Michael DeAngelo's Blog, page 2

The Whispers – Chapter Six

Hello there!  Thank you for joining me for another chapter of Tellest’s newest feature, the “interactive” story, The Whispers—a story which you and readers like you are helping me tell.  For ease of navigation, I’m going to have little mini tables of contents on these posts, so feel free to use them to jump around and discover how The Whispers works, how you can help steer the direction of the main character’s choices, and, of course, read the story.  I hope you enjoy taking part in this interesting new Tellest adventure!

The Whispers Concept

The Whispers – Chapter Six

Voting Instructions

 

The Whispers Concept

The Whispers is a story that takes place within the Tellest universe.  It’s a story that is written by Michael DeAngelo, but it’s told with help from the readers.  The Whispers follows Declan, a young man who was recently evicted from the temple where he grew up.  When he was younger, he used to hear voices, and the clergy interpreted those voices in ways that they thought brought them closer to divinity.  But with the whispers growing quiet, Declan was no longer needed at the temple, and he was instead shipped off to a nearby adventurers’ guild.  The voices have recently returned in his time of need, and have offered him advice on what to do in order to survive.

If you haven’t already figured it out, you are one of those potential whispers!  At the end of every chapter, Declan is given a choice.  Every reader has the chance to vote and influence Declan’s decision, as long as you’re a member of the Tellest newsletter.  Every time you vote, your voice holds more sway as well.  Everyone who casts their vote in earlier chapters will now have a stronger voice, and Declan will hear them a little clearer.  So for your voice to be heard best, you should get in on this story early.  There is another way to gain additional voting power, but that will be described in the voting instructions at the end of this post.

First thing is first: you’ve got to read the story (starting with chapter one, if you prefer).  Then if you’re not already a member of the newsletter, go ahead and sign up!  Tellest has awesome freebies that we give out right away at sign-up, and more that come along every few weeks.

Without much further adieu, let’s continue our tale, and find out the most recent choice Declan made with the help of our Council of Whispers…

 

 

The Road

Though the disembodied voices invaded his mind like nothing before, he felt his own conviction with more clarity than ever.  He looked at those he began to trust—even though he had known them each less than a day.

As he looked at Ilayeth, he heard the whispers almost chant her name.  She had her own powers that could help to bolster his own, and with the long way back to Fespar Temple, he could use any tutelage he could find.

Declan looked at Tornig next, and just as before, the whispers spoke his name, the word echoing in his mind.  The dwarf had a strength and conviction unlike any that Declan had ever seen, and he had to admit, he felt safer in his presence.

He shifted his gaze again, but that time, Declan’s focus didn’t land on one of his new guildmates.  Instead, he looked to the goblin he had nearly killed, and then brought back from the brink of death.  Gorik’s name reverberated in the silence of the room then, though it was somewhat quieter than the other two.

For once, he felt as though he was in charge, and the voices were merely confirming what he already knew: He had found those he needed to travel with.

“Well?” Tornig asked, folding his arms over his chest.  “Ye do know that we don’t hear them voices the same as ye, right?”

Declan shook his head, dismissing the incoherent, quietest voices that lingered in the farthest reaches of his mind.  In his heart, he had already gathered his party, and knew that the rest were needed to keep the guild hall safe.

“The whispers agree with me,” Declan said.  “I can’t do this on my own—I’ll need someone to go to Fespar temple with me.”

“So, we are to go there directly?” Ilayeth asked, almost with a hint of excitement.

“Yes,” Declan replied.  “And I’ll need you there with me.  I don’t understand my magic at all yet, and though the staff helps me focus—I feel like it is controlling me more than the other way around—you’re the only one who can help me understand what it’s like to do what you do.”

“You would not have been able to stop me, Declan,” Ilayeth said.  “This is what the Adventurers of Eladia stand for.  There are clearly some dark forces at work here.  You and I will do our best to understand it, and to prevent them from taking hold.”

He turned to the dwarf then, nodding toward him.  “I also know that magic isn’t always the answer,” Declan said.  “There’s something primal and instinctive that you can tap into, Tornig.  “If Ilayeth and I were in any trouble that magic couldn’t solve—or if we lost control of it altogether, I know you’d be there in an instant.”

“Aye lad, I would,” Tornig said.  “And if that means ye want me to be coming along, ye can count me in.”

Declan heaved out a deep sigh, one mixed with relief and anxiety.  “I heard another name clearly as well,” he said.  “Though perhaps with softer voices than the rest.  Still, I don’t think we can do it any other way.”  Declan offered up a weary grin and looked to the goblin cleric at the table.

Gorik nodded even before Declan spoke again.

“You’ll know who we’re facing,” Declan said.  “You’ll know if there’s any hope to stop them from hurting the people at the temple, and if we can’t stop anyone, perhaps you can use your magic to prevent any great tragedies.

“And Ignark,” he went on.  “I know that there’s someone that you care about among the group, but I… The whispers didn’t…”  He paused, thinking of what to say that would offer up some hope for the gnoll.  “They want you here.  I’m not sure why, but this is where you need to be for now.”

Ignark squared his jaw, and he curled his fingers into fists.  He presented a conciliatory nod, but everyone there could see the internal struggles the gnoll failed to hide.

“Are you sure this is the way?” Tornig asked, sending a quick, sideways glance toward Gorik.  When he realized everyone had seen what he intended to be a clandestine glimpse, he shrugged.  “The fella said it hisself: him showing up there could cause more problems than we intend.”

“If any did arise, I promise you, they wouldn’t be initiated by me,” Gorik assured.

“And what about the rest of us?” Jace, the young warrior, asked.  “Are any of us still to join you?”

Declan sent a solemn gaze his way, and then shook his head.  “I thought it, and the whispers confirmed it.  It would just be the four of us.”

