[ST] - Venturing out into a different world

This Friday's story will lead us out into the world, a very special one I may add - though sadly no creation of my own thoughts. The realm I'm talking about goes by the name of 'Sanctuary' and might ring a bell for many many people out there. It' is fairly known for being the favorite world to invade by the Prime Evil Diablo and his two brothers from the similar named series of Diablo created by Blizzard Entertainment.

Yes another Blizzard game and yes another fanfict. I know I know, but I did not however in this special case write it just for the fun of it, but with a  goal in mind. You see, there was this little private kind of giveaway for a Beta-key for Diablo III on a German forum and I just had to try my luck.

The text I ended up writing isn't too long all in all, picturing a barbarian and his followers venturing down into the catacombs below the cathedral of (New) Tristram.
Overall I put roughly an hour's worth of work into it and for that I'm rather pleased with the outcome. It's a one-shot so you need not worry that I'll come up with more of these, though you never know until it happens ... or doesn't happen... which is kinda, yeah you get the idea.

Enjoy!


*~*


My fingers tremble under the weight of the jagged crown I’m holding onto far too tightly. It’s such a frail little thing and still it wouldn’t even let my hands that are accustomed to carrying only the heaviest of axes come to a rest. But soon enough they shall take back up the things they are more proficient with.

Standing in front of his throne, the old husk of bones binding the Black King to the mortal world rests only a few steps away from me and I hesitate. A feature the hot-headed barbarians of the North are not commonly known for, it is often forgotten that there are the few amongst even us that can guide their fury to their own ends.

How long has it taken to find this room amidst all the darkness inhabiting this shattered place? How long has it taken to carve a way through all the hallways filled by his servants? I don’t know... Speaking truthfully: I don’t quite remember the time I spend killing. Countless skeletons had been shattered over the course of the night. Countless more mindless zombies followed being ripped apart by cold steal and the flurry of blows I unleash once the rage was set free.

But it isn’t solely about slaying the mindless ones just for the fun of it, for the thrill of battle. No. There is but a cause to this madness that drives me deeper and deeper into the catacombs of this here monastery. Otherwise I would not be standing here right now.

The Skeleton King has emerged from his dreamless slumber yet again, raising his minions by the hundreds as he lingers within these halls. Dead and immortal his spirit governs over the graves of many, resurrecting them as he pleases. Threatening to swallow this part of our world as a whole in the name of the Prime Evil, he continues to build his army of loyal servants. Spreading the decease of undeath along the way that has taken so many before, he scorches the land like a plague, leaving nothing behind in his wake.

The people of New Tristram, residing so close to the source, begged me for my aid. They offered whatever they could muster as a reward, but of what use is gold for me? And still I quickly decided to face this immortal foe and put the rumors to the test. There are so many other things that drive me, though none of it is greed.

Yet even I, a simple brute searching for the perfect fight and the life-long opponent, knows as much that my axe would not be able to damage a ghost.

But there is a way as I was to find out. There is a way to bind him again to a mortal coil. To bind his spirit to his body and then end his presence in our realm once and for all. It was the crown I needed. With this token of his former life the apparition should be forced back into his mangled corpse, a vessel I will be able to destroy.

So here I stand, inches away of what could be either a pitiful ruse or a chance for me to die. Not that it mattered as the bittersweet anticipation for the fight to come already washed over me.

Would he offer what I seek?

Who knows? Though I highly doubt it due to the current circumstances...

Am I alone? Yes, and no. The darkness residing in this place makes sure for us to see as little as possible of each other, but they are here with me. Sadly for me, but fortunately for the inhabitants of New Tristram I am not the only one who followed their call.

The moment I finally step up to King Leoric’s corpse a swift gust of wind sweeps through our little group, bringing along a relentless chill to mind and body. Our warmth not yet fully taken from us I carefully set the crown onto his head.

Wary of what might be upon us, I step back, my hands already taking up my trusted axes.

His laughter is carried into the room as the wind picks up again, this time though not ceasing anymore. The voice grows louder and louder as the whole room shakes under tremors. A moment later it’s over already, everything still the same. Filled with disbelief I stare at my companions, had this been a trick after all?

