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Updated my journal…

170 pages finished on Word.
2 epilogues finished.
Currently working on: Red Storm Rising path in the Klyton branch. (Male character)

Posting five different situations that the character can currently find himself in.

“Improving your station”

 Zalmora and Vaughn look at each other and then you.

"A TOWN?!" They exclaim.
"Well maybe not town in the traditional sense, but a place where we can do our business AND live without even worrying about the Klyton militia raiding the place because we would be so damn entrenched that they wouldn't be able to do shit even if they wanted to. We wouldn't just be the criminal organization that skulks around in the Klyton sewers, we would be a whole separate community...bah maybe I'm not explaining it well, but I envision it in my head!" You say.
"No. No, I get what you mean. I have to say, this is really damn ambitious. I mean I can't say I'm not impressed by your plan...but again I just have my concerns if it's going to be possible...but fuck it, I'm in." Zal says.
"Glad to hear it. So, we're going to need miners and equipment which is the easy part, but we're also going to need a genuine engineer so the whole damn thing doesn't fall on our heads. So anyone know of any?" You remark.
"Yeah, Red Nose Rob." Vaughn remarks.
"Who's that?" You ask.
"One of the bums that participates in the fights."
"There's a bum who used to be an engineer? What the hell happened?"
"He was actually a miner, but he had a natural gift when it came to engineering. Which was good for the company since they just used his talents for creating very sound mine supports and they didn't have to pay for a real one. He probably could have been building new structures in Klyton, but he just didn't have the formal education."
"Interesting. But how do you know so much about him?" You ask.
"He has his lucid moments. Plus, um...we used to...meet up..."
"Ew Vaughn. You fucked a disgusting bum?" Zalmora remarks.
"No! I fucked him when he was strapping miner! Sheesh Zal!"
"Never mind all that, would he be able to do the job?" You ask
"I think so. Probably wouldn't have to pay him much more than we do to fight, but  we'd definitely have to dry him out a bit though." Vaughn says.

You start making notes of various ideas as you ask more questions.

"Okay, so we got one potential overseer for this project. You got any more engineer ex-lovers?" You ask.
"Not that I know of boss." Vaughn remarks.
"I think I got a potential suggestion." Zal says.
"Oh? You been fucking engineers too?" You ask.
"Even better. Been fucking dwarves. Grahk Kazek is the one that comes to mind."
"Well that's nice that you're so open minded with your choice of sex partners, but is this dwarf an actual engineer? Contrary to popular belief, I don't think all of them dig big holes in mountains for a living."
"This one does. Or at least he did before he retired. He makes a monthly trip from the Cloudpeake Mountains to Klyton because he REALLY likes the pastries from Stovo's Bakery. Buys up a bunch then goes back home. That's where we met actually."
"Didn't know you had ongoing long distance relationship, Zal." You say.
"Lots you don't know about me, but I wouldn't exactly say Grahk and I are in a relationship, we just had a bit of fun together. In fact I haven't seen him in years. I just know he still goes to that bakery since Stovo has mentioned him a few times when I go in there."
"So would he be interested?"
"He's a dwarf and used to construct tunnel ways in the Cloudpeake Mountains. Fairly certain if we throw enough money at him, he'll be willing to oversee the construction of what we're doing. Besides, I can be pretty persuasive."
"Hmm, don't I know it." You say.

The dwarf sounds good, but he sounds like he's going to be really expensive. At lot more than the bum anyway. Of course the bum might be unreliable. You say you'll think about both as you go ask other Talons if they know anybody.

You don't have much luck though. Your other Talons aren't quite as "worldly" as your top lieutenants. There is one who has a lead though.

"Yeah, I think I might know someone boss. This chick called Madeline. She actually attends Klyton University and she's an engineering student." Camid remarks.
"A student?" You ask.
"Yeah, but she's really fucking smart. Top of her class or some shit. I don't even understand what she's talking about half the time. Of course I'm just staring at her tits most of the time anyway.”
"How the hell do you even know her?"
"Oh, she's a little rich girl that likes slumming. Likes to watch the bum fights and get high on Yellow Devil. The usual. Oh and we fuck sometimes."

Of course they do. It would certainly be a strange break in the "theme" if they didn't. The drug bit concerns you though.

"Wait, you say she takes Yellow Devil? How the hell is she not a near drooling idiot yet? I don't need someone melting into a pile of goo in the middle of an important project." You say.
"Don't worry boss. That wouldn't happen." Camid says.
"And how do you know?"
"Because...um...I make sure she doesn't actually get Yellow Devil. I mean she does, but it's a VERY small amount. Almost nothing. The rest of it is cut severely with various common shit I get from the apothecary. She feels good for a little while and feels rebellious and she doesn't get really hurt."
"...You like this girl don't you?" You ask causing Camid to look away a bit.
"(Sigh) It didn't start out that way. First time I saw her, I thought she was so damn pretty that I just wanted a chance to fuck her before she turned into a Yellow Devil mess, so I didn't give her the real shit. But in time...well I dunno shit happened...and I'm probably an idiot..." Camid says trailing off a bit.
"Probably, but fortunately your love sick idiocy has worked in your favor, so do you think she'd help?"
"Oh definitely. She'd feel like she would be a real criminal working for a dangerous organization and all. She'd do it for free too, not like she needs the money."
"Actually she would be a real criminal if she was helping us in this capacity. Good to know about the price. I'll keep her in mind."

Well you got a big decision to make based on your underlings recommendations because unfortunately for you, you haven't been lucky enough to fuck someone with engineering skills.

“(Un)wanted company”

You wake up fairly early, but then you didn’t really sleep much to begin with. This was more of a brief rest anyway.

After a quick check to see if anyone is in the area, you get out of your bloody clothes and change into some new ones. You might not be properly clean, but it’s better than you were.

You then check your supplies, which aren’t much. You’ve got a few coins, but you aren’t excessively worried about that since food and water are more important out here in the wilderness. You’ve got a little food and water, but it isn’t going to last long. The only weapon you have currently is your dagger.

As you’re checking your supplies, you hear the sound of something approaching you. Dread grips your body, you hide behind the nearest tree and you draw your dagger.

You take a quick peek and see that it’s Annah stomping through the underbrush with the grace of a clumsy horse.

“Shit, fucking thorns. Ouch!” you hear her say and you come out of hiding.
“Annah!” you exclaim and walk over to her.
“There you are! Y’know, you could have warned me about leaving town, instead of making me trudge through the fucking woods looking for you!” Annah snaps.

Ornery as usual.

“Wha…how the hell did you even find me anyway?” you ask.
“Dunno, I figured you’d hide some place familiar. This is the area where we first did it so I took a chance.” Annah says.
“It is?”

Annah hits you.

“Yes! By the gods, I can’t believe you fucking forgot! In fact it was YOUR idea to go way the hell out here, I just wanted to do it over behind Derrick’s barn where I first gave you a blowjob.”
“Wait. We were behind Derrick’s barn during that?”

Annah hits you again

“Glad to see all of our intimacy together meant so much to you. Asshole. I dunno why I even came out here to find you! Sorry we can’t all be like your perfect sister. Bet you remember where you first fucked her!”

At this point you stop Annah from hitting you again and try to maintain some control over this situation.

“Alright! Alright! I get it, I’m an insensitive asshole, but you REALLY need to stop with these accusations of sister fucking especially when it isn’t even true! Shit, I’m not calling you a whore that sucked Klint’s dick!” you say.
“WHAT?! I did no such thing!” Annah exclaims.
“Well he claimed you did before he attacked me.”
“Pfft. He wished. Look, I get that the dumb asses in town thought I was a whore, but Klint was repulsive…besides he was always sniffing around your sister while she was still around. Never paid any attention to me.”
“Well I figured he was just talking shit anyway…(Sigh) anyway this is a mess. I’m glad to see you escaped town though.”
“Escaped? Nah, I just came out here to find you on my own. Don’t worry, I made sure nobody was following me.”
“Wait, you didn’t get in any trouble?”
“No. They all saw you kill Klint. I mean I did get asked questions, but I just said you and Klint got into a fight and you accidently killed him in the process. They didn’t seem convinced that you killed him by accident though, so yeah they’re still pissed at you.”

You’re almost speechless right now.

“Are…Are you fucking kidding me?! YOU were the one that stabbed him repeatedly in the back! I actually stopped YOU from killing Klint!” you exclaim.
“Yeah, and then you stabbed him in the throat and killed him. Why are you yelling at me?!” Annah remarks.

Now you can’t even speak. You just rub your hands over your face and pace rapidly. In a strange way, you not even that mad at Annah. Everyone pretty much hated you anyway and Annah’s actually just being herself.

And that’s so tragic that it causes you to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Annah asks.
“The absurdity of this horrible situation.” You answer.
“So what’s the plan?
“Good question. Can’t stay out here in the wilderness.”
“Ohhh! Let’s to Klyton!” Annah says excitedly.

“Dreadcage Prison”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Twenty years at Dreadcage. Next.” The judge remarks.

You are quickly taken away and soon marched back outside, but this time to a large enclosed wagon with several horses at the front. You’re shoved inside and shackled to a few other prisoners. All of them are sizing you up and you do your best not to show any fear as the wagon door is closed and you’re on your way to Dreadcage.

There is little light in the wagon, save for what’s coming through the very small windows at the very top of it. Still, you manage to examine a few of the other prisoners and fortune strikes again when you see one with a black claw tattoo sitting across from you.

“You Ebony Claw?” you ask the man.
“What the fuck’s it to you pretty boy?” he answers.
“Mr. Scars wants you to take me to see Ponyride when we get to Dreadcage.”

The man’s eyes widen a bit when you mention Mr. Scars, but nods.

“Very well.” He answers.

You don’t reach Dreadcage until nightfall, but when you finally reach it and exit the wagon, you can see that it definitely lives up to its name with the massive walls, towers and high fences.

You are then marched inside the prison where upon you and the rest are striped, hosed down, checked and given prison apparel. Your new “name” according to the prison is now 97P904.

After this experience, you are shown your new cell. You cellmate is surprisingly a Halfling! Though within the first five minutes of meeting him he’s quite firm about stating what is his and warns you that he’s not going to tolerate any shit from the likes of you.

You maintain a respectful attitude and listen to his lecture, until your Claw “liaison” comes to find you.

“Hey, Ponyride is ready to see you.” He says which causes a bit of confusion from your cellmate who probably didn’t expect you to have such connections. You get the impression his attitude towards you will be a lot different when you return.

You walk through the prison attempting to ignore the various threats and stares you’re getting. You remember that you have to show absolutely no weakness or fear.

Several ECS member congregate around Ponyride’s cell. Ponyride himself is a muscular average sized man with a shaved head. He has several tattoos that in some way signify his allegiance to his organization.

Ponyride gets off his bed and approaches you with the usual hard stare that you’re getting used to by everyone that has to prove how tough they are.

“So, I hear you know Mr. Scars and he told you to speak with me. If that’s true then you’ll have something important to tell me. If not…well you’re going to get the privilege of learning exactly why they call me Ponyride.”

This causes a few chuckles from Ponyride’s cohorts, but you maintain your composure and simply utter the phrase.

“The Duchess sure had a velvet throat.”

Ponyride smiles and nods.

“I came enough to fill a fucking moat. Hah! Glad to see Mr. Scars remembers the good times. Alright, I dunno how he knows you, but if he trusted you enough to give you that phrase, then it’s good enough for me. So I’m guessing you want protection right?”
“Mr. Scars said a year’s worth.”
“A fucking year huh? Mr. Scars overestimates this favor I owe him. Ah, all right, what the hell, things are pretty peaceful right now I guess I can spare some. The Ebony Claw will make sure you’re under our general protection, but remember, you ARE NOT one of us. That means if you severely fuck up or get in the way of our business, all bets are fucking off. Got me, pretty boy?”
“Understood.”
“Good, and remember when a year is up you’re on your fucking own. If you want anything from us after that, you gotta pay just like everyone else or join, but we can talk about that later if you so desire. Now leave me, I got important shit to do.”

You are dismissed and the Claw member who took you to see Ponyride escorts you away and then leaves you to your own devices.

Well you’ve bought yourself a little time, now you have to get started learning everything you can about this place and deciding on how to spend your time here.

Because you sure have a lot of it.

“Greenskin Guide”

He might be bullshitting you, but you’re not exactly familiar with this area, so you might as well not take chances. Still, you got a better idea on payment.

“Hey Warts, I don’t have the five gold coins, but I do have these.” You say and hold out Graham’s rings to Warts.

Warts approaches cautiously and then takes one of the rings from your hand. He inspects it and then speaks.

“Grm. Okay, sure these will do. Stupid hobgoblin tribe around here always likes pretty jewelry even if it fakesy.” He says and takes the other one from your hand.
“Fake?” you say in a completely surprised tone, though not completely put on since you didn’t think someone like Warts would know.
“Yeah, fake… youz really didn’t know?”
“No, I’m afraid I come from a small town and don’t have a good eye for that sort of thing. The merchant passing through was very convincing when he was selling them. I bought them for a girl I liked, but alas, I was unlucky in love too, so I just kept them.”
“Grm. Youz gotta have a better eye and pray to Yag more. Anywayz, come on let’s get goin, don’t wanna stand out here tooz long. Dis path is da one.”

You start following Warts who leads the way.

“So…there are hobgoblins in this area?” you ask.
“Oh yeah, the Spider Fang tribe, but there don’t really come around the way we’re goin’ so no need to worry about getting’ eaten. Can’t wait to get back to them though. With these rings, Snuffit will allow me at least ten ruts with ‘er. Way better than getting’ drunk…well sometimes better anyway.” Warts remarks.
“Are you a member of the Spider Fangs?”
“Me? Nah…too much humie blood. Can’t ever be part of tribe proper. Good thing mum good fighter and loves me, otherwise tribe probably would ‘ave eaten me when I was born.”
“Wait, your mom is a hobgoblin? Who was your father then?”
“Dunno, some humie bandit that attacked and tried to rut with her in the forest. Me mum said it was dark and he seemed pretty surprised when he realized she wasn’t another human. Mentioned he tasted like cheap beer after she was done wit him, so I guess he liked to drink.”

Since you have no words for that story, you just silently continue to follow.

Warts and you trudge along a dirt path for quite sometime until it disappears completely.

