Saturday 22 August 2015

This is the first draft of the first chapter of a story I am working on please read and please enjoy....

The Adventures of Goraxe Meridian: Escape from Gallowghast

The Palace rocked the rebels where inside the inner walls and the Palace guard where hard pressed to defend the place. Although they were elite troops, veterans of a hundred campaigns they were few in number and the enemy were greater than they had expected.
Goraxe new this was coming, his first minister without portfolio Sir Rake Croworthy had been gathering information on the rebels for some time, the Wizard Sublime who had been with Goraxe for many years now had seen the portents and divinations and so planes had been made.
Prince Welfhelion was out of the way and the Princesses was safe in the duchy of Essex, most of the Royal Guard and those of the Palace Guard who could be spared without risking letting the enemy know the King was on to them had been slowly sent south to other lands and other holdings on this plane and others.
Golems, elementals and guardian spirits had been summoned and bound ready for the attack. Alice the Kings personal scribe and Newt-Torac the lizardman mercenary had seen to the packing of the high Kings equipment and preparation of his adventuring gear personally whilst the King and sir Rake has prepared a few surprises for those rebels who tried to make it to the kings apartments.
The Guard Captains had been asked to hold the lower halls as long as possible and then to use the secret tunnels to get their men out using them. Each tunnel was rigged with explosive runes in order to collapse them as they retreated.
This meant the upper levels of the Kings halls and tower where largely deserted except for the animated guardians who waited silently to deal death to the rebels.
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Just then the tower shook causing the kings party to all stop and consider what it meant. The battle in the lower halls where over the palace guard either dead or gone. So be it thought goraxe as he slipped on his mithril shirt over his leather jerkin. Next he added his belt, sword belt and tool belt. Next he put on his old adventuring bandolier and lastly his entropic talisman a gift from Rengard the former head of the Rangers Guild and his youngest sister Carla.
His equipment complete he went to check on Sublime who was working his magic in the Kings spell casting chamber. Deep in concentration swirls of colourful magic reflected of the sorcerers  mirrored plate. No one in the palace had ever seen the sorcerers face and none knew his race. Most feared him more than just a little, his no nonsense approach to business and his cold logical view of the world added to the fact he was 6 foot tall and build more impressively than most warriors unversed people.
It did not help that when people looked at him rather than meet his gaze all they saw was their own distorted face reflected back at them. This did not in any way stop him from been one of the most skilled and proficient spell casters in the kingdom. His knowledge of alchemy was just as great as his spell casting ability and was also known to be a most powerful conjurer and astrologist.
Goraxe decided to let him finish his spell and so went down the stairs to where Alice and Newt where building a makeshift barricade in front of the doors to the Kings personal chambers. They laid a number of spears, daggers and cross bows along the barrier.
Just then the sound of screams and yells of pain could be heard coming from the levels directly below the Kings Chambers. Oh dear the rebels had just found his golems and shadow cats, these creatures where immune to mundane damage and quite a few enchantments and spells. This meant that the majority of the rebels rank and file troops would be totally ineffective against the presents the king had left for them.
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True enough the traps on the lower chambers claimed had already claimed the lives of some fifty rebels most caught unawares by the swinging blades, concealed spikes and falling stone blocks. Once they had got past the traps the next batch of would be usurpers found the very shadows in which they tried to conceal themselves turned against them.
