Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2756168" data-attributes="member: 143">Hey readers:As I noted earlier, I'd left the story for a while, and since that inevitably leads to rust in the ol' writing wheels, I sat down last night and skimmed about 15 ENW-pages worth of story and comments in this thread. First, I just wanted to offer a portable hole full of gratitude for all those who have posted to this thread with praise, comments, or suggestions. Even the constructive criticism. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  You guys have really kept the tale going all these years, and I think we have built one of the longest threads, if not on the whole site, at least on the SH forum!I am going to be at a Commission meeting for the rest of the week, but I plowed through my block yesterday and today and spawned a few new twists for the story. When I'm in "writing mode" I have to carry a small notebook with me, because ideas just start exploding out of my mind at all times (especially at boring staff meetings at work). Hopefully I can carry the momentum forward.Oh, and in response to a query I got from a reader... I'm not currently planning on writing a SH set in the Age of Worms Adventure Path.  I have the first module in the series, but I let my subscription to Dungeon lapse and I don't think I'm going to renew it at this juncture. (I have enough modules for about 20 years of tabletop play in my collection now!)  I don't know how long the epic Heroes/Travelers story will continue, but I can guesstimate from where I am now that we've got at least another two months of every-weekday posts to go. After that, I was thinking of getting back into fiction set in my own worlds (but still in the fantasy genre). I wrote Travels and The Shackled City knowing they would never see publication outside of ENWorld, and it's been a ton of fun doing it. But sometimes writing a specifically D&D story, and one set in particular in a WotC setting, has been limiting. Especially at the higher levels, where I spend almost as much time browsing the SRD and editing stat blocks as I do writing the story. This doesn't necessarily mean an end to my ENW posting days.  In the past I talked with some readers about serializing some of my older works, novels that I wrote in graduate school. It would be a good exercise for me to post those, get back in and give them a good editing and maybe some rewrites as I go. While not specifically D&D-baesd in the sense that these stories are, they are fantasy in much the same vein (the setting started as a 1st/2nd ed module that I created as an undergraduate, and still bears the footprints of D&D), so I think they would fall within the rubric of the Story Hour Forum. If people are interested, I may go in that direction. I also have an abstract (just 2 pages at the moment) for a story set in a generic world, focused around a few character concepts. Rather than delve into an epic story a la Jordan or Martin, this would focus more on characters and their interactions, and would be purely for fun (I write to escape the monotony of work, after all).  Haven't decided whether to develop this further.  I also have an unfinished novel (#7) that I may get back to someday.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> I guess this is a long-handed way of saying that I'm going to keep writing. But I guess that not going to surprise anyone who's waded through 1.1 million words of Travels and Shackled City.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /> Oh, and I do plan on compiling the complete Shackled City into Microsoft Reader and PDF formats for fans of the series, once the entire saga is done. Heh, with all that I almost forgot today's update:* * * * * Chapter 502The battle in the corridor appeared to have broken the strength of the grimlock tribe, for they encountered no further resistance as they continued their exploration of the Malachite Fortress.  Once again clerical magic restored them to health, although this time they also had to rely upon a few potions to supplement the abilities commanded by Umbar, Beorna, and Arun.  The four of them had absorbed enough damage to lay low a battalion of common soldiers, and Arun hoped that their enemy did not have some further surprise waiting for them deeper in the complex. The pit levers, when raised, lifted the trapdoors back into position, settling with an audible click.  “Dwavish work,” Umbar noted, with an approving nod.  This allowed them to reunite and press on, into the great hall at the end of the passage. The place was barren, nearly empty, although it bore enough similarities to Kazmojen’s bazaar to stir dark memories in Arun.  There were four iron braziers set up around the raised dais on the southern end of the chamber, their dying coals still shedding a faint red light.  To the west, a heavy stone door opened only after considerable effort to reveal a gaping chasm.  