Tiffany Shearn's Blog, page 9

Coulda Been a TPK

First, I would be remiss if I did not start this post by saying, “The Seattle Sounders are CONCACAF Champions League Champions.” Wednesday night, I joined nearly 70k others at Lumen Field for the game.

It was amazing! Suspenseful until the very end. Full of heartache and drama. Filled with career performances. The opposing fans were energetic and awesome as well. Great food, great friends, and a great game!

Go Sounders!

Back to Undermountain

The day after the Sounders game was my monthly D&D session. We busted out the tacos, margaritas, and dice bags for a rousing game of role-playing!

Not Everyone Makes It

In a prior session, the group snuck past a Xanathar’s Guild (XG) outpost to do more exploring of level 2. They ended up finding barrels of dwarven ale and rescuing a young man. Those two events kicked off another round of creative strategizing.

XG knows the groups’ faces and will attack them on sight, but they—hopefully—did not also have a kill-order out on the stranger the party saved. If they dressed him like an XG member, he might be able to, safely, get in for a delivery and get out again.

While some of the party patched up a few cuts and bruises, Ashe snuck back to a potential ally they affectionately gave the code name “Invisidrow.” At the same time, Hudson went to retrieve the keg of beer they opened earlier in the day and doctored it with some poison they had on hand.

The plan was to deliver the ale, referencing the other XG captain on the level, whose name Invisidrow previously gave them. This time, he also agreed to lend them five of his wererat minions for the fight. After enough time passed for those in the XG camp to drink the ale, they would bypass the two beholder zombie watchdogs, charge forward, and open up on them.

It worked brilliantly!

A few of the humans stumbled around, a little drunk, and the wererats kept the bugbears occupied. Urg ran to the middle of the room and cast an area of effect, war cleric, damage spell. Rose and Valorik fought to keep everyone off Urg so his spell would remain up as long as possible.

Something alerted the zombies, and they started floating down to join the fight. Hudson called out a warning, and they doubled their efforts to eliminate the humanoid opponents.

Turn Undead sent one of the zombies fleeing, but the second shot a discintigration ray right at Valorik. He staggered against the blow but remained on his feet to keep fighting. Soon enough, only the zombies remained. They took them out, one at a time, dodging multiple rays.

As another blast came his way, Valorik said, “I am at peace with this.”

The ray hit, but instead of turning to dust, he ran in fear.

Finally, it was over.

They searched the room before continuing to explore to the south.

A little later, Ashe listened for movement beyond a closed door.

“Sounds like animals,” he said.

“Let’s find out what kind,” Urg said as he opened the door wide.

Three ravenous owlbears picked up their heads and charged.

The sight freezes the group in place, and Ashe barely got off a couple of arrows before the beasts barged through the doorway, biting and clawing.

Valork went down.

Ung went down.

Rose took another round before she, too, fell.

As they lay bleeding on the floor, Ashe and Anakis tried desperately to kill the creatures and keep their friends alive. Hudson flashed forward with a sword of shadow and flame even as one of the owlbears started to drag Urg off into the other room.

One down.

Another.

As the fallen gasped for breath upon the ground, the three combatants charged forward and eliminated the threat. They scattered, rushing to stabilize their comrades, only to find Urg had already breathed his last.

With tears in their eyes, they carried their fallen, dead and unconscious, to a secure location. All thoughts of exploring further faded; they are headed back to Waterdeep.

Book Days Abound

We have a few book-related days lined up and squashed together right around this week. First up was National Tell a Story Day in the USA on April 27th. Today, the last Saturday in April is Independent Bookstore Day! Finally, tomorrow kicks off the start of Get Caught Reading Month in May!

National Tell a Story Day 

On Wednesday, I decided to celebrate this day by posting a few shorts on social media about the various realms mentioned in my Hidden Series. Depending on if and where you follow me, you might have seen one of these three blurbs pop up in your feed: 

The Realm of Elaria, homeland to the elves, used to exist in balance. Growth and destruction. Life and death. Good and evil. Kahnlair has broken this balance. For the first time, evil fights united. A merciless army spreading and overwhelming the allied forces until even the immortal elves face extinction. Centuries ago, humans came to Elaria from a realm known to the elves as Aryanna. The two crossed briefly, less than a mere hundred years, for the human realm is governed by the physical world around them. Laws of math and science hold sway, and the humans developed to a point incompatible with Elaria. The realms drifted apart once more. Small human settlements remained within the mystical realm, but in Aryanna, all the elves left behind were legends and folklore. The magai of Scorcellen know a great deal, and entirely too little, about the existence of other realms. Scorcellen exists in a magical bottleneck of sorts. In one direction, the realms become lower magic, floating around each other in a nearly linear pattern. In the other direction, the realms fan out, spinning and bouncing off each other, generating a stew of high magical energy, energy the magai need.

