Unveiled: Camelot Unchained Newsletter #40 - City State Entertainment View this email in your browser Share Tweet +1 Team Tidings -by Max Porter Hey folks,



Happy end of November and start of December! It’s been a month of productivity on Camelot Unchained™, internal tests of scenarios, and of course turkey and family time, for those of us who celebrated Thanksgiving in the USA.



Fall is moving on toward winter, with chill yet sunny days that make for really nice weather. The days are getting shorter, so we at City State Entertainment™ just pack more in ‘em! Similarly, <transition sound effect!> this newsletter is on the short side for us, but is nevertheless packed with goodness! It’s been a really busy month, as mentioned.



We have Mark stepping in for a Dose of Design article this month, so head on down to that if you’re interested in reading some of his thoughts on Saturday Night Sieges. We’ve also got an Artitup article from Tyler, talking about the great progress the Art Team made this month, and their plans going forward. That’s followed by a State of the Build article with an introduction by Brittany and some choice Top Tenish items selected by yours truly. If you are one of the folks who prefer to check out our progress on a monthly rather than a weekly basis, that’s a good section for you. And finally, to close things out this month, we have a Lore Corner presenting the beginning of a Stormriders Becoming™ story!



We have continued our weekly schedule of streams this month, showing you everything from impressive creative work by our artists and programmers to our latest updates and news. We have fun with it, but the streams are also very important to us, as we always want to be as informative as possible for our Backers and fans. If you want to catch up on any missed streams, they can always be found on our Twitch and YouTube channels. For a good read of our news, as well as our weekly Top Tenish updates, check out the News section of our website, and our User Stories to check on our progress.



Thanks for once again joining us in another monthly newsletter. Bear with me as I remind you as usual to click on the “view this email in your browser” link on the top right to see the whole thing. It’s a thankful month, so I’ll just mention that I’m so thankful for the opportunity to write, edit, and put these pieces together for you all! Read on for the articles, art, news, updates, and lore, and please enjoy this, the fortieth issue of Unveiled. Hot Topics

The latest topics of discussion on the forums right now include the upcoming Saturday Night Sieges, the range of archers and casters, and mages and spirit mages.



Join the discussion on the forums on our website to bring your thoughts and ideas to the table! The latest topics of discussion on the forums right now include the upcoming Saturday Night Sieges, the range of archers and casters, and mages and spirit mages. Look What You Did Last month, we had a fan art contest to illustrate a scene from the Silverhands Becoming™ story, and boy did Hellminster deliver! Here is the relevant quote Hellminster was going off of, followed by the startling and creepy painting:



Relieved of its burden, the creature’s form shimmered and shifted, and the Phouka became an attractive woman, dark hair knotted and thick with sweat and blood. She loosed the rope that bound her to Nuada’s unconscious body, then spread her arms in a gesture of greeting.



The woman proceeded to the gate and announced, in a high, discordant voice: “Hear me, oh great city! Your new king is on his way. You have seven passings of the sun to prepare a suitable welcome!” Wow! Thanks for sharing that vivid illustration with us, Hellminster! Now I can go have a few nightmares. For our next contest, it's time for a Fan Fiction vignette once again. Let's take inspiration from this month's lore piece, as usual. Stormriders Part 1 features a brutal fight that doesn't go so well. For our contest, let's write up a short piece where your hero loses. We can't all win all the time, right? That's part of what makes a story dramatic and interesting. Whatever form the loss takes, let's go for 300 words this time. Post your creations in the thread you'll see popping up in the Fan Fiction section of our forums, and I'll read through them and pick one to publish in the next Unveiled! I can't wait to see what you come up with! Dose of Design -by Mark Jacobs Saturday Night Sieges Cometh

Hey all, MJ here, filling in for Ben who is just a wee bit busy working on Saturday Night Siege-related stuff for us. I’ve been swamped too, but as some of you folks know, I’m pretty good at writing lots of words in a short period of time (30 minutes, in this case!). I wanted to share my thoughts on something that I hope will give us all a heaping helping of fun over the upcoming year: the Saturday Night Sieges.



