Using word-maps for quick reference during your games

You don’t have to be a map maker to make adequate maps for gaming. A map can be as simple as showing the relative relationship between distance and location of the important elements. Even putting a few words on a page can be a map.

Take the word map of the Six Kingdoms. It shows the relative locations and rough distances between the various kingdoms, their major cities and the other lands that interact in the World of the Everflow.

Word maps can also represent a homestead, village or neighborhoods of a city.

Any player can take a quick glance and know what each location is and what they connect to within the compound. More thorough descriptions in a blog post and in the character’s notes, but these quick notecards reminds us of Spinebloom Farms at the table.

Fort Ooshar is a bridge-town that turned into a fortress when Sheljar fell to the Necromancer. This quick sketch lays out the neighborhoods of the bridge-town, the gates, the fields and the nearby hills.

Yes, a better mapmaker would be better. My favorites are Deven Rue and Dyson Logos. I support both via Patreon and use their works in my games.

But sometimes I want something that is unique to my world. That leaves me with my lack of art. I then build a word map.

Keys to making a quick word map.

Doing this as a player

Old school D&D involved at least one player making highly detailed maps. But a word map may be all that’s necessary to prevent your party from getting lost. Using a room-and-halls word map by the player helps represent how the characters think.

In essence you are channeling the concept of ‘turn left after the big red barn, go over Herringbone Bridge, take the third path’ into a simplistic drawing.

These are quick, simple and can be done on a 3-by-5 card or as a sketch in something as simple as Paint, Slides, Canva or even in a Spreadsheet (the Six Kingdoms started as a spreadsheet).

One of the special powers of the word map is that they’re quick. You don’t need to search for anything. It’s a sketch that can be done in a few seconds.

Whether as a player or a DM this tool can help you understand your fantasy world better than without a map at all.

How my campaign changes when a new product drops

The recent addition of Drops subscription content to DnD Beyond is going to challenge me.

I’m running only a single intermittent 5e campaign right now. The Ferments uses 2024 as its base set, but permits things from Black Flag, 2014 and A5e in general, with a quick scan to make certain that the addition fits within the campaign themes and the setting’s common lore.

In the past it’s been easy to judge what works and doesn’t. Book releases are heavily themed. Most grimdark will not fit in The World of the Everflow. Dragon stuff always fits. Giant stuff rarely fits. The new dinosaur book added to Beyond fits well in an undiscovered-to-this-point land.

But now there are weekly drops. The player facing stuff needs a quick review. Maps and stickers won’t matter because we aren’t using the Maps VTT. The cosmetics are fine, because they help a player connect with their character.

Teos explains the broader program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJMyKu0cqDw

Evaluating the content to fit The Ferments and The World of the Everflow

First off, the five feats added are all extra planar in a way that has not been explored in our games through the several hundred sessions of play plus writing and backstory. There’s only been a single Warlock.

Those are going to be easy to ignore. If I could toggle them off at the campaign level I would.

• All five feats = no
• Pact Seeker background = with lore tweak and different feat
• Astral Flood = yes, fully
• Buzzing Bee = yes, fully
• Insidious Rhythm = yes, fully
• Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment = yes, fully
• Sticks to Snakes= yes, but DM content only

The Pact seeker background doesn’t fit as written. The lore doesn’t work because of the demand that the pact is extraplanar, but if a player wanted to rework that and take a new origin feat it would be allowed. Maybe they are seeking a pact with a religious figure, an elder dragon, a scholar or something similar.

There are also five spells in the first Drops.

Astral flood fits unchanged. The Astral and Ethereal are somewhat merged in my world and opening that up to the physical realm would be devastating.

Buzzing bee is excellent. My first encounter with Bee was the useless cantrip from Unearthed Arcana back in the 80s. This is better and needed. It fits the use of animals for the Kin too.

Insidious Rhythm is a fun spell too. The magic of performance by Bards and others would be the path of introduction.

Leomund’s Lamentable Belaborment may not fit combat well. It does fit in social and political settings. Players will definitely find a way to turn a crowded room into a debate-disaster.

Sticks to Snakes is a classic spell, but this version is quite underpowered for 2024. It adds in-combat complexity for low damage. It reads more like a 2nd level spell and not a 4th. For narrative purposes it fits the world well. But it’s a waste for a player. This will be DM content only.

Eleven player facing items this week needed to be reviewed. Next week there will be more. And then there will be more. And more.

It’s going to be too much.