The shadow cats pounced and for each one of them they claimed half a dozen enemy. Soon mages arrived and dark priests with blessed and enchanted attacks which were put to good use by the enemy forces. Noble Khuul and lessor formorians made up the bulk of the new forces arriving. They eventually turned the tide on the cats and although it cost the lives of all thirteen of the shadow cats a much greater number of villains lay dead.
Just as the new lords of Caladonia took in the sight of the slaughter around them the next wave of surprises made themselves known. Sections of floor and wall animated and formed into stone fists which punched and tore and unsuspecting rebels. Again battle was joined and this time the enemy was ill prepared to stand against the half dozen stone golems and soon their numbers where fast diminishing.
This brought valuable time for those above, however then the enemy champions and officers arrive. Vaul the dark templar a Noble Khuul who had long wished to see the alliance between light and dark come crumbling down. He stood tall in his black armour and shade wolf fur. A veteran of many wars he had spent the last few years in exile fighting wars for the lords of Dhaine on this and other worlds.
He returned to aid those lords brave enough to stand against the High King and Queen. They brought with them experienced rogues, assassins and mercenaries of a mixture of heritages and races. Most importantly he brought with his the Soul Hunter Harkken Rhot and the Sorcerer Vhandevil of Kees. Both skilled adventurers and slayers of the noble and good.
Seeing his men been slaughtered the Dark Templar decided to take action, not out of pity for his men but because he knew in the upcoming wars he would need all the men he could get. Taking up his dark steel blade he pointed at the first of the golems and uttered its dark command word Voidantius Kometh and with that a vortex appeared atop the first golem and sucked it out into the void. With its departure the tempalars troops took heart and redoubled their attacks.
“My turn” whispered Vhandevil. He stepped forward and through up his arms his long thin palms facing the golems his talon like fingers spread wide. “By my power and the power of the dark, by my power and the power of Kurst, by my power and the power of the void – DUST!” with that a wide grey beam of magical energy flowed forward and struck the midsection of the next golem as the energy spread the stone lost its solid structure and turned to dust as if the ages had taken their effect on the stone not over centuries but in seconds.
It was Rhot who was next to show his skill and power. Drawing his two blades he called upon their dark power. “Levi empower and Vhort deliver” as he finished his words the two blades began to absorb the light from around them as they became engulfed in entropic energy. Moving with lightning speed the Soul Hunter moved between two of the lumbering stone giants as he came within reach of them he swung his blades out wide and connected with each of them.
As the blades touched the constructs the magic which animated them began to leach away overcome by the power of the entropy. The stone also aged and crumbled another effect of the blades. Slowly the two golems stopped moving and fell forward unable to move once more simply carved stone statues.
The three of them advanced upon the two remaining golems and soon the last of the guardians where no more, now to rid this world of the so called High King Goraxe Meridian.
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The High King and his three companions waited noting the noise had ceased from the level below them. They knew what would come next, suddenly the well-made and enscrolled doors of the Kings chamber suddenly exploded and blew inwards.
The enemy poured in and Alice a double loaded cross bow in each hand fired expertly and dropped the first four villains through the doors. Although the 5 foot 5inch blond looked like she might find lifting a heavy book let alone wield two very heavy crossbows he not only managed to do so but then threw them to one side and soon replaced them with matching short swords.
Next to her Tork held a repeating crossbow, with one squeeze of the trigger three bolts fired of each contained oil of impact and resulted in three heavily armed knights of the black blade exploding in front of their allies. This slowed the next wave down and made them hesitant to attack.
hen Rhot and Vhandevil appeared both stepped confidently into the room along with another named Bokk a Half Ogre half Khuul warrior skilled in breaking through enemy lines.