I have been getting more questions about the realms and how they interact from readers.

For the Hidden Series, broad information about the realms is not central to the plot, so I have yet to find a way to bring it into the story without it sounding like an out-of-place lecture. 

To resolve this, I have decided to kick off a series of blog posts about the realms as a perfectly placed lecture instead! Readers who follow my blog here or later check the website will be able to get some of those answers to questions I will likely not be fully explaining in the books for quite some time. 

Independent Bookstore Day

For this day, I am going to highlight Page Turner Books in Kent, WA. Earlier this year, Wayne at PTB gave me a table in his store for the Meeker Street Nerd Party event for my first book signing ever. 

PTB has a great selection of books, new and used, and things like Funko toys. Next door, PTB recently expanded into a second location for comics and manga. Between the two, they likely have something to satisfy your reading needs. They also participate in Meeker Street events and have additional nerd-related signings. 

Do they stock my book(s) yet? No, because I’m not yet on expanded distribution on Amazon, and I have not reached out to see if he is interested in buying a couple directly from me. 

Eventually, this will be the most likely bookstore to find signed copies. Once I’m in demand enough for expanded distribution, PTB will be one of the closest indie bookstores to me and easiest for me to stop by and tag a few. 

Get Caught Reading Month

I have decided to issue a challenge to you all for this month: 

In the month of May, anytime from the 1st to the 31st, post a picture or video of yourself with my book (cover visible in either format) on social media and tag my relevant account. It could be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok (@tiffanyshearn_author), and all of my accounts except TikTok are at the bottom of my blog, newsletter, and website. 

If just ten people do this, when I do my Hidden Sanctuary giveaway of a signed paperback later this year, I will giveaway two instead of just one, AND everyone who makes a post will automatically receive one entry. 

The giveaway will be done the same way as the first time through the newsletter with the same fine print (mostly around not being able to guarantee international), but you do not need to be signed up for the newsletter to receive this social media entry. I will also allow the winner(s) to pick which of my two books they want me to sign and send. 

Have fun getting caught reading in May!

Business at Hand

World Book and Copyright Day

Today (April 23, 2022) is yet another day to celebrate books and storytelling. 

“Books have long embodied the human capacity to conjure up worlds, both real and imagined, giving voice to the diversity of human experience. They help us share ideas, obtain information, and inspire admiration for different cultures, enabling far-reaching forms of dialogue between people across space and time.”

– unesco.org (https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/worldbookday)

This is an amazing time to be a writer. While there remain limitations in the industry, today, almost anyone can write and be heard. You can blog about your passion for food. You can write, publish short stories or books, and pick from multiple methods for reimbursement. Newsletters, memes, skits, jokes…the world is listening and closer than ever before. 

Copyright

Literary works are “protected” as soon as they exist, but such protection does not guarantee smooth sailing. There may be unscrupulous people stealing your work and claiming you are the thief. Distributors, such as Amazon.com, require proof against such claims. While tedious and frustrating, this helps protect everyone involved. 

To help arm myself, in case I ever face such dastardly knaves, I submitted my work to the copyright office for registration. I now have proof of registration to provide to distributors or others should it become necessary. There is a cost involved in registering, but it is minimal compared to the complications one could face in a dispute without it. Based on all I have heard through various writer groups, I recommend official registration for all writers. 

Other News

I have decided to move my books over to Kindle Unlimited this year! As I am already limiting my distribution through Amazon.com only, the shift has only a few additional drawbacks. Being in KU will allow me more flexibility with pricing and the ability to reach a wider Amazon audience. 

My plan is to shift Hidden Memory over about a month after Hidden Sanctuary releases, then give Hidden Sanctuary a few additional months before moving it to KU. This plan allows me to distribute my digital ARCs without violating any agreements. It also gives those purchasing the book directly a slight advantage for their support.

In another nod to my preorder supporters, I will be starting Hidden Promise, book 3 in the series, at a lower price during the preorder period and raising it to my standard eBook price after release. Thanks for all your support as I kick off my writing career!

