Category: Stories
Creative Writing Items
Index
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Markus, Hammer of the Earth
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Young Master Monkedil
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30 Miracles
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29 Bellboy or Butler?
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28 An Old Dog, A New Trick
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27 My Foot and the Gun
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26 Making a Scene
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25 Mending Fences
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24 Introspective Musings
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23 I’ve Got a Secret
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22 Willing Distraction
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21 Finding a Bed
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20 Getting Class
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19 Keeping a Secret
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18 Power Looting
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17 Shaken, not Stirred
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16 The Graveyard
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Things about dwarves I didn’t want to know, but Grunge told me anyway.
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15 The Good With The Bad
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14 The First Step
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13 Too Much of a Good Thing
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11 A Hamburger Today
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12 Perspective
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10 The Meeting, Part 2
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09 The Meeting Part 1
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Markus, Hammer of the Earth
[Shouting] Stop beating on my door! I already told you bastards… [Jerking the door open] Oh, sorry, your eminence, I thought you were those crusaders; here to pester me about their gear again. Come in, Come in. You look like you need a drink. Shit, I need one, and you haven’t even told me why
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Young Master Monkedil
The midwife gave me to the temple when I was only a few hours old, telling the monk that my parents refused to raise a cursed child. They didn’t know how right they were. There was something very different about me, even if I wasn’t cursed, and as I grew, it started to show. The
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30 Miracles
“Thanks, Lurch!” I separated from him to approach Evelyn at the reception desk. “I think it will do nicely, and you said one gold a year?” Evelyn nodded, “That’s correct, Sir.” I placed fifteen gold on the counter. “I’m committed; five gold deposit. What else needs to be done?” Ignoring my funds, she pulls a
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29 Bellboy or Butler?
It only took two times going through the song before I had it memorized, and while Greyson was teaching it to me, almost the entire wagon sang along. Our accompaniment kept their hands wide open or clasping something so they didn’t invoke the cantrip. I played along, knowing that I needed to help keep Nirvana’s
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28 An Old Dog, A New Trick
I’m walking back to the road where the bus carts are, and I realize I don’t need to. I could teleport back to the guild. Then I want to smack myself in the forehead at that stupidity. Then I smack myself in the forehead, saying, “I could have had a V8!” A cold can of
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27 My Foot and the Gun
Leaving William’s shop an hour later with my order placed, it was time to check on a couple of leads for training. Two of them were in the same general direction, so I started that way, looking for a decent-sized street to follow along. As I came upon an intersection, I saw something that made
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26 Making a Scene
Laughing, “That was awesome! I don’t know what you are going to do to attract attention Auntie; I am going to ride my light cycle over to the Explorer’s Association and then vanish! That should get tounges wagging and provide enough of a distraction for me to get my base settled and finish my other
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25 Mending Fences
Nobody is in the parlor when I come out this morning, so I head downstairs to the dining room. Auntie Emma is placing a platter of pancakes on the table. There are already some scrambled eggs and bacon out, and the explorers are chatting and eating. “Good morning, everyone.” Pleasantries are exchanged, with Auntie Emma
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24 Introspective Musings
Following the explorers upstairs, I find myself drifting into introspection mode… I can create enough wealth to buy anything I want. With that, I have everything I need to survive in the city and to live extravagantly if I want to. I could set myself up as a local power, but that would tie me
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23 I’ve Got a Secret
I look at the explorers and say, “You can keep eating. Nirvana is unlikely to join us for a while. If my guess is right, she’s going to wait until I prove something I’ve started to suspect unless I stumble into something else. Bring out both handbooks, and I’ll show you where to spend some