Bokk and Rhot moved to fight the High Kings servants, whilst Vhandevil placed his hand on his masters shoulder who had now joined his lieutenants and teleported the two of them to where he believed the High King would be.
Rhot decided to engage the lizardman and the women in the same way he had attacked the golems, whilst and effective warrior he was lazy and preferred to use the same manoeuvres. This time he decided to draw upon his ability to drain the souls of others he could only drain one soul at a time so he decided to relieve the young women of hers.

The killer acted fast however he was not fast enough for Torc who was able to parry the soul hunters blade with his own rune axe. Alice was not so fast and the hunters blade buried itself deep within her abdomen. Rhot hesitated as he noted two things one he felt no soul energy drain from the women and secondly he noticed the girl was smiling.
“Hi I am Alice 13 and I am Goraxe Meridians scribe, I do not feel pain and I do not bleed as you are noticing I am also non magical in nature although I do appreciate magic despite its lack of logic. Also because I have no soul and am largely a product of technology your entropic attack also appears to have no effect on me, however I have scanned your anatomy and pin pointed its weak spots please accept my blades as a way of ending your existence.” With that the women drove both her short swords into the sides of the Soul Hunter, cleaving the being completely in two. The Soul Hunter lost its life with a look of complete shock and surprise on its face.

Sir Rake noted the lumbering hulk come bounding towards him, normally Sir Rake was not a man given to fighting, and in fact he usually did his best to avoid it. He was a fully trained Knight and had been sword fighting and fencing since he was a child however he found that fighting often ended up ruining his clothes and getting perfectly good shirts stained with blood.
Bokk spoke “ You die fancy man, I am going to crush you.”

“Oh you are, are you and what makes you think a badly dressed ruffian like yourself think he can slay a well-dressed gentleman like myself?
With that Bokk raised his two big hands and hurled himself forward. Sir Rake took a pouch from his belt and emptied the contents out onto the floor in front of the goliath. Suddenly the half giant lost his footing as he encountered the marbles Sir Rake had poured upon the floor.

The Giant-kin landed upon the floor with a thud and Sir Rake took out a second pouch casually empting it over the giant. All of a sudden the itching powder took effect and the half ogre began itching and scratching wherever the dust landed.
Next Sir Rake drew a small wand and aimed it at the fallen halfbreed “Sleepius Znoozus” and with that the giant yawned and fell fast asleep. He then joined Alice and Torc who were both heading to join their King.
 
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 The two servants of evil appeared suddenly in front of High King Goraxe Meridian. He was sitting on a stool before his now extinguished fire.

“Greetings gentlemen are you two the best that Bogmire and the others could send to try and kill me?” A smile crossed the high king’s face as he attempted not to laugh out loud.
The Dark Templar turned to his companion a sneer on his face. “You go slay that ridicules mage and I will slay this peacock.”

“I like to think of myself more like a Merlin Hawk, I once knew a dwarf who was linked to the vicious northern red penguin, but no I am most certainly not a peacock how about you, oh let me guess a scary raven or perhaps a two headed vulture or no wait for it a fearsome black dragon.” Goraxe was now laughing out loud.
The Templar had had enough he was not going to allow this simpering Mhainite to humiliate him in a battle of words when fate had decreed he was the one destined to end this miserable worms existence.

Drawing his sword and invoking its void powers. This would be over in seconds the sad little has been was not even trying to dodge he just sat their laughing. The Warrior swung his sword the blow designed to take the former High Kings head clean off. As it connected with the Mhainites head the kings wobbled and the blade passed through him as he continued to laugh. The Templar was confused until he heard the word “Illusion” whispered into his left ear, about the same time as a blade bypassed his armour and pierced his heart. The last words this would be champion of darkness would  hear before he ceased to exist was “Infernous Ingnatious”. The entire form of the darkling lord glowed red then white and then was no more.
“We should get out more I have missed drinking the souls of others” said Goraxe’s sword to its master.

“I know I know well maybe we will have more time to have fun now I have been deposed and my Kingdom left in tatters.”
“Now that would be nice” exclaimed the sword sounding genuinely happy.

Looking down at his sword as he picked up his box of illusions he continued speaking “In any case the Queen can look after the kingdom for a while, see how much the citizens like that.” Both the sword and mhainite started to laugh afresh.
“What are you laughing at your Majesty” said the aloof voice of Sir Rake Croworthy.

“Just call me Goraxe or if it makes you feel better Baron from now on Rake, did Mordred have time to move my funds and hide the treasury before he left?”
“Yes” Answered Alice. “I helped him myself all is safe and secure?”

