Darkniciad

Here comes another one! Anybody who's read the Arts Ardane series ( Kampar's Wand ) will see some of where it came from in this tale. Wherever they are found, and wherever they have traveled, Kender evoke a common adage amongst those who have encountered them. "The most dangerous thing in the world is a bored Kender." I must beg to differ in this tale. For those who don't know Kender, they are a race of Halflings (or Hobbits should that reference be better suited to your knowledge) that inhabit the world of Krynn, the setting of the Dragonlance Saga. I imported them into my world after reading my first Dragonlance novel, and they quickly became some of my favorite characters. Kender are utterly fearless, even to the point that dragon fear will only make them feel "a little funny," because they have no sense of personal danger whatsoever. They also have no concept of personal property, acquiring and losing things with such regularity that they are often surprised at what they find within their own pouches. A Kender family heirloom may have been in the family for all of two weeks. They do not view this as theft, but rather as "borrowing" and become quite indignant when called thieves. Their most salient trait is their insatiable curiosity. It is the trait from which everything else is born. Fascination with seeing a dragon for the first time overcomes the natural fear reaction. Seeing an interesting item "close to falling out" of someone's pocket will prompt a Kender to rescue it from the brink and examine it, confident that they will return it later and the person will be glad for the help in saving it from being lost. The Kender in this tale is one Darmok Tinkettle, ran by a player in my group with a flair for creativity... and driving a gamemaster nuts. Darmok happened upon a fascinating little staff on one of his adventures, which was quite obviously magical. The item was an artifact which could duplicate nearly any spell effect in existence, but had a chance that it would fail to function. It was also restricted to the Chaotic Neutral alignment, which Darmok was. It required a command word to activate its power, and unfortunately Darmok did not know that command word. Once the command word was discovered, a practiced mage could learn to discern the enchantments within it and activate the powers he wished to use. To those without magical skill, it randomly cast spells as if it were a high level wizard. Whenever an item like this showed up in the campaign, I gave a 1 in 1000 chance that the character might stumble across its command word, even without study. The player would just ramble off a command and roll to see if the number came up. A Kender is the perfect sort of character to come across one of these, ready and able to rattle off fascinating "magical phrases" while pointing the magical item at all sorts of people, places, and things. Darmok would regularly pull out the staff as he adventured, trying new command words. "Abracadabra," "Hocus Pocus," "Ala Peanut Butter Sandwiches," and numerous other phrases failed to activate the magic of the item. Being a Kender, Darmok was untroubled, knowing he would figure it out eventually. Also being far removed from his kin as he adventured, he managed to hang on to the fascinating little object. During one adventure, Darmok found himself in a spot of trouble. Caught perched on a narrow ledge with a group of very angry ogres snarling both above and below him, he was certainly in dire straits. Pulling forth the staff, he pointed it at the group of ogres below. He shouted "Work!" in a loud voice, and my player rolled the dice. I sat open-mouthed and stunned when he rolled the one in a thousand number that meant he had found the item's command word. Laughing, I rolled the dice and discovered the spell which had randomly activated was Meteor Swarm. Shaking my head in disbelief, I rolled up the damage and found that he had nearly decimated the group of ogres below the cliff. Those who survived, and could do so, ran for their lives. Those atop the cliff likewise did the same. Now a very proud Kender possessed a magical staff of great power. Intoning its mystical phrase "Work!" he played with the item for a few minutes upon reaching the top of the cliff. Fireballs, lightning bolts, stinking clouds, and all manner of fascinating, deadly magic spewed from the staff at random vegetation. Now fancying himself a great and powerful wizard, Darmok set out for a nearby town to borrow a wizard's robe. Finding a woman's summer dress hanging out to dry, he made a few modifications and was soon dressed in the powder blue robes of a great wizard, with a very low neckline. Strutting up to a magic school, he presented himself as Darmok the Magnificent and started to walk past the wizard who minded the gate. "Oh no, you little thief, the last thing we need in here is one of your kind picking up something and running off with it to cause mayhem." Darmok sputtered and fumed. "My kind? Thief? I am insulted, and everyone knows not to insult great and powerful wizards! We are stubbly and quick to anger!" Pulling forth his staff, he aimed it at the offending wizard and spoke the command word. The wizard he was aiming the staff at laughed when one of the random failures of the item rolled up and nothing happened. "Hmmph, must have been holding it wrong. Let's try that again. Work!" The item did not fail this time, rolling up an itching spell which had the wizard guarding the gates scratching furiously and screaming for help. When others arrived, one made the mistake of saying, "Oh no, a thieving Kender! Get it away quickly!" "Well, I never! If you are all so rude, I'll just find another place to show my magic to then." "Get out of here before I set your topknot on fire!" one of them yelled at Darmok. Never threaten a Kender's topknot. It really is a bad idea, trust me. Once again the staff came forth and Darmok shouted, "Work!" I groaned when the spell effect was a mass dispell. Every magic item and ward in the general vicinity ceased to function immediately. The wizards knew it, and began to panic. Darmok, of course, did not and thought the staff had failed again. "Work!" A powerful stream of water shot forth from the staff, blasting the wizards back into the building. Derisive shouts about Darmok prompted him to continue his assault, thinking that people who were so rude must be evil wizards, and as a good wizard it was his duty to bring them to justice. I breathed a sigh of relief when the spell was Teleport Self. Picking up my stack of folders containing the maps of various locations in the world, I selected one randomly. I closed my eyes and pulled out a random map, opening it under the table. I groaned again, knowing this was not going to be good. The location was a temple, far from any civilized land, where a lone guardian held the key to preventing a flight of deadly black dragons from ravaging the world. The most prized possession of their horde was the key which imprisoned them in a pocket dimension. The guardian ensured that no one raided their treasure-filled lair and disturbed the six foot long pure onyx statue of a crouching black dragon. Removing it from the lair would not only break down the barriers preventing the dragons from returning to the world, it would serve as a beacon to draw the dragons to it. The guardian, a golem created by the most powerful of magic, had a very limited vocabulary and scope of thought. Thus, it intoned exactly the wrong phrase upon Darmok's sudden appearance in the lair's entrance hall. "Stop, thief, or be destroyed!" "Oh yeah? Take this pasty face! Work!" I slapped my forehead when the staff caused a dimensional shift, then banged my head on the table when the golem failed its saving throw. Darmok spent several happy hours exploring and examining all the fascinating items in the horde, naturally pocketing many of them into his numerous pouches of holding. Then he happened upon the statue. Examining it, he thought it would look good in front of his friend Thakkor's castle. So, he decided to take it to him as a present. Scratching his chin, trying to figure out how to move the massive thing, he remembered an orb of levitation he was carrying. Upon picking it up with the magical orb, the player looked over at me and said, "Is the opening on my purloin sack wide enough to slip over the statue?" I nodded my head and said, "Yes," with a definite note of foreboding. Darmok then proceeded to slip the purloin sack, a large bag with a holding enchantment upon it, over the statue. It vanished, completely weightless and easy to carry, into the extra-dimensional space contained within the magical bag. He also raked copious amounts of coins and gems into the sack while he was at it for good measure. Whistling a merry tune, Darmok set out for new adventures. Around the world, wizards of power panicked. They knew a great evil was awakening, and someone had removed the only means of containing it. Mindless of this, Darmok skipped across the unfamiliar landscape while a flight of ancient black dragons slowly battered the barriers preventing them from returning to take revenge on those who had imprisoned them. I quickly pulled out my ace in the hole, Rogan Illiciat. A deceptively ancient and powerful sorcerer, he knew things and could do things others could only imagine. When the world threatened to come apart at its seams, I reached for Illiciat's power and knowledge. Teleporting Illiciat to Darmok's location, I had him begin questioning the Kender about the guardian and statue's whereabouts. Kender are notorious for launching into stories only barely related to the subject at hand, and Darmok was no exception. He related a tale about how his uncle had once found a dragon statue while evil drew ever closer to release into the world. (My player made up the story about Darmok's uncle on the fly. It was actually very good and entertaining.) I knew the time when the dragons would break free was near, so I had Illiciat take action. He cast spells and detected that the statue was on the Kender's person, all the while Darmok continued his tale. Knowing it had to be in some sort of bag of holding, Illiciat began disenchanting all of such bags on Darmok's person. "Hey, what do you think you're doing you old goofball!" Darmok screamed as his pouches spilled their contents. He was soon sitting atop a large pile of purloined goods, including eventually the dragon statue, as he was fumbling to grasp and aim his magical staff. "Take this! Work!" The staff failed to function, thankfully, and I had Illiciat teleport the Kender several feet away, immediately followed by teleporting the statue back to its place in the lair. Returning the statue to its original position, Illiciat cast the spells to seal the dragons once more tightly in their prison, as he had done once before . While Darmok gathered up his possessions and prepared to storm the lair again to retrieve his present for Thakkor, Illiciat managed to shift the guardian back into this dimension and further ward the lair against intrusion. He then teleported back to the Kender's location, finding Darmok had just finished picking up the last of his things. "You ridiculous little creature, you nearly brought the entire world to disaster!" "And you stole my statue, you thieving son of an ogre's butt pimples! I'll show you, dirty thief!" "Work!" Fortunately, a random teleport once again rolled up, averting yet another potential disaster. Darmok managed to hang onto that staff for the longest time, far too long for my nerves, only eventually losing it upon venturing into a Kender village for a visit. I had to pick up the pieces of my world quite often until it thankfully fell into the hands of NPCs I could control. The most dangerous thing in the world is a bored Kender with a magical artifact.