As I said when I initially explained the concept, the SNS are not a gimmick, distraction, or ploy to distract people from our Beta 1. They are part of Beta 1, and I hope, a delicious bonus for you all. For those folks who have participated in the earliest stages of our testing, they have been a most-welcome return to being able to play in a real game again. We know it’s been a long wait, we’re late, and nobody knows that better than I do. OTOH, the commitment we made to this game and to our Backers has never been stronger than it is now, and that commitment will actually increase, sooner rather than later, early next year. Having said that, let’s get back to the subject of the Saturday Night Sieges.



I pushed the concept of the SNS to the team and to our Backers for a number of reasons, but none of them was more important than the idea of making our Beta 1 testing fun for you folks. Yes, the data we will gather from them is equally important, but the fun aspect should not be underestimated. Our Backers have waited a long time for us to deliver on what we promised, and the SNS will deliver on something that nobody had a right to expect during Beta 1, which is a lot of fun times. The SNS are intended to distill down some of the most fun aspects of our game into the form of scenarios, and allow our players to interact with each other in the same way as they will in the LIVE game.



Those of you who participate will be using abilities, weapons, and siege engines, as you will when the game goes LIVE. You’ll be doing it in discrete scenarios where your focus is to test, play, and have fun—not just test. Over the next few months, we will pull more of you in, week by week, to join CSE in battles and semi-organized warfare. You will be able to take part in scenarios that will test small group combat as well as larger group combat. When the next pass of building destruction goes in, you’ll be able to destroy buildings in real time, as well as each other.



As we enter Beta 1, the range of weapons/scenarios you’ll be able to take part in will increase in scope, as well as the number of people with whom you’ll be battling. Your deeds and prowess (or in my case, my lack of prowess) will be recorded and displayed for all to see. And while you are doing this, you’ll also be helping us make the game better for LIVE and beyond. Gone will be the days of just logging in and running around with no focus; instead, we’ll focus on playing/testing the actual game with, we hope, non-stop action during the time the servers are open. Our hope is that people like our scenarios so much that they will look forward to playing these matches, and not just feel like they should play them to help us out.



When we meet our goals for the SNS, we will not only be solidly in Beta 1, we will also help speed up the process of moving through Beta 1 and indeed the development process of this game, so that we can launch sooner than some of you folks think (or fear). I have no doubt we will do this, but as always, we do need your continued support and patience to do so. I hope you will give it to us.



While this is a very short Dose of Design by Ben’s standards, I’ll end it not with a tease, but a promise, and that is something I don’t do very often. By the end of January, at the latest, you’ll be glad that you stuck around to see how things come out, as we will have a lot to talk about. And all of it will be good, I promise.



-Mark



P.S. And no, we’re not adding lockboxes, selling the company, switching engines, or anything like that. Lots of good news on the way. Developer Quote “I couldn’t and didn’t promise our Backers that we wouldn’t make mistakes/be delayed/etc. but I did promise them I would always treat them and our money (since I’m funding a lot of it), with respect. That’ll never change whether now or in the future.” - Mark Jacobs Artitup -by Tyler Rockwell We’ve had a busy month here at CSE! On the art side of things, we’ve been very heads-down working on Beta 1 goals, and some necessary things for scenarios, which are smaller chunks of what is needed for Beta 1.



We’re only a few weeks into testing the initial, working pass of the scenario system, which has allowed us to begin testing combat. While part of the team continues to iterate on the tech for the scenario system, several of the artists have been hard at work on ways to improve combat.



The term “combat” refers to a whole lot of things, ranging from design, to animation, to sound, to how your character traverses the terrain. All of these things will continue to evolve through Beta and over the life of the game’s development. The scenario system has given us a head start to hit some of the “noisiest” issues. These are things that dominate playtest feedback, both from us at CSE, and our IT Backers thus far. Much of the starting feedback has been based around the question “what is happening, and why?”



To begin answering this, several of the artists--plus Ben in Design--have been focused on making sure VFX and SFX are playing where and when they should be. This requires a cooperative effort with Ben, who works out the details of what the abilities should be doing, particularly which VFX and SFX to use; then, Mike and dB follow up, tagging assets on their side. Ben has been going through the tags on the ability VFX and reconstructing them to make it easier to debug the results. This has allowed Mike, to set up and test both placeholder and brand new VFX faster.



On the animation side, we continue to update the very old animations with new ones that work better with the animation system. Of course the system itself continues to improve and grow, as well. Part of that growth has been in the region priority tech, allowing us to prioritize different body regions over others during certain events. So, for example, prioritizing your ability animations over your deflect or jump animations goes a long way to smoothing out the look and feel of combat.