The bridge that Arun remembered from their last visit was gone, destroyed in the recent quakes, leaving only a narrow ledge that ended in crumbling stone.So they turned to the other exit, in the east wall.  That door opened to reveal a long chamber, once a dining hall, now showing the same signs of deliberate destruction they’d encountered elsewhere in the fortress.  The remains of several large tables were scattered across the floor, and garish things had been sketched on the walls in what looked like dried blood.  Five doors, three to the left, and two to the right, offered a wealth of choices.  The four dwarves spread out to quickly check the room for any signs of their quarry.“Hey, this one’s been wedged shut,” Hodge said, drawing them to a door in the far corner of the room.  The iron spikes were quickly removed by Umbar’s hammer, and they forced the door open to reveal a twenty foot square room beyond.  Huddled in the back of the room were four young human men.“Who… who are you?” one of them ventured.  They were in poor condition, their garments torn and hanging in remnants from their pale bodies, shivering together against the cold.  Several bore marks of struggle. “Friends,” Arun said, coming forward. “Be careful!” one of them said.  “Those… things, they infected us with some sort of disease.  We didn’t want to drink, but they made us… they turned Orran to stone!” The dwarves shared a look, but Arun did not hesitate, assisting the men, treating their wounds with trickles of positive energy.  Calling upon his power, he purged them of the taint of the Vanishing, and each relaxed as the healing surge passed through them. “You’re… you’re Arun, the paladin, aren’t you?” one of them asked. Arun nodded.  “Tell us what you can about the grimlocks.”The one who had initially spoken shuddered.  “They came up on us by surprise, up in the city.  Gratham tried to fight back, he actually hit one with his dagger, but the thing just punched him… damn near killed him!  The rest of us couldn’t do much, I’m afraid… those things are strong.”“Aye, that we know,” Hodge said. “Are they all…” another youth began. “We killed a good lot o’ them,” Hodge replied.  “If there be more, then they be smart to run off.”“Tell us more about what happened to Orran,” Arun prodded. “Their leader,” the first youth said.  “Gratham was out cold, but the rest of us saw it,” he said, as if doubting that the dwarves would believe him.  “She was… well, we thought she was a woman, but she said such terrible things, told us we were the first, that others would follow.”“She called it the Fade,” another of the men added.  “She made us drink from the gray cask.  Orran wouldn’t do it, he knocked the cup away.  That made her mad… they turned us away, and when we turned back, Orran was a statue!  They took him away somewhere, I didn’t see where.”“Petrification,” Umbar said.  “Sounds like a medusa.  Common leader for grimlocks, works out since the blind stalkers can’t see.”“Tell me more about this gray cask,” Arun said.  “She said some kinda magic word, and water came out,” one of the men said. “And she had a rock flyin’ around her head,” another added.  “Magic items,” Beorna said.  “And you said that the Vanishing was transmitted through cursed magic items…”Arun looked at them.  Something clicked as the pieces came together for all of them. “They intended to infect the entire city with the plague,” Umbar said.  “We’ve got to get above, quickly,” Arun said, picking up one of the young men.  Despite the healing, they were still weak from their ordeal. “Perhaps we should leave them here, for now,” Umbar suggested.  By the looks on the young humans’ faces, the prospect did not hold appeal for them. “No one stays behind,” Arun said.  “Come, let’s get back to the lift.”The dwarves all but carried the weakened humans as they retraced their steps through the underground citadel.  They were wary of another ambush, but nothing emerged from the darkness to hinder them.  Within a few minutes they had made their way back to the shaft leading up to Jzadirune, where they made a not entirely unexpected discovery. “Someone’s taken the lift up,” Beorna said.  She looked up into the shaft, but there was only darkness for as far she could see up into it. Arun pulled the triggering lever that would bring the lift back down.  There was a grinding noise from up above, and then a loud clatter that grew rapidly louder. “Get back!  Out!” he shouted, putting his own words into action as he retreated into the outer passage, Beorna only a step behind.  Umbar and Hodge were already clear, along with the humans. Only a heartbeat after Beorna had burst out through the open doorway, a loud crash announced the arrival of the lift, falling from its upper station at Jzadirune.  Shards of shattered wood and a plume of dust poured out over them as the heavy mechanism settled upon the floor of the shaft, although none of them were harmed. Hodge came forward and looked at the wreckage.  “Well, now what?” he asked.</blockquote>

Verification