11:31:21 +0000 UTC View Post“So you had a chat with the bandit leader and told him to fuck off?”
“Pretty much,” Tyron confirmed.
“You really intend to die for a group of women and children? I mean, noble as hell, admirable even, but I didn’t think this was your goal. Didn’t you have some shit you wanted to do?”
Dove sou...
2022-07-05 08:15:18 +0000 UTC View PostIt's a Rust reference. Keep your mind out of the gutter.
“Eldest! What are you doing up here?” Leeroy complained.
“Hah. Thought you had a nice final stand setup here, did you? You thought you’d run far enough from the rest of the Colony that we wouldn’t be able to catch up and keep...
2022-07-04 04:36:56 +0000 UTC View PostHaving the collective Will of over a hundred thousand sentient creatures flowing through you at once is… heady stuff. When all hundred thousand of them are baying for the blood of their ancestral enemies… it’s… difficult to stay level.
When Leeroy rocketed off like an idiot it was all I could do not to race in a...
2022-07-02 11:27:06 +0000 UTC View PostRassan’tep watched with cold, reptilian amusement as the armoured shock troops of the Colony dove forward, seemingly at random. He had hoped the stand off between the two sides would last longer so he might further study the ants and the disposition of their forces. Knowing what he did now about them, it was far easier to r...
2022-07-01 12:03:15 +0000 UTC View PostBeen tough to get anything done with the fatigue and headaches. Hopefully this isn't too much of a mess but I don't want to delay it any longer.
Sorry to all the Chrysalis readers. It's coming.
Tyron pushed the fatigue away and worked through the night. He pushed his magick relent...
2022-06-30 12:02:46 +0000 UTC View PostHey all, still alive.
All things considered, we are doing pretty well here in the RinoZ household. Both kids have caught covid now, but the youngest is through the other side. The eldest still has a while to go, but he's doing alright.
I, somehow, managed to avoid co...
2022-06-28 08:32:37 +0000 UTC View PostCardigant, the one who fell, and in falling, achieved true immortality. Her existence, or rather, the lack of ongoing existence, was something amazing to the Immortals, something precious.
It was, Leeroy decided, something that could not afford to be lost.
She and her sisters had come so close to losing hope! They...
2022-06-23 09:40:31 +0000 UTC View PostIt was somewhat embarrassing to have forgotten he had this ability. Tyron had been so focused on perfecting his ability to assess, prepare and Raise Skeletons that his other abilities had dropped almost totally from his awareness.
Specifically, his ability to speak to the dead.
The spell was certainly an interesti...
2022-06-22 02:49:30 +0000 UTC View Postor something.
Just a quick update and a warning that my schedule might be even worse than usual this week. One of the kiddly winks has tested positive for covid, which means isolation and all those other great times that come with it.
We ducked and weaved as long as we could, but finally one of us got stung!
Tyron leaned back from the table with a sigh. He moved to wipe the sweat from his brow, but hesitated when he caught sight of his hands. He looked around for the bucket of water he’d drawn, then grimaced when he noticed the decidedly red colour of it.
Were there chunks floating in it as well?
Once upon a time, s...
2022-06-21 04:49:21 +0000 UTC View PostUnder the soft light of the fourth stratum, with a soft mist rising from the glittering blue waters on the shore, the might of the Colony assembled. They had gathered in strength before, huge armies of ant soldiers, alongside smaller groups of human and golgari, but not quite like this.
Half a million ants emerged from ...
2022-06-19 06:40:34 +0000 UTC View PostFanatics aside, there was plenty of stuff going on and not much time in which to get it done. With so many ants furiously working, I decided the best place for me was out of the way on the surface.
Well, I say surface, obviously I'm not climbing all the way out of the Dungeon. I head up until I break through and find my...
2022-06-17 08:53:37 +0000 UTC View PostHah!
Felt like something just walked over my grave. Can ants even shiver? That's weird! Almost as weird as having bones on the inside. I can't imagine how I ever put up with it.
Holy moly, I feel a little weird. I'm jazzed up. Got the shakes. I've got so much energy I just don't know what to do with it. 2022-06-16 04:05:41 +0000 UTC View Post
A cold wind blew. It cut through the empty street, and through the lone figure who staggered through the chill, a package tucked under one arm. The small person pulled a tattered coat tighter around their slight frame as they looked around, seeking something that they soon found.
A familiar sight, a familiar door, thoug...
2022-06-15 10:11:14 +0000 UTC View PostWith his captors distracted, Tyron knew it was time to make a move. If they decided to remove a potential complication, namely him, before dealing with the new threat, then it likely wouldn't go well for him. That meant he needed to deal with the rope. He had a method in mind, though it wasn't his favourite.
Magick Bolt...
2022-06-15 02:36:25 +0000 UTC View PostThe countryside rolled past, slowly. Every now and again, Tyron would lift his head from his notes, or the chunk of bone he was working on, to glance at the ruined landscape and sigh.
It wasn’t a pretty sight. The hordes of rift-kin unleashed from the break had likely been concentrated to the east, but that didn’t m...
2022-06-15 01:41:59 +0000 UTC View Post
Cover for book 2 is done folks. Check it out!
2022-06-11 01:07:33 +0000 UTC View PostDouble chaps? Whoo! That's five for the week people. I'm desperately trying to get back into the groove and hit my targets, starting with getting all five chapters of Chrysalis out before the weekend hits.
Enjoy!
The Colony has distinguished itself in battle across its existen...
2022-06-10 05:43:33 +0000 UTC View PostStill no idea what to do for chapter 1000. How much a truth bomb do you want? I could do a Gandalf chapter, but that'll uncover some secrets. I'm kind of nervous to drop the lore, I was planning to save most of that stuff until right at the end. Might be fitting to put it here at the halfway point though.
... 2022-06-10 02:28:11 +0000 UTC View PostFinally!
"You sure you got 'em all?"
"Ten was what you asked for, ten is what you've got."
Mr Allop, the gruff and balding mayor of Ridgerton knuckled his moustache and nodded slowly.
"Thass true," he said, "I'll be thankin' ya then. Tho I can't see how ya did it."
Tyr...
2022-06-09 10:11:15 +0000 UTC View Post