Dionne, now back in the office from a trip home, has picked up where she left off on the Arthurian boat model, and will soon move onto the TDD variation. These models will be added to all the previously completed dock assets, where players will portal to and from landing areas on each island. This is, of course, in lieu of future tech, where players will use boats instead of portals that look like docks and boats.





Jon finished up the three different NPC outfits for the men for each Realm, and is working through the female variations at a good pace. These can be used in the landing areas to give feedback to players, as well as for our scenarios where needed. After this, he’s going to begin work on some permutations of the current armor we have, giving us more visual variations. Here's Michelle's concept art that he started off with, followed by images from Jon.









Michelle continues to work with James, concepting updated artwork for the patcher and needs for the character creation screens. These will show up during the next patcher update.





It’s been a good month overall, especially with the fun playtests we’ve been having. It’s great to see the sense of “ownership” from the team, as they spot issues they’d like to fix or tune! State Of The Build -by Brittany Aubert and Max Porter As we approach the end of the year, it's incredible to look back and see the progress that has been made, especially these last few months. For a long time, we've had a bunch of individual features all working on their own. But as time has passed, these systems have started to thread together. We saw this first with buildings, crafting, and resource gathering, but more recently this has been seen in our Deathmatch scenarios which will be part of the Dragon Circle.



Deathmatch has been the first instance where we've really been able to test a bunch of aspects of our combat all together. It also gives us a great re-introduction back into the testing rhythm, plus the experience of combat alongside our Backers. This game is FUN, and while it took us longer than anyone would have liked, it feels so good to finally be scaling the top of this particular mountain.



Without further ado, Max is going to jump in here with just a few of the key Top Tenish items from the past month. These are some of the highlights of the highlights, if you will! Although these are just a sampling of the many steps, together, these tell the story of a few of our major technical strides forward this month.



Deathmatch, the early Saturday Night Sieges build: (11/3/17) WIP – Tech – Rapid Iteration: As soon as we had the first iteration of “Deathmatch” gameplay in Saturday Night Sieges, we started testing regularly in the office. This is not only great for finding and fixing bugs, but is already fun to play in our coast to coast office tests. And fun is the goal, right? Most recently, we’ve been focusing on tracking down a performance issue preventing us from opening up Hatchery to our IT Backers, but we’ve got some good leads. If we can get those resolved, we’re hoping to reopen the server to IT next week!

As soon as we had the first iteration of “Deathmatch” gameplay in Saturday Night Sieges, we started testing regularly in the office. This is not only great for finding and fixing bugs, but is already fun to play in our coast to coast office tests. And fun is the goal, right? Most recently, we’ve been focusing on tracking down a performance issue preventing us from opening up Hatchery to our IT Backers, but we’ve got some good leads. If we can get those resolved, we’re hoping to reopen the server to IT next week! (11/10/17) WIP – Tech – Simultaneous Sieges: Caleb has continued iterating on the framework for a Deathmatch scenario in the Dragon Circle. We’ve created five different scenarios that run simultaneously, which is currently limited to 120 players until we add the Battlegroups tech and begin integrating it into the scenarios system. Once this work is complete, the scenarios will support vastly larger team sizes! This will prove out our tech, which supports thousand-player plus battles, but this time in Deathmatch scenarios!

Caleb has continued iterating on the framework for a Deathmatch scenario in the Dragon Circle. We’ve created five different scenarios that run simultaneously, which is currently limited to 120 players until we add the Battlegroups tech and begin integrating it into the scenarios system. Once this work is complete, the scenarios will support vastly larger team sizes! This will prove out our tech, which supports thousand-player plus battles, but this time in Deathmatch scenarios! (11/17/17) WIP – Tech – Siege Deathmatch Support: It’s been all hands on deck as we prepare our siege Deathmatch scenarios for IT testing. While we’ve continued finding and fixing bugs, we have some more notable improvements to scenarios: The spawn points have been upgraded to have spawn IDs. This allows us to no longer use hard-coded spawn positions, allowing us to quickly iterate on the specific position of where players spawn in the world editor. We’ve expanded the game gules for scenarios, which makes it easier for us to add new rules to scenarios and/or rounds later. Marc has been dusting off our logging infrastructure in preparation for testing, so we can get valuable information about what the code is doing and where it is less performant while we play. Christina has been focusing on supporting item loadouts. Scenarios can now replace your normal gear and inventory when you enter them, and also have the capability to append items to your inventory. These items are ‘gifted’ for use only during that scenario and your normal gear is returned when the scenario is over. This aids in testing different item combinations without forcing testers to set up their characters in a certain way. It also allows for a scenario to grant an extra special item that is tied to the rules of the particular scenario.