And each drop and each book from every publisher stretches and pushes a world. But fantasy worlds are not only defined by being permissive. They are also defined by what’s forbidden.

Every world a DM and their tables creates can choose to be a global fantasy (kitchen sink) or be as neatly defined as the group wants.

With Drops the default in the Everflow will not be for permission, but to evaluate what a player wants to add as they want to add it in order for us to continue to explore the themes of the world — how strong can the love between person and animal be, who gets to control access to knowledge, how can our local connections make the world better for most.

Using Feats to expand your setting: Church of Quar

In the new Forgotten Realms books, Strixhaven, 5e Dragonlance and a recent Unearthed Arcana official D&D is using Feat trees/chains. Every published instance so far is a set of two.

While there are mechanical reasons to have tiered Feats every expression to this point also leans quite heavily into the story elements added. In Strixhaven the feat-taker goes from early student to late in the class. In Dragonlance a squire becomes a knight. In the Realms you are early in a Faction and then a powerful member of it.

The Feat helps tell the story in ways that a subclass wouldn’t because in all cases the feat has two expressions in Tier 1 available where a subclass gets a single expression. By the end of Tier 2 a subclass gets two expressions while a Feat chain can be up to four. There’s more space for story.

An initiate becoming an expert is the most common example. The chain (I prefer that to tree as the published versions are two options linked) naturally fit this.

Let’s explore how a Feat chain could tell a story in my homebrew world by looking at three feats connected to the Church of Quar.

In the Six Kingdoms of the World of the Everflow the Church of Quar is a hybrid church-healing center-merchant guild. It controls access to the healing waters of the Everflow at the Font of Two Paths in Telse. Their tongue became the common language of the Six Kingdoms because of the strong influence of their healing elixir in a world without magic.

No faith, no kingdom, no magic school after magic returned to the land has the influence of the Church of Quar. They’re in every town. That does not mean that every town has an Acolyte, a formal role represented by a member of the faith who is becoming a hero.

The following three feats expand the story of the Church of Quar for heroes (and villains) using the Feat system.

Acolyte of Quar

Origin Feat

You gain the following benefits.

Cultured. You learn an additional culture (or language).

Balm of rest. During a Short Rest you create a balm using a Healing Potion that removes one level of exhaustion and grants the creature advantage on a saving throw versus one condition with a save.

Blessing of the Everflow. When you administer a Healing Potion to a creature they may use a Hit Die to heal as well as gain the benefits from the Healing Potion.

Minister of Quar

Feat (prerequisites: Acolyte of Quar, 4th+ level)

You gain the following benefits.

+1 to Charisma or Wisdom

Oratory. You have Advantage when using Influence Action with Indifferent or Friendly peoples with which you share a culture or language (and Hostile creatures who are members of the Church of Quar).

Lord of Life. You learn the Aid spell and may cast it one time a day without using a spell slot. It becomes a known spell for you.

Lord of Rivers. You know how to create a Healing Potion (vial of Everflow) with only water and herbs. This lesser potion costs only 5 gp and can be created during a Short Rest. This potion is only half as effective as a standard Healing Potion. Sharing this concept is forbidden.

Free Minister of Quar

Feat (prerequisites: Acolyte of Quar, membership in the Reformed Church, 4th+ level)

You gain the following benefits.

+1 to Charisma or Constitution

Rivers and Roads. You learn two cultures or languages and the Religion skill (or another skill if you are already proficient). You have Advantage on Constitution checks brought about by Environmental Effects.

First Aid: Taking one minute you can grant a Hit Point to a stabilized creature. They are also subjected to Blessings of the Everflow if you have a Healing Potion available.

Together these dual Feat chains tell the story behind the Orthodox and Reformed Churches of Quar.

In just the tiniest bits of flavor text you see examples of how two branches of the faith are different, not just in their ability to be heroes, but what is expected from their most ardent believers.

Where a subclass gains features at 3rd, 6th and 10th level (mostly). Classes have feats at 1st, 4th, 8th, 12th (mostly). By 8th level a member of Quar’s faith could take all three faith feats, going on a journey from being part of a merchant-church to dedicated hedge healer.

This story doesn’t need to be connected to a class because they aren’t spellcasters. Plus, in the fiction inspiring the game contains people who are faithful without being clerics or druids or paladins.

