Story Stubs

  In lieu of writing something super substantial today I have dug up and made some progress on some old story stubs I had laying around in my folders. These are all not finished and should be considered first drafts. I’ve either finished the piece, added a small anecdote about plans for the piece, or a little bit of both in the case of the last entry here. This isn’t really a series, but I would at least like to have this here as a reminder to push myself to actually finish things since that’s something I’ve always struggled with. So without further ado, here are three creative pieces I have in various states of completion.

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“I always liked the purple ones.”

“No way, you’re lying?”

“How do you know?”

“Because the last time we were here you only wanted to lay in the yellow ones.”

“Why should where I want to lay determine what ones I like the most?”

“Because it makes sense.”

The two sat up. They were in fact, laying in a wide field of purple flowers. They were facing a road which cordoned them off from a large field of yellow flowers. They were a good distance away from the city, flowers like these were hard to come by amongst the large concrete and steel structures that always seemed to tower over them.

This was something I began as a post a few days ago before I ended up writing the piece about the rain. I sorta like the vibe of tying the colors to the narrative in some way, but found myself more inspired by the rain so I chased that thread deeper. The idea would be to have the two characters talk more about why they like colors and have that turn into some deeper relation that they would have to their pasts. After putting it down for a few days I would perhaps like to give this one a second shot because colors have always been a really deep part of the stories/shows I’ve watched and I would love to explore more of what makes that space interesting and unique.

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Prologue Book

It’s been 5 days since you’ve departed from the city of (City name) in search of (Dungeon name). Supplies are running out almost as quickly as morale as all the rumors you’ve heard about this place seem to be turning into just that. You’ve begun to question the legitimacy of this journey, whether the guild who hired you was simply doing it to waste your time or worse, get yourself killed wandering unfamiliar lands.

Desperate for something, a random hunch brought you to explore a canyon you had passed previously. There, you would find what you need. Hidden in plain sight, a cave entrance sat at the other end of this canyon which perfectly matched the description of what you were looking for. After reviewing all of your supplies, you have just enough to spend one last night to prepare and then the rest would have to be saved for the trip back. It’s too late to turn back now, time to see what’s on the other side!

Prologue book 2

Official quest issued from the Adventurer’s guild of (city name)

There have been rumors of an ancient dungeon out along the eastern steppes that has yet to be explored. We need you and/or your group to head out there and find it. It is rumored to be through a cave system somewhere along the cliff faces. Anyone who has gone in search of this dungeon has not returned so that is the only information we can provide.

We can provide supplies for a 7 days travel as well as two horse drawn carriages that can be broken down into tents if needed. 

This came from a really old project where we would have players go through a custom made dungeon that my friends and I made. I volunteered to write the story and we decided that the narrative would be told in the form of books that the players would receive throughout their time exploring the dungeon. The main prologue books would just give context/help the player find their way venturing into the dungeon. The actual story never really got a chance the be fleshed out as the project was kinda put on hold by the people building it so all we have is the map we started on and the start of the story. I held off on writing more because I didn’t want to have to rewrite things given new developments of the map itself since it was so early. Unfortunately, I don't think the map has a lot of good chances of ever coming out, but who know. We could suddenly find ourselves with a lot of free time and minecraft has only gotten better in the time we made the map.

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A group of adventurers are on the run from the government. They were initially captured to be experimented upon and were given extraordinary powers which would then be repurposed by the government for military use. The group, composed initially of 12 members, had split up with the promise of meeting each other again at some point. The group we focus on has come to a trading town on the coast to lay low for a while and maybe even develop their skills in order to prepare for what they may face in the future. They arrive here because they were saved by a traveling merchant while escaping, posing as the merchant’s employees. They arrive to find a gang fight going on in the streets between three gangs, the fedoras, the lightning bros, and the ‘Kuzas. They manage to avoid the fight, noting that the police seem to be quite overwhelmed, despite managing to settle the situation with minimal bloodshed. After arriving at the merchant’s house, he suggests that they try to find things to do as he cannot just have 6 guests at his house with no explanation.

After spending some days going out and about the city. The group does things like going to the gym, trying to gain favor with the local government, and buying things from the various stores(all while disguised). One member of the group, Smeefle Smeefletons the third, decides to randomly one day ask the owner of the general store to see “the back.” Somehow, the way in which he phrases the question, signals to the shop owner that he really wants to see the secret base of the fedora gang that just so happens to be in the back of the general store. This is something that the local police force has never been able to find despite constant searching. He tries to deliver this information to his party members, but is captured when they realize he is not a member of the gang. 

Some days pass and the group wonders where Smeefle is. He tries to escape, but is caught every time. They are able to track his steps to the back of the store, but are confused when the tracks end there. They ask around the with the locals and find that there is an upcoming illegal weapon sales happening in that area, but you have to be an invited guest to attend and that the police have most likely been paid off to let it happen in the first place. The police corroborate this story, but wish to be able to intervene, but the gangs have a tight grip on their operations. Therefore the group then decides to disguise as guests and secretly infiltrate the party themselves. At the party they find that they have a bunch of prisoners already there that they intend to execute, but Smeefle is nowhere to be seen as he is still in his cell. In a fit of rage, the barbarian of the group, Russel Earlgoes into a rage and begins to choke the leader of the Fedoras who is present. The rest of the group begins to fight and is joined by Smeefle as his jail cell is left open by the guards as they go to help their leader. The group threatens to execute the remaining prisoners and guests if they do not let go of their leader. Russel simply ignores it and finishes strangling their leader to death. After the gang swiftly executes all their hostages, the police show up and are able to arrest the gang. When asked about the hostages, the group is able to convince them that they were dead when they got there. The group is then allowed to continue on with their business while the police award them for their service with some money. 

This is the most complete piece I’ll present here today. This comes from yet another doomed collaboration between an old high school friend and I. He was talking about wanting to try to make some kind of graphic novel/comic style thing and was wondering if I would be down to work with him. After some back and forth I ended up finding something. This is a bit of a retelling of some events that happened pretty early in a dnd campaign I DMed many years ago. No need to summarize as everything above is there, but this would be the outline/guide for what would actually happen in the graphic novel. I wrote up reference sheets/character outlines while doing this and… the project never went through. Unfortunately, being an art college student entailed spending many hours doing their own thing and by the time I finished, he said his schedule was way too busy. Such is the fate of art and writing collaborations. I still want to make it happen so I plan to reach out to my friend again now that we should all be free from academic obligations for at least the next while. This is something that I have a good feeling about if I actually bug the person enough it might actually get done. No promises though, you should be used to me saying that at this point

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Wow that was a lot to go through even though it really wasn’t. It’s interesting to see at what points I was in my life while writing these and how that has maybe changed the subject matter/vibe of the pieces I write. It will be interesting to revisit this stuff as I always know I have a bunch of old pieces physically written that still need to be digitized for my record’s sake. As that stuff comes up I will for sure be posting about it. Until then, thanks for reading this far if you have and I will be back tomorrow with another post!