Archive for "Archive"
And Two Steps Back
"The recruits look good this batch," Kalen Darklen mumbled to the man next to him. The other officer looked from the new additions to the watch and to his superior. "Straight." He hesitated a moment but then continued, "Captain, you know that you don't have to be here any longer. You've given your speech and the rest is mostly for the families of the recruits. I don't mean to question the way you do things but, don't you have a few ...
Five Days in Winter Part 2
The early morning sun shining through a cloudless sky fell upon a hillside overlooking Leavenfell Keep. Fresh snow covered the hillside and a cold wind blew from the east carrying ice crystals from the bay where the keep was located. A murder of crows perched in barren oak trees huddled together for warmth. A flash of blue-violet light, brighter than the sunlight for just an instant, flared on the hillside. The crows took flight, voicing their disapproval at ...
Dargonzine 25-4 Editorial
A funny thing happened to me on the way to the Editorial ... If you read the Editorial last issue, you'd know that the Dargon Project was contacted by the Ethan Ellenberg agency, and that we (or at least, I) were very proud to have been contacted by them. I still am. Now, another interesting thing has happened in the two months since then: a writer named Guy Kawasaki has published a book called APE, and I was one of ...
Dargonzine 25-3 Editorial
Most issues, I have a bit of a struggle trying to figure out what to talk about during the Editorial. I look for a common theme in the stories being presented, or try to tie in a current event that somehow, nebulously is reflected within the current issue. However, this issue provides me with a deluge of information which unfortunately means it will be shorter than I would like it to be, while being a bit bereft of the substance ...
Ol Tamboch Narhin, Thread 3: Schooling
All magic is the same and springs from one of only two sources: the natural world or the divine. Yes, yes, I'm sure you've been told different. Believe me, and I'm in a position to know, what you've been told is wrong. It is true that every single magic worker, from the conjurer with more than nimble fingers helping her trick the gullible to the most puissant magus with his world-shaping spells, uses magic differently. Everyone approaches magic differently, ...
Five Days in Winter – Part 1
Early one Mertz morning Tobey ran along a path following a frozen stream, leaping over fallen trees and snow covered gnarled roots with grace and ease. The tops of massive pine trees reached high into the sky while their lower branches, covered with snow, scraped the ground. White oaks, their limbs barren of leaves, slept while waiting for the warm spring sun to wake them. Unlike winter, childhood passes quickly. Tobey's thirteenth naming day would be soon and ...
Ol Tamboch Narhin, Thread 2: Another Genesis
Complex stories never have just one beginning. Like a tapestry, threads of actions weave in and out of the background of circumstances, bringing patterns of results to the surface of the finished product. So it is with Ol Tamboch Narhin. No, my friend, I have no intention of trying to detail every beginning that goes into this tapestry. Neither of us have as long as that would take. But you need to know the important inceptive elements. Once ...
Love As Bitter As Honey
The air in the Rogue and Quiver was warm and fragrant. Oil lanterns threw a flickering orange light across the walls, and the red coals in the hearth added their own hue. The men inside wore carefree faces as the bard sang his song, a bawdy and unflattering rendition of 'Untar’s Demise'. The old man behind the bar was tending to a couple that had just arrived. It was a typical workaday evening in the port city of Dargon, winding ...
Justin Time
Bren kel Tomas was a well-known swordsman. Young and energetic, he had cunning as well as speed. He could be great on a battlefield. Somehow, he had seen little action against the Beinison in the previous war, perhaps because he was not Baranurian by birth. But his pedigree had lent him status, his sword arm had given him a reputation, and he was now Duke Dargon's personal weapons trainer. He was also standing opposite me, ...
Dargonzine 25-2 Editorial
Welcome back, readers! Issue 25-2 is here, just in time for us to head off to our annual Summit. This year, we're heading to the lovely Marblehead, OH, near the shore of Lake Erie. As tradition holds, we'll be gathering to both work out the administrative issues facing the Project, as well as work on our collaborative writing, developing stories for our annual Summit Challenge (which has become something of a tradition), and generally goofing off and ...