What a Week

Last weekend, I polished three more chapters of book three to send to my alpha readers. It kicked off a busy bunch of days for me, most of which subsequently had little to do with my writing. Work has been long hours packed with deliverables and meetings. 

If you don’t know much about working in finance, the first two weeks of the month are usually busy. In the first week, accounting is closing out the books with all the final transactions coming in. This week, week two, is when the data makes its way to us finance analysts for performance analysis.

I spent much of the week working through variances and presenting performance to various people in the organization. The rest of the week, and my long workdays, were driven by some capstone project presentations. These are fun because I get a chance to work with new company leaders kicking off a new role, but they are also draining.

Each one lasts one and a half to two hours, and I attended four this week. 

That all adds up to a lot of people. I am exhausted, and it is shaping up to be another busy weekend. Tonight is a Sounders game, and tomorrow a Reign game. I will be having fun watching soccer this Easter, and I will have to take my mom out later for missing lunch. 

The Sounders won their game on Wednesday evening, which means they are heading to the CONCACAF Champions League Final. The second of the two-game series will be played in Seattle, and I’m excited to attend with some friends in early May. It should be a great game. 

With all of this going on, I have two updates for you before I sign off for the weekend:  

The book cover for  Hidden Sanctuary  is done! I will be sharing it with my newsletter first (probably tomorrow or Monday), so sign up on my homepage today if you don’t want to wait a month to see it on the rest of my accounts!The Hidden Sanctuary manuscript is with my beta readers, and my editor is lined up. If my current progress holds, I will release the paperback around the same time as the ebook. Fingers crossed!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter Sunday!

Encourage a Young Writer

Tomorrow, April 10, 2022, is National Encourage a Young Writer Day. To contribute to this day, I will share one of the creative inspirations from my childhood.

I am often asked, “where do your story ideas come from?” The truth is that it usually begins with one small spark of an idea and grows from there. This spark might be a world, a character, or even a character trait, and then I build it out by asking questions.

“That is a cool world idea. Who might live there?”

“I would love to have such a superpower. What might someone do with it?”

Early Storytelling

Blueberry was super shy.

Some of my earliest stories were told with my sister as we played with our pony town growing up. Though I struggle to remember all of them now, each pony had a name, personality, job, and family. They lived in a world of our creation and interacted with each other through a make-believe daily life.

The regal, royal family. I think the big ones were called Fashion Star Fillies.

We had a royal family and a dashing fireman. Strawberry loved to bake crumpets to go with Mrs. Pots’s tea. Tic Tac Toe was the bad boy of the children, while his father, Parrot, was the smooth talker with the adult ladies. Butterfly had an attitude, often butting heads with Boat, but all the children helped out with the babies.

All the kids. Heartstrings and Lollypop were the sweetest.

These are still some of my favorite memories, and I’m certain their lives have influenced my work. To all the writers out there, what is one of your childhood inspirations? For all the young writers out there, don’t be afraid to tell the story.

The “fuzzy-fliers” were our favorites. Rabbit could fly super fast.

Little Cat Adventure

Last weekend, Little Cat (LC) had herself a furry freakout. While I worked on Hidden Sanctuary all day, my husband decided to take the time to tackle our pond out back. 

It is a lovely addition to the yard and provides a soothing sound when we run the waterfalls. Unfortunately, water evaporates by the gallon in the summer. In the winter, it collects leaves and pine needles and then turns it all into algae and frog eggs in the early spring. We try to take all the eggs to a local wetland before the draining and cleaning take place. This year we relocated a frog along with them. One final pouch of eggs is still in a bucket out back—it was found late in the process. 

I say “we,” but all of this work was 99.9% him working over about eight hours. A few patches of pond armor are still needed, but it looks amazing. We have a skimmer and a new vacuum, so we are hoping we can keep it sparkling this year. 

Looking good for summer entertaining!Little Cat Explores 

LC has some squirrel friends she’ likes to watch during the day as she sits in front of the back sliding door. My cats are indoor cats, but every now and then we let them into the backyard to sniff around, usually with the harness and leash on. 

As much as she loves the backyard, she is terrified of people. Whenever friends or family stop by—or even a delivery person—she bolts from whatever sunny spot she found to go hide under a blanket. We have no idea what drives her to be so afraid, but we let her calm down in her safe place.