It’s been all hands on deck as we prepare our siege Deathmatch scenarios for IT testing. While we’ve continued finding and fixing bugs, we have some more notable improvements to scenarios: (11/22/17) WIP – Tech – Scenario Management Updates: After two successful tests of our current SNS build this week, Caleb worked on automating our scenarios so admins are not required to oversee them. Scenarios will auto-restart when they complete, and players will be able to enter a fight when the latest scenario is ready. Progress on Progression: (11/3/17) WIP – Tech – Progression in Scenarios: Christina has been extending the progression system to account for participation in Saturday Night Sieges. Once a round is over, we track important information, like how many characters were on each team, which team won, what was the score of each team, and how did each player contribute. As players participate in our epic battles, we want to ensure they are rewarded for their efforts, complete with bragging rights!

Christina has been extending the progression system to account for participation in Saturday Night Sieges. Once a round is over, we track important information, like how many characters were on each team, which team won, what was the score of each team, and how did each player contribute. As players participate in our epic battles, we want to ensure they are rewarded for their efforts, complete with bragging rights! (11/10/17) WIP – Tech – Progression Improvements: As we’ve been testing Deathmatch scenarios in-office, Christina has been turning on progression to gather a bunch of cool information about what has been happening in the game. Not only have we been able to identify who in the offices is totally OP, but we’ve been able to verify that rewards are properly gifted to the correct people based on their participation in battle. We still need to hook up a UI to better communicate this, but in the meantime, things are working as expected.

As we’ve been testing Deathmatch scenarios in-office, Christina has been turning on progression to gather a bunch of cool information about what has been happening in the game. Not only have we been able to identify who in the offices is totally OP, but we’ve been able to verify that rewards are properly gifted to the correct people based on their participation in battle. We still need to hook up a UI to better communicate this, but in the meantime, things are working as expected. (11/17/17) Tech – Progression Tracking Upgrades: Christina has been adding summary information on a per realm basis. She’s also upgraded scenario summaries to know more stats specific to the scenario and rounds in the scenario. She’s also splitting up players and NPCs, so we don’t factor in non-player characters into player stats. This will give us better stats for us to help do things like balance the game. Some of this data will become player facing so our Backers will know more about what their characters or Realm is up to. All kind of tech progress (misc.): (11/3/17) WIP – Tech – NPCs in SNS: Colin recently made some additions to our NPCs. They now have melee behaviors, and can be added to teams in Saturday Night Sieges. Our first iteration supports buttons for admins in the scenario’s DevUI, where we can add NPCs to specific teams. This allows us to quickly balance teams, even when we’re doing quick testing in the office. Next up, we’re giving them archery behaviors, making them even stronger allies in battle (although they are still relatively simple at this stage).

Colin recently made some additions to our NPCs. They now have melee behaviors, and can be added to teams in Saturday Night Sieges. Our first iteration supports buttons for admins in the scenario’s DevUI, where we can add NPCs to specific teams. This allows us to quickly balance teams, even when we’re doing quick testing in the office. Next up, we’re giving them archery behaviors, making them even stronger allies in battle (although they are still relatively simple at this stage). (11/3/17) WIP – Tech – Performance/Stability Improvements: After spending some time moving our windows messages to their own thread, George took another turn down the performance path, and is now updating our input code to also run on its own thread. Not only does this give us performance improvements, but it will eventually pave the way for cool things in the future, such as an easier-to-use client-side input, updated keybinding system, and more responsive input.

After spending some time moving our windows messages to their own thread, George took another turn down the performance path, and is now updating our input code to also run on its own thread. Not only does this give us performance improvements, but it will eventually pave the way for cool things in the future, such as an easier-to-use client-side input, updated keybinding system, and more responsive input. (11/10/17) Tech – Deflection: Brad has been working on landing “deflect” client-side, so you can now see your character play the corresponding animation. While wrapping up the functionality, he also built in better feedback during combat. Previously the server was deflecting (humans aren’t the other ones that can deflect!) and you’d do less damage (or in some cases, none at all), but the reason why was unclear.

