In this episode, Iskandar runs into some trouble for his extracurricular investigations, Kurt and Ellie prepare for a road trip, and Ernest walks into a trap. Thanks for being patient while I worked on getting this episode out! If you’re a subscriber, you can download the annotated PDF on Patreon, and if you’re still making up your mind, you can check out the free preview below the cut. Next month will be the conclusion of the murder mystery portion (Chapter One of the module), and we’ll get going on the cosmic horror.
Continue reading “New Patreon Post/ The Well Below the Valley, Episode 10”Journey to the Water Chapter XXX: The Sea of Dust
The desert was called Shunkare in the tongue of the merchants—one I did not yet know, and was unlikely to learn, traveling alone except for my horse—and it was made of dust, fine as silk and permeable as water. Save for the few days of the year when the rains came, the air burned to breathe and carried dust into the lungs, slaying the unwise and unmasked slowly and painfully while it painted the sky in streaks of violet with each rising and setting of the sun. As I set out from the oasis, I could see for miles: endless drifts of fine sand, carved by flooding and dried in place, like a frozen white sea.
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XXX: The Sea of Dust”New Patreon Post/ The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Four
He’s got nothing against the gods. He fought in one of their names for years. But they take their own sweet time to get around to helping their faithful, and he’d much rather rely on tangible things that work on schedule. Such as a firearm.
The Book of the New Moon Door
The latest chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door, featuring a desperate fight against a horde of zombies, is now available on Patreon.
Song of the Week
Vivir Quintana and Mare Advertencia, “Árboles Bajo El Mar” (from Wakanda Forever)
Good morning! I’m currently playing fetch with my cat while waiting for a huge rainstorm to pass so I can do laundry (too much water overwhelms the city sewer system). I hope you are safe and warm today.
The February edition of the newsletter is going out tomorrow! You can sign up at this link (which is also at the bottom of the blog’s home page). Be sure to check your inbox for a confirmation link after that. The mailer service wants to check if you’re very sure you want to receive the newsletter.
Also tomorrow, the next chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door will be up on Patreon, and Journey to the Water will post here on Wednesday!
The next episode of The Well Below the Valley is probably going to be late (I try to get them out on the first of each month), but I should have it up by the end of the week.
I think that’s all for today. Thanks for being here, and have an excellent week!
The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Three
Walking Dead
“You should have predicted this, Sentinel,” Geray muses. He hovers two feet above the floor, as though to emphasize his relative safety and removal from the horde of undead at the door. “Hundreds of thousands of wandering spirits with nowhere to go, and the god of the dead absent. If they were a living mob, they’d have torches and pitchforks. I dare say you’d fare better were that the case.”
Isabel doesn’t have the will to stop herself from putting her hands over her ears. The pressure makes a dull roar that drowns out Geray and the wet, solid blows the walking dead are doing to the whitewashed wooden door. The lock is good iron, and the door itself a single, heavy oak panel, but it won’t hold forever.
Continue reading “The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Three”New Patreon Post/ Journey to the Water Chapter XXX
As I pressed on, the voice grew louder, and its cries formed a few words I recognized: desert and full moon, sandstorm and devourer—the last a term that Kelebek had used to describe the tempest we had encountered in the southern ocean.
Chapter XXX: The Sea of Dust
Good morning! Eske is off on another adventure, and you can read about it right now on Patreon, or wait until next week when it moves over here.
Song of the Week
Jimi Hendrix, “May This Be Love”
Good morning!
Several states have elections tomorrow! Here’s a handy list from Ballotpedia. In Wisconsin, it’s the spring primary. Since I’ll be working at a polling place all day tomorrow, I’m bumping my chapter releases forward a day: Journey to the Water will post on Patreon on Wednesday, and The Book of the New Moon Door will post here on Thursday. Be sure to vote!
There has been an outbreak of homophobia in the online book world, so I’ll take this opportunity to inoculate this space: I’m bisexual, many of the people I love are also LGBTQ+, and I have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry of any kind. I used to argue with people online, now I just unfollow and block. If your interpretation of religion is more important to you than treating your fellow humans with respect, then maybe that’s something you should work on in your own space.
As always, thanks for being here, and have an excellent week.
Journey to the Water Chapter XXIX: Caravanserai
West, then—as the river turned away toward the sea, and the distant peak of Mount Abora faded into memory, I pursued the setting sun through monsoon-flooded lowlands. Somewhere far to the north lay Phyreios, sleeping quietly under the watchful eye of its god, the mines empty and quiet; farther still stood the land of my birth, winter spreading over it like a cloak.
Continue reading “Journey to the Water Chapter XXIX: Caravanserai”New Patreon Post/ The Book of the New Moon Door: Part Two, Chapter Twenty-Three
The battering on the doors has grown more insistent, an arrhythmic roll of a huge, flat drum. A trickle of old blood, embalming fluid, and gods know what else creeps underneath the nearer side. Isabel can smell them, the unmistakable miasma of rot, sickness, and cold, damp earth.
The Book of the New Moon Door
Berend and Isabel’s day continues to get worse. You can have a little zombie apocalypse, as a treat, by reading this chapter on Patreon.
Song of the Week
Josefine Cronholm, “Close to You” (Carpenters cover; from MirrorMask)
Happy Monday! The sun is shining and the snow has melted, but it’s only a false spring. I once had a professor who had transferred from UC-Berkeley, and on the singular fifty-degree (10 degrees Celsius) day in February, he was delighted to announce that winter was over. All the native Wisconsinites had to inform him that he was about to be disappointed. Then, as now, the cold will be back with a vengeance and linger like the smell of a spoiled potato in the refrigerator.
Anyway! I’ll have a new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door on Patreon tomorrow, and the latest chapter of Journey to the Water here on Wednesday. If you haven’t caught up on either of those stories yet, all the previous chapters are available under the Stories tab above (inside the Menu if you’re on mobile).
As always, thanks for being here, and have an excellent week.
Space Whales Press 