Beastborne

The Founders were the first marked, and they used those powers to build kingdoms, subjugate the land, and enrich themselves. They will not suffer another to join their ranks. Lost in a world with levels, stats, and monsters, Hal fights to survive in an unforgiving land, and to escape execution from its rulers. Ingenuity and courage won’t be enough. With marked powers he doesn’t understand, he’s easy prey for all the goblins, bandits, aberrations, and foul monsters that plague the realm. He’ll need to abandon his humanity by embracing the beast within.

To claim his powers as Founder and secure their freedom, Hal and his cohort must fight to build a Sanctum where no other living kingdom dares to tread. The search for a Manaseed to serve as the Sanctum’s heart will take Hal and his caravan to distant, strange lands, and force them to weather vicious beasts and Manastorms alike. To survive the trials ahead, Hal crafts weapons enchanted with rare loot and sates his appetite for monster essences...all while struggling to balance the price of his corrupting, otherworldly powers and securing a foothold in an unforgiving land.

The battle’s end was supposed to bring peace and establish the Bravers’ new home in the Shiverglades, but all it brought was pain and suffering. With his closest friends lost to another realm, over half of the settlement’s population injured, and missing supply chains, Hal doesn’t have a moment to rest. He may have won the battle with the Shiverglades, but he has yet to win the war.

To restore broken magic and powers, Hal and his Guild brave Dungeons, facing nightmares made real. The dwarves and koblins of Brightsong seek new inventions to protect their growing settlement and its Manatree. Afflicted by a fatal essence, Hal turns to the crucible of the stars to break his shackles and reforge himself anew. Crafting an experimental new path is rife with dangers, but no kingdom of monsters and men is made without strife and sacrifice.

Hal and his Beast have been sundered in two. Done with sacrifices, Hal seeks greater monster powers and delves into the ancient magic of his world. With his wounds healing, his strength grows tremendously, opening up a new evolution of bonecrafting. To reforge his eldritch body, Besal, Hal's Beast, ventures into the depths of the Fathomway dungeons, chasing after the source of the land's corruption.

Though the Abyss beckons to Hal, an old foe resurfaces. Poisoning his home, the Shadesblight cannot be ignored. The Tower of Blight will corrupt the entirety of the Shiverglades if Hal does not stop it. With bitter winter setting in, Hal will have to battle not only the corruption on his doorstep but the very elements themselves. As the armies of the Twelve Tribes march on Brightsong, Hal and his allies don't have the luxury of time to deal with the Tower. Every floor presents life-or-death battles, even as loot and new monster powers dangle like bait. But there is a silver lining.

Hal's triumph over the Tower of Blight should have left his settlement of Brightsong stronger than ever. Instead, it left them without a leader, and their strongest members were sent halfway across the world. Trading frigid cold for unrelenting heat, the Dunes of Midnight are no less vicious than the Shiverglades. Beastmen attack the outskirts of civilization while the Adventurer's Guild falls to ruins. Wanting nothing more than to return home before the tribes of the Shiverglades arrive on Brightsong's doorstep, Hal seeks answers in the metropolis of Dalmanii.