“There’s plenty to do here, though,” Ilayeth insisted.  “The guild hall must be protected from further attacks.  The raiding party weren’t the only ones who may have seen us as a target, and if anyone gets a hint of weakness out of us, the Adventurers of Eladia could be battered even further.”

“It’s not just our home,” Tornig agreed.  “There’s history here—some of its ours, and some of it tells tales of all of Astranus.”

“And we’ll need those of you who are healthy to tend to the wounded,” Ilayeth went on.  “And to all this damage.  Jace, why don’t you go and tell Orn and Bearbane to come in and stop guarding the empty stables.  You’re in charge of the cleanup while we’re gone.  I’ll head upstairs and let Emilie know that we need Yaro to send a falcon to Grey Arches.  We might be heading there alone, Declan, but I’ll take any help we can get, especially if we run into more trouble than we expect.”

Jace was already heading toward the rear exit of the building when Ilayeth excused herself from the table.  It grew silent there, and the four that remained could feel the tension and worry as though it hovered in the air around them.

Gulping down the rest of his ale, Tornig slammed his mug to the table.  “Declan would ye speak to me?” he asked as he pushed out his chair.

Declan rose up as well, and followed the dwarf into the adjoining room, but he passed a glance behind him as he went.  Gorik and Ignark wore apprehensive looks, knowing that they’d be separated once more in due time.

Arriving in the room where they’d saved the goblin’s life, Declan understood in how much disarray the guild hall remained.  He shook his head when he saw the bloodstains upon the furniture and the floor.  Even Ignark’s hefty poleax remained in the room, though it had been propped up in a corner—nobody truly knew what to do with the intruder’s weapon.

“Listen ta me, lad,” Tornig said in a soft voice.  “I know ye’re eager ta get back to the temple, and that ye’ll be pushing us to move faster and faster as we get closer to it.  But ye’ll be needing ta take a breath.”

“Tornig, I can’t wait any longer than I have to,” Declan insisted.

The dwarf pointed at his new guildmate.  “This is what yer whispers chose me for—I’m sure of it.  Remember when I telled ye that I hadn’t yet been an Adventurer of Eladia when Gulspire, me brother, died?  Well he certainly dinna die of old age, and when news of it reached me at Coalheart Hall in the Tiverhale Mountains, I was ready to take up everything and go after the durned monsters that killed him.

“Back then, I thinked meself a would-be weaponsmith, Declan,” he went on.  “I was apprenticed to one of the Coalheart’s finest, though I was more than a bit rough ‘round the edges.  I took up a shoddy axe I had been working on, put on someone else’s discarded armor, and readied myself for the long road ahead.  Me ma and da though, they did everything they could to stop me.  It just—they couldn’t take away that need in me heart to do what I could for Gulspire.

“I was days away from home, already down to my last few scraps of food, when a stranger approached me on the road while I set down for a rest—more because exhaustion took me than anything else.  He let his horse graze in the field nearby, and he grabbed some earth nearby me, and shared some of his own food.  And then we got to talking.

“He was calculated.  He took his time to think.  When he spoke, I found myself listening more to him than I did to anyone back home.  I’m not sure what it was, but he seemed like a fellow—a man, mind you—who lived the life I was sure I was set to.  He had a broad sword on his back, a traveler’s cloak that saw its share of tatters along its ends, and wisdom in his eyes that I don’t think I had seen before, except in Gulspire’s eyes whenever he came back to Coalheart Hall.  When he asked what set me on my road alone, I dinna have any reservations tellin’ him where my heart lied.  And that was when he told me how bloody stupid I was bein’.

“You’d have thought he knew me his entire life,” Tornig went on.  “He spoke as though he knew secrets about me that only family knew.  He understood that vengeance was a worthy cause, but he knew how foolish it was to venture after it blindly.

“That man,” he said, “was Mason Gwynne—one of the better-known Adventurers of Eladia.  My folks had tracked him down and sent him after to me to talk me out of my poorly planned journey.  He missed Gulspire just as much as I did too, because they had become brothers in a way as well.  Without him there to temper my anger, I would have gone on to join Gulspire, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to avenge him.  But that we did, and as members of the same brotherhood—since it didn’t take long for me to join—and now I have no doubt that he rests in peace, content that I still have some time before I meet him in the great beyond.”

Declan locked his jaw and shook his head then.  “The people of Fespar Temple aren’t gone.  But if we don’t do anything to keep them safe, they may fall to the bandits.  Not even Gorik or Ignark know what they want, and that scares me most of all.  There’s no telling what will happen if we don’t move quickly.”

“We can be as swift as ye like in getting there,” Tornig said.  “But I need ye to remember that we have ta be cautious yet.  Learn what I did.  There’s no sense in joining the priests and paladins there and getting captured or injured or worse.”

As anxious as he was, Declan heard those words roll over to him.  Tornig wasn’t just offering him good advice.  He was pleading with him.  Recklessness couldn’t save Benedictus and the other clergy of Fespar Temple, they both knew.  But it took hearing it from the brash dwarf to understand how hardheaded he was being.  Declan nodded, and let go of a deep breath.

Tornig clapped him on the shoulder, and headed out of the room, away from the dining area.  Declan knew he was likely gathering up his axe and other equipment for the road, but he didn’t need to make the same preparations.  All he had was the staff that the whispers had directed him to, and it was waiting for him in the room they had just left.

When he returned to the doorway there, he hesitated just out of sight, for he heard another of his would-be traveling companions participating in their own conversation.

“I’ll do whatever I can to see that Melara is safe,” Gorik promised.  “You have my word.”

Ignark nodded, but the weight of his worry had him bowing his head.  “Just make sure that you don’t close your eyes to any potential danger.  She knew I was in here when she threw her explosives.  I’d like to think she cared more for my well-being than yours.  Er…not to offend you, of course.”

