Darkniciad

Bwahaha! The new layer of spam protection just claimed its first victim, preventing a repeat spammer from even signing up, and immediately banning the email and IP. I'm going to give it a few days, and if it continues to work this well, I'll remove most of the wildcard bans ( there are a few email domains that are nothing but spam that will remain ) That should help ensure that nobody who isn't a spambot will still be able to access the site, even if they're from a region that's infested with spammers. EDIT: BAM! Got another returning spammer, not once, but twice! I may remove the wildcard bans as early as tonight, if the spambots keep giving me perfect examples of how I've terminated any chance of them registering.

Working on some of the About pages again. It warmed up a little today, and I just couldn't get in writing mode, so I decided to do something productive. I've added to the text, and took advantage of the warmth to pull a box of old D&D stuff out of the back room for scanning. Here's a couple samples of the scans. That's the first page of Darkni's Character sheet and the original, full world map. The central continent is where almost all the locations you know from my world are. Just a little hint of what kind of stuff will be on the About pages, if you want to delve that deep. I'm really hoping that a few things ( Darkni's spellbook, All my other personal player characters sheets, the detailed map of the area around Freeland, which should contain many locations readers are familiar with ) are in another box somewhere. My young one got hold of some of this stuff when I had it out to show some things to a fellow player several years ago, and I know he tore some things up. I'm just hoping it wasn't any of those really special pieces.

Just added another layer of checks to the spam registration blocking. Nearly everything that was getting through the checks of one database was showing up with certain criteria in another, so I've added that database to my checks. I'll probably go through and begin removing the IP wildcard bans if this layer is effective. It has the added benefit of stopping registrations before they can process. If they're in the spammer database, they're never even going to be able to register. That's what I'm aiming for with all the wildcard bans. So if this service does the trick, I can dispense with those broad bans. It also adds IP and email bans, and automatically cleans them up on a schedule. Very nice. So far, I've kept nearly every spam post, PM, and email from coming through to my website. It's just a lot of work to do so. The database this layer of security relies upon has been the one I've used to manually check all along, so I'm reasonably confident that it's going to make the process work without intervention, and less chance of error than wildcard bans.

Getting closer... Here's another little preview - the chapter images I'll be using in my sig at Lit. (These will appear on the chapter images section of My Work Extras when the chapters post ) Chapter 8's image will be the actual cover, which I'm going to keep under wraps for the time being Warning: nekkidness and no real need to click, as these images are showing up full size in the post. The image for Ch. 01 is Delly, from the teaser text above. Everyone else will have to wait for introductions But, yes, that's Inigo Montoya on #5. He just perfectly represents one of the characters from a visual standpoint.

Live at Lit, and in the queue at SOL http://www.literotica.com/s/sisters-of-the-mists-ch-18

Yeesh... It's gotten so bad over the last few days that I've had to go completely draconian with IP range bans. I created a custom language pack and edited it to display a message for people who get caught up in an IP ban by accident. Rather than just reading: "You are not allowed to visit this community" it now says: "You are not allowed to visit this website. If you believe you have reached this in error, please contact me through Literotica or Storiesonline." That should allow any actual people who are caught up in a deep IP ban to get in contact with me ( as anyone coming here is likely coming from one of those two sites ) at which point, I can cut back to only banning specific IPs as they appear from that range. I have an average of a dozen attempts by IP banned spammers to access the site daily. Often, they change to a slightly different IP and try again a minute or so after finding out that the IP they used to sign up has been banned. That's what's prompting the wide range bans. I'm doing my best to convince these scum that my site isn't worth the effort *laugh* EDIT: It must be sinking in. I had to ban a new spammer seconds after posting this message. The spam service caught and banned the spammer as soon as he signed up. I checked the IP and came up with nothing. When I checked the email address, it came up with a huge list of spam reports, from a widely varied list of IPs from several countries. So, it's getting through their heads that they're going to have to actually work to spam my site. Maybe they'll eventually figure out that the work isn't worth the return. I'm on duty all hours of the day and night, and check every new sign-up immediately.