Brad has been working on landing “deflect” client-side, so you can now see your character play the corresponding animation. While wrapping up the functionality, he also built in better feedback during combat. Previously the server was deflecting (humans aren’t the other ones that can deflect!) and you’d do less damage (or in some cases, none at all), but the reason why was unclear. (11/17/17) WIP – Tech – Drag and Drop: AJ is adding Drag and Drop functionality to our UI, which is in its second round of review. AJ is building this code in a way that it can be used across multiple UIs. Players will first see it (and play with it) in the inventory and inventory and equipment screen.

AJ is adding Drag and Drop functionality to our UI, which is in its second round of review. AJ is building this code in a way that it can be used across multiple UIs. Players will first see it (and play with it) in the inventory and inventory and equipment screen. (11/17/17) WIP – Tech – Tools Support: Bull has been cranking away at making our tools even more useful for our team. He’s made an entity editor and improved the world editor so that people can design entities exactly where they are needed on the map vs. jumping between editors. Bull is also creating editor controls that make the above simpler, and lets him implement the idea of “templated content” retroactively to content we already have. This means less bugs for the designers to work around, and makes it easier for other programmers to compose tools for new features. Related to that, Bull is building templated content which lets content designers use things they already made instead of maintaining multiple copies of the same content. Having a templated content system has a direct effect on the ability of designers to create, fix, and test different ideas for content.

Bull has been cranking away at making our tools even more useful for our team. (11/22/17) WIP – Tech – NPC updates: For scenarios, Caleb has updated how we manage NPCs. When a scenario ends, NPCs will no longer transfer to the queuing area, as this caused a lot of chaotic post-match deaths. (They’re pretty simple-minded right now.) For NPCs in general, Colin is adding randomized equipment variations and genders. This will make groups of similar NPCs far more interesting.

And that’s just a smattering of the updates we put out this month! As always, you can check out a weekly blow-by-blow by checking out the News section of our website.



Onward! Lore Corner -by Max Porter Hey folks, welcome to another story in the Lore Corner! This month, allow me to present to you the first part of the Becoming™ story of the Stormriders. This tale has been written under the guidance of Mark Jacobs’ vision for Camelot Unchained, and is based on his original piece describing the Stormrider culture. I hope you enjoy! The Becoming: The Stormriders Part 1

The Tale of Lancelot Part 1

The old soldier by the fire rarely spoke, but when he did, they all listened. For his stories of the old wars and the great betrayal, the innkeeper silenced the patrons at the bar. He even slid some cloths under nearby mugs to stop their clinks from making listeners miss a word. The old soldier would always cough, clear his throat, and rap his cup against a table for attention.



This time, it was an overheard conversation that started him off. Two Stormriders were at the bar, marked by their jeweled foreheads as a Hearthkeeper and a Scholar. They were arguing about what had really happened, back in the old days when their castes and traditions were new. Every now and then one of them darted a sly glance at the older, heavily scarred man by the fire, hoping he would chime in. Eventually, they got their wish.



“Alright, I’ve heard enough. You two don’t know what you’re talking about.” Clank went his cup against the soot-darkened stones; expectant silence swept over the room, as even a nearby drunk Warrior-caste’s eyes flashed in the firelight. She may have started her wine a little too early in the evening, but she would certainly stay awake now. It was time for another of the old Stormrider’s stories.



And from the sound of his throat-clearing and the rush of the innkeeper to fill his cup, it was going to be a good one. “So, then. You want to know how it all started? How the traditions of the Stormriders came about? You want to know how the first of our people came to know the king? Do you want to know why each of us must dedicate themselves to a cause? Do you want to know why we must show our devotion to the Rider’s Oath with binding and blooding, and why we must ride the storm?”



Without waiting for an answer other than a chorus of nods, the old Stormrider rubbed the mysterious, unrecognizable jewel in his forehead and began.





There by the lake on the edge of the town, the morning winds were a cold reminder of winter’s passing in the warm spring sun. Lance was an orphan, eating a breakfast of cold bread on an old dock on the lake. He was a very serious lad, having had to grow up at an early age, and didn’t smile even as his friends and fellows splashed, making the sun’s rays glitter on the water all around.



