Pyroclastic Flow

Pyroclastic Flow is a story written and illustrated by Iron Eater. It ran in Issue 88 at https://www.shousetsubangbang.com/mirror/pyroclastic-flow/.

Summary

Their dread foe felled, Sarouth and Riaag have been left with one hell of a mess to clean up, and the weather hasn't been helping.

Sarouth rolled his eyes. "Guess I'll spend some time in tonight's rite talking about how that part of the First Scavenger's decree isn't quite as literal as people keep taking it," he said. "This would be so much easier if we could just turn them towards the western gate and point."

"Just as well the land here's shit fer growin'. I don't like the idea 'a what might grow out if'n we tilled this fucked-up soil." They both knew the terrors that crazed the earth like cracks on a turnip. Some things uncovered during cleanup were best left unmentioned.

"Ew. Fair point." Sarouth stretched and snatched up a carrion jar when his hand passed close enough. He broke the seal with his thumb-claw. Was a bit more of his appetite returning? It was hard to tell from the dainty way he picked at it, but at least he was getting a little more food in him. A few bites later he circled back around to the business of the day. "So what all did you secure for us this time, my wolf?"

Riaag straightened up where he sat. "A right decent haul. I saw ter gettin' the goods where they's meant ter be myself. Them merchants is gonna be around fer a while longer so's people can make smaller deals, 'n I figured you'd want ter have a bit ovva chat in person ter thank 'em fer comin' out all this way in such conditions. Didn't make no promises, though. I know how bright you's been burnin' yerself lately."

"Good, excellent. I really do want to see them myself, but you know how it is right now."

"Yeah."

The toes of Sarouth's left foot curled absently into the dirt again. "Suppose we should say our prayers before we get wrapped up in anything else. It'd be a shame to neglect them." He took Riaag's hand in his and kissed a knuckle. "Shall we?"

This story's main characters are not human.

Connections

This story is the ninth in the Rhoanish Works series. While the author recommends reading the stories in order of publication (in no small part due to increased writing ability and familiarity with the characters), it has been intentionally written so new readers can jump right in if they so desire. This being said, it derives a lot of context from the events of Xenolith Cache.

The setting itself is very loosely based on the freeware game Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup.

Related Links

This story has no related links.

Author's Notes

Can you believe this was originally going to be a secondary plot from last year? Turns out it needed room to breathe!

This story required me to write for a bit before I could really figure out what I wanted to do with my plot and its underlying themes. I knew I wanted to show how Sarouth and Riaag handled the tower situation once they took care of the wizard and his crew, as it covers far too much conceptual ground to just keep offscreen, but there sure were a lot of loose threads I needed to tidy up, which meant having a lot of names and ideas whizzing around that I needed to make sure would make sense to a new reader (or one returning after a year since reading the last entry). I think I did okay? I'm hoping next year's story will be more episodic so I don't have to spin quite so many plates, I tell you what.

Given how much the concept of sin has been hanging out in the background of this series it was about time we discussed that some. We've also not seen much in the way of unclean outside of flashback personalities and Riaag himself, so seeing how others interact with them (even indirectly) felt important. It's tricky discussing cultures with no real world significance, since the reader can't go and look up details on their own time, so my goal with this element of the story was to provide enough context to give these things weight without sitting anyone down for the dreaded Genre Setting Book Report. Just say no to those, folks, we'll all be happier without them.

Sex-scene-wise we did better than last year, with three paired scenes (none of which are fantasies!) and one non-sexual scene which still explores the concept of overcoming past trauma through physical intimacy, so it half counts, right? Given how absurdly long I make these things I try to make sure I've got a goodly amount of porn to justify them being in a porny webzine. Thankfully I don't feel like I have trouble with making those sex scenes actually tie into the plot overall, be they an actual story beat or just an exhalation before moving forward. I could probably manage a PWP if I had to (does Lands of Green in Days of White count?), but what can I say, I prefer things this way.

I have been sitting on the character of Valin Mad-Eyes for literal years, making sure not to so much as mention or allude to her anywhere, and I'm glad she's finally showed up. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say we'll be seeing her again later.

My thanks, as always, go to my beta reader, who helped me nail down some less-clear elements of my first draft and figure out how to streamline some of the many, many things all happening at once. He was also instrumental in pointing out where my themes got murkier than they needed to be; y'all have him to thank for there being one less major named character in this thing than original, as well as Gatte not getting a namedrop until the very end (previously her name rattled around earlier and further complicated things). Never underestimate the value of an extra set of eyes!

Writing 72,000-odd words in 31 days is not something I'd recommend for most people. Maybe next year will be shorter! Who knows?