Maybe another feat deals with Quars pantheon. After being an Acolyte of Quar the individual is a Devotee to Belsem the Untamed (leaning into animal companionship?) or a Teacher (adherent to Glight becoming an expert at knowing things). These would emphasize branching, which fits the pantheon.

The other pantheons may start dispersed and then unify (The Siblilngs) or emphasize bonding (Az and Sel) or only be about fellowship (Mehmd’s faith).

Maybe an aspect of your world is a military organization and feats could be ranks or branches. Does your world lean into magical schools like Strixhaven? A feat chain from underclass, to senior student, to teacher, to dean could work. A setting that anchors the horrors of the environment could use feats as a way to describe various paths to survival (water, shelter, food, community).

Feats are a discreet, light space that empowers all classes to carry bits of lore that connect to the world mechanically.

Counting in the Land of Kon

The smogpunk land of goblins in the World of the Everflow was set apart from the Kingdom of Sheljar, Crinth, and other areas for a few millennia. Within this separation the goblins and hobgoblins changed from the standard tropes.

In the Everflow they answer to the Queen Mother. Everyone is organized around their family’s history of developing teknology for one of the various guilds. Inventiveness and cleverness are more important than fighting and viciousness.

To emphasize these differences, but still capture traditional goblinoid feelings there should be a some differences in language. This discovery of numerals from the 13th century feels proper for the gobkon of the world.

https://twitter.com/MathematicsUCL/status/1356558846093914114

It works in a printing press, scribbled on paper or carved into wood.

Will it ever see the table? Probably not. Or maybe just one or two numbers in a handout for the players to demonstrate the differences between their lands with the languages of Telse (Common) and the rest of the Six Kingdoms.

If there was a campaign book for the World of the Everflow this could be a tiny sidebar for flavor, not a rule for use.

#DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #gobkon #Goblins #PlayingDD #RolePlaying #RPG #WorldOfTheEverflow

This is a story about The Dragon.

Which is a moon, not a big dragon. I don’t know why I called the biggest and slowest moon “The Dragon.” It was probably in honor of The Wheel of Time, one of my foundational fictions in the world. But the name never really came up in play.

The 21-year cycle did come up. That generational marker (key for many goliaths and the Crinth Confederation) marked a cycle from the Born Generation to the present era.

But, by expanding play in the world to a second DM The Dragon also finally became a point of clear fiction. It’s named that because during the Age of Myths that’s when the leading dragons on the Council retreated from society — Draakenmoten.

That’s about to come up in the campaign I’m playing within my own world.

Playing in the world I’ve invented has expanded the stories in ways I never expected. While I’ve included player concepts in world development in the past, including DM concepts in the world requires trust and grants wonderful opportunities for story-threads to be pulled into new places.

Other things added to my world through sharing the experience;

• Evil fungal druids that dabble in necromancy
• Dragon Council, a ruling body of dragons and their magical allies who control the continent in a federal system.
• Les Remoden Eisha, the intelligence and security branch of the Council.
• Necromancy as the forbidden school of magic.
• Elemental airships. Unlike the era where I DM, magic is common enough that it powers the airships, unlike the clackety, smog xips of the goblins.

Those first four elements seem to be growing into the major division that leads to the sundering of the world, separating the continent with the Everflow on it from all the magical spaces in the rest of the planet. Those councils and forbidden magicks could grow into the dragon-founded schools with their abusive Proctors, supplicant Scholars and limited magic in a world that has merely love for companionship, healing waters and hope.

Tips for Sharing a World

First, have the creator DM and non-creating DM talk about history and key elements. Discuss where the foundational elements of the world are necessary in each campaign. Unlike Uprising & Rebellion (and the other ‘modern’ campaigns set in the World of the Everflow) the current campaign doesn’t have a foundational element about animals as life companions for example.

Understand that things that happen in history don’t have to be understood in the future. Did Xabal discover tar-trees? Maybe someone else claims that 3,000 years later. Unless the details are vital to a plot point minor differences in the way myth-legend-history are known aren’t important. They can even both be true!

Second, play and act with trust. Going back to point one, the details don’t matter if they don’t matter. Does the now co-DM get the name of a city wrong? That doesn’t matter. Keep playing at the table. Don’t even bother to correct it. Many cities in the real world have multiple names. That’s the way worlds work.

Borrow heavily from each other. This is part communication, but also because you’re seeing each set of stories (every table is a set of stories that is some combination of the total number of people playing and their interactions) from different angles.