Banning at least two new spammers per day now. How desperate are these goons? *laugh* I could understand if my website got a lot of traffic, but it doesn't, and the forum gets even less. I can't even imagine what a nightmare it must be for someone who has a large, active community. They wouldn't have the time to research each and every registration ( and sometimes, suspicious looking IPs in the "who's online" page ) the way I do, and are probably getting bombarded with messages advertising chinese knock-offs of Air Jordan shoes

Here's an initial work-in-progress screen of the main My Worlds Page From here, if you choose "Characters" you'll be provided with a drop-down menu. All the characters in the database will show up in this menu in alphabetical order, listing which pen name and series ( if any ) the characters belong to. There will be a character profile already displayed below this. Most likely, this will either be Danica by default, or a character from a recent story release. Once you choose one, it will display all the information about that character, and the menu will remain at the top so you can quickly choose another. If you choose "Maps" you will be presented with a list of thumbnails and text descriptions. You'll click the thumbnails to bring up the maps in an overlay window, or the text link to to open the map in a new window. "Danica Info" is a sub-section of the "Worlds" page, and will have its own menu of behind-the-scenes infomation available for you to delve into. Among these will be... Documents on how the various forms of magic work, interact, and where the inspiration for them came from. Documents about various aspects of daily life. Why are so many women shaved? There are panties? Why are so many men circumcised? Things like that. There will be a database of gods with information about not only the god, but also their proxies ( angels ) and followers. That's just to restore the content that used to be on the old version of the website in a new, better looking and easier to update form. Naturally, I'll expand that with requests and thoughts of my own about things that might be useful or interesting to know. It's entirely possible that the continually expanding Wood universe may get a sub-section for that world in time as well. One thing I'm very likely to do in time is create databases of spells, items, monsters, etc. from my world, which will probably include PnP role-playing stats for them, so they can easily be imported into your own role-playing games and live on at the roll of multi-sided dice. That really tickles me when someone tells me they're using things I've created in their own games. Just thought I'd post a few things. I said I was going to move forward with getting all the sections of the website running once the major software upgrade was over, so here's the proof

Speaking of LST3K... The more I look at it, the more likely this is to go live before "About". There's a lot of digging in the back room through boxes, scanning, and picture taking involved in finishing "About". Getting the main info on LST3K online won't take as long. The riffers page could be done within an hour or less. The donate and audition pages will take a little longer, as I need to do some research on how to cheat at something to make my life easier *laugh* Have to have some way on the donate page for people to make anonymous donations - preferably with attachments - and likewise on the audition page for people to send me their riffed stories. I'm pretty sure the functionality I need is either built in to the forum software somewhere, or available as an add-on app. That just makes life so much easier, as the forum software will take care of the bulk of the validation and security. I'm likely going to template out the main "Worlds" page soon as well. I'm sure that's the content most people would really like to see. Odds are that it will go live with minimal information available at first, and I'll then add to it as I have time, making announcements via the blog and the "Web Updates" widget/page on the front page of the site. That's when this thread can probably begin to serve its intended purpose, rather than a blog/preview of what I'm coding behind the scenes. People will be able to use this thread to request characters, places, and information they'd like to know about behind the scenes of my world.

Here's some previews of what will probably be the next major section to go live. It is possible that the bulk of the LST3K section might go up first, though. The "About" section is going to require a lot of scanning, converting ancient text documents into a readable format, taking new pictures, and the like. The bulk of LST3K ( Not including the interactive features I'm planning for members who've signed up for the site ) will simply be designing and posting the new pages. Anyway, here's some screen shots of "About" in progress. WARNING! Nude images ( not of me *laugh* ) Click thumbnails to view larger images. On the subject of the interactive features of the LST3K section: First, there will be several stories ( probably my ancient porn writing ) available for people to riff on as the application process to become a riffer with me on new LST3Ks. Potential riffers will be able to insert comments simply by filling out a form built into the awful story. You'll be able to save drafts, only submitting them for me to check out when you're ready. Next, there will be an iRiff section. This will display several stories ( again, probably my ancient porn writing ) and allow anyone who's signed up to present a riff of their own for visitors to read. Again, you'll be able to save drafts until you're ready for your iRiff to run loose on the wild of the internet. Other visitors will be able to give your iRiff a thumbs-up if they like it, and iRiff's will be displayed by the number of thumbs-up ratings. There may even be a sort of "award" on your forum profile showing your total thumbs-up iRiff rating. Readers will be able to comment on your iRiff, and you'll have moderation control over those comments. So, if someone leaves a nasty troll comment ( If I don't delete it first! I hate trolls! ) you'll have the ability to delete it yourself. You'll also have the option of preventing anonymous users from entering comments, limiting it to only members signed up for the website. You'll probably get fewer comments that way, but it will cut down on some of the potential trolling. In essence, I'll be publishing you here on Darkniciad.com. You'll retain full copyright and rights to your comments. Naturally, I may approach you with the possibility of joining in on a published LST3K on Literotica if you're delivering some serious comedy gold!

