Showing results by author "Andrew Schmitt" in All Categories

The battle with the horde of necromorphs is lost. Foreston has been overrun by Dark fiends. The foxfolk have been forced to abandon their homes and seek salvation on the far side of Narrow Lake. Its main city lost, the Order of Monster Hunters finds itself on the brink of destruction. And now deprived of their chief ally, the gnomes are left all alone to take on the army of the Steel King. Eric's attempts to halt his foe's advance have all come to naught—Alrak the Heartless and the other Dark primordials are simply too powerful.

The Army of Earth is being sent on its first tour of duty. Its 50,000 proud and valiant troopers are the best of the best, full of hope for brilliant victories and spoils of war that can help Earth's humanity along in its development. There's just one little problem, though. The operation's Geckho commanders view their human vassals as mere cannon fodder, good only for plugging up holes in their defensive line and shipping out to the space war's most punishing hotspots where the chance of surviving is practically nil.

Our future. Noncitizens and individuals of low social standing can only find work in one place: the virtual world of Disgardium. And that might mean mining ore; it could just as well mean cleaning pigsties or washing dishes in a tavern, but that's about as glamorous as it gets. Fifteen-year-old schoolboy Alex has dreams of working as a space guide. All he can think about is the stars, but life gets in the way, and now his only path to achieving that goal is through the game.

At long last, an extraterrestrial civilization reached out and made the First Contact. However, no one on Earth took their communique for the genuine article. In a similar vein, very few people appreciated just how little time our new suzerains had promised to keep our planet safe. Regardless, the end of their message showed humankind how to access a mysterious game. The objective of this game is unclear. No one can say where its servers are located, and its inner workings are beyond comprehension.

Orcs and elves come streaming out of portals. People lose their grip and are transformed into afflicted. If this is a zombie apocalypse, it's a pretty weird one. The rules are simple: kill an orc or anything else—gain life energy, reducing your chances of becoming a walking corpse. But fail—and become a zombie, AKA an afflicted.

Your parents are getting divorced. Now, once you turn 16, you'll be doomed to a pitiful existence on the lowest rungs of society. The neighbor girl got plastic surgery for your sake and is levelling fast to impress you. A Sleeping God gave you its power, but now demands absolute loyalty and obedience, even in real life. Something called the Destroying Plague wants its Emissary to infect everyone alive and, as luck would have it, that Emissary is you! But the city sees you as its salvation, not a cause of great suffering.

Ceasefires have one big downside: They eventually come to an end. And when they do, once again game nodes are set ablaze, and platoons of Dark Faction soldiers threaten our customary world with destruction. The enemy has grown stronger and more numerous. To make matters worse, they also got their hands on even deadlier weaponry. They have learned painful lessons from previous encounters and adjusted their tactics accordingly.

In this world, steam and electricity are the favored sources of power. Science has taken the place of religion, while magic is unknown by all but peculiar outcasts. But the border between reality and the underworld here is extremely thin. Thankfully, the adepts of scientific knowledge have found success holding back the onslaught of infernal creatures. Electricity is stronger than magic, but even it is not all-powerful. A former detective constable for the New Babylon Criminal Investigative Police, Leopold Orso is illustrious.

New Babylon is the capital of the mighty Second Empire. Dirigibles drift over the city, steam trains race down its tracks, and the factory chimneys never stop billowing smoke, even for a moment. The hegemony of science is unquestioned, and yet magic hasn't disappeared from the world. It remains dissolved in the blood of those who are called Illustrious. Hardline reductionists find that hard to accept, but it is not in their power to change the longstanding status quo.

First encounters with other sentient races. New global trials and events. That's all well and good, but we have business on Earth. The time has come to bring people together and make a base in a Moscow overrun by afflicted.