Is there a new nugget dropped that you want to be permanently part of the tale? Take note in heavy ink and add it to your own version of the world document. Just like when a player adds something new to the world let the co-DM do the same thing.

Be a player — you aren’t the DM, so don’t be a co-DM at the table, unless asked. The only time to speak up about some out-of-character element related to previous campaigns or lore is when the DM asks. Then you answer.

Bonus points if you can work that into something that your character would know/do/say. I didn’t do this most recently, but wish I had. The current DM asked me what Sheljar, the bog-city, was like in the Age of Myths. I gave an encyclopedic answer rather than the answer Xabal would give.

It’s been so much fun opening the world to more tales set within. We’ve added fantastic spaces, myths and histories that wouldn’t have existed if the World of the Everflow was merely my setting with nearly two dozen players. Adding a second DM to the world has changed the story dynamics in an exponential rather than additive fashion.

My hope is that after this Age of Myths campaign we return to the modern era with new tales too.

https://fullmoonstorytelling.com/2024/11/02/sharing-your-world-the-power-of-co-dming-in-the-same-space/

#AgeOfMyths #DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #PlayingDD #RPG #WorldOfTheEverflow

The first Scholar to be discovered was the Necromancer. His works were hard to ignore, as the undead he mistakenly raised thinking he was helping the peoples of Fort Ooshar and Sheljar broke the empire. That built a distrust for newly released magic.

This is likely why Chorl attempted to hide. Not only was his work in Transformation often done involuntarily, Chorl wanted to conquer. His goal was to fill the gaps from the Fall of Sheljar, taking over the Western Wildes via his hybrid peoples. For Chorl, in all his evils, was creating new peoples, a combination of humanity and their companions.

Some chose to be combined, these peoples frequently became his lieutenants and sergeants. Many fled. The breaking of his camps and the deaths of Chorl and his Student Anderson created an opportunity to escape.

Now, the Children of Chorl exist in mixed pockets of freedom almost always outside of the major towns and cities. They may want vengeance hating Scholars and magic; they may want freedom; they may want to be respected. They are all hybrids in the World of the Everflow.

Mechanics for the Children of Chorl

To play a Child of Chorl in the World of the Everflow select a hybrid species/race. There’s a long list of them available in DnD Beyond now, thanks to Wizards of the Coast adding the Humblewood setting.

Though none of the core species for 2014 or 2024 D&D are Children of Chorl the current list from official products includes;

Aarakocra, centaur, harengon, kenku, lizardfolk, minotaur, satyr, shifter, tabaxi, tortle, giff, hadozee, owlin, leonin, loxodon, locathah, or grung.

Players at my table can also use those from Humblewood;

Cervan, corvum, gallus, hedge, jerbeen, luma, mapach, raptor, strig or vulpin.

Then select a feat or bonded companion. Though all Children of Chorl were a goliath, halfling or human combined with a bonded companion, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have more than one companion.

Decide what the character was before they were melded. They should generally be someone from the West. They can be someone who volunteered or not, that’s up to you.

Their background and class represent what they were before. How they present to the world now is similar to the X-Men.

https://fullmoonstorytelling.com/2024/02/24/children-of-chorl/

#Chorl #DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #Everflow #Lore24 #WorldOfTheEverflow #worldbuilding

All of the campaigns that have taken place win the World of the Everflow have focused on tracking down the various Lorebooks, with each group having other side quests, generally towards making the world for the common peoples of the Lands of the Six Kingdoms.

They’ve run counter to the Proctors, an evil faction that is trying to control knowledge of magic, and rogue Scholars who are spreading knowledge of magic in order to control people. Necromancy and Transformation are the ones most counter to traditional D&D goodness.

The only other super-natural organization is the Orthodox Church of Quar. The Quarites control access to the Everflow and a massive merchant endeavor with their churches also working as trade posts and shops for what are in game terms healing potions.

This world has no equal to the Factions of tradition D&D, or the Knights of the Round Table, or Templars or other super-national knightly orders. No one has wanted to be in one.

But if a player wanted to play a character with these kinds of ideals and/or oaths, we’d talk about how it would fit. Knowing my player base the inspiration would be the Free City of Sheljar, the egalitarian re-founding of Sheljar after the early campaigns purged the Necromancer, his agents of undeath and the Tunneling Nightmares (they’ll be the subject of a future Lore 24).

Based off the players and characters that founded the Free City such an idealistic organization would look similar to the Harpers, with a dash of de oppresso liber and a side of asymmetric organization.

