21 Comments
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Lillyput Fields's avatar

Excellent chapter.

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The Black Knight's avatar

Thank you! I have been working on the next Northstone chapter today, but I’ll finish it tomorrow.

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Michael DiBaggio's avatar

Nothing like ending a nice wholesome chapter with a bit of wholesome bloodletting. I really like the little worldbuilding details you sprinkled in. It is a good handling of the quotidian nature of low magics in a fantasy world. I found the alchemical particle board especially evocative, for some reason.

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The Black Knight's avatar

Thank you :D It is my Slavic stubborn attention to worldbuilding detail on display here. I had always tried to answer a series of questions like "How would this economy operate with cheap access to low magics or alchemy?" or "What would artisans be doing with enchanted tools?" etc. I always had a lot of great players in my DnD campaigns who asked a ton of questions too and gave me ideas. With this story, I will add more and more tiny details in each new chapter.

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Michael DiBaggio's avatar

This is much needed in the genre. So many Current Year fantasy writers churn out such boring, tedious stuff it hardly feels like fantasy, and one common fault they share is the failure to make their setting seem fantastic. So much of it is just modern life superimposed on the past, with little understanding of how real people actually lived, no understanding at all of the way they thought, and no authorial thoughts given to how magic and dragons and fantastical monsters would affect any of it.

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The Black Knight's avatar

I did a lot of very cool reading about early medieval and antic age craftsmanship and used it in my worldbuilding. I mean it was time consuming, but super rewarding and not to mention cool. Do they have some form of alchemical engines? Yes, and they are operated by magic and alchemy! Do their use of monster or magic ingredients affect their economy? Yes, and they even had a potion opioid crisis!

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Michael DiBaggio's avatar

To write something worth reading, one must first have read a lot of things worth reading.

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The Black Knight's avatar

It started with me being annoyed at one beyond boring insert of the tech vs magic trope, which is great when implemented well, but in that particular case ended our DnD campaign. I then made sure to take notes of what not to do and read a ton of stuff, watched documentaries on the ancient world and medieval age. I immediately stumbled upon the stupid factoid sites which peddled retarded Hollywood movie crap masked as real history. Like the dumb leather bracers for example…

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MaKenna Grace's avatar

Such a great chapter!

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The Black Knight's avatar

Thank you! I hope that more people read these :D

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Snowyteller's avatar

It's a different kind of story when the rash boy dies and then later risks his unlife stopping a undead thief.

Putting aside that nonsense, nicely establishing the stage here. Preferred the previous chapter, but that's just the trauma from annoyingly written young characters speaking.

A fresh lad is perfectly fine, and in particular he isn't an annoying brat.

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The Black Knight's avatar

Keryln is doing what his adoptive father and the temple priests taught him, including old people like granny Folst. The pensioners often babysit the small orphans as part of their duty to the Temple of Mara.

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MoraleOfficerGran's avatar

Keryln Is destined for great things. So glad he going to be trained. And the nasty ork is gone. Each chapter is exciting. Was worried about the boy there for a minute.

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The Black Knight's avatar

In a few chapters things will get really crazy!

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Charlotte Pendragon's avatar

I’m happy Kerlyn was saved from the nasty ork! 😀

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The Black Knight's avatar

If you haven’t, read the previous chapters. Links are in the index :D You have fun!

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Charlotte Pendragon's avatar

Thank you! I saw that! 💖💖💖💖💖

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Zachary Harned's avatar

"Fleshy thump," is a great phrase. Thanks for the shoutout, and keep up the good work!

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The Black Knight's avatar

I debated if this should be a squishy thump but fleshy sounded better :D

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David Perlmutter's avatar

Why was that Orc talking with an Irish accent? (How I "heard" it, anyway).

Thank you for the shoutout as always.

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The Black Knight's avatar

I would like to say that this is one of the most famous accents in Krart, but it very well may sound Irish :D Not just orks learn how to talk like this, but dwarves, and even elves. As long as they in the city and on the street, they be talken.

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