Barracuda’s Garrison Jacobi hit the deck when the enemy opened fire, taking refuge behind one of the hastily constructed fortifications the company had erected along the docks. More barricades were still being erected along the coast. The first shots struck wide of their position, hammering the surrounding berg outside the base while only minimally strafing the base itself. The township suffered...
The Seamstress and the Wardrobe The square fell deathly silent. A moment ago, the town’s commercial hub had been as lively and raucous as any diurnal iteration of the laissez-faire exchange. Beggars, hagglers, and traders all clamored over each other, sublimating ancient practices of hunting and gathering with the modern conveniences of consumerism. They bartered a mile a minute to a discordant...
First Contact The fuse was lit, the gunpowder caught, and the chamber erupted with a deafening roar. The resulting explosion hurled out a shot of superheated iron and lead from the cannon’s fuselage, which careened outwards at absurd speed only to crash against the outer hull of the galleon Legothica. A momentary clash of spells preceded a class of might, with the cannonball’s standardized...
The Portcullis The Devanagari was a cursed ship. Beautiful, graceful on the water, both fast and lithe, it was quite literally made for traversing the varied oceans of the world. Helmed by Captain Archuleta, it had seen success across a range of battlefields, from the deserts of Hinterstan to the humid jungles of Uzu Nurui, and earned a reputation across each realm for its lethal efficiency and...
The Gatekeepers Smoke wafted up from the grizzled and gnarled end of a burning cigar butt. Captain Archuleta worked the stogie around his chiseled maw. Taking another liberal puff from the aromatic cigar, he filled the deck with the pungent pall of ash and smolder. Expelling a sigh of sanguine pleasure, he groaned in satiety, thirst slaked. “Cobaltine ecstasy. I’d recognize these tobacco leaves...
The Gem of the Sea The Armada existed outside of reality, sequestered into a pocket of unreality by Mikhail’s magic. He saw polygons, dodecahedrons, trapezoids, and a strange milieu of unfathomable and unnamable shapes, all in assorted sizes, reflecting or refracting back equally extravagant and mesmerizing colors, hues, tones, and intensities of light. Connecting them all together were waspish...
The Town of Paper Lanterns Magic is fickle, and it isn’t. Not everyone can learn to cast magic, but anyone can learn to use magic. This much is true. In much the same way as Dalia’s father had become the town’s most esteemed baker, the man might’ve otherwise used his natural talents and intelligence in pursuit of divergent interests. In his next life, he may yet choose to follow the path of manna...
The All-Seeing Eye On the lowest floor of the most secured and well-protected building in Atreia, the most valuable possessions belonging to crown and kingdom were safely stored. Behind a large wooden door secured with iron castings, and within a stone chamber, the most important of those objects were housed, safeguarded by the strongest spells the king’s wizards could conjure. The Occulum...
The Dogs of the Sea A bracing wind ruffled Brogan’s auburn hair. Errant strands of decorative braids hung loosely from where they were tousled free. He gazed out upon the sea, breathing deeply the familiar tang of spices carried on the breeze, then sought past it and beyond to the deep fathoms—the countless leagues of ocean without end that he knew to exist beyond the horizon’s edge. An endless...
The Old Man and the Sea Jorgen left the comfortable warmth of his bed. First sliding his old legs out over the edge of the threadbare cot, and then following through with his own momentum. His back creaked as he stretched out the kinks that inevitably arose from sleeping on the thin hay-stuffed mat. But as a senior nearing his sixth decade of life, he was well accustomed to the hardships of the...