Welgar the Cursed - cover reveal

Cover artwork by Rizky Nugraha

It is with great pleasure I can reveal the front cover for my collection of Welgar stories: Welgar the Cursed, which will be published later this year.

As an appetiser I am including below the Introduction I have written for it. 

The book will be published in the States by Tule Fog Press. 

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.

David A. Riley, Oswaldtwistle, UK, 2024

Welgar the Cursed

Illustration by Rizky Nugraha

Publication of my collection of Welgar stories is getting closer, with drafts of the cover and its artwork already in the pipeline.

The collection includes six stories in chronological order. The first, "Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus" sees Welgar as 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. "The Dark Priestdom" (published in Savage Realms Monthly) sees a slightly older, more mature Welgar pitch in to help Nadrain the Storyteller, who 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 to save the princess. Welgar and Nadrain sail to the benighted city of Agrypt where Welgar unwittingly earns the nickname of Welgar the Cursed when he is possessed by the spirit of a dark, Agryptian demon god. "Welgar the Cursed" (published in Swords & Heroes) sees Welgar realising for the first time how truly cursed he is, not only in becoming the image of an unwrapped mummy, but in the occasional violence the demon god that has possessed him will make him perform. "Mask of a Mad God" reveals even more to Welgar how truly evil this curse is, and leads to "The Forbidden City of Cyramon" (published in Swords & Heroes) where Welgar travels to the arctic north in a desperate bid to rid himself of his curse. The final story, "Emerging from Their Twilit Realms", reveals the full extent of Agrypt's insane ambitions to create a dark empire, which Welgar is forced to oppose. The stories detail Welgar's transformation from a carefree mercenary more interested in the quality of the local beer to an obsessed and cursed pawn in machinations he hates and distrusts.

The illustration above is from Swords & Heroes by Rizky Nugraha.

Update on my collection of Welgar stories: Welgar the Cursed

Image of Welgar used in Swords & Heroes

 

Work is progressing on a collection of my Welgar stories, Welgar the Cursed. My publisher recently sent me some first drafts of the cover artwork for my approval.

Hopefully the book will be available soon. 

 

The collection features six stories which detail the ongoing problems that my mercenary character has to endure, opening with Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus. This is followed by The Dark Priestdom, Welgar the Cursed, Mask of a Mad God, The Forbidden City of Cyramon and, finally, Emerging from Their Twilit Realms.

Another sword and sorcery tale finished

 

Just finished what I hope are the final touches to a new sword and sorcery tale, tentatively titled Lies and Treachery.

It's quite a long story (11,100 words) and is my third involving a northern mercenary called Horbeck. He first appears in an as yet unpublished tale called The Unhappy Inquisitor, in which he is a secondary character. The second is in The Demon from Another World, in which this time he is the main character. This is to be published at the end of October in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium from Treeshaker Books. 

From the opening paragraph of Lies and Treachery:

"It was less than a day since the four mercenaries on their stolen camels reached the end of the Great Desert. Scorched by the sun, they were a desperate-looking band of men. Horbeck, their erstwhile leader, was a huge Northerner, fully a head taller than any of the others, his plaited beard and long hair bleached almost white and filled with dust. The scarred mail beneath his leather jerkin showed through rents in the badly worn garment. Like all the others he wore a plain, much dented steel helmet. The other northerner, Brud, was slightly shorter but built to the same hardy proportions, with a notched battle-axe swinging from his saddle. Back in his homeland he would usually have had the severed heads of those he had vanquished hung alongside it but in more civilised lands he had been persuaded to forgo this touch of vanity. Asnar, a Josanian archer with a sharply-pointed blue-black beard in need of a trim, wore lacquered leather armour, though its colours had been dulled and the bright designs on his broad breastplate were barely discernible. A scimitar hung in a gaudy sheath across his back. Completing their disreputable quartet, Bolbo, a balding Kossanian with a savage scar on one cheek, was the oldest of their group - and a poor rider of camels. Even after weeks of travel across the desert he clung onto his mount with steely desperation, his teeth gritted. His scarlet tunic had been drained of all but the faintest hint of colour by the sun while the old steel breastplate beneath was scored and dented from all the blows inflicted on it over the years."

The Storyteller of Koss is reprinted in this month's Schlock! Webzine

My sword and sorcery story The Storyteller of Koss, first published in Dustin Bilyk's Summer of Sci-fi & Fantasy is reprinted in the October issue of Schlock! Webzine, which is available now as an ebook and paperback.