The moment my lust for battle almost faded the corpse of Leoric seemed to move, renewing the fire inside me. His fingers clutched the side of his throne, the right hand reaching for his weapon hiding out in the shadows close by not far next to his resting place, the Black King emerges with a vile laughter. The mace smashes onto the ground, the place of impact clearly visible I hear something that immediately lets the hearts of my companions drop.

The bridge far behind us crumbled and fell into the abyss as the moans of his servants buried together with him in this room picked up to a choir of death.

Well met, King Leoric.

I charge at him, my weapons ready to lash out at his frail vessel as his maniacal laughter meets my own.

Well met indeed.


*~*


And there you go. Unfortunately it did not end up to be enough to actually win the key, but well - it was a rather subjective little contest and it doesn't matter too much. In the end I at least had a bit of fun coming up with this short scrap of text.

Either way I hope you enjoyed reading it as well.
As always thanks for reading, have a great weekend and prepare for the 15th of May, as hell is once again unleashed in Sanctuary! (yay)
Marc, barbarian in training

Just to be on the safe side of things: I do not own any rights for anything related to the Diablo series. It's all Blizzard Entertainment's stuff! Sue them, not me..! Which in this case would most likely mean sue err.. yourself?

A lion and a wolf in disguise!

Well hello there boys and girls. I'm glad that you all managed to be here today, or tomorrow... or maybe even yesterday already.
Let me tell you a tale full of wonder and excitement, but without actual content! So now gaze upon my prized possession ... my sacred wonder, clouded by a veil of secrecy... just... a ... moment. .. um... where did I put it?
Seems it got lost on the way. What way? Oh... uh... I forgot?

But I guess that's enough pointless rambling for one session, wouldn't you agree?

I had a bit of 'trouble' with the Blizzard Activision Community team during the last days, which pretty much took a lot of my time (and to be honest mostly my nerves) as a toll as I was trying to enter my story into their annual writing contest.
Everything looked fine first, you just have to accept the rules of said competition (which are kinda... yeah... no comment), fill in a web form, upload the document containing the text and you're off... at least that's the theory behind it all.
Shortly afterwards you receive an e-mail as a confirmation with the data you sent them. And that's were the fun started. Somethings not right... and now it's up to you to get in contact with Blizz if you don't want to get disqualified for giving false or incomplete information about yourself and/or the story.
Let's just say, it wasn't as easy as you'd hope for it to be, unfortunately above that the problem has not yet been resolved.  So I'm currently waiting on yet another email from Blizzard - this time from the US department - which will hopefully clear everything up ...
(On a side note - the whole contest thing is reason for me removing the 'preview'-parts from one of my earlier blog posts.)

For a bit more recent stuff - here is a short excerpt from 'Loner's Peak', although it is still merely a draft:

The doors somewhere behind me open, breaking up my stray thoughts.

Richard Jameston enters the room with quick, strong steps, displaying the strength and pride one would expect from him as the 'Lion of L.A.' although his black suit gives him more the appearance of a panther hunting its prey from the shadows. 

Everything on him is matched perfectly in the same color scheme I noticed before, black suit, red tie and golden cufflinks gleaming over towards me.
"Good day, Mister...?" he casually asks me from across the room without ever giving up his point of superiority as he comes closer. His voice is strong and clear, fitting perfectly for the archetype of a leader.
He barely looks any older than maybe 30, but the intel I got tells me he's heading straight for his 40's in the next two years.
"Mortinson", I reply cold, not too bothered about my cover. It'd be pointless hiding my name anyways.

There you go, as I said it's just a short excerpt of whats currently going on in the story. I polished it a bit more whilst I was copying it onto here.
Edit(1): Sorry for all the random little mistakes that were(are?) in the excerpt - as I said it's just an draft from one of my notebooks and I was polishing it up a bit for the story. Basically I took it from a bunch of scrap-work without thinking too much about it. I'm sorting it all out at the moment.
Edit (2): Hopefully all sorted out now... Joke's on me... Sorry once again for the inconvenience caused.


Also the search for the Sleeptalking book cover continues! harhar! or rather... boohoo....

But that's all for just now, thanks for reading and heave a great day,
Marc, the flammable.

P.S.: Heeere kitteh, kitteh.... here kitteh

The off-limits of a text

Well... I have to admit, the header sounds a bit rant-y-er than I wanted for it to be, but meh... It's just a play on words... which probably doesn't make that much sense but yeah.