• Determination for all peoples Kin, Ken, Kon and any who think.
• Share knowledge, so all in the world may live better lives.
• Defend those that cannot defend themselves and their companions
• Judge behavior, not the companion, the nationality or the faith
• Recognize successes at spreading the word of a Free Shejar and Free Everflow

Like the oaths of D&D paladins, these ideals within the oath are aspirational. They aren’t to be perscriptive.

A player wanting to be part of this order wouldn’t necessarily pledge to sergeant or knight. They wouldn’t need to swear fealty to the current Mayor of Sheljar (Samul). The order would rise because the oath is a bit viral — it’s one that encourages heroic actions and fulfilling quests.

A band could be one halfling and her dog, or an entire airxip of goblins, or an adventuring party, or three elves visiting the Everflow that abandon their fey pacts, or a group of Mehmdians, or a village near Telse, or a tribe in Crinth. A band inspired by the ideals of Free Sheljar aren’t sworn to them, in fact the current governance of Kirtin-on-the-Lake is inspired by Sheljar, but free from them.

That’s the knightly order I would make if I were to make a knightly order.

https://fullmoonstorytelling.com/2024/01/07/lore-24-oath-of-free-sheljar/

#DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #FreeSheljar #Lore24 #WorldOfTheEverflow

Within the World of the Everflow magic is relatively new, well besides the Everflow’s healing power and ability to flow in two directions and the powerful bond between beast and Kin. In the current Proctors of Song and Book magic returned ~27 years ago. First that was via the Born Generation when over a period of a year every child of Kin came of age knowing a single cantrip. About 7 years ago the Lorebook of Divination was found and over the following years, magic started to spread with the realization that there were 17 or so Lorebooks scattered across the lands.

The current campaign takes place in Sas Rurulit, where the Proctors are attempting to collect two Lorebooks. But the ingenious groups that control the Lorebooks down in this land broke them up. The Lorebook of the Book are people who cast directly from books and scrolls.

These peoples are manifesting magic at various colleges. The college of metallurgy used every fire and electricity spell to forge metals. The college of hydrology was water and air spells, with a bit of illusion. The Proctors (PCs) have essentially destroyed these two schools ability to function by either capturing or damaging the master books there.

In the last session they visited a public park that is also the School of Herbimancy.

School of Herbimancy

Unlike traditional D&D approaches to herbs, the School of Herbimancy isn’t about ingesting herbs in some fashion to gain magical effects. Instead, the plants themselves are the magic.

For example, the paths in the park were softly lit at night via the glowing flowers of a particular plant (a version of Dancing Lights). Maybe the smell of burning needles from a deciduous tree heals (Healing Spirit). Fallen branches from a tree are a magical staff (Shillelagh). Within Sas Rurulit, this school’s magic is artifice meets druid — the plants are simultaneously technology and magical.

The group failed a series of checks, one with a natural 1, so they don’t know the professor in charge of the school. Instead, they got the name of the banker financing the project. A way to turn a nat 1 into a meaningful failure!

They also didn’t quite figure out that the seed room may be the equal of a scroll room or library at the other schools they’ve raided (some read this site and it would be a natural conclusion for the characters to reach after fleeing the fires they set to cover their raid).

I’m doing Lore 24, an attempt to write small lore elements daily in the year 2024. Each element will be something that’s come up in play or will come up in play within my homebrew World of the Everflow — there will be actionable threads for PCs to grab onto and advance the story.

https://fullmoonstorytelling.com/2024/01/01/the-school-of-herbimancy/

#Daoud #DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #Lore24 #lorebook #WorldOfTheEverflow

Storytime as Moons Rise – a short story

Sweat dripping from my brow, I head back towards home. Dinodas bounds towards me, shifting to walk on the customary left side as we stroll. My hand reaches up to scratch that comfortable spot behind his ear. It’s an instinctive move now, for both of us.

We’re kin for many years now, this massive hound and little me, a halfling from Kirtin, just off Slope.

On certain days in the field he’s closer to me than others. On rising full Glibbon he knows I’m going to cut wood and brush. The physical exertion helps me focus, or unfocus — whatever. Those things that happened down Slope, and the years after, normally sit back in my head, but since the Hornjaws started visiting on full moons I’m unable to avoid the thoughts.

Don’t know how they got me to open up — probably something to do with how well they treat Dinodas. He likes them, so I like them. It’s typical for a bond. Meeting Belni and Terdu was good for him, probably good for me too.