On Sunday, her split personalities collided in spectacular fashion. After finishing with the pond, my husband found LC in front of the screen door, sniffing and listening to the outdoors. Mowers and trimmers were going, our pond vacuum had been on and off for hours. Despite all of that, she remained interested in the yard.

We put on the harness and leash and led her out back to show her the nice clean water. The trickling of the waterfalls raised her anti-water hackles, so she started pawing off between a couple of bushes. Everything was normal, calm… then the neighbor behind us yelled at his dog.

LC freaked the fluff out. She bolted so fast that the leash pulled out of my husband’s hand. Leaping over the grill, she was halfway up the window screen by the time he reached her. He caught her as the screen pulled out and away, starting to fall, only to have her scratching his arm up in her panic to bolt yet again.

She sprang away from him and climbed nimbly up the screen door, clinging to the top as the two of us worked to hold onto her while gently peeling her off her perch to bring her safely back inside.

Finally, she came loose. I had her scruff and bent to set her gently inside the doorway. The moment she saw her safety blanket through the opening, she decided to use my face as a springboard. Her back claws pierced my cheek and lip as she tore forward.

The leash caught her again, but inside she held still for me to remove it and take her to another safe spot upstairs. LC calmed quickly after that, and we three—including Big Cat—sat with her for a few minutes as she peered around cautiously. I palpated for bruises, finding no pain response. A half-hour later she was back downstairs, once more staring out the back window. 

No permanent harm. The harness and slightly elastic leash kept her from hurting herself or running so far that she got lost. Her trust in us kept her from being traumatized. My face should heal fine, and you can bet your bum we will be scouting for stranger danger before she gets to sniff around out back again.

Don’t worry, I live to fight another day!

Generating Interest

Advertising

Recently, my sales have slowed to a trickle, along with my Amazon ad impressions, so I decided to give Facebook ads a try. The opinions of Facebook ads in the indie-book business group I joined are pretty mixed. Some other authors have had success with Amazon ads and none with Facebook ads, while others experience the opposite. 

I searched through the group’s previous posts and responses on the topic, but there were no conclusive or overwhelming answers or experience in either direction. It is a very mixed bag, even within the same genres. So, I decided to do some research through trial and error.

Dusting off my Canva skills, I created two images (main post image and the one below) and ran with a few different headlines and a link taking folks to the Amazon page where they could buy the book. 

I Made a Sale!

I still celebrate every sale and preorder, but the conversions are nowhere near enough to cover advertising costs. It means my advertising is not doing its job and I need to make some changes. 

I need dynamic ads…which means researching dynamic ads. This one will have to wait until I send Hidden Sanctuary to my betas.I need more reviews. The best I can do here is remind and provide easy links whenever possible. If you haven’t left a review yet, log into Amazon now and do so today!I need to finish the series. I’m working on it!I may need to change the description or title. The description part is easy enough. Understanding how to change it to entice readers to buy will be the challenge. I’m also considering going into KU, but more research is required before clicking that button.Title changes are a can of worms. Sub-titles will be the first thing I work with because those are modifiable on KDP. Changing full titles means new covers and a complicated mess of publication drama. I do not see myself doing this. My time is most valuable in writing more books. Onward!

Eventually, I will get to a reader magnet short story. If you have read Hidden Memory, do you have a favorite character? Is there someone or something about whom you want to know more? Do you have a favorite scene or quote I should feature?

On another topic: Should I do a launch party for Hidden Sanctuary this August? A virtual launch party? 

Let me know answers to these questions here or on my social media accounts. In the meantime, thank you for your support, and don’t forget to leave that review!

March Updates

Wedding Bells

This week marked my fourth wedding anniversary. I married my husband on St. Patrick’s Day in 2018, which happened to be a Saturday that year. We had already moved in together a few years earlier, so the day itself did not change anything about our relationship. It was, however, a fantastic reason to throw a party with friends and family together.

Our dragon cake toppers and a couple of the dice!

In keeping with our personalities, the event was super nerdy. Our guest gifts were d10s with our initials and d20-shaped coasters. We topped our cake with two dragons in the colors we wore, and instead of a photo booth, we hired a caricature artist for the evening. 

Our caricature was placed on the welcome table. Artist: Zach BagleyHidden Series Progress

I currently estimate myself behind on editing Hidden Sanctuary by about a week. This is based on my schedule of trying to release the paperback simultaneously with the ebook. The paperback versions require more up-front work with formatting and test prints. While the ebook schedule is well on-track, the paperback might be out a week or two later. I would rather push the release out than rush the editing process. This is a primary reason only the ebook is available for preorder. 