Number three You might recognize the rather humble beginnings of Blorcasir, the god of Murder in my writing ( Now imprisoned by Zoraster ) as well as hints of Blackhawk Hall. The city and country of Freeland was the standard starting point of all adventures in my world. Ninety percent of the characters who ever walked my world took their first steps in the city of Freeland and the wilds beyond. Freeland was a powerful and populous nation with access to great military and magical might. Thus, they were able to maintain order even unto the far reaches of the nation’s borders. Most foul and dangerous beasts had been slain or chased out of the land long before the first gaming session ever occurred. Only those creatures which were able to hide well and bred like rats, such as goblins, ever seemed to be found within the borders due to sheer numbers and stealthy, cowardly ways. One such creature was the “Woodland Troll”. Woodland trolls were, in fact, not remotely related to trolls. They were something only slightly removed from goblins on the evolutionary scale, and actually were even more pitiful. Those familiar with the Dragonlance setting will have a point of reference to think of them as the Gully Dwarves of goblinkind. Rural people had named the creatures, and the name had simply stuck. Woodland trolls are stupid creatures which really only exist because they breed so rapidly and constantly renew their numbers as they are slain by man, beast, and drowning while staring up into rainstorms. It also made them the perfect first encounter for a fresh player or character who didn’t have much to work with or a limited understanding of the game. Even the least skillful player with the most pitifully weak character could manage to defeat a handful of these miserable creatures and begin their adventuring career. It helped that there was a (very small) bounty on them in Freeland since the military could not keep up with exterminating them as they had most other monsters in the nation. Woodland trolls always fanatically attacked when encountered, although I had never really given any though to *why* this was the case. It was simply useful to give new characters a nice load of experience with combat in the game and experience toward leveling up without a lot of danger. The character in this story was a newly rolled paladin on his first adventure, played by a veteran player. He knew, under the guidelines by which paladins worked in my world, that he would be starting off with little more than the clothing on his back. The quest to become a great holy knight started from the humblest of beginnings. What he didn’t know was that one of the secret rolls I made during each character creation had come up positive. There were secret abilities I rolled for with each new character. If the character was female, they might have hidden natural abilities to use witchcraft that slowly emerged during play. All other characters had rolls to check for two other hidden abilities, mutant powers (as in Marvel Comics X-Men) and immortality in the fashion of the movie Highlander. This paladin was the first, and only, character to ever make the 1 in 100 roll to be a Highlander-style immortal. Thus he set out on his grand quest, never knowing what the fates had in store for him. Wearing only the clothing on his back and carrying only a stout club and a few packets of healing herbs he had gathered, the neophyte paladin ventured forth into the wilderness following the pull of his calling. As was usual, he encountered a group of woodland trolls soon into his travels. It was a modest group, only three, and should have been little trouble for the average stray dog to dispatch, but such proved not to be the case. While the rolls to create the character had been very good, thus enabling the player to even create a paladin, his die rolling proved much less effective in combat almost immediately. His initial strike completely missed the nearest approaching creature. It was the first time in the history of the game that a player character failed to draw first blood against woodland trolls. I tossed the woodland troll’s black and red “devil dice” across the board for their first strikes. These dice were considered “cursed” amongst our gaming group, because no matter how cool they looked, they always seemed to roll miserably low numbers. Thus they were perfect for creatures that were always meant to lose. This time, the curse was not affecting the trolls to whom the dice had been assigned, but their opponent. Every strike they made hit, and did tremendous (for a weak creature with pitiful weapons) damage to the untested paladin. Three telling blows made the player running the paladin choose to use his healing herbs immediately. He recovered most of his lost hit points immediately, the herbs being magical in nature. He then set himself for the next onslaught of woodland troll attacks. He expected, as anyone would, that the battle would quickly turn back in his favor now after the initial combination of his bad luck and the good luck of the trolls. Such was not to be. He continued to miss or do minimal damage to the savagely attacking creatures, which seemed to be possessed of the gods' own luck. In a few rounds, the paladin was dangling over the cliff of the hereafter by only his fingertips. A few more lucky blows would have ended his career right there as he expired. He was immortal, however, and his "death" triggered the ability within him. I kept it hidden from him as he awoke, naked without a single possession to his name on the floor of the woods. A strange man, who the player correctly assumed to be an avatar of his deity, explained how he had come to survive in the player’s mind. This is where the paladin’s relevancy to the story ends. It was his ill-omened battle that gave birth to a new deity in my world, however. I now knew why woodland trolls attacked with such tenacity, only to die quick horrible deaths. The god of the woodland trolls, Blork, blessed all those of his children who could manage to do even the slightest harm to another mortal, especially a human. He granted them many mates for this great accomplishment, as well as “riches” such as the creatures considered them. If they died, they were taken to dwell at his side in what passed for heaven in his realm. These three, having killed a paladin while taking only minimal wounds themselves, were immediately elevated to a proxy (think of an angel, although it would hardly apply to these creatures) in Blork’s court. My players sat groaning and laughing as I described what was going on, never knowing just how much of a pain in the posterior region Blork and his proxies Kronk, Blah, and Ick were going to be as time marched on in the game. With proxies to help guide his hordes, the woodland trolls became even more of a nuisance. Naturally, the first places they always chose to invade were the lands and castles of the player characters. It was a great deal of fun harassing my players with them any time they started to get a swelled head. There’s nothing like having to spend an entire gaming session slaughtering an infestation of woodland trolls in your castle keep to deflate the ego, especially when a small number of them had been blessed by their new god.