Almost done with editing. On track to submit on Saturday, with an expected posting of Thursday or Friday next week ( at Lit's current turnover rate )

Russian spammers going hog wild again They're using new addresses and IPs, and only getting flagged as "likely spam", so I'm checking them manually, reporting them, and adding new wildcard bans again. I usually have dozens of blocked attempts to access the site from Russian IPs every day, and I've never seen a one of them that wasn't a spammer. So, apologies to any Russian fans that might be out there ( because you'll probably never get into the site thanks to the onslaught of spammers )

Too long in coming, I know. Here's the teaser for the next chapter, as I'm nearly finished with it and ready to send it off for editing =================== As the images of Danica and Marlena hovering over the table faded, Celes clapped her hands, rubbed them together, and turned to her sister witches. "Shall we give this a try?" She nodded toward the mirror sitting on a nearby table. One of the first half dozen completed, it would serve to test the magic of the items. The mirrors were scattered in order to test their capabilities. One remained on Darkni’s isle with the master wizard. Danica’s sister Devan had another within her tower in Egoria. Ashtar had plans to take one to Blackhawk Hall. Celes had used the mists to deliver the remaining pair to Evelyn and another witch from a coven nearby. Everyone gathered around, and Celes touched the tiger’s eye gemstone in the lower part of the frame to activate the magic. The mirrors harmonized with those who possessed them, so a thought was all that was necessary to direct the enchantment. "Evelyn, can you hear me?" An image of the short-haired witch formed in the mirror. She was smiling, and replied, "Perfectly." The image expanded, revealing the blonde witch from Evelyn’s neighboring coven. "I can see and hear you as well." Evelyn shook her head and chuckled. "I hadn’t really even thought about Veronica yet." "The magic is fairly sensitive," Celes explained. "The mirrors should sense anxiety as well, and open channels to us, Darkni, and Devan." "Speak of the devil," The newly congealed image of Devan interjected. "I figure these things will get more than their fair share of that, Dearie," Celes said to Danica’s fire-topped sister. Darkniciad’s voice rang out as the image of the silver-bearded wizard joined the rest. "Splendid. Splendid. Everything appears to be as expected." "Mine’s working fine, even though I’m walking around outside with it," Evelyn said. Darkniciad said, "We’ll return to our work on the primary mirror immediately. Once the rift enchantment is complete upon it, it will connect to all the others, granting them the magic." "I don’t know how to thank you – any of you," Evelyn said. "No need. I will return to my work." Darkni bowed his head, and vanished from the mirror. "Same goes for us, Dearie," Celes said. "And we have a lot of potions to make," Evelyn agreed. "Here’s to hoping we don’t need these any time soon," Celes finished, and winked before touching the gem a final time. **** From its perch in a tree some miles away, the Jihark watched Evelyn walk back into her new residence and let out a hiss of satisfaction. It’s former prey might very well serve as bait to lure its new prey.

Just testing. The website is doing all kinds of screwy things right now.

Well, the spam service seems to be doing the trick just fine, so all the banned Spam members just got the axe The member's list is so much less cluttered now *laugh* Close to releasing a teaser for SOTM 18.

I previously hadn't turned on the spam service present in the forum software, but when I upgraded, it turned on by default. I was worried that it might accidently catch legitimate users, so that's why I didn't turn it on at first. So far, so good. It's banning all the spam sign-ups instantly *laugh* Every one I check is coming up with umpteen entries on the sites that track forum spammers. No more manual banning a lot of them If you do happen to get caught by a spam service ( or manual ) ban in error, you can always contact me through Literotica or Storiesonline. If it continues to perform this well, I may very well go through and delete all the banned IDs. I had been keeping them for reference to create wildcard bans when enough domains or ip ranges showed up, but if the service gets them without the work, I can finally get rid of all the dead wood.