Elaine, another of the street urchins, was holding court with a story. Her child’s hands made gestures as she spoke, laughing at the humorous parts. It was a classic story of the town, a folktale that had lasted for generations. Though the older children had surely heard the story many times before, they laughed at all the same jokes over again.



It was a tale of the Lady of the Lake, spiritual guardian and caretaker of the village. Though this tale had its funny moments, Lance remembered that the ending was sad. He tried to still his shiver as he finished washing his face.



Elaine struck a pose with a wistful look on her face, as if the past few years since she had joined their little band suddenly weighed upon her. “As the Lady of the Lake goes, so does the town. But they say that in the Breaking, she disappeared, never to return. Unless she’s been in the lake the whole time!” Elaina punctuated this with a playful splash.



Somehow, in a way that made no sense at all to Lance, this struck the other children as funny, and they nearly collapsed into giggles. Maybe it was nothing more than the sunny morning and the cold water making them all giddy.



“But fear not!” Elaine held up a finger proudly. “For it is said that a warrior of great skill and courage will appear, and be blessed by the Lady!”



Lance grinned. Though he had never learned to laugh in his brief, hard life, Elaine somehow managed to make a powerful feeling of hope rise in his chest.



However, a silence fell over the other children. Instead of shouting proudly at the end of her story, they huddled closely together, as if a shadow had crept past. All in a moment, they looked like the street urchins that they were; lost, forgotten, and lacking a home. Lance turned around.



Walking by along the quays were some larger, lanky figures. Greasy-haired and dirty-looking, they pointed and laughed at the urchins in the water. Halfway still children themselves, to tell the truth, Lance thought, but much, much bigger than the young ones now washing in the lake. As they passed on their way to start the day’s labor, they roared with laughter and shook their fists to frighten the children.



It made no sense to Lance. They had grown up in this same place, among the same houses, by the same lake; surely they should understand the desperation before them. But the guffaws passed on unabated, the harsh and unpleasant sound barely forming words. “Water rats never get clean!”



Lance shook his head and helped some of the smaller children out of the water to begin drying off. It was time to find the familiar begging spots in the confusing jumble of the town, and pick out dropped coins from the cobblestones. He barely noticed Elaine’s hard stare, her round child’s face stiffening into a mask of hurt and anger. If he had looked more closely, perhaps he could have seen the thoughtful, crafty look in her eyes as well.





It was at one of the familiar corners of the town square that Lance found out what Elaine had planned. In the evening of the following day, the market was slowing down: the low sun’s rays glinted off the brightly colored awnings as the weary merchants began to roll them up.



Off to one side were the loud, annoying fishermen, pocketing their coins from the day. Lance looked up as a shout echoed through the square. He glimpsed Elaine scrambling away in the shadows, clutching a leather coin-purse in one hand.



She didn’t get very far. Their longer legs pounding over the cobblestones, one fisherman scooped her up in brawny arms with laughter quickly turning angry. “You little sneak-thief! I’ll teach you a lesson you won’t soon forget!” His voice was harsh, rasping across the square and making heads turn.



Elaine was a scrappy fighter, squirming and twisting to get away. She wasn’t afraid to throw in a few kicks and bites, either. However, as the burly sailors gathered round to snarl and hurl their jokes, it was clear there was only one way this fight would end.



The various merchants in the square, losing interest now that the small wastrel had been caught, continued packing up their carts and closing down for the day. A few of the other street urchins begged a few coins out of those who had done well. Lance could smell the spice merchant’s cart as he passed, and heard the man chuckling ruefully, apologizing that he feared to get involved with the fishermen.



Now Lance could smell the overpowering scent of sweat and fish guts. He looked up at grinning, unshaven faces. Somehow, he had done the most foolish thing: he had run across the square, fists clenched. Elaine’s face was dirty, or perhaps bloody. He could see her looking at him in the twilight.



A heavy backhand caught the boy hard on the head, almost sending him to the cobblestones, but he managed to keep his feet. Lance’s return swing connected with breeches, a calf muscle. He elicited a yelp from his foe, but the others just laughed all the harder. Elaine was dragged aside, the coin-purse retrieved. One of the fishermen stepped forward, towering over Lance.



“Come on, little man! You can probably reach my chin! Hahaha!”



“Let her go.” Lance kept his fists clenched and dove for a shot at the big man’s knee, but was clouted across the face. Pain exploded through him, shooting down his neck.



