Showing results by author "C.J. Pearson" in All Categories

TALES OF NYARLATHOTEP is the fourth book of the Books of Cthulhu series by Crossroad Press (Tales of the Al-Azif, Tales of Yog-Sothoth, The Book of Yig). It is an anthology featuring pulpy tales of horror starring Outer God and his myriad plots as well as games. Nyarlathotep is functionally omnipotent and treats humanity like ants underneath a magnifying glass. He is impossible to kill but perhaps capable of being thwarted. Or maybe that's just what he wants you to think.

Long ago, the allied kindreds of Cordysia fought a costly war against the evil Pirryneus and his minions, Orks and Dragons, including his most formidable co-conspirator the mighty Elder Drake Brykkael. Pirryneus and his forces were defeated, and Brykkael himself was slain. But now, 300 years later, evidence has reached New Sylestia that the wealth collected and hoarded by that fallen serpent ages ago and thought long-abandoned and perhaps only a myth might've at last been found.

For a millennium and a half, through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution, and Victorian Era, keeping their identities secret, living through the centuries, making their mark subtly on human history until 1921, when this duo decide to come to America following the First World War and H1N1 pandemic, landing on Ellis Island and beginning a 100-year period of new and sometimes rather unusual adventures, navigating American society of the 20th and 21st centuries, dealing with all sorts of controversies and complexities, and at times having a lot of fun.

Get ready for a leap into nostalgia and childhood dreams. Contained are four short stories from the Secondary Epoch, a time between wars, when Unicorns still frolicked in woodland glades, magical winged creatures still gracefully flew in the skies above, with Dark Lords still exiled in depths, and evil somewhere between a distant memory and a future that seemed far and remote. See the realm through hopeful hazel green eyes and experience the magic as if for the very first time.

Fairport's darkest hour in the midst of a deadly plague and burning city, when only a brave elderly magistrate stood between an angry mob and a winged warrior trying to keep the people safe. The perils of war and invasion by enemy armies, countered by an Elven maiden and her bow. The intervening acts of Unicorns. Dwarves with the strength of stone and the craft and cunning of a human mage contending against the power of a demon. Even the last days of the realm itself and the escape of its few survivors into a new world. All these events and more.

Civilization is getting a rare opportunity to witness a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a now well-advanced-in-years Lorewyn, to hear the untold tale of her and Rhianyn's enduring tenure on Earth following their exile from being immortal realm-travelers and guides, and how these two extraordinary women from a different existence, helped the human race to embark on a journey that took them past the stages of bigotry, xenophobia, and division, to reach out toward the stars in unity and with love, and explore new realms in the spirit of peace.

Europe, 454 CE. King Ardaric of the Gepids is leading a force of Germanic troops to stop the Huns, led by Ellac, son of the now-deceased notorious Attila, once and for all. As Irmyl (mentored by Lorewyn) aids her people in the fight against Ellac, all eyes seem to be looking west toward Pannonia as the storm clouds gather and war is imminent.

Irmyl, a young woman of Hunnic descent (but raised amongst a Germanic tribe along the Danube River in the mid fifth-century CE), is confronted with a difficult task. Three years earlier, the Huns were pushed back in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains by a combined force of Roman and Germanic troops, a battle that cost Irmyl's father and many in her village their lives. The notorious Hun leader, Attila, is now dead, but his son Ellac is once again threatening an invasion that will take the Huns straight through Irmyl's home.

An innocent Human child is murdered by an Elven artisan in the village of Foxglove Falls, under Lorewyn's jurisdiction as Constable. With the child's parents and the rest of the village outraged - and rightfully so - the administration of justice falls into the hands of a divided Elven tribunal...with Lorewyn's reputation and a promise she made on the line. Tristyn Caelbryn, a young novice Mage, is faced with a dilemma when the Nullification Act is passed in New Sylestia by the Elven council, preventing humans from continuing to practice the magical arts.