Just finished the upgrades to the forum and all underlying software. That was the big hurdle with rolling out more content sections for the website, so I'm going to start gearing up for that whenever I'm not in a writing mood or conditions make it impossible. Thought I'd drop a little update. Your suggestions for what you'd like to see added to the website are certainly welcome!

Meckataur the Destroyer was actually one of my player's characters, and a serious problem to control in the game. As with everything, we countered it with humor. We used miniatures in the game, playing out combat on a grid map. This gave us something to do when, for whatever reason, actually playing the game wasn't a real option. We would paint up miniatures for our characters, or monsters. Many of them we purchased from hobby stores, but to fill out the ranks of especially numerous creatures, we also took advantage of board games like Hero Quest. Those contained large numbers of common enemies like goblins and skeletons in plastic. Perfect for the rank and file, while the more expensive lead ( yes, the were actually made of lead back then ) or pewter figures represented specialized enemies or leaders. Hero Quest contained a miniature for a gargoyle This miniature so well represented my player's vision of the character that he wasn't worried about using a cheap plastic miniature instead of the expensive ones. He spent time melting down bits of excess plastic figures and army men to turn the whip into a spike tipped flail, melted off the goofy looking helmet and resculpted it, etc. Then, he did quite a good paint job on it, creating a representation worthy of his character's fearsome reputation. It's actually this miniature that I use as a visual when writing Meckataur. The thing was, he hadn't considered that every one of the several Hero Quest sets we purchased had a Gargoyle. One of my other players took an extra gargoyle, and proceeded to resculpt it as well. He did quite the paint job on it, though it was... shall we say, different. I was about the only one who knew what he was doing in secret. The original Meckataur went missing from the miniature box one fine day as we set up to play a game. Leaving my player fuming. Everyone was telling him to use one of the blank gargoyles for the time being, and we'd find his eventually. That's when my other player said, "Oh, here he is." His version of Meckataur was painted in hot pink, wearing baby-blue armor, wielding a bouquet of flowers in place of a sword ( pirated from a Lego set ) and brandishing a penis-tipped whip. In a horrible, put-upon lisp, yet another player called out, "Beware the wrath of Meckataur the Wonder Florist! Rawr! He'll scratch your eyes out!" The whole room ( save one ) broke out into explosive laughter that went on for quite some time, as I recall. My player was from that moment forward stuck with the Wonder Florist tagline every time he said, "The Destroyer," which happened a dozen times a game In another misadventure, one of my other players decided to run a campaign in a setting called Gamma World. This was fairly common when everyone wanted to play, and I wasn't around. Someone else would take a shot at the big time and DM with my general rules, but were otherwise free to do as they pleased, so long as they could explain how it happened. If the conditions were met, anything that happened in the side adventure became part of the larger game, including any gains. What happens on Gamma World is that radiation causes mutations under certain conditions that I'm not really familiar with, as I never read the source material or played it. These mutations aren't controlled by the player, and are generally useful, although there are some mild to truly bad negative possibilities. My player had decided to take Meckataur to this world, in order to make him even more ridiculously overpowered. I wasn't around much for a month or two because I was otherwise engaged. But anyway, the campaign had more or less come to a close before I took a day or two off because I was exhausted. That's when I got to hear what had happened to Meckataur. Things had started off pretty well. He'd managed to acquire mutations that turned his horns into incredibly dense weapons, and very effective head armor. He'd acquired an extra set of arms which he could pull back into his body at times when they would be in the way. ( You've seen the arms in the story ) His wings became stronger, and a few other minor things. He was having a good run, where everyone else had managed to roll up at least one irritating or detrimental mutation. Problem was, he got greedy. His next mutation made him nocturnal. It was a bit of a set back, but he decided that it was acceptable, as he was a demon who preferred to strike terror at night anyway. Still feeling lucky, he played on, going for one last mutation, in hopes of gaining one more power to bring back to the main world and make my life as the Dungeon Master a bit more of a living hell. Such was not to be. His final mutation made him afraid of the dark. Nocturnal, and afraid of the dark. Meckataur returned to the regular world a four-armed, adamantium horned, dragon-winged, gibbering mess *laugh* It took several weeks of game time for his lackeys Mopario and Arlene to counteract the last two mutations, providing a much needed break from trying to keep him under control.

