The kickstarter for Welgar the Cursed, Path of the Swordsman by Tim Hanlon and The Eternal Assassin Chronicles by Andrew Darlington is about to start.
About my own collection, Welgar the Cursed, here are some details from my Introduction:
The six stories in this collection chronicle the gradual descent into darkness of the northern barbarian mercenary hero Welgar.
“Ossani
the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus" was the first story I wrote
involving Welgar, though he is very much a secondary character in this
tale after the rather bizarre sorcerer-cum-apothecary Ossani the Healer.
In this novelette Welgar is a young mercenary, already distrustful of
sorcery, who becomes embroiled against his will in thwarting an attempt
to take over the city he has been employed to protect as a member of the
city watch. By sheer chance he and Ossani meet in a prison where they
and others have been incarcerated by a puritanical religious movement
that is threatening to tear the city apart. Though disliking anything
that even hints of sorcery he is gradually persuaded to see Ossani in a
better light than others of his ilk and together they collaborate to
save the city from the sinister plot to bring it down.
"The Dark Priestdom" (published in Savage Realms Monthly)
sees an older, more mature Welgar who has moved northwards to the
“wealthy but licentious” city of Oriaska in a bid to improve his
fortunes. There he pitches in to help Nadrain the Storyteller, who he
notices is being set up to take the blame for the abduction of the king
of Oriaska's daughter, though there is an element of self interest in
this, as Welgar sees it as an opportunity to gain the king's gratitude
for helping save the princess. In pursuit of her abductors Welgar and
Nadrain sail southwards to the benighted city of Agrypt where Welgar is
tricked into being possessed by the spirit of a dark, Agryptian demon
god. Although this demon god endows him with increased strength, speed
and stamina it is at the expense of his appearance, which is transformed
into a wizened, bleached, deathlike travesty, looking more like a
corpse than a living being.
"Welgar the Cursed" (published in Swords & Heroes)
sees Welgar realising how truly cursed he is, not only in becoming the
image of an unwrapped mummy, but in the extreme bouts of insane violence
the demon god that has possessed him makes him perform. Insatiable in
its appetite for slaughter, there is little Welgar can do to prevent it.
An
incident in "Mask of a Mad God" reveals to Welgar even more vividly how
evil this curse truly is. The horrific events in this story are what
lead Welgar to undertake the hazardous trek to the far north to "The
Forbidden City of Cyramon" (published in Swords & Heroes).
In the arctic wastes beyond the Jagged Mountains in which this
demon-haunted city is situated he hopes either to be killed or to free
himself from his curse, though what he encounters there is far from what
he expects.
The
final story, "Emerging from Their Twilit Realms", reveals the full
extent of Agrypt's insane ambitions to create a dark empire, which will
cause ruin, mayhem and death around the Azure Sea. Despite his desire to
lead a normal life once more, Welgar is forced to oppose the Agryptian
forces that head north in a way that only he can manage, reuniting him
once more with Ossani the Healer in an apocalyptic tale of terror, death
and destruction.
All
of these stories chronologically detail Welgar's transformation from a
carefree mercenary more interested in the quality of the local beer to
an obsessed and cursed pawn in the kinds of sorcerous machinations he
hates, distrusts and quite rightfully fears.