As Declan took a step closer, he could see Gorik flash a sheepish grin.

“Melara and Jarayas have been swayed in odd ways since that witch arrived,” the goblin said.  “Perhaps the blame is not to be cast on your…”  His words trailed off as he realized Ignark lifted his gaze upon the arrival of the guild member.

“I’m sorry,” Declan said.  “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.  But as we’re making promises, I’d like to make one too.  I have no desire to see anyone hurt any further.  While my focus will be on protecting the people I grew up with, if I can stop the attack on the temple without any bloodshed, I’ll do whatever is in my power to do so.”

Ignark blinked and bobbed his head.  “Thank you, Declan.  I believe you.”  He lay his hands out on the table, as though he were waiting for someone to bind him in chains once more.  “I know I’m not going with you, but I’ll be with you still.”

Gorik nodded as well then.  “If it is meant to be, you’ll see one another again.”

“Make sure you stay safe,” the gnoll said to his friend.  “Don’t be caught off guard—by anyone.”

Though his words seemed to imply that he still couldn’t trust Declan and the Adventurers of Eladia, no one dared to challenge them.  The creaking of the stairs in the hallway announced the descent of the other guild members, and Ilayeth arrived at the bottom of the steps with Emilie in tow.

“Yaro is going to dictate the letter to another of the guild so that we can be on our way.  Emilie, would you mind sitting with our guest until he feels ready to get some sleep?”

“If he’s been as helpful as our other attacker, we should have no problems,” the girl replied.

Declan half expected her to glow fiery red as she spoke that, but it seemed her words were more a warning than a threat.  Ilayeth waved off the statement as well, joining the companions she would be traveling with along the side of the table.

“I’m sure your legs are aching to be on the way,” Ilayeth said.  “Tornig was already on his way down the front steps when I last saw him.  If you’re ready, so am I.”

Declan nodded, eager to start what he hoped to be a hasty journey.  “Let’s be on our way.”

 

*          *          *

 

Despite the urgency that sped their steps, it felt as though night fell upon them far quicker than they’d expected.  The quartet stuck to the road, knowing that venturing even a short while from the path could be devastating in the dim light.  Any trouble that they could encounter was worth the risk to Declan, and with the whispers finding their way to his mind, there was little the others could do to convince him to slow down.  Though that certainly didn’t preclude them from trying.

“Alright lad,” Tornig said.  “Ye remember what I told ye back in the guild hall, right?”

“We’ll slow down when we get there,” Declan insisted.  “Once we know they’re safe.”

“He is right, you know,” Ilayeth said.  “You had a nice rest, but he and I are beginning to flag somewhat.”

“Now then, girlie,” the dwarf chided.  “I got me a nice little power nap thanks to our friend over here.  But I’d also call meself a liar if I tried to say I couldn’t do with another one.”

“And that says nothing for Gorik,” Ilayeth reminded.

Sure enough, the goblin trailed them by nearly twenty feet, his head bowed as fatigue wracked his body.  Still, when he heard his name, he perked up, furrowing his brow as he picked up his pace.

“I’ll be fine,” Gorik promised.  “I may be of no use if we are forced to fight, but I’ll use every ounce of my strength to heal those who may need my help at the temple.”

“We wouldn’t ask you to fight against your friends,” Ilayeth assured.  “But I think it’s fair to say your magic would be much more beneficial to us if you were well-rested.  I know mine would.  And Declan, I could teach you how to better harness your own innate magic if we stopped for the night.  Perhaps I could even demonstrate a few new spells.”

He drew to a stop in the middle of the road, knowing that each of his companions were struggling, even though they each leveled their complaints in different measures.  With every step, even the whispers became muddled in his mind, a score of different raspy voices talking over each other so that he couldn’t begin to sort them all out.

“Let me just try to make sense of…” he paused then, when he saw Ilayeth wince as he spoke.  She peered off into the distance, further up the road, and turned her head slightly.

“We’re not alone,” the half-elf assured.  “There’s some kind of beast up ahead…and I’m nearly certain I’m hearing whispers now as well.”

Before anyone else added anything to the conversation, Tornig pulled his pack from his back, and dropped it on the ground.  After rummaging through it for a moment, he pulled out a cloak, and tossed it to the goblin among them.

“I canna be the only one who thought it might be dangerous traveling with him, right?” Tornig asked.

Declan drew closer to Gorik, even as he frantically wrapped the cloak around him and tugged the hood up over his angular features.

“Could that be your people?” Declan asked.  “Did they travel with some kind of pack animals or something?”

Gorik shook his head.  “No—and not a wagon either.  But maybe you’re hearing Melara’s cackle?” he suggested to Ilayeth.  “That was always something I felt was…distinct.”

Locking her jaw, the half-elf took a few steps further down the road, tilting her head to hear the strange and distant noise.  “It’s not a gnoll,” she claimed.  “I’m sure of that.  It sounds like…a mule, perhaps.”

“Maybe a merchant?” Tornig suggested.  “Having a wagon to rest in could solve all our problems.”

“If it’s even going the same way we are,” Ilayeth said.  “But you’re right.  We could rest and offer our services as bodyguards to the caravan as compensation.”

They both saw the look of hope and relief appear on Declan’s face, and together, the veteran Adventurers of Eladia hurried along the road, passing beyond the winding trail and the trees that blocked their further view.

In the dim light, they could barely see it, but they were sure it wasn’t a caravan waiting for them there.  A single stranded wagon leaned away on the side of the road, a distant, obscured torch illuminating a silhouette of the vehicle before them.

Though they exercised caution, Ilayeth and Tornig were also swift in their approach.  Declan lagged with Gorik, offering him assuring glances, but remaining quiet as they went.