Here's another one. My gaming world was entirely my own creation, put together in the fashion of Frankenstein's monster from video games such as Dragon Warrior, movies, fantasy novels, and mythology. Eventually, once I got a job, official Dungeons and Dragons materials got thrown into the mix, but the world remained ever a unique alloy. The world was also a power nexus, highly magical, and almost a "Monty Haul" campaign, balanced by the fact the NPCs and monsters were given access to the same hauls of magic. Finding magic items in even the most mundane locations was common, and the high powered PCs often lamented when something as meaningless as a Staff of Thunder and Lightning was the most significant magical booty from that annoying wizard who dared to challenge their might. One day, upon having emerged victorious from a battle with Nightcrawlers (teleporters with prehensile tails and drow-like weapon abilities, derived from Marvel's X-Men), the players were examining the spoils from the Nightcrawlers' lair as I rolled them up. They were lamenting the "pitiful" gains from their hard-fought battle; a staff of healing, gauntlet of demon control, and an orb of entrapment within a dusty chest filled with more mundane objects. One of my players listed them off as "A band-aid stick, a glove of imp charming, and an orb of butt-hair knotting" as I was rolling up the remaining thing in the chest. This was rolled out as a "mystery" item, exuding a powerful aura of magic but having a minor effect in reality, which also caused the holder to believe it performed some great service for them. The moment I saw the first roll for "mystery," I already knew what it was going to be, and knowing what else was going on while they were busy looting a single room in a vast fortress, I knew how I could take advantage of it right away. I continued to roll, but I had already determined all the other properties of the item and all the dice handling was just a cover. I explained the last item was nothing they had seen before, and naturally they were intrigued. It was a small, perhaps two-inch orb of translucent stone which seemed to pulse with magic. When the player who had been so creatively naming the booty picked it up, I told him he felt a tremendous surge of strength upon touching the orb. Being the strongest of the party, and a bit of a bully, he naturally dropped it in his own pocket. The PC was a gorilla of a man, in more ways than one. He was closer to seven feet than six, at the upper limits of natural human strength for his frame, and hairy as a gorilla as well. He was the perfect subject for what was going to come next. The Necromancer who called the fortress his home scried the erstwhile adventurers, paying little attention to anything but their looting, and promptly began the chant to raise the dead Nightcrawlers to life and surprise them. The player characters turned on the stiffly rising Nightcrawlers, expecting an easy fight since it was the speed of the creatures which made them dangerous and undeath was naturally likely to reduce this asset. The fight began with the expected results, including two devastating blows from the PCs which nearly incapacitated two of the undead Nightcrawlers... then the PC with the mystery orb raised his sword for battle. I told him to roll an extra d4 for his damage, which he took to mean his newly acquired orb of great strength was aiding him. He was quite surprised when his mighty overhand stroke missed due to a feeling like the stinging of a dozen needles in his backside altering his aim slightly. The battle continued, his companions continuing to mop up the floor with the greatly slowed creatures. Once again the PC with the orb missed with the great sweeping arc of his enchanted blade, again being assaulted with some sort of magical needles striking his backside. The PC promptly left the Nightcrawlers to his companions and began seeking out the hidden or invisible wizard who was firing missiles at his derriere. He found nothing, and was still searching long after the second battle with the creatures was ended. Bending to look under a crude bed, he was once again assaulted by the unseen assailant. Hearing noise coming from down the hall, the companions hurried in that direction to meet the threat, and hopefully accumulate more spoils of battle. As they broke into a run the PC with the mystery orb felt the stinging needles striking him with every step. During the battle which followed with a pair or more or less non-menacing zombies, the PC once again proved to be almost completely useless, constantly missing and being stung by the needles. He had enough, and ordered the rest of the troupe out of the fortress hoping to find something that could shield him from the annoying wizard. Returning to their own fortress a short distance away, the PC leading the group enlisted the aid of their wizard to determine what they could learn about their spoils, hoping for hidden powers in a couple of blades they had obtained. The PC finally found the source of his discomfort when he was informed that the orb he carried was a cursed item created by a mad mage... an orb of butt-hair knotting. Jason refrained from making up creative names for unimpressive magical spoils from that point forward.