Starting to think about the website updates a bit again. I finally worked out the problem I had with organizing the "My Worlds" section. What I'm going to do is make a sidebar standard. It will be fixed on the left side of the page by default, with a part linking the major sections of the site at the top, and a second set of links specific to the section you're on at the bottom. That provides the navigation ease I want, which is what was keeping me from moving forward with restoring the website content. If you select the "floating menu" option ( in your forum settings ) then these menus will hover in the upper left portion of the screen as you scroll down. The default will have the menus fixed to the top left of the screen. I'm doing this because some browsers may have problems with the floating menu. If it works for you, though, I think you'll prefer the floating menu for the ease of navigation it provides. First things first, though. I need to apply the updates to the underlying software of the website. That will likely happen on a weekend after Thanksgiving. I've scheduled off every Friday between Thanksgiving and New Years, plus will likely have some Mondays thrown in there as well in late December for four day weekends. I want to have plenty of time to debug any issues that crop up with the update, because it's a major one. Once that's online and working properly, I'll start coding the new sidebars, and begin the process of restoring the website's content, as well as building the backend utilities that will allow me to update the website with simple form entry, as I've done for the "My Work" section already online. As I finish those utilities, I'll be able to add new content to the site quickly -- and just as easily as I'm typing this or a blog entry. Feel free to ask about background information on my stories you'd like to see. Once everything is in place, I should be able to fulfill those requests in a jiffy

Just did another quarterly track. As of today, I have: An average score of 4.68 on 169 submissions, a total of 25,045 votes, 4,231,585 views, 1239 Public Comments, 376 story favorites, and 1,659,334 words. Danica Epilogue is at #6 on the Sci-Fi&Fantasy toplist and #10 out of all stories on the site. Blackhawk Hall Ch. 06 is at #79 on the Sci-Fi&Fantasy toplist. Forever of the Wood is at #170 on the Sci-Fi&Fantasy toplist. Quite a few of my chain stories are on that toplist ( but, it's pretty small. Half the stories in the category make that list! *laugh* ) I believe one LST3K ( Ho, Ho, Hos ) is on the toplist, but it has the worst score of all of them If the score doesn't drop, Danica 09 is 4 votes from making the toplist. Danica 18,19, & 20, SOTM 02, and To Catch a Merchant Princess 06 are all within 10 votes. Many more are in the 10-20 vote range. Others could easily climb in score enough to make the toplists. That doesn't mean I want anybody to vote more than once to push them over the top, though All that's likely to accomplish is getting ALL of your votes erased by the Lit vote sweeper. 1 story(chapter), 1 vote! Unlike last time, my scores as Dark actually climbed, despite moving up on the toplists. It's been a very smile-inducing quarterly track. I'm writing on SOTM Ch. 18 right now, BTW