As the forward pair reached the wagon, the mule brayed, warning its driver that strangers were close by.  The torch moved out from the front of the vehicle, setting the stocky fellow who wielded it aglow in the darkness.  Once he realized his mule wasn’t just anxious in the quiet of the night, he panicked, and hopped up to the driver’s seat, leaning over into the bed to gather up something as quick as he could.

“Easy,” Ilayeth said.  “We’re not here to cause trouble.”  She scrutinized the wagon then, noticing what left it hunched to one side.  A wheel had fallen off and lay in the grass beside the vehicle, leaving the wagon unable to proceed with any real ease.  “It looks like you’re in need of help, in fact.”

The driver plucked up the item he scrounged for then.  Catching the glimmer of his torch, the bolt that sat in his crossbow was clear, though he tottered the weapon in juggling the very item that let him see those who approached.

“That won’t be necessary,” Tornig assured.  “We ain’t bandits.”

“Get over here Skanlon,” the driver said.  “You aren’t bandits?” he asked.  “What do you think bandits are going to do—admit to it straight from the introductions?”

“Listen, we can be on our way if you prefer it,” Ilayeth said.  “We’re heading that way whether you are as well or not.  But if you’re willing to consider some help, perhaps we could travel together, and offer you assistance against any real trouble that comes along.”

The second man that the driver called upon emerged from the darkness then as well.  Skanlon was much skinnier, the scruff on his face making him look almost gaunt.  Furry eyebrows fell upon sunken-in, wide eyes that only seemed to grow wider when he saw the strangers.

“We could use some help, Jordy,” he rasped.  “You know I can barely pick up the wheel on my own.”

The driver, Jordy, swallowed away his apprehension.  He looked back to the two strangers and gave them a subtle nod.  “Which way you two headed after the crossroads?”

“There’s four of us,” Tornig offered up in the interest of honesty.

“But the crossroads are as far as we’re going for now,” Ilayeth clarified.

After a quiet pause, Jordy dropped the crossbow back into the bed of the wagon.  “Alright then.  If you and your group help us get this cart back on the road, we’ll give you passage to the crossroads.  And if we fall upon any ne’er-do-wells on the way, you’ll give us some help then too.”

“We have an accord,” Ilayeth confirmed.

She and Tornig turned about together then, heading back to the pair who waited at the bend up the road.  In the darkness, even from their proximity, the dwarf and the half-elf couldn’t see the other two.  Noticing their return though, Declan and Gorik stepped forward to meet them halfway.

“They say we can travel with them,” Ilayeth said.

“If we help them fix the wagon and protect them from any dangers along the way,” Tornig explained.

“Yes, of course,” Ilayeth followed-up.  “That said, something felt a bit strange about them.  They were quick to incite, and they seemed an unlikely pair.”

“Well, we’re all a bit unlikely here,” Tornig said.  “But we’re not in it to be friends with them.  Just trying to give our legs a bit of a rest.”

“I don’t feel quite comfortable with this either, for what it’s worth,” Gorik whispered.  “Though my apprehension could be for more obvious reasons.”

“Well, we don’t have to help them,” Tornig said, folding his arms over his chest.  “The gods know we have a more pressing matter to attend.  We don’t even have to tell them.  We could just disappear inta the night and go on along our way.  But you know where I stand—or rather, where I’d like to sit.”

As his trio of companions went on, Declan could hear the distant sound of words trailing together.  It almost resonated in his mind like a quiet stream, the running water too incoherent to understand.

“Declan?” Ilayeth asked.  “Are the whispers coming to you again?”

He nodded and closed his eyes to try and make sense of what they were saying.

“You need the wagon,” a quiet whisper seemed to rise above the others.  “You’ll be too weary to lend a hand at the temple if you continue there on foot.”

“No.  You cannot,” a more desperate voice cried out.  “Bringing them to the temple would endanger them.  It is your duty to protect the people of Novistrus.”

“There are other ways,” a mischievous third voice added.

As the words rolled over Declan, he clenched his eyes shut, as though he could hear them better if he tried.  More voices chimed in, though that time it sounded as though no rhyme or reason banded them together.  There was no substance or rationale.  There was no understandable cadence or timely verse—only a discordant rabble as one voice tried to talk over another.

“What’s going on, lad?” Tornig wondered.  “What are they saying?”

Declan gnashed his teeth together, trying to see if he could identify one voice as the strongest.  “Everything.  They’re saying everything, and I can’t figure out which one is right.”  He pressed his hands to his ears, as though he could keep the whispers from spilling out of his head.

The inharmonious voices had yet to synchronize, and Declan’s eyes watered at the dissonant sound.

“Offer help.”

“Continue on.  Don’t even say a word.”

“Find a place to camp.”

“Take the carriage.”

“Get to the temple.  There’s not much time.”

They continued like that, but as they did, more of the voices seemed to overlap into a unanimous chorus.  Declan knew that he only needed to focus to discover what they wanted of him.

 

 

Voting Instructions

This month Declan has confusing new choice to make, which you can influence.  Unlike in the past few months, where there was some structure to the whispers, this time they’re discordant and inharmonious.  No one voice is there to lead the others.  What that means is that, more than ever, your voice is important to Declan’s decision.

You have until the 28th of this month to safely join the Tellest Newsletter in time to cast your vote.  I’ll be sending out newsletter emails to my readers, and this time around, you’ll be asked to give Declan direction without the choices being laid out for you.  Then, on February 1st, I’ll interpret the votes and see how the whispers influenced Declan.

Remember, there are two ways for you to accumulate voting power in The Whispers:

First, when you vote through the newsletter, you get an extra voting point for every chapter you’ve voted on.  If you voted in each of the previous chapters, your vote this month would be worth a whopping five points!
Second—and this one is for the Tellest superfans—if you are a Tellest patron on Patreon, you get an additional voting point for every $1 you pledge per month.  And that is in addition to any of the other rewards you would receive at the specified pledge level.  So, if you pledged at the $3 level, you would get 3 votes on Patreon, in addition to your votes on the newsletter responses.  That’s a lot of sway over Declan!  But it’s another way for me to thank you for helping me keep the lights on.

