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Posted by Meg

This entry is from Suf from Toronto; a story about two brothers who brave the night to fight corelings.

It had become sport between the brothers; Troff and Kreg piled the fire demon corpses in a neat pyramid as they counted their killings.

’14 here newbie,’ said Troff with a grin.

’18 here newbier than a newbie’, Kreg retorted with a chin high.

‘Holy Creator, that is a new record, Kreg, I killed a fat one we will eat this one,’ Troff held up a fire demon by a leg with one hand.

Troff and Kreg couldn’t remember when a night had gone by and they hadn’t killed the demons for fun. Ever since they ran away from Candayn, they had been hunting demons with warded weapons for fun; surviving had become an unminded part of their night. Demons sometimes even ran away from them when they weren’t competing and were working together. It was only an hour in from sunset when they had set up a fire to eat their salvage demon meat. At first it was a last resort to them, and now it had become a fourth meal. Both brothers had recognized the effect the demon flesh embedded in them; they were stronger faster and better than every man they came across in the hamlets.

‘Brother, we need to find a Hamlet soon. We are running low on ink and I think I need a new weapon; this one is getting boring,’ said Troff as he wiped his scimitar on the grass.

The demon crackled and sizzled as it rotated on top of the fire. While cranking the rotisserie at a very smooth pace, Kreg rummaged through a giant bag for knives; he would use to part the meat. He had grabbed the specially warded steal cleaver when he saw the movement in the bush far from the portable circle.

‘Yes I saw that too, don’t mind it I think it’s a smaller woody being its annoying self,’ said Troff.

‘They never learn do they? This one is going to learn a lesson it’s going to teach it’s kin.’

Kreg stopped the rotisserie and moved it away from the fire. He picked out his favourite weapon, his double sided polearm, and walked with a pumped chest towards the demon. Just as he stepped out of the circle, the demon came out of the bushes.

‘Ah, what have we here,’ Kreg said out of surprise.

The demon glowed of Indigo color even in the night; it stalked on all fours rustling its steps as its crystal like armor flexed with its movements. It was bigger than a fire demon by a bit and walked like a spoiled house cat. Its horns protruded a crown around its head pointing back to the darkness behind. It seemed to not care of Kreg’s growing acceleration towards it.

‘Hey Troff have you seen one of these before?’

‘No never, be careful we don’t know what it can do.’

‘Ah, piece of Krasian cake, Brother,’ as the distance between him and the demon became only around 10 feet. Troff gave the ground a scratching with his weapon as he slowed to meet the demon eye to eye. The noise attracted its attention, and their eyes met.

The Demon wasn’t a Demon at all, it was just a little girl curled up crying as blood leaked from her head, through her hair.

‘Troff, come help me, girl are you alright?’

‘GET AWAY, YOU ARE ONLY HERE TO HURT ME!’

‘NO, I’m here to help, did the Demons do this?’

‘NO, NO NO NO! MEN DID THIS HUMANS LEAVING ME OUT, OUT IN THIS NIGHT.’

‘We are not the same, my brother and I will take care of you,’ said Troff now kneeling in front of her. He reached out and lost three fingers from his pinky as he was yanked backwards by Kreg.

‘What the Core were you doing, trying to get yourself killed?’ the demon chewed with a cynical grin as it looked straight back at him, re-morphing into the girl as she held out her hand missing three finger. She gave a little giggle and melted into the ground.

Troff sat back as he shook his head back to reality, and watched Kreg try to pry his sword out of the ground.

‘Whatever that was , it was messing with my head, I saw little girl and tried to help,’ he held his hand in the air and looked at the already cauterized wound sizzle.

‘It took your flesh and went back to the core; bastard is probably showing off to the others right now.’

Nightmare Demon Size: around the size of a mountain lion.

Where it spawns from the core: Anywhere vulnerable prey are, usually an isolated victim.

Ability: To overpower your will and induce hallucination upon eye contact.

Weakness: the mind ward, water will scare it, but stabbing and beheading it works best with a warded sword/axe. Also avoid eye contact. It’s very uncommon, very rarely seen by anyone, and the prey usually don’t survive. It travels alone and comes in different colored dull crystal armor. The only ward that works against it is the one Arlen used on his forehead against the mind demon.

This Demon is almost sister to the Mind Demon and is also considered ‘royalty’ among the other demons. Its behaviour is like a spoiled cat and like a spoiled cat it also hates water. It’s teeth horns and claws are razor sharp and when they cut they burn with demon magic.