My beta readers should receive it in early- to mid-April and then my editor in June. I’m starting to line up their time for those slots, pinning the schedule down as I progress through the alpha feedback. Once I post this blog, working through those revisions and edits will be the remainder of my day. 

This week I sent the rough sketch and description of the cover to my artist for the series. He is doing research, and I hope to share the cover reveal with my newsletter subscribers early in the April newsletter (so don’t forget to sign up!). The rest of the world will see it sometime after, as I update it on Amazon and social media. 

For today’s final note, I’m celebrating Hidden Memory receiving the tenth rating on Amazon! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a rating or review. Your support means so much to me. 

If you have not yet purchased the first book in the series, you can find it in digital and paperback formats on Amazon. For those who have already read Hidden Memory, you can still go into your orders in your account to leave a review. I hope everyone enjoys these characters and this world as much as I do!

*I also got to wear green!*

Ship in the Void – Pt. 8

Welcome back to my sci-fi short story! If this is your first time visiting, I recommend starting with part 1. You can find all of these posts on the Dream Journal page. 

The story continues…

My search for corresponding time stamps in the system logs came up empty. Not only “empty,” but telling in the absence of ANY findings. The problem I now faced was that I had no idea what the missing data might be telling me. 

When looking for a simultaneous trigger for the light turning on and the door unlocking, there were zero corresponding occurrences. In the sixty seconds before and after, no one from my unit, on any floor, in any section, passed by a sensor. 

“If no initiating signal was sent, then why was one received?” I asked myself as I headed back to the malfunctioning-light room. 

My heart kicked up a notch as I entered the hall in which I first saw the light and mysteriously cracked door. This time, I saw no light, and the door remained locked until I reached the appropriate distance to trigger the automation. 

Despite the perfect system response, the click of the lock made me jump. I muttered under my breath about fools and movies. 

Taking a bolstering breath, I stepped into the room with my toolkit and got to work dismantling the two problem areas, starting with the door lock. I tested circuits and traced connections back to the motion sensors. I was hoping—and not hoping—to find a faulty piece somewhere along the line.

Finding it would provide an answer, a specific issue to explore further. Unfortunately, with the breadth of the documented problems, faulty hardware would mean a quality issue of disastrous proportions. The entire ship would be deemed unsafe, and the initial flight would be delayed until a complete retrofit could be executed, perhaps even indefinitely.

As much as I wanted to find the cause of the glitches, I didn’t want it to be a pervasive hardware issue. This ship, this mission, was the foundation upon which my dreams were built. I grew up watching the idea become a reality. Without Inspiration, I’m not sure what I would be doing with my life now.

I traced the lines, hoping as I did so I would find nothing. 

The door came back clean, then the light. Sitting in the center of dismantled panels and electrical parts, I breathed a sigh of relief before realizing I found myself back at square one. My head tilted back, knocking against the wall.

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I made a mess and still found nothing!

“Bitsa,” came a voice over the coms, “Isis here. Flash asked me to set up the watch-bot you requested.”

When I explained my theories to Flash, I asked if he could arrange for a programmed bot to watch for any additional instances of “incoming calls without a corresponding “outgoing call.”

“Hey, Isis,” I said. “Thanks for setting that up. Would you let me know if you get any hits?”

“Yeah,” she said, drawing out the word, “that’s why I’m calling. Your bot just pinged.”

I bolted upright. “What’s going on?”

“You caught a big one. Every docking-bay door just received orders to seal and lock.”

“All of them?” I asked, sitting forward to grab hold of my datapad and see for myself.

“Every single one,” Isis verified. “I’ve confirmed no orders were issued to the bay doors.”

“Can you countermand the orders?” After a brief pause, her voice came back on sounding concerned, “Negative. Controls are locked to the core. Bitsa, I’m bringing in Flash and Tryss.”

As Isis brought our leaders up to speed, I dug into the orders received by the doors. They were simultaneous and all contained the same order code.

I felt light-headed when the details on the code came through, the blood draining until my face felt numb. Before I could say anything, Isis cut through again.

“We have a second ping on the watch-bot,” she said. “Inertial dampeners are initiating centralized gravity.”

I dropped the datapad, levered myself up, and took off running.

“All hands, “Tryss said over a universal comm channel, “brace for gravity shift.”

“Tryss,” I shouted as I ran, “you need to get to central command! Now!”