 

That wraps up how to vote for this month.  Remember, sign up for the Tellest newsletter if you’re not a member already, and prepare for the follow-up poll later this month in order to cast your vote.  Then we’ll see next month what Declan does in his current situation!

Quantum Quest: Merge Dungeon – XBoxOneS Contest

Howdy folks!  It’s the holiday season now, and that means that Tellest is setting things up for an awesome contest this year.  In honor of our newest upcoming project, Quantum Quest: Merge Dungeon, we are giving away an awesome entertainment system just in time for Christmas or Hanukkah or Festivus or whatever it is you’re celebrating.

We’re also using this opportunity to raise a little bit of awareness for Merge Dungeon.  We’re coming down to the home stretch in development now, and one of the things we decided to do was run a Kickstarter for it starting in January of 2020.  That’s just next month!  We thought we could bundle both things together, and help to get the word out for our upcoming game.

In Merge Dungeon, you help the dungeon lord raise up an army of monsters, merging the smallest of them into something great.  After you grow powerful troops, you can pit them against pesky adventurers who want to invade the dungeon for its spoils.

 

The game will be free to play, with optional microtransactions in place that you can use to speed up your progress—but the game will be completely accessible without it.  It’s very atypical for a free-to-play game to warrant a Kickstarter, but we’re using one so that we can spread the word ahead of our game’s launch.  And we can offer some cool rewards alongside the Kickstarter that wouldn’t be easy to pull off any other way.  Want to bring your D&D character or OC fantasy protagonist (or villain) into our world?  Here’s your chance!

We’ve got a ton of content in the game already.  Even for a hypercasual, it’s jam packed.  And if the Kickstarter and the game’s launch go well, we have a road map in place to continue updating the game for at least a year after it’s release.  As always, a project is only as powerful as its following, and we at Tellest and Black Furnace Games have some awesome followings indeed!

That’s another reason we wanted to run this contest.  It gives our long-time supporters a chance to get something awesome that they might not have expected this year.

In order to enter the contest, you’ll want to head over to the main contest link.  Once there, you’ll have to answer a very simple question about the brand associated with Xbox (Microsoft).  It’ll send me your email address, which I can use to contact you regarding the contest information.  Keep in mind, once the contest is over, you can unsubscribe at any time, though I would like you to spread the word about Merge Dungeon if you can!  There’s more than one way to get entries, too.  If someone uses your sign-up link, you’ll get additional entries, so it pays to share!

The main page of the contest has the official rules.  Best of luck to everyone who enters.  And of course, stay tuned for more news for Merge Dungeon!

State of Tellest – August 2019

Phew, it has been a long time since we’ve had one of these!  I think it’s important that you know what’s going on here at Tellest though, and believe me, it’s a lot.  Strap in and get ready to hear about all the crazy things we’ve done since our last one of these features!

Back in October of 2017 (really!), Silver Serpent hadn’t even been released, and since then, we’ve had a handful of other books come down the pipe.  Quantum Quest wasn’t out yet, and we hadn’t even started the first Kickstarter for it.  Since then, though, we have seen a lot of momentum on a lot of different battlefronts.

 

Tellest Legends and Beyond

We’re nearing the end of this beautiful, long-gestating project.  I’m so close that I can almost sense the impending doom of when I have no more books I’m “committed” to writing!  I kid, of course.  While The Maelstrom is the end of a new era of Tellest books (Tales of Tellest, Volume 2 not withstanding), I’m excited to wrap up this second phase of novels.  This was the biggest commitment that I’ve ever made for Tellest, and I’m happy that I’ve been able to show people that it can be done!  I’m going to be even more careful about it next time though, because as we know, my writing process is a little on the slow side.  My game plan for the next big “set” of books is to have more of the books done prior to running an event like a Kickstarter.  While I’m incredibly blessed that people have been so patient, it also kills me that I can’t be as quick with the stories as I want to be.

That’s not to say that there won’t be little one-offs here and there to shake things up while we wait.  As you know, there are little secret side projects that I’m always working on, and they’ll fluff up my library over the long spans between those big releases.  Speaking of…

 

The Whispers

Back in June, I began the process of starting a new project that honestly has been very interesting to try and adjust to.  The Whispers is a story that has a life of its own—it’s what I’m calling an interactive novel, because the story doesn’t quite write itself, but needs the input of other people, in this case the readers.  This month we wrapped up the third chapter, and gave the story’s protagonist, Declan, his third set of choices.  I know a lot of the beats, but I’m being surprised in more ways than one about how we’re getting to where I expect to go.  Because of the structure of the tale, I have to be aware of more than just the linear path.  It’s strange and exciting, and knowing that the way that I expect to go could be the “wrong” way gives me a detour that I have to adjust to on the fly, but it’s actually been really fun putting it together.  I thought more people would have voted the opposite way as they did in the first chapter, and I’m excited every time I wrap up a chapter, to see what choices come next.  If all goes well, the story will go on for quite a while, and when it’s done, we’ll have a book to publish with a lot of acknowledgements inside!

 

Tellest Visions & Art from the World of Tellest

Also back in June, I finally put something really awesome together that I’ve been dreaming of doing for a while.  Tellest now has an official artbook, which chronicles the Tales of Tellest and Tellest Legends.  Believe it or not, we only barely scratched the surface of all the art we’ve amassed over the years, and if things keep going the way they are we’ll have a second book before we know it.  Tellest Legends collects more than 100 beautiful pages of artwork from so many of the great artists we’ve collaborated with, and you can get your signed copy right through the Tellest website.