I'm going to use this thread to relate some stories from the genesis of my writing - the tabletop pen n' paper game where my fantasy world and many of the characters who inhabit it were born. I'd considered putting some of these on the "About" page, but decided to scrap that idea and just post them here instead. I'll start with some I've told in other places before, though they should be new to most of you. And here's the first! This tale centers around one of my players creating a new character. Everyone playing the game had many characters. We just picked up characters from our portfolio according to whim every time we sat down at our custom built plywood and 2x4 gaming table. When we didn't feel like playing one of our existing characters at the moment, we simply rolled up a new one for the day and added it to our portfolio. The character involved in this story eventually became one of my four banes as a gamemaster. two of my players were extremely creative, and this always resulted in good rewards. The more creative the solution to a problem, the more the player was rewarded for it. They each had two characters powerful enough to be a disruption to the world order everywhere they went. The character in this story is a Drow Elf based upon the Forgotten Realms Drow, which are a chaotic and mostly evil race of underground dwelling elves. This character began to show signs of danger from the beginning, rolling extremely high on every roll in the character creation process. There were only two rolls which were more than 2 away from the max, in fact. This qualified my player to create a Drow, which was designed to be a very rare type of player character, and thus had been a quest of everyone when we rolled up new characters. Having qualified to play a Drow, my player immediately began working out an extensive back story for his character as he chose his starting equipment. My die rolls for his potential starting equipment were no less astounding – and foreboding – than his rolls to create the character. He started out with phenomenal stats and phenomenal equipment. One of my other players, already running another of my "bane" characters leaned over and whispered, "Cripes, he's going to be a bloody Cuisanart!" adding to my sense of foreboding that this Drow was going to be a test on my ability to control. With his stats, equipment, and back story developed, there remained only one blank line on his new character sheet: Character Name. This had always been a decision one had to make carefully in our gaming group. One's choice of name had to be carefully vetted in order to avoid anything that could be corrupted into a joke. "Wilburn" had already branded one of my brother's characters with constant "Mr. Ed" jokes. "Sanderen Fordson" naturally branded another player's character with a chorus of people humming the "Sanford and Son" theme. The player in question chose not to play his new Drow character that day, deciding to spend a little time considering his character's name instead. He played a sadistic brawler named Zeothrox for that day's game session. The next day, his new Drow likewise sat on the sidelines as Zeothrox completed an adventure he had started the day before. The following three days, his Drow still sat idle with that blank Character Name line while he ran a recently created Paladin through his paces. Upon completion of his Paladin's first quest, locating and bonding with his magnificent war horse, my player pulled out the character sheet for his Drow and put a pen to that long blank line. The Drow's first name emerged – Razza. It was meant to be reminiscent of Drizzt, a Drow Elf Ranger from R.A. Salvatore's novels. All the jokes we came up were weak and lame, and would never stick. Scott had succeeded in the first part of his quest to come up with a name his Drow could live with. There was a break in gaming for a few days, as a couple of parties and sessions jumping off the cliffs at a strip mine pit took precedence over the game. When we returned to our cobbled-together table, Scott pulled out that character sheet once more, now with a full name... Razza Rogan. Immediately, one of my other players stood up and put on his best obviously-reading-it-off-the-teleprompter voice... "Hello. I'm Razza Rogaine and I'm not only the President of the Hair Club for Drow, I'm also a client." The hilarity which ensued dulled my sense of foreboding, for a time. The character's surname was changed to Kilsek after a few more days of consideration, after which the Drow stepped forth from the dark recesses of a cave at the bottom of the Great Crater. The damage had been done, however, and the "Rogaine" joke stuck with him.