While I'm at it, here's a sex scene that was cut from the story. There was a lot of restructuring for the final draft, but this would have happened after the festival kicked off. It just felt tacked on, even though it was the original lead-in for the ending. ===================== Though her sister had used the barn for any number of clandestine meetings, Danica had never felt brave enough to engage in even heavy petting so close to the house. Tonight, she was beyond any such concerns. She needed to be touched, and she needed it now. Through the barn and up the ladder they went, once again guided by a magical – but much dimmer – light to a soft bed of straw in one corner of the loft. Danica drew him close for a kiss, her fingers going to work on the knot holding up his trousers. His deft fingers popped open the buttons on the back of her skirt, while the other hand caressed her bottom. Need growing in both of them by the moment, their clothing didn’t last long. Jared soon stood nude and hard in front of her as she slid her panties down her legs. He first sat down, and then lay down at her prompting, his eyes registering surprise when she didn’t lay down next to him, but instead atop him. Danica moaned into a kiss as her breasts rested on his powerful chest, his manhood tapping against the curls on her mound and her tummy. Their lips parted, and she scooted forward. He put an elbow beneath him, unable to resist the sight of her heavy breasts so close, and engulfed one of her stiff nipples. A great gasp filled Danica’s lungs with air. Her lover suckled her softly, kissing and teasing with his tongue. For long, beautiful moments, she was frozen in place, panting for breath as he worked his magic on her breasts. They weren’t the only part of her demanding attention, though. Having never been on top before, it took a lot of wriggling and his erection poking into both the fiery curls on her mound and her bottom before she finally got it right. The second the head pressed against her nether lips, she sank back onto his cock with a groan. He felt huge and incredibly hard, buried deep inside her. Making sure she stayed well within reach of his wonderful mouth, she rocked and swivelled her hips. Jared moaned around her nipple, releasing it only long enough to breathe, “Ah, yes,” before switching to its twin. Though urgency had brought them to the loft, Danica found the slow, sinuous motion of her hips stroked him inside her in the most heavenly way. “Oh, you feel so good, baby.” He released her nipple to say, “Ah, so do you.” She bent her elbows, leaning down closer, and moaned into a kiss. All the while her hips continued to work, stirring his hard organ in her depths. The slippery shaft rubbed against her clit, slowly fanning a flame inside her. Subdued whimpers passed her lips as her passion mounted. Jared groaned as he alternated between kissing her lips, neck, and breasts. Though she moved a little faster with each passing minute, there was an odd – and wonderful – lack of urgency to her steady spiral toward climax. Lost in the closeness, intimacy, and pleasure, she finally felt the chilly little sparks amidst the warm glow behind her mound. “Oh. Oh, baby. I’m gonna come,” she whispered, her voice high-pitched. “Oh yeah,” he groaned in response, then pulled her to his lips and kissed her hard. The dam inside her broke the moment his lips touched hers. She whimpered into his mouth, shuddering as waves of ecstasy rolled through her. Frozen in place, she allowed him to pull him down to her, holding her close and pressing her flushed breasts against his chest. Her orgasm seemed to last forever – soft, subdued, and beautiful. Finally, she let out a long moan and relaxed, reveling in the feeling of his hard cock still filling her full. “Wow,” she muttered once she could find her voice again. “Uh huh,” he agreed. A shift of his hips caused her to gasp and her eyes to pop wide open. Having had time to drift back to earth, she found her body begging for more. A little wiggle caused his cock to throb powerfully inside her. A growl escaped him, and he wrapped an arm around her. Muscles growing tight and flexing next to her skin, he rolled her over onto her back. He slipped free of her satiny embrace in the process, but remedied that as soon as he settled above her. “Oh yes, baby,” she sighed as he filled her again. He leaned over, seeking her lips, and slipped his other arm beneath her as well. As they kissed, Danica wrapped both her arms and legs around him, holding him tight against her. As their tongues wrangled, he began to thrust. Danica let out a squeal from that first short pump of his hips. He only pulled back to about half his length, restricted by her feet against his back, but his cock rubbed her clit for every delightful inch. It was all she could do to stifle her moans and groans as every measured stroke sent electric shocks of pleasure shooting up her spine. As good as it felt, she was having trouble catching her breath from the steady assault of sweet agony. “Fa.. Faster,” she gasped, near to his ear as he kissed her neck. Jared growled, lifting his lips from her neck to where he could look down at her. He’d most certainly heard her, and she yelped as he acquiesced to her request with a great deal of enthusiasm. “Ah. Ah. Ah. Oh yeah,” Danica yelped, though subdued in volume as she remained mindful of her mother in the house not so far away. Her breasts jiggled, nipples rolling against his chest. The increased tempo of his thrusts reduced the constant slide of his cock against her clit, but not too much. Her feet bounced on his back as he pulled back farther, stroking more of his wonderful cock into her depths. The mixture of animal passion and delightful intimacy from holding each other so tight rapidly pushed Danica toward a climax. Despite the cool autumn air, she could feel sweat making her skin slippery against his, only adding to the sensations. Her voice an octave above normal, she said, “Gonna come. Gonna come, baby!” The pitch of her voice jumped again as she squealed, on the cusp of orgasm. Jared let out a growling grunt, increasing his pace yet again. Danica’s feet slipped off his back as he grunted with every thrust of his hips. The sudden change in the angle of his cock penetrating her pushed her over the edge. “Ah! I’m coming!” she cried, the last word long and drawn out, her voice quavering as his cock continued to pound home. Chilly pulses of orgasmic energy raged through her from the tips of her ears to her toes. A loud gasp was the last sound she was able to make as her muscles tightened. Fingers curled into claws, digging into his back as ecstasy held her in any even stronger grip. A series of clipped grunts preceded him pushing his cock into her depths a final time. She could feel the moan vibrating in his chest as well as hear it when the first pulse of cum erupted from him into her clenched and quivering canal. Back and forth they went, gasping as her pussy clenched around him, causing him to throb and pump spurts of hot cream. His trembling arms barely supported him above her, but she wouldn’t have had it any other way than to feel his every tremble through the close contact of their sweat dampened skin. Inevitably, he had to move. Danica moaned in protest as his softening cock slipped from inside her. A second later, the high-pitched, staccato sound he made as his sensitive organ left her warm confines for the chill air made her chuckle. As soon as the head popped free, she could feel his cum trickling down her folds and into the straw below. Caressing her tummy, where she swore she could feel the warm pool of cream inside her, she fought to catch her breath. At her side, Jared panted as well. They were both beginning to shiver from the sweat on their skin, which unfortunately chased away the afterglow far sooner than either would have wished.