Just as important as where we’ve been is where we’re going, and I can tell you that you’re in for another fantastic year of art through the end of 2020.  We’ve got new artists, new art styles, some old favorites returning for new sets of art, and more.  As we continue to perform well with all that we offer, we’ll attempt to surprise you in even more ways!

 

Quantum Quest: Quarterly, Reinforcements, Merge Dungeon and More

I didn’t realize just how much content we’ve put into Quantum Quest until I wrote out that header.  We’ve got a lot of love for this spinoff, it seems, and it should show based on how much we’ve done for it, and how much its expanded.  This is the piece I’ll probably spend the most time talking about, since we have so much coming out (or that has already come out).  First and foremost, hey, we released a tabletop game!  Within months of our last “State of Tellest” feature, we officially released Quantum Quest: The Living Dungeon, and it has gone on to be a hub for other projects that we’ve worked on over the two years since.

First, let’s talk about the Kickstarter that brought our game to life.  We missed our mark on the original Kickstarter, which would have allowed us to have the game printed overseas for a much better price.  From there we would have had to figure out distribution and storage and things of that nature, so it might have been a good thing that it didn’t work out quite like we anticipated.  A Kickstarter with a smaller goal several months later meant that we were able to have a domestic print run which completely blew up and did beyond what we needed.  That was fantastic, and we’re so blessed to have such awesome fans that helped us make that a reality.  All of our games were delivered and it sounds like people had a lot of fun, and we’re still adding value to that in a lot of different ways.

At the front of the pack, a few months ago we released a supplemental magazine for Quantum Quest that told our story, including the new projects we were working on, tips and tricks, and even a short story that will be exclusive to that magazine until Tales of Tellest Volume Two comes out.

Let’s talk about the other projects that are coming down the pipeline though.  We’ve been talking about Reinforcements, the first expansion for Quantum Quest, since the first Kickstarter came out.  And it’s remarkably close to being done.  In fact, the only thing we have left to do for it is continue balancing and tweaking to make sure it is as tight as it can be.  Although, to be fair, we’ll also probably get together a few more cards to do a special Kickstarter and Convention exclusive like we do for the original box.

The project that’s coming out before that, though, is one that we’ve been working very hard on for the past few months.  Quantum Quest: Merge Dungeon is a game that’s got the specifics in the name.  The objective is to merge monsters for the dungeon master.  In doing so, you make them stronger, and more valuable to the Living Dungeon.  Originally, it was a game that strictly adhered to the merges, and the need to see what monster you were creating next, but it evolved to also include a pretty cool arena, where you’ll see the adventurers from the card game, done up in an entirely new style—yet still with Sergei at the artistic helm.  We’re also adding awesome support in the form of our programmer, Jordan Hoover, and our composer, Dakota Pawlak.  We’re so close to putting together an open beta where people can actually play the game on their own computer, and give us feedback as to how to make the game play better, and what else they’d like to see.  We’re aiming for a late 2019 or early 2020 launch, depending on how things go, so keep your eyes peeled.

We’ve got even more potential Quantum Quest video game stuff coming down the line, too.  In addition to Merge Dungeon, there’s another project that we’re working on that we’re incredibly excited about.  It’s still in the very early stages, but we’ll be giving news on that before you know it.

Finally, we’re not far off from one last piece of bonus content from the Kickstarter we ran, and it’s going to be going out to backers from our Quantum Quest and Tellest Legends campaigns.  Quantum Quest is getting its own novelization, and I’m so close to the end of that story that I can almost taste it.  It’s surprisingly deep for the novelization of a tabletop game, and it leaves tons of room for intriguing questions and as yet unanswered mysteries.

 

That will wrap things up for now, but as you’re always aware, I’m constantly trying to explore new things for Tellest.  We’ve done so much already, but by this time next year, maybe we’ll be offering up some brand new ways to experience the world of Tellest.  Make sure to check back weekly for new art, and monthly for a new chapter from The Whispers!

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Bewere Bears – Guardians of the Lumibug Forest

Howdy folks! I’m so happy to announce that Tellest is doing it again: we’re going off into a weird but fun direction, and this time, we’re looking at striking lightning with a new set of faces.  As you may recall, two of the books in the Tellest phase two collection featured some pretty interesting characters.  Werebears featured in both Transformed and the recently released Heart of the Forest.  Now, for the first time in Tellest history, the werebears are taking center stage, and starring in their own vast story.

Introducing the Bewere Bears!

These werebears are the guardians of the Lumibug Forest, and they give it their all whenever they can.  Their story is pretty robust, but we’ll save most of the bigger details for another time.  In the meantime, why don’t you spend a few moments getting to know the individual Bewere Bears?

Bramble Bear is the de facto leader of the Bewere Bears.  She can summon the power of the Lumibug Forest to her beck and call, using the mighty vines of the synoak trees to entrap any who would endanger the forest.  She’s cocky for sure, but it’s an attitude that’s certainly been earned!

Next up we have Flutterbear.  This guy might seem big and scary, but he’s actually the tamest and nicest of the bunch.  The Lumibug Forest is kind of a misnomer, because there are a bunch of awesome wildlife that live in the woods, and Flutterbear has an affinity for one species in particular: Rainbow Flutters.  When he activates his power, he can coerce a swarm of the magical butterflies to do his bidding.  On their own, the little bugs don’t realize they have magical power, but with his instructions, they become a force to be reckoned with!

Embear is a bit of a fire keg.  She’s not the calmest of the group, and she’s really easy to set off.  Still, she’s very loving and loyal, and her attitude is more often seen as funny than worrisome.  When the Bewere Bears first discovered her power, there was a lot of worry that she might burn down the whole Lumibug Forest!  As it turns out, though, Embear’s magical fire doesn’t do any damage to the trees or the animals in the woods.  That’s a relief!  Fun fact: He thinks she doesn’t know, but Embear has noticed that Flutterbear has some affection toward her…

Last up we have Void Bear.  With his mighty power, he can pull those who would harm the forest into a frightening black hole.  It doesn’t hold people permanently, but it does take them out of commission.  The only problem is, it drains poor Void Bear and he gets so sleepy!  Hibernation much?