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22 Willing Distraction
The explorers looked at each other, smiled, and shouted, “Itadakimasu!” I laughed! “How awesome is it that particular Japanese custom has apparently become mainstream!” Auntie Emma replied, “It never carried a heavy religious connection and thus stuck when many western phrases dropped out of favor. The third drawer from the left, Jeb, has the serving
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21 Finding a Bed
“Ok, I promise not to do anything else I think will attract Nirvana’s attention today – let’s get to the obelisk, update, and find lodging.” Grumpy nods, “Let’s go. I’ll take us to a place where we may be able to get a suite of rooms with a common area.” He stops when he notices
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20 Getting Class
Just as we are coming up on the exit to the graveyard, a couple of adventurers decked out in clothes and equipment that screams, ‘THUG!’, step out from behind the pillars that the gate is attached to. “Well, well, it’s some of the big shots in the Explorer’s Association. What do you think, Billy? Do
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19 Keeping a Secret
“Let’s get out of here; adventurers are starting to gather for the nightly raids,” said Grumpy while pointing out some people coming down the main path from the gate. They were quite a ways out. “I agree. In fact, why don’t we head to the road? I’ll offer them my shovel, letting them know we
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18 Power Looting
When I look around, I see Grumpy looking at me. He shakes his head, “I don’t want to know.” Laughing at him, “Oh yes, yes you do, but it can wait. Have you picked from the vault?” “No,” he replies. “That’s fine. Take your time. I want to spend an hour here, then have a
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17 Shaken, not Stirred
After Gilden and Grumpy remove the locks and lift the gravestone out of the recess, Mason and I look in it. “This one is different – there is a palm reader here.” Kneeling, I place my palm on the reader, and a mechanical voice sounds out. “Your party is the first to access the James
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16 The Graveyard
After we pass through the foot gate, Grumpy takes us to the left, where there’s a path along the foot of the wall that we follow. The walls and crenellations are high enough that we can’t see the guards stationed there. The forest has also been pushed back, leaving an open field of about five
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Things about dwarves I didn’t want to know, but Grunge told me anyway.
You want to know about dwarves? You are an idiot. Nobody really wants to know the truth. They’re all sorry afterward. Fine, stop pestering me. This is going to make you glad you’re a halfling. The ‘gonads’ of a male dwarf detach from him when he reaches sexual maturity. They are referred to as (Dwarven)
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15 The Good With The Bad
We’ve just come up on a large square, offset so that the road that passes through the gate is on the left side of the courtyard as you face the gate from inside Horn Point. This arrangement is so that the traffic coming into the city can be shunted off for inspection while traffic leaving
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14 The First Step
“Follow me,” shouted Grumpy! And he ran into an alleyway. We’re on a minor street with crafter shops after a few twists and a squeeze between some crates. Many of the doorways have people standing nearby, smiling and catching skittles as they fall out of the air. Gilden says, “Put your cloaks on while we
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13 Too Much of a Good Thing
Gilden said, “Let’s stop by the COM market and help Jeb get a ‘standard pack’ built on the way to the graveyard. I know he’ll need more than he got from the Bobs.” “Shopping is more along my strengths! Is there anything you want to pick up besides basics?” asked Mason. I replied, “I want
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11 A Hamburger Today
I woke early, the best night’s sleep I think I have ever had. Becoming a digital human has a lot going for it. I wonder how well Moore’s Law held up after I died? It seems like you can have the best of both worlds by living physically and going digital near the end. There
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12 Perspective
Grumpy64 stares at me while I finish laughing. Finally, he says, “Who or what is ‘Red Robin’?” “Based on that small confirmation, they are a defunct restaurant chain specializing in Hamburgers and ‘bottomless fries. ‘Bottomless fries’ are an ‘all-you-can-eat’ option.” “It doesn’t surprise me that you know about something that doesn’t exist. But how did
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10 The Meeting, Part 2
“There’s nothing like a soak in a hot tub after an adventure,” Mason continued. “However, when you are out in the field and don’t want monsters tracking you like bloodhounds, you need to clean up and eliminate any excess scent. My cantrip starts with a damp cloth in one hand and then say, ‘Scrubbing Bubbles’
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09 The Meeting Part 1
Soon I saw Harry and three other men with baskets on long handles moving along the rows from the back forward. Everybody is putting a token or silver into the basket. I put mine in when it’s my turn. They empty the baskets into a small chest at the front of the room that is