Story is up at Lit and I'll put it in the queue to post at SOL in the morning. Just a reminder that one story in the Arts Ardane series ( the preceding story staring Danica, Sister's Shadow ) is only on SOL. Those from Lit can find it by searching by series on the "My Work" page of the website. I just didn't feel that I could fit it within Lit's guidelines.

I tell ya, the Russian spammers have zero wits. Most of the time, they sign up days in advance of making any posts - on a low traffic forum - when they're in every anti-spam database on the planet. Added two new IP ranges to my ban list lately, banned and deleted three of these spam cans before they could even post. Every time I get a registration email, I check the user IP, and if it pops up in a database ( especially if it's Russian ), I just ban them right off the top. Two IPs in the same first six digits, I ban the whole range. Once I get an IP range or an oddball email domain to wildcard ban, I can finally delete the spam accounts. Again, I hope I don't have an fans in Russia. If I do, they're probably going to be S.O.L with getting on the website by the time these spammers get done forcing wildcard bans.

Here's a quick preview of the next story in the Arts Ardane series, "Barren Harvest", which should be out as part of Literotica's Halloween contest. ====================== Danica winced at a horribly mispronounced word, as most of the apprentices headed toward the door. “That’s enough for today. Keep practicing, and we’ll try again tomorrow.” “Okay,” the young student said as he closed his spellbook, and then went to join his friends filing out the front door. Danica shook her head and rolled her eyes as the students left. If you would pay attention to what you’re trying to learn instead of staring at my boobs, you would have learned this spell by now. Even the thick robe that she wore couldn’t really hide her doubly-blessed bosom, as her mother often called her breasts. Though she’d more or less grown used to not making eye contact with any male beyond puberty, it was still irritating. “Well, Danica, did you have any luck today?” She turned toward the grey-bearded master of the school and shrugged. “Adina will probably be ready to cast the fireball tomorrow. After that, I won’t be of much use in teaching her.” “Danica, Danica,” he admonished, and then clucked his tongue. “You have a great deal of knowledge in both magic and life that you can pass on to another young woman. Be confident. It matters not if you’re the most powerful in magic. Where you excel, you continue to amaze me. In those areas where you struggle, you persevere. The best teachers are forever learning, themselves.” The argument was one that she could never win, much the same as disagreeing with her mother, so Danica simply nodded. “Of course, Master.” She reached for her enchanted bag of holding, which she’d left hanging on a chair nearby, and found it gone. A quick glance around the room revealed the bag hanging from a cloak hook, which she knew that she hadn’t gone anywhere near all day. The old master puzzled out what was wrong when she let out a sigh and walked toward her bag. He chuckled and said, “Ah, yes. The mischievous ones are certainly active this year. I am forever finding my things misplaced these last few days. I surely welcome the Harvest Festival, which will see them locked away for another year.” Danica turned toward him with a look of confusion. “You haven’t heard? There probably won’t be a festival this year, because of the drought.” Somehow, the pale old man turned even whiter, his eyes going wide. “No festival? No, no, this simply will not do.” Slipping her bag over her shoulder, Danica said, “I doubt there’s any changing it. Everyone is just too worried about surviving a lean winter to make merry.” “There is far more to it than that, Danica,” he said. “Come, I have an important lesson for you that is too long in coming.” Curious and perplexed, Danica followed her master into his private quarters at the rear of the school. As always, she marveled at his library. Though humble by the standards of a wealthy wizard, it was the greatest collection of magical works for miles around. “Please, sit down,” he suggested, and let out a groan as he pulled out a chair for her. Danica took her seat, and her master walked to the shelves to select a book. He flipped through the pages of the aged tome as