The Mhainite looked at his companions “Well lets go see if Sublime has worked his magic.”
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Sublime was in full flow now, his runic staff orbiting him lending him power, his words of conjuring sounding more like song than spell formula. The arch mage was in the middle of conjuring a gate to take him and his companions from far from here. He had to be careful though for the enemy had put up a suppression field around the palace in order to stop Goraxe from using magic to escape. Oh Bogmire thought Sublime you may well be powerful but as always you should have studied more. Sublime has heard of Bogmire he had been a student of one of sublimes former pupils, he appreciated the fact that the demonologist was a mighty magic-user in his own right but he also knew Bogmires many flaws and so he was finding it all rather too easy to get beyond the young mages spell of containment. He chuckled to himself whilst simultaneously continuing to spell cast.
Vhandevil approached the spell casting chamber he could hear the so called arch mage spell casting, hmm a type of gate spell interwoven by some kind of weakening magic to help bypass Bogmires magic. But how, no one can stand up to Bogmires magic much less cast them aside. If Vhandevil could slay this mage and take his spell books what power would he wield?

Calling a slaying spell to mind Vhandevil began to chant “By my power and the power of the dark, by my power and the power of Kurst, by my power and the power of the void – ANHILATE!” With that pure energy of the void and the dark was unleashed designed to destroy matter and extinguish life the so called arch mage was as good as dead.
The Arch mage however knew exactly what was going on around him. Sublime has been born to magic it flowed through him and was part of him. He could see ley lines and could feel the winds of magic on his skin, he could even taste the different types of magic on his tongue.

He was aware of the lessor mage as soon as he had arrived on the lower halls, what amazed him was the fact that the mage thought he could actually defeat him. Sublime allowed part of his mind to separate itself from the rest of his mind. It called into being a golden sphere around the mage and the spell he was casting, as the death magic struck it, it was absorbed and dispersed.
Vhandevil was in shock what had happened, how had the conjurer resisted his most deadly spell, carried on casting his two spells and if he was not mistaken started to laugh at Vhandevil himself. Never mind this second attack would be more successful.

He began to cast “By my power and the power of the dark, by my power and the power of Kurst, by my power and ….

The dark mage never finished his spell as a voice spoke inside his mind. “You have made a mistake young mage and now I am afraid you will pay for your stupidity”. Vhandevil was very much afraid, he had always considered himself strong willed but this mind which spoke to him k=now had bypassed his defences with ease.

Then it happened a bolt of pure amber energy struck the night wizard. At first nothing happened but then the mage tried to scream as he realised he was shrinking, no not just shrinking transforming he was becoming a frog. Soon he was covered in his own former clothing.
Just then Goraxe and his friends arrived, a frog emerged from beneath a pile of clothes. Goraxe looked at Subline and spoke “ A little stereotypical wasn’t it?”

The Mage did not speak instead he pointed to the Vortex he had opened.

Picking up their packs which they had left here earlier the companions walked through the gateway Sublime had opened up. Newt went first to secure the other side followed by Sir Rake and Alice, next came Goraxe who took one last look around before heading on through. Lastly Sublime walked through the portal closing behind him.
A little while later the whole Kings Tower exploded and it would be told amongst those who survived that the High King had fallen.

The End for Now

Book Review: The Ruins of Stone Hill


Book Review: The Ruins on Stone Hill (Heroes of Ravenford Book 1)