I don’t like thinking about those times. I don’t want to remember the decision I made.

So that’s why when a moon rises full I cut brush and start a burn pile. Because this evening I’m going to share some stories. Daytime cannot be about Down Slope and regrets. That’s what moons rise is for.

I think back to the week-moon Feylf’s rise in Autumn. Belni was at the door. I didn’t have the rituals then, no stories. Just a drink from second mug. First mug is for caf in morning; second mug is ale in evenings. I lost third mug a while ago, that’s the one that Serg’nt gave me with the bottle. The fire was blazing, a bit too hot for this time of the year. Din’s at my feet when the knock comes.

Wrong time of day for a visitor.

Out here in Cold Creek things are pretty spread out. Down by Iron Road they be more city types. Here we’re alone at night, and that’s why I live by Creek.

“Ho. Door’s open.”

I set second mug down. Looking towards the door, one eye on the dusty sword that hangs to its right. Dinodas lifts one ear, one eye. The old hound is apathetic.

“Sir, ‘s Belni. I been looking for Terdu. He late from bonds-day.”

I helped the older Hornjaw look for his younger brother. They human, Belni with a solid herding dog. Good size to his bond, smaller than Din.

We searched for a few hours, the light of Feylf helped, and a few hours after sunset the month-moon Glibbon rose too. That made things easier. We found Terdu crying in a briar. He was embarrassed. His bond were two little sheep — two little fluffy wool sheep.

So I talked and talked and talked. I told tale to Terdu of all the kin and their bonds I met Down Slope. Many dogs, horses too. But when you’re on the northern front you see a bit of everything. Cold Creek doesn’t have a lot of people. Most of their bonds are herding dogs, we’re a herding community and then Iron Road nearsby has the ford. Still mostall the bonds have purpose.

Telling Terdu and Belni about the bigger world helped. Terdu was willing to go home. Belni, his dog, the two floof-sheep and the now prideful Terdu waved away. On that first night I didn’t know they’d come back. They’ve been back five Glibbons now.

Winter on the Slope and Rise gets cold, so the fire rages and the Hornjaws started to bring their friends.

There’s a first-timer tonight. Someone from Iron Road? Not from Creek, that’s certain.

He’s with a pony, carrying a lance and shield. Oh, and the helm of a new conscript. Older than the Hornjaws. Hmmm.

Feylf and Glibbon are both rising now, full. Kin is three-quarters too. It’s a bright night, but bitter cold. The Dragon is tucked behind a cloud and years from being full.

“Terdu, is this everyone you invited?”

“Yessi.. I mean, yes.” They’d stopped calling me sir. I’m just a man, and a dog, and a past that interests them.

There’s three girls, not the same families, as one is a goliath. She’s got a flutter of sparrows round her, several braiding her beard while she sits and waits.

“Belni, serve the cider. Tonight I’m going to talk about Fer and his bull. Fer came from out east. Getting to know Fer was probably the best thing about serving Down Slope. Warm soul who knew warm songs, and would always smile.”

The new one is clearly disinterested.

“It was Fer who taught me talking-drum. I never picked it up the speed he could do, but didn’t matter. He made me practice. Made me good in the head. Hitting that little drum meant not thinking about the lines across the river with the people of Az and Sel, their mastiffs, their rage…”

New kid stops muttering to himself and just interrupts.

“How was he at fighting?!” He shouts.

“Fer would sing too. Not a deep voice, not falsetto — just that type of voice that is confident in itself and willing to share…”

“His fighting! Was he a master at the sword, or bow, or an axeman?” Another interuption.

It’s going to be one of those nights. This isn’t the first time a near-child has wanted the focus to be on the violence in the front. It most certainly won’t be the last.

“Others may tell you those stories. My tales are of the friendships made, the acquaintances held close, and the connections lost. I no longer swing a sword or throw my spear. But I still think warmly about the women and men with whom I serve.

“They are what I miss. They are my regrets. The people and their bonds are the only thing worth my time, for any other thought is sorrow and pain.

“Maybe you’ll find another to tell you your tales. Here, at my fire, under the full moons, my stories are of them, because these are the stories I have.”

Chided, the man-child laughs and storms off. No one joins him.

“Another custom Fer taught me…” I continue with my tale of my friend, the story I have.

#Fiction #Kin #Kirtin #microfiction #moon #narrative #plotlessNarrative #WorldOfTheEverflow