“Okay, from here, we go…dis way…no wait dis way…I think…” Warts says.
“You think? Don’t you know?” you reply.
“Yeah, yeah, I just haven’t used this way in a long time. Gotta pass a haunted cabin. Accidently passed out there once, ended up shitting my good pants, though not sure if that was just because of the ghost.”
“Haunted cabin? Why the hell are we going near it then?”
“Cause it’s the safest way. Even the bandit types don’t like goin’ near it and nobody from the Spider Fang tribe is brave enough either. Sides, it’s really only haunted sometimes.”
“Sometimes? But what if today is that day?”
“Well hope youz brought extra pants den. Really though, it’s a lot safer. Da ghost really only messes with people that go in that cabin. I mean if you wanna risk it, we could go another way I know, but there’s been a lotta bandits travelling back an through that area. Normally, I’d just go that way since I know all da best hidin’ places and even if they did see me, I’d disappear again before they could even mount an attack. However you’re probably not as stealthy as me, so you’d probably get yerself seen and gutted. Might even rut wit youz first, some of these bandits aren’t picky.”
“I’m actually no stranger to being stealthy myself when I have to be.”
“Truly? Grm. Well it’s up to you.”
“I’d rather take my chances sneaking pass some bandits than possibly dealing with something I can’t even hurt.”
“Okay, hope yer as sneaky as you claim, cuz all bets are off if the bandits catch sight of ya. Dis way.”

Once again Warts leads the way and you follow.

You trudge through the forest for quite sometime and eventually it gets dark, but you still haven’t seen any signs of bandits or anyone else really. Warts doesn’t seem to be concerned, but you’re constantly alert, thinking behind every tree lies an ambush.

“Gettin’ pitch black, gonna have to stop soon.” Warts says.
“What? We’re not walking through the night? In fact won’t it be easier to slip by any potential hostiles in the dark?” you ask.
“You want to continue, be my guest, but I’m gonna get some sleep. I’m tired. Sides, looks like we got lucky. Guess the bandit crew that was wandering around this area moved on. Praise Yag.”
“As you say.” You reply, still looking around.

While you’re half tempted to go on without Warts, you’re still holding on to the slight hope that he actually knows where he’s going, so you start looking for a tree to climb and sleep in.

“Hey, what youz doin? You think youz a squirrel or somethin’?” Warts asks.
“I’m not sleeping down here on the ground. What if something wanders by before I can properly react? I’ll be in a tree so I can at least be somewhat out of immediate sight.”
“Youz gonna fall out and break yo’ neck too. All youz gotta do is cover yerself in dirt and leaves and shit. Hides youz just fine.” Warts says and begins doing just that.
“Yeah well when you’re already green and smell like the outdoors, I suppose it’s a lot easier to camouflage yourself with little effort. I’ll take my chances in a high tree.”

Warts shakes his head unconvinced and continues to cover himself. You have to admit, if you didn’t know he was there, you probably wouldn’t notice him if you were just wandering by.

As for you, you climb to a sturdy and large enough branch that will support your weight and you can at least somewhat perch yourself on. You already know you aren’t going to sleep deep tonight, but you figure that’s sort of been the standard problem while out here.

“I’ll be so damn glad to be out of the damn wilderness.” You say to yourself.

“OH NOES MERMAIDS”

You run over to the rowboat, get in and deploy it. It drops a lot faster than you intended and you land hard, but there is no damage and all you get is a little wet from the splash back.

As you row away from the burning, sinking, and sometimes still exploding ship, you can still hear the mermaid song and it feels like it's getting through now. You can't think of anything else to do, so you start shouting nonsense at the top of your lungs.

"CABBAGES, PANTIES, IT'S NOT GOT A NOSE, AND I'LL SMASH YOUR FACE!"

This seems to work somewhat, but you start to run into trouble when you see a green hand grab the side of the boat.

And then several more on both sides. You really begin to panic when you start to have a hard time moving the oars. The mermaids are determined to stop you.

You close your eyes and draw your sword, shouting and hacking wildly.

"Get away! Get away! Back!" You shout, but you're not really having an effect. The mermaids are easily avoiding your blind attacks and with all your wild swings you don't have the best balance.

Doesn't take long before a few of the mermaids closest to your side of the boat grab you and pull. This action combined with the mermaids on the other side pushing the boat, you fall overboard into the water.

Despite now losing your sword and being in the water, you still refuse to give up, you continue to keep your eyes closed and struggle against the mermaids pulling you down. It is at this point you begin to hear their laughing in your head.

Somehow you actually manage to get your head above water and you open your eyes just long enough to see the faintest sign of land in the distance.

The scent of brine and fish fill your nose as you feel a mermaid latch on to your back as you try to swim away. You can do nothing as you feel scaly fingers start to dig out the wax you stuffed in your ears. This is followed by a lick and a nibble on those same ears.

Your arms are feeling like anchors, but you continue to swim with a fish bitch on your back. Your head is filled with a haunting chorus that you're desperately trying to drown out with nonsensical shouting.

Quite frankly you're doing better than most men would be able to in your position, but unfortunately you're only human and the mermaids are relentless.

"Join us...under the sea...everything's better with us under the sea..."

The melodic voices continue to pierce your brain and then you feel the weirdest pleasurable sensation below.

One of the mermaids has started to undo your trousers and taken the worm in her mouth as it were.

How you're even getting turned on by this in this scenario is either a testament to the oral skills of mermaids or you had some unknown twisted desires.

Awesome, stories! I'm addicted already, lol. More, more... I need more! :P

I'd imagine a lack of magic to be key here...

...unless we're somehow going to be growing genital warts with some toil and a bit of trouble.

We need to hype this.

Also there's always seems to be a similarity towards your MC's, like a "fuck you" sort of attitude but at the same time isn't. I can't explain it xD

True. True.

I wondered what you'd been up to, while the rest of us were wrestling each other for art...

Time for another EndMaster progress thread. Hope it's as fun as the last one.

I was too tired to do more than skim last night, but sitting down and reading these in detail now and damn, I'm really excited to play this. Can already tell this is going to be one I replay a bunch to see all the possibilities, with the kind of variety just in those samples.

I know the last update I remember you said work on it was pretty slow, but at 170 pages and two endings in sounds like you're making some serious progress. 

Awesome work End. Wondering if this game'll replace innkeeper. 

Love that your 'retirement' from writing turned out to be when you write the most in recent years, ha ha

Never know when a finished story will be my last one, so I always say I’m “retiring” just in case. I was fortunate to have a long stretch of uninterrupted time to write recently so I got a bunch done. Story is far from being finished though.

Innkeeper is referenced a lot in the story, though more so if the main character visits Klyton. I have appearances for most characters that were in that story whether the main character met them in the “canon path” of Innkeeper or not.

For example, barmaid Wendy had three delinquent children that appeared in one path in Innkeeper and they pop up in this story grown up.

The Crimson Talons were the major criminal organization mentioned a few times in Innkeeper, so it was obvious to include them given the main character’s “career” choice.

Also expanding on a few locations mentioned in Innkeeper. Hessla being one since it was mentioned as being a fairly lawless port town. So as you might expect pirates are running the show there. The Delantium Kingdom is another location.

The other story that will get referenced a lot is Legend since part of this one is basically going to be a “retelling” of it. Still pretty different though since I’m adding a lot more “story meat” and lots more new content in general. Also I’m not transplanting all of it because some of it just isn’t going to work.

The main bit from that one will be the events that occur in Holgard, so I’m bringing back the wizard you can work for, definitely the baron who runs that city and his ambitious children (probably also adding another child) and of course the other major criminal organization the Ebony Claw Syndicate who are a whole lot bigger since they’re based in the Delantium Kingdom and have a chapter in Holgard.

Brought back all the gods from that story as well, just so there's a slight rounding out on that front as far as the "world" goes. Nothing really major, just some occasional references about someone praying to them (Like when Warts mentions praying to Yag) Though at least a couple of them (well their followers anyway) might have some paths involving major events.

In general I don't really like writing religion, but I thought I should at least attempt to have some form of spirituality in this fantasy world, because the other two are fairly godless. (Unless you count very powerful beings masquerading as them and ascending mortals)

Is the scientist who brings aboutbthe zombie apocalypse gonn appear?

You just guessed one potential path with Professor Kovas and potentially working for him.

Ohhhhhhhhh yeah

Will we see Azoth again?

I got an idea to include him, but I'll probably change his name.

Just a quick update.

For those that have been paying attention (probably not) gingers have often been portrayed in a bad light in my stories.

Since as all of you know I am always a warrior for social justice, so I have included a potential love interest with red hair. I may include another one later, the story is still young after all.

In any event, I certainly hope this goes a long way in the struggle for equality in the real world.
 

Hooray for sexy diversity!

Who were the other redheads?

Off the top of my head, in Eternal the ex-Felkan royal princess traitor that lived with the gnomes was a redhead. Drawing a blank on some of the others, but usually if someone has red hair (or even dressed in red) it’s not a good sign in my stories.

Same thing with things being mentioned on the “left”

Hmm, maybe I’ll double dip for diversity and make her left handed as well.

Didn't her little attempt at personal justice fail miserably?

How do I know this one isn't going to backstab us because she just so happened to be a merchant's daughter or the equivalent of a Felkan princess (which isn't much, I think)?

You don't know for certain, plus there will probably be at least two so maybe one of them turns out okay and the other doesn't.

Or maybe they both turn out well...or maybe neither of them do.

Wasn't your boyfriend's crazy sister in Suzy's Strange Saga a readhead too?

Yes she was. 

One ginger who had a halfway okay portrayal might be Edgar from Eternal, but that's only due to a couples paths where you save his ass a few times. If you're not around when he gets assigned to Nalin, he's the one of first Eternal from your generation to get himself killed (by kobold traps no less).

Updated my journal…

Completed another epilogue. Slowly starting to finish up this part of the branch.

Also did something very silly. Easy to fix, but still very silly.

I was trying to replace all word references of “lute” to “mandolin” and when pressing “replace all” it also changed all the times I used “absolutely” to “absomandolinly.”

XD 

I've heard there's a D&D rulebook out there that consistently refers to how many points of dawizard your weapons do.

I think you should keep it.

That's absomandonlinly bad.

...Life is a beautiful thing

Okay, this is hilarious. :D

Yeah, you should've kept it. Just a little something to confuse future readers with.

When I saw you were writing another story I got even bigger goose bumps than when I saw the trailer for Star Wars Episode Seven (that's a good thing by the way).  

Updated my journal...

Finished another epilogue (A whopping total of 4 now). Snail's pace I know, but the work still continues when possible.

Still need to finish up at least one more on this branch and then I can put this Klyton path to rest and work on the Holgard path instead.

Technically I do have another separate Klyton path to work on, but I’m getting a bit burned out on that city, so I figure by the time I’m finished with this path, I’ll really need to focus my attention to another location.

Cheers. At least you're going at progress. *looks at empty storygames in my stuff*

Time to draw another map...

Keep goin', End. I can't wait to see the new EndMasterpiece in its full glory.

*waiting intensifies*

Updated my journal…

Hey it’s not all about pointing and laughing at all the hilarious non-stop drama here on CYS, sometimes I’m actually working on my story!

Still working on the same path I was last time, with a few extra pages done of course.

Trying to include more non-death endings. You know, those rare ones where you don’t get an epilogue, but you also don’t die either. (Could be good or bad) Sometimes these endings are even considered better than the epilogues (And I agree in some cases).

Actually there is one ending so far that takes place AFTER you die. Still could be considered good or bad depending on your point of view.

Might post some passages later if I get around to it.

A few passages.

Escort Mission

You arrive just in time for Elana to finish bitching at the desk clerk and start bitching at you instead.

She first goes on to complain that there is no lift so she has to walk to her room on the top floor like a commoner. This is even worse news for you since now you have to lug everything up several flights of stairs.

After getting to the room, she complains that it doesn’t match anything she’s used to in Klyton and goes on about how inferior it is. You almost feel like saying you live in a place run by a cranky old man and how your closest neighbors consist of a drunken priest and a whore.

Trying to make the best of this, you remain upbeat.

“Well, we aren’t going to be here long hopefully. Let’s just try to get some rest.” You say.
“What are you doing?” Elana says.
“I’m just laying down.”
“Not on the bed you’re not!”
“But there are TWO beds and I’m not going to try anything!”
“Pfft. I’m not worried about that.” Elana says and then brandishes a small ornate pistol. Smaller than other ones you’ve seen actually, but you still don’t want to risk getting shot by it and move out of the way when she thoughtlessly points it at you.

“Will you stop waving that thing around?” you say.
“I told Dr. Gossey I didn’t need an escort and could take care of myself.” Elana remarks.
“Yeah, okay you’re not a woman to be messed with, got it. But I don’t see why I have to sleep on the floor when there are two beds.”
“The floor? You’re not sleeping on the floor either. This is MY room. You want a room here, you pay for it yourself!”
“…What? Are you serious? Dr. Gossey said this trip was paid for!”
“Maybe for me, never said anything about you. Your payment is AFTER the job is done. In fact, shouldn’t you just be standing guard outside my door?”

You have no words. You just don’t. You thought dealing with the lowlifes that hang around the Welcome Mat was a chore, but it still pales in comparison to this. If this wasn’t a paying job, there is no way you’d deal with this.

However, since it is, you don’t say anything and just grab a chair in the room and exit.

Placing the chair nearby, you sit down and make a mental note about never working a real job ever again. The kicker is, you still have a bunch of over grown rats to acquire. Still, you agreed to this so you continue to make the effort and sit outside like a loser.

Eventually enough time passes and you start feeling tired or at least bored enough that you’d rather be doing something else. You briefly think about finding another place to stay or even going to the Sultry Siren like the driver suggested, but you really don’t feel like dealing with the stairs again or spending your money. You then wonder if maybe you shouldn’t take this opportunity to break into some of the other rooms.

As you’re pondering potential criminal activity, you spot a group of five rough looking men walking down the corridor. They don’t look the sort who would stay here.

“Is this the room?” one of them says.
“No, it’s further up the hall.” Another remarks.
“What? Where that guy in the hood is sitting?”
“Yeah, I believe so.”
“What the fuck, Metzger. I thought you said this was an easy one.”
“There’s just one guy there and he’s smaller than all of us. You really think he’s going to give us trouble? Metzger says.
“What if he’s some highly skilled assassin? I mean he’s got a hooded cloak and all…”
“By Dolak’s barnacle encrusted balls, if you were any dumber…(Sigh) Just because someone is wearing a hooded cloak don’t make them a highly skilled assassin. Besides, assassins kill people not sit outside hallways like guard dogs.” Metzger remarks.

At this point these five men are nearby you, yet are still talking like you aren’t here. You feel like you should stand up at this point.

“I can’t help but notice you lot seem to be talking about me.” You say.
“Yeah, and what if we are?” Metzger asks.
“Well, I suppose I might need to show off my assassin skills.”
“Hah! You’re no assassin and even if you are, you’re too damn young to have been at it for very long, let alone skilled enough to take on five of us. My guess is, you’re that rich bitch’s escort or something. Not sure why she’d take a little thing like you though as a guard. Guess being rich doesn’t mean being smart which is evident by the very fact she’s staying here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nobody stays at the Cozy Krak Inn, or rather no right thinking Hessla native does, unless they want to be taken as a fucking slave. Fucking clueless visitors.” Metzger laughs.