Those are just the main four Bewere Bears.  Over the course of their story, they’re joined by a handful of other guardians.  Who are you expecting to see?

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QQ: Quizzical Quokkas

Howdy folks.  It’s a big day today here at Tellest (and Black Furnace Games).  After much reflection, we decided that “Quantum Quest” wasn’t quite working for us anymore.  Even though we were working hard on the expansion, we decided to scrap what we had.

Now, it’s important to know that we haven’t given up.  We just pivoted to something that makes a lot more sense.  We actually went back and started working on the real project we always wanted to work on from the beginning: Quizzical Quokkas!

Technology has improved enough for us to be able to make the actual game of our dreams.  Today, I’m happy to show off some of our cards.  Take a look:

We might as well show the big guy first.  Vlaming is our flagship character, and as of right now, it feels like he’s the one we’ll use on the box art, but we’ll have to wait and see how people react during testing.

Next up we have Taron!  I have a feeling that Taron is going to be a lot of people’s favorites, and she has the best chance of unseating Vlaming.  She’s just so happy and cute, don’t you think?

A lot of people just think that quokkas are only good for selfies and looking adorable, but they have been known to bite every now and then.  Seto only has a small chance of a little nibble, but still… watch out.

Up next we have Adelaide, who has a pretty cool talent.  When something comes up and she’s feeling quizzical, she summons help to give her a second glance.  It’s always good to have a buddy!

Finally, we have this little guy.  Vulker is a straight up jerk.  Not only is he feisty and bitey, but he specifically likes to torment little kids!  For shame, Vulker.  For shame.

That’s it for this preview set, but we wanted to also show off the group to tide you over:

Until next time!

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Character Art – Bixby Alladocious

How crazy is it that we have a character who was introduced in an April Fool’s joke post who then went on to star in two short stories?  Bixby Alladocious is one of our favorite characters.  He’s so off the wall and he’s able to put down some really deep roots in the Tellest universe.  When we had the opportunity to get some more art done up for him, we jumped at it.  Here’s Hozure’s take on this quirky character.

As always, we start with some poses.  In the case of Bixby, we wanted to see him with one of his poor, unfortunate bodies.  If you recall, Bixby has the ability to reconstitute his soul into a physical form after he dies—but he doesn’t lose his old body when he comes back.  A little bit of craziness ensues.

We opted to go with the version where he was dancing with his own body.  It just felt right.  Hozure showed us the outfit choice and everything here as well.

A little more detail was put in place here.  The different lighting and texture effects really make it pop.

I think the flower really seals the deal.  This tango is one of the funniest things I’ve seen, and I’m so glad that Hozure understands just how ludicrous and weird our death-defying hero truly is!

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Concept Art – Warp Elves

Happy Halloween everyone!  We’ve been planning today’s posts for a while, and we managed to rope Paul Davies into a great job helping us bring our Halloween tale to life.  If you haven’t yet, go ahead over to the Halloween Short Story post for Searchlight and dive into our tale that introduces the first truly frightening monsters into the Tellest universe.  I’m going to try and introduce scary new horrors every year so that Tellest can feel that much more robust, but the warp elves are our first big push in that direction.

If you’ve read the story, and you want to learn more about the warp elves, and see how we designed them, come along and see Paul’s fantastic work!

Everything started with a sketch (and a robust one at that).  The concept of warp elves was kind of a mix of vampires and a bunch of ancient folklore.  We wanted these creatures to be manic and frightening, but we wanted them to have their own world to withdraw to—one that would be horrifying to us, but which became home to them over countless centuries.

The warp elves use portals to move from their pocket dimension to ours, and those portals remain open long enough for them to capture a victim and bring them back to their homes.  As you can see from Paul’s art though, the portal isn’t a complacent thing either.  The portal itself is almost vampiric all on its own, sappign the life force out of the area where it comes into shape on Tellest.

Paul cleaned our awful looking warp elf up here a little bit.  When we were putting him together, we knew that the world that they’ve called home for millennia wasn’t an easy one to adjust to.  The warp elves are far more primal than the civilizations you might find on Tellest.  There isn’t any sunlight in their pocket dimension, and the landscape is harsh and unforgiving.  The land isn’t suitable for farming, so they’ve spent their time scavenging for the animals they can find.

Here you can see a little more details about the world the warp elves come from.  They have floating islands (reminiscent of The Fall’s Shandranar), but they can’t reach them.  They also have a substance that’s like corrupted lava—a molten, green liquid that almost looks like foul slime.

Here you have the full piece, with all the extra detail that Paul put into it.  He did a wonderful job, as always, and we’re so happy with what he delivered.

We hope you like what you saw of this year’s Halloween project.  It was definitely fun to explore a darker project.  And who knows, maybe this isn’t the last you’ve seen of the frightening warp elves!

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Wizard World Comic Con Philadelphia Roundup

Hello there folks! I just wanted to talk at length about our recent experience at the Wizard World Comic Con Philadelphia a couple weeks ago.  In a few words, it was awesome.  We had a great opportunity to spread more awareness about the books and get the game out in front of people again.  We made some great friends, and reconnected with some old ones.  In fact, because of that, Quantum Quest is going on a national tour!  Big thanks to Gerald King for making that happen!

I also got to do some other pretty cool things related to the con and pop culture in general.  I was lucky enough to be a part of two panels (one for how to make a nerdy living, and one for the MCU), and I even ran into a celebrity or two (nice to meet you Mr. Bernthal and Lil Bam Bam).