“On my way,” she replied, then followed it with, “Bitsa, explain.” 

“The orders have a common command code this time, “I said, not yet winded. “It’s for the sequence to initiate the interstellar drive!”

Tryss swore, using words of which my mother would not approve, but I understood the sentiment.

“HUD shows me fifteen minutes out from central command,” Tryss reported, then I heard her mutter, “Why is this ship so big?”

“Isis said reversal commands unresponsive,” I noted.

“I heard,” she said before addressing another member of our unit. “Carnival, you’re our drive expert. How long do I have?”

“Not long enough,” came Carnival’s voice, full of resignation. “Once confirmed, the whole sequence takes ten minutes, and we’re already almost three into it.”

“How did this get initiated in the first place?” asked Flash.

I took a corner too fast and bounced painfully off the wall, stumbling back into a sprint. Get to the stairs, ten floors, then another half mile, through a coded door, across the room to a control console to enter the code. In seven minutes?

One of us could probably cover the distance flat out, but stairs and doors would slow us. We still needed to try. Tryss could give someone the code if they made it.

“It shouldn’t be possible,” Carnival answered Flash. “Initiating the sequence has the same restrictions as shutting it down. I’m looking at the footage, and there is no one there to enter a command code.” A pause, “Interstellar core is powering up.”

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“Interstellar core is powering up.”

“Block Head here,” another member cheeked in. “Ground Control cannot override. They are working to reestablish control.”

“I’m trying to hack it from here too,” Flash called out. “No luck yet.”

“Seven minutes out,” Tryss said. I looked at my HUD, impressed to note she had made up close to three minutes. Checking my estimate, I said, “Bitsa here, two minutes away.”

My breathing became labored, I had a stitch in my side, and my shoulder throbbed, but I kept running. One more long hall to the door.

“Sixty seconds to drive initialization,” Carnival called.

No, I thought, breaking out of the stairs into the final stretch.

“Forty-five seconds.” 

I hit the door, punching in my code. 

“Twenty-seconds.”

The door didn’t open. “It is not taking my code!” 

“Fifteen seconds,” Carnival said at the same time Try ss called out, “Forty-five, eighty-two!”

My vision tunneled and my hands wanted to shake as I entered her code. The keypad light blinked off, then back on.

“Ten seconds.”

“Red,” I said. “It’s still locked.” 

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One…”

Vertigo. I felt it in my head and gut as the drive kicked in, but there was no additional g-force like a shuttle take-off.

Tryss arrived, sweating and out of breath, and tried multiple codes in the door with no results. It was not until the twelve-minute ride ended that the lock disengaged and allowed us into central command.

“Let’s find out where we are,” she said with more calm than I could muster, striding to a consol and initializing the hologram display.

At first, it showed only the ship. Tryss zoomed out. 

Artist: Aurian Millan (age 11)

An enormous nebula, darkness radiating with blue and purple, served as the backdrop for an alien solar system. A red gas giant swirled with storm clouds, while its blue partner appeared to flow like an ocean. Two of the planets had rings. One of these had multiple sets of rings orbiting the planet on perpendicular planes. 

It was all so foreign. I had no idea where we were. Light-headed, a little in shock, I slid down the nearest wall, staring into space.

The End (for now).

This is the point where I woke up. Much of the detail presented in these stories has been me embellishing the dream fragments into a more cohesive story, but I have a rough idea of where I might take Tryss and team in the future. 

As there has been limited interaction with these posts, I’m probably going to put additional installments on hold for the moment. If you have enjoyed them as they have been released, or you find them randomly in the future and want more, feel free to drop me a comment to let me know. 

As always, thanks for joining me on this journey!

Elemental Rage

Our regular monthly D&D session for March happened this week, and my players took some highly entertaining actions. I’m running Dungeon of the Mad Mage with six players. Each month, we get together for a short evening session after work, targeting a minimum of four players. 

(Warning: The following will include mild descriptions of RPG violence.)

Setting the Stage

In a recent session, the party faced some rough encounters leaving them low on resources and considering a long rest to recover. Unfortunately, as they lay down to sleep, none of them were tired…at all. It would be many hours before they could settle enough. After an hour’s recuperation time, they instead returned to level 1 to send a message to their associates in Waterdeep requesting supplies.

Once negotiations with the Fampires for a tentative support alliance are complete, their new hallway base established for the donkeys, and the message sent, the group sets out to explore more of the first level. Their goal is to eliminate Xanathar’s Guild’s (XG) influence from the early levels of Undermountain. They have a strong suspicion more XG outposts remain up here on level one.