Well this isn’t good.

Marriage? Run Away!

“Another year at sea though before we return…ugh…I just dunno if I can take it.”
“Well, why not just leave now?”
“…hmmm…I suppose I could…I doubt if they’d come looking for me. Do you have any transport ships that go to Hessla?”

Ola frowns a bit.

“We don’t have ANY big ships. In case you haven’t realized, we’re a small town not a bustling trading city we hear you lot talk about. If it weren’t for pirates coming here, we probably would never have much contact with the rest of the world. I mean the best you could do is get yourself a rowboat and row to this Hessla place. How far is it?” Ola asks.
“Too far. I doubt if I could even make it to Jicol in a rowboat. Oh well, guess I can tough out another year.” You say.
“Why not just stay here?”

“Here? What would I do here?”
“Um, well you know your way around a ship right? You could work as a fisherman.”
“Ugh, trying to get away from boats actually. Still, sitting in a rowboat and peacefully fishing sounds a lot more attractive right now than what I am doing.”
“What are some of your other skills…um, I mean those that don’t involve killing and raping people.”
“First off, I’ve never raped anyone…” you start to say before Ola interrupts.
“You haven’t? Oh thank Kalhu!”

You give Ola a bit of a strange look. Granted you two don’t really know each other that well, but she seems way more talkative than she has in the past. If you didn’t know any better you’d say she was flirting with you in some strange way.

“Okay, first who is Kalhu?” you ask.
“The god of this island of course. All the times you’ve been here, you’ve never heard of him before?” Ola says.
“Don’t really pay much attention to religion. You’re not going to preach at me are you?”
“No, why would I?’
“Because you seem very interested in my future and we don’t know each other very well, so I’m wondering what this is all about.”

Ola looks around and finally sits down next to you. A couple people look, but say nothing, you’re a little taken back by all this though.

“This town is a good place with good people. We like our relative isolation, especially after hearing some of the tales from your pirate shipmates and other pirates we’ve dealt with in the past. But um…isolation has its downsides. There sometimes is um…lack of potential mates. At least not related ones.” Ola says.

You start to tense up at where this might be going.

“Now some women of this town have sex with the pirates that visit here and that’s good as it provides new blood for the town, but it is sometimes hard on these mothers to raise these children without a father around. A good family should have a mother and father.” Ola says.
“So…what exactly are you asking me?”
“I’m asking if you would consider…(breathes nervously) being my husband.”

You had a feeling, but you still weren’t quite prepared. How could you be? It isn’t like you get asked out of the blue to be someone’s husband!

Ola goes on to explain that she knows how this might seem strange to an outsider like you, but she says that she fears her arranged marriage to her cousin since he has many undesirable physical traits that would not make for a strong child.

However, she also doesn’t wish to submit herself to a one-night stand with some pirate (Apparently she’s a bit on the moral side which is funny that she would come to you in the first place) and wants a husband to stick around to help raise your children. (Yes, she’s already implied that she wants more than one.)

So she’s picked you as a “last ditch” effort to find a husband who is physically fit (and attractive as she has mentioned as a secondary concern) and is most assuredly not related to her in some way. She also has said in the few conversations you’ve had with her you seem okay personality wise and not being a rapist is a big plus to her. (Curse your parents for instilling some sort of values in you)

And, one spoiler non-epilogue ending because it was amusing to me when I came up with it.

BIG POPPA

By the time you’re thirty you’ve gotten fat. Not just average fat either, but like grossly fat. You’re a big fat bastard.

You’re also a pimp. Given how much time you spend with whores and how relatively fun you are, you eventually managed to convince a few to work for you, rather than one of the many brothels in the city. After all, your home is a lot nicer thanks to all the work you had done to it and you’re well off enough to allow them to keep more of their money.

This works out for you since it provides a steady income (Negating your fears of going completely broke because you were spending so much) and finally gave you something to do with your free time. You still sometimes think of your parents and your sister and how they might be doing. You hope they’re all doing well.

Despite being limited to just one sex position that won’t result in a whore’s death it’s all in all a good life.

Probably won’t be a very long one given your weight and indulgences, but then you probably beat the odds already.

Your days as a rogue are over.

Now of course it has been pointed out by a couple folks that this is definitely a “win” and as I said, I wouldn’t disagree when you compare it to other premature endings where you die horribly or even some of the epilogues written so far.

I can't wait until this is completed. Amazing writing as always. ^^

 

 

Updated my journal…

Busily attempting to finish this main branch before this month is over. Can't determine exactly how many pages that might be though since I slightly changed up a path that was originally planned. (A couple times actually)

Somehow an arc of joining a church became a completely different path leading to girlfriend husbandry.

Not sure how that happened exactly, but I must write in the direction of where the ideas evolve!

Updated my journal...

Finally completed the main Klyton path for the male rogue. 5 epilogues finished.

Total story so far 398 pages on Word.

Up next, working on the Holgard path. Hoping to incorporate a lot more stuff from Legend in this path.

Jesus. Are those full pages? How many words is that?

That total is on 6 different documents, so the very last pages of those documents might not be quite filled up, so it could be more like 395-7 instead.

Word count total according to the Word docs is 174,713

My god.

Updated my journal…

Working on the indentured servitude path. Sort of interesting revisiting something that was already written, but now being altered and expanded on.

Lizards and Liars

“I need you to go get me a blood gem.” Ral says.
“Blood gem? Gee, that sounds like it involves vampires again.” You answer.
“No, no, no. There aren’t any vampires this time around, just a lot of sotakians or lizard folk as you might call them.”
“Didn’t know there were any sotakians in the area.”
“There aren’t, you’ll be going to Sotak Swamp. The sotakians use blood gems in their idols, so just seek out one of those and you should be good.”
“Uh, not that I don’t live to serve thanks to the spell that forces me to, but isn’t that pretty far away? I don’t think I’m making it back in a week and that’s if I even knew how to get around there in the first place.”
“Don’t worry about that, you’re going to have a guide and you’re going to be teleported to a relatively close to where you need to be. When you get the item and back to the original location, you’ll be teleported back here.”
“Hm, well I guess that makes things slightly easier, who is this guide?”

Ral points to a small winged being flying in from the next room. You guess he’s a fairy of some sort, but you couldn’t guess what kind. He doesn’t look happy.

“This is Tych, your sprite guide. He’ll be able to direct you to where you need to go.” Ral says.
“Sprite huh? Weird to see one alive this time rather than just the blood.” You say.
“Yes, Tych you could say was most inspired to save his own life when I first encountered him. In return for his servitude rather than death, it was he who gathered twenty of his kind in one place and made that process a whole lot easier.”
“Wait, how long has Tych been here and where’s he been? This is the first time I’ve seen him.”
“Oh he’s been here maybe about as long as you have and you haven’t seen him because I tend to keep him in my lab where I can keep a better eye on him. Sprites, like most fairy folk tend to be tricksters and Tych in particular is one of the more treacherous of his kind. In fact you may find him to be very friendly towards you since he’ll probably be trying to convince you that you two should work together to escape. I of course advise you not to listen to such nonsense that will only get you into more trouble.”
“Great, and you’re sending this little devious bastard to guide me?”
“As long as you insist on sticking to the task I’ve given you, he won’t be able to resist helping. So don’t listen to anything else he says and you’ll be fine. Think of it this way, you’re his direct superior and what you say goes.”

You’re not sure about this, but as always you have little choice in the matter so you gather up what equipment you believe is going to be useful and return to Ral who says a few words and before you know it, you’re blinded by a flash of light.

As you’re still shaking off the effects of temporary blindness, your guide is in no hurry.

“Take your time plivik. It’s been awhile since I’ve been outside so I’m going to enjoy every moment we’re out here.” Tych says in a high pitched squeaky voice that almost makes you want to laugh.
“Where exactly are we anyway?” you ask finally getting over your condition and finding yourself in new surroundings.
“Oh we’re in Gnarlwood Forest, not too far from the border of Sotak Swamp. More specifically we’re in a fairy circle or an old abandoned one at least. Of course even abandoned ones have magic to them, probably why Ral sent me with you too. Makes the teleportation connection easier for him to cast. He’s not nearly as powerful of a wizard as he thinks he is.”
“Hm, well he’s still got the pair of us doing his dirty work.”
“True plivik, but that won’t last forever. If we work together we’ll be able to overcome his magic that’s binding the both of us to him.”
“Oh? How so?”

Tych giggles a bit.

“Ral has made a big mistake in letting me come back here! We fairy folk as you may know are magical by nature, but I cannot break our magical chains by myself. However, I know of a nearby sprite community that would help the both of us plivik. Together with them and Ral’s spell could easily be overcome.” Tych says.
“Why would they help me? I’m not a sprite.” You ask.
“What does that matter plivik? You’re still a being in need of help. I can see you’re not a bad person, and just like me, you are just forced to serve a bad master. If you tell me to guide you to the other sprites, we can go right now.”
“You keep calling me plivik, what does that mean?”
“Oh, it’s just a word in my native tongue. Just means friend.”
“We’re friends all of a sudden?”
“We both don’t like Ral and wish to be free of his chains correct? I’d say that already makes us have enough in common to be friends even if we just met, plivik.”
“Ral said you would be friendly towards me to do something underhanded and that I shouldn’t pay any attention to what you have to say unless it directly involves the task.”
“Well of course he’s going to say that, plivik. He wants to keep us divided. He also told you that I lead twenty of my people to be ground up into into blood paste. I guarantee that I would never do such a hideous thing even to save my own life! He used a spell to capture us all and it was only by pure luck that he decided to keep me around as a pet to torment. You know he keeps me in a glass jar on his lab desk and shakes it around?”

You can see how this is going to go. You’re going to have to play “Who’s the liar?” the whole time during this task. More shit for you to worry about, as if you didn't have enough to deal with.

Looks good.

Updated my journal…

So while all of you are kicking each other in the girl parts, I was actually making some writing progress. (We still do that around here right?)

Creature of the Night

Rage takes over, rage like you never had before. You abandon all caution and attack Isabella.

Isabella doesn’t even look surprised. She rolls her eyes and even with your new quick vampire reflexes, Isabella easily takes you down and pins you. You snarl, and struggle and try to get up, but she’s just too strong for you.

You don’t even know how long you do this for, but eventually Isabella tires of your resistance and takes your head and smashes it into the hard stone floor. Would have definitely killed you had you still been human, but instead you’re just left temporarily dazed.

Isabella follows up with a few punches and then a display of dominance with her face transforming into something much harsher and monstrous than you’ve seen before (even whenever she bit you) you briefly wonder if your own face has transformed as well since you didn’t give much thought to such things at the time.

With the fight taken out of you, you finally relent. Isabella’s appearance also changes back, but she still maintains her hold on you.

“You’re lucky I don’t stay mad for long, but attack me again and you’ll see how mad I can really get.” she says.

“You might as well just kill me now and be done with it then.” You say.

“Oh no, you don’t seem to understand, you’re MINE. I didn’t transform you into a vampire just to kill you. You’ll soon learn that there are things much worse than death…MUCH worse.”

“Oh like what you are forcing me into?”

“Hey I didn’t force you to do anything. You could have declined my offer and walked away. You gave yourself willingly to me.”

“Yeah, to save Myla! Not this! If I knew you were going to twist shit around…”

“You probably STILL would have made the same choice. Face it. You wanted to be free of Ral and you were tempted by my offer anyway. Saving your human was just an added bonus.”

“Stop calling her my human! Her name’s Myla and she’s my girlfriend!”

“That’s cute, but I’m your girlfriend now. Congratulations on trading up.”

Isabella is now just mocking you. Now that you’ve calmed down a bit, you start trying to think of an unconventional way to still save Myla.

“Okay. I get it. You’re in charge. But maybe we can make a deal.” You say.

“Again with the deals. If I hadn’t already drained all your blood, I’d swear you were part infernal. Very well, this should be entertaining…” Isabella remarks.

“What if you make her a vampire?”

“I’m not turning her into a vampire; I’m obviously already going to have my hands full with you learning about your new vampire life. I’ve got other things to do with my time.”

“I’ll do it then!”

“Hah! Nice idea, but you aren’t nearly powerful enough to do that yet. You’re not even powerful enough to turn her into a ghoul. In any case I do not wish to have another vampire here anyway. Call me old fashioned, but I believe three is a crowd and I don’t see much benefit for me. I’m not into women or orgies, despite all the myths about vampires being decadent sex fiends. I’m also not trying to make a fucking nest. Been part of one of those before and it’s worse than living around mortals. So let’s stop all this nonsense about turning this…Myla into a vampire.”

“I…just…I can’t kill her.”

“(Sigh) Very well I can see that perhaps this was too upsetting of a lesson. I will do it to spare you the anguish, but I really hoped you were going to be stronger than this.”

“Wait! You said she’s mine.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then I can do what I want with her correct?”

“If you’re suggesting that because she’s yours that that means you can release her, you’re sorely mistaken. This isn’t some contract that you’ve found a loophole in. My word is still final on this matter.”

“No, but she’s my responsibility you said. That means I can take care of her if I wish right? Couldn’t I just keep her hypnotized and make sure she gets food and water?”

Isabella smirks at your question.

“So you wish to keep her as you would a pet then? How long did you intend on doing this for?”

“Until I can transform her into another vampire.”

Now Isabella laughs and completely releases you, allowing you to sit up.

“She won’t live long enough for that to happen. You’ll abandon that idea as your feelings for her fade or give in to your own hunger first. If by some miracle you some how manage it, she certainly won’t be young like you are anymore. You’ll be transforming her in her later years…unless you transform her into a ghoul before then, but that has its own set of problems. No, I don’t see this working, but if this is REALLY what you want, then sure.”

“You’re saying yes?”

“I am. It will be interesting just to see how long you last. I imagine you’ll last at least a few years even. One of your attractive traits is you obviously have a sense of loyalty and even a little nobility despite your lowly origins. However, the care for your pet will be your responsibility along with your other ones for me and if your pet becomes a problem then I’m going to step in and I think we both know what that means correct?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Very well then, I suppose I should teach you how to maximize some of your new powers, particularly the whole hypnosis thing. Afterwards, I’ll give you the tour of my home proper, then you can get to work on what duties I require of you. While I’m sure you won’t find most of those fun, I can guarantee one of them will be despite however you may feel for Myla. That being said, let’s get started.”

Isabella takes you over to Myla who is still in a trance. She even releases her from her shackles for this lesson. As you’re listening to her instructions, your gaze briefly passes over your wrist and you realize the little symbol that Ral put on you is gone along with the geas spell.

You aren't sure if getting rid of it was worth it.

*kicks End in the girl parts*

I swear to cod if we're trying to juggle Isabella with what we think is Myla after x amount of years only to realize that when we do release her hypnosis she makes a full 180 and pulls a MC on you like you did Isabella so help me god i'm staking Myla first time she disobeys me

Looks fun.

