http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog Dispatches from the Deepwoods Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:06:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Firing up the phraxchamber of the Wind Zephyr and setting the flight levers to full steam, we soon left the dread canyons of the Midwoods far behind. What followed was a week of hard voyaging, as Captain Ironshank, Kultuft and I made our way across the cloud-filled expanse of the ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=533 'Too late... Too late...' Bragsworn's words were ringing inside my head. Certainly it wasn't looking good. There were two of us and twenty of them. At least. All I had to defend myself was my knife, and although Bragsworn had a phraxpistol, we were so outnumbered it wasn't even worth him ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=527 What unfolded in the next few moments is still a blur in my mind. The tallow-hats, candles blazing from the brims of their crushed funnel hats, charged forward onto the deck of the Rainseeker and set about the crew with long-scythes, pitch-irons and razor-pikes. As I dodged swinging blades and ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=519 I opened my eyes. The darkness swirled. I didn't know where I was. I lifted my head to look round, but when I did so, a sharp pain filled my skull. I flopped back and closed my eyes again. There were muffled voices coming from the other side of the wall. ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=510 The hideous flock of glowing-eyed rotsuckers descended on the sky galleon, claws spread and snouts dripping. Around me on the deck of the Rainseeker, the sky pirates sprang into action. A team of burly trogs and flatheads leaped onto the phraxchamber's scaffolding, swinging large double-edged axes at the rotsuckers, that were ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=505 The sun was sinking down beneath the Western Woods as I made my way along the Farrow Lake, then cut back along a track that led into the forest to the north. After a hundred strides or so, I came to a clearing with a curious fork-trunk willow at its ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=496 The horror of what I witnessed that day will stay with me as long as I live, and I hope I never have to venture into such regions of dark depravity again. If I ever doubted the justness of Captain Skullbaiter and the crew of the Rainseeker's mission, such reservations ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=490 Lucia had sobbed for hours, inconsolable. 'Why?' she kept saying. 'Why, why, why?' I tried to explain to her the motives of the self-appointed Defenders of the First Age - fanatics, hellbent on curbing the changes to the Edge caused by the harnessing of the power of stormphrax. They wish to ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=484 The distinctive crack of phraxcannon rang out from the foredeck of the sky-pirate galleon. Moments later, I felt the Wind Zephyr shudder beneath me and, looking round, saw two phrax-propelled grappling hooks embedded in our aftdeck. The chains they trailed jerked taut, and the Wind Zephyr came to an abrupt halt. ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=478 The note that Laria handed me had been written on a piece of parchment in Forden's neat, spiky handwriting, and delivered to the Farrow Ridges by ratbird, the parchment folded and rolled and inserted into a small ironwood capsule attached to its leg.It had arrived at the hive-house while I ... http://www.weirdnewworlds.com/blog/?p=469