Bonus: Meet the Gabraiths

The famed monster hunters of Bruglia

Man, it’s been a while since I got to do one of these bonus posts. Which is annoying, because I really like doing them. I’ll put a list to all the previous ones down below in case you’ve missed any.

In this Friday’s Tales from the Triverse chapter you’ll be meeting the Six Blades. They’re a monster hunting crew based out of Bruglia, the same city on Palinor that hosts the portal to Mid-Earth. They travel all over the world hunting and killing monsters - or occasionally capturing them. It’s a dangerous profession, as you might imagine, but they’ll tell anyone who listens that they’re the best of the best.

(wondering what the heck Tales from the Triverse is? It’s my weekly sci-fi/fantasy/crime story, which you can read for free. Click here for more!)

Meet the founder of the Six Blades:

Halbad is a mean son of a bitch. He has a rudimentary grasp of elemental magic, which can be handy in a fight, and tends to use it to enchant his weapons. He doesn’t rely on his magic, preferring to wade in with the biggest sword he can find.

The Six Blades are his family. As a child he failed in all his studies, flunked out of school, had no interest in becoming a merchant, but was really good at punching things. And people. Somehow he ended up channelling that power and anger into monster hunting, rather than anything worse.

Of course, one of the Blades is family:

Seline is Halbad’s younger sister, and if anything she’s even meaner. She’s always looked up to him since they were small - much to his confusion - and trained twice as hard to follow in his footsteps when he moved into hunting monsters.

Although she’s every bit as tough as Halbad, she’s not as physically strong and instead relies on her deep knowledge of every martial art on Palinor and an ability to pick up and use any object as a weapon. She’s arguably the deadliest member of the team, which is saying something when there’s also a fire breathing koth, an aen’fa archer and a physology mage.

Despite her fierceness, she’s also developed a basic knowledge of micrology magic, enabling her to do quick, in-the-field healing.

She’s not sure what she believes in, other than her brother.

Whatever you do, just don’t ask either of them why there’s only five members of the Six Blades.

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So THAT was fun. Here are links to the previous bonuses, which are all out of early access and ready to read:

Bonus: For Immediate Release

Bonus: Coroner's Report

Bonus: A Modern Assessment of Portal Physics

Bonus: Laryssa's journal

Bonus: The nature of magic

Bonus: AI Musings

Hope you enjoyed today’s bonus. There’ll be a brand new chapter in early access this Friday in which you’ll get to meet the whole Six Blades crew, plus chapter 20 will unlock for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks, as always.

SKJ

p.s. Decided to keep this one outside of the early access paywall, because it’s just too much fun to hide away.