Updated my journal…

Completed another epilogue, bringing the total up to 6. Still working on the Indentured Servitude path.

Working together

“I’m guessing you didn’t leave yours alive.” Isabella asks.
“Nope, I’m afraid Mara’s hunger took care of that, but I figured you’d show restraint since I was certain you wouldn’t place too much faith in us anyway.” You respond.
“Didn’t know Mara was even going to be around since you told her to stay put. In any case I suppose you were correct in thinking that I wouldn’t believe you to have as much restraint, so this one is still alive. Knocked her ass out when I finally caught up with her, so I haven’t gotten any information from her yet. I guess we can do that together at least.”

Doesn’t take long for Isabella to slap Heather awake. When she sees the two of you hovering over her, she’s obviously very frightened and turns to what most do in a hopeless situation.

“Oh please, Dorna give me the knowledge and power to overcome my disadvantageous position. I will make the large sacrifice in your honor if you only lend me your wisdom.” She says and begins praying which Isabella puts a stop to with another slap.
“Oh no, you aren’t mumbling some prayer and casting another spell. The best you can hope for in your situation is if you don’t piss me off and you get a quick death. Now tell me what you know about Ral and what’s going on out here.”
“Can’t we come to some sort of agreement?” Heather asks.

Isabella looks at you.

“Reminds me of you with all these attempts at bargaining.” Isabella remarks.
“Well, you gotta admit, it worked for me.” You answer.
“Yeah, well it’s not working for this bitch, now TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU FUCKING KNOW!”

Isabella’s face becomes that monstrous expression that manages to scare Heather even more than she already is. She starts crying and pleading and ultimately agreeing to tell her everything she knows even though it isn’t much.

Heather explains that none of them really knew what to find out here and it was Elder Flynn who first sensed the magic disturbance. He wasn’t sure at first about checking it out, but after much meditation (And sensing other disturbances) he decided that he needed to confront his old comrade.

Apparently the Elder and Ral were old friends when they were young, but obviously had a disagreement in ideology as far as magic. The Elder of course thought it was a Dorna’s most precious gift to the world and thanks must always be given to her for it. Ral on the other hand just believed that it was a force to be mastered like any other and didn’t even acknowledge Dorna.

 She said most knew about Ral since he was a wizard of some power even if he was very reclusive most of the time, but Elder Flynn didn’t speak of him in any detail until recently. Said that his experiments had probably gone too far and he would have to be stopped before Dorna’s wrath was brought upon the world.

Even though the Elder said the disturbances had died down and they hadn’t seen anything unusual yet, he said they still needed to confront Ral since he was dangerous wild card. Heather didn’t speak out, but she got the impression that this meeting was just something the Elder seemed to want more than correcting magical disturbance.

“Oh, that was Flynn? Damn, didn’t even recognize him, though I thought there was something vaguely familiar about his scent. If I had recognized him, maybe I would have tried a different approach. Oh well.” Isabella remarks.
“Wait, you knew the Elder?” Heather asks.
“Yeah, he and Ral were competing for my attention when they were young! That’s why the friendship broke up. Ideological disagreement my fine undead ass. Flynn wasn’t hooked up in all this Dorna worship shit when I knew him. I mean he was more religious than Ral, but he wasn’t a fanatic.”
“What did Ral do that won you over?” you ask out of genuine curiosity.
“He made me laugh. In any case, I guess that doesn’t help us much, but it was worth a try. Alright, let’s get this done…”
“WAIT! Please! I’m no threat anymore! I didn’t even want to fight you guys! You! When we met, wasn’t I reasonable to you?” Heather exclaims, trying to appeal to you.
“When we first met, you fucking did some sort of charm on Mara to make her docile.” you say. “But…please! (sob) I don’t wanna die! I didn’t even want to come out here! (sob) Wait! I know! Make me into a vampire! I mean I could be a good one! I’m already a night owl and I could make a good apprentice! Please, I just don’t want to die…”

At this point Heather is groveling completely at Isabella’s feet. This is such a pathetic display, you’re sort of feeling a bit for the girl.

“Isabella, maybe you could make her into a vampire? I mean she probably could help you quite a bit on building a new home, what with being a sorceress and all.” You say.
“Hello, my name is Isabella, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m not turning this bitch into a vampire just because she’s begging for her life. I have standards. I only turn those that are mate potential into vampires.” Isabella sniffs.
“Do you HAVE to have sex with the person you turn into a vampire?”
“Yes, and as I think you know I’m not into women.”
“Just pretend you’re in college.”
“What?”
“I dunno, my dad said a lot of girls at his university used to do that and then got married to some guy anyway.”
“Yeah, no. Look, if you’re so keen on saving this human, then you could always turn her into a ghoul.”

Mara looks up long enough from the corpse she’s eating to give an angry growl at that suggestion. Mara might be willing to serve you unquestioningly, but she still wants to be the only ghoul in your life, not that you were considering it anyway.

“Too bad Heather, hope your afterlife with Dorna is a pleasant one.” You say and without another word Isabella kills Heather.

Isabella feeds and then you do likewise. The three of you then continue your journey to Ral’s home.

Updated my journal…

Yup, still working on this when I can.

Monster Mountain

You travel in the freezing mountainous terrain for two days. Even with your immunity to the cold, it’s still a treacherous journey given that you’re no mountain climber. Tych has lead you through the path of least resistance to the lair and fortunately it isn’t actually very high up, in fact it’s actually at a lower altitude than where you originally teleported in.

“Let me guess, it’s in this large sloping dark cave.” You say to Tych.
“Got it right in one. I saw it entering here a few times and judging by the large pile of bones out here, I’d say it’s definitely a permanent home for it. Well I’ll wait out here. If you aren’t out within a day, I can safely assume you’ve met your demise.” Tych says.
“Wait, how the hell am I going to see in there? Despite my magical alteration, I don’t have dark vision unfortunately. I need you to come with me and sparkle a bit so I have some light.”
“What? That wasn’t part of the plan. I go in and start sparkling and I’m going to be a target since it’ll see me first!”
“Yeah, but you’re also a small target that can fly all over the place. It’s not like it’s going to go after you if it can get a target on the ground that’s shooting bolts at it a lot easier.”

Tych REALLY isn’t keen on this idea, but given that he wants to be out of this situation as much as you do, he relents.

“Alright, fine. But only because you’re probably right about the wazia going after you and the fact that despite everything, you’ve dealt pretty straight with me. I still remember when you didn’t rat me out to Ral about the last time we worked together…wait…you hear that?” Tych suddenly says mid sentence.
“Shit, is it the wazia?” you ask, not hearing the sounds other than the wind, but readying your crossbow.
“No, if it was that, we’d already be fucked. It’s a small whine. You don’t hear it? It’s coming from over there.”

Tych points over to a group of rocks and large bones. (and then he flies behind you). You now hear the sounds too, and with your crossbow ready and slowly move towards where they’re coming from.

Whatever is making the noise can’t be that big since rock and bone pile isn’t very large either, when you finally walk around it, you see what is making the noise.

A small feline creature with an odd-looking face making pitiful whimpers. It looks up at you and backs up and raising its tail, which looks like it has small spikes on it. It attempts to growl a bit, but it’s obvious the beast is frightened. As it stands right now, the pair of you are both ready to shoot.

“Shit, that’s a manticore.” Tych says and takes cover behind you again.
“What? That? I thought they were much bigger.” You say.
“It’s a cub, plivik. Still, I wouldn’t want to get shot by one of those spikes.”
“Well that must mean its mother is nearby. Are you sure you got the right lair?”
“Yes, I’m sure! Its mother probably got eaten by the wazia and somehow it managed to escape. Hey, you know we could use this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Wazias pretty much eat anything thrown at them. If you poisoned this cub, you could toss it at the wazia who would inevitably consume it and the poison would work even better. At the very least it would cause the creature so much pain it would slow it down giving you a chance to shoot it a lot more with bolts.”

You look at the manticore, which is still looking pretty pitiful, but still also in a fighting position. You aren’t sure if you’ll be quick enough to shoot him before he shoots you.

I'm really anticipating this, ugh... Why must you make such great stories, End? ;)

Edit: I'm guessing we can give Innkeeper the Part of Series tag soon, right? Lel.

There's probably others that could have the Part of a Series tag too, like SSS and Tales. Actually given everything that goes on in SSS it virtually acts as a linchpin that connects most of the other stories.

Anyway, this one is still a long way from being finished, but as I said, the work continues.

Well, I'll be cheering you on whenever you need it :) I'm certain that it will be awesome when it's finally released, given your track record with these things.

And you're right! Most of your stories are basically connected now :O B-but I couldn't possibly... Don't give me ideas like this, End x)

It's tempting to just put a "Part of Series" tag on some of your stories, but they're all too good and must be respected! Each one stands on it's own as amazing stories... But, it is rather tempting, and it is your fault now, so maybe one or two wouldn't hurt? ^^

Good luck, man. Looking forward to it.

Updated my journal...

With all the now deleted sex/fetish talk on the forums, I made a new sex scene in Rogues. It isn’t graphic of course because this is a family site and all. But it has some other weirdness in it that I’m sure will provide some lulz.

Anyway, got rid of one planned path and making a completely new one. Actually I’m merging the planned path with this new one, so it isn’t completely gone.

Hopefully I’ll at least be done with this branch before the New Year, if not, well it’ll be done when its done.

"Family site"

Still working on it right?

Yeah, but it's very slow unfortunately.

I just rewrote a couple of passages like 3 times trying to get it just right.

The current branch I'm working on has undergone a lot of rewrites in general since it basically involves vampirism and I'm trying to do it so it makes sense within the story. I originally was going to have "cursed" path within this branch, but eh...it wasn't really working.

I'm on "Year 26" for this particular branch so it's not going to be too long before I can wrap it up into the 3rd chapter for it. Still a lot of work to go though. (And of course that's not counting all the rest of the stuff I have write still)

Actually going to try to work on some of it today though, so hopefully at least a passage will get finished if nothing else.

Good to hear man!

Updated my journal...

Just to show I haven't been completely slacking:

Blood Reign

You head to Maldito, which is one of the more remote villages, even compared to most on your list. When you get within sight of it however, you’re surprised.

The entire village is in flames. You can hear screaming and yelling still coming from the place and the stench of blood and death is thick. You’re getting hungry just thinking about it.

You cautiously move towards the village and find where the majority of the voices are coming from. A mixed group of rough looking orcs, gnolls, and even a few hobgoblins are currently lording it over the remaining peasants they haven’t killed.

Currently a couple of the women are being raped and they’re torturing the shit out of several of the men. Despite the large amount of savage races, a human seems to be the leader. Figures.

He is addressing the peasants who are focused on him despite all the horror around them.

“Know that you lot brought this on yourselves! All you had to do is provide food, basic goods and some time with your daughters, sisters and wives on a regular basis and this shithole of a town would be spared Green Eye’s wrath. Instead you’ve been hiring mercenaries to cut down our men for weeks! NOW you have to pay!” the human bandit says.

“NO! I swear it! We’ve done no such thing! We would nev…”

“SILENCE!” the human bandit snaps interrupting the older peasant trying to beg for mercy.

The human leader soon picks the old man up off the ground and stabs him in the throat before tossing him back on the floor.

“I don’t actually give a shit if it WAS you or not! One of the villages in this area did, and when they get the message of what we’re doing to your village, they’ll fall in line, or they’re going to suffer the same fate! Rape everyone in every fucking orifice, kill them all and shove their dismembered corpses on big fucking spiked sticks.”

Grim stuff.

The odd thing is you actually feel slightly sorry for these pitiful peasants since you probably inadvertently caused this. You were slaughtering so many bandits over last couple of months, you didn’t think that they were actually united any way. You also didn’t think that these bandit types would jump to the conclusions that the villagers were behind it. Though you suppose it makes sense that they might.

After years of just ruthlessly drinking the living and seeing them as nothing more than blood bags, it seems odd that you would feel protective of them for some reason.

Maybe, this is how Isabella feels about Dert in some ways. The people in that village are all food to her, but they’re hers and she doesn’t want anyone else fucking with them. You guess you’ve developed a similar attachment. Who knew?

Yeah, you’re not going to let bottom-feeding scum throw away perfectly good food…

You enter the village, you don’t even try to hide. You break the neck of three hobgoblins and put your fist  through an orc before anyone even mounts an attack.

“Shit! Get your dick outta that bitch, can’t you see we’re being attacked?!” the human bandit shouts.

The gnolls clumsily attempt to chop you with their long axes, but its all too easy to avoid their blows and shatter their spines, you quickly shut their dog like howls up by stomping their heads into mush.

The remaining bandits fair no better against you.

“He’s too fucking fast! He’s not human! He’s not…” are the last words of a half orc before you finish him off, along with his buddies.

Soon it’s only the human bandit leader left and to his credit; he hasn’t run off (like some of the hobgoblins tried to do)

“Let me guess…vampire?”

You nod silently.

“Shit…I had a feeling it wasn’t just mercenaries after seeing the carnage on a couple of those sites. So are…”

You’re done entertaining this lesser form, you rush forward and rip out his throat mid sentence. You drink his blood and throw his corpse next to the body of the old man he had just killed not a few moments before.

Meanwhile the peasants that the bandits rounded up haven’t even run. They’ve all just huddled together watching you, probably with just as much fear as they had before you arrived.

You look upon them and they have never looked more like the herd of sheep they truly are. They are prey and always will be in their current form.

You have a mind to finish them all off, until one brave one approaches on his hands and knees.

“You…you have saved us!” he shouts.

“Saved you? You shortsighted sheep, I only saved you because these assholes were killing off my livestock and I hate to waste food. I’ve been feeding on you lot for months now. Didn’t you even notice how some of you had gone missing?” you say.

“We…we assumed perhaps the bandits had taken some of us in the middle of the night. But please, spare us your unholy wrath and we will worship you, my dark lord!”

Well this has turned interesting…

“Worship you say? What exactly are you proposing?” you ask.

“Yes, we…we can’t defend ourselves against Green Eye’s bandits and now that you’ve killed this group, he’s just going to send more to finish us off. You could defend us and in exchange we could provide…what you need….” The man says.

“I need blood you do know that right?”

“Yes, but if it means just a few of us dying as opposed to all of us dying then it will be worth it. Please, I beg you. Whatever you wish, we will provide.”

This could be just the thing to break up the monotony. It’s also perfect due to the remoteness of it all. You’d have people willing to give themselves to you, and the bandits you can just massacre as usual.

Of course doing something like this might be slightly more involved than you’d prefer. You can also imagine that it probably wouldn’t be as cut and dry as you’re going to want it to be.

Lot of factors still at play and you question if you want the headache.