No prob I never really bought into the browser wars. IE always works just fine for me. I keep Chrome and FF around just for the easy multi-logins for my pen names. Dreading the update to the forum, as it's a major version upgrade, and with so much of the site running on the backbone of it, there's all sorts of potential for disaster Not doing it until a weekend, when I know I have time to pick up the pieces if anything goes wrong *laugh* Also the main reason I haven't launched any more new sections of the site. I knew this update was coming, and don't want to have to recode something if I can just do it right the first time in the new software.

I've been hearing so many bad things about 4.0 and 5.0 of Firefox that I've refused to update. I think the "accelerated release schedule" is really biting them in the ass on quality. I only use it to keep my LesLumens pen name logged in at Literotica so I don't have to log out and log in whenever I want to post a story as Les *laugh* I'll check the IPB support forums and see if there are any reported issues and potential patches. It may be moot, as I'm waiting for the dust to settle on the latest release of the forum software before upgrading it, which may take care of any problems with newer versions of Firefox. Feel free to start topics in any way you choose. By story, by series, or just have your own thread where you cover everything There aren't that many visitors to the forum, so there's no real need to enforce some draconian structure. Go wild! I generally drop in multiple times a day, so any questions or comments will likely get addressed here even more quickly than they would by email.

I've been tracking both themed contests at Lit and my own numbers for a while now. Here's a link to the main tracking page: http://www.darkniciad.com/hotlink_pics/lit_stats_home.htm The boy was acting up, so I decided to do this quarter's tracking before the summer contest, because it was skewed last year when I did it sort of mid-stream with several stories in the contest. As of today, I have: An average score of 4.67 on 164 submissions, a total of 20,329 votes, 3,826,280 views, 1115 Public Comments, 260 story favorites, and 1,619,317 words. Some of my stories as Dark are beginning to reach the new all-time toplist thresholds and reappearing. Under the old system, many of my stories as Dark were on the all-time toplist, but most vanished when the new 100 vote threshold was put in place. For a few days, Danica Epilogue was #3 when it reached 100 votes. Of course, that drew a lot of attention, and it has since fallen several places, as well as seeing the scores for the whole story suffer *laugh* I'm sure that was partially new readers casting honest votes, but you can bet your ass there were a few troll votes in there as well, thanks to the position in the toplist. Now that the young one has chilled, I'm going to try to get back to writing.

Here's the beginnings of a new one, to coincide with me writing Blessing of the Wood. Just landmass and water right now. Helping me visualize my location in the BWCA.

Just had to add a swedish IP range to the list of spammer bans. It's nutty, I tell ya!

Determined Russian S.O.B... What the hell can he possibly be getting out of this? *laugh* I've banned whole IP ranges, the entire mail.ru domain, and regularly ban recognized instances seconds after he registers. I've got three more suspicious ones right now, and I'll be banning another IP range the moment one of them posts more spam. Hope I don't have any actual fans in Russia, because they'll probably have a hell of a time getting on the site thanks to this spam scum. Slowly working back up to building the website and getting back to writing. I'm doing a lot of musing, but just haven't had that flash of inspiration to put me back into hyperproductive mode yet.

Damn... banned the same idiot three times now *laugh* Added the IP ban this time, since it's been the same one. Need to look and see if I can ban by wildcard email addresses. Every one of these spammers has been .ru EDIT: Done. If you happen to be a real person - not a can of spam - and only have a @mail.ru address to work with, use the contact form on the website to contact me and I'll take care of it.

And there's number two. They must be pretty desperate in Russia. Geesh

It's hard to believe how desperate spammers are. I get minimal traffic, mostly concentrated around the release of new stories and chapters. Still, some Russian spammer thought it was worth the time to pass the email validation and captcha to make one single spam post -- in Russian. Even if somebody was dumb enough to not recognize it as spam, why would they click something they couldn't even read? *laugh* The only hits I get from Russia are spammers and scammers. They're trying to sell ice to eskimos. The blog gets umpteen spams a day, but they're all caught by the spam filter. 600+ at last count. Crazy, huh? That's despite me locking comments on anything older than... Can't remember exactly, but it's 6 months or less. Even if one would escape the spam filter, I have to approve the first comment from any email addy, so it still wouldn't show up. Getting some major writing itch. That's a good thing with a weeks vacation ahead of me. Keep your eyes peeled on the blog

Something that's been building in the last few chapters is actually getting ready to break. Several somethings, actually. Major events are on the horizon that are going to cause a dramatic shift in the story. I like to sneak important things in under the radar, then spring them to an "OH, now I get it!" There are still quite a few chapters left in my head, but the story will be moving into the next act before too much longer.