he returned, and then stopped when he found what he was looking for. “The Harvest Festival is no simple celebration, though that is how those who know the truth present it.” He laid the book in front of Danica, and then took a seat as well. Danica studied the yellowed page, which bore the heading, The Ritual of Harvest. To her amazement, she discovered that the traditions always known to her as simple, fun activities for a party were in truth parts of a ritual spell. The master explained as she read through the page. “Long ago, when my grandfather’s grandfather was but a babe at his mother’s breast, the ritual was created, as a barrier against the night. You know that the night which begins the Harvest Festival is one of great magic – especially dark magic – but the truth is far more disturbing than that. The veil that stands between the worlds of the demons and the dead grows thin that night. In times long ago, it was a night of horror, and of death.” Danica looked away from the book, finding her master’s telling far more engaging than the words on the page. “Those who served the gods of light and those who shunned darker magics found that they could not stem the tide of evil, which grew stronger each year. In a spirit of cooperation never seen before – or since – they put aside their differences for the common good. Even then, their efforts were not enough. It was only when a witch approached them, having had a vision of their effort, that hope found purchase in the world.” That stunned Danica. While those who worked magic were sometimes mistrusted, those who practiced witchcraft were almost universally persecuted, no matter the nature of their deeds. To have three such disparate and often opposing groups come together was astounding. “The rituals brought by the white witches and warlocks form the heart of the magic that is the true purpose of the Harvest Festival. It allows those of good heart, though unskilled in magic, to aid the guardians of the veil.” “So, what happens if the festival is cancelled this year?” “Perhaps little, though I fear that the hordes of the night wait in anticipation, after so long kept from sating their hunger. It is a risk we cannot afford to take. As long and hard as the winter might be, it will be longer and harder still, if the ritual of the harvest is not observed.”

This one's not a story, but still a look into how the game evolved, which in turn evolved into my writing. There were quite a few characters with either natural or magical abilities to use mental powers, including astral projection. The form of astral projection in my game world was based heavily off Professor X of the X-men comics from Marvel. Naturally, my players were going to end up getting into battles of some kind in the astral plane, so I had to come up with a combat system. I devised a set of stats based off the physical stats, granting combatants a form of psychic hit points. At that point, I was a little stumped. I knew that I wanted the players to be able to have nearly unlimited options in the astral plane, ala Xavier's psychic battle with Farouk. The inspiration came from -- of all places -- Aerosmith. The song "Draw the Line" starts this way. Checkmate, honey Beat you at your own damn game. No dice, honey I'm livin' on the astral plane Those lines and the cadence of the song are what inspired my method of psychic combat. Each combatant says what he or she is going to do, then the opponent counters. There are no dice rolls or stat checks of any kind. The other players in the room simply determine if the one player or the other has failed to react quickly enough to his opponent's attack. A second or two of stunned silence or a pitiful, half-baked response resulted in a loss of a psychic hit point. I create a sword and shield and swing at your head to decapitate you. I create my own sword and shield, block your blow, and launch the sword at you like an arrow. Blocking with my shield and shooting lightning at you. Reflecting the lightning back at you. Catching the lightning, turning it into ball lightning, and throwing it at your balls. I... I... BZZT! Point! Chestnuts roasting on an electric fire! It was a rapidfire exchange of pure creativity, and it worked beautifully. Luckily, I had players who didn't argue too much when the decision of the group ran against them. They knew when they had "stumbled", and accepted the smack down.