Exodus of GnomesGod Core #2
Demi Harper
Contents
God of Gnomes — The Story So Far
God of Gnomes — Abilities
Prologue
1. Double Sight
2. Whack a Mole-Rat
3. Hunter
4. The Menagerie
5. Thank You, Electric Mouse
6. The Grotto
7. All Hail the Spider God
8. Cold Feet
9. The Lair of the Enemy
10. Trust Nobody
11. Bacon Butties
12. Scavengers
13. Too Easy
14. From Any Direction
15. A Core Named Corey
16. Tremble
17. Filthy Betrayer
18. A Holy Box
19. Professor Knox
20. Just One
21. Burst Its Banks
22. Aloof
23. Hammer Smash
24. Exodus
25. Interlude
26. Going Overground
27. Wet Dreams
28. Freedom
29. Council
30. Gnomads
31. Kidnapped!
32. Kind of Monster
33. The Librarinth
34. Hoot-Hoots
35. Too Many Cooks
36. Risk and Reward
37. Fury Badger
38. Not Crying
39. Seed
40. Finger Flingers
41. Stay on Topic, Old Man
42. Mr. Stiff's Sword Sharpener
43. Gno Man's Land
44. Frogs
45. Out of the Woods
46. The Marsh Zolom
47. The Jaws of Death
48. Creature Intersection
49. Bear Necessities
50. The Crossing
51. Red Water
52. Uldrazir
53. Disciple
54. A Knife in the Netherdark
55. The Only Way is Up
56. Unscorched
57. Not Part of the Plan
58. Misconceptions
59. Cannot End
60. Gardos
61. Lila
62. Trogloraptor
63. Control
64. Let There Be Light
65. No Time
66. Enough
67. Epilogue
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God of Gnomes — The Story So Far
After a long period of oblivion, Corey awoke with no memory of his former life to find himself in a cave beneath the ground. Accompanying him was a sprite named Ket, who explained that he was now a God Core: a soul trapped within a gem and forever tethered to whatever denizens the universe had assigned it to protect. In this case, those denizens were gnomes—a fact that impressed Corey not one bit.
Ket hastily brought him up to speed on the basics of being a God Core, including the fact that he would only really be able to influence denizens who became ‘Faithful’—in other words, who trusted their new god enough to begin actively worshiping him. As a fledgling Core, he only had one Faithful denizen—the gnome who’d unearthed his gem from among the roots of a mushroom tree, and whom Corey had dubbed ‘Gneil’ when he subsequently fell to his knees in worship—and would have to work hard to help the gnome tribe flourish in order to gain their loyalty.
Instinctively rebelling against these obligations, Corey struggled to adapt to his new role. The Augmentary—a handy interface that superimposes extra information upon reality and allows God Cores to manage their resources—gave him access to god-like magical abilities, which would become more powerful with each god tier he Ascended to. After a rocky start, Corey resolved to embrace this path of power—not to help the gnomes, but rather as a means to eventually escape his new (and unwanted) responsibilities and return to his former life.
However, to Ascend, Corey first had to gain the Faith of more of his denizens, which meant ensuring the Grotto was safe from harm. One of his abilities—Creation—allowed him to make ‘god-born’ defenders by splicing existing creatures together. The first of these—a fox-squirrel hybrid called a forrel—became Corey’s avatar, whom Ket named Ris’kin.
The first sign of real trouble came when a raiding party of kobolds invaded the Grotto, catching the gnomes unawares and kidnapping several of them—including Gneil. Terrified of the possible consequences of losing his only worshiper, Corey sent Ris’kin beyond his Sphere of Influence, where she was able to overcome Gneil’s kidnapper and return the lone acolyte to the Grotto. Gneil’s rescue, along with Ris’kin’s majestic presence, finally inspired the Faith of more gnomes—including Granny, Gneil’s rather stern and difficult-to-please supervisor.
But the rest of the kobolds’ victims didn’t fare so well. Using the Observe ability, Corey was able to locate his missing denizens just in time to witness their brutal sacrifice at the altar of a crimson God Core. Gaining this knowledge was almost the death of Corey; his overuse of Observe consumed most of his mana, prompting a very distressed Ket to explain that if he allows his mana globes to empty, he will literally shatter.
Corey was further shaken when a sinister voice intruded telepathically upon his mind, introducing itself as the kobolds’ core, Grimrock, and threatening further violence should Corey dare resist him again. Fearing another attack, Corey focused on building up his god-born army and increasing his own strength by any means possible, eventually reaching a high enough god tier to unlock construction-based abilities. These enabled him to allocate professions to his Faithful gnomes and assign them to work on various new buildings within the settlement. The construction of proper homes and other amenities gained Corey even more worshipers—and, more importantly (to Corey), more powerful abilities.
His newfound confidence was shattered when another pack of raiding kobolds—much more numerous and aggressive than the first—entered his Sphere of Influence. Corey threw the full strength of his god-born against them until they finally retreated, but not before Ris’kin was killed by Grimrock’s monstrous avatar. In the aftermath, to make matters even worse, Ket fled the Grotto after Grimrock revealed Corey to have been a dark elf in his former life.
Racked with unexpected sorrow and guilt, Corey finally committed himself to becoming the god the gnomes needed. With no sprite, no avatar, and no time to waste, he nonetheless managed to rally his denizens to continue their efforts to make the Grotto defensible—a task made all the more crucial by the completion of the creche, which housed a number of infant and juvenile gnomes. In spite of Grimrock’s latest ultimatum—that Corey must admit defeat and allow the kobolds to continue taking a monthly tithe of gnomes for sacrifice or face complete annihilation of the tribe—Corey refused to admit defeat.
His reformed attitude and newfound protectiveness prompted Ket to return. The sprite apologized for her earlier harsh judgment of Corey and confessed that she had been the gnomes’ former Core—and that a failed Core becomes the sprite for whoever comes after. With renewed determination, Corey and Ket enacted