Did a little more work on the Xantina map, incorporating the new symbols. The old one is in the previous post, for comparison. And here's what it looks like when you zoom in a little. You can actually get in a lot tighter than this. With the custom, modern houses, this map is now complete as the storyline stands. First one to go final All the maps will be subject to updating with new locations as stories evolve, so even a "final" isn't really final. Now I have something to actually put on a maps page when I get it coded.

This one is pretty much done, as the stories stand right now. The nice thing about this software is that it will be exceedingly easy to make changes or add to my maps now, as everything is saved as individual entitites that can be edited. If I get new symbols to pretty things up, I can simply replace existing ones ( The roads, for example ) So, if you've ever wondered exactly how all the locations ( well, except for Kindred, which takes place in the BWCA ) in the Magic of the Wood series relate to each other, here you go. I've already roughed in a location or two for later, as well as placing Dan & Brooke's house on the map, even though that location has never been mentioned. All those open fields are simply expansion zones, where I'll end up adding locations as the tales continue to emerge. You can pretty much assume that all the open areas are wooded.

A little bit tighter ( but still quickly and crudely labeled in Photoshop ) view of where most of the action in my world takes place. There are a few more features added in with the cartography software ( still WIP and may change ) I went ahead and broke up Egoria into the four Duchies: Leonar ( Capital is on the coast ), Cratel ( Fightershaven is in the lower center on the rim of the Great Crater ), Mithas ( Sparsely populated except on the coast and near the mountains where there's money to be made stone cutting and mining ) and Gana ( Given over almost exclusively to the Plainsmen, Elves, and the Ironanvil Dwarves -- having only one sizeable human population near the Eastern Border on the edge of the lake ) The only heavily populated Duchy is Leonar. There are large tracts of the rest of the country that are open plains. Thakkor set aside large chunks of the nation important/sacred to the Plainsmen and forbids settling there. People still do, but they're risking sudden relocation when discovered ( Or worse if they start attacking Plainsmen ) I also changed my mind about Normandal *laugh* I put it back in a position closer to where it was on my original maps ( also closer to the original pen-n-paper maps from my tabletop game ) Odds are that I'll shrink Freeland a little bit East, and extend Ferrartene South into that unlabled area. I only thought of it after saving the map, and don't feel like editing the thing again This let me reorient things a little better, making more sense of a few things that go on in the stories. Such as hiking for days on end in Egoria, seeing little civilization, in the Nobles history tales. The current orientation better fits that. Putting Normandal where it is alleviates concerns that I might have mentioned it being to the East at some point in the story. Here's hoping I never said "North", because I'll have to edit any chapter where I did. Draxnia now only touches Cratel ( well, a bit of Gana, but there's not much there he wants ) which explains why it bears the brunt of assaults from there ) That little area of desert surrounded by mountains is an as-yet unexplored area of my world ( Not sure if it's been mentioned in any stories ) It's populated by ancient explorers from Osiran who got shipwrecked here. They're quite mixed race from years of wandering, though upon discovering the valley that reminded them of their desert home, they've stagnated and now shun outsiders. They have their own Pharaoh, and a little mini-kingdom there. It's also populated by several powerful undead NPCs from my world. It was actually called the "Land of the Dead" on my original world maps. Odds are that it will get some screen time, eventually. Okay, back to writing.

I've redrawn the world map, which is going to slightly reorient a few places ( for anyone who saw the original maps ) Hoping that I'm remembering everything right and these movements aren't going to clash with what I've written anywhere *laugh* This is just a beginning. There aren't any rivers, lakes, or a lot of other features. It's just a general world map with some of the mountains drawn in, experimenting with the tools in the new cartography suite. Thought I'd post it, as well as a labeled version, with some information. Here's the WIP, unlabeled map: And here's one I've slapped a few quick outlines and numbers on just to show where some places are: 1 = Egoria, the setting for Blackhawk Hall, King Thakkorias, Queen Alicia, etc. 2 = Draxnia, mentioned many times, especially in Blackhawk Hall and the upcoming story "Lowborn" 3 = Freeland, mentioned quite a few times. Richest/most powerful nation in the region. 4 = Normandal, mentioned recently in SOTM, and going to come into some Nobles stories eventually. 5 = The Western Baronies, where the Forge and Witharton ( from Ebon Genesis ) are. 6 = Ferrartene, where Zoraster's complex is. 7 = Protectorates of Armand, where Danica and Devan grew up, seen in the Arts Ardane series. 8 = The Greek/Roman region of my world, which I believe we've only visited in "Danica" 9 = The Egyptian region of my world, featured in Danica and recent chapters of SOTM. 10 = Right around this large island somewhere is where Darkni's island is. The island itself is too small to show up on the full world map. 11 = The Japanese/Chinese region of my world, which will get some screen time soon in SOTM. 12 = These islands are a combination Polynesian/African culture. A lot of Ch. 14 of "Danica" took place here. Celes is from somewhere up North on the main continent. It's a Norse region that hasn't really had any screen time. Anyway, that's a few general locations. Now, I'm going to get back to writing for a while After nailing down a few things last night in the new software, I just had to get something down to make sure I actually understood it *laugh*

