Dantes arrived at the Cruel Lady in the early morning, finding it surprisingly busy for that time of day with a few men and a woman leaving quickly with their faces covered by large hats, and a shameless man walking ahead of him and even holding t...
2024-06-27 12:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Dantes stood in a darkened alley surrounded by filth and broken glass, feeling as much at home there as was possible. He wore his dark green jacket with the hood up, protecting from the light drizzle that fell that day, and had a scarf inside the ...
2024-06-25 12:00:08 +0000 UTC
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He awoke without either Clay or his sister in his garden, though he could sense that they’d been there recently. He found Jacopo sleeping peacefully next to him on a bedding of old leaves, and a number of feathers from his own pillow. He raised ...
2024-06-22 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Dantes could feel the blood loss sapping his strength as he ran, but he was moving on pure instinct and could think of nothing but his desire to escape. Eventually he collapsed in a dirty alley. He started to push himself up, but collapsed back do...
2024-06-20 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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I though everyone might like to see the character portraits I've generated since I put out the last batch. As I said before I mainly make these for my own notes and reference and they aren't perfectly accurate, but I felt you all may get a kick ou...
2024-06-19 12:00:15 +0000 UTC
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To Mondego and his men, it seemed as if all hells had broken loose. Vines whipped up and grabbed the wrists of the men holding knives to Alessa and Caressa’s necks, and dragged them to the ground. Dantes himself appeared behind Zilly, and shot o...
2024-06-18 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The rest of the conclave was much more relaxed, with them mostly deciding more on what kind of trade with Dantes they’d want to do, and sharing another meal and some booze. Dantes decided to pass on staying through the night, his concern for wha...
2024-06-15 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Coal rode his warthog into the clearing in the middle of a hearty laugh.
“And the man chased you right into the swamp?” he asked Lorna, who was walking next to him, her gator, Beast, bolting ahead of them with surprising speed so t...
2024-06-13 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Dantes stood in front of the ancient tree deep in the heart of Rendhold with Jacopo sitting on his shoulder. He went through a quick mental checklist to make sure he was ready. His bag was filled with the Herbs he’d gotten from Hema, some of the...
2024-06-11 12:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Jacopo followed the woman into one of the administrative buildings, using his key to push through the anti-vermin enchantment and slip through the front door behind her. This building was different from the others. There were fewer regular Magiste...
2024-06-08 12:00:03 +0000 UTC
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While Dantes was occupying himself at the Cruel Lady, Jacopo was sitting behind some documents on a shelf in Pacha’s office. He’d just left another note on his desk, but before he could slip out, he heard someone approaching, and so had found ...
2024-06-06 12:00:02 +0000 UTC
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In Uptown, the Cruel Lady stood out. A black building with barred windows and a massive sign with the establishment's name framed by a large black whip. It was flanked by a bookstore with flowers in the window, and a bakery filled with frilly cake...
2024-06-04 12:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Dantes stood from his bedroll and flexed his fingers as he moved toward Orebus, Merle, and Felix. It had started to rain, and a light drizzle was falling over the garden, which he sensed that many of the plants enjoyed, though a nearby cat was gru...
2024-06-01 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Moving through a mirror was very different from moving through trees. With the trees there was a sense of oneness with everything and a loss of ego, but with the mirror there was only an intense discomfort and awareness of something other
2024-05-30 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Once Felix had completely resigned himself to his fate, he actually began to seem as if he was enjoying the prospect of breaking the collars. He and the other mages began to theorize and work toward the safest way to break them. They sp...
2024-05-28 12:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Dantes walked along the hall, dripping wet in his disguise with his boots squelching with every step. The corridor he stood in was long with doors on either side, seemingly too close together to house actual rooms. He moved to the far end, and cli...
2024-05-25 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Dantes adjusted the black cloak he’d wrapped around himself, clasping it with a bronze pin in the shape of a triangle in the center of a circle, a symbol thought to represent stability in magic, and one worn by the members of the Academy when th...
2024-05-23 12:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Dantes didn’t make his former collared friends wait in a pit of dwarven corpses and vermin for long. He shifted back to himself and leaned against the wall behind him, coughing lightly into his fist to get their attention.
They turned and ...
2024-05-21 12:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Dantes wound his way back up through the outer city and back to where his boots clacked comfortably against concrete. The sun was high and he’d spent several hours getting information on the different local plants that Hema had sold him. Though ...
2024-05-18 12:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Dantes smiled at the woman and patted one of his pockets filled with coin.
“Don’t worry, I’m here to buy. He spread his awareness through all of the plants nearby, finding that all of them were well cared for. He also detected at least...
2024-05-16 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Dantes spent the next two days recovering. He focused on improving and expanding his gardens, talking to the local flora and fauna, and monitoring the reactions to the sacking of Mondego’s storehouse.
The guard was furious, with both...
2024-05-14 12:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Gavain ran at a very impressive clip to the docks. Even with Dantes taking him along mainly back roads and alleys, they still reached the warehouse within the hour. Dantes’s dignity was a bit bruised by being carried the whole way, but in his wi...
2024-05-11 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Dantes woke up to the feeling of the sun beating down on him in the high heat of midafternoon. He squinted, slowly pulling himself up. His mouth was dry and tasted of bile. He dragged himself to his bedroll and grabbed his waterskin. He swished a ...
2024-05-09 12:00:07 +0000 UTC
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He wasn’t sure how he made it back to his garden with Jacopo, but he did. He shivered, but felt hot. He retched, but had nothing left to come up. He curled himself into a ball on the dirt a half-dozen feet from his bedroll, and lost consciousnes...
2024-05-07 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Dantes made it to the docks with time to spare and began sending out rats and roaches to search all of the nearby vessels that had just come into port. As he did that, he slipped into the dock manager’s office with Jacopo. It was early, and so t...
2024-05-04 12:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The next night, Dantes and Jacopo wove through Uptown as rats, moving from block to block until they reached the Administrative Square. They skittered past the statues of the gods in the center, avoiding a few overworked clerks, and one romantic t...
2024-05-02 12:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Dantes climbed quickly and easily onto the roof of the building behind which was the alley that Felix was still pacing in. He made his way to the edge of the building, and shifted into ratform before shifting back when Felix’ back was turned. He...
2024-04-30 12:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Dantes watered his fourth garden, drawing his black hilted stiletto to trim a few browning leaves from a bush as he listened to the gossipping of pigeons on the freshly cleared roof behind him.
“How was the park?”
“Bad. Old woman...
2024-04-27 12:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Jacopo moved quickly through the city, using the mental map Dantes had given him to move toward Uptown. Dantes hadn’t frequented that part of the city, as most were turned away at the gates unless they could prove they had business there, but th...
2024-04-25 12:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The Bitter Wife was not the finest establishment in Rendhold, far from it, but it certainly did its best to live up to its name. Gambling, whoring, drinking, even fighting if you were into that sort of thing, all of it was available to the Bitter ...
2024-04-23 12:00:08 +0000 UTC
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