 

Accept the challenge

Just kill them all and be done with it!

Updated my journal…

Somehow I managed to complete another epilogue bringing the count up to 7.

Just a bit more to finish up the 8th one.

I don't know where the hell you find the time.

Updated my journal...

Inclusive

You’re not so much trusting the dop, so much as you’re going to take a chance that it fears you enough that it’s being honest. Since if it IS telling the truth and willing to work for you, it would come in pretty handy.

Still, you’re going to be careful as you can about this.

“Okay, first of all, are you absolutely SURE this plan is going convince Green Eye to meet with me?” you ask.

“Yes, I am. If he thinks something is wrong, but fixable he’ll more often than not take a personal approach to it even if it might risk his life, just like when he first spoke with you. If I know him, he’ll probably want to appease you so he can give himself more time to re-think a new strategy of how to deal with you if he believes you can walk around in the day time.” The dop says.

You can’t really tell due to its nearly featureless expression, but it sounds confident in its words. You suppose that will have to do.

“Alright then, we’ll try the plan.” You say.

“Y…you will? Oh thank the gods! I swear I will be loyal to you!” the dop exclaims.

“We’ll see, but first I need to prepare you a bit.” You say and move towards it.

“Prepare?”

“Yeah, just relax a bit, don’t move and… brace yourself!”

You suddenly lunge on the dop who is taken by surprise by your speed. You bite the dop in the arm and drink a little of its blood. It actually tastes pretty terrible and you nearly spit it out.

In the meantime the dop is making a horrible screaming noise and doesn’t stop until you smack it upside the head.

“Stop that, it’s annoying.” You say and release it.

“Y…you bit me!” the dop says rubbing its arm.

“Sure did. Call it an extra precaution in case you get the bright idea to try to betray me. I can always sense where you are now. So if any of this goes south, I’m going to know where to find YOU immediately.”

The doppelganger might have those empty white orbs for eyes, but you can still see the fear in them. Honestly, while you will be able to sense it if it’s close by, you aren’t going to be able to instantly track it from anywhere. Still, it doesn’t know that.

“I wasn’t going to betray you.” The dop whines.

“Well, now I know you won’t. Now you stay here, I’m going to go get one of the villagers so you can blend in again. I’ll drain them and you can walk out like nothing happened. The body can be disposed of later.” you answer.

“Wait which one?”

“What difference does it make? I dunno the tavern keeper’s wife I guess. Might as well considering I already killed her husband. Plus it’s an easy enough task even for you and you’ll hear all the village gossip at lot easier, not that it matters I suppose.”

“Mm, okay. I don’t have to worry about you suddenly picking on me to bite now and I prefer female forms anyway, it’s always easier when the gender matches.”

 

You pause for a moment.

 

“Wait…you’re female?” you ask.

“Well we doppelgangers are pretty flexible about it all for obvious reasons, but yes, I personally identify as female. Can’t you tell?” she says.

“Um, no not really. I mean you’re just a smooth gray nearly featureless being. It’s not like I can see tits or anything.  I mean…I can’t even see a hole down there…or anywhere for that matter; then again I haven’t really been exploring. I guess if you were a guy it would have been more obvious I suppose.”

“Oh you solids with your constant exposed reproductive organs. We doppelgangers transcend such concerns since we only display them when necessary such as for sex or expelling waste. Until that time they remain hidden and protected.”

“Okay, well however works…don’t really want to know, but if that’s the case how the fuck was I supposed to be able to tell that you’re female or not?”

“By my eyes of course! Those of my kind that identify as female tend to change our eye color to white while those that identify as males tend to change them to black.”

“What color are they normally?”

“Oh gray.”

“Great. Very illuminating. Next time I run into one of you doppys, I’ll try to remember all that.”

“Erm, could you please not call me a doppy? It is considered offensive to my…”

 

You glare at the doppelganger as your patience wears thin.

 

“Um…nevermind. Just happy to serve and being included, sir.” She says submissively.

Updated my journal…

Vampire path finished and I’m never writing about vampires ever again.

679 pages on Word
8 epilogues finished

Paths to complete

Male protagonist

Ebony Claw Syndicate Path
Next one on the list to do. Hoping it will go quicker due to a general outline already existing, but who knows.

Dread Cage Prison Path
This one is up in the air. I’m trying to finish this story at least before the next century and this one could potentially be very long. Especially since this part was based on a completely separate story idea.

Thinking about cutting this altogether, which I can easily still do, but I’d rather not. I may however shorten it a bit.

What I might do is put this one as the LAST thing I write (Even after the female protagonist storyline) so if I decide it’s time to just finish the story, this part can get cut and there won’t really be much missing. (There’s still more than enough storyline without having to go to prison)

Partners in Crime Path

Actually not looking forward to this one since I’ll need to go back over some old territory and make something new interesting happen in an area that I already thoroughly explored. I’ll also have to focus on another main character instead just the protagonist, but there’s nothing that can be done about it. This one has to be completed. Might shorten it somehow though.

Female Protagonist

Haven’t gone beyond a few major ideas with this one so far.

The main thing I need to keep in mind with her is I need to make her path much longer since hers is more of a “straight line” that potentially branches from the “main adventure” rather than several small “adventure hubs” like the male protagonist has.

I just need to remember to have an equal amount of epilogues for her to achieve.

Updated my journal...

The work still continues at snail's pace, but it continues! (80 pages in on the newest path line)

Liar Liar

For all her change, you know that Tanya’s probably still considering your last statement to her. Which means she probably isn’t going to attack Rook immediately giving you a bit of time to form a plan.

Two things you think about first is that she may be right in that going to the Fel Temple is a bad idea. If they were willing to help Rook (no matter how reluctantly) they probably aren’t going to listen to someone who isn’t actually a follower.

The other thing is, Tanya has changed so much now that she probably isn’t recognizable anymore, not that she really made her face visible in the first place, but she looks more like a traditional demon now rather than the half breed she actually is. You think you can spin a lie…

You go to your “place of work” where the usual group of lowly Ebony Claw thugs stand around keeping the Blue Dream addicts in line. Meanwhile you head to the two assholes who run the place. Dreamweaver and Mr. Dream. The unimaginative idiots must have thought they were being real clever with those names.

One of them looks up as he’s counting coins while the other is sorting out blue dream vials. Neither one of them particularly likes you, so this will be all the more simple.

“The fuck do you want fancy boy? Don’t you have addicts to keep in line out front or managing the rest of those other losers?” Mr. Dream asks.

“Not today.” You say.

“The fuck you mean by that? I’m in no mood for your attitude today. I don’t even know why the hell you were even allowed in our organization after what you’ve done. You put several of my friends in the ground you fucker!”

“Good news then. Today, you get to join them.”

“Wha…shit!”

Mr. Dream is too late to draw his own flintlock as you plant a bullet in his head and Dreamweaver fairs no better. You’ve killed the pair of them and predictably the shots draw the attention of some of the others.

Using your former bosses’ firearms, you take out two EC thugs and then use the remainder of your own bullets to take out three more. A couple of the thugs probably just flat out ran off, so you don’t waste much time and cut off the heads of the two Dreams and shoving them in nearby sack holding a bunch of Blue Dream which you dump out first.

After helping yourself to some of the gold, you walk out of the office and through the rest of building until you get to the courtyard where several of junkies are still lingering about despite all the gunshots.

“Hey…can I go in to get my fix yet? I’ve been waiting out here for hours!” one remarks.

“Actually all of you can go in and help yourself to all the Blue Dream you want, but one of you has to come with me and for that to happen, I need the worst of you lot to do something for a lot of coin, so who’s done the most awful thing here?” You ask.

The various addicts excited by the prospect of getting free drugs immediately start telling on each other. A couple of them confess what they've done since they apparently are thinking long term and want the coin rather than just the drugs. A lot of them haven’t done much except steal or perform sexual favors. A couple of them have killed, but none catch your attention until one of them starts accusing another one of having sex with children.

He denies it and so it goes back and forth though a couple of the others back up the accuser.

“Enough! Is this even remotely true? I got shit to do and I need to know now. So if everyone here wants to get their free drugs, you need to fucking confess or step aside and let someone else earn this coin. I'm not going to judge you anyway.”

The one who was accused slowly steps forward.

“Well, it was just one time. She was ten and she wanted to know about sex and I figured it was my duty as a parent to…”

You don’t even wait, you just shoot him. This causes the rest to run a bit or take cover, but they don’t go far. You quickly go to the sick fuck’s body and cut off his head with your short sword and shove it in your bag of heads.

The addict stand around gawking for a moment, but then quickly realize they should go get their free drugs and run inside the house, leaving you to head over to Rook’s place.

While normally walking about in the open during the day with a bag of heads where the blood is leaking through might cause some issues, but given the state of the city, it just serves as a warning for people not to mess with you.

Rook, nowadays rarely leaves his mansion. You aren’t sure who had it before he did, but you do know he just took it over soon after the Guild was wiped out. You’re stopped at the front gate by one of the Ebony Claw members.

“What do you want and what the hell is in the bag?” she asks.

“Severed heads of fucking snitches and spies. Look, I got important shit to talk to Rook about and I just dragged my ass through riots to get here, so let me the fuck in.” you say.

“You don’t give the damn orders here! Nobody gets in to see Rook without his say so! So you’re just going to have wait until one of us goes to see if it’s okay first and I don’t particularly feel motivated to do so and neither does anyone else, let alone for the likes of you.”

“I don’t have time for this. Bitch, you will LET me in there because if you don’t I’m going to do to YOU and the rest of these assholes what I did to these fuckers.”

At this point you dump out the contents of the bag and bloody heads drop out.

“SHIT! That’s Mr. Dream!” one of them exclaims.

“And that one’s Dreamweaver! He fucking killed them!” another exclaims.

The female Claw member who was talking to you before now looks a little more concerned by your presence and starts going for her weapon.

“Do not even fucking think about it sweetheart. I will fucking shoot you in both tits and then after I’m done killing the rest of these sorry excuses for Syndicate members, I will violate your dying body and the last thing you’re going to feel before you leave this shitty earth is me coming inside your ass and laughing while doing it.” You threaten.

“Shit…fuck man. There’s no need for damn rape threats. Fine, you wanna go see Rook you crazy fucker, be my fucking guest. You’re still not getting past those Shadow Blade guys though and if you do, Rook’s going to be pissed at you for killing some of his top Blue Dream dealers anyway. I hope he fucking cuts your dick and balls off and shoves them down your throat!” The female Claw member says and starts motioning for the others to open the gates while you collect the bloody heads and shove them back the bag.

 

As you walk through the gates and towards the mansion, you shake your head.

“Shit, that was a bit dark for me, but hell, no wonder the Syndicate is going to shit, if they’re backing down from a threat like that.” You say to yourself.

 

You get to the front door and you are immediately stopped by some cloaked individuals who just suddenly appear around you.

You fight the instinct to immediately go for your weapon, not that you’d be fast enough anyway since two of them have already grabbed your arms, while another takes your bag and all your weapons.

“What’s your business here?” one of them asks.

Taking a politer approach you explain everything or rather you spin your lie which isn’t completely a lie since the two Dreams were pair of loudmouth assholes that blabbed shit so freely that’s what allowed you to relay most inside information to Tanya in the first place.

You add the extra bit that the head of the Blue Dream addict was a Neroth cultist spy and explain that’s how come groups of Neroth cultists have been fucking up Ebony Claw interests as of late.

The head Shadow Blade whispers to one of his comrades who enters the mansion.

“He’ll be back in a moment, then we’ll proceed from there.” He says and then motions for the ones holding your arms to let you go. They don’t give you back your weapons (or the bag) though.

You wait in silence for a bit, and then eventually the other one comes out and nods.

“Okay, looks like you’re in the clear for now. Follow him inside and if you survive your meeting with Rook and he okays it, then you’ll get your weapons back.” The lead Shadow Blade says.

As you start to head in, the lead Shadow Blade grabs your shoulder and whispers to you.

“All secrets are eventually uncovered by Fel.” He says and then lets go of your shoulder.

The pair of you look at each other briefly, and its almost like the Shadow Blade is telling you already that he thinks you’re lying. It’s enough to put some fear into you though you hold it together and go inside the mansion.

After following the Shadow Blade through a series of halls and eventually to Rook’s office. He sits behind a desk with Bolt on his right side and slightly behind his chair. Rook is talking with another skinny man off to the side that you’ve never seen before, but judging by all the books on the desk, you guess that he might be some beancounter that tracks the accounts and such.

“Rook, we are hemorrhaging coin. We are not going to have enough to kick up to the Syndicate Directors this month. This state of anarchy is really bad for business and the deal you made with the Temple of Fel REALLY took a large chunk out of our treasury.”

“And what the fuck was I supposed to do Lloyd? We had a manpower shortage, and I was getting no fucking help from the directors! Those fuckers have been sitting on their fat asses in the Delantium Kingdom for so fucking long they don’t even know what it’s really like to struggle any fucking more. The Temple of Fel is an ally to the Syndicate and apparently the only reliable one I have right now besides Bolt here. And THIS asshole, who I may have put too much trust in, apparently just took it upon himself to waste two of my best distributors!” Rook says turning his attention to you.

Rook at this point stands up.

“Now I was already told the little story that you told everyone outside in order to get in here, but why don’t you go over it again with me directly so I can try to grasp it myself and attempt to understand your logic.”

You’re on the spot and now you suddenly don’t feel very sure about this plan, but you’re here now so you better be convincing.

 

Tell the story again with complete confidence

Take a risk with even more lies

It's nice to see this is still going even if it is at a snail's pace.

Updated my journal...

The Ritual

“I see. Well our criminal friend here certainly does have a unique condition. I would be very interested in learning how this came about exactly.” Elder Flynn remarks.

“May I sit in on this Elder?” Heather asks.

“Very well, you may observe, but do not speak. As for the rest of you, return to your tasks. I will call upon you when needed. Now then you, follow me into my chambers and tell me your tale. Then perhaps we can come to some sort of deal.”

You and Heather follow Elder Flynn into his chambers which contains a lot of tables filled with bottles, jars, and other laboratory equipment. More books of course and several strange markings on the floor.

Elder Flynn motions you to take a seat and you do so before explaining “your tale” as it were.

You talk about Tanya for quite awhile. Honestly, it’s kind of nice to talk about her as you’ve never done so before. Not even to Warts, even though you know he’s aware about what occurred between you two. Flynn sits and listens very intently, never interrupting and just writing notes on parchment. Heather on the other hand looks like she wants to ask you all sorts of questions and is doing her best to not speak.

While talking about Tanya is nice, you also remind yourself of the loss you feel without her around. You explain that it’s not as bad as it was when you first parted ways, but every now and then you have that empty feeling. You also mention “the curse” which peaks Flynn’s interest even more. He asks you several questions on that, which you answer.