Hope you guys like it 🙂

Thank you to Suf for sharing his story with us. I love that the Nightmare Demon is compared to a spoiled house cat!

The due date for the contest looms closer and closer. Hurry and get your entry in by 11:59am on May 18th, 2012. Want to know more? Check out the contest guidelines.

Sent us your entry a while ago and still haven’t seen it up on Peat’s blog? Fear not! We are getting to it. We have had an overwhelmingly good response to this contest, so there are still quite a few to get through.

Posted on May 14, 2012 at 5:00 pm by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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Posted by Meg

Nathan brings us the messiest demons yet! Check it out.

The Tar Demon

Bubbling up from the core through tar-sands and oily pits, this rare demon comes out at night to feast on the flesh of animals that have become hopelessly trapped in the mire. Tar demons are extremely slow moving and can be escaped quite easily at a brisk walking pace, so long as their prey does not become stuck. Tar demons are considerably affected by the ambient temperature around them, moving slower on cold winter nights than on warm summer evenings. They get along quite well with rock demons, but flame demons take particular pleasure in lighting them on fire and watching them slowly burn and sputter away.

In appearance, tar demons are hideous to behold. They are short creatures with such sagging flesh that the normal observer is unable to make out many discernable features other than a globular, lunging mass. A sinister mouth and numerous eyes slowly repositioning themselves all over the demons body are their only prominent features. They do not have arms or hands but can shoot out small globs of themselves at short range to latch onto their prey and pull their struggling captives back to their awaiting maw. The bite of a tar-sand demon is often more fatal than a typical demon’s bite as the oil tends to foster the growth of additional diseases.

The smell of a tar demon is foul but if the scent of one is beheld, it is usually too late to escape as the tar pits tend to mask the stench quite well. Of particular note, the odor of sulfur repels a tar demon. Normal fire will ignite a “tarrie”, but the demon usually needs to be incapacitated or coated in something much more flammable than itself to get the flames going.

As the sun begins to shed its rays on the world, the tar demon descends back to the core leaving a slick mess behind on whatever surface it descended through.

Thank you to Nathan for sending in his entry. Glad I’m not on the clean-up crew for these demons! They remind me of quicksand (which has always terrified me) except it can move. Yikes.

The clock is ticking! Get your entries in by 11:59pm on May 18th, 2012. There is an abundance of worthy prizes including Red Sonja comics, warded dice, signed copies of The Desert Spear and, for the Grand Prize, a Graphic Audio recording of The Warded Man. Check out the contest guidelines and send in your best (or worst) corelings.

Posted on May 14, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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Posted by Meg

This new demon has been discovered by fan Johann, and it’s after more than just humans …

A Synopsis of the lesser known and very scarce Locust Demon

Here follows an extract out of the Magnum librum de alienis Mones (translated: Big Scroll Of Strange Demons) about the Locust Demon. The scroll was found in the Ruins of Anoch Sun.

“The whole world should thank their lucky stars that there have only been two recorded sightings of the Locust Demon in known history. From those that survived the appearances, we know the following:

Appearance:

They are apparently the size of a small dog – think Jack Russell – with six legs, four wings and a wingspan of about three to five feet. They have segmented, insect-like eyes, sharp mandibles, and it is theorized that they are able to open said mandibles and chomp down with hidden teeth as well. This theory is based on the extent of the damage and carnage witnessed. Having safety in numbers, no one has seen one from close enough to deduct more than this.

Numbers:

The smaller of the two sightings was estimated at 100,000. The bigger was between 100,000 and 300,000 according to records. They apparently only appear in numbers and swarms and this makes me believe that the individual Locust Demon does not possess a will of its own but share a hive mind link, or terrifyingly, are all part of the same Demon. If they were capable of individual thought, they would have been sighted with regularity. The only positive of this theory is that the Locust Demon is quite high up in the Demon Hierarchy and appears but rarely.

Attack:

The Locust Demon eats everything. Grasslands, woods, all animals even fish. Herds vanish. Lakes are emptied of all life. Verdant lands have been turned into dead deserts in one night. Whole cities have been wiped out, not by direct attack, but by the death of the land.

Defence:

Wait for sunrise. And pray. The blessed scarcity of the Locust Demon has made it impossible to figure out what wards will block them for good. It has become common practice to ward the hell out of outlying crops and livestock pens.”

