Sworded Tales

DMG Original Cover (1979)

I will always return to sword & sorcery.

Ever since cracking that first edition of D&D and rolling up some hack-and-slash monstrosity, I was consumed.  Don’t get me wrong.  I didn’t realize that my fate had been sealed just yet.  This was only the first wave of the fantasy assault which would shape me.

So, I wax colored polyhedral dice and dabbled with power gaming for a brief time.  Beholders feared me.  Illithid feared me.  Even Demogorgon himself was no match for my pre-teen omnipotence.  Then, I set this novel new game aside for a time and followed the fickle fancy of youth elsewhere.  A decade would pass before I would find my way back to the allure of tabletop roleplaying.

My older brother had just finished reading The Sword of Shannara (1977) by Terry Brooks.  His recommendation and my own budding interest in fiction beyond comic books were enough encouragement to try tackling this tome.  With over 700 pages!  An abridged Webster’s seemed less daunting.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of journeying with Shea, Menion, Allanon and the bunch, I envy you the opportunity to do so.  Brooks has an enchanting ability to weave multiple story lines together with nail biting chapter closures.  The pages fly by.  So much so, that he is a go to author for me to this day.  Some of the blame is his, but not all.

Lord of the Rings (1978)

The animated version of The Lord of the Rings (1978) certainly played its role.  I can see so many  of those vintage images with poignant clarity,  Boromir’s death scene, the battle with the Balrog and the haunting Ringwraiths.  I still sing this little ditty more often than I care to admit.

Are you singing it now too?  You’re welcome.

The final formative element to this love affair was the computer game Wizardry (1981).  I was fortunate enough to have access to potent technology of the era, and I of course chose to spend countless hours dungeon crawling and mapping.  Oh my god the mapping!  Those of you who have crawled this path with me will remember the graph paper with a shadowy fondness.  I still dream of it from time to time.  Curse you Sir-Tech.

There are other elements to my gamer inside, comics and horror and sci-fi and holocaust and growing up in the arcade generation.  Many of which I will explore here with fervor.  Know this though, whether I dabble in a zombie apocalypse or digress into a Magic the Gathering montage, my wanderings will always find their way back to the beginning, to sword & sorcery.

That’s the magic of first love.  That’s the heart of Sworded Tales.

Amethyst stood on the reedy bank of Lake Ire looking across the stagnant waters.  Her revenant orange eyes were cast to the far shores, gleaning the minute details from the harsh terrain all around her.  Her glum countenance was lost in the recent past, swimming along the lines of memory which lead her to this place.  Her final destination. Continue reading

Our unique muse pulls inspiration from equally singular perception.  Never dismiss your own viewpoint as anything less than the source of information it represents.  No one perceives the world as you do, and never grant anyone the power to disregard what hearkens to your senses.

Below are five different perceptions of the same scene.  Who is to say which is the most poignant?

Sisters of the Blade

Dakota

I saw the rage burning in Sue’s eyes long before tonight.  All of us had suffered with the Puño investigation, and the weeks of pursuit had added grueling hours onto already frayed nerves.  I had asked a few of the sisters to commiserate with Sue as well, probing for the problem I could smell boiling under the surface.  No true resolution was reached, but I had hoped the therapy would soften the edges of her anger.

Now this.  I tried to reach Puño before her, but she was always one of the quickest in our tactical simulations. Continue reading

The ring of truth cannot be denied.  Don’t be deception’s bitch.  Speak what’s on your mind and in your heart.

Immortal Ends

“Gimme back my arm,” Grove said in listless tones.

“I’m ot un wiss it et,” Mincer mumbled around a mouthful of mocha flesh.

Grove stared at the quadruped with flat eyes.  The ragged stump of his left shoulder didn’t seem to phase the man much. Continue reading

Gretchen quirked an eyebrow at Donny as he stood there smiling with his hammer.  He had sprinted over from next door a few minutes earlier, all pasty skin and giant mop of platinum blond hair.

“Cap busting?” Gretchen asked, “You know I don’t like guns.”

“Right, right, I got that,” Donny said, “You see any guns?”  He raised his arms and spun.

Gretchen stepped back, avoiding the hammer claw arcing her way at throat height.  Her face dissolved into a frown. Continue reading

We all live storied lives.  Each of us carries a unique muse that wields the limitless potential and horrifying burden of creation.  The terror of shadow and the radiance of song calls to us all.  The choice seems to be in deciding what you will do with this power, this singular glimpse of eternity that is yours and yours alone.

My own spark tends toward the darker elements of the trails we wander.  I fancy swordplay, and apocalypse, and abominations that strain the mind.  I will be true to story and character, and there will be ample grim tidings to overshadow the moments of bliss, and I will cuss aplenty.  Sworded Tales is my concourse of these elements, of the writer, of the gamer, of the explorer, and I make no apologies.  Nor should you.

I write for myself.  I do not know where the journey will lead, but you are welcome to walk beside me.  Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Background for Jillian Defarrik

The nightmares of shadow and stone refresh Jillian’s anxiety with each new dawn.  The sun’s rays may dissipate the darkened corners of her room, but the memories of her family’s imprisonment lurk ever more in the dim recesses of her mind.  She would scream into her pillow if she could, but she can’t.  Her voice would betray her to the hunters. Continue reading