Faulke: Daemon Lost

Faulke Tavian is a enchanter, herbalist, scholar, and master of disguise. As the head of the Thief Gendarme, he pursues the esoteric by any means necessary. This is a preliminary sketch for the cover of Daemon Lost which will display the ensemble cast.

Faulke studied the young men before him and decided to mimic their demeanor. If he was going to be turned away, he didn't want his adversaries hunting him down for his audacious inquisitiveness, but rather be dismissed as a local drunk.

He used what little transformative magic of fashion he had on hand, removing his leather doublet to hang askance in the crook of one arm while loosening his collar strings.

“Was your ugly mug and weak knees that soured her taste! Now bugger off!” grumbled one ruffian as he shoved the most drunk of the lot through the sheet of rain. He slipped in the mud splashing it over Faulke’s trousers.

“He's still weak in the knees for her” another of the group crowed while the others cackled in laughter.

“Tain’t just his knees!” the third called over his shoulder as they left to rabble rouse without him.

Faulke withdrew a vial of belladonna tincture, poured a few drops into each eye. He reached out an arm to help up the abandoned drunk from the street, mud still caked on half his face. “Time to be born again and slay your dragons” Faulke escorted the young drunkard back through the sheet of rain. He confronted the man's hazy gaze “Take me within like your brother and we will conquer as lords.”

Comments

Kyra: Daemon Lost

Kyra Dakar comes from a clan of gypsies that once roamed Sibain before her father settled down to run a curio shop in Gavrenslocke. This is a preliminary sketch for the cover of Daemon Lost which will display the ensemble cast. The stranger then turned to draw the shop curtains and flip the Open sign to Closed while Kyra remained frozen staring out the now obscured store window. During her moment frozen there a lifetime seemed to pass. She saw her mother and father holding each other, their eyes eerily reflecting the flickering light of a bonfire, while she played foxes and hens with the other gypsy children. She could hear the caravan dogs baying to the wild wolves of the alpine woods, the laughing and shrieking of children in the dusk light, and the murmur of all the adults as they solemnly spoke around the bonfire. The smell of ashen debris mingled with the scent of fresh pine and spruce as the fire growled and blustered over their encampment like an angry titan. That mom...

Pulp Awakenings

I came across the perfect analogy of my own pulp awakening in John C Wright's foreword to Jeffro Johnson's Appendix N: The Literary History of Dungeons & Dragons . "Imagine if you had lived in a house for decades, as had your father before you, and grandfather, and you thought you knew all its halls and chambers. Idly, some rainy day, or when the snow has covered all the roads, you take up a lantern and go to see what is stored in those old boxes in the cellar, or where that one small door you never opened before leads. You pry the door open, and it groans on rusted hinges, and beyond are caves of wonder, heaped with treasure. Here, like a column of fire, stands a strange genii and other spirits bound to serve your family. They are willing to carry you whirling through the air like an autumn leaf, in less time than it takes to gasp in awe, to far and fabled lands beyond the cerulean ocean, to elfish gardens of dangerous glamor, to jeweled mountains, alabaster cities...

The Return of Rolecasters?

I 've been musing about podcast ideas and possibly reviving Rolecasters . I'd want completely overhauled setup, objectives, direction, and content matter. So once all of those fall into place, I guess we'll see if the name "Rolecasters" still fits. My dedicated co host has moved on to other endeavors, but has pledged her support as long as she doesn't have to do anything. Honestly I've missed the weekly+ shows and all the great friends made along the journey. The rate at which we produced content back then would sink my currently running projects, so if there were a return it would be with a more leisurely cadence, especially since it would be now be a solo project on my part. While I continue to mull over the prospects, I thought it would be appropriate to share an almost decade long cherished podcast, Mysterious Universe . Their focus has always been on entertaining storytelling and, upon reflection, the majority of tales told are incredibly pulp. Alt...

Search This Blog