Thinking the mirrored hall safe, they elect to take the direct route to the west, where a few hallways remain un-scouted. As Urg and Valorik pass between one pair of mirrors, replicas flow out and attack the group. Before all of the duplicates disappear, one latches onto Rose, draining her of strength before she eliminates it. Urg breaks the mirrors, smashing them to pieces, hoping the act will eliminate the threat for good. 

An XG Infestation

Crouched in front of the door to the final unexplored area to the west, Ashe listens intently to the indistinguishable sounds coming from the other side. 

Are those voices? he wonders. 

The group prepares. They open the door. 

Javelin and arrows fly out! Most ping off Valorik’s armor, but a couple find their mark, drawing blood. 

Melee fighters charge forward. Others linger behind, using the doorway for cover, but leaving their monk to get mobbed. She eventually goes down—knocked unconscious from a morningstar to the head—but not before most of the enemy falls. 

Using more of their quickly dwindling resources, the group patches everyone up before slogging to the east. 

Secrets

Another hall opens up into a room where two bugbears stand watch. Seeing the party, they bolt down a curving hallway, but not before receiving slices from thrown axes across the back before they are out of sight. Rather than pursuing the bugbears into a possible ambush, Ashe points out a hidden door to the north. They enter cautiously, hoping XG doesn’t know about this area. 

Careful exploration reveals an entire hidden section of additional rooms. Behind one door is a howling sound, as the blowing of a gale. Hudson sends in his trusty feline familiar to scope out the noise. 

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Archimedes: Hudson’s familiar in animal form.

Archimedes paws forward silently, but the wind grows into a billowing scream of rage. The last image he sends to Hudson before being dispelled back into his realm is a tornado barreling down the hall with what appears to be a distorted face in the wall of wind. 

The door rattles as the elemental pounds against it, but the latch and hinges hold. As the party debates facing the air elemental now—despite limited health and healing—or exploring another section of the secret rooms, one of the two lanterns sputters, then dies. Standing in the dark hall, huddled around the dim light of their remaining lantern, the party reconsiders their options. 

Crazy Ideas

Valorik has little interest in continuing to walk around when their last remaining source of light could go out at any moment. Based on scientifically tapping on the can and swishing it around a bit, Hudson thinks there is probably a couple of hours of oil left. 

“We’ll be fine for a while,” he assures Valorik. “Besides, Urg can always guide us in the dark.”

Not at all comforted, Valorik begrudgingly agrees to check out the other rooms. They find giant rats, seemingly uninterested in the group, and leave them alone. There are also a few statues with a handful of tiny gems missed by previous adventurers. Once again, Valorik campaigns for a strategic retreat back to their new base, but Ashe has an idea. 

“Guys!” he calls out. “I have an idea!”

Valorik groans. 

Rose raises a skeptical eyebrow. 

Hudson tilts his head in curiosity. 

Urg grins in anticipation. 

“You all hide around the corner there,” he points, “while I open the elemental door to get its attention. Then I run south, bringing the air elemental straight to the XG camp that’s there!”

“The door seems warded,” Hudson comments, scratching his chin. “I think I can take care of that, though.”

“Presumably,” Valorik emphasizes. “The XG camp might be there. We don’t know what is on the other side of that door.”

Ashe waves him off. “I will run until I find them.”

Rose puts her face in her hands, slowly shaking her head. Eventually, she shrugs at their antics. “Sure,” she says. “Why not? Let’s give it a go.”

Urg bounces with glee as Valorik throws up his hands, groaning, “You are all insane.”

They get in position, and the light fades from around Ashe, who doesn’t seem to notice in his state of adrenaline-fueled anticipation, as they depart. It is not until he runs blindly into the door with the air elemental on his heels that he recognizes there is no light and finally remembers his charm of darkvision. 

The elemental gets one good slam in on Ashe in the moment of confusion, but the rogue shakes it off and runs out into another room, past goblins and bugbears, searching for any path leading west. A javelin flies past his head as he runs, but the group behind is soon distracted. A berserk air elemental wreaks destruction, and goblins scream while violently blown about. 

“Okay,” Valorik says as they regroup. “Now can we go rest?”

Four people exchange glances around him, then Urg looks him straight in the eye, grinning once more. 

“Now we go take out whoever is left!”