Working on the edit, in preparation to release it. Probably be a few more days before I finish the editing process, but it's moving toward release

Still trying to figure out the best layout for restoring the content that was up on the site before I took it down to rework it. Amongst this was: Maps from my fantasy world, including everything from the world map down to some individual buildings ( such as Zoraster's Complex ) Descriptions of the religions in the world. Descriptions of the various types of magic, and how they work. Information about customs, clothing, grooming, etc. At this point, here's what I'm considering. The "My Worlds" page will have the following links: Maps Danica's World FAQs Characters Maps will be an all-in-one page, encompassing the maps from Danica's world, as well as any from other worlds I write about. At this point, the only likely map outside of my fantasy world will be the map of the area where the family lives in the Magic of the Wood series. I have a basic pencil sketch map of this completed, which I've been using as a reference when adding new stories, to figure out where to put new characters and where to move family members as the family expands. Danica's World FAQs will obviously be a specific page to my fanstasy world. If I ever think that there's a need for deeper explanation of the way things work in another setting, I'll probably just add it to the "My Worlds" page as a new link. Characters is where I'm puzzling, right now. Most of what I'll be entering initially will be characters from Danica's world. However, with the constant expansion of the Magic of the Wood series, there's a chance I may want to start adding bios for those characters as well. Should I divide up the Danica stories from Nobles by Deed? After all, the Nobles are peripheral characters in Danica, while Danica will be a peripheral character in the Nobles stories. Any input welcome. I'm going to cheat and go the easy route at first, just adding the Map and Danica's World FAQ sections when I first roll out "My Worlds" *laugh* Characters is where I need to do a lot of thinking to create a reasonable layout. Think I may borrow my Sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights II ( now that I have a computer that will run it ) and fool arond with the toolset. I used the original NN toolset to create my interior maps, and the new version looks to have much more customization. Might be just the thing to add new location maps. I may look into creating creature images from this toolset as well. I had a "monsters" document on the old site for Danica's World, and I'll probably add that to the DW FAQ section at some point. I'm absolutely going to redo my original region maps ( Fractal Terrains maps with legend overlays ) First off, I'm going to save them as PNGs, in order to avoid the fading and pixel artifacts present in the original gif images. Next, I'm going to hatch a brain and keep copies of the maps with all the layers saved, so I can easily edit/update the damn things in the future Hoping to find something a little more elegant than drawing lines on the maps for borders and such, as well.

*laugh* I'm working on it. I just backspaced about 1000 words last night, because what I was writing, while interesting to me and delving deep into the characters, was dragging from a reader's perspective. The characters getting the most development were peripheral, soon to leave the story. So, I found a good line, put in a scene break, and skipped ahead. I'm around halfway done with Ch. 07 with only the final chapter to go after that. I suppose I could probably start posting the story and have the final chapters done before it came time to post them, but I don't want to break my rule of not posting anything new until the story is complete. Don't want to leave people hanging any more when my muse takes a vacation. I'm a little closer every day -- especially now that I don't have that 1-page placeholder sitting on my website any longer, nagging me

Fixed a bug I somehow created in the forum that was keeping the members and calendar tabs from working. They're back up and functional again. Deleted a file somehow. Must have been half asleep when I did that *laugh*

Looks like I managed to get the lightbox issue fixed for IE 9 - finally. So, here's a few initial images I'll be using on the "characters" pages as a sort of sidebar to their physical characteristics. Probably bigger than the finals. In fact, the thumbnails are probably closer to what I'll end up using. I've been hunting for images to use for this for a while, and just stumbled across the perfect tool for it I'll be using these as a general "body type" with height, hair & eye color, etc. Also have cup size for females and a small, average, endowed, etc. listing for package on male. Hey, it is erotica, after all. Planning for the main image to be a headshot that's as close as I have to what the character looks like in my mind. In some cases, that may be an image already on the website somewhere ( such as a cover ) and in others, it will be exclusive to the character profiles. Already mentioned the physical characteristics. There will also be a brief history profile, an "appears in" divided into major, supporting, peripheral character that will link to the story database. Characters will also have a skills section detailing any magical abilities or physical specialities, and probably some sort of weapon section ( at least for major characters. Minor characters will probably only have basic statistics ) Probably be an images section as well. This may show parts of covers, website images, etc. that depict the character, and are likely to be nekkid *laugh* Just a little of what's going on behind the scenes with regards to actually getting new content onto the website.