“Interesting. It would seem that despite your girlfriend going against her nature she still managed to leave behind something that ultimately causes harm, even if it wasn’t to you directly. Anyway, fascinating tale and I believe this is your lucky day.” Flynn remarks.

“It is?” you ask.

“Yes, how would you like my help AND get rid of your curse?”

“You can do that?”

“I believe it is possible, however you’d have to undergo a ritual first.”

“Um, what sort of ritual?”

“You’re bonded with a demon. Doesn’t matter if she wasn’t born a pure blood anymore because she’s obviously embraced her heritage fully now. That bond might be dormant and perhaps even non-malignant, but it exists. Which means at any time she can reach you, but it also means YOU can reach her. You of course don’t have the means, but I on other hand do. I’m proposing that we perform a ritual to bring this Tanya back here.”

This proposal is getting strange and giving you all sorts of mixed feelings. On one hand you’d like nothing more than to see her again, but on the other…

“Um, okay so when Tanya is brought back here, then what?” you ask.

“Well I bind her of course.” Flynn remarks.

“What?!”

“Properly bound infernals can be very useful sources of knowledge as well as servants. She’ll be a good addition to the temple. Also when I bind her, her hold on you will also be broken and you’ll be free.”

At this point you stand up and have to do everything within your power to not attack Flynn. You know he’d probably easily disintegrate you before you could even do anything, but the temptation is still there. However you aren’t adverse to verbal abuse.

“No, fuck you and fuck this plan.” You say as calm as you can.

“(Sigh) I thought you might say that. You’re missing the big picture.” Flynn remarks.

“What big picture?! You’re talking about enslaving my fucking girlfriend! You didn’t think I might get pissed about that?”

“Please just calm down. We were getting along before.” Heather remarks.

“Yeah? Well that’s probably because you lot weren’t talking about imprisoning my girlfriend before and having me play a role in that! How would you like it if you had to be part of a magic ritual you didn’t want any part in?”

“If it was in pursuit of greater knowledge and wisdom in Dorna's name, I’d be willing to make that sacrifice.”

“Glad to hear you say that Heather, because I will need your assistance in this ritual.” Flynn remarks.

“Huh?”

“I need something to help call the demon back to this realm just to give the spell a little more power. Usually for most demons this requires a sacrifice of some sort, however given that Tanya is a succubus, I don’t think blood will be necessary, so fortunately I just need you to have sex with him inside the circle.”

Heather’s face looks completely dumb struck. She has no words. You on the other hand are just shaking your head and giving a cynical laugh about it all.

“This just gets better and better. Tell me, are you going to be jacking your old wrinkled dick the whole time too?”

Your crude remark is enough to finally set off Elder Flynn’s temper.

“Look, you up jumped cut throat, just THINK for a moment! The Tanya you knew is GONE. She left you for the infernal realm a LONG time ago and probably forgotten about you. In fact you’re very lucky she has because I guarantee that she is NOT the same woman you knew. She has most likely become a being of pure evil, no matter what she might have told you before she left. Any concept of love would be gone by now along with any affection for you.” Flynn rants.

“You don’t know that.” You say.

“No, I DO know that! I’ve done far more studies and forgotten more about infernals than you’ll ever know and there is one constant, they always…ALWAYS become creatures of mayhem, chaos and destruction in one way or another, and have no affection for ANYONE, let alone anyone far weaker than themselves.”

Elder Flynn says this with such conviction that you don’t respond and are just wondering if you’re going to be able to get out of here alive.

“Now I know this is all very emotional for you, but I think you’re smart enough to see that I know what the hell I’m talking about on this subject. And if that doesn’t convince you, then consider this. By participating in this ritual, you’ll be free of Tanya’s grip on you. No longer will you feel the loss of her presence and better yet, you’ll be able to be intimate with another without putting their life in danger. Doesn’t that alone sound worthwhile? And I’m not even counting the help I will give you against the Joachimites. So you see, there is no downside to this deal.”

You have to admit, Flynn is making a pretty sound argument. There have been many times you’d like to “move on” but it’s obvious that you can’t unless you go through with this ritual.

Do the ritual

Refuse to do the ritual

What are the word and page counts looking like?

Have no idea about word count total since I never bothered to check before, I’d have to go back and check all the documents and add them up.

For this Holgard path, I’ve got 116 pages on Word so far (So 795 from last total page count) and I haven’t even done any branching on it at this point. 16 choices so far have not been added to yet. Some of these of course will just be one off premature endings, others will be slightly longer, others still will be their own paths.

If you're typing this double spaced, then 15 pages in Word is approximately 5,000 words. Which means that the 116 pages would have approximately 38,666 words, and the 795 pages would be around 265,000 words.

Well, that's the approximate of the word count assuming I did the math right there, and/or didn't leave out some small detail. 

Edit: Great writing as usual.

I typically use single spacing. Dialogue like seen in the above example usually isn't spaced out like that, this site just formats weird.

Anyway, total came out to 347,736.

Updated my journal...

Slavery is bad

“Wow, I just thought after yesterday, you weren’t interested. Well this is great, you’ll see!” Vera remarks.
“Well I’m still going to need convincing if this is something we need to get into. So you’ll need to persuade me why this is worth pursuing AND I don’t mean with your body.” You say.
“Very well. What did you have concerns with exactly?”
“Warts mentioned that keeping captives costs coin. I mean how much are we going to be spending to keep them before selling them?”
“Oh, not that much. Really all you have to do is provide the bare minimum most of the time.”
“But doesn’t that sort of decrease the quality?”
“Yes if enough time passes, but that’s why you try to sell as quickly as possible. Obviously women typically sell for a lot more than men and they sell faster.”
“So where are we getting these slaves anyway?”
“Well back when I was working for Elias, we usually nabbed people off the street. Get ‘em drunk at a tavern. Trick ‘em into a dark alley. Y’know like robbing someone except instead of taking just their money, you take them too. Sometimes we bought them off of Hessla pirates and sold them for a higher profit to someone else. I’ll have to get re-connect with my Hessla contacts before we can do that though.”

You look down a bit and frown.

“What’s wrong?” Vera asks.
“I dunno, maybe this is just not something I feel comfortable with.”
“Wait a minute. You’ve got a moral quandary about THIS too? If I didn’t know any better I’d start thinking I had joined Joachim’s church!”
“Look, I told you that YOU needed to convince me. So convince me.”
“Okay so what are you having a problem with exactly? Wait, let me guess. It’s the whole sex thing isn’t it? Geez, you got some weird hang ups about sex.”
“Well that IS what these women are going to be sold for right?”
“How is that different than the brothels we run?”
“It’s a big fucking difference! For one, the whores at least have a say in things.”
“Does it make a difference that some of the guys are probably used for fuck holes too?”
“Not really.”
“Okay, then would it make a difference if ALL the slaves were just being used to go get worked to death in some iron mine?”
“Well…at least I’d feel like we were at least contributing to the economy in some way as opposed to just feeling like we’re running one big rape factory.”
“Oh and I suppose our protection rackets and our Purple Wish dens are great contributions to society as well.”
“Call it my own twisted sense of honor, but at least our extortion of businesses isn’t completely one sided. I mean we ARE offering protection. Also we’re not shoving Purple Wish down anyone’s throat. If people want to get high, we’re providing a product. If people want to be idiots and get addicted well that’s on them. Our gambling places work the same way. Nobody is forcing anyone to go into debt.”
“Hmm, maybe not, but I still think we should re-open a slave market. Sex slaves are just too profitable to not get into.”
“Well wait a minute. What about fighting slaves? Y’know slaves that fight each other and people bet on who wins.”
“You mean like for underground gladiator matches? Eh…yeah we bought a few of pit slaves once and it didn’t go so well. You want to talk about upkeep, those bastards need upkeep because you need to keep them in good condition for a potential buyer. Not to mention on almost every occasion they tried to escape or kill one of us. One of them actually succeeded in killing four people under Elias before being brought subdued. I don’t think it’s worth it and I find it funny that you’re perfectly okay with that brand of slavery as opposed to the sexual kind. You really are a prude aren’t you?”
“Maybe I am, but I’m also still not entirely convinced of the upkeep costs being low. I mean if we’re going to go into this, I would prefer our slaves to be known as being good quality and not half starving and dirty.”
“Well if you’re worried about that, we could always stick to children.”
“Children?!”
“Sure! We used to sell more than a few back in the old days and they’re really low upkeep and easy to nab as well.”

You’re done.

“No. We are NOT capturing and selling fucking kids! THAT is where I’m drawing the damn line. In fact I’m thinking this whole thing is a bad idea.” You say.
“So…what then? You’re going to go with Wart’s idea?” Vera asks.
“No, that’s retarded for different reasons. I’m going with my own idea. We’re going to hold underground gladiator matches.”
“I thought you said we weren’t getting into slaves.”
“We aren’t, this will all be voluntary. Plenty of stupid assholes that are willing to try to prove they’re tough for a bit of coin. If they get themselves killed, well that’s on them and either way, we don’t need to worry about keeping anyone in good condition, unless we’re fixing a particular fight. Hell, we could also use people that are falling behind in their debts to participate rather than breaking their legs. So no slaves needed.”
“I dunno, if we’re pressing potential deadbeats into fights, that’s sort of like enslaving them isn’t it?”
“Okay, maybe it is, but at least we’re just trying to make our money back from said deadbeat as opposed to snatching some hapless girl off the streets.”
“Well we could always apply this to our brothel whores too. I mean if a whore doesn’t make enough money for the month then she gets her ass thrown into slavery for slacking off.”

You never knew that Vera is REALLY into this whole slave trade business. Though you suppose given that she worked as one for so long, it makes sense she wants to stick with it. You’re not going to hold it against her, but you’ve definitely realized that you’ve still got some scruples, scant though they may be.

“We’re not peddling sex slaves of any kind, Vera. That’s it.” You say.
“You sure you’re in the right business, boss?” Vera asks.
“I could always cut your head off and let you decide.”
“Okay, okay, no need for threats, I know you’re a badass. It’s just that I’m finding out that you’re strangely principled in ways that I’m not used to in our line of work. I guess maybe that’s a good thing. Shows you aren’t some complete psycho I suppose.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion, but at least you can take comfort in the fact that IF you ever fail me, I’m not going to have you stripped naked and sell your ass to pirates.”
“Well that’s one less thing to worry about at least.”

Nice piece of writing. How far are you in to Rogues again? Like how many epilogues are finished?

Trying to get this 9th one done.

This Holgard branch is going to have at least one other epilogue, maybe 3 total for this path.

Still a lot of work to do in general though and there is still a whole other branch to do with the male rogue that must be done (Partners in Crime path, not really looking forward to that one, might even make that a shorter one).

Technically there is one other branch for the male rogue which is the Dreadgate Prison path, but I'm not sure if I'm going to bother with it at this point. I mean I'd like to, but free time is just not as much of a luxury nowadays. The upside to that path is I haven't done any work on it and the "stub" can easily be cut off into a premature ending (You go to prison with an uncertain future)

Might be possible to just add the prison stuff later. In fact that's probably what I'm going to end up doing for the entire female Rogue path. I might just do what I did with Eternal and release self contained parts. So when I'm finally done with the Male Rogue stuff, I just release that and then later on add the female stuff later. (Again, wish I had the time, just don't though)

Ha, I don't blame you. I wouldn't mind having that as an expansion. Also, how many epilogues are you going for in total? 

Not sure. It'll probably depend on how many I end up with the male rogue. So if I wind up with 12 or so for the male rogue, I'll try to have around the same number for the female one.

So I'm guessing I'm trying for at least 24 in total.

Updated my journal...

Finally finished another epilogue. Shit, did that take forever, but the storyline set for that one was definitely worth it. This was one of those endings I always had in mind for the story so I really wanted to get that one finished. It got set up a little different than I originally envisioned, but it works fine, and I'm glad it's done.

While my hope is always that the next task is always going to take a shorter period of time, it'll get done when it gets done. I think this branch is only going to have one more official epilogue unless something changes. Then its just a matter of filling in the rest of the paths.

How many word pages did you get to?

So far:

890 pages
396407 words

0_0

And this is < 50% done according to your goals?

Yeah.

Probably going to do what I did with Eternal and when the male rogue path is finished (Which is just this current branch and another major one that will probably be shorter anyway) I'll release it and just add the female path later (The Patriarchy wins again). It'll still be a large and fully self contained story with nothing missing.

Damn, dude, I'm hyped as fuck for your new story.

Updated my journal...

Yes, still working on it. Progress on it really slowed to a fat slug crawl though mainly due to me having to take care of a bunch of boring shit that comes with buying a house, moving, job stuff and generally being a responsible adult and such. (Yeah it sucks).

Then on top of everything else the laptop DIED recently so when I actually had time to write, I couldn't. (Yeah it sucks) Plus that had ALL my stuff on it. True, I had back ups of everything on a flash drive, but that didn't really solve the writing issue, not to mention I still didn't have everything I recently wrote.

In any case through the powers of technonecromancy, I just managed to bring the laptop back to life with all the shit still on it. So progress is at least still possible.

Oh nice, you got it working? That's great!

Everything else sucks and you will never be able to trust that traitor machine again, but rescuing all your stuff is the important thing.

Save it on a flash drive for back up if you haven't already done so.  

Hoping to see your place on MTV Cribs

Updated my journal...

Giving myself more work for the hell of it. (Made a time travel path)

Old Galpatis

“Oh come on Saldinius you can’t do better than that?” you say.

“Sorry, but times are hard right now, that’s the best I can offer!” Saldinius replies making a shrugging motion.

“Bah, fine. I’m just glad I won’t have to be dealing with you anymore.”

You take your coin from Saldinius and make your way back to your humble room back at an inn. (Some things never change)

The Galpatis Empire might be going through a “Golden Age” but from what you can tell life is pretty much the same here as it was in your time. The poor bastards are struggling to survive, the rich bastards are sitting on their fat asses reaping all the benefits and everyone in between is just trying to make their own way to be a rich bastard and avoid becoming one of the poor bastards.

Still, you suppose you could have wound up in a worse city when you got stuck here. Galapolis is the shining jewel and seat of the Empire and it’s easily five times the size of Holgard ever was. There is no shortage of opportunity for a rogue like yourself here. Crime doesn’t change too much after all and if anything you’re probably a little more skilled at it than most.

That first year was really hard though. You sometimes didn’t know if you were going to make it or not. It wasn’t really the survival aspect, but more the mental aspect. True you didn’t exactly have a “good life” in your own time, but you still had ties.

Many nights you thought about your family and how you’d possibly never see them again. You even cried on more than one occasion. Maybe you left on bad terms, but probably in the back of you mind somewhere you thought that maybe you’d reconcile somehow with your mom and dad.

Of course there was your sister as well, though you probably thought about her more since you used some of the knowledge from her stories to help you through this.