Thanks to Johann for the entry! I love the “Big Scroll of Strange Demons”. Look’s like we might have one of those on our hands once this contest is over!

Locust Demons aren’t the only demons out there … create your own and send it to us by 11:59pm on May 18th, 2012. Check out the original post for guidelines!

Posted on May 13, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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Posted by Meg

Today’s demon comes from Myke Cole, author of Shadow Ops: Control Point.

SHADOW DEMONS:

Shadow Demons are a symbiote. They are beings of pure magic, linked to the darkness of the core, and they have a relationship with their hosts much like beneficial bacteria do for humans. They live on the bodies of the most powerful corelings (Mind Demons and Mimics) and conduct magical energy from the core into their bodies. While Mind Demons are already powerful, their pinnacle of power is due to this function of magical channelling. Without the air of the Shadow Demons colonizing their skins, they would simply be a more powerful breed of coreling.

Shadow Demons are tiny, no bigger than a speck of dust. Because of this, they were never identified by humanity, and no wards exist to combat them. They are stupid, of animal intelligence, like your average coreling. They know only that they are drawn to the warmth and safety of Mind Demons and Mimics, who are equally sensitive to light, and therefore make better hosts for them. Shadow demons never live on the hides of drone corelings, as these creatures are more likely to expose them to star or moonlight, either of which will kill them.

Outside the core, Shadow Demons go unseen, clinging fast to the bodies of Mind Demons and Mimics, acting as magical conduits, strengthening their hosts.

But *inside* the core, where the darkness is absolute, Shadow Demons bask in the magical currents that flow from the their nexus at the center of the earth. Here, in their home, they are a force to be reckoned with. When threatened, or roused to hunger, or in defense of the hive, Shadow Demons will “colonize” into a single form, a towering being of pure blackness, bigger than a rock demon, fanged and clawed and horned. No ward can effect them, no weapon can harm them, all blows pass harmlessly through their liquid black forms. Yet their own teeth and claws cut as surely as any steel.

In the core, in their colonized form, the Shadow Demon is only vulnerable to one thing: light.

And in the core, that is rare thing indeed.

Thanks Myke! Now that I know what’s lurking down there, I won’t be visiting the core anytime soon.

Have an idea for a demon? Want to share it with the world? Check out the contest guidelines and email your coreling by 11:59pm on May 18th, 2012.

Posted on May 12, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Myke, Warded Man
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Posted by Meg

This entry is from Luke Fielding, who has done some stunning fan art in the past. You can check out more of Luke’s work on his website. Here he has painted a demon with his words … and it is just as terrifying as his pictures.

Hive Demons (aka: false demon, the deceiver, snake demons)

These demons go by many names but Hive Demon is one that is widely accepted. This rare humanoid demon, control the breeding within the core. Hive demons rarely come to the surface, as like Mind Demons they cannot abide the false sun (the moon) – hence their name.

Hive demons, although powerful, have no thick protective armour. They have fine light-brown scales, a protection vulnerable to unwarded attacks. Their scales naturally disables offensive warding, making cutting wards and such like it useless. Hive Demons have large lidless onyx eyes and three rows of sharp, small teeth.

Hive demons have been known to come to the surface during the previous Sharak Kar as depicted in the ruins of Anok Sun. Because these demons are human-like in appearance at first sight, they have used this fact to penetrate the human ranks – killing from within. They are slightly taller than an average human, ranging upwards of six feet. Although humanoid in appearance, this demon has a special vertebrae that can help it bend easily in any direction – advantageous as the higher capillaries in the hive have passageways only just big enough for a fire demon. This vertebra extends into an extra, powerful appendage – with the power to hold its own weight. Due to this fact they were nicknamed ‘snake demons’ to those of the old world.

Hive demons have a dislike for human flesh, delighting on vicariously experiencing pain of their ancient enemy – an experience provided for them by Mind Demons. Its meals consist of weak offspring but they do not necessarily need to eat to survive. After the return, Hive demons have kept to the core, concentrating on the breeding within the hive. When the demon lords decide, they will join their kin on the surface – to unleash the dormant combative power of their nature.

Yikes! I wouldn’t want to run into those guys. There is still time to submit your own terrifying coreling. Have your demonic words or pictures in by May 18th, 2012. Check out the guidelines and prizes here.

Posted on May 11, 2012 at 8:00 am by megelizabeth
Filed under Contests, Create a Coreling, Daylight War, Desert Spear, Fan Art, Fans, Meg, Warded Man
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