Just a short excerpt from the next chapter of SOTM: * * * * * He emerged from the long shadows of the trees, his black-robed form darker than the moonlit night. He crossed the graves at a determined pace, thoughtless of the peace of those who rested beneath the earth. His eyes that glowed red with the fires of hell fixated upon a mausoleum ahead – his goal. A few gestures and words in the spidery language of magic dissolved the wards protecting the crypt as he approached. The lock on the door snapped as if a twig from a single twist of Thanatos’ wrist. The demon cast aside the lock, chipping a nearby tombstone, and pulled open the heavy iron-bound door. Stale air tinged with the perfume of death rushed from inside, and light violated the dark resting place of the dead for the first time in many years. Twin stone sarcophagi nearly filled the small space, the fine lines and detailed carvings bespeaking great wealth. Thanatos approached and swept aside the dry, brittle remnants of flowers that decorated the lid of one sarcophagus, revealing the inscription, and confirming what the demon already knew. The runes of warding were no match for his magic, their angry red glow impotent to prevent the desecration to come. Nor was the weight of the great stone lid any impediment, though it had taken six men to set it in place. Thanatos grasped one of the handles at the base of the arched stone cover in a long-fingered hand and lifted. The lead seals broke free and the lip slipped from its groove, allowing the demon to push the lid over the edge, where it hit with a resounding crack upon the polished stone floor. The stained wood of the coffin within looked as if it might have been placed there only days before, rather than years. Only a thin layer of dust marred the beauty of its surface, which the demon completely ignored as his nails elongated into claws, giving him purchase into the thin seam of the coffin lid. The body of the woman had not endured the years so well. Dull, dry blonde hair formed a halo around the darkened, desiccated flesh clinging to her skull. A voluminous gown of now yellowed white could not hide the bony protrusions of the body it shrouded. A single deadly touch of the demon’s claw caused the garment to dissolve, completing the work of decades in seconds, while leaving the body untouched. Thanatos lay his hand upon the body’s shriveled breasts, and once again called upon his hellish powers. Even as his touch could cause corruption and death, so too could it reverse the ravages of decay and give a semblance of life to the shell of a mortal’s remains. The woman’s skin lightened and plumped, the flesh undulating as it regained elasticity. Features emerged in her face, replacing the horrifying visage of a leering skull. Eyelids grew to cover the empty eye cavities, sprouting long, luxurious lashes. The breasts beneath his hands swelled many times over, rising firm and proud. The demon lifted his hand and admired his handiwork. The woman within the coffin little resembled the husk that had resided there only moments before. Instead, a blonde woman of stunning beauty and ample curves appeared to sleep within. Thanatos reached into a pocket of his robes, seeking the tools of the Art. The mere semblance of life was not enough to complete the task given him. He would have to reach into the very realm of death and the echoes of the past with necromantic magic to finish his masterpiece. Then, he would have his reward.

Here's an excerpt from the upcoming Mindblind ( Blackhawk Hall ) history story: "Lowborn" * * * * Delly moaned in approval as his thick cream filled her mouth. She continued to suck and swallow, draining him dry, until he jerked her away from his oversensitive organ. She gathered up a few dribbles that had escaped from the corners of her mouth with a finger, and licked it clean. Cerebus let out a growling chuckle, his head falling back to the bed. Delly crawled over him to kiss his neck and chest, rubbing her moist folds over his stomach. She continued to tease him, caressing him with her entire body as he recovered from the explosion in her mouth. She rolled off of him, and then wormed her way between his legs. She bent his knees so that she could sit between them, facing away from him, and looked back over her shoulder. He knew what she wanted. A deep moan escaped Delly as he sat up and pulled her against him, nestling his softened cock in the cleft of her buttocks. He kissed her neck, squeezing her breasts and pinching her nipples, causing her to arch her back and gasp. His right hand released her breast and dropped between her legs even as she sucked air into her lungs. Cerebus curled two fingers and thrust them deep into the redhead’s clinging sheath. He pulled her even tighter against him, holding her in place as his fingers plunged into her pussy. With her arms pinned at her side, she was helpless in his grasp. A steady stream of whimpers, yelps, and moans bubbled up from her lips. He let his thumb slide over her clit, rubbing it with every stroke of his hand, building her fires even higher. She writhed against his strength, not really trying to escape, but unable to sit still in light of the pleasure he was giving her. Mindblind’s hot breath stirred her hair as she drew ever closer to final ecstasy. She knew it was coming, but she still whimpered in frustration when his fingers slipped from inside her. He held her tight, keeping her from finding any relief that could push her over the edge. She pleaded with him to make her come, as she always did, but he denied her until her fires cooled. Then he buried his fingers inside her once more. Over and over again, he brought her to the pinnacle of pleasure, only to deny her release. Her begging turned even more desperate, her body hot against him and beaded with sweat. His cock hardened against her ass, foreshadowing things to come. As the trembling – almost weeping – prostitute neared the point of no return again, Cerebus’ other hand left her breast and centered over her clit. After only a few quick circles of his fingers, she erupted into orgasm. He kept one set of fingers buried inside her, the other still mercilessly rubbing her bud. Delly’s tight-throated scream of ecstasy filled the room. He kept her within the grip of her orgasm, growing more excited as she writhed in his grasp. She was still coming when he dug his slick fingers into her hips and lifted her to her knees. Her hands dropped to the bed to support her, and his right hand left her hip just long enough to guide his cock inside her. A loud wail that trailed off into a croak accompanied his thick cock invading her depths. He grunted when he hit bottom, and pulled back to thrust again, several weeks worth of pent up desire fueling his ardor. The bed creaked in protest amidst the loud smacks of two bodies colliding, and Delly’s screams. Her first orgasm from his fingers never really ended before a second took control of her body. Her intimate muscles clamped down, but were no match for the strength of his thrusts. Caught in a near constant state of exquisite agony, she couldn’t tell where one climax ended and the next began. Cerebus drank in the sight of her rocking forward every time he slammed his cock home. She was soaking wet, her juices spurting out around him – so unlike the other prostitutes who had just gone through the motions. He felt his seed surging up, and gave in to the inevitable. He buried his cock with a thrust so powerful that one of her hands slipped out from beneath her, and she fell face down into the sheets. He erupted with a growling cry of release, filling her full of hot cream. In the midst of the cacophony, neither of them heard the sounds of struggle downstairs.