Overall, we did remarkably well this year, and are planning on using the opportunity next year to grow our brands even further.  If you come to visit us at Philly Comic Con next year, we’re going to have a bigger presence for sure.  Until next time!

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The State of Tellest, April 2046

Well folks, this is it: the penultimate State of Tellest blog written by yours truly.  It’s been a long 46 years, but it’s time for me to hang up my hat and let the new Tellest writers bring their own epic stories to this world.

I always said it, but it’s hard to think this time is finally here.  I started saving for early retirement in 2018, and my hard work paid off, but it’s still bittersweet.  It’s time to spend a little less time squinting at the screen while I’m typing, and spend a little more time with my family.

My last official State of Tellest will come in July, about a week before my 62nd birthday.  That one is going to be mostly me saying my goodbyes as a writer, and moving on toward other things.  With this one, I wanted to address some concerns you might have, as well as dispel any fears about the future of Tellest.  Let’s get on with it, shall we?

 

The Tellest Cinematic Universe

Of course the show must go on.  With thousands of written stories and only a few dozen tapped into, the TCU is going strong.  I am stepping away from the consulting role a little bit more as I transition into retirement.  Sure, I’ll still make cameos in all the movies in some fashion, but we’ll let Feige take the reins as far as continuing to develop the living, breathing world that is Tellest for the silver screen.  After all, if Eliza’s father Kevin could do it, why not her?

Actually, I’ve got one big surprise for you.  They’ve given me permission to announce right here on the ol’ blogarooski that a final movie to round out the Feather and Stone trilogy is coming in 2048.  Lily Rappaport is reprising her role as Kyrie, of course, and we’ll have some promotional art coming later this week that shows off the title, with the teaser to come by the end of the month.

 

Legends of Tellest

Who would have thought that this would be the 10th year of Black Furnace Games’ sprawling virtual MMO.  Sure, we’ve seen dips in subscribers here and there, but every time we announce a new expansion, those numbers shoot up.  Well I’m excited to see if we can strike lightning again, because as of 7am this morning, Director Quentin Aguilar over at BFG let the world know that our fifth expansion is on the way.  In Memories of the Forgotten Keep, you’ll experience all there is to understand of Cora.  Is she more than she says she is, or is she a maligned gods as some of heroes have come to expect.  While Aguilar didn’t mention a release date, I’d start saving your money for a good Black Friday deal!

 

Tellest Tech

A new line of augmenters is going to be on sale just in time for my birthday.  Now you can pop one of those shiny silver buttons on your temple, and with a touch of a button, your friends won’t be able to tell the difference between you and Garon Bloodaxe.  The augmenter will project out a new face for you, and change the sound of your voice so that you’ll really sell the idea!  Or maybe you want to be the sweet and innocent Liliana?  And of course, who doesn’t want to be the grizzled old veteran, Anson Fysis?

If we had these kinds of things when I was a boy, it would have made your head spin.  I’m so excited that the Tellest line of augmenters has become so popular.  I have a box full of them at home, and I can’t wait to add these new ones to the collection.

 

Well folks, that about wraps it up for me today.  This little break has been a long time coming, but I promise, I won’t be completely removed from this company I put together all those years ago!  With our third grandkid on the way, I’ve been thinking a lot of doing some light-hearted children’s book tie-ins to the grander Tellest tapestry.  Any takers?

 

Ever upward, my friends!

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Recovering

Hey there folks!

So, as some of you know, we didn’t quite hit the goals we were trying to for November.  The Kickstarter for Quantum Quest fell pretty short, and I sure as heck didn’t lose the pounds I was trying to, heh!

The awesome news is that I’ve got another NaNoWriMo in the bag.  The Quantum Quest novelization is 50,000 words strong, and it’ll probably end up growing another 20-25 thousand words before its done.

Here’s some more good news: that novelization is going to have the game to bolster.  We’re going to be running a new campaign for Quantum Quest in March of 2018.  We’ve rejiggered things so that we’ll be printing domestically instead of overseas.  Now, this does have its drawbacks.  For one, it’s going to be a somewhat more costly endeavor on a per-unit basis.  We’ll have to sell for $30 instead of $25, but we’re working on ways to build value into that package. This also makes international shipping a huge burden.  It’ll likely have to be a case by case basis where we determine how much we have to ask for people who want the game who are outside of the US.  We’re also still trying to figure what to do if we manage to somehow climb up to that $15,000 mark that we were looking at before.  Do we switch over and do overseas again at that point?  Not quite sure.  The original version of the game might have to remain domestic and then we can do huge print runs down the road.

The other good news about a domestic printing is that it’s usually handled much quicker.  With that in mind, we’re hoping we’ll be able to do another showing at Comic Con next year, where we can actually sell the game!

Alright, enough about Quantum Quest.  First and foremost, Tellest is a literary universe, so it’s time to talk books.  We’re so close to releasing the next book that I can almost taste it.  Silver Serpent just needs me to finish tweaking some things post-first-edit, and then off to the second editor it goes.  It’s a longer book, so it’s taking a while to polish, but I’m eager to get it in front of folks.  The other good news is that each of the three books that follow it are at least 66% done their first drafts each.  Arise, the sequel to Awake, is getting so good.  And with Heart of the Forest and the QQ novelization having been tackled over the course of the last three NaNoWriMos, they’re very near to done as well.

After that comes Stealing Seramore and The Maelstrom, as well as another short story compilation in the vein of Tales of Tellest.  That set is going to be nothing but short stories, as opposed to the earlier set that included the five novellas I wrote.  Trust me though, that book is going to be bursting with awesome.

So that’s it for now.  I’m hoping to have a great book ready for you soon, but until then, I hope everyone has a great holiday season.

P.S.: Another DeAngelo Christmas tale will be up on the 23rd (or so)!

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