THE RUINED TEMPLE
©2020 TJ REYNOLDS
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ALSO IN SERIES
THE SHATTERED SWORD
THE RUINED TEMPLE
Contents
I. Trouble with Iron
1: “Many consider food and good company a proper gift. Weapons, especially sharp ones, are my preference.”
2: “Like water to a wick, adventure comes to those who have chosen to stand against evil.”
3: “In the far reaches of the world, under a lost and lonely hill, lies The Tomb of Horrors.”
4: “Often, it is the same wounds that wake us at night that shape our hearts and bolster our spines.”
5: “Much have I traveled in the realms of gold, and many goodly states and kingdoms seen.”
6: “Gold is fine, no doubt. But trinkets of the heart are what we remember most.”
7: “Nothing will make you feel stronger than holding an axe… except maybe two axes, of course.”
II. Trail of Salt
1: “There will be water if God wills it.”
2: “If you leave your home behind, there is no promise, and certainly no guarantee it’ll be the same when you return.”
3: “You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire.”
4: “Madness, as you know, is like gravity, all it takes is a little push.”
5: “For my handling of the situation at Tombstone, I have no regrets.”
III. A War on Two Fronts
1: “I’m not proud, but I am happy; and happiness blinds, I think, more than pride does.”
2: “What good are wings if you lack the wings to use them?”
3: “Two days’ hunger made a fine sauce for anything.”
4: “They say necessity is the mother of invention. They’re wrong. Desperation is.”
5: “But then a sight she'd never seen made her jump and say, ‘Look, a golden winged ship is passing my way.’”
6: “Battle is a mirror. What you see of yourself in its pristine surface is often more frightening than the bloody bits.”
7: “But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them.”
8: “Not if we hold true to each other.”
9: “Destruction cowers to mark what deeds are done.”
10: “Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.”
IV. What is Yours
1: “Nothing like the dire peals of a battle horn to stir the blood to action.”
2: “A leader is no more than the sum of her followers.”
3: “Defense is the best defense. Everyone knows that.”
4: “And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from afar ancestral voices prophesying war!”
5: “War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
6: “History is a cyclic poem written by time.”
7: “What is there so fearful as the expectation of evil tidings delayed?”
8: “But because they are shackled, they are unable to turn their heads.”
9: “It is best to open your eyes and see the storm coming… but oh how tempting it is to squint.”
*Quest Complete!*
ALSO IN SERIES
APPENDIX
Groups you can find TJ on
LitRPG
Part I
Trouble with Iron
Relevant Progress of Hana Kotoba
Status: Chilling at checkpoint. Lucky to be alive.
Class: God Slayer, Bane of Bears, still not a Pathfinder.
Items: A dump truck full of body parts, expensive ones.
To Do: Quest giver? Has anybody seen the quest giver?
1: “Many consider food and good company a proper gift. Weapons, especially sharp ones, are my preference.”
— Sara Dandre
HANA
The town of Benham churned like a barrel of beetles, everyone vying for a better view of Tumsley. The strange man was not particularly popular in town, gruff and outlandish as he was. Yet after he had applied so much of his time and knowledge in the harvesting of the great bear, the townsfolk had begun to view him in an entirely new light.
“A bit to the left,” Garren called from below. “Yep! That’s it, that’s perfect.”
Tumsley was adjusting the tilt of a massive, freshly bleached skull above the yawning entrance of the town hall. He made one more adjustment, then he lifted both of his hands up, leaning back as far as his perch on the ladder would accommodate. “There! Close as a Sunday mornin’ shave and good enough for now!” the man declared as he began his descent.
When he’d finally made it down and the ladder was removed, the crowd cheered in an uproar.
You humans sure love bones, Pachi said to me as we watched from a safe distance.
I