A group of adolescent Elven militia cadets from New Sylestia on a seemingly routine training exercise in Highvale. A puzzling power play involving a young Human heiress and her pending marriage to a young man that could unite a kindred in the region. An ancient teacher from Cordysia's distant past...and a novice archer's unexpected but necessary undercover mission, playing the part of someone who by appearances is essentially her identical twin! Learn more about The Viscountess and the Valeguard!

A long time has passed in New Sylestia since the days of Tristyn, Arcadia, Talya, and others who once lived and fought for the future of the realm. Most have forgotten the stories. Humans and Orks live together in relative but uneasy peace. But the Seal of Concordys, which once separated the realm of Cordysia from others, has been dissolving, and is now at a point where certain barriers dividing regions of existence that once held are now traversable...and that has brought chaos, danger, and the return of an old clever adversary who is seeking a renewed opportunity at dominance.

Join Arcadia, Tristyn, and their comrades in this new adventure of the Cordysian Chronicles series and discover the secrets only known by the Guardian at the Gate of Tomorrow!

A strange and deadly plague, lethal to the Human kindred of New Sylestia, has taken hold in the coastal city of Fairport. While the Militia Commander Velyxi fights alongside the local magistrate to keep the vulnerable seaport quarantined amidst panic and internal forces, her daughter Lorewyn, a young and somewhat unseasoned Elven archer, along with Rhianyn and Shyntiel sail west across the ocean in hopes of finding the distant and mysterious Crown Islands, and the only hope for a cure.

Khendryll, a young Acolyte from the rigidly theocratic realm of Khelyria, has an experience when he’s a boy. He witnesses something wonderful and magical that changes his life and drives him to want to explore a deeper understanding of spiritual and mystical truth, an understanding that is forbidden by the Clerics of Jurryk. His trust in his progressive mentor shaken and his best friend alienated by an impulsive decision on his part, Khendryll eventually gives up and accepts the traditional interpretations of the Temple, becoming a Cleric himself and denying what he once believed.

The end of Where the Children of Wind Once Danced saw those adventures come to a finale for this heroine, at least in her home world. But the legacy of Lorewyn’s words and inspiration continue to live on through her letters, journal, and verse spanning over a millennium. The long-kept scrolls have been opened at last, the parchment uncovered, and with the help of a trusted Guild Mage, the Children of Wind dance again, with stories to be told that will enchant listeners who have found enjoyment in the Cordysian Chronicles trilogy.

Libryll’s encounter with Elves and Unicorns when she was a child growing up in the Woodman village of the Eldermark, far to the east, inspired her with a love for adventure, magic, and ancient mysteries. But now, 20 years after the events described in Two Flew at Midnight, New Sylestia and her allies are at war against Orks, Dragons, and the forces of evil. The young Deputy Waldgrave’s family is dead, her village destroyed, and Libryll is on the front lines with her Elven heroines, now not so larger than life, and learning about cost and what heroism is truly about.

Dragon attacks for the first time in centuries. An elusive darkness rising in the east beyond the Crescent Mountains. A sinister plot to undermine the security of New Sylestia from within...and a pair of Elven warrior maidens caught in the middle of it all, with only their devotion to each other keeping them alive and giving them the strength they need to overcome such adversity, not only for themselves, but for their people and their realm.

The realm of New Sylestia had enjoyed a thousand years of peace, protected by a powerful Sequestering spell. But the harmony that had once existed between Elf and Human society is now threatened from within, and Lorewyn, an Elven archer and war heroine haunted by her own past, is caught between her heritage and loyalty to her most beloved friend...and fighting for her human neighbors and a higher cause.

Rhianyn's mother, Traphaunes' wife, a student of Cordysia's greatest Elven teacher, a veteran of the First Sylestian War, one of new Sylestia's cultural architects, guildmaster of the War Mages, accomplished poet (although few knew), midwife, mentor to Elven cadets, and some even believed a prophetess.

A dark dystopian future in an alternate timeline of Cordysia, brought about by a seemingly small choice made in the past that never should've been made. A realm now mired by insurrection, hopelessness, and loss. Will Rhianyn's love for and commitment to Lorewyn be strong enough to break through barriers of space and time and guide her into taking the sacrificial steps necessary to set things right and restore what originally was?