And still the text I wanted to talk about is somewhat off-limits, because it's for another writing contest - and as my often so underestimated common sense tells me - I shouldn't be posting too much of something like this on the interwebz beforehand.
And still I just can't hold it back completely... argh...
There you go ... as long as I still have the right to do so (frikken contest rules)... a short extract of the short I've been working on during the past few days...
(It might not be for those faint of heart)

***

Edited as of September 20th: Nothing to be seen here anymore unfortunately - text entered the competition, therefore the excerpt had to be removed for the time being. 

***

It's not done yet, but it's growing quite nicely. So it should only take a few more days before I'm finished.

Now after having distracted you once again let us move on to something different. I slightly updated the page for Loner's Peak, offering links to published posts containing background on the story as well as straightening out a few other minor things that weren't up to date.

Can you believe it? That's already all for today... let's call it another short-update-madness...
As always, thanks for reading
Marc Wolfington

P.S.: No P.S. today.

FLASH!... A--AAAHHHH!

*cough*

Well, well.... Hello there.

I'll keep it short for today as everything's still a bit hazy for me. And that's the point when I just start staring at the screen for about 5 minutes and nothing happens...
Now where was I?
Ah yes... I just finished my 2nd draft for a Flash-Fiction for the Bridport Prize that I mentioned in the last updates, which basically is a 250 word short short-short story keeping it short and to a minimum, yet still is filled with (maybe short) but a lot of (short) meaning.
Short.
Sadly I'm not allowed to post any of them, because that would be against the rules if I recall correctly. (yep that's right - just double-checked)

Concerning Loner's Peak, I didn't really have the time to get further into that, but no worries. I'll come back to that in no time. Short.
On the one hand side it's nice not having a deadline... then again... it gets shit done.

Also... minor updates for the Kittens and the Random stuff.

That's all for just, as I'll probably just fall over and sleep for the next two years or so.

As always thanks for reading, have a great short holiday (if today's a holiday where you live)
Marc, the un-intoxicated


P.S.: I miss mah kitteh :<


short-short

I LIKE GLITTER

You just gotta love Ratcarver.... Hearts for my favorite undead of all times. <3<3<3 Though he'd surely prefer real hearts, eh?

After my recent ramblings about all kinds of stuff, or well... storytelling in certain video games, this time it's once again all about my own writing. And for those of you who are interested in my fan fiction - just as I've announced last time, I put up the short story "A Ghoul's Life" today.
It's all explained over on the site for 'Bloodstained Shadows', but I might as well also say a few quick things about it right here.
This short basicly is the starting point from which I got the main ideas for the actual story. About two weeks after finishing AGL I first started working on 'Scarlet Dawn' and thus BS - CoaLS.
The short story is written as a kind of screenplay, because of its heavy focus on dialogue and it's also the origion of many little jokes and minor details scattered throughout the actual longer fan-fiction. Despite these connections to 'Bloodstained Shadows' the world depicted in AGL is a bit off-set from Azeroth as it is shown in the MMO or my story.
Therefore the text should "merely" be read as a satirical take on the achievement for the ingame-title "the Insane" as well as other aspects of World of Warcraft as a whole.

On a different note, not that I'd think I might not have enought to do already, but additionally to working on 'Loner's Peak' (which I managed to do over the last few days), reading tarot cards, staring into the stars and trying to decipher my dreams I had the great idea of wanting to enter the Bridport Prize in the categories short fiction and flash fiction.
Biggest Problem so far... what should I write about? So... I'm all about brain storming right now. Or well at least not right now, but later... if my brain let's me that is...
Damn troublesome brain... also doing its stuff on its own without ever asking.


The glare he offers is vile and filled with pointless hatred. The faint smell of bourbon being the only thing that’s making the stench of his breath bearable as we stand eye to eye.

He’s ready to go berserk on me. I can tell by looking at his eyes. Ready to frenzy should I only flinch.

I tighten the grip.

As a few minutes pass his eyes slowly turn clouded again, like of any normal drunk and the gaze shifts to something more fearful as breathing turns more and more difficult for him.

There you have it... it just does things without even bothering to ask for permittion... Aw well...

As always thanks for reading.
Marc (Ratcarvers greatest fan!)


P.S.: New Kitteh should be up shortly.