You found the inner strength to carry on by learning the language, the surroundings and everything else you could. It’s quite the accomplishment really. Unfortunately the only thing you haven’t learned is how to get back home.

You haven’t lost hope on that dream though. Magic seems to be more common, or rather more impressive from what you’ve seen of it. The city of Galapolis is protected by a giant invisible shield for example and when a dragon attacked (You nearly shit your pants when you saw one of those for the first time especially since it was much larger than the stories you heard) the beast couldn’t even penetrate the defenses and its breath attack was reflected back. Eventually it was brought down by more magical defenses that disintegrated it completely.

If the magic here has that power, then surely there might be a way back home with it. The main problem is magic seems to be highly restricted to the upper class. Like nobles and such. It isn’t even like you’ve ever found any practicing hedge wizards or witches. Those types apparently get rounded up fairly quickly or they probably live far away from the Empire, which is pretty damn large. (As far as you can tell you’re currently located where the Delantium Kingdom would be located and Galpatis Empire stretches much more than that.)

There doesn’t even seem to be any “divine magic” either or religion as you know it anyway. The citizens of the Empire all seem to worship the current Emperor as a “living god.” (The body just being a vessel for him until he discards it for a new one)

Deities in any other sense seem to be fringe beliefs at best or considered to be reserved for uncivilized barbarians that live outside the empire.

In any case, you’ve asked around and done as much research as you can on the matter and there is one place in the Empire which has slightly more relaxed rules on magic and that’s the town of Arcanius. Though it’s not so much of a town as it is a giant magic testing area. There is where all the less disciplined, unwanted bastard children of nobles who have minor abilities or just downright anti-social wizards go to study or practice their skills without as much supervision though apparently there is still a powerful warden that oversees everything.

The funny thing is, it isn’t restricted to go there, but there is little reason for the average non-magical person to do so. For one thing it’s a very long journey and not in the most hospitable place of the Empire (Close to the Cloudpeake Mountains) Second, it isn’t like the average Empire citizen wants to hang around a bunch of unhinged miscreant magic types. Though for you, it’s probably your only possible chance at getting back home.

In any event, you’ve raised enough coin and made the right shady connections to gain rare passage there. The use of carriages is a lot more exclusive during this time, let alone using them to travel to another city. However seeing as you’re heading to a town not many want to go to anyway, your obvious lack of nobility isn’t as much of an issue. Indeed you’ll probably be assumed to be another bastard.

The ride leaves tomorrow and you need to be on it so you need to get your rest. You spend the rest of the day and night packing everything you plan on taking, because if all goes to plan, you won’t be coming back.

You head to where the carriages are getting ready to leave and with a few extra bribes, bullshit explanations, and general apathy of the soldiers, you’re waved into one of the carriages heading to Arcanius.

It’s going to be a several day journey from what you know so you’re glad when you find that you have a carriage all to yourself. You’ll be able to stretch out.

Eventually there is some shouting heard outside, along with the crack of several whips. Before you know it you’re on your way.

You never were much of a reader before, but seeing how long this trip is going to be, you figured it would be a good idea to take some literature with you along the way. If you do manage to get back, you might even be able to sell this stuff for a hefty profit. Galpatis items would no doubt go for a lot. (And you’ve collected a few other small items with this in mind)

As you spend a few days reading some books (and improve your basic understanding of the Empire’s language in general) your thoughts start to wander a bit.

What if you’ve changed the future just by being here?

You’ve never pondered this before, but maybe it’s due to reading too much philosophy during the trip, but what if you’ve changed things?

You can’t imagine that you’ve changed that much since you’ve surprisingly haven’t even killed anyone since being here. You’ve stolen a lot of things, but is any of that really going to make a difference in the long run?

You don’t know.

What if you go back and there is nothing to go back to? Or more specifically what if you made changes here to the point that you don’t exist?

“Oh shit.” You mutter as you ponder this new possibility.

At first you were concerned that you might not be able to get back home. Now you’re concerned that maybe you shouldn’t go back home!

You go back and forth on this many times.

Staying here has always been something you thought might be inevitable anyway so would it really matter?

You get the impression that if you stayed here, you could probably carve out a future for yourself. You think with time and effort you could rise to be greater than your current status in the criminal world. Hell, you probably could get your own organization started.

For all you know you’re the founder of the Ebony Claw Syndicate.

Now you start to wonder if you were MEANT to be here.

“What the hell am I thinking? I need to go back! I can’t fucking stay here…can I?” you say to yourself.

In any case your struggles with metaphysical matters soon turn into very real struggles because your carriage (along with the rest) are suddenly attacked!

You hear shouting and the galloping of several horses. A look outside your window and you see a bunch of figures on horseback armed with spear type weapons and bows. At this range you think they might be greenskinned. Probably orcs given the noises they’re making.

So much for Empire territory being safe everywhere. Granted you are currently closer to one of its borders, but you’d think that would just mean they'd protect it a hell of a lot better.

The carriage you’re currently on goes faster, but it’s obvious that the orc raiders are going to attempt to cut everyone off assuming they don’t kill everyone with arrows first.

Several of said arrows go into your carriage and you try to get as flat as possible. You really wish you still had your pistol. You’d at least be able to fire back.

“THEY’RE GOING TO CATCH UP TO US! EVERYONE TO ARMS!” you hear someone shout and the carriage comes to a halt.

Last time you looked, there was a hell of a lot of orcs. Granted you have some of the Empire’s soldiers with you and hopefully a few of the bastard passengers in the other carriages are above average with their lack of formal magic training, but it’s not going to be an easy fight.

You almost wonder if you should just run for your life and hide somewhere until the fighting is over. As strange as it is, you haven’t been in a real life or death fight in years since you’ve been here. You’re probably a little rusty.

Not to mention you got a little too comfortable with using the pistol and let your sword skills fall into disuse a bit. There’s also the fact that most of the people you ever fought with were other humans. Orcs are a whole different story. Especially this blood thirsty looking lot.

Help fight off the orcs

Run and hide

Hmm Endmaster, one issue I've noticed with these excerpts is that you use a lot of words. Have you considered using less words? Reading is not really what anyone is here for but still I think a few people might be interested the finished story, if it were you know, smaller.

Also I thought you said a mini path, not freakin time travel. Hahaha, you must hate yourself. You will regret time travel. Everyone always regrets time travel.

Said Mizal as she tried to figure out to get back to the future xD

I was aiming for 1983. Imagine my horror and disgust at winding up here.

Updated my journal...

Completed the time travel mini-path. Took me a little longer than I thought due to having to add extra choices here and there, but  it's done.

Starting the last major Holgard related branch and epilogue.

After that, just need to do the "Partner's in Crime" major branch. Still not looking forward to doing this one, but I got an idea for it that should make it more fun and not retread an old path.

Congrats on the continued progress, End. :)

Updated my journal...

Reworked the intro to the story. Had another shorter intro planned, but since I'll probably be releasing this in at least two parts (Male path first and female path later) I figured I needed an intro that worked better and I'll probably be keeping this one and probably add the shorter bit when the female path is finally done.

CHAPTER 1

Minor Ambitions

Once upon a time in a city called Klyton, there was a young man who wanted to be a doctor. He studied hard in school and his parents supported his dreams for he was intelligent and hard working and they knew he could succeed if given the chance. They also wanted him to have a more stable and comfortable life than they did. (Much like their parents before them)

Despite the high costs of a formal education of a person growing up in his middle class background, his parents who ran an inn, scraped together enough money to send him to a university and for awhile the young man was able to pursue his dreams.

Unfortunately life doesn’t always go as planned and one day the young man’s father died and to make matters worse it turned out his father who only had the best intentions for his son, had been borrowing from a dangerous loan shark.

With his mother in danger of losing the inn, the young man had to put his dreams on hold and help his mother. It was a time of great stress for the young man, but in time he was able to not only keep the inn afloat and pay off the debt, but he was also able to turn enough profit to re-enroll at the university and eventually become the doctor he always wanted to be.

During his time as an innkeeper however, he had become very close to a young barmaid by the name of Eliza. While their love didn’t blossom immediately, he soon realized his feelings before it was too late and the two became romantically involved and in time they married.

For various reasons together they moved away from the city and to a quieter smaller town called Teckleville. There the young man opened a private practice and became a respected member of the community and had twins with Eliza.

These twins, a boy and a girl, had possibly even more of a loving home than their father did and they certainly had even more comforts and advantages. Truly when they grew up, they could be anything they set their minds to.

However, once again life is not always so simple.

As they grew up, these twins became the scourge of Teckleville, always getting into mischief. Granted some misbehavior is expected from youth as they find their purpose in life, but it would seem no matter what, these two were bound and determined to pursue the life of crime.

The pair of them rogues through and through and as they got older it was apparent they had no desire to change.

And that’s where our tale begins…

Total progress so far

9 epilogues completed

1004 pages on Word

446353 word count

Oh, so the Eliza ship is canon. I'm glad you picked this best option for that the rogues' parents. I'm hype to play this. Will it be out by Christmas, or are we looking at a 2018 story here?

I mean it's possible I'll finish it before the end of the year, but I'm still betting on 2018. (Hopefully early 2018 though)

Yeah the Eliza ending is probably the best ending in my eyes (Unless you're going for an evil ending then that would be the one where you get away with being a mad doctor)

It makes the most sense as far leading into this story is concerned, though upon looking back, it's slightly different than this intro (I said she had "a baby" rather than twins), but what the hell they retcon shit all the time in everything else.

Though I guess I could go change some words around in that Innkeeper ending so it fits better. Wouldn't be like making Greedo shooting first or changing guns into walkie talkies. Lol.

Endmaster, I warned you not to mess with time travel. :[

"With Eliza out of a job, she moves in with you. It becomes permanent when you get married. Eventually you also move to Teckleville to start a private practice and soon Eliza gives birth to twins and you start the next phase of your relationship as a family."

It is done. I have successfully manipulated time.

Updated my journal...

The work never stops. It always continues. Neverending...

Baby Shield

This is probably the biggest risk that you are EVER going to take, or at least one of the most questionable ones. You can’t even believe you’re considering it, but given that Gert and the rest have the drop on you, it might be your only chance.

You’re going to bet that despite her threat, Gertrude is NOT going to risk shooting your son. Besides wanting him to advance her own status, she probably did develop some form of connection while she was baby-sitting and you’re not convinced she’s going to be that ruthless anyway.

You hold Kol close who doesn’t know quite what’s going on and to your surprise…

“Dada!” Kol says.

“Fucking great. Your first words. Look, if we both get out of this alive, never tell your mother about this.” You say, and kiss his forehead.

You then crouch down and stretch your arms out to place Kol in front of you and begin moving back and forth in a jerky motion. Gertrude’s expression would almost be funny if this wasn’t so serious.

“Wha…SERIOUSLY? You are fucked up! NO, DON’T!” Gertrude shouts and prevents one of the other traitors from firing at you, or rather pushes his arm so the shot goes wild.

While they’re arguing amongst themselves, this gives you the split second you need to drop Kol (Which since you’re crouching, isn’t far at all) and pull your own pistol.

“SHIT!” Gertrude shouts and at this point loses all of her confidence and tries to run.

You shoot the two traitors that didn’t fire yet and then on the one that did. Then you shoot Gertrude in the back. With all your assailants down, you immediately check on Kol who isn’t physically hurt, but is upset by all the loud noise.

“Yeah, I know, the bad people made a lot of loud noise. Shhhh, it’s okay. It’s over now. Well actually let’s make sure.”

You pick Kol up in one arm and walk over to the bodies of the traitors who are indeed dead. A little further up though you see Gertrude still moving a little and groaning. You quicken your pace and stop her from trying to get in a shot at you as her last act.

“Shit…fuck…agh…” Gertrude utters as you step on her wrist, take away her weapon and kick her over.

“Good, you’re not dead yet. Now, you need to tell me who else was involved in this little scheme or I’m going to pop into that hag’s shop and buy something to keep you alive so I can torture the shit out of you until you DO tell me everything.” you threaten.

“Please…no…”

“Start talking then bitch.”

“But…how do I know you won’t believe me and torture me anyway?”

“You don’t! But if you don’t start talking, I’m going to keep you alive for years to torture on general principle! Each day will be a living fucking hell and you'll be praying to ALL the gods for the merciful release of death!”

“Okay! There’s nobody else! I barely even trusted these fuckers enough to follow me with this plan.”

“You in contact with the Felians or the ECS?”

“No…I was planning on…agh…doing that when I got to the mainland.”

"Anything else?"

"Nothing else, I swear!"

“You know what Gert?”

“…what?”

“I believe you.”

Gertrude closes her eyes, and grits her teeth, bracing for her death as you put two in her head.

Absolutely Brilliant! I like your writing style. Easy to read.

Fevor

Never read any of the excerpts even though I've been following the updates for months, I want to ready eveything for the first time once I started the storygame. And you said that you'll be releasing the female path a lil bit later than the male path, so I'm not gonna read the story until its finished because I'm weird like that. I am really looking forward to this one! Good luck :)

Updated my journal...

Despite several events both real and virtual distracting me, the tenth epilogue has finally been completed. Just need to finish up the dead paths on this branch and that one will done and can move on to others.

Word count?

Dunno, I’ll calculate it on the next update.

Okay.

Updated my journal...

Another epilogue finished, completing another major branch. (Fucking finally)

Honestly I got a little tired with this last branch I was working on since I kept having a bunch of setbacks that started making writing it a slog. So it ended up getting cut down slightly, nothing really major though. (There would have been a few more "dead" endings, but I combined a few pages instead)

I'm still fine with how it turned out, but it's time to move on to something new at this point.

So as of right now there are 10 epilogues and the word count is 479,037. It would be fine to release right now, with just a couple changes to things.

However, going to try to complete the entire male path this year, this includes the prison branch, along with the partners in crime path which was going to be the next one for me to work on.

Really, I need to think about which way I'm going to try do this since at this point the prison path is looking more desirable to write since I've got a slew of ideas for that one. That one will take longer, but hopefully it'll be more fun to write since its taking place in a whole new setting.

The partners in crime is going to be taking place in Klyton (at least at first), but you just managed to bring your small town girlfriend along this time, which is going to change things up a bit. Still, I'm not looking forward going over already explored territory. While you'd think it would be easier to write due to it already being "established", I'm going to have to go over my notes again, trying to remind myself of who is important, what events happens, etc. and that's sort of a hassle.

I've got a couple ideas already with the branch, one of which is all already starting to feel more desirable to write than the other since it potentially changes things up a lot.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

Almost half a million words and it's technically only half the game lol.

Or did you plan less involved plots for the female path?

I wouldn't say less involved plots as she potentially encounters all of them in her path, but she potentially gets "epilogues" sooner. Both paths are going to last "20 years."