The Ruins of Stone Hill is the first of the Heroes of Ravenford series written by independent author F.P. Spirit. I first came across this book and author on Twitter, two other authors who I have a great deal of respect for Theresa Snyder and Carol Marrs Phipps linked his work on their twitter feeds.
Again I turned to my old friend Amazon to see if I could find said book, unfortunately the book was only available on Kindle this did however prompt me to download the Kindle app on both my phone and my lap top.
What really stood out was that book 1 is free. After reading the first book I quickly discovered why this is. The book is so good that once I had read it I would be more than prepared to pay for the sequels.
I have been a player of Fantasy Role-play games since 1984 and have been a Live Action Role-Player since 1994. So when I discovered that The Ruins of Stone Hill was a tale about an adventuring party and detailed their meeting and early adventures.
The first book spends a great deal of time establishing the setting and the main four characters, Glolindir a young (120 year old) elven wizard who has left his hidden homeland to learn more about the races beyond his safe home. Next we have Aksel a gnome cleric who is the last of his family, the other all having gone missing whilst searching for an as yet unspecified artefact, whilst young by gnome standards he is a natural born leader and fathers the others, he is a skilled healer and tactician. Next we have Seth who is certainly not a thief or an assassin he is in fact a Ninja and a really cool one at that. He challenges the Halfling stereotype at every turn. Lastly we have Lloyd a spirit blade, a type of knight which can utilise semi magical effects based on his balance between his physical, mental and spiritual selves.
Illustration by Jackson Tjota
To be honest I loved them all, every last one of them. As the story goes on additional characters are added and eventually in latter books some very strong female characters are added to balance out the strong male cast.
Whilst the book follows common themes for example adventurers come together each one has a quirk or skill that sets them apart. They learn to trust each other they go on mission are successful and get hired for further adventures based on said fame and success.
What makes this story different and thus well worth the read is that as characters are added and the group dynamic changes the relationships between the heroes becomes more complex and helps to define the characters and flesh them out.
No two characters are exactly the same and each one has its own secrets and fears which make them easier to identify with. The core part of the story which makes this story so good is the inherent goodness of the characters involved and how they learn to put aside their suspicions of each other and learn to work as a team and go from one success to another. The majority of the characters are also non-human which allows the story to deal with issues such as racism.
The author also manages to bring in issues of classism, gender and political leadership without been to heavy and maintaining a sense of humour throughout.  I was so impressed with this book that I could not wait to read the next one.
As a side not something that really made it for me was the maps and the quotes from famous characters from the world. This is a great world created by a skilled author and I highly recommend this book to absolutely everyone. Well done.
You can learn more about the author and his world at: http://fpspirit.com/

Book Review: James & the Dragon


James & The Dragon Book Review


James & the Dragon is volume 1 of the Farloft Chronicles which centre on the adventures of a very old Dragon named Farloft. The Farloft Chronicles are the creation of the most excellent writer Theresa Snyder.
I first came across the book on Twitter when I was researching all things Draconic, once I had the money I decided to check it out on Amazon.co.uk. I was delighted to discover that it can be bought both on Kindle and as a physical copy.
After reading both the blurb and about the author on the Amazon website I was intrigued enough to purchase both Volume 1 and 2 of the Farloft Chronicles on Amazon Prime. I was pleased with the price and the fact I could have physical copies within a day of ordering.
I was quite excited about the books and once I received them I was not disappointed. The book is 112 pages with 104 pages of story. It very quickly introduces the reader to the main characters Farloft the Dragon, James an orphan peasant boy and the Wizard Laval.
It would be very easy at this point to give the plot away however it is enough to say that although the story involves dragons, wizards, spells, potions and curses all of which make it clear to the reader that the story they are reading is set in a world of fantasy the author also has a knack of describing the world around the characters in a way which leads the reader to imagine the story could be taking place in just about any medieval European nation.
The land itself is a typical medieval kingdom ruled over by a King and filled with hard working peasants who live of the land. They are suffering under the effects of plague and famine and it becomes clear as the book goes on that the Kingdom has seen better times. As you read on you really begin to feel for the characters even those who only exist in the background.
As the story also has enough twists and turns that just as you think you have guest what is going to happen next something else happens to take you of in a different direction.  I must confess I could not put the book down and really wanted to learn more about each of the characters and discover what had made them the way they were as if they were real people.
Overall this is a well written book which will appeal to both adults and children alike. It lacks blood and gore but does not shy away from dealing with issues such as the death of loved ones and the loneliness of been on your own. However it deals with these issues in a mature way which not only adds to the story but also helps people reading the story to see how such issues can be overcome and dealt with in real life.
As I read the book it became obvious that I was hooked I wanted to know more and when I reached the last page I was greatful that I had already bought the second book. I would recommend the Farloft Chronicles to anyone who loves Fantasy books or enjoys reading about Folklore and Fairy tales
I would also suggest that anyone who has a love of Dragons will find these books a welcome addition to their collections. If you are interested in learning more please go and visit the authors website at Website: http://www.TheresaSnyderAuthor.com you will be pleased with what you find there.