The ringing in Lance’s ears could have been laughter or simply his own head. He tried to turn slowly, stumbling a little. His hands were still fists, and he squeezed tighter. “You got your coin back.”



A grunt came from the splotchy darkness where Lance’s eye was swelling. “Oh yeah? What makes you think that’s all we want? It’s been a long day, I could use a laugh.”



The third fisherman came into Lance’s view, rubbing his leg with one hand and dragging Elaine with the other. The girl was crying silently. “Oh, you want this trash? She’s all yours. Just come at me again, little water rat.”



All three guffawed as Lance obliged, charging forward with his head down and hands swinging. The blow that hit him on the back of the skull was muted, blunt. The cobblestone ground was cool on his throbbing face. Pain roared everywhere.



More chuckling, which he could barely hear through the pounding sound in his ears. Brutal blows thudded through him. Were they continuing to kick him? Was that Elaine they had tossed beside him on the ground, or had they dragged her somewhere else? The fight had happened so fast.



Just breathe. In, out, again and again. He couldn’t tell how long he lay there, battered and bleeding.



Breathe, in, out, was the one thought he could hold in his mind for a while.



Strong fingers turned him over. Unbidden, he groaned and coughed, peering up into lamplight. In the evening shadow, he could barely make out a uniform. It had the style and insignia of the local Storm Watchers. There was a roughness about this figure that Lance somehow sensed rather than saw with his blurred vision.



“I was watching you, boy. You’re going to have to learn better than that if you want to pick fights with boys twice your size.” It was a woman’s voice, gravelly as though from years of shouting. Middle-aged and hard-faced, she peered down at him with a smile in her eyes that did not touch her thin lips.



An iron taste ran over Lance’s lips as he cracked them open. “You watched… and did not do… something?”



She snorted. “If I had, you would have learned nothing.” Pausing for breath, she lifted the lantern and looked about. “Besides, I am tired. Storm Watching is not easy.”



Lance shivered. It hurt. “Elaine…?”



“The girl you so nobly tried to save? She ran off while they were beating you. She wasn’t really hurt, much. Looked worse than it was. Maybe she’s learned a lesson too.” The woman turned back to Lance, studying him coldly as if he were a fish she wasn’t too interested in buying.



Lance winced. “Hurt…”



“Well, get up. I made sure they didn’t kill you, but I’m not going to carry you, boy.” For a moment, her iron gaze met his. “There’s a cold cheese and a warm bed waiting, if you can make it. And to be honest, maybe a bath.”



That sounded good. Maybe it would save his life. Lance stifled groans as he rolled over onto his knees, certain that all his joints would break apart.



She didn’t laugh as she watched him, never offering aid. Instead, she cleared her throat as she stood up. “You can pay me back in the morning.”



Lance heaved a breath on his hands and knees, wondering if any bones were broken. “I can’t pay.”



“Then you can pay with work. That is what I intended from the beginning, boy. Now come along.” She turned away and began walking, her lantern throwing light up the walls of the houses and shops that lined the square.



Struggling, Lance tottered after, grinding his teeth as each step shot pain through his torso, neck, and head. Breathe, in, out. In, out. One foot follows another.



The woman’s powerful voice came from the street ahead. “You may call me Ms. Lack. And what is your name?”



Trying to straighten, he wheezed a little. “L-Lancelot.”



The grizzled Storm Watcher turned and raised an eyebrow at him. “Lancelot? That’s a very fancy name for a street rat.”



“They call me Lance,” he offered, a little crestfallen despite himself as he hobbled along.



Ms. Lack grunted and shook her head, turning back to lead on along the cobblestone street. Over the sounds of laughter coming from a nearby tavern window, she said, “Then you should learn to use one.”



Lance tried to shrug, but it was too painful. He just followed as the woman went around a corner.



Looking up, he stopped in his tracks as he saw something glinting between two dark buildings.



A pair of piercing blue eyes peered from the narrow opening of a side street. He said nothing, and only barely glimpsed the small girl that turned and ran down the alleyway, knife clutched in her white-knuckled grip.



Thus ends part 1 of the Becoming story of the Stormriders. Well, that's November's newsletter. Thanks for reading! It was awesome as always to put together this collection of articles, lore, etc. for you all. Forty issues of Unveiled, come and gone! Pretty cool to think about. Until next time, I’ll CU later! - Max