The male rogue is more 'hub based" so in the beginning he tends to pick a destination and that's more or less where he's located for most of his paths (There are more than a few exceptions though)

So if he goes to Holgard in the beginning, then most of the story is going to take place in that general area for about 20 years. (The actual length of each of those paths still varies since some are more complex than others.)

The female Rogue is more of a wanderer so she's walking on one major path for "20 years" which can branch off into a severely different direction and lead to an earlier epilogue (possibly several within that branching point)

Without giving too much a way there is an event that leads to her going to a whole different world for example. If she ends up staying then she gets an epilogue which occurs before the 20 years is up. If she doesn't stay, she continues her journey on her world (and the story)

The female rogue path is probably also going to include "backgrounds/lore" links seeing as she's a bard and would pay more attention to stuff like historical knowledge and such.

Updated my journal...

Yep, the work continues.

 

Things Could Always Be Worse

You get dressed and gather your tools of the trade and exit your room ready to get to work.

As you’re doing so, you run into Hank who is telling his various employees to clean up the mess in the main room with the stage. He sees you and walks over.

“Well I have to say, you came through. Got those elven bitches to agree to perform here once a month. With as many people that were here last night I made more money than I have in a month. Consider your rent lowered.” Hank remarks.

“Oh. Thanks. Told you I’d do it.” You reply.

“Hm. Where’s that girlfriend of yours?”

“Ah, she took off. Just wasn’t working out y’know? She bitched a lot.”

“Oh. Yeah I guess I can understand that. Who needs that buzzing in your ear right? Still, she was sweeeet. I bet you had fun with her while it lasted.”

“Indeed.”

“Not as fine as those elven bitches though. Fuck, one of them had lips that could make a man cry and that one was fucking wild let me tell you.”

 

You give Hank an odd look.

 

“What elven bitches are we talking about exactly?” you ask.

“Nature’s Revenge! The lead singer. She was a fucking beauty. I mean I know elves tend to be pretty, but fuck. I wasted no time in putting the moves on her after their set and she was already giving me head. Fucking hell it was great!” Hank remarks.

“Uhh, Hank, all of them were guys.”

“What? Nah, you’re fucking with me.”

“Hank, I’m really not. I’m serious. I mean I know it’s hard to tell sometime with elves, but they were definitely guys. All of them.”

 

Hank’s former happy expression drops and he sits down in a nearby chair with a hand over his mouth.

 

“Hank? You, okay?” you ask.

“I…but…she couldn’t… I mean I would have known… by the gods…”

“What?”

“I…I fucked the elf in the ass.” Hank whispers, with his eyes darting around making sure nobody else is listening.

 

You nearly have to stop yourself from laughing.

 

“How the hell did you not know, if you got that far?” you ask.

“I dunno! I mean I just…I was drunk okay! She or he or whatever wanted to get fucked in the ass and I wasn’t thinking with anything except my dick at that point. Oh shit, I feel sick…” Hank says.

“Yep…thinking with your dick. Gets you into trouble every time. Though I gotta say, hasn’t gotten me in quite the same trouble.”

“You can’t tell anyone!”

“Okay, okay, I’m not gonna say shit. However, I think I’d like my room to be free.”

“What?!”

“You heard me.”

“Fuck you. Just fuck you.”

“Sorry, I’m not a free spirited elf.”

“Shhhh! Keep your voice down!”

“So free room then?”

“Yeah yeah sure! Just don’t say anything!”

“Sure thing, but how are you going to keep your elf from talking?”

“Fuck. I’m gonna have…shit, I need to talk to her, I mean him, I mean…damnit!”

“I’ll leave you to it.”

 

As you leave Hank with his dilemma, you think to yourself, things could always be worse.

Glad to see that things are moving along. Poor Hank lol.

Updated my journal...

Even in the apocalyptic urban wastelands of Detroit, the work still continues!

Gang Ties

You hear the same noise and both you and Zalmora turn your attention towards the wooded area to the left and draw your flintlocks.

Several scruffy looking individuals jump down from the trees with weapons in hand. The one who seems to be the leader is an elven woman with face paint and a wild hairstyle and steps forward with a crossbow in her hands. While you’re about ready to fire, Zalmora actually stops you.

“Flameflower. Didn’t know you survived the last raid on the Bloody Talons’ hideout.” Zalmora says.

“Yeah, well my sister didn’t.” Flameflower retorts focusing her attention solely at Zal and moving slowly forward towards her. You keep your own firearm focused on Flameflower, though the rest of her people are also stepping forward and it’s looking grim.

“Sorry to hear that. Sunshine was always friendly towards me.”

“She wanted her face in your vertical smile. Where were you during that raid?”

“I was on a job.”

“Yeah, a job. Always seemed a little convenient that YOU weren’t around when the shit went down.”

“So what are you saying Flame? You saying I ratted on the Talons?”

“I dunno. You always acted like you were too good for the gang most of the time.”

“I was putting in more work for the gang than most were. I was also in it before you even joined. So don’t act like I wasn’t a true Talon or whatever you’re implying. And I certainly wasn’t a fucking rat.”

“Oh you were putting in work all right. You were fucking Jake. Never did understand what he saw in you. I had far more in common with him.”

“What can I say? The heart wants what the heart wants.”

“Yeah and it obviously got him killed.”

“No, being an overly violent reckless idiot is what got him killed.”

Flame is now very close to you and Zal. In fact probably idiotically so. You’d easily blow her face off at this range, even Zal would probably get off a shot before Flame unleashed her crossbow. Flame would have been more dangerous if she’d stayed further back and just ambushed you from the trees. 

Flameflower turns her attention briefly towards you.

“So who’s this one trying to look dangerous? Jake’s replacement?” Flame asks.

“Something like that. He does look dangerous doesn’t he?” Zal remarks.

“Pfft. He looks like he should be working in a brothel servicing aging women that are trying to desperately hang on to their youth. But then again, I guess that’s what he’s  sort of already doing.”

“Yeah well we can’t all have elven blood in our veins to help to assist in halting the aging process halfbreed. You want to talk about desperately hanging on to youth, look in a mirror, since last I remember you’re about a decade older than me and you’re still hanging out with people that could be your children. Look at you, running around half naked in the trees like some fucking savage. Is this what you’ve been doing since the Talons were put out of business?”

“What can I say? I finally decided to embrace my elven heritage completely and live wild and free.”

“Well it definitely is you.”

“It is me, isn’t it? So, what are you and your pretty manservant doing outside Klyton?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Well did you want to go back to our camp and tell me all about it? Could certainly do with some new anecdotes other than the ones these assholes talk about over and over.”

“Sure. We could probably do with a rest after recent events.”

“Zal?” you say.

“Don’t worry. We’re not in any danger, well not in any more danger than we were in Klyton anyway.” Zalmora says.

“Yeah, lighten up pretty boy. We’re not killing you. Might still kill Zal if she pisses me off enough, but you…yeah I’d definitely have plans for you…”

Flameflower at this point makes an obscene gesture with her fingers and tongue. You aren’t quite sure how to react to being harassed like this. Zal just shakes her head and rolls her eyes at Flame’s advances towards you.

“Flame is a lot of talk. Just stay close to me, I’ll protect you.” Zalmora says with a smirk.

Despite her earlier threats and hostile demeanor, Flameflower is relatively cordial towards Zalmora for the remainder of the night at her camp. She explains to Zal that after she escaped she decided to take up the life of a bandit and along the way she’s managed to acquire a new gang though they don’t really have any official name. She also says that while they operate around Klyton, they often move around a bit in case the militia starts sniffing around.

Zal reveals a bit about your own situation with the militia and the situation within Klyton. Flameflower just nods and says it sounds like she’s better off out here. She even offers Zal to join her gang.

“Nah, sort of done with the whole gang thing Flame, but thanks anyway.” Zal remarks.

“Bah, still think you’re too good for the rest. Whatever. So, what about you pretty boy? You apparently like older women and I can tell you I got way more experience than Zal here. Make you feel things you didn’t even know you had senses for.” Flameflower says with the same predatory gaze she’s had the whole time.

“Um, no I’m good.” You reply.

“Your loss. You know…you look familiar. Like someone I briefly knew when I was a lot younger. I used to work at an inn with my sister as a waitress for a while. Mom thought it would instill some sense of responsibility in us. (Snort) Mom was an idiot.”

“How odd. I was just telling Zal here about how my family used to own an inn in Klyton.”

Flameflower suddenly slaps her leg and points at you.

“That’s it! There was a guy and his mother that used to run a place called the Traveler’s Inn. You look like him. He married some other waitress that worked there. Sort of a quiet girl. Always thought she was a bit prissy. I think her name was…Elsa?”
“Eliza. That’s my mom.” You say.

“Yeah, I can see that. Though you look more like your father. Hrm. Small world it seems.”

“Indeed.”

“Well if neither of you are interested in joining, you two are still welcome to rest here until morning. Consider it my rare courtesy towards an old gang acquaintance who my dead dear sister had a minor crush on and the eye candy who I’d have my legs wrapped around if this situation was a bit different right now.”

“Hm, well we appreciate it Flame.” Zalmora responds.

“Anyway, you guys want any dwarven ale? We got several barrels of the shit and nobody here likes it. Not even sure why we took it really. I think one of these idiots said it might be valuable, but hell if I know where to unload it. I mean we’re fucking bandits, we aren’t exactly in the business of trading much of what we take.”

You and Zal look at each other.

“Y’know Flame, we’re thinking about starting up a new business in Hessla, If you hang on to that ale for just a bit longer, I think we might be able to get you something in exchange for it.” Zal says.

This new business isn’t exactly going to be the type of work you’re used to, but maybe this new phase won’t be too bad. You suppose you’ll soon find out though.

I've enjoyed reading this update. Hang in there, End. :P 

Thanks Thara. 

Trying to get done with this path a little quicker than the rest (shorter path in general) since I wasn’t as enthusiastic about this one, but it turned out to have a few really good scenes that I enjoyed writing. Happens like that sometimes.

I'm curious about how many paths you've finished already.

And good morning.

10 epilogues, 3 main paths that split into several major branches. Currently working on finishing this 4th one which will probably just have 1 epilogue.

After that there’s a prison path I want to work on but I might just release what I got first and add that (and the female path) later.

Oh I hadn't noticed you'd bumped this. I'm glad being in Detroit has inspired you to write about old acquaintances in gangs.

Updated my journal...

Completed epilogue 11. Last one I'm doing for this bit.

Need to tie up 10 more loose ends and then the male path will be complete or at least complete enough for me to finally publish the story.

Updated my journal…

One more loose end to go. Might add another epilogue bringing it up to 12 for this half. (Minus the prison branch I eventually want to expand later for the male path)

Then I guess I’ll start copy/pasting it, assuming this site is still alive by then. If not, it’ll be up at Infinite Story.

"assuming this site is still alive by then"

I don't want to think about that, End. :(

Well I imagine the site will be still be alive, the problem is if its going to be functional in a way that it isn’t a pain in the balls to actually access on regular basis.

Is there any one that would know/that could do maintenance on the site?

Just JJJ and Alex.

Mizal said Alex's main site is messing up as well and everything is on the same server, so I dunno if he's already in the process of trying to fix it or not.

EDIT: Hm, seeming like the site is behaving. Hopefully stays that way.

EDIT 2: Guess not.

Updated my journal…

1209 pages on Word
538,057 word count
12 Epilogues (And one with an extended ending)

Finished.

With the male path at least, and actually there’s still one more bit I want to add on eventually for that (A prison path) and there’s the whole female path that will need to be worked on much later, but for now the story is complete.

At some point I’ll have to find time to post it. Might take a moment due to being busy, the site fucking up (biggest current annoyance), the size of the thing and just wanting to finally take a break with it.

In any case, I’ll try to post it sometime soon. Probably in the summer.

Wow. Congrats!

This is going to be such a long read. I'm guessing the female path would make it 1mil or close to that number? :)

The goal would definitely try to have as many epilogues for the female rogue so yeah around the same word count as the male one hopefully.

I thought he said that the female path only gets like two epilogues so that no one can confuse us with CoG.

I don't think that anyone would ever fail at making the clear distinction between the this place and Cogs. 

Updated my journal...

Yeah, yeah, I'm still planning on trying to publish this during the summer, but I am already in the process of working on the prison path. 5 pages so far and this is an indication of what branches can be anticipated for that part.

Dreadcage Redemption

“It’s a fucking hell of a decision. I feel like I’m still fucked no matter what I choose.” You say.

“Well better than being proper fucked by Kronk and his lot if they get ahold of you.”

Marcus then gives you a serious look.

“Yeah the choices are shitty and I wish I could tell you that you’ll be alright. I wish I could tell you that, but I think you know that life ain’t no fairy tale from a children’s book. Life is full of shitty choices, you just have to figure out how to make the best of them and it’s like I’ve always said, get busy choosin’ or get busy dyin’.”

Words of wisdom indeed.

Join the Ebony Claw Syndicate

Join the Human Brotherhood

Request protective custody

Get sent to the Greenstone Mines

Volunteer for the Delantium Military

Updated my journal...

It's a good thing I made multiple copies.

Oh no what happened?

Nothing major, I made a new "garbage" copy of Rogues and I was starting my long copy/pasting process and while I was doing it I was deleting the text that was already finished.

In the process of accessing the new chapters and making some corrections to the main copies, I discovered that I accidentally deleted some of the text from the main copies.

Now, I already had copy/pasted the text to here, so it wasn't going to be lost and gone forever anyway, but it would have been an annoyance for me. Fortunately the garbage copies were still intact (which is what I was supposed to be altering in the first place) so it was a simple matter of saving over the main copy and thus restoring it to what it was supposed to be.

Even if I didn't have an intact garbage copy, I still had the copy on my flash drive, so again yeah, good thing I make multiple copies.

brb making some backups of my stuff

Smart man

Maybe I should start doing this as well lol

Updated my journal...

Completely copy/pasted all Klyton related paths. (and the prison path nubbin)

Holgard related paths will be next and then the partners in crime path

Updated my journal...

Finished another major branch, meaning I've got 8 full paths with epilogues completed (out of 12). Two more major branches to go.

Updated my journal...

Finished all of the Holgard branches. 10 out 12 epilogue paths completed. One more major branch to go.

Updated my journal...

Finished the copy/pasting process. Will go back and click through the story just to double check everything. Probably will post story after the current contest judging and make a thread in the parlor room at that time.

I am beyond excited for this.

Updated my journal...

Damn good thing I decided to go through this, because a major chunk of the story would have been inacessible.

Somehow I managed to write 2 whole chapters of a major branch without it being linked properly. I am almost positive I DID link it, but I'm going to chalk it up to the site fucking up and not saving it and weirdness ensuing.

Anyway still need to go over this even more carefully, just to make sure nothing else is all fucked up. (Besides the shit going on with the story characters obviously)

Personally I blame the Jews.