Author: David J. Hodges
The world is unraveling. A silent, insidious rot devours reality, turning living stone to dust, twisting memory, and erasing the very essence of existence. At its heart stands a serene, white-masked figure, the architect of a terrifying new order, who wields a destructive power of “Unmaking,” promising a cold, perfect peace to a chaotic world.
Forty years ago, Gundroff of the Ragingfire clan lost everything. His mountain home, Hjarta-Fell, fell to the dragon Ash Heart, leaving him scarred by the Berserker’s Brand and driven by a solitary vow of vengeance. But when the creeping rot infects human lands, his path collides with Seraphina, an elven Chronomancer whose precise magic unravels the subtle geometry of reality’s decay. Joined by the enigmatic monk, Thaddeus, they embark on a desperate quest for the source of this spreading blight.
From the oppressive matriarchy of Nyx’Tolos to the sun-scorched graveyard of the Ashen Desert, their journey forces them into impossible alliances and brutal compromises. They uncover the horrifying truth: the Unmaking is orchestrated by a cult, manipulating ancient forces to unravel the very fabric of existence by targeting the Four Pillars of reality. The discovery of a silver locket, containing a forbidden memory of a pure, ancient love, hints at the cult’s deepest wound—and offers a desperate hope.
As the cult’s Laughing Shadow hunter stalks them, and the dwarves of the hidden Stonehammer clan rise from their exile to reclaim Hjarta-Fell, Gundroff, Seraphina, and Thaddeus must confront not just physical enemies, but the very nature of time, memory, and sorrow. They are three broken people, fighting to mend a broken world, in a war that threatens to unmake them all. “The Berserkers Brand” is the harrowing first chapter in “The Age of Scars,” where the lines between hero and monster blur, and survival demands a price no one can foresee.
Frozen Memories
Author: David J. Hodges
The Unmaking has merely mutated. Its second symptom arrives not as a scorching rot, but as a creeping, predatory frost that devours the past. When the chronomancer Seraphina uncovers the chilling movements of the Mor-kin across the northern wastes, a fractured fellowship must march back into the biting dark.
Gundroff Ragingfire, a dwarven zealot who has forgotten what he is, leads the descent. Beside them walk Thaddeus, an enigmatic monk harboring primeval words that taste of bedrock, and Ankle Shanker, a goblin scavenger.
Their quarry is the Demon General Manduklesh. His prize is the Crown of Frozen Memories. To stop the demon from using this parasitic artifact to siphon the history from the world, the fellowship must survive blinding blizzards, ancient glacial crypts, and the aristocratic cruelty of the Sable Hand Inquisition.
If they fail, the winter to come will not